Volume 1 Rebirth Return Chapter 14 Night Pearl

  "I'll write down the phone number of the siheyuan for you. Give me a call when you have the chance." He said, taking out a piece of paper and writing down the phone number.

  Leaving Tao Xizhi's residence, Su Wei didn't take a carriage back to the Siheyuan, but instead strolled around in the small town of Qingmu.

  Only a few days after her rebirth, Su Rui hadn't fully experienced this era yet. But it was bound to disappoint her, as there were no retro "trendsetters" on the streets. After all, this wasn't the East, and information wasn't so developed, people weren't so quick to accept new things. Moreover, there were many ethnic minorities. However, the bicycles and old buses that filled the streets were indeed a symbol of this era.

  There were many stalls on both sides of the street, mostly selling snacks and fruits. One stall caught Su Rui's attention. The location of this stall was very remote, and it was also very simple, just a broken cloth laid on the ground, with some porcelain and pottery figurines placed on top. It was obvious that this was an antique shop.

  Actually at this time the antique industry had already risen, but in Qingmu this small county town I reckon not many people have the ability to collect antiques, so there also wasn't a decent antique shop.

  Su Rui was able to discover this stall because she saw the entire stall emitting a purple glow. It's probably something precious, so she must go take a look.

  The peddler saw that it was just a little girl and impatiently said, "Go play elsewhere, this is not a place to buy toys, don't disturb me from doing business."

  Su Rui found that this stall had been set up for several days, but although many people asked about it, not a single person bought anything. At this time, she saw a little girl come over and was certain that the girl wouldn't buy anything either, so she wasn't very polite.

  Su Rui ignored the small vendor and squatted down. Earlier, she was a bit far away, but now Su Rui discovered that on the entire stall, only one black box was emitting a rich purple light, along with two jade pendants that also emitted purple light, although much weaker than the box. Su Rui secretly activated her internal energy, and a purple-golden gas flowed from the tattoo on her left chest up to her eyes. Suddenly, Su Rui saw the history of this box, and it turned out that the real treasure was not the wooden box itself, but rather an hidden compartment inside the box, which contained four of the nine night pearls from Empress Dowager Cixi's crown.

  In that year, foreigners invaded the capital city. The Empress Dowager Cixi did not allow the people to fight back against the invaders, but instead took four pearls from her crown and wanted to give them to the foreigners in exchange for their withdrawal from the city. However, at that time, the Grand Eunuch Li Lianying was not by her side, so she sent a palace maid with the night pearl to the West Gate Hotel to hand it over to Li Lianying's people. But unexpectedly, the palace maid did not deliver the night pearl into Li Lianying's hands, but instead took the night pearl and escaped. The palace maid hid the night pearl in a hidden compartment of a wooden box and fled all the way to Shanxi Province, where she settled down. Then, under the arrangement of a matchmaker, she married a widower and gave birth to a son for him. Until her death, the wooden box was passed into her son's hands, but he did not know that there were treasures inside the box, so he sold it as junk to a peddler.

  Su Rui saw this history and was overjoyed. The night pearl is priceless, let alone there are four of them here.

  However, Su Rui didn't reveal anything on her face, but instead picked and chose at the stall, then pointed to a jade pendant emitting a faint purple light and asked the vendor "Brother, how much is this one?" Batting her eyelashes, being cute without spending money.

  The peddler saw a good business opportunity and immediately smiled brightly, with a quick change of face.

  "Hey, little sister, you have a good eye for this! This is something I got from a wealthy family in the countryside of Xi'an. It's their treasured heirloom, passed down from their ancestors who were high-ranking officials. This was even worn by the Magistrate himself! If you like it, I'll give you a real deal, 3,000 yuan, how about that? This is a Ming dynasty piece, and at 3,000, I'm just making enough to cover my travel expenses."

  "Tomorrow's? Don't cheat me, big brother. I just think this auspicious meaning is pretty good, and it'll be sealed immediately." Su Rui said with a seemingly innocent tone.

  Su Rui didn't put down the jade pendant, but instead picked up another peach-shaped jade pendant next to it.

  "I want both of these jade pendants, big brother, name a price."

  "You can't cheat me just because I'm small, or else I'll get someone to beat you up." Su Rui smiled and winked at her.

  For some reason, the vendor looked at Su Rui's innocent expression and felt a chill. It must be an illusion, it must be. Comforting himself, the vendor spoke up.

  "Since you really want it, little sister, I'll give you the two jade pendants for 5,000 yuan. I think we're quite fated."

  "Five thousand yuan is a bit expensive, and I don't know if these two are genuine. One thousand yuan, sell both to me."

  As soon as Su Rui returned so much money, the vendor quickly spoke up.

  "A thousand won't do, at least it's got to be this many." The peddler held up four fingers.

