CHAPTER 365: CHAPTER 365: HEH...

He Hua nodded, "Yes, I looked repeatedly, and they were the same. It’s not just the needlework, but the style and pattern, it really is identical to mine."

Qu Fulan couldn’t quite describe what she was feeling in her heart.

She ran an embroidery workshop, so she knew that every embroideress had her own style. If there were no definitive requirements, what they produced would have their unique personal touch.

For example, when embroidering pouches, each person’s work would differ from another’s. Some differences were minor, but there were always some differences.

After all, everyone had different preferences for style and design, so it was rare to find something done the same way as someone else’s.

This was true even when everyone worked in the same embroidery workshop. What more when it came to He Hua and Xiao Shiqing—they had no ties to each other, so how could their pouches be identical?

She turned over He Hua’s pouch and, indeed, found a design on the back. It was not a common design, nor was it something like flowers or grass. It looked like an original creation.

If two people created the same design on their own, yet the embroidery work and style are also identical, that just doesn’t add up, right?

"Have you ever met Prince Xiao before and embroidered a pouch for him, only to forget about it?" Qu Fulan thought deeply, and this seemed to be the only possibility.

She didn’t remember the original owner of this identity ever embroidering a pouch for Xiao Shiqing, nor had the book ever mentioned it, so she had no impression whatsoever. She only learned about the original owner’s embroidery skills a few days ago from her cousin.

He Hua shook her head, "No way, I’ve never met him, and I haven’t embroidered a pouch for anyone else. At first, my embroidery skills weren’t good, and my family disliked it, never letting me embroider. Later, when my skills suddenly improved, my family got used to my mother’s pouches, so mine were never needed, and I only embroidered for myself."

Then whose embroidery was on the pouch Xiao Shiqing had?

If he wore it all the time, it couldn’t have been embroidered by the original owner, could it?

Qu Fulan suddenly had a bad feeling.

And that bad feeling was soon confirmed.

When they returned to their aunt’s house, He Hua, complaining to Jinxiu that she couldn’t give the pouch as a gift, said they’d make another one to give next time. After all, gifting someone a pouch that had been worn by someone else wouldn’t be appropriate.

Jinxiu looked at He Hua’s pouch with surprise, "Your pouch looks so much like Big Cousin’s. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have thought it was made by her."

This was truly unintentional on Jinxiu’s part, but it made Qu Fulan and He Hua take notice.

The idea that the pouches embroidered by these two could be identical was incredible.

If they were true sisters, perhaps having grown up together, it might be explained by some sort of tacit understanding. But they were not blood sisters and had been separated for years. How could they embroider identical pouches?

"Are they really identical?" He Hua asked.

Jinxiu nodded, "They are the same. When I visited Cousin’s house before, I saw a completed pouch just like this one. I even asked who she made it for, but she blushed and refused to say."

Qu Fulan: "..." Blushed and refused to say—could it have been for Xiao Shiqing?

There was no need for confirmation. Qu Fulan was now certain that the pouch Xiao Shiqing had was embroidered by the original owner.

Damn it!

But why was it the same as the one He Hua embroidered? This was difficult to explain.

Qu Fulan had a vague sense that things were becoming chaotic, and she couldn’t think of a clear answer at the moment.

Jinxiu took this incident as an interesting story and told it to her aunt. Normally, her aunt was experienced and knowledgeable, not thinking much of it, and instead said, "There are many weird things in this world. Even though you’re not blood sisters, creating the same thing might be destiny or a kind of fate."

He Hua easily accepted this perspective, while Qu Fulan superficially accepted it but was deeply troubled inside.

In fact, she had a hypothesis, but she thought it was impossible.

And Xiao Shiqing, what did he think upon discovering the two pouches were identical?

What Xiao Shiqing thought was unknown for the time being, but at this moment, Mrs. Xiao felt as though she was going insane.

Her servant reported back that her son had returned the pouch, and when the servant hadn’t mentioned who it was returned to, Mrs. Xiao assumed it was Li Jirou. But the servant then said it had been returned to the newly-titled County Princess?

Why was it returned to the County Princess?

Wasn’t the pouch embroidered by Li Jirou?

"What else did they say?" Mrs. Xiao frowned.

"I was too far away to hear what they said, but not long after, Young Madam Pei arrived, and the princely heir left."

"She came? To retrieve the pouch?"

"No, the pouch stayed with the County Princess."

Mrs. Xiao frowned further. Li Jirou had come; shouldn’t it have been returned to Li Jirou? Why was it instead given to the County Princess?

In Mrs. Xiao’s original thought, Li Jirou shamelessly embroidered a pouch for her son, and her son, having propriety, didn’t want to keep it and found a chance to return it. But how did it end up with the County Princess?

Mrs. Xiao thought for a moment and seemed to understand the crux of the matter.

When the County Princess was still a princess, she was on good terms with Li Jirou. Perhaps she was worried that if her son returned the pouch, Li Jirou would lose face, so she collected it back on her behalf?

After considering it thoroughly, this seemed like the only possibility.

"Truly birds of a feather, all of them are no good," Mrs. Xiao sneered.

This Li Family, it seemed, didn’t know how to educate their children. Each one had ulterior motives. One was already married, yet still wanted to tempt her son, and the other might be using the chance of retrieving the pouch to get closer to her son.

As a mother, seeing her own son as the best, she couldn’t help but think that married Young Lady Pei would still have thoughts of her son, and the unmarried County Princess even more so.

"All shameless!"

Mrs. Xiao was certain that the Li Family sisters had their eyes on her son. To prevent these sisters from continuing to entice her son, she ordered the news of her son’s return of the pouch to be spread.

When Xiao Shiqing returned the pouch, it was at Li Niang’s tofu skin bun shop, a busy spot where many people surely saw it. If anyone was keen on investigating, they’d certainly discover something.

Scandals in the Capital City’s elite circle were favorite topics of conversation for the public. With some instigation, the rumor about Young Lady Pei gifting a pouch to Princely Heir Xiao, and Princely Heir Xiao returning it publicly, quickly spread.

Naturally, the County Princess was implicated, with rumors suggesting that as friends with Young Lady Pei, she used the pouch incident as an opportunity to speak with Princely Heir Xiao.

In these times, stories of best friends stealing each other’s men aren’t uncommon. The public imagination ran wild, painting Young Lady Pei as a fickle woman and the County Princess as one who seduces her friend’s man.

Oh, what a scandal, truly a scandal.

The elite circle’s obsession with competition was intense. Qu Fulan, an orphan, becoming the Pei Family’s Young Madam was already a slap to the face of many wealthy daughters in high society.

Especially with Heir Pei’s inner courtyard having only her—no concubines, not even one said to share his chambers.

How would this sit well with the noblewomen whose husbands had concubines aplenty?

They naturally hoped for something to go wrong with this Young Madam to bring them comfort.

Now, at last, a scandal had erupted, and the elite ladies and young misses were abuzz with discussion.

This coincided with a visit from a foreign delegation to the Capital City.

The Emperor was to host a banquet to receive them, and as a family member, Qu Fulan was naturally required to attend.

And this was precisely when the scandal broke, so she was likely to become the talk and laugh of the gathering.