Duanmu Nan looked down at the teenager who was a head shorter than him, with a softened and sowhat gloomy gaze.
He seed to already know sothing.
"Alright!"
"Master, is there so hidden mystery inside your hairpin? Gouzi, quickly, show us!"
Long Yue loved seeing novel things, but these days she was confined due to postpartum practices and couldn’t move much, otherwise she’d sweat. In such hot weather, after a month, it was truly... indescribable.
Now, there was finally sothing fun, and Long Yue couldn’t wait.
"A Mu, co, hold this!"
Long Yue handed the child to Li Qingmu, then moved next to Gouzi.
Li Qingmu, holding the child, looked discontent, but he couldn’t show any dissatisfaction. Otherwise, his wife would scold him later. Sigh, it’s really difficult being a person.
No one paid attention to the gloomy father; everyone was focused on Gouzi.
Gouzi held a silver needle in one hand and the hairpin in the other. He looked at it under the light, then gently prodded a spot with the needle.
"Click, click..."
There seed to be a chanical sound, and Duanmu Nan appeared surprised. He knew Gouzi had gotten it right.
The chanism he couldn’t find was discovered by him.
He shifted his gaze to the young boy, realizing that his chanical techniques were truly gifted.
"Click, click, click!"
The chanical sound beca more frequent, and Long Yue stared unblinkingly at the hairpin. Suddenly, the head of the hairpin cracked open slightly, separating the head and the lower segnt.
Long Yue was astonished: "You couldn’t see any seams before, and now it intentionally cos apart? It’s unbelievable!"
"Is this the mystery of chanical techniques?"
Li Qingmu recalled the underground chamber in the Imperial Palace and couldn’t help but marvel, then sothing even more surprising happened.
Gouzi opened the hairpin, revealing a yellowed piece of sothing inside. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a rolled-up piece of paper.
Gouzi slowly pulled out the paper, which turned out to be a paper roll three tis the length of the hairpin!
"Oh my, is this hairpin a Suru mustard seed? How could such a small space hold such a large sheet of paper?"
Long Yue couldn’t conceal her shock and exclaid loudly.
Li Qingmu looked at the paper, which seed a bit wrinkled, and touched his chin: "Perhaps it was rolled up in a spiral?"
He took the half hairpin and looked through it with light.
He was fine until he looked; afterward, his scalp tingled.
The inside of the hairpin was densely packed with honeycomb-like narrow space structures. These spaces seed useless, yet they sohow concealed the paper.
Yet Li Qingmu really couldn’t figure out how the paper was hidden inside.
"The craftsmanship of this hairpin has been lost, and we don’t have the ability to hide things inside. Uncle Mu, you shouldn’t bother studying it."
Gouzi prepared to unfold the paper roll, but seeing Li Qingmu engrossed in the hairpin, he persuaded him.
Li Qingmu coughed lightly: "I’m just taking a casual look. Open it!"
Everyone watched Gouzi intently as he slowly unfolded the paper roll.
The paper had been stored for a long ti, but miraculously, it showed no signs of decay, not even a hint of aging.
"The paper must have been soaked in sothing that protected it from decay, fire, and water. No wonder it’s a family heirloom!"
Li Qingmu was astonished by the paper’s condition. At first, he thought it would turn to dust the mont it t air, but instead, it wasn’t like that at all.
"Why... is it blank?"
Everyone looked incredulous, even a bit disappointed.
All this trouble, just to see a blank sheet of paper?
"This certainly isn’t just blank paper!"
Li Qingmu took the paper, held it against the light, and his pupils contracted slightly. What did he see? The paper seed to be layered!
This was eerie!
He attempted to rub the paper to see if it would separate, and to his surprise, he managed to do it.
Everyone was once again amazed, watching him continuously rub the paper.
One sheet, two sheets, three sheets... he managed to pull out a total of eight sheets!
This was unbelievable.
How could one piece of paper be separated into so many layers?
They had all touched it earlier, and the paper felt like regular paper, of the sa thickness.
Now, the separated sheets were as thin as cicada wings, making everyone fearful of applying too much force lest they damage it.
Yet Li Qingmu recklessly tugged at one of the corners.
As a result, nothing happened, even when he applied more force, the result was still the sa!
This was impressive!
Furthermore, Li Qingmu noticed that the material of the hairpin and the paper was quite similar, just that one was shaped into a hairpin, while the other was pressed into paper.
Of course, the most pressing issue was how to make the writing on the paper appear?
Going to so much trouble to preserve this paper definitely wasn’t just to have them look at a few blank sheets.
"Try soaking it in water or baking it with fire?"
"Sure!"
So, everyone divided into groups to conduct various experints.
"Got it, got it!"
On Long Yue’s side, with baking, one sheet revealed writing. anwhile, Li Qingmu’s side, with soaking, revealed writing on two sheets.
Then, after further attempts, they got results.
Four sheets were revealed with water, and four with fire, all showing writing.
However, the revealed writing was indistinguishable from when it was re blank paper because the symbols on the paper... seed more like Ghost Talismans than actual words!
How could anyone possibly read this!
Long Yue stared at the crooked symbols, feeling quite exasperated. She turned to look at Li Qingmu, seeing him lost in thought, chin in hand. She couldn’t help but ask, "What do you think?"
Li Qingmu shook his head: "Nothing much. If soone can understand this, they must be a ghost!"
Well then, the couple shared the sa view.
"Mr. Duanmu, you’d better keep this, even though we can’t make sense of it now, maybe soday we will."
Duanmu Nan glared at him suspiciously, feeling as though this kid was sneakily insulting him.
The hairpin obviously couldn’t be put back, but to finish what was started, Gouzi helped him close the hairpin again.
"This might be a good place to hide poison inside and research a bit; maybe you can store a few toxins."
"Let’s hope so."
In the following days, Li Qingmu and Duanmu Nan, having nothing else to do, continued studying these Ghost Talismans.
As Long Yue needed to stay in for postpartum recovery and couldn’t be exposed to wind or sun, they had to remain in this small town for over a month.
There were not many people here, and hardly anything to play with. If they didn’t find sothing to do, they would be stifled.
However, an entire month passed, and they were still helpless with the Ghost Talismans.
"It’s about ti, let’s return to the capital, ask the scholars at the Hanlin Academy, maybe they can shed so light."
"Aren’t you worried family secrets might be exposed?"
Duanmu Nan smiled faintly: "Those secrets an nothing to ."
"Alright then, let’s head back!"
Three days later, Long Yue and her party set out on their journey back to the capital.
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