In the early Ming Dynasty, silver had stronger purchasing power. By the mid-Ming period, one tael of silver was roughly equivalent to over six hundred yuan in modern currency. Three taels of silver would be nearly two thousand yuan – truly expensive. However, in ancient times with inconvenient transportation, shipping river crabs from the Yangtze River area to the capital was indeed difficult. While Lu Zigang clicked his tongue in amazement, he felt he truly had good fortune with food today. He picked up a crab with his hands and placed it on Xia Zelan’s plate, smiling: “We already agreed that I’d carve that jade material for you to repay that bowl of fried rice from ten years ago. This meal was also something I suggested first, so I’m really sorry to have you busy for so long.”

Xia Zelan pressed her lips together, a sense of anticipation rising in her heart. Would he invite her for another meal later? This back-and-forth… But she saw the young jade carving master wipe his hands with the cloth napkin beside him, then solemnly take out a brocade box from his chest and place it before her.

“Miss Xia, this is my thank-you gift for this meal. But please wait until after I leave before opening it, alright?” Lu Zigang spoke with extreme seriousness.

Meeting his deep gaze, Xia Zelan’s heart pounded, and she could only nod in agreement.

With this exchange, the distance between them melted away like ice and snow. They quickly broke the usual custom of not speaking during meals, eating and drinking while chatting. Having been away from Suzhou for many years, Xia Zelan naturally hoped to know about things happening in Suzhou. Although Lu Zigang wasn’t the original, he knew his past-life memories thoroughly and answered Xia Zelan’s questions flawlessly. Because he was actually learned and talented, his speech and manner were different from ordinary people – more like the scholarly types Xia Zelan greatly admired, causing her beautiful eyes to linger on him frequently.

When the sky had turned completely dark, Xia Zelan lit the oil lamp on the round table. The bustling sounds from the restaurant outside the courtyard wall made the small courtyard’s quietness even more apparent. Lu Zigang suddenly thought of an urgent problem.

He had secretly observed the compass needle’s movement speed before and estimated that waiting for the needle to return to the Heavenly Dao cross position would take until dawn. So where would he sleep tonight?

Penniless, he couldn’t even go to an inn, and was too embarrassed to ask Xia Zelan to lend him money. After eating such a top-quality meal, he was even less willing to sleep on the streets. Lu Zigang thought for a long time and finally decided to be shameless once – drink alcohol and pretend to be drunk.

Xia Zelan watched with amusement and exasperation as Lu Zigang continuously drank the osmanthus wine, finally succumbing to the alcohol and falling unconscious with his head on the table. How could she have forgotten to tell him that this osmanthus wine had quite an afterkick? She had no choice but to clean up the messy table, then called “Brother Lu” while trying to push him awake, but there was no response.

Her gaze fell on the only remaining item on the table – that brocade box. Xia Zelan bit her lip and hesitated for a long time, but finally couldn’t resist reaching for it.

The moment she opened the brocade box, Xia Zelan gasped. Even in the dim lamplight, she could see the masterful carving of this pair of bracelets. Moreover, a pair of hollow jade bracelets placed side by side carried the meaning of “wishing to be intertwining branches on earth.” Even a fool could understand the sentiment cleverly contained within.

She couldn’t help but pick up one jade bracelet to examine it. Seeing the Zigang signature inside the bracelet clearly, Xia Zelan unconsciously blushed and murmured: “Zigang… Lu Zigang…”

Lu Zigang was awakened by noisy sounds. He was confused for a moment before realizing that he had been pretending to be drunk but had actually fallen asleep with his head on the round table in the courtyard. As he sat up, the thick blanket draped over his shoulders slid down, and the autumn night wind immediately cleared his muddled brain.

The sky was dark without even a trace of starlight, only the flickering oil lamp on the table dancing uneasily in the autumn wind. Lu Zigang heard the sound of galloping hooves from the outer courtyard streets and couldn’t help feeling anxious. Calculating the time, it should be the latter half of the night. The Renyin Palace Coup should have ended, and those palace maids who attempted to assassinate Emperor Jiajing had certainly been captured. Could it still affect the innocent?

