Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Wen Zheng?”

The pile of bamboo slips carried by Feng Jin was high, so it blocked his sight. He called him again when he did not hear Qiguan Rang’s response.

“Huh?” Qiguan Rang only then came back to his senses. He got up and helped Feng Jin to carry some of the bamboo slips. “When did you arrive?”

“I’ve just arrived. I thought you were asleep with your eyes open when I saw you staring into space.”

Feng Jin placed the large pile of bamboo slips on the table behind the screen in the government office.

He sorted them out according to the contents written on every strap which were stuck on the bamboo slips. The work was a bit cumbersome and required careful attention. The booth was full of bamboo slips like these which recorded the case files of Xiangyang District in recent years. The contents were extensive and complex.

Although Xiangyang District was small, it was quite muddled.

In order to restore the entire work system of the district headquarters as soon as possible, Feng Jin had begun to work overtime again, but it was not as crazy as how it was at the beginning. He eagerly hoped that his lord would quickly start recruiting able men to get more people to help him share his workload.

There were currently more females than males in the government office. Those women had already become external auditors.

Fortunately, there were these women who were educated and reasonable and literate. Otherwise, they would have been worked to death.

In order to facilitate the work of these women, their lord had specially opened up another government office so it would not be too awkward for them to meet each other occasionally.

Feng Jin organized the bamboo slips for a while and realized that there was no noise outside. He grew suspicious.

“Wen Zheng?”

What was wrong with Qiguan Rang?

If this was in the past, even if he did not want to talk, there would not be such an awkward silence.

With doubts in his mind, he moved the bamboo slips that had yet to be organized from the day before and planned to finish sorting them out in one go.

“What are you looking at?”

At that moment, Feng Jin just realized that Qiguan Rang did not fall asleep while sitting. He was clearly distracted by something.

“Wen Zheng, what on earth are you looking at that you’re so fascinated by it? This…”

Feng Jin stopped chattering. His eyes became wider and wider.

He loosened his grips all of a sudden and the bamboo slips that he was carrying dropped to the ground. There was a loud cracking sound. Feng Jin’s toes were hit by the scattered bamboo slips and he almost grimaced in pain. Hearing the noise, how could Qiguan Rang zone out?

They stood gazing at one another and then tacitly shifted their gazes to the table.

Feng Jin did not bother picking up the bamboo slips and hurriedly sat beside the table. He secretly massaged his toes which were in pain.

He glared at the tea set on the table. “What is this thing that exudes colorful rays…?”

“Do you not know what this is too?” Qiguan Rang inquired eagerly.

Really?

Feng Jin was born in the Feng family which was one of the four wealthiest families in Dongqing. His family had thousands of years of history. Would they lack any valuables?

Having grown up in such a family, was there anything else in the world that Feng Jin had not seen before?

Qiguan Rang really did not believe it if even Feng Jin had not seen the object in front of them before.

Feng Jin had truly never seen such a thing before.

“It looks like a tea set… Could it be that it’s a product from the North borderline?”

Feng Jin twirled a small and delicate transparent bowl with his fingers and played with it carefully. It felt delicate and cold.

It was a hot summer’s day now. The weather was hot and there were no ice cubes in the government office to lower one’s body temperature. Forgetting about the heat, when Feng Jin touched the delicate tea bowl, he felt an unspeakable coolness on his fingertips. It felt cool and it had a delicate touch. He liked it so much that he could not put it down.

“The North borderline… I don’t think so…” Qiguan Rang shook his head. Being at the border of the North borderline, his hometown was nearby. The customs of the two places were mutually blended and they had quite a lot of trades. If there was such a good thing, Qiguan Rang should have heard of it.

“I wonder who has put this here… I see them on the table once I’ve arrived.”

Even if Qiguan Rang did not have a hobby of collecting valuables, he could see that the object in front of him must be expensive.

Feng Jin put the tea bowl back, but he could not help but linger over it.

He liked it at first sight.

“Why don’t we ask someone about it? Who came to the government office last night? Such treasure can’t just appear out of thin air.”

Just when Feng Jin was about to get up, he happened to see Xu Ke rubbing at the corner of his eyes. He looked like he did not have enough sleep and there was a greenish hue on the bottom of his eyes.

“Wen Zheng, Huaiyu, you two are really early today.”

Xu Ke greeted them and keenly discovered that they looked strange. Then, his eyes were attracted by the resplendent glassware. “What is this… The casting material is cold and hard and there’s no adhesive gap… I’ve never heard about it…”

The three of them were looking at the glass tea set. Had Jiang Pengji not walked into the government office with a meat bun in her mouth and a pot of red dates and white fungus soup in her hand, the three of them might keep slacking. She frowned and shouted, “What are you doing? Why are you gathering here for a meeting instead of dealing with government affairs?”

“Lord.”

Hearing her voice, the three of them greeted her. They discovered that Jiang Pengji was carrying something in her hands after looking up.

They could recognize the red dates and white fungus soup, but had anyone ever seen a pot of red dates and white fungus soup floating in the air?

“I see that you’ve been tired recently, so I’ve asked someone to cook some red dates soup and the temperature is just right.”

Jiang Pengji turned the three inverted long, glass tumblers on the table over and poured them a glass each.

Even if the red dates and white fungus soup was poisonous, they had to drink it because their lord had personally poured it for them.

“Each of you will have a glass. Wash it yourselves after you’ve used it. I won’t say anything more if you don’t mind using the glasses interchangeably.”

Jiang Pengji poured herself a glass. She got these red dates from the warehouse in the district headquarters. The dates were big and they had small seeds. They tasted very sweet. The sweetness was diluted after they were being cooked into a thick soup. She suddenly craved for it in the morning, so she asked her servant girl to cook it for more than two hours.

Jiang Pengji only poured the red dates and white fungus soup into a big teapot when it had cooled down a little.

“Lord, what… what is this?”

Feng Jin looked at his own glass and the big teapot beside Jiang Pengji’s hand. The top part of the glass was clear because some red dates and white fungus soup had been poured into the glass… Feng Jin widened his eyes a little, as if he had seen a prehistoric monster.

Needless to say, the material of the teapot was the same as the teacup on the table.

Their lord was absolutely informed and knew their origin.

“It’s a cup for drinking and it’s very easy to clean. The only downside is that it’s brittle and it can’t be dropped.”

Jiang Pengji’s reply almost made Feng Jin and the others choke.

Would someone actually want to drop such a glass treasure?

“Drink it. Don’t worry, I didn’t cook it. It was the servant girl in the district headquarters who helped cook it. It tastes good.”

The three of them were silent. It was not a problem of whether the red dates and white fungus soup was tasty or not!

Xu Ke picked up the glass and he could feel the warmth of the red dates and white fungus soup on his fingertips. “Lord, where did these come from?”

In fact, he wanted to ask about its value. He wanted to know whether it was expensive and if he could buy one with his money.

The surface of the glass was smooth and translucent, reflecting colorful glazed rays. One could not help but touch its surface gently.

Even a girl with the most delicate skin could not reach its level of delicateness.

Not only did Xu Ke have a problem with voice control, but he also had some fetishism. This could be seen from his reaction when he had just touched a bamboo paper.

Jiang Pengji answered casually, “I bought it with 30000 strings of 1000 cash.”