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Lian Hua shook her head, "When I woke up, I checked the dressing table, it wasn’t there."

Xiao Jizi touched his head, puzzled, "Servant remembers clearly, it was placed on the dressing table."

While speaking, he lifted his foot, passed through the moon gate, and walked up to the dressing table, and upon a careful look said, "Eh, why is it not here? Servant clearly placed it here."

Lian Hua followed inside, Xiao Qing put down her utensils and also came in, and a few of them began searching from the table corner to the wall corner, but found nothing.

Xiao Jizi couldn’t make sense of it, "A handkerchief can’t just disappear into thin air, how odd." He was certain, it had been on the dressing table; he couldn’t have remembered it wrong.

Xiao Qing also felt it was very strange and wildly guessed, "Could someone have taken it?"

Lian Hua felt somewhat tired standing, sat on the dresser stool, and supporting her head said, "My handkerchief isn’t something the average person would admire; who would take it?"

She knew her handkerchief was unattractive, if dropped on the ground, no one would pick it up, giving that handkerchief to His Majesty had been an extraordinary effort.

Thinking as Xiao Qing had suggested, Xiao Ji recalled something, "Speaking of which, servant felt something odd, when coming back, the young master’s room door seemed not very tightly closed, Xiao Qing, did you close it properly before you left?"

"I closed it properly, Young Master was watching right next to me when I did, wasn’t he?" Xiao Qing said confidently, then looked towards Lian Hua.

"Um..." Lian Hua was embarrassed to say she forgot, during that time her mind was wandering elsewhere, seemingly inattentive.

Xiao Jizi startled, "Could it be a thief? Young Master, see if you’ve lost anything else?" We should also see if anything extra appeared, we still need to be cautious in the palace.

Lian Hua stood up and looked around, saying, "Nothing is missing, I just checked, everything’s here."

Xiao Jizi, still not reassured, took Xiao Qing and checked again, finally finding that only a handkerchief was missing; nothing else was missing or added.

Xiao Jizi pondered deeply, somewhat unable to figure it out; after all, it was just a handkerchief. Who could have taken it? Could it have been blown away by the breeze, or was he hallucinating?

Huaqing Palace.

Noble Consort sat on a peony-engraved rosewood chair, watching Nanny Chen bring in the needlework of various masters from the palace.

Nanny Chen had exceptionally high efficiency this time—having received Noble Consort’s command in the morning, she deployed various people in the afternoon, and collected quite a lot of the palace concubines’ needlework.

Truth be told, this task was not difficult; clothes from various courts mostly went to the Laundry Bureau for washing, which greatly facilitated Nanny Chen, just needed to recognize which were made by the masters, the rest that could not be found would be gathered by sending people to fetch them discreetly.

However, clothes from Canglan Court were not sent to the Laundry Bureau; they were washed and hung in their own courtyard.

Noble Consort scrutinized each piece, reviewed many varieties, and found none met the criteria—the handkerchief for His Majesty used Shu Embroidery technique, the overall embroidery was ordinary, yet some parts were exquisitely done.

The embroidery techniques on these garments weren’t right, neither excellently done nor just the strict, orderly methods required in the palace, but mostly they were Suzhou embroidery.

Looking at them made her anxious and disturbed, unsure whether to be relieved that none were right or worried that some might have slipped through unnoticed.

Nanny Chen noticed the Noble Consort’s displeased expression and presented another piece of needlework, saying, "Consort, here is another handkerchief, found in Daying Lian’s room at Canglan Court. It seems she embroidered it herself, please have a look."

Speaking of Canglan Court, it really is remote, luckily so, as not many people go there. When she had sent someone there in the afternoon, the whole court was empty, making it easy to get in, take the items, and leave without anyone noticing, all went smoothly.

The Noble Consort took the handkerchief to examine it and glanced at it once before she couldn’t help but ask, "Is this supposed to be a chicken?"

It was simply unbearable to look at, the worst piece of needlework she had seen there, the embroidered mess on it was utterly nonsensical. How could someone embroider such a vulgar thing as a chicken? Even a mandarin duck would’ve been better.

Nanny Chen chuckled dryly, she too had thought it was the wrong item when she first saw the handkerchief, and after confirming repeatedly with the person she sent, she knew it was from the inner chamber’s countertop before she dared to confirm it, initially reluctant to show it to the Consort among the earlier items.

Bending over with a grimace, she said to the Noble Consort, "Consort, Daying Lian only has that one Palace Maid by her side, all incapable people, so it’s normal for her needlework to turn out like this.

A palace maid is just a palace maid, nothing noteworthy to offer, even a five-year-old child could embroider better than this. "

The Noble Consort nodded, this explanation seemed reasonable.

She gave the chicken-embroidered handkerchief another look and felt more headache the more she looked.

Had anyone seen Suzhou and Shu embroidery techniques mixed together like this?

It looked as if it was embroidered in whatever way desired, wildly imaginative, with no rules whatsoever.

The Noble Consort couldn’t help but pull on the thread on the chicken’s head. She couldn’t stand such disorder, almost wanting to tear it apart and re-embroider it herself.

Handing the handkerchief back to Nanny Chen, the Noble Consort said in discomfort, "Take it away." Out of sight, out of mind was better, it was giving her a headache.

After a fruitless half-day review, the Noble Consort dismissed Nanny Chen, asking her to continue her investigations, increasingly worried. If the handkerchief did not come from the harem, then where did His Majesty’s handkerchief come from? Could it be from outside?

Speaking of Lian Hua’s needlework, it was more expressive than Master Liu’s calligraphy from the former court, but her background must be discussed to understand this.

As a child, Lian Hua’s life was far more exciting than that of typical girls in seclusion, climbing trees to pick fruits, jumping into rivers to catch fish, catching bugs and shrimping, she was proficient in all but lacked in two areas: literacy and needlework!

Her family was typical, with a loving father and strict mother. She learned things of interest without teaching, but could never grasp what didn’t interest her despite forceful learning. Needlework was such, her mother supervised her daily, but she could never manage, causing great headaches.

Initially, a master of Suzhou embroidery was hired to teach her, but she failed to learn and even upset the master enough to leave.

Several Suzhou embroidery masters were hired subsequently, yet she still did not learn, leading her mother to think Suzhou embroidery might not suit Lian Hua, hence a master of Shu embroidery was invited, and she started learning again.

Unfortunately, Lian Hua’s talent in needlework was indeed limited.

In the end, she mixed up the techniques; knowing a bit of Suzhou embroidery and a bit of Shu embroidery, she found it tedious and used whichever technique she reached while embroidering.

A single handkerchief incorporated multiple techniques, ambiguous and disordered, by the time it was noticed, it was too late to correct.

This became her mother’s major concern, how could a girl unskilled in needlework manage?

Ultimately, it was her father who reassured her mother, saying that although Lian Hua’s needlework was poor, her cooking skills were presentable, and she wouldn’t disgrace herself when married off, which somewhat eased her mother’s worries.

Lian Hua did like the last Shu embroidery master, who didn’t force her to mind the specifics of each stitch.

The Shu embroidery master said embroidery was like completing a landscape painting, where the heart led, the needle followed, unnecessary to adhere strictly to form, regardless of how the embroidery turned out, and Lian Hua did just that.