Lu Zigang suddenly remembered that although his past self didn’t know Xia Zelan’s real name, the boss had once told him that the young woman’s name was on that list posted at the palace gates.

His face pale as he recalled scenes from his past life, even though that yellow paper didn’t often appear in his memories, Lu Zigang still dug it out from the depths of his memory.

Xia Zelan had been touching the exquisite bracelets in the brocade box all night without sleep. She knew that keeping that young jade carving master overnight would certainly make people gossip about her.

But so what? He had given her these jump-off bracelets, and she was pleased with him. Whether they observed propriety was only between the two of them – what business was it of others?

Still, she really couldn’t shamelessly help him into the house to rest, so she could only cover him with a thick blanket and sit in the darkness thinking carefully. Hearing movement in the courtyard now, she put on her clothes and came out, shyly lowering her head to explain why she hadn’t woken him.

But before she could speak, he had already rushed to her side, grasping her shoulders and urgently asking: “Miss Xia, is your name Xia Zelan?”

Xia Zelan thought Lu Zigang had learned her given name from the Dumb House boss. Feeling even more shy, her heart fluttered as she could only nod in confusion. Unexpectedly, the next moment her hand was grabbed by him as he pulled her toward the courtyard exit. Xia Zelan suppressed her cry of surprise in her throat. She now sensed something was wrong – Beijing nights were always quiet and deathly still, with continuous hoof beats only occurring when major incidents happened. When they exited the back courtyard gate, they heard someone shouting “Imperial Guard on duty, idle people stand back!” from the front restaurant area.

When Xia Zelan heard that voice, her whole body went cold. The Imperial Guard was synonymous with hell among common folk. Seeing Lu Zigang’s attitude as if facing a great enemy, she knew those Imperial Guards must be coming for her. Her lips trembling, she asked in disbelief: “What happened?”

Lu Zigang struggled to identify directions and roads in the darkness while cursing under his breath. The Renyin Palace Coup involved several palace maids who couldn’t endure Emperor Jiajing’s tyranny and rose in rebellion, but failed to strangle Emperor Jiajing to death and made things worse. Now that the palace coup had been discovered, Emperor Jiajing would certainly be furious and thoroughly investigate everyone in Consort Duan’s palace. Xia Zelan, who should have been on duty but wasn’t there and had someone substitute for her, would certainly be ordered captured by the already paranoid and suspicious Emperor Jiajing.

What to do? The capital’s defenses were strict, and the Imperial Guard was everywhere. Even if he led Xia Zelan to the Dumb House to find the boss, the latter probably couldn’t protect her. Moreover, the boss had probably grown accustomed to every reincarnation of Fu Su dying from various calamities. In cases like Xia Zelan’s, where he had only given her a piece of jade in childhood and then ignored her, he certainly wouldn’t spare her another glance now.

Almost hearing footsteps behind them, the Imperial Guard would know they had just fled once they broke into that small courtyard – the blanket he had worn earlier would still be warm. Lu Zigang looked blankly at the world from over five hundred years ago, a sense of powerlessness spreading from his heart, making even breathing feel heavy.

“Brother Lu… you go first…” Xia Zelan said breathlessly in a low voice. She was intelligent and knew there must have been an incident in the palace, and the Imperial Guard was definitely looking for her, not Lu Zigang who had just arrived in the capital. Feeling the person ahead had stopped, Xia Zelan felt desolate.

So be it – they were destined to meet but not to be together in this life.

Xia Zelan thought for a moment and handed back the brocade box she had been holding. Fortunately, she had been clutching it all night without letting go, so she had brought it along. “Brother Lu, these bracelets… please take them back…” Her voice carried extreme reluctance. She loved this pair of exquisitely carved jade bracelets immensely, and even more so the sentiment contained within these jade jump-off bracelets.

