I insist

Chapter 165: Acquiring Antiques

As soon as she stepped out of the house, Tian Yumei happened to pass by and noticed that Song Miqiu looked extremely pale. She was startled and quickly walked up to Song Miqiu, gently touching Song Miqiu's face with one hand, a hint of heartache in her eyes.

"Mother, why do you have dark circles under your eyes? Did you eat something yesterday, or is there something in your room that's keeping you awake?" Tian Yumei asked worriedly, and then, remembering that Song Miqiu was on duty today, she inquired further.

"Why don't you ask for leave today, Mother? Don't go to the palace. Go back to your room and catch up on your sleep! Otherwise, you're getting older and can't take any more exertion!"

Song Miqiu waved her hand, looking around but seeing no one. She turned to Tian Yumei, "Where is he? Why isn't he here?"

"That young master went out early."

Bored at home, Tian Yumei became even more interested in gossip. She glanced around, lowered her head, and asked softly, "Mother, are you sure?"

Song Miqiu blinked, and it took her a while to realize what Tian Yumei meant by "definitely".

She laughed and scolded him, "What are you talking about! At my age, I'm not doing this kind of thing anymore. Go, go, go do your work!"

Song Miqiu dared not linger at home any longer and hurriedly went out.

Where Tian Yumei couldn't see, Song Miqiu sighed heavily. She hadn't expected Yu Huailin to leave so early, without even giving her a chance to ask him what had happened.

She exhaled a ring of air, looked around, walked to the door, and saw that the carriage was already parked by the door. Song Miqiu lifted her clothes, bent down and got into the carriage.

As soon as she lifted the carriage curtain, Song Miqiu looked up and saw someone inside, which startled her so much that she shrank back.

Upon recognizing the person yelling, Song Miqiu instinctively rolled her eyes and muttered a complaint, "You really scared me to death."

"I just wanted to ask if you've found Consort Can and the jade pendant?"

Song Miqiu nodded, took out a translucent white jade pendant from a hidden compartment in her waist and handed it to the other person, "Consort Can has taken me for her father and told me about it."

"Your father?" Qing Zhi was somewhat surprised. His gaze fell on Song Miqiu's jawline, and he asked in confusion, "Are you showing your mask to Consort Can?"

Song Miqiu responded indifferently, her expression unreadable, as she explained her opinion, "Consort Can won't expose me. I discovered it when I went to ask her about the jade pendant."

“She wouldn’t betray my father’s child.” Song Miqiu slowly raised her eyes and met Qing Zhi’s gaze. “After all, based on her conversation with Consort Lin, I’m sure something must have happened between them.”

"By the way, after you take this jade pendant, go and check it out as soon as possible."

Qingzhi nodded and carefully tucked the jade pendant into the lining of his clothes. He glanced at the things placed in the corner of the carriage, but saw that Song Miqiu hadn't noticed them at all.

He was quite helpless. He gently poked the other person's knee with his finger. Seeing the other person looking at him with a confused expression, Qingzhi pointed to something in the corner.

"Where did you get this from!" Song Miqiu happily hugged the antique. She looked up and saw Qingzhi taking the jade pendant out to examine it carefully.

She silently shut her mouth, and after the other person frowned and looked annoyed for a moment, noticing Song Miqiu's gaze, she looked up at her.

Seeing Song Miqiu holding the antique in her arms with a delighted expression, Qingzhi found it somewhat amusing. "I brought this antique here especially for you. Do you like it?"

"I like it!" Song Miqiu nodded vigorously. In the past few days, she could have exchanged the rewards given by the emperor and his concubines in the palace for some silver.

But she still needed to use the points, and she was afraid that if she exchanged them for silver, it would delay her from using the points to buy things, so she exchanged all the rewarded treasures for points.

This has resulted in her being almost penniless and extremely poor.

Her eyes revealed joy as she hugged the antique tightly, as if afraid the other party would snatch it back.

Qingzhi caught a glimpse of her like this out of the corner of his eye, and amusedly reached out to test her. Sure enough, he found that Song Miqiu's fingers were open and tightly clasped at the edge.

Seeing this, Qingzhi felt extremely helpless. He bent his fingers and tapped the antique. When he looked up and saw the other person's distressed expression, he quickly said, "I'm not going to take it from you. If I gave it to you, it's yours. There's no reason to take it back."

Song Miqiu glanced at the other party suspiciously, but seeing that the other party really thought that way, she immediately smiled and nodded, deciding to trust the other party for the time being.

Qingzhi shook his head; he hadn't expected Song Miqiu to be so stingy.

Song Miqiu looked down at the antiques, her eyes shining.

She was so poor that she was about to continue holding the antique when Song Miqiu suddenly remembered something and looked up to ask, "I noticed you were looking at the jade pendant earlier, did you find any clues?"

When Song Miqiu retrieved the jade pendant, she couldn't find any clues on it, which made her start to wonder if the so-called clues were really on the jade pendant.

"Not for now." Qingzhi's face grew paler and paler.

He clutched his chest, slowly closed his eyes to calm himself, and then slowly opened them again.

Seeing this, Song Miqiu immediately put the antique in her hand aside, gently patted the other person's back, and whispered, "Don't worry about the jade pendant clue for now. You should focus on running the teahouse business well first."

Having experienced a lack of money, Song Miqiu now values ​​money very much, and she somewhat regrets not putting the previous five thousand taels of silver into her own pocket.

If I accept it, I will definitely become incredibly wealthy in a short period of time.

However, accepting money from Yan Yufan and eating his exorbitantly priced meals was truly unacceptable.

"Hmm." Qingzhi nodded, leaned his body towards the side of the carriage, lifted the window with his fingers to look out at the scene outside, and said in a low voice, "Put me down here."

"How about I have the carriage turn around and take you to the teahouse?" Song Miqiu felt a little panicked when she saw Qingzhi's condition. She was afraid that Qingzhi would faint on the way back.

After all, given Qingzhi's current mental and physical condition, it's not impossible that this is the case.

The latter shook his head and refused Song Miqiu.

"If you send it to the teahouse, it will definitely delay your trip to the Imperial Hospital. Don't let the people from the Imperial Hospital cause you trouble then," Qing Zhi teased with a faint smile.

Clearly, he knew the character of some people in the Imperial Medical Academy, and he also knew that there must be someone in the palace targeting Song Miqiu.

He patted the spot where the jade pendant had been placed, his face pale as he smiled and said, "Just put me down here. I still need to investigate the matter of the jade pendant later. If you take me to the teahouse, not only will you be late for the Imperial Hospital, but I'll also have to go through a long detour to investigate the whereabouts of this thing."

Song Miqiu reluctantly agreed.