At the beginning, I was a rich female prisoner

The courtyard inside was cleaned tidy. The house was really big. As soon as you entered the door, you would see an artificial lake, a rockery, and a long corridor. There were eight courtyards between the corridors, and various unknown flowers and trees were planted on both sides.

"These should be peonies." Cheng said.

"Indeed, we have walked around here countless times. There are eight courtyards here, and all the servants in the mansion have been sold and exiled. I have worked here several times as a short-term worker, so I don't know much about this place, but I know who originally lived in these courtyards." The servant said, pointing to the courtyards one by one. Four of them were the Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum courtyards, where Wu Jincai's wife and concubines originally lived.

The orchid courtyard should be where the mistress of the house lives. In addition to pots of precious orchids, some of which are in full bloom, there are also bursts of floral fragrance. It is also the largest and most spacious backyard.

"If you like the orchids here, you can take them back." The servant watched the women staring at the flowers.

"These flowers are very precious. If they are left here without anyone to take care of them, they will wither in no time." Wu Qing said with some pity for the flowers.

"Then take them all to the greenhouse in Kangzhuang Town." Yu Yunxin said, "If you cousins ​​like, you can take them away when you return to Beijing."

"We in the general's mansion don't grow these flowers that are only good for looks and have no practical use," Cheng said.

"Don't waste such good things. Send them to the greenhouse. If they are grown well, you can still make a lot of money." Old Lady Lin is an experienced person and knows that these orchids are all rare varieties. Many dignitaries in the capital like them and some are willing to spend a fortune to buy a beautiful orchid.

"Grandma is right. Chunyu, tomorrow you should find a few gardeners to move all the flowers here that can be moved to the greenhouse! Kangzhuang Town is still lacking a flower shop, so it would be best if we could transplant some flowers." Yu Yunxin said.

"Okay, I'll arrange it tomorrow." Chunyu said.

"Princess, please leave it to me. I like flowers and can grow them." said Green Lotus, who was standing at the end.

"Okay, I'll leave all the things to Chunyu. She can't handle it all by herself. I'll leave these small things to you. Don't let me down." Yu Yunxin said to Lulian.

"It is the princess who guarantees that the task will be completed." After saying this, Lu Lian was about to go find someone to start moving the flowers.

"This Lu Lian never procrastinates when doing things." Qiu Shuang finally spoke.

"Yes, Xin'er, your three maids are all good." Old Madam Lin said as she opened the room in Lanyuan. There was no mess here after the house was searched. It seemed that the prefect personally led people to search the house. Except for the jewelry box in the room, all other furnishings were preserved.

"Oh my God, why are there still bedding and clothes here?" Cheng said as she opened a cabinet.

"Maybe the Wu family has too many things and there is no time to search their house!" Yu Yunxin replied.

"Yes, after all, we did steal one million taels," said Qiu Shuang.

"That's not right. How could an ordinary wealthy man have so much money?" Leng Shuang said.

Cheng continued to rummage through the cabinets, and found many gorgeous clothes that made people unable to take their eyes off.

"Chunyu called the family you arranged over?" Yu Yunxin was also surprised.

Soon there were four boys and four girls, followed by five children aged seven or eight.

"Princess, what do you want to see us about?" the old woman asked.

"How long have you lived here?" Yu Yunxin asked.

"Our Qiu family all lives in the servants' room in the main courtyard. We moved in three days ago. Chunyu Guan said that it was unacceptable for our family to live in a leaky house and winter was approaching, so they let us move in. They knew that we were all peasants and did not dare to live in the master's house. We just swept the dust every day." said the old woman.

"Why don't you open the cabinet and take a look?" Yu Yunxin asked.

"We dare not. Looking at the price of these cabinets, we know they are very valuable and we are afraid of damaging them." said a young man.

"You are really honest. You didn't even check the cabinets when you searched the Wu family's house." Yu Yunxin looked at this group of honest people speechlessly. The person Chunyu found was too honest. This Yang Taishou didn't check the cabinets when he searched the house. How did he find so much money? Did Yang Taishou know that he would buy this house, so he deliberately didn't search it thoroughly?

"Oh my God, Xin'er, look, there is a string of jade hidden in the secret chamber of the cabinet." Cheng took a lot of effort to take out a string of jade and no one knew how she found it.

"This is water jade, it's worth one thousand taels of silver. If it were in the capital, it might be twice as much." Leng Shuang said as she looked at the jade in her mother-in-law's hand.

Yu Yunxin thought about it and finally found an interesting thing to do, treasure hunting here. She said happily: "Let's go to all the rooms and search through the boxes and cabinets. Chunyu, you really brought me to the right place."

