The autumn chill is growing heavier, and tonight there was an autumn rain.

  There was rain pattering against the window frame, making a crackling sound, and a chill came with it. Lin Jingrong woke up with a start, staring blankly at the dim yellow ceramic oil lamp in the corner of the room. She hadn't had a nightmare since seeing Lu Xian, so did that count as a good thing?

  Just as she was lost in thought, the door creaked softly and Lin Jingrong quickly closed her eyes, peeking out from between her eyelashes. Gu Yini was carrying a quilt, quietly adding it to the bed, then walked over to the oil lamp to check if there was still oil, seeing that everything was fine, she slowly backed out and closed the door.

  Lin Jinyong pulled the quilt tightly. Gu Yiniang was a conscientious wet nurse, every night she would get up one or two times to check on both Lin and Gu Yuan. Now that she had added more quilts for herself, she must have also added some for Gu Yuan. It's just a pity that Gu Yiniang had Gu Yuan; but fortunately, Gu Yuan also had Gu Yiniang.

  Lin Jinyong reached into the pillowcase and touched the two keys, smiling lightly. The hesitant and conflicted expressions that Guirong had been wearing for days were all in her eyes, but these keys, Guirong would never be able to get them back again. Just like some things, they belonged to her, and if she didn't want to give them away, no one else could take them.

  She thought of that matter again - she remembered that many places, due to their distance from the capital, had difficulty transporting goods, and many taxes were changed to silver or silver equivalents. This year Pingzhou had a bumper harvest, and next year Pingzhou would still have a great harvest, and for both Pingzhou and Qingzhou, it was a turning point, with the tribute money changed to buying silver as tribute. Many taxpayers had no silver, so they exchanged it at the silver shops, she didn't know the exact amount, but she remembered that in that year, both Pingzhou and Qingzhou had people who made a fortune from this. After that, there were people who often went to the capital to buy silver, profiteering during tax collection.

  So she especially wants to open a silver shop, but this wish is afraid it can't be easily fulfilled, but at least you can make some money from it? But as for the capital, the only one she can rely on is Tao Shi. The Tao family is rich, and Tao Shi's dowry is not small, with many gold and silver items. If she can get Tao Shi's support and then unite with the Tao family, have the Tao family take the lead in doing this, it would be hard not to make a profit!

  But she was a young lady who had never been out of the house and had no experience with the world, so if she suddenly spoke up like this, people would definitely think it was ridiculous and not believe her. And then when the event actually happened, they would be suspicious and start guessing, causing all sorts of trouble. How could she achieve her goal smoothly? Lin Jing thought about this for several days, but still had no clue, and thinking that tomorrow Tao's mother and son would return to Qingzhou, while she was confined to this small space, unable to go out, the opportunity was slipping away, making her toss and turn.

  When the sky brightened, the rain still hadn't stopped. The room was darker than usual. Li Zhi brought in hot water for washing as usual and prepared to attend to Lin Jingrong's getting up, but saw that Lin Jingrong had already dressed neatly and sat by the window, staring blankly at the hazy rain outside through a narrow opening.

  "How can you get up so early? Don't even call anyone?" Litchi put down the copper kettle and ran to Lin Jianrong's side with concern, turned her head to look at her face, but was startled by Lin Jianrong's two pale blue eye circles, and couldn't help exclaiming: "Did you have another nightmare last night?!"

  Lin Jinyong shook his head slightly and said worriedly, "Tomorrow, my aunt and cousin will be leaving. Who knows when we'll meet again? I want to see them off, but I'm afraid of troubling Mother."

  "Litchi hesitated and said: 'Third Madam is not in a convenient position to plead for you at the moment.'"

  As Old Master Lin's outbursts continued, Second Master was scolded, Third Master was beaten, Lin Yizhi, the twins and Lin Jirong were punished, Lin Shen was taken to Tingtao House for enlightenment, and Tao Shi's confrontation with Old Mistress on that day was also exposed by someone. Only Wu Shi hesitated to leave, and this matter was temporarily put aside.

  But this account will eventually have to be settled. Therefore, the three houses now want to keep a low profile, Lin Jinyong was punished and should obediently hide in the house to copy books and write letters, reflect on being a virtuous woman, even going out with her aunt and cousin who are about to leave for a farewell dinner is necessary, neither Madam San nor Lin Jinyin dare to plead for her!

  Lin Jinyong stretched his slender white hand into the brass basin and unconsciously stirred the water, softly sighing: "Take out one of my antique ceramic vases, find a beautiful box to pack it in, and take it to Fifth Aunt's place. Say that when my aunt came this time, she gave me some top-grade Longfeng tea, I couldn't bear to enjoy it alone, so I'm inviting her to share it with me."

  That tea is nothing, it's bound to be drunk anyway. But that ancient vase is a different story. Lychee's heart ached: "Miss, that pair of ancient vases was your treasure, and Uncle spent all his efforts to find them as a birthday gift for you when you were 12 years old. Now one of them has been given to Fifth Sister, who doesn't even truly appreciate it... isn't that wasting something precious?"

  The girls all had elegant hobbies, such as playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, arranging flowers, and tasting tea. Lin Jingrong's hobby was playing the sheng, which was tolerable, but she liked to play that mournful-sounding instrument. As for Wu Niang, she didn't like it at first, but after seeing the ancient sheng that Tao Shu gave to Lin Jingrong, she heard people say that it was elegant and antique, so she tried every means to get Lin Jingrong to give her the ancient sheng. But she wasn't genuinely fond of it, and she couldn't play the sheng, so Lin Jingrong refused to give it to her. Unexpectedly, today she would voluntarily offer it with both hands.

