Chapter 1: The Treasure of Yi De, Crossing the Deep...

  It was just getting dark. Liang Xin had just sent away the last eunuch who came to ask him to write a letter on his behalf and was preparing to close the door and go to sleep, when suddenly Li Zhu Yu and Li Zhao Rong walked in accompanied by their maidservants.

  Liang Xiao hastily paid respects to Li Zhaorong: "Your humble servant pays her respects to Your Highness."

  Li Zhaorong slightly raised her right hand and said, "No need for excessive courtesy."

  Liang Xian replied with a sentence: "Thank you, Your Ladyship." Then she stood up straight and after standing up, according to etiquette, Liang Xian had to cup her hands and ask: "I don't know what instructions do you have for me, Your Ladyship?"

  Li Zhaorong glanced at her personal maid, who immediately went to close the door of Liang Xin's room. Then Li Zhaorong reached into the lining of her clothes and took out a letter, handing it to Liang Xin: "I have a letter here that I'd like you to read aloud."

  Liang Xian took the letter and suddenly remembered that Li Zhaorong was originally the daughter of the owner of Yunlai Inn in Bianjing City. One day, Zhao Ji went out of the palace in disguise to have fun and favored her, bringing her into the palace and granting her the title of Zhaorong.

  However, Zhao Ji was born with a romantic nature and soon abandoned Li Zhuyu after favoring her for a short time. Poor Li Zhuyu, as a folk woman in the palace, had no family background or foundation, and her life was very difficult. Moreover, in this Northern Song Dynasty where it was advocated that women without talent were virtuous, she couldn't even understand a letter from home and had to come to beg for help from a small eunuch like Liang Xin.

  Liang Xin's mind was preoccupied, but his hands didn't stop moving as he opened the letter and scanned it briefly. His eyebrows furrowed immediately after reading the contents, which were only over 500 words long, but extremely difficult to accept. Putting aside the brief greetings, the entire letter was about Li Zhuyu's family telling her that their inn had caught fire unexpectedly and was burned down. Her father was so grief-stricken that he fell ill and couldn't get out of bed. The purpose of writing this letter was to ask Li Zhuyu to send 100 taels of silver back home to help pay for his medical treatment.

  Liang Xiao looked at Li Zhuoyu for a moment before reading the letter again, and Li Zhaorong's eyes welled up with tears after listening. She felt weak all over and swayed slightly.

  "One hundred taels of silver? Where can I get one hundred taels of silver?" Li Zhuyu was momentarily stunned, and unconsciously changed "the palace" to "I".

  One hundred taels of silver may seem like a lot or a little, but it's not surprising that Li Zhuoyu can't take it out. As a concubine, her food, clothing and expenses are all taken care of by the palace's internal affairs department, and the jewelry and accessories given to her by the emperor cannot be taken out and sold. To put it bluntly, she may be even poorer than an ordinary palace maid, a typical example of being poor despite having a high status.

  Of course, such things can also be reported to the emperor and handled by the emperor's grace, but Li Zhuoyu has been in the palace for six years and only spent three days with the emperor together. How can she reach the emperor's ears when she can't even see him on a daily basis?

  Or perhaps because of her distress and heartache, Li Zhuyu suddenly sat in the Liang family home and began to sob uncontrollably, while a nearby young maid also followed suit and wept bitterly.

  Seeing Li Zhuyu as a beautiful woman with tears in her eyes, Liang Xin suddenly felt some unbearable. He walked into the inner room, opened his own closet and took out two gold ingots.

  This golden ingot was bestowed by the empress to Liang Xin, totaling five ingots each weighing five taels. Two ingots together amount to ten taels, equivalent to over one hundred taels of silver.

  Liang Xian walked into the main hall and placed two gold ingots beside Li Zhu Yu, saying: "Your Ladyship need not be anxious, I have ten taels of yellow gold here that can be given to Your Ladyship to meet your urgent needs."

  Li Zhuyu turned her head and saw that on the table there were two gold ingots shining brightly, showing their good quality.

  "How can we, who are neither relatives nor friends, ask for your gold?"

  "Your Ladyship, why say such a thing? You are the master and I am the servant. When the master uses something that belongs to the servant, it is an act of kindness, not something that should be questioned." Liang Xin's words were righteous and proper, but in her heart she was secretly cursing the evil feudalism, oh so evil!

  "This..." Li Zhuyu was stunned, she had never been treated with such respect in the palace. Because she was not favored, the slaves in the palace had long been hypocritical and disdainful of her, even the slaves who went to the inner warehouse to collect rouge water powder clothes shoes socks would often give their own maids a condescending look and deliberately make things difficult for her.

  After some thought, Li Zhuyu raised her eyes and looked at Liang Xin: "I'll take the gold first, your kindness I, Li Zhuyu, will definitely remember in my heart, if there's a chance in the future, I will definitely repay you."

  "Your Highness has spoken." Liang Xin nodded slightly and said.

  Li Zhuyu took a deep breath and wiped away her tears. She turned to the maid beside her and said, "It's getting late, let's head back, Moon."

  "Slow down, Princess." Liang Xin said with a bow.

  Li Zhuyu turned around and looked at Liang Xin, saying: "I thought this palace was full of hypocrisy and thin human relationships, but I didn't expect to see true feelings here, thank you." After finishing speaking, Li Zhuyu left with the support of her maid, Yue'er.

  Liáng Xīn shook her head and muttered to herself: "In the deep palace, three thousand beauties, how many wronged women are among them?" Just as she closed the door, there was another knock.

  Liang Xin felt somewhat depressed and asked in a rather displeased tone: "Who is it?"

  "Xīn Gē shì wǒ, Yù Shàn Fáng de Xiǎo Lǐ Zi."

  Translation: "I am Xing Ge, the little Li of Yu Shan Fang."

  "Little Li?" Liang Xian furrowed his brow, thinking for a moment, but really couldn't recall who this Little Li was. He guessed that it was probably one of the little eunuchs who had come to ask him to write letters in the past.

  Liang Xian walked to the front of the door and pulled it open, only to see that behind Little Li was an old eunuch who looked like he was over 40 years old. The old eunuch wore a dragon robe and a python gown, looking like a high-ranking eunuch.

  Following the principle of "more courtesy, less blame", Liang Xin slightly bowed to the old eunuch and said: "Your humble servant greets Your Excellency."

  The old eunuch nodded slightly and said, "No need to be polite, I am Wang An, the uncle of Little Li Zi. Today, I came because I have something to ask for, and I hope brother will not refuse."

  As he spoke, Wang An raised his hand and displayed a stack of rice paper, on which were placed two gold ingots with excellent color.

  "Just lost two ingots and then came two more?" Liang Xin secretly thought, what kind of person is this Wang An that his moves are so lavish.

  No matter who it is, since the money was delivered to his doorstep, Liang Xin had no reason to refuse. After welcoming Wang An and Xiao Lizi into the house, Liang Xin unfolded the rice paper and took a look, and as soon as he did, he liked it and blurted out: "Is this Liu Gongquan's 'Summer Inspiration'?

  "Not bad." Wang An's face showed a look of appreciation, and in his heart he secretly thought that he had indeed found the right person.

  Liang Xin looked at it with infatuation and said with a hint of regret: "It's a copy, but one thing is certain, the original being copied is genuine."

  "Nature is true." Wang An was even more certain that he had not mistaken the person, and stood up freely, saying: "This time I came here hoping that brother would write according to the content of calligraphy in the style of Liu, so that this public can use it as a collection."

  Li Xian nodded and said, "Of course, there's no problem with copying it. The style of Liu and Yan doesn't matter either. However, the question is whether to leave a name at the end of this calligraphy work or not. Otherwise, in the future, people won't be able to tell if this painting is real or fake, and who actually created it."

  Wang An's eyebrows twitched, and he suddenly understood that Liang Xin had already guessed what was going on. Indeed, this was also something Wang An himself hadn't thought of - if he hadn't left Zhao Huan's name behind, when he took it back to the Crown Prince's mansion, Zhao Huan would still have to sign his own name. And with a signature and handwriting that were worlds apart, it would certainly be exposed at first glance by the Emperor.

  Wang An nodded slightly after a moment of hesitation: "Little Li, you go out for a while, I have a few private words to discuss with Brother Liang Xin alone."

  "It's Uncle." Little Li immediately walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

  At this time, Wang An mysteriously lowered his voice and said to Liang Xin: "Sign the name Zhao Huan."

  Liang Xin was slightly startled and looked at Wang An in a low voice: "The Crown Prince?"

  "This matter is top secret, if you leak it out, you will surely die, so remember to keep your mouth shut."

  Li Xiang snorted in her heart, thinking that Song Qin was indeed a useless person. He couldn't even write his own words and had to ask someone else to do it for him. No wonder he died so miserably in his later years.

  Terrible! Liang Xin's back broke out in a cold sweat, from crossing over to the Northern Song Dynasty until now, he still can't help but think of this history. Now it is already the fifth year of Zhenghe, and the time when Jin destroyed Liao and then invaded the Song Dynasty, creating the Jingkang shame, is not far away.