“How to express our bond through separation? With double jump-off bracelets around the wrist…”

But at this moment, she had to harden her heart and could only sigh at fate’s cruel tricks.

Feeling the brocade box being taken from her, Xia Zelan lowered her head, not wanting him to see her about-to-cry expression. But in the next second, she found her hands, which she was about to withdraw, being firmly grasped.

Lu Zigang took out the pair of jade bracelets from the box and quickly slipped them onto her two wrists. The hollow intertwining branch jade bracelets on her slender, pale wrists made her hands, which weren’t particularly delicate, look as precious as treasures.

“How to express our bond through separation? With double jump-off bracelets around the wrist…”

Seeing Xia Zelan’s astonished eyes looking at him, Lu Zigang reached out to wipe away the tear that had spilled from the corner of her eye, asking softly: “Are you willing to come with me? To leave this place?”

He didn’t want history to repeat itself. He wanted to gamble once.

Xia Zelan didn’t know what Lu Zigang meant, but instinctively nodded. Even though she already knew the Imperial Guard’s hoofbeats were thundering toward them, her heart calmed down. Regardless of the outcome, these jade jump-off bracelets had already soothed the unwillingness in her heart.

She quietly watched the young jade carving master take out a compass from his chest, pull her hand to press on the compass, and then the compass emitted dazzling white light.

Sanqing and Minghong were fighting fiercely in the Dumb House shop. Minghong didn’t want to be stuffy in that narrow dark room, so it had broken the lock and flown out from the inner room of the Dumb House, naturally enraging Sanqing. Ever since Minghong arrived, Sanqing felt it had gained the arduous mission of watching over this little rascal. Seeing it trying to escape now, it naturally pursued relentlessly.

The two birds were tangled together again. Fortunately, both had intelligence and knew the antiques in the Dumb House were priceless and not to be trifled with, so they were quite restrained and didn’t break anything, though it looked quite dangerous.

“Bang!” A sudden loud noise startled both birds into separating. They saw Lu Zigang, who had suddenly appeared in the Dumb House shop, kneeling on one knee – he had just punched the ground.

Sanqing landed on Lu Zigang’s shoulder, its small head comfortingly nuzzling his face.

Lu Zigang simply sat down on the cold ground, stroking Sanqing’s soft feathers, trying to calm the pain in his heart. For a long time, he couldn’t settle down.

The compass couldn’t bring Xia Zelan back to the modern era with him.

He couldn’t imagine how she had watched him disappear before her eyes. His body became semi-transparent, and though she was surprised, she still looked at him joyfully, happy that he could escape. But he was helpless – no matter how he tried to grab her hand, he could only pass through her wrist in the end. Forget her warm hands, he couldn’t even touch those cold bracelets.

Lu Zigang sat there silently for a long time, until dawn broke and the old man at the newsstand next door turned on the radio, with the well-articulated announcer reading the morning news.

“Yesterday, a Ming Dynasty tomb was discovered in Beijing’s Yanjiao area, yielding several treasures, including a pair of hollow intertwining branch jade bracelets with clearly visible Zigang signatures inside. Experts have preliminarily identified them as rare jade bracelet carvings by the famous jade carving master Lu Zigang from the Jiajing era…”

Lu Zigang jolted awake from his daze, stumbling to his feet and fumbling for his phone from the counter, going online to find this news report. When he saw the photo of those jade bracelets, he collapsed into the chair. Except for the patina from being buried in earth, the style, patterns, and size were identical to the pair of jade jump-off bracelets he had given away yesterday.

He held his head and laughed lowly, ignoring Sanqing jumping around him with concern.

Had he not changed history?

No, in some way, he had still changed it.

But… this wasn’t what he wanted…

Dumb House: The antiques in the Dumb House each have their own stories, carrying many years with no one to listen. Because they cannot speak…