  Lin Jinrong lowered her eyes: "Later, I'll think of a way to exchange it back. If Uncle knows the truth, he won't blame me." Lin Wu wasn't really fond of it anyway, so she let him enjoy this novelty for now. Once they had money later on, they could find something more valuable to exchange it with, which would be just as good. For now, the most important thing was to meet the Tao family mother and son.

  Apart from asking Dafang to mediate, there's really no other way. Litchi sighed and took out a delicate, intricately carved purple sandalwood box from the bookcase against the wall. She opened the lid, lifted the plain brocade, revealing a pair of ancient, elegant, exquisitely crafted ceramic pillows: "In that case, Miss, just choose one you like to keep."

  Lin Jinyong's fingers lightly touched the whistle and then withdrew, casting aside her gaze: "It doesn't matter which one it is." This pair of whistles had been part of her dowry when she married into the Lu family, but soon after, one of them went missing. On that day, Lu Xian asked her to take them out and play with them, only to discover that one was inexplicably gone, no matter how hard they searched. Lu Xian even teased that the whistle had grown wings and flown away, as if she had intentionally deceived him. Although she investigated, nothing came of it, and the whereabouts of the whistle remained a mystery. Why did she drift off into thought again? Lin Jinyong shook her head, suppressing her thoughts.

  Lychee had no choice but to follow her usual observations, keeping the one that Lin Jiran often played with and finding a small, exquisite brocade box to pack up the other lychee, holding an oil-paper umbrella against the drizzling autumn rain, she walked along the bluestone path.

  "The young lady has suffered injustice." Gu Yiniang watched clearly from the side, using a silver hairpin to scoop out some of the carefully prepared fragrant snow face cream from the porcelain box and apply it thinly to Lin Jinyu's face, neck, and hands, gently massaging it in for her, silently sighing.

  Lin Jinyong smiled and said: "Nothing, doesn't Nurse think I've grown up?"

  "The girl has grown up." Gu Yigu looked at Lin Jinyong with a complex expression, the girl is getting bigger and more opinionated, she doesn't discuss things with her as much as before, instead she likes to secretly discuss with Lüzhi behind her back... these days she's even teaching Lüzhi to write and recognize characters... but that careless and lazy Gu Yuan, not only is she slacking off, she's also loudly asking her to ask the girl for the key to the gold and silver box.

  If it weren't for her own daughter, she would have dared to advise the girl that no one's daughter would run away with a key on their own. But since it was her own biological daughter, how could she possibly say such a thing? Moreover, the girl's tolerance and forbearance towards Guirong, this unruly dead servant girl, wasn't it also because she had taken care of her since childhood and spared no effort to maintain her dignity? If she were any more greedy, that would be ungrateful.

  Guizhi finished what she was doing and excused herself: "I'll go outside to take a look. Guirong went out early to fetch breakfast, how come it's been such a long time and she still hasn't returned?"

  Lin Jinyong smiled and fortunately, Gui's mother did not speak up.

  Guigui stood under the curtain for a short while, and soon saw Guiyuan walking over with an oil umbrella and a food box, her movements elegant and refined. She stepped onto the Ruyi platform, first handing the dripping wet oil umbrella to Dou'er, then wiping the water stains off her shoes on the rush mat. Only then did she greet Guigui, saying in a low voice: "Mother, have you spoken with the young lady?"

  The old woman glared at her coldly, took the food box with one hand and secretly pinched her hard with the other, saying in a cold voice: "There isn't, nor are you allowed to mention half a word, otherwise I'll invite you to eat bamboo board stir-fried leg tendons!"

  Osmanthus fragrans was in pain, gritting his teeth and pursing his lips, but he didn't dare to shout. He unhappily followed Granny Osmanthus into the house, took a peek inside, and while setting the table with her, curiously asked in a low voice: "I just met Lychee earlier, where was she rushing to?"

  Gu Ye had not spoken yet, when Lin Jirong walked out and said gently: "I'll let her go invite Fifth Young Miss to have some tea. Tonight I want to accompany Aunt on a farewell dinner."

  Guigui's face immediately fell, and she pouted. Running errands to get rewards was something she used to do, but now it had gradually become Litchi's job. A look of grievance floated onto her face, so Guiyuan hastily cleared her throat: "Quickly heat up the hand towel for Miss to wipe her hands!" As she spoke, she took a step forward and blocked Guigui's expression from Lin Jinyu's sight, not letting him see her sulking.

  Lin Jinyong had already seen the expressions and behaviors of the mother and daughter, but he just buried his head in eating, pretending that he hadn't heard or seen anything. Besides lychee, who else would be serving him like this? At least Gui Yatou was treating her with a true heart and still knew her place.

  Lian'er rushed back with a wet body, saying: "Miss, the fifth young lady has accepted the gift and is very happy. She promised to come over immediately. But I saw that the people in her room are packing things up, seemingly preparing to leave, I don't know if she can make it?"

  "What's going on?" Lin Jiner looked out the window, the autumn rain was still falling relentlessly. On a day like this, the young lady of the Lin family had to go out, it must be something unusual.

  ——*——*——*——

  At the end of the year, I'm too busy with work during the day and can only look forward to writing at night when I get home. But... it's extremely painful to hold my head in my hands, from 8 pm on the 13th, there has been a power outage at home, and more than half of the city is also out, don't know when it will come back... looking up at the sky... if this continues, I'm afraid I'll have to stop updating...

  Amy Tofu, hurry up and fix the circuit... it's too cold and dark without electricity, and people are starving, can't take it anymore!!!!!