A piece of Japanese incense

"Ah!" Upon hearing this, Yuyi immediately took back the earth dragon from Xiaohan's hand, "Xiaohan, when I return home, I will definitely give you something more nourishing!"

Xiaohan didn't take it seriously, pulled his hand back, and took a bite of the cake: "Hmm~ This cake is really delicious! I've never eaten it before!"

"That's right! Although our girl rarely goes out, no one knows better than her which dim sum in the imperial capital is the best and which iced drink is the most delicious!"

"Oh? Which store makes the best desserts? Fang Juexia prefers sweets, so I should go and please her!"

"The sweet one has to be Wei Ding Xuan's cherry yogurt! Oh, it's so sweet, Yu Yi loves it..."

……

I squinted my eyes, rubbed them, and asked, "Hey, is Xiaohan gone?"

"Xiao Han only stayed for an hour and went back a long time ago. How could the girl fall asleep as soon as she was told to?" Yu Yi collected the floor dragon in the yard and put it in a wooden box.

"I just went into the house to drink some water, and then I felt sleepy. Oh, by the way, did Xiaohan mention her sister again?"

"No, she's just interested in the process of catching the earth dragon."

"The two of them were talking about how to catch earthworms, how to use warm water to wash away the mucus on their body surfaces, how to mix them with wood ash to suffocate them, how to use scissors to cut open the earthworm's body after removing the ash, how to clean the internal organs and dirt, how to dry them in the sun, and how to bake them. I almost fell asleep listening to them and couldn't get a word in!" Yutuan laughed and lay beside me.

"I just happened to do this these past few days, so I still remember it clearly. Besides, Xiaohan asked me, so I can't just ignore her!"

Yu Tuan said sarcastically: "Yeah, you two are so in sync, you have similar tastes, and you like catching bugs for fun!"

"You are just..."

They started again... I covered my ears, faced the wall, and lay on my side.

The night is dark and the moonlight is like water. I took a long nap during the day and now I am lying in bed, but I can't fall asleep.

Seeing Yutuan and Yuyi sleeping soundly, I had no choice but to get out of bed alone and look for a soothing incense.

I opened the drawer and found only one stick of incense left. I sniffed it and was refreshed. It was the fragrance of Qinglin Sui.

I counted the incense I had used in recent days: incense sticks, tower incense, incense powder. Although there were many varieties and I had burned quite a few, how come the ones brought from the palace and those sent by my grandmother were used up so quickly?

"Girl, what are you doing?" A flickering candlelight was reflected in Yu Yi's hazy eyes.

"Yuyi, why is our incense consumed so quickly?" I asked her in a low voice.

"Isn't this normal? You have to order when you eat, when you read, and when you go to the toilet. Now it's not like home, where you can take whatever you want whenever you need it. It's natural if it's gone. When Yuzhu arrives tomorrow, I will definitely ask him to bring more."

“How much did Apan use?”

"I never noticed it. He always lights one for himself when he feels pain..." Yuyi glanced at the incense box, then turned to look at me: "Miss, do you suspect that he has taken all of them secretly?"

"I'll have to teach him a lesson when I see him tomorrow. If he wanted it, he should at least tell me in advance. How can he take other people's things casually?" I pouted, "How am I going to sleep tonight if he takes it all?"

I counted hundreds of sheep, but I still couldn't fall asleep...

I walked out of the inner room, leaned against the window and looked out. The bright moon shone like a layer of silver frost.

The mountains in the distance were looming in the moonlight, like a splash-ink landscape painting. The water in the pond was sparkling, and the fish were swimming in the pond, creating ripples like countless shining diamonds dancing.

"Crack!"

what sound?

I looked up in confusion, but there was no other sound except the occasional chirping of insects that broke the silence.

Am I hallucinating? Is it possible that some earwax has fallen out of my ears? I turned my head and tapped my ears.

The next day, after breakfast, I went to find Aban. Aban was reading a book and was very happy to see me.

"Ah He! Come find me."

"You stinky bastard! Tell me! Did you take the incense from my perfume box? You made me sleepless all night!"

Aban scratched his head, but the smile that he couldn't help revealed a hint of mischief in the corner of his eyes.

"Xiao Banban, you know that you can't light incense casually when you are in pain. If you do, you will have no resistance. You can only hold on when I use maggots to heal your wounds. Do you understand?"

"I just took a little bit." Aban pinched two fingers together and gestured in front of my face.

"Miss Zhi, you're here!" Butler Wang came out of the secret passage holding two large boxes.

"Hello, Steward Wang! What are you doing..."

"I was going to look for you, but I have something to ask you."

"If you have anything to ask, just ask! I will definitely help you if I can."

Steward Wang smiled bitterly and placed the two sandalwood boxes on the ground: "These two boxes are very important to me. I would like to ask Miss Zhi to keep them for me for the time being."

"What...is this?" I ran my fingers across the wooden box, which was covered with dust.

"I'm sorry I can't speak frankly about this." Steward Wang sighed deeply, "Miss Zhi will probably be returning home soon, so please keep it a secret for me. One day, the secrets in the box will be revealed to the world."

Seeing that Steward Wang was so confident, I solemnly promised: "Please rest assured, I will take good care of this item!"

"Miss Zhi." Butler Wang hesitated to speak.

I stared at him intently as he gently brushed the dust off the table and turned away.

"Aban, why is your father acting so strange?"

"I don't know. He suddenly came in last night and asked me if there were any unexpected guests."

"and then?"

"Nothing else, just these words, and he left."

"Oh! What does it have to do with us? Oh, by the way! Come to Bishuixie this afternoon. I asked Yuzhu to buy some candied haws yesterday. Today you can taste the unmelted candied haws!"

……

A few days later, Doctor Wang came again, but this time he brought some bad news.

"No, why isn't Fang Juexia so clear about it and doesn't allow us to go out?" Yu Tuan stamped her feet anxiously.

"For some reason, Miss Fang has had frequent diarrhea and herpes in recent days. This may be a sign of a recurrence of the epidemic. Although the three girls have recovered, the risk is still there. I dare not let them go home easily."

"How could Fang Juexia have a relapse of the disease? She..."

"Yutuan!" Yuyi and I stopped him in unison.

Yu Tuan suddenly covered her mouth, and I scolded her, "How dare you! How dare you question the imperial physician's diagnosis!"

"I'm sorry, Doctor Wang."

Doctor Wang was generous and said with a smile, "It's okay. This girl has been detained for too long and is feeling suffocated. I will come again the day after tomorrow to observe Miss Fang's condition. If she gets better, we will discuss releasing her from the garden."