Chapter 360 Mother’s Legacy

“Why are you still laughing? They gave you the cold shoulder because they didn’t want to see you. Whatever, we don’t want to see them either.”

Baizhi was complaining to herself, but she didn’t ask Lin Mengya to barge in.

The three maids were Lin Mengya’s confidants. They were very well trained. Now they might be whining, and that was their way to take it out. They wouldn’t really do it.

Because they knew Lin Mengya had her own plan.

No servant dared to block their way anymore. They first went to Lin Muzhi’s study.

The study was still as clean as it ever was. The inkstone Lin Muzhi used before had dried up.

When she was little, she and her brother learned how to read from their father here. Now everything had changed. Both kids had grown up.

Only the study remained the same.

“Keep watch for me at the door. I’ve got something to find inside.”

Lin Mengya asked Baizhi to stay outside. She was checking her father’s bookshelf carefully.

Her mother had collected plenty of medical books, ranging from the treatment of colds to fatal illnesses. Some of them Lin Mengya had skimmed through before, but as she read them again, she found their content simpler and more detailed than what her teacher had taught her.

Lin Mengya knew this wasn’t a good time to study. She turned on the scanning and classification function in the Shen Nong System and then she scanned all the books.

Just when she was about halfway done with her work, she found that however rare these books were, they were now useless to her.

She checked carefully one more time, only to find that there was nothing about the Tranquil Lotus at all.

“Did Qiu Yu make a mistake?”

Lin Mengya put the last book on the shelf.

She knew Qiu Yu well enough and she trusted him. She knew that the imperial physician had a much more complicated background then she knew about.

Since he stressed the books that Lin Mengya’s mother had left, she was sure that the use of the Tranquil Lotus had to be in those books. There should not be any mistakes.

The reason why Qiu Yu was so sure about it might be that he had seen Lin Mengya’s mother save someone using the Tranquil Lotus.

“Where on earth is the book?”

Lin Mengya sat in the large chair, rubbing her forehead. Her eyes looked empty, her mind taken over by all kinds of assumptions.

According to Qiu Yu, the Tranquil Lotus wasn’t a local species of Dajin. It was tricky to cultivate and use, so it had not been widely used.

It was mostly used as an antidote. Therefore, it might have been recorded in those books about peculiar folk prescriptions, or in those prescriptions about detoxification.

Yet she failed, again and again, to find it in those books. She thought it might be in one of the books that was hard to get.

She had seen it on TV shows. A divine medical book was hidden somewhere, maybe a shadowy corner, waiting for the right person to pick it up.

When that idea kicked in, Lin Mengya became exhilarated and tried to knock on the walls in Lin Muzhi’s study.

Unfortunately, she still found nothing after she tried for quite a while.

She was lying on the table, wondering if she had overthought it.

Seeing how active and hard-working her master was, Baizhi wanted to help, but Lin Mengya insisted on making her wait outside and watch out for her.

Seeing that no one came around, Baizhi walked inside to help her.

“Master, what are you looking for?”

Lin Mengya turned to her and smiled in exhaustion.

“I’m looking for a medical book. Can you help me figure out where my mother’s legacy has been kept, aside from this study?”

She had inherited the memory of this body.

But she was sure there were parts that were missing.

It had all happened many years ago, and she could still recall some of the details. Lin Mengya must have had a good memory since she was a kid.

Baizhi thought about it for a moment.

Then she played with her own fingers and said, “Some of them were in Mr. Lin’s study; some in your brother’s private coffer; some in our yard as well as Mrs. Lin’s. Some have been put in storage. We also sold a lot when we were young, which I can’t exactly recall.”

Lin Mengya could recall all those things as well.

However, all these things that Baizhi mentioned just now were nothing more than some antiques, calligraphy, paintings, and jewelry. If she traced all of them one by one, she would be exhausted.

“Who’s there? Stop hiding!!”

Lin Mengya’s sensitive ear detected that someone was leaning on the window of the study, trying to spy them.

Baizhi rushed out. She saw the back of a woman in dark blue. The woman then escaped.

She stomped her feet because Lin Mengya had told her to be careful. However, in such a short period, their conversation had been bugged.