  Su Rui gently fiddled with the jade pendant.

  "That's 1,500, can't be more than that, if it's more my mom will scold me."

  "Fifteen hundred is still not enough for the price I'm collecting, or else you'll have to add some more. Two thousand, and I'll consider us friends." The peddler gritted his teeth, looking like he was suffering a great loss.

  "Two thousand is just two thousand, but you can give me this box as a bonus. My grandma used to have one like this, but it's broken now, so I'll send it to her." Su Rui smiled at the peddler.

  "Alright, no problem."

  The peddler saw that the box wasn't worth much money either, so he reluctantly agreed.

  But in his heart, he was secretly laughing. What a spendthrift kid this is! He had picked up these two jade pendants for just a few dozen yuan, and now he's made over a thousand yuan in one go. In his mind, he was thinking that if a few more kids like this came along, he'd be set for life.

  But Su Rui didn't have that much money on her. She could only ask the vendor to follow her to a public phone booth to make a call, and get Du Yan to send her some money. After all, he was her master's secretary, might as well make use of him.

  Soon, Du Yan arrived and instructed Su Rui to hand over the two thousand yuan she had brought with her to the vendor. Then, he saw Su Rui pick up the box.

  "Take those two jade pendants." Leaving a sentence behind, Su Rui took the lead and walked towards the car.

  Du Yan held two jade pendants in his hand, while Su Rui hugged the wooden box in her arms, as if she was holding a porcelain doll.

  Du Yan looked at Su Rui's cautious appearance and immediately understood that this box was what Su Rui wanted, and the two jade pendants were just a cover-up. However, he couldn't see anything special about the box.

  When the vendor saw a man in a suit, driving a luxury car, bowing to Su Rui and calling her "little sister", he was filled with regret. He regretted not asking for more money. However, he couldn't take it back, why? Didn't you see that the driver inside was sturdy and strong? He could only grit his teeth and took the 2,000 yuan away.

  Su Rui didn't let Du Yan send her to Siheyuan, only letting him drop her off at the village entrance.

  "Those two jade pendants are yours." With that, Su Rui hugged the box and got off the car.

  In the evening

  On the way back to the quadrangle courtyard, Su Rui happened to meet Li Ershu and Li Ershu who had finished their farm work and returned home. Li Ershu's grandfather and Li Fugong's grandfather were brothers, and they were also considered brothers who hadn't gone out of five mourning dresses. However, Li Fugong was selfish and greedy, and Wang Chunhua was a shrewd woman who loved to take advantage of others. As a straightforward person, Li Cheng naturally looked down on them. Li Ershu was more generous, and Su Rui's mother was the language teacher of her second son, so they were still relatively close to Su Rui's family.

  She saw Su Rui and immediately thought of her deceased parents, with a look of sympathy in her eyes. She sighed inwardly, it's good that she's 14 years old, if she were any younger, what would happen to her? I heard that the old man from the back mountain adopted her, but she must be living under someone else's roof, which is not as good as having her own parents. However, it's still better than Li Fu's family. Don't think that nobody knows about Li Fu's sinister intentions, he even took advantage of an orphan girl who lost her parents, no wonder he ended up in prison. The more she thought about it, the more she felt sorry for Su Rui. "Li Erniang," she said, putting down her farming tools.

  "Ru Ru, now that your parents have passed away, we can't help much either. We can only help with some chores. When the burial is arranged, let us know and my brother and I will go to help."

  Li Cheng hesitated for a moment, then spoke up and said "This afternoon when I went home, I saw Wang Chunhua wandering around your house door, you say your house is quite remote, what was she doing there? You'd better be careful, don't lose anything without knowing it, her family's head of household has gone in but still isn't honest..."

  Su Rui saw the sincerity in both of their eyes and her expression softened.

  "Second Aunt, don't worry about me. I've been adopted by my master and now live with him. There's nothing important left at home, I've already taken away the things that belonged to my parents, there are only some daily necessities left."

  Su Rui paused for a moment and looked towards Dong Fang.

  "I don't plan on burying my parents here, fallen leaves return to their roots, they've been away from home for too long, it's time for them to go back."

  Li Er Shu was surprised by what she said, but also felt it was reasonable. After all, their hometown wasn't here. But didn't they both lose their memories? However, she didn't ask anything and just smiled.

  "Since you've decided, then forget it, but if there's anything urgent, just let Auntie know and we'll definitely help."

  "Thanks to Auntie Er first."

  Bid farewell to Li Ershen and others, Su Rui quietly watched the sunset. In her heart, she silently told herself that she had been reborn and would not repeat the same mistakes again. Those who owed me must come back personally!

  With the sunset falling, smoke curled up, Su Rui quickly returned to the quadrangle courtyard, and hadn't even cooked dinner for Master yet.