Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 389: Chapter 385: Something Strange about Grandma’s Room

The screen had four panels, two of which were stitched with strange symbols that Huo Sining couldn’t understand. What attracted her were the two other panels of silk embroidery on the screen.

The embroidered images on the silk were unlike the usual designs one might find in a girl’s boudoir, such as plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemum, or ladies with peonies. Instead, there were two extremely peculiar patterns.

One depicted an incredibly beautiful woman with hair the color of seaweed, enveloping her entire body and leaving only her face exposed.

The woman lay on her side on the rocks by the water’s edge, her lower body hidden beneath the water. Her eyes were clear and innocent, misted with the light of the water as if they also held a faint sorrow. Tears slowly streamed down her cheeks, and below her, there was a scattering of pearls.

The pattern was exquisitely beautiful, and the craftsmanship of the embroiderer was clearly beyond the ordinary. The screen was about the height of an average person, and the figure of the woman on it seemed as if she could come to life at any moment.

Especially the way her eyes brimmed with tears—it appeared as though the tear drops were about to fall at any second, invoking in the onlooker an involuntary sense of pity. Those mesmerized by the sight might find themselves unable to resist reaching out to wipe the tears from the beauty’s face.

It was already strange for a woman’s boudoir to have such a screen, but the other panel was even stranger, featuring only varying shades of light and dark water-blue that resembled a vast ocean.

The use of silk threads by the embroiderer had reached the pinnacle of their craft. The pattern looked so real that one could almost hear the sound of the waves beating against the shore.

”Ningning, what are you daydreaming about?” Seeing that Huo Sining had been standing still in the room for a while, Su Qingqing couldn’t help but give her a tug and called out.

Returning to her senses, Huo Sining realized that she had been staring at the deep sea-blue pattern for a full minute, unable to pull herself away.

The colors of the pattern provided a mysterious allure. With just one glance, she had been deeply entranced by the shades of blue, unable to extricate herself.

Huo Sining was struck with a sudden apprehension and instinctively raised her head to ask, ”Qingqing, don’t you find this screen a bit odd?”

”What’s odd about it?” Confusion flashed through Su Qingqing’s eyes, then suddenly, her face lit up with realization, ”Could this screen be an antique as well?”

Saying so, she pounced on the screen, investigating it thoroughly from all angles. But after a complete examination, she dismissed her own conjecture:

”There are many antiques in this room, but this screen seems to be an item from the past few decades. There’s even a ’1986’ at the bottom part of it. It’s not an antique.”

Hearing Su Qingqing’s words, Huo Sining couldn’t help but shake her head, feeling rather helpless, ”I’m not talking about that. I mean, did you not find anything peculiar about these two paintings?”

Su Qingqing paused, then lowered her head to gaze at the two paintings for several seconds before looking up and shaking her head, ”No, nothing.”

Huang Hanyun and Huang Ranping were also puzzled, not understanding what Huo Sining meant.

Huo Sining didn’t know how to express the feeling she had when she saw those two paintings—it was as if her entire body and soul were bewitched by them, her mind completely captivated.

Yet, looking at the others, who seemed quite normal, it was evident that they were unaffected by the paintings.

Finding this strange, Huo Sining decided not to ask further. This time, however, she dared not look at the screen again and turned her gaze to the paintings hanging on the walls instead.

Xu Beihong’s Eight Steeds and Qi Baishi’s Frog Sounds Extending Ten Miles from the Spring were among them, of course, they were not originals by Zhen Ji, but imitations painted by Madame Huang Chengxiang.

It was clear that though the Huang Family was a military hereditary family, Huo Sining’s grandmother, Madame Huang Chengxiang, was an absolutely talented woman skilled in zither, Go, calligraphy, painting, and embroidery.

Looking at the calligraphy and paintings she had copied and hung on the wall, they deeply impressed, revealing a profound strength in her brushwork and a solid foundation in the arts.

Although she had yet to meet that particular great-uncle, it was evident from the two elder Huang men that in their youth, they must have been rugged men, the sort one could tell at a glance were military ruffians.

Three brothers with the backs of tigers and waists of bears, skilled in the handling of knives and guns, yet they had a younger sister who was educated, reasonable, and had both inner beauty and outer grace—the thought of it was indeed quite incongruous.

As Huo Sining looked around, she reflected, until her gaze suddenly fell on the dressing table inlaid with colorful shells, where a dark brown jewelry box rested.

The moment she saw the jewelry box, Huo Sining’s movements slightly paused, and she stared at the box for a good few seconds.

The Ebony Box was inlaid with a polished brass plate lock, no more than five or six inches in size, its surface not even as big as two palms, but that wasn’t the point.

The reason Huo Sining fixated on this box was that its surface bore a familiar floral pattern.

Months earlier, when Huo Sining was attending military training at S University, she had come across an ebony box in a deep pool. That box’s surface had no extra carvings, only a pattern that matched exactly with the floral design on this jewelry box!

Huo Sining felt a shock in her heart, she couldn’t think about why the two boxes would have the same pattern, and she instinctively reached out and picked up the jewelry box.

On the other side, Su Qingqing noticed Huo Sining’s action, and seeing that Huo Sining had picked up a jewelry box, she couldn’t help but lean in to take a few glances. Without realizing it, she frowned, ”Strange, this pattern on the jewelry box, I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.”

When Huo Sining heard Su Qingqing’s words, her heart sank with a thud.

Huang Hanyun heard this and turned her head to look at the jewelry box; she laughed, unconcerned,

”It’s just a jewelry box, not worth much. Ningning, go ahead and open it to see if there are any pretty pieces of jewelry inside!”

”That’s true,” Su Qingqing chuckled at her own nerves, a jewelry box was just that, such patterns were commonplace, maybe she had seen it at Antique Street. After all, it was nothing extraordinary to have seen it before.

Huo Sining glanced at Su Qingqing and saw that she just made a random remark, not really taking it to heart, which immediately relieved her.

That day, when she had brought the ebony box home in her backpack, Su Qingqing had taken it out. Su Qingqing had seen the floral pattern on that ebony box.

Fortunately, the interjection by Huang Hanyun successfully diverted Su Qingqing’s attention from the floral pattern to the jewelry inside the box.

Following her suggestion, Huo Sining opened the box to find it haphazardly filled with items like silver hairpins, jade pendants, and small rings, none of which were particularly valuable, so after a brief look, the women lost interest and turned to examine other things in the room.