“It’s all my fault! I’ll go and get her!”

Baizhi was about to go and chase the woman, but Lin Mengya stopped her.

Lin Mengya looked at where the woman had gone, smiling as if she didn’t care at all.

“It’s fine. They don’t know what I am doing for now. My father had registered all my mother’s legacy. Should any of the legacy be missing, my brother would make them suffer. They are just curious about what we’re doing now. Plus, they’ve got plenty of things to do, and they’re too busy to care about us.”

Lin Mengya looked relaxed.

She took a deep breath when she stood outside of Lin Mengwu’s room just now. She was trying to detect the faint smell of medicine in the air.

There were safflower, tannin, aconite, rhubarb, peach kernel, and Cinnamomic cortex in it. One whiff was enough for Lin Mengwu to tell what it was for.

“You mean…”

Lin Mengya looked at Baizhi. Then she leaned close to her and whispered.

Baizhi’s eyes suddenly opened wide from surprise. She covered her mouth and looked Lin Mengya in the eyes, trying to confirm if she was for real.

“How is that possible? She isn’t married yet. How could she be pregnant?”

All the herbs were to invigorate the circulation of blood, and they were often used in abortions.

Sometimes they were also used to treat irregular menstruation, but Huan’er wouldn’t have been so nervous if that was what they were doing.

Everyone knew Lin Mengwu as a bold woman. It was possible that she accidentally got pregnant before marriage.

But if this got out, the public would spurn the whole family for being ill-bred. Their long-established reputation would be ruined.

Shangguan Qing always had high expectations for her daughter. Lin Mengya wondered how the mother would react to this.

“It’s very likely. I mean, you don’t need to worry too much. Mrs. Lin is spying on us to see if we know their secret. We came back home when her daughter’s in trouble, so she has reason to suspect us.”

Everything was so coincidental.

Shangguan Qing and Lin Mengwu were trying to keep away from Lin Mengya. Lin Mengya was confused about the prescription.

If the prescription did exist, why couldn’t she find it in those books?

She had Baizhi inform Steward Deng to tell the prince that she would stay here for a few more days.

She found nothing after a whole day’s search. Now she was starving.

She squatted in the warehouse in her yard, checking her mother’s legacy one by one.

Shangguan Qing and Lin Mengwu had already taken away the best stuff.

All she had now were daily items her mother used, which were quite meaningful to Lin Mengya.

All of them were put in a huge box. The lock on the box was already rusty, but the things kept inside had been very well preserved.

Lin Mengya picked up those dusty things and tried to find something useful with Baizhi’s help.

She could tell how much her mother loved life, and what a clever woman she was.

Lin Mengya picked up one of her mother’s daily outfits. It smelled musty, but Lin Mengya didn’t hate it at all.

She tried to feel it carefully with her hands. It felt rough. Lin Mengya felt like crying.

The milk-white dress was dyed yellow by the sunset.

The fabric was excellent. It was rare even in the present.

The collar and the cuff were embroidered with lilac acacia flowers. The exquisite embroidery made the flowers vivid.

“That was her dress. It’s so beautiful, but it looks different from ours.”

Baizhi was also checking out these clothes.

Her words give gave Lin Mengya a flash of inspiration.

She took out some more clothes and checked carefully. Something was odd.

The clothes of the women in Dajin were similar to those of the Tang and Song dynasties.

The sleeves were wide and the dresses touched the ground. That was the common garb of noblewomen.

However, the clothes in Lin Mengya’s hand had narrow sleeves and the dress could barely reach one’s feet. The waistline was also tightened. Lin Mengya picked out a random one and put it on.

The graceful young lady in the mirror turned into a spirited beauty.

The clothes were from 20 or 30 years ago, which wasn’t a very long time, but the difference was huge.

Lin Mengya was surprised. She heard that her mother was good at embroidery. Maybe she made her own clothes.

It was possible that her mother wasn’t a local in Dajin.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she suddenly found something odd with her belt.

The left side seemed thicker than the right side, which she wouldn’t have noticed without checking it so carefully.

Lin Mengya took off the belt and tried to feel it. The belt was thicker on the left side than the right side.