Imperial Treasure

Sui Yi looked at the money on the table, hesitated for a moment, then picked it up. She tried several times more, following that feeling. It seemed that whenever she touched the pocket with the palm of her hand, the image of the inside of the pocket slowly took shape in her mind. It wasn't like seeing with the corner of her eye, but more like feeling it in all directions with her mind...

It was like 3D photography...

"Maybe it's just my imagination... but some things in the world can be linked, as cause and effect. Could this anomaly be related to what happened yesterday?"

Sui Yi touched the palm of her left hand, thought for a moment, and then used her right hand to touch the pocket, and sure enough, the sensation from before was gone.

However, human memory is capable of engraving images. With just a thought, she could still conjure up the scene from before, so she decided to try a different experiment.

She found a book on the bookshelf and first placed her right hand on it... She calmed her mind and searched for the feeling she just had...

There was no reaction for a while.

After a moment of silence, she switched to her left hand and very quickly~~~

The cover was penetrated, the inside, the first page, appeared before her, the characters as if alive, leaping in her mind...

Ink fragrance, that was the scent contained within each character.

"The Orchid Pavilion Preface...."

She was stunned, looking down at the cover. It was a dictionary of ancient poetry, seemingly very classical, filled with the aroma of ancient charm. She opened the cover, and on the first white page, there was a copy of the Orchid Pavilion Preface.

Written entirely by hand.

Each character was exquisitely beautiful and graceful to the extreme.

With another stroke of her hand... the image penetrated further down... "The Memorial on Sending off Troops," "Prelude to Water Melody," one poem after another, each a gem of China's ancient culture, was revealed before her. She was like a child playing a guessing game, anticipating the poem on the next page, and each time she was right...

By the fourth poem, a pain struck the palm of her hand, a sour and sharp sensation spreading throughout her body, causing her fingers to twitch.

It seemed as if something was being depleted.

"Is this, 'Magnetic Sensation'?"

After several attempts, Sui Yi somehow came up with this term in her mind, and very quickly, another concept formed in front of 'magnetic sensation'.

"Heaven, earth, and humans have magnetic fields; celestial magnetism, the power of cosmic evolution; earth magnetism, the spirit of all beings' proliferation; human magnetism, the aura that defies heaven in literature and martial arts."

Sui Yi was not a materialist, and she never indulged in fantasies about the fantastic. However, the truth was more convincing than arguments. If what happened yesterday wasn't her being possessed by a ghost, then the strangeness of the mirror had already transferred onto her.

"Heaven, earth, and humans all have magnetic fields; this is true, science says so too, but even the most perfect and advanced instruments can't detect these fields. Can I? The 'magnetic sensation' of existence that lies within words?"

Sui Yi asked herself, her hand unconsciously touching the book. After a moment's rest just now, it seemed her palm had gained a strand of energy.

The aura of human magnetism, stemming from the literary essence that defies heaven, the magnetic field brought by those characters, she could sense it.

In that instant, she had her answer—she really could.

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Before leaving the house, Sui Yi gathered her loose hair, took a hair tie and tied it up in a bundle, then walked out the door refreshed, with no trace of anything unusual on her face.

"Teacher, I take my leave..."

Bidding farewell to her host before departing was a piece of etiquette Sui Yi still maintained.

The man's reaction was very calm, just glancing at her and nodding. It wasn't until Sui Yi turned around to leave confidently that he raised an eyebrow.

"You're just going to leave like that, after you were saved? Don't you want to know who saved you, or plan to show your gratitude?"

Even though he had no intention of having this girl owe him any favors, he felt somewhat unnatural about her indifferent demeanor from beginning to end.

He was always the one to be cold towards others; it was unheard of for someone to be colder than him.

Moreover, this indifference was directed at herself by the other party.

Perhaps she would be quite interesting.

"Hmm?" Sui Yi turned his head, holding his tattered school uniform at his waist with a quizzical glance, thought for a moment, then replied, "This is Little Lotus Village..."

At first, she didn't know, but after observing the layout and the behavior of the master and servant duo, how could she not guess that this was the cultural heart of Nanxun Ancient Town?

Little Lotus Village, a place long famous for its warm and noble elegance, was said to have lotus flowers blooming twice a year, thriving in winter and summer, while spring and fall were for remembrance, defining the concept of a thought per lotus.

However, it wasn't a cultural site owned by the officials but rather a private estate.

Perhaps it was even more prestigious than the luxurious villa district of Nanxun Ancient Town, for aside from money, it had power!

Have you figured it out? From a few words of conversation, the man was certain that Sui Yi was not a foolish person, "So what?"

"I'm not capable now, but when I am, I will naturally come back to look for Little Lotus Village."

"Was it Little Lotus Village that saved you?"

"No."

"You only remember Little Lotus Village? Will you come back another day to knock your head in thanks against The Gate's plaque?"

"Then I should pay my respects to Teacher's fishhook."

"...."

In the end, Sui Yi still left, and the man's initial playfulness faded, his innate and self-contained elegance exuding from his bones, just like how, despite wearing an extremely modern shirt and trousers, he could still reflect the gorgeous Jiangnan landscape, holding that book and crafting an eternal and profound legacy...

The woman behind him spoke in a humble tone, "Mr. Yi, her clothes have been cut by a three-inch Dao Feng, still stained with a bit of blood, which should be from a previous wound that dried and stuck to the fabric, yet her body is immaculate, without a single scratch."

"Is that so, that's really strange..." Mr. Yi turned his head away, looking at a pond of lotuses, his expression indifferent. Strange? It was indeed somewhat strange...

After a pause, that woman, not knowing what she was thinking, added another comment; "After she changed her clothes, she doesn't look like she did before, seems to have changed a lot, but she is indeed quite attractive."

Attractive?

A glint rippled through Mr. Yi's sparse and indifferent eyes as he lifted his coffee, his tone colder than the porcelain cup, "The clothes are not bad, the person not so much."

The woman: "...."

"Moreover, her temper is not very good, stubborn, yet doesn't know how to yield; such a troublesome girl is not likable."

For someone to be deemed troublesome by Mr. Yi, she must truly be difficult; as for her temperament...

The woman smiled mildly, a bad temper? She thought that the young girl, although cold, was not unreasonable.

Perhaps her temperament clashed with the Teacher's.

That's why Teacher decidedly wouldn't acknowledge that the young girl, wearing that simple outfit, truly looked good,

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"Little Lotus Village's Mr. Yi, I seem to have read about this before... His name is..."

As Sui Yi left Little Lotus Village, she passed by the famously renowned Book Pavilion in Nanxun Ancient Town, and only then did she realize that Little Lotus Village was neighboring the Book Pavilion, and there were no other buildings nearby. They were like two symbols, occupying the most auspicious veins of fortune in Nanxun in Jiangnan.

Because the area was surrounded by water on all sides, although Sui Yi also had money on her person, after her inexplicable escape the previous night, she did not want to go to the crowded port to take a ferry. She could only board the ferryman's small boat to the county town on the opposite side; it was during the leisurely rocking of the small boat that she saw that misty land where the lotus blooms amidst smoke and rain.

Clusters of reeds on the water receded behind her. Sui Yi only watched for a while before turning around to look toward the town ahead, which was not a place for her, at least not for now.

Little Lotus Village, The Book Pavilion, she always felt she would come back.