The daughter of the emperor was reborn and was spoiled by the sickly prince.

The old lady didn't even bother to take the silver. She covered her face and sobbed, "I am an old man. I would be fine if I died, but I have offended Mr. Xue San today. What should I do with my Wu'er..."

Liao Qinglan held the old lady's hand and asked softly, "Auntie, can you tell us in detail what happened in your family?"

The old lady sighed, tears in her eyes: "We were originally a farmer, making a living by farming. My son Wu'er is young and strong, hardworking and willing to work. Although we are not rich, we have enough to eat and wear."

"Then what?" Liao Qinglan asked.

"Three years ago, the government ordered the construction of a river embankment. Wuer wanted to take this opportunity to earn some money to renovate the thatched cottage at home. Who knew..." When the old lady said this, tears welled up again, "If I had known this would happen, why would I have let him go!"

Gu Mingzhao remembered the strange incident Wang Tingzhi mentioned today, so he asked, "Auntie, did your son encounter an accident while building the river embankment?"

The old lady shook her head: "The government officials said the same thing at first, and they even sent me a pension. I thought Wu'er was really gone at that time."

Gu Mingzhao looked solemn and continued to ask: "Is he still alive?"

Wang Tingzhi had been investigating the mystery for several times but had no clue, but he unexpectedly got a clue.

The old lady wiped away her tears and choked up, "That Xue San is the third son of the eldest brother-in-law of Master Liu, the prefect of Jizhou. He is usually idle. One year ago, he suddenly came to our house with a letter, claiming it was from Wu'er. He asked for ten taels of silver before he was willing to hand over the letter. Ten taels of silver! That's our family's annual harvest!"

Liao Qinglan was suspicious: "Could he be a liar?"

She had heard before that some bad guys took advantage of people's longing for their deceased relatives and pretended to be ghosts to cheat and cause trouble.

"I asked the village teacher to take a look. The handwriting is definitely Wu'er's. It came with the letter, along with the dog-tooth necklace he wore since he was a child. I definitely won't make a mistake!"

"So what did he say in the letter?" Liao Qinglan asked.

The old lady burst into tears: "He said he was in a safe place, with no worries about food and clothing, but he couldn't leave freely. He asked us to take care of ourselves and that he would come back to reunite with us if he had the chance in the future."

Liao Qinglan felt that this matter was of great importance. She glanced at Gu Mingzhao and wanted to ask him what his plans were.

It's okay if you don't look at it, but you'll be shocked when you look at it.

Gu Mingzhao's face was so gloomy that water seemed to drip from it. His eyes were cold and his lips were tightly pursed without a trace of smile.

"Auntie, can you let me see Wu'er's letter?" Gu Mingzhao asked.

"The letters are all at home. If you want to read them, just follow me."

*

The three of them walked through the winding country roads together. Night was gradually falling, and they didn't arrive at the old lady's house until it was completely dark.

In front of the house, a large piece of farmland lies abandoned, and the overgrown weeds seem to be telling the story of how difficult life is for this family.

When I walked into the room, it was pitch black, there were no candles, and I could only hear bursts of violent coughing.

The old lady quickly lit a candle, poured some water, brought it to the window, helped the old man up from the bed, and fed him water.

"Madam, who are they?" The old man's voice was weak and hoarse.

"They are the noble people I met today." The old lady explained while taking care of the old man, "They gave me a silver ingot, and we finally have money to buy medicine."

The old man struggled to sit up and shook his head repeatedly: "Don't prescribe medicine, take the money to Xue San and see if he can find out the whereabouts of our Wu'er."

The old lady cried and said, "Wu'er will come back. You have to live well first so that you can wait for him to come back and our family can be reunited!"

Liao Qinglan looked at the scene in front of her and suddenly felt a pang of sadness in her heart.

She stepped forward and said, "Auntie, I know a little bit about medicine, can I take a look at the old man?"

The old lady looked at her gratefully and stood up to make room for her.

Liao Qinglan sat beside the bed, her silky hands feeling the old man's pulse.

After some diagnosis, she said, "The old man must have had lung disease for many years, and his condition has become increasingly serious due to excessive worry in recent years. I will prescribe a prescription when I return home and have someone send it to you. You take it on time and after a month of conditioning, your condition will improve."

With tears in her eyes, the old lady was so excited that she knelt down and kowtowed to Liao Qinglan.

"The girl has a kind heart, like a living Buddha! Thank you, girl, thank you!"

Liao Qinglan quickly helped the old lady up and indicated that this was not necessary.

Although Gu Mingzhao was anxious, he waited for Liao Qinglan to finish diagnosing the old man's pulse before speaking: "Can I see the letter?"

The old lady then remembered the purpose of the distinguished guests' visit and hurriedly said, "Please wait a moment, distinguished guests."

The old lady took out a small box from the bedside, opened it, and found the letter was carefully wrapped, protecting it like a treasure.

When the letter was unfolded, as the old lady had said, there was no mention of the location.

Gu Mingzhao held a candle in his hand, placed it close to the paper, examined it carefully against the light, and then put the paper to his nose and smelled it.

"This letter should have been sent from the north, or more precisely, from the outskirts of Beijing."

Liao Qinglan took the letter, looked at it from left to right, but found no clues.

She thought to herself, "Is Gu Mingzhao trying to comfort the elderly couple?"

"How did you know that?" Liao Qinglan couldn't help but ask.

Gu Mingzhao said: "Different places have different trees, so the papermaking materials are also different. The south mostly uses sandalwood and mulberry bark, while the north mainly uses locust and cypress bark. The smell of this paper clearly has the fragrance of locust, so it should be produced in the north."

"Then how do you know it's in the suburbs of Beijing?"

"It's ink." Gu Mingzhao continued to explain, "In order to prevent military information from being misrepresented, the court specially supplied the paper and ink used in the army from the palace. Each camp used different ones to distinguish the authenticity. This ink is deep and not blurred, and the color is bluish. It should be the stone blue pine smoke ink of the Jingji camp."

Liao Qinglan was surprised and asked, "You mean, this letter was sent from the military camp?"

Gu Mingzhao nodded: "That's right. There is a certain amount of paper in the army, but there is no such thing as ink. The people who distributed the pens and ink didn't pay attention to these details, which is why they were exposed."

Even after listening to the explanation, Liao Qinglan still couldn't tell what was special about the paper and ink. She was full of admiration: "You are amazing. You can even tell this."

"For those who know the business, the clues are obvious."

Liao Qinglan thought to herself, "There are very few people who can tell the raw materials of paper and ink from a letter. ...

While she was in awe, she had other questions in her mind: "Didn't you lose your memory? Why do you still know so many details?"

Gu Mingzhao shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Some things are like being engraved in your bones. Even if you lose your memory, it is hard to forget."

After he woke up, although he had a sharp sword and extraordinary skills, deep down in his heart, he always felt that he should be a scholar.

"Then let's go to the Jingji camp and look for Wu'er, right?" Liao Qinglan said.

The old couple's eyes were full of hope as they looked at Liao Qinglan eagerly, hoping that this noble person could help them find their son.

But Gu Mingzhao immediately poured cold water on him: "I'm afraid it's not that simple."