After saying these words, General Yuwen stopped talking and turned to leave.

Jiang Cheng and his group planned to continue searching for clues in the city. Along the way, everyone's attention was inevitably drawn to the so-called embroidered ball. Fatty couldn't help but say, "Isn't the embroidered ball like in those old movies, where a woman stands on a high platform, turns her back to the stage, and throws the embroidered ball forcefully? Then a group of men below scramble for it, and whoever gets the ball, the woman on the stage has to marry him."

Jiang Cheng shook his head and corrected, "Those are all modern film and television adaptations; they're not true. In ancient times, there was a deep emphasis on social status, and marriages were even more particular about being well-matched. If a daughter of a prominent family had her embroidered ball snatched by a beggar from the street, would she really have to condescend to marry him? Even if the woman was willing, her family wouldn't agree."

After being educated, Fatty nodded repeatedly, "I see."

But before his voice faded, Tang Qisheng shook his head, "Brother Jiang is right, but not entirely accurate. The custom of throwing an embroidered ball isn't entirely fictional; it can be found in prototypes in ancient times."

"The Song Dynasty scholar Zhou Qufei mentioned it in his book *Lingnan Dai Da*: 'When a man and woman catch each other's eyes, the woman loves the tuo and the man's marriage is settled.' It roughly means that the ethnic minorities in the Lingnan area have a custom of throwing an embroidered ball to make friends. As long as a man and woman like each other, the woman will throw a feituo (flying weight) at the man. If the man catches it, the two have a tacit understanding and begin to interact with each other."

"The so-called feituo is the predecessor of the embroidered ball."

"I've seen some records of this. Some Han people in more remote areas were also slowly influenced by this custom and began to have the practice of throwing an embroidered ball to seek a husband, but the process and causes are different from what we think. It's quite special. Some marriages are inconvenient to combine normally due to social status, so they borrowed this foreign custom. But the difference is that when the woman throws the embroidered ball, the stage isn't filled with random passersby, but is entirely reserved by the groom's side. Besides the groom, the rest are also the groom's family and friends, so only the groom will pick up the embroidered ball after it's thrown, which will avoid many unnecessary embarrassments."

"Of course, this custom was used very, very rarely, and mostly in special circumstances. For example, if a man and woman tasted the forbidden fruit and the woman became pregnant, this was a great shame and disgrace to the family in ancient times. In this way, even if the man's conditions were poor, the woman's family could only grit their teeth and accept their misfortune, but in order to go through the motions, and especially to highlight the woman's family's status, they came up with this set of throwing and snatching the embroidered ball."

"The general idea is that the man must stand out from a group of competitors by snatching the ball, only then will he have the opportunity to approach the woman and get the chance to become an adopted son-in-law in the woman's family."

Tang Qisheng's explanation was very detailed and well-founded. Even Zhang Qizheng and Li Bai couldn't help but admire the breadth of this man's knowledge, but after thinking about it, another doubt surfaced.

"According to you, women throw embroidered balls generally to marry men of lower social status?" Yao Shunyu asked.

Tang Qisheng slowly nodded, "That's right, and in this case, the social status is usually very different, otherwise, in ancient times when face was more important than life, not many people would bear this humiliation."

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere suddenly became strange. Everyone couldn't help but think of the Zhennan Hou and his wife.

The embroidered ball is naturally thrown by the woman and snatched by the man, there is no doubt about it. But following this line of thought, wouldn't that mean that the madam married down to the former Zhennan Hou? In other words, the status of the madam's former family was much higher than that of the Zhennan Hou before he rose to prominence.

This made the already complicated situation even more confusing. Jiang Cheng immediately thought of the madam's tombstone in the backyard. The tombstone was nameless and without a surname. At first, he thought it was because the madam came from a humble background and wasn't worthy of having her surname written, but now it seemed that this wasn't the case at all. The madam's origins were far superior to those of the former Zhennan Hou, and the reason for not writing her surname and life story was also very likely to hide this history.

Why?

What exactly was the madam's background?

It even needed to be hidden...

A series of doubts jumped out, and Jiang Cheng instantly thought of General Guo's tombstone. He remembered very clearly that General Guo's tombstone was very close to the madam's tombstone, very close. Could it be that there was some kind of connection between the two?

The more Jiang Cheng thought about it, the more frightened he became. Many details that he couldn't understand before, or even hadn't noticed, all jumped out. General Guo and his party went to search for the Jile Lou (Paradise Tower) when they were at their weakest. The security measures must have been extremely strict, but the madam was able to get on the ship. Not only that, but she even had the opportunity to detonate the gunpowder. All of this was by no means something an ordinary person could do. If... if the madam and General Guo were related, or came from the same lineage, then this would be very easy to explain, and all the unreasonable things would also make sense!

Jiang Cheng voiced his guess, and soon, everyone was shocked by this guess. Although there was not enough evidence yet, this bold guess had already been imprinted in everyone's minds.

It was still too early to think about these things. After everyone walked out of the Hou's mansion, they dispersed to search for clues and the whereabouts of Lu Qin and Shao Tong.

But no one noticed that when they separated in front of the Hou's mansion, there were two pairs of eyes quietly staring at them not far away. Lu Qin and Shao Tong, who had already changed their clothes, were hiding among several early-rising merchants, silently watching all of this. After seeing the lively Fatty, Lu Qin's face instