The Rebirth of Han Yuxi

Chapter 0692 Governor-General’s Residence

When Yuxi arrived in Haocheng, she didnʼt start dealing with matters in the Northwest straight away. Instead, she planned to rest for a few days. While she had the time, she intended to arrange the house properly — after all, she might end up living there for the rest of her life, so it needed to be furnished carefully.

Yun Qing handed Yuxi a thick ledger. ”This contains the list of antiques, paintings, and calligraphy that weʼve collected. Theyʼre all stored in the warehouse. You can decide how to deal with them.”

Yuxi opened it and was very satisfied. ”There are quite a lot of them.” Not only were there plenty, but many were also highly valuable. As for the ones she wouldnʼt use, Yuxi planned to sell them later when the opportunity arose. If Yun Qing knew what she was thinking, he would undoubtedly say that she had ʼfallen into a money hole📹ʼ.

Yun Qing said, ”As long as you like them. Oh, thatʼs right, Iʼve saved up a few boxes of jewellery for you before this and put them in my study. Iʼll have someone send them over to you later.” Although Yuxi already had plenty of beautiful jewellery, none of it had been given to her by Yun Qing.

Sure enough, half an hour later, Xu Wu had three large chests of jewellery carried in by several guards. When they were opened, the glittering jewels inside were so dazzling that they almost blinded Yuxi, Momo Quan, and the others.

Yuxi didnʼt know whether to laugh or cry as she looked at the scene before her. ”I thought it would be three boxes of jewellery, not three chests! How much must all this be worth?”

Momo Quan sifted through the contents. Then, with a smile, she pursed her lips and said, ”They donʼt even know how to take care of such fine pieces. Donʼt they know that piling them together will scratch them? Such beautiful items, and theyʼve been mistreated.”

Yuxi smiled. ”Heʼs a man; heʼs not going to be that meticulous. This is the Generalʼs thoughtful gesture—just put everything away properly.” It was already good enough that Yun Qing had thought to save the jewellery for her.

Gancao tilted her head. ”Madam, arenʼt you going to wear any of them?” With so much jewellery, Madam could easily wear a different set every day and still have plenty left over.

Yuxi smiled—no matter how fine the pieces were, they had been worn by others. She would never wear someone elseʼs old jewellery. No matter how beautiful they were, she wouldnʼt touch them.

After dinner, Yuxi took Zaozao for a walk around the garden and looked over the entire Governor-Generalʼs residence at the same time. Keeping Yun Qingʼs earlier comments in mind, Yuxi was quite looking forward to seeing the place.

Even before they entered the garden, they came to a pond. It was full of water lilies, which were not yet in bloom this season, but their leaves were spread out gracefully across the water. The round lotus leaves floated on the water, all a rich green and exuding a unique charm.

As they walked into the yard, they were immediately greeted by a rocky mountain. On top of it was a stone pavilion bearing the characters ʼViewing-the-Mountain Towerʼ. At the base, a pool had been carved out. The mountain and the water were connected by a winding covered corridor.

After walking a complete circuit, Yuxi commented, ”This yard has a bit of a Suzhou garden📹 feel to it.” The garden had been built with pavilions beside hills and water. With its curved railings, winding corridors, arched bridges and impressive Taihu rocks, not to mention the flowing water brought in from outside, it truly resembled the Suzhou gardens she had read about. She had never seen one herself, of course, but the scenes in the books matched the one before her well enough.

Momo Quan said, ”This residence is no worse than the Jing Wangfu.” That Ji Xuan must have squeezed an enormous amount of ʼthe peopleʼs fat and the peopleʼs marrowʼ to live in such an exquisitely crafted courtyard. It was a pity they hadnʼt caught him; otherwise, even skinning him alive wouldnʼt have eased the peopleʼs resentment.

Yuxi was a bit surprised and asked, ”Momo, have you been to Jing Wangfu?” This residence was superior to the Dukeʼs residence, but compared to Jing Wangfu, it still fell short. It wasnʼt that this yard was poorly built—rather, every single plant and tree in Jing Wangfu had been chosen with great care. Compared to that, this place seemed rather rough.

Momo Quan nodded. ”Iʼve been there once—Momo Gui invited me. She wanted me to enter the Wangfu to tend to Wangfeiʼs health, but I refused.” Momo Quan was indeed skilled in medicinal cuisine, but Yuchen had no serious health issues, and there were official Imperial Physicians available who were far more competent than someone like her, who only started learning later in life. Because she had refused, Momo Gui never invited her again.

Thinking about how Momo Gui behaves towards her, Yuxi asked, ”Momo Gui is very wary of me. Do you know why?” If Momo Gui merely disliked her, Yuxi wouldnʼt be surprised—she couldnʼt expect everyone to like her. But being wary of her was pretty strange.

Momo Quan didnʼt evade the topic as she replied, ”Back then, you didnʼt act like a five-year-old at all. Naturally, Momo Gui kept her distance from you.”

Yuxi laughed and then asked, ”Why didnʼt you avoid me back then?” Looking back now, she realised that she had actually revealed many of her horse hooves, even though she had thought she had been very cautious.

Momo Quan answered calmly, ”When youʼve done nothing against your conscience, you donʼt fear ghosts knocking at your door. Why would I avoid you?” She had never done anything shameful in her life, nor had she ever aspired to wealth or status, so she didnʼt overthink things.

Walking past the artificial hill, they saw an open patch of ground that had been turned into a complete mess. Looking at a single pink-white rose blooming there, Yuxi murmured to herself, ”What a waste of something good.” All the other roses nearby had been uprooted—only this one remained.

Momo Quan suggested, ”Why donʼt we move this rose into a pot?” Clearly, the garden would need to be redone; if they didnʼt move the rose now, it would be uprooted later anyway.

Yuxi disagreed. ”This courtyard doesnʼt just have this one rose—there are other flowers too! If we moved them all, where would we put them?” There wasnʼt space for them, nor anyone to tend to them either.

After walking around and seeing so many valuable flowers destroyed, Yuxi thought it was such a shame! Had she known, she would have told Yun Qing not to touch anything in this residence earlier.

That night, Yuxi complained to Yun Qing about it. ”Honestly, you really donʼt know how to cherish things. Once these flowers are destroyed, theyʼre gone for good.”

Hearing this complaint, Yun Qingʼs lips curved upwards. ”Back in Linzhou, you acquired a sum of money. When Gao Song and the others heard the news, they had people pry apart the entire Governor-Generalʼs Residence.”

Yuxi was stunned. ”So if the incident in Linzhou hadnʼt happened, this residence would have remained untouched?” Seeing Yun Qing nod, she realised how much she had lost.

Yun Qing sighed regretfully. ”After searching for so long, we still havenʼt found the money. We have no idea where Ji Xuan hid it.”

As smart as she was, Yuxi wasnʼt a worm inside Ji Xuanʼs stomach. ”Iʼve already sent people to investigate. If he really did hide it somewhere in the residence, there must be some spiderʼs threads and horse tracks.” If he hid it outside and left no clues, the chances of finding it would be extremely low.

Ji Xuan must have hidden the money somewhere extremely secret, known only to himself. Finding it would require going to great lengths. Yuxi was also worried that, if the money didnʼt exist at all and it was all in their imagination, then all this fuss would become a joke.

Seeing Yuxiʼs tightly knitted brows, Yun Qing asked, ”Does something else feel unusual to you?”

Yuxi didnʼt notice anything unusual. ”Iʼm just worried that if someone dug a tunnel in this residence or something like that, it would be far too dangerous.” This idea came entirely from something she had read in a book, not from her own wild imagination.

Yun Qing couldnʼt guarantee this either. ”I had the main courtyard examined thoroughly. There wonʼt be any secret tunnels or hidden rooms.” However, he wasnʼt so sure about the other areas.