She silently glanced at the old man on the bed, slowly bent down, bowed to the old man, then turned around, and whispered to the horse: "Since the old man is asleep, don't disturb him." ”

Ma Chao looked at her deeply and nodded: "Then let's go out." ”

"Wait a minute." Lin Xiaozhu felt that he had just bowed, as if he had seen something. She quickly turned and looked intently at the old man on the bed.

What's wrong? Didn't you regret it again? Ma Chao watched Lin Xiaozhu walk towards the bed, shook his head slightly, and stopped.

"What is this?" Lin Xiaozhu walked to the bed and lowered his head to look at the old man's hand. I saw the old hand clenched into a fist and placed it beside the bed. And in the gap between the fingers, a pink cloth horn was faintly exposed, because this cloth corner was rarely exposed, and although it was pink, the color was very old, so old that if you didn't pay attention to it, you couldn't see the color clearly. So if you don't stand in front of the bed carefully, you can't see this corner at all.

Regardless of the status of this old man, think about today's exam questions, then this corner is very important. Just imagine, an old man who is dying and dying at any time is on his deathbed, and what he holds tightly in his hand must be the thing he is most worried about and can't let go of. And Xuanyuan Lao Sheng, born in a family, has been a noble all his life, what has he never seen or owned? Why is a piece of cloth horn that is so faded that you can't see the primary color clearly that it is so precious to hold it tightly in your hand? It can be seen that what he can't let go of is not this cloth corner, but the person represented by this cloth corner. And the horns of this cloth are pink, and it is clear that this thing has something to do with women.

So, is this woman the confidant of the old saint, or his wife who has been dead for twenty years?

Lin Xiaozhu turned his head and looked at Ma Chao. Asked softly, "Can I see what the old saint is holding in his hand?" ”

When Ma Chao heard this, he looked at the hand of the old saint, and when he saw the exposed corner of the cloth, he was stunned for a moment, and then raised his head and glanced at the maid ring standing beside the bed.

Ma Chao is the right-hand man under the current old man of the saint, and he used to visit the old man with the old man; Moreover, in today's competition, the organizer was angry with the old saint on the bed, and ordered these girls to cooperate with the competition. So Yahuan is very clear about his identity. Seeing that the horse looked at her, he hurriedly said, "That handkerchief was made by the old saint for us this morning." After taking it out. He watched it for a long, long time. ”

Handkerchief? Hearing this word, Ma Chao and Lin Xiaozhu's eyes froze slightly.

Ma Chao is very clear. The old saint's body was not very weak. Although he is over ninety years old, he can still walk a few laps in such a large garden, and he usually likes to chat with people, and he can sit in the hall for two or three hours at a time. The reason why there is such a show today is because his old man heard that there was a cooking competition. I feel interesting and want to join in the fun. He specially called the old man and bargained with him for a long time. The old man considered that the twenty cooks would not tire him down by asking three questions each, so he came up with such a question. Otherwise, with his status and age as an old man, no one would dare to toss him even if the sky fell, let alone such a dispensable cooking competition.

It was precisely because Ma Chao knew about the situation of Lao Shengshang that he saw him lying on the bed today. Pretending to be dying, every time the cook came in, he closed his eyes and did not speak, even if the cook called him loudly, he opened his eyes and looked twice. In the last two sentences, it is also rambling. A thousand miles off topic. Ma Chao felt both funny and strange, and he didn't know what medicine was in this old man's gourd.

Only now did he know that the old saint was still dragging a pink handkerchief in his hand, and he had deliberately turned it out in the morning. It seems that this is the exam question for today!

Thinking of this, Ma Chao couldn't help but secretly admire Lin Xiaozhu's meticulous observation. The men had just entered the room, and everyone was standing by the bed, thinking only about their own problems. Those who are bold and attach more importance to the results of the game will go up and wake up the old man to ask him questions; taboo old saint identity, timid, just stand by the bed and wonder whether to ask or not; There are one or two who are calm and compassionate, and they don't observe so carefully, or they don't think to ask about something that has nothing to do with food.

Thinking about this, Ma Chao naturally wouldn't stop Lin Xiaozhu from exploring this thing. He turned his head and said to Lin Xiaozhu, "Okay, look at it." ”

Lin Xiaozhu stepped forward, turned the old man's hand over with a very light movement, and slowly pulled the handkerchief out of his hand. The handkerchief was silky, so smooth and fine that she pulled it out without much force. But as soon as the handkerchief left the old saint's hand, he opened his eyes, snatched the handkerchief back, put it tightly on his chest, and muttered in his mouth: "Handkerchief, handkerchief......"

"Old Sage, I see that the handkerchief in your hand is very familiar, I seem to have seen it somewhere, can you show it to me?" Lin Xiaozhu saw that the old saint had woken up, calmed down, and asked softly.

The old saint turned his face, looked at Lin Xiaozhu, hesitated for a moment, and then handed the handkerchief to Lin Xiaozhu.

Lin Xiaozhu opened the handkerchief, and saw a cluster of blooming kapok embroidered on it, the embroidery was excellent, and the kapok seemed to be alive, lifelike. Her gaze didn't linger long on the picture, but at the embroidery. Although she didn't understand female red, in those days in Dongyue, she had learned from Xiao Xiao's mothers-in-law how to identify fabrics and embroiderers. If you want to do business in the circle of noblewomen of the upper class, dealing with them is inevitable. Only by being familiar with what they like can you find common ground with them. With this in mind, she studied especially seriously.

"This is the Jade Family Embroidery Method!" Seeing the embroidery on the handkerchief clearly, Lin Xiaozhu was overjoyed. The jade embroidery method is the traditional craft of the jade family in Yuzhou City, Xiling Kingdom, this embroidery method is extremely complex, and it is never passed on, and there are few generations. Scarcity is expensive, and the price is extremely high. The most important thing is that Yuzhou City is the place that Lao Shengshang had jurisdiction over when he was the governor. If this handkerchief is really today's exam question, then it is very important to find out who owns this handkerchief. It is not difficult to check, as long as you go to the Yujia embroidery workshop to check, you can know who bought this handkerchief back then, because there are few embroideries produced, and every embroidery sold by the Yujia embroidery workshop is recorded.

The old man seemed a little surprised, looked at Lin Xiaozhu quietly, and struggled to sit up. Lin Xiaozhu didn't wait for Yahuan to make a move, so he stepped forward in person, helped the old man, took the soft quilt next to him, folded it into a rectangle, put it on the head of the bed, and let the old man sit on it.

"Do you know how to embroider on this handkerchief?" The old man was obviously a little excited when he heard the word "Jade Family".

Lin Xiaozhu nodded and responded, "Yes." She knew she needed to be careful with what she said and did. You must know that the rules of the game are to ask three questions. She had already asked a question just now, and now she had to be very careful when she spoke.

The old man listened to her answer, only nodded, took the handkerchief, looked at it, sighed, and fell silent.

Lin Xiaozhu knew that it was time for him to ask a question, thought for a while, and said, "Old Sage, can I know who the owner of this handkerchief is?" If this is an exam question, she believes that the old man will not make it difficult for her.

Sure enough, the old man looked at the handkerchief in his hand and said, "This is a gift I received when I was young." Her surname is jade, called hosta, is the daughter of the head of the jade embroidery workshop, and she embroiders well. When I went to Yuzhou City to do business, I encountered a disaster in her family and helped her family to calm down the trouble. I was only twenty-two years old at the time, when I was young and handsome. She was very beautiful and very gentle, and we fell in love. It's just that she didn't want to marry me after she knew that I already had a wife at home. I was so sad that I took her handkerchief and left there. Later, I asked people to inquire about her, and they said that she had never married, but in the year I left, she gave birth to a daughter. When I went to look for her again, she refused to admit that it was my daughter, and resolutely refused to go with me, and told me not to bother her again. He sighed sadly, but stopped talking.

"So, did she ever cook you anything that you will never forget?" Lin Xiaozhu finally asked the core question.

"Eat?" The old man stroked the red and gorgeous kapok with his fingers, his face was full of memories, and he murmured, "She likes to make me a kind of porridge the most, and the taste of that porridge makes me never forget it." With that, he let out a long sigh, then put the handkerchief to his chest and closed his eyes. There was silence in the room.

Lin Xiaozhu didn't speak again, just looked at the old man's slightly sad face, stood quietly for a while, then turned around and walked towards the door. At this time, in her heart, there was no competition, only sadness. Not for the old man, but for the woman named hosta. A love, a lifetime of loneliness, I don't know if she thinks it's worth it, and if she regrets giving her body and mind to this man who has a wife!

Thinking that even though Yuan Tianye endured it very hard, he insisted on waiting until the wedding night to ask for her, giving her the greatest respect, Lin Xiaozhu's heart was warmly moved.

She walked out of the main house, walked out of the old saint's house, and then said to the horse who followed behind: "I want a horse, I want to go to Yuzhou City." Since this is the topic, since she has touched the core of the exam question, as long as she wants to get the first place, no matter how far this Yuzhou City is, she has to make this trip. Fortunately, Xuanyuan City is the junction of the four countries, and Yuzhou City is the border, and it is only more than a hundred miles away from here. There is no time limit for the race, but the time is calculated according to the length of time. If you get the right answer, what if you lose some time? She just wants the end result. (To be continued)