So all the women brought a few servants with them and started rummaging through the boxes and cabinets in each yard, as if they wanted to ransack all the yards again.

The first yard was the orchid yard. Yu Yunxin asked General Lu Lian and the servants to take a cart and drag the orchids back to her greenhouse. They also found a few blood-stained gold rings under the flowerpots. They took care to have Chunyu wash them and put them in a wooden box.

He searched very carefully and even looked for loose floor tiles, and found several gold bars under the tiles.

Yu Yunxin also found several pairs of earrings in the bird's nest on the tree. Some were made of jade and some were made of gold, all of which were valuable items.

The harvest was quite a lot. Some of the gold and silver jewelry were placed in the secret compartment of the cabinet. These secret compartments were also kept by my second cousin's wife. Her family was a family of carpenters and knew all kinds of mechanical devices.

A lot of valuable jewelry and even banknotes were found in the cabinet in the backyard. The women of the Wu family were really good at hiding things. Li Wan even did not miss the jade on the beam. A pure gold Bagua mirror was found in the main house, which she took down with tools. Everyone was already impressed by the fact that she put earrings in a bird's nest, and now they were stunned by the operation of putting gold on the beam.

"What's the big deal? You know my grandfather is the successor of Mohist mechanical engineering. I have been learning mechanical engineering from my father since I was a child. Our Li family is also a carpenter who specializes in building mechanical secret rooms for rich people. These little tricks are no big deal," Li Wan said, patting Huichen on the beam.

"Second cousin, I admire you." Yu Yunxin walked up and hugged Li Wan.

"Little money-grubber." Li Wan pointed her finger at Yu Yunxin's forehead and said.

Seeing several people busying around, the Qiu family prepared some home-cooked meals for the princess and the women of the Lin family and said, "Princess, ladies, I see you are all hungry. It's past noon, why not have some simple meals here."

"Okay, Uncle Qiu, please bring all the food into the main room!" Qiu Shuang ordered.

"Princess, what are you going to do with all these gold and silver jewelry, luxurious clothes, and precious medicinal herbs?" Chunyu asked.

"We don't want that. We come out to relax, right, grandma?" Leng Shuang said to Old Lady Lin.

"Let Xin'er handle these!" Old Lady Lin spoke directly. The general's mansion had seen everything and the money they had found in the enemy spies' lairs they raided was much more than what was found here.

"I think the Wu family should be spies of the Southern Dian Kingdom. Look at the map of Nanling County that I found in the study. It is still in the secret room of the study." Leng Shuang said as he took down the map in the study.

"This map doesn't prove anything. Wu Jinke is from the same state as Nanling County. What does it mean that he has a map of Nanling County?" Yu Yunxin replied.

"Look at those jades. They are basically owned by the royal family of Southern Dian. Only the queen and the emperor in the palace use this kind of water jade." Li Wan continued.

"Okay, let's look for any clues after we have eaten. If they are really spies, we must tell this information to grandpa and the others." Yu Yunxin said.

Although the Qiu family are all ordinary villagers, the dishes they cook are light yet taste authentic. It may also be because the barbecue they had yesterday was too greasy, so eating something light does have a different flavor.

"Chunyu, the family you chose is not bad. Why do they also have the surname Qiu?" Yu Yunxin asked.

"Princess, I have come here to inquire clearly. The villagers in this village have two surnames, and they live here permanently, Qiu and Lian." Chunyu said.

"Butler Chunyu, you are wrong." Old man Qiu came over with a bowl of soup. This was wild mushroom and pork rib soup. After she put the pork ribs down, she said, "There are indeed two surnames in our village. Our ancestors have lived here for generations. In fact, there are few people with the surnames Zhang and Wang. In addition, they were oppressed by the Wu family. Some died, and some fled to the mountains to become bandits. The Wu family also moved here more than 60 years ago. When I was still young, I heard from my late father that when the Wu family moved to Cha Village, they brought six carts of gold, silver and jewelry."

Everyone listened attentively as Old Man Qiu talked about the past of Ming Tea Garden.

At this time, Chunyu spoke up and broke everyone's contemplation: "Six carts of gold, silver and jewelry, what is the origin of the Wu family?"

"They said they were wealthy businessmen from the Jiangnan area and moved here because they offended local officials." Old Man Qiu replied.

"It seems that the ancestors of the Wu family are also lying?" Li Wan said as they came to the center of the main hall. Everyone brought all the items in the room to the center of the main hall and picked up a Bagua mirror. "I looked at the Bagua mirror they hid. It should not be something from the Central Plains."

Old Lady Lin took it, took a look and said, "Indeed, this is the text on the Bagua mirror, and I don't recognize it either."

