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Wei Yunlan was startled and quickly immersed her consciousness in her space.
Seeing the silk lying perfectly on the white cloth she had laid out on the floor of the space, she let out a heavy sigh of relief.
Then, a hint of confusion arose in her heart.
She distinctly remembered that previously, she had to touch the item she wanted to collect before it could be stored in the space. Back when she collected the items from the warehouse, she had to physically reach for each box.
Now, it seemed she could simply use her intent to collect an entire room’s worth of items all at once…
Could it be that the power of the space had increased?
Wei Yunlan immersed her consciousness in the space again and looked around. Everything seemed unchanged; the size and the ground were exactly as they were before.
Suddenly, her gaze focused on the mist in the center of the space.
The mist appeared to be thinner than before. Through the hazy white mist, she could clearly see that the black object wrapped inside was a black dog.
It looked extraordinarily familiar—it was the same dog she had played with in her dreams alongside her great-grandfather!
Wei Yunlan stared at it for a moment. The black dog had its eyes closed and remained completely still, making it impossible to tell whether it was alive or dead. She instinctively felt that the changes in using the space might be related to this black dog. Perhaps she could go back and inquire with her mother about it?
Suppressing the curiosity in her heart for the moment, Wei Yunlan exited the room and locked the door from the outside.
After hurrying back to the inn, she found that Madam Gao and Cheng Yue’e had not yet woken up.
Ningshuang and Tingxue had been taking turns watching the window for half the day, but they had not yet seen Wei Maolin and Wei Mingxuan’s teams.
“You all go rest. I’ll keep watch for a while,” Wei Yunlan said as she sat by the window.
The sun was setting, and the sky gradually darkened.
A red-footed falcon flew quickly past the window and suddenly flapped its wings, circling back to land in front of the window.
This bird looked very familiar, and sure enough, the next moment, Seventh Lady Yu’s figure flipped into the room from the roof.
Wei Yunlan’s gaze immediately fell on the small message tube beside the bird’s claw, “Is there news from my father or Mingxuan?”
“It’s from Lord Wei. Each team in the Tianshu Pavilion’s Yu division has a hawk, and this one listens to me or Pei Hu.”
Pei Hu was currently with Wei Maolin.
Glancing at the contents of the note, Seventh Lady Yu said, “Lord Wei should arrive in Suijiang by tomorrow evening at the latest.”
The worry on Wei Yunlan’s face instantly turned into a smile, and the tension in her heart eased significantly.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a second red-footed falcon to deliver news from the other side; otherwise, she would have felt even more at ease.
…
The next morning.
At dawn, Wei Yunlan set out with Tingxue and Suihe.
The two maids were still dressed in their usual attire while she continued to disguise herself as a man to avoid any discrepancies in identity with Manager Feng from the day before.
Since it was still early before the appointed time, Wei Yunlan sent Tingxue ahead to the courtyard rented from Mr. Luo to receive the pigs, sheep, and cured goods she had arranged the day before.
She took Suihe and wandered around the streets, purchasing some fabrics, cotton, silk flowers, and embroidery thread that hadn’t increased in price.
If it weren’t for the fact that she needed to save some silver to buy the batch of porcelain from Yuantouju, she would have also been interested in a set of gold and silver jewelry made with the cloisonné technique.
These items, unrelated to food and daily necessities, were currently being sold at lower prices in Suijiang, and if she resold them elsewhere, she could earn an extra one or two taels of silver.
“Never mind, one shouldn’t be too greedy.” Wei Yunlan shook her head slightly, withdrawing her gaze filled with regret.
Of the twenty-five thousand taels of banknotes she had received from the Tianshu Pavilion, sixteen thousand taels remained after buying the silk, and this was all spent on the batch of porcelain from Yuantouju.
Wei Yunlan didn’t take advantage of the situation to lower the price to the minimum. She only made an agreement with Manager Feng during the transaction that if she came to Suijiang to buy porcelain again, under the same conditions, Yuantouju would unconditionally prioritize selling the porcelain to her.
Manager Feng readily agreed and even gave Wei Yunlan an extra set of teacups, supposedly made by his grandfather when he was still alive.
This batch of porcelain was quite numerous, packed in wooden boxes, filling nearly a hundred boxes.
Yuantouju’s assistants made several trips in and out of the city before all the boxes were moved to Wei Yunlan’s two small courtyards.
During the half-day it took for the assistants to move the goods, Wei Yunlan exchanged the remaining banknotes and gold leaves into silver in different places.
She didn’t touch this money again. She had other plans for it after leaving Suijiang.
After having Tingxue and Suihe load some of the pork, mutton, and cured meat onto the carriage, Wei Yunlan returned to the courtyard and quickly collected the neatly arranged wooden boxes and other items that had been delivered to the courtyard earlier into her space.
The space, which had been somewhat empty, finally appeared more full with these supplies.
On the way back to the inn, Wei Yunlan immersed her consciousness into the space and arranged the position of the items.
With the mist-shrouded black dog in the center, the left side, close to the edge of the space, was neatly stacked with the thousand bolts of silk, wooden boxes of porcelain, and fabrics, cotton, thread, and so on.
On the right side were the things she had brought out from the Marquis’s warehouse and the dowry from her private storehouse. The upper half was used for storing water and miscellaneous household items. The remaining food and meat were placed in the lower half, near the black dog.
Withdrawing her consciousness from the space, Wei Yunlan idly wondered if the smell of meat would entice the black dog to open its eyes.
…
The carriage had just stopped when Ningshuang, who was waiting at the inn’s entrance, hurried forward.
“Miss, Lord Wei and Manager Wang are back!”
“Great!” Wei Yunlan quickly got out of the carriage and strode towards the inn.
Wei Maolin’s group had only arrived at the inn a moment before her. They were gathered in a room on the third floor.
Madam Gao was checking the wound on Wei Maolin’s neck.
Seeing everyone’s eyes on him, Wei Maolin awkwardly twisted his neck, “It’s much better, don’t look. After Guard Pei removed the cangue, the injury didn’t worsen.”
Madam Gao pulled up his collar and only let go after she had checked it herself.
Just then, Wei Yunlan pushed open the door and walked in.
“Lan’er.” Wei Maolin immediately recognized his daughter dressed in men’s clothing.
After only three days apart, this reunion filled everyone’s hearts with emotion. Only they themselves knew how exciting and thrilling these past few days had been.
Madam Gao looked around the room, “I wonder where Mingxuan is now?”
The family was only missing him.
As soon as she finished speaking, Jiayan, who was sitting by the window, suddenly stood up from his chair, pointing at the city gate excitedly, “Mother, Aunt, look, isn’t that Granny Wang?”
Wei Yunlan looked in the direction he was pointing.
Granny Wang, dressed in tattered clothes, and Liu Quan led a mule into the city. A figure lay on the cart behind the mule. It was Gui Xiang when they got closer, but the other two were nowhere to be seen.
Instantly, Wei Yunlan’s expression changed to, “Where are Mingxuan and Wang Gui?”