Mo Chongyuan finished telling about his experiences, feeling much more relaxed in body and mind, and the pained expression had left his face.
Old Lady Mo wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and said, "As the saying goes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Chongyuan has already suffered through this life's tribulations, and things will only get better for him from now on.
Your mother is getting old now, I only hope that our whole family can live in peace and safety from now on."
"Mother, we will, I and younger brother number eight and nine will take good care of you from now on," said Mo Chongyuan.
As he spoke, Mo Chongyuan had already risen from the kang and solemnly knelt in front of his aged mother.
"I was unfilial before and made you worry," he said.
Seeing her son like this brought fresh tears to Old Lady Mo's eyes, and soon the other daughters-in-law were also dabbing at their eyes.
He Zhiran was also a woman, and although she was a bit tougher mentally than her sisters-in-law and Mo Hanyue, she had to admit she was made of water.
She couldn't stand scenes like this, and seeing everyone crying loudly, she figured it wouldn't end anytime soon and might bring up more painful memories.
So she dabbed at her somewhat reddened eyes and said, "Mother, sisters, it's good that fifth brother has regained his memories. Wasn't mother wanting fifth brother to paint the kitchen god? It's almost noon already, what are we waiting for?"
Old Lady Mo also knew her daughter-in-law's intention, and led the way in wiping her tears and urged Mo Chongyuan to go paint the image of the kitchen god.
Sure enough, Mo Chongyuan had incredible literary talent, and the image of the kitchen god he painted was absolutely magnificent.
He Zhiran even thought of having him paint some other things to put in her online shop to try selling.
Speaking of her online shop, she hadn't managed it for a long time, just casually checking if revenue had increased.
Also, Little Collector hadn't been around to buy things recently, seemingly having disappeared.
He Zhiran didn't know much about the customs around the New Year, and she and Mo Jiuye had already taken care of getting all the necessary food when they went out the day before.
Now all of their meat came from her personal dimension, and they had also bought a lot of seafood from the fishing village, along with preparing several kinds of vegetables that made sense.
Now all of the food at home was prepared, her sisters-in-law didn't need He Zhiran to manage things, she just needed to cook any special dishes.
Just happening to have some free time, He Zhiran returned to her room and flashed into her dimension.
There were still a lot of items taken from Deputy Magistrate Cui in the storage room that, although not as valuable as the things in the imperial treasury, were still antiques worth hanging in her shop.
To keep these things from taking up space in the storage room, He Zhiran took photos of everything and uploaded it all to her shop to sell.
Just as she finished organizing these things, the personal icon below her phone screen shook.
This personal icon was not unfamiliar to He Zhiran, it was none other than Little Collector, who had been missing for a long time.
Little Collector: [Boss, you're really amazing, new inventory in your shop again.]
He Zhiran: [They're just some worthless stuff.]
Little Collector: [Boss is too modest, anything that's an antique can't be called worthless stuff.]
He Zhiran: [It's all relative.]
This was no lie, when she uploaded the photos just now, like those few jade ornaments for example, they were priced at less than half of what was in the imperial treasury.
This showed that Deputy Magistrate Cui was just a country squire, the one with truly good stuff was still Emperor Shunwu.
Little Collector: [Boss, the antiques sold in your shop are real and good value. If I could get my funds to turn around now, I would definitely buy up everything in your shop.]
He Zhiran: [Did something happen?]
She was just casually caring about a regular customer. She didn't expect Little Collector to answer very sincerely:
[My family has always dealt in the antique business and never had money issues before. It was just that I partnered with a friend sometime ago to buy a 10 centimeter wide South Sea pearl that was stolen when I was arranging for it to be exhibited.
That pearl was very valuable, taking up over half of my net worth. Since the pearl was lost under my watch, I have to pay my friend for their portion of course.]
South Sea pearls were not unfamiliar to He Zhiran, and their value also varied greatly.
She was very curious now what kind of quality was the pearl that Little Collector had lost:
[What was that South Sea pearl you mentioned like?]
Little Collector: [That South Sea pearl was very special, 10 centimeters in diameter, jet black throughout without a single flaw. Many experts appraised it and determined it was produced during the Da Shun Dynasty, an extremely rare antique grade piece.]
He Zhiran had seen South Sea pearls before, but had never seen a black 10 centimeter wide one.
The clam that produced that kind of pearl must have become a spirit...
Because Little Collector mentioned the South Sea pearl originating from the Da Shun Dynasty, it greatly piqued He Zhiran's interest:
[You said this South Sea pearl came from the Da Shun Dynasty?]
Little Collector: [That's right, experts determined this pearl originated from the Da Shun Dynasty. It's said there's also some backstory to this pearl.]
He Zhiran became even more interested: [What backstory?]
Little Collector: [It's said this pearl came from the Southern Frontier, and the emperor there lost a battle at the time. Emperor Shunwu proposed he use that pearl as part of his war indemnity, but the Southern Frontier Emperor stubbornly refused.
That's because the pearl was Empress of Southern Frontier Yun Li's favorite possession, and the Southern Frontier Emperor doted on his wife, so he'd rather cede a city than hand over that pearl.]
Regarding this bit of history, He Zhiran actually didn't know much about it at all.
After all, later generations learned central plains culture, with only some history experts deeply researching those ancient small periphery states.
So there was no record of this in the history books she bought either.
Speaking of Yun Li, this bit of history must have been changed by her too.
If she didn't traverse here, Mo Jiuye's chances of surviving likely weren't high, let alone capturing Yun Li and Nan Heng at the salt lake and killing them.
But thinking about the South Sea pearl that Little Collector mentioned, now there was a high possibility that it was still being kept in the Southern Frontier's treasury or imperial palace.
What He Zhiran was thinking now was, if she went to the Southern Frontier and helped Little Collector look for that black South Sea pearl from this era while she was there, then sold it to him in her shop, wouldn't that be a mutually beneficial action for both parties?
Thinking this, she tentatively asked: [If I can find that pearl, would you want it?]
After waiting about a minute and not seeing Little Collector reply, He Zhiran figured he had gone offline or wasn't looking at his phone right then.
Since it was just an passing idea anyhow, she was about to put her phone aside to go take care of something else.
But before her fingers even touched the screen, Little Collector replied.
[That precious of a pearl, I used all my power and even got the police involved but still couldn't find it. Could the theft of the pearl have something to do with you?]
He asked very directly, because aside from those involved in the theft, it was impossible for anyone else to know the pearl's whereabouts.