Yu Yunxin also took it and took a look. She didn't recognize the words on it. There were eight diamonds on it. After a closer look, it was not a Bagua mirror. There was a rotating disk in the middle.

"This should be the key to a mechanism somewhere." Li Wan said confidently.

"Then should we continue looking for treasure in the afternoon?" Leng Shuang said excitedly. When she heard that they would have to rummage through boxes and cabinets again, she started to eat more happily.

"I never thought that the tea garden I bought with 12,000 taels of gold would make a profit so soon. I'm so happy." Yu Yunxin was the most excited. No wonder some people nowadays bought the houses of dismissed officials and found millions of cash and gold bars by knocking on the wall. It turned out that this way of hiding valuables was passed down from ancient times.

When she is in a good mood, all dishes are delicious. Today, she ate two bowls of rice. After eating, she sat in the middle of the hall and began to sort out the jade, gold and silver that she had found, just like counting money. After sorting them out, everyone stood up. Li Wan took the Bagua mirror and, led by the servants, came to the Wu Family Ancestral Hall in the back mountain.

When you push the door open, there is still a strong smell of incense and candles.

The large incense coil hanging from the roof was still burning, and the ashes were falling down.

Li Wan quickly rummaged through a mechanism box on the altar and found the Wu family tree. She read it, raised her head and smiled, "It turns out that this Wu family ancestor was a thing that the buyer sought glory."

Li Wan handed the family tree to Old Lady Lin, "Look, grandma, they were the confidants of Prince Peng of the Southern Dian Dynasty more than 60 years ago. Later, the ancestors of the Wu family betrayed Prince Peng's uncle, King Guo, who was three years younger than him, and killed King Guo, who became the current King of Southern Dian. The Wu family is afraid of the two powerful tribes behind Prince Peng, the Bulang tribe and the Giant Elephant tribe. These two tribes are loyal to Prince Peng. The current King of Southern Dian is over 80 years old. Although he has not abdicated, his son has launched a war against my Dacheng. Regent King Peng Qin wants to expand his own territory. Whoever has a larger territory and more tribes obeying him will be the next King of Southern Dian."

Upon hearing this, Yu Yunxin said, "This Southern Yunnan Dynasty relies on burning, killing, and looting to expand its power?"

"In order to make their tribe stronger, the tribes of the Southern Dian Dynasty would send their daughters to the Southern Dian King to choose a concubine every year. Now it can be said that every prince of Southern Dian has a tribe supporting them." Old Lady Lin replied.

"So the current King of Southern Dian is Prince Guo. Did he seize the dynasty of his nephew? Did he harm the interests of the Bulang and Giant Elephant tribes?" Yu Yunxin asked.

"Yes, but the King of Southern Dian now has more than 30 princes. The Bulang and Giant Elephant tribes now support Peng Qin. After all, Peng Qin's maternal ancestor is from the Bulang tribe." said Old Lady Lin.

"What if we tell the Bulang and Giant Elephant tribes the secret of the Wu family? Tell them that this Wu family member was the adviser to Prince Peng back then, and that it was they who betrayed Prince Peng that caused the Kingdom of Southern Dian to fall into the hands of the king?" Yu Yunxin asked.

"But times have changed. I don't know what the Bulang and Giant Elephant tribes are thinking now. Although the Southern Dian Dynasty is in chaos, it would be great if we can put this fire in the right place. Otherwise, our efforts will be in vain." Old Lady Lin said, "The regent of the Southern Dian Kingdom is the one who holds the military power now."

"That means we need to produce evidence. How about we tell the Brown Tribe and the Giant Elephant Tribe about this news?" Li Wan asked.

"Take this family tree?" Will they believe it?" Yu Yunxin asked.

Li Wan said: "There should be a secret passage in the ancestral hall. We can continue looking for it!" She shook the Bagua mirror in her hand and smiled.

"Are there any mechanisms in this ancestral hall?" asked my third cousin Lin Qian.

"This Bagua mirror is not actually a Bagua mirror, but a Bagua lock." Li Wan said, "There should be some mechanism that has not been opened."

"Okay, let's look for it again!" said my second aunt Cheng.

So everyone started looking around the ancestral hall again. Finally, Li Wan found a groove under the cushion under the altar that was the same as the Bagua mirror in Li Wan's hand. She put the Bagua mirror in it without thinking, and it fit perfectly. Li Wan immediately put her ear to the ground and listened carefully to the sound. She opened her right hand and twisted the disc on the Bagua mirror.

"Zheng! Zheng!" A tunnel entrance appeared between the altar and the tablet, with stone steps that one person can walk down.