Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang visited Chen's Academy at night and found nothing out of the ordinary. Just when they were about to leave, Zhan Zhao discovered something in a bird's nest on one side of the roof.

What Zhan Zhao took out from the bird's nest was a piece of cotton.

The color of the cotton is a bit yellow, and it seems that it has been placed in this bird's nest for a long time. However, this nest is protected from wind and rain, so the cotton is quite well preserved.

There are two points that caught the attention of Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

First, there were some brown spots on the cotton. The two of them had been handling cases for many years and were relatively experienced. These were clearly splashes of blood.

Secondly, this cotton flower looked inexplicably familiar. The two of them thought of the weird grandma of the Qiao family, who was wearing a similar cotton flower.

"Why is cotton in the bird's nest?" Master Wu was a little confused, "Did someone hide it here on purpose? Or did the bird trick it when it was making a nest?"

Zhan Zhao weighed the cotton, "Generally, when birds make nests, don't they just check the branches and leaves? How about picking such a big cotton?"

The Fifth Master made Zhan Zhao amused, "Who told you that you can only pick up tree branches? There are several birdhouses on Xiankong Island that are made from shipbuilding wood."

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang with wide-eyed cat eyes - real or fake? Is that a nest made by Yaoyao?!

Zhan Zhao pulled out a handkerchief, wrapped it in cotton, and handed it to Bai Yutang.

After Wu Ye took the cotton, he saw Zhan Zhao reaching out and bringing in the entire bird's nest and starting to rummage through it.

Needless to say, he actually found something.

"this."

The Fifth Master saw Zhan Zhao holding this shiny object, which looked twinkling in the moonlight. If he looked carefully, he saw that it was a string of pearl earrings.

The earrings are very delicate, hanging two golden pearls, one large and one small, and the style looks quite playful.

A layman like Zhan Zhao felt that although the earrings were not big, they should be very valuable.

The Fifth Master was an expert. He stared at the earrings for a while and said to himself, "This is Daming Mansion, right..."

Zhan Zhao blinked - what happened to Daming Mansion?

Fifth Master collected the pearls and tilted his head to him, indicating - go!

After the two of them left the study, Fifth Master took Zhan Zhao through the streets and alleys to the other end of the city.

When Bai Yutang stopped, the two of them stood in front of a luxurious shop.

Zhan Zhao looked up and looked at the plaque hanging on the door - Haizhu Xing on Xingkong Island.

Zhan Zhao opened his eyes wide and looked at Bai Yutang - there is still this deal?!

Fifth Master shook the earrings at him and led him through the door.

It was getting late now, and the shop seemed to be getting ready to close. The clerks were busy collecting things and sweeping the floor. A few accountants were chatting about the abacus. A handsome old man in a green shirt was flipping through the account book.

It should belong to the shopkeeper.

"Uncle Tuo." The fifth master came in and called the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper raised his head and quickly put down his account book, "Hey, why are you here?"

The shopkeeper came out and greeted Zhan Zhao, "Master Zhan."

Zhan Zhao followed Bai Yutang and called Uncle Tuo, even though it was his first time coming back.

"I have something to ask you." Fifth Master took out the earrings and showed them to Uncle Tu.

Uncle Tuo looked at it carefully, nodded to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, asked the waiter to serve tea in the guest room, and took the two of them up to a room on the third floor to sit down and chat.

Zhan Zhao walked along and looked around. There were pearls everywhere in this shop, large and small. There were more items than the largest jewelry store in Kaifeng Prefecture.

The shopkeeper introduced it to him as he walked, saying that the sea pearls from Xiangkong Island were the best in the entire Central Plains region, and almost all the big jewelry shops came to them to purchase sea pearls.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang - is there still this deal?

The fifth master spread his hands - the fleet often catches a lot of seashells when going to sea, and there are many sea pearls that are not sold to waste.

When they got to the private room and sat down, Wu Ye and Zhan Zhao held teacups, drank tea and had snacks. The shopkeeper brought a lamp over and looked at the earrings carefully.

"Um."

It seemed that the appraisal was completed. Uncle Tu nodded, "Fifth Master, this is the jewelry sold in our shop. It is quite old."

"Can you find out who bought it?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Maybe. These earrings look like they were made to order, and they are quite expensive." The shopkeeper asked the clerk to bring over account books from the past twenty years. The shop was closed, and several accountants were also called over, and everyone looked through the account books together.

.

It took about half an hour of hard work, but a accounting clerk actually found a record.

It was an early order for custom-made jewelry. It was called a pair of gold bead pendants, and it also had a picture drawn on it. It was exactly the same as the earrings Zhan Zhao and the others found in the bird's nest.

"Is this the only pair?" Bai Yutang asked.

Uncle Tu nodded, "Each sea pearl is unique, and gold beads are even rarer. Gold beads of this size are not cheap, so the styles cannot be repeated. It's just this one string, nothing else!"

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were happy - they found clues!

"When were these earrings custom-made?" Zhan Zhao asked.

The shopkeeper checked the time and said, "Sixteen years ago, in June."

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang heard the words "sixteen years ago", their hearts skipped a beat... What a coincidence? The missing student case at Chen's Academy was also sixteen years ago.

"Do you have any information about the person who ordered the earrings?" Zhan Zhao asked,

The shopkeeper checked it and showed it to the two of them.

Where the order was signed, there was a seal without a name. The seal pattern was a bird holding a piece of duckweed in its mouth.

The fifth master felt that this pattern looked familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere.

Zhan Zhao was stunned for a moment and whispered to Bai Yutang, "This is the family emblem of the Prince's Mansion."

Bai Yutang also remembered that when he and Zhan Zhao were patrolling the streets, they had seen the house of Prince Anpu Guo Mi with this kind of family emblem outside the courtyard wall.

Zhan Zhao frowned, his mind filled with doubts - did someone from the Prince's Palace order these earrings?

Bai Yutang stared at the family emblem. For a long time, the fifth master poked Zhan Zhao and took out the cotton flower he had just wrapped in the handkerchief. "I thought it was strange for a bird to hold duckweed in its mouth... now look at it," Bai Yutang said.

Get up...cat, does this bird have a cotton ball in its beak?"

"You said that..." Zhan Zhao put the cotton flower on the order and compared it with the stamp. Their faces were almost close to the paper. The more they looked at it, the more this happened.

After studying for a long time, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao asked the old men opposite them what they thought the bird was holding in its beak.

One of the old gentlemen made them laugh, "Of course it's cotton in his mouth."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at the old gentleman - could there be some allusion?

"There is a legend that Prince Guo Mi of Anpu grew cotton in the border area when he was a child, so some people used to call the prince Prince Cotton or General Cotton Farmer." The old man shook his head, "Oh... he is also a famous general of the generation, and he has only been a few years old.

In ten years, they will be forgotten by the next generation..."

Zhan Zhao was curious and asked what the old gentleman's name was. Could it be that he knew Guo Mi?

Uncle Tuo said that the accountant's surname was Cai, and he was of the same race as the prince's widow, Mrs. Cai, who protected the country, so he had met Guo Mi before.

"As for the people from the Prince's Palace who came to order this pair of earrings sixteen years ago, does the old man still have an impression?"

Mr. Cai shook his head, "That's not true. We usually work in the back room and come to the front when we reconcile the accounts at night. However, it is indeed strange to leave the family crest but not the name when ordering something from the Prince's Mansion. Maybe it was bought as a gift.

Yeah."

"Giving it away?"

Uncle Tuo said, "Just give it as a gift so that others can check the price more easily."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other - it's getting more and more complicated.

Bai Yutang asked everyone if they knew about Chen's Academy and if they knew about the boy's disappearance sixteen years ago.

None of the old men had any relatives studying there, but everyone knew about the boy's disappearance sixteen years ago, which caused uproar in the city. Zhou Shen and his men almost turned the entire Daming Mansion upside down, but in the end they still couldn't find the child.

.

Zhan Zhao was a little curious and asked, "Looking at all the gentlemen, they are quite knowledgeable. Don't any of the children in the family study at Chen's school?"

One question made everyone laugh.

Uncle Tuo told Zhan Zhao, "Few locals from Daming Mansion can enter that study. Most of them are children from Kaifeng City. Ordinary people cannot enter that place at all."

"Originally, those who study particularly well and are recommended by literary figures can get in." Uncle Tuo shook his head, "But since the incident, the management has become stricter and lower-key. It is not easy to write letters of recommendation, and the number of students accepted has become smaller.

Come less and less.”

"Does that place accept female students?"

"Of course we won't accept them!" Several old men shook their heads. "Not only are we not accepting girls, we are not allowed to have a single woman in the study."

Zhan Zhao frowned - is this a study or a temple?

Bai Yutang was also puzzled - how did this string of earrings get into the bird's nest?

Zhan Zhao picked up the earring and looked at it again, and asked his uncle, "This style doesn't look like something older women would wear, does it?"

Uncle Tu nodded, "Yeah! This kind of style is usually worn by little girls, who are thirteen or fourteen years old, fifteen or sixteen at most. If they are older, it would be too nifty."
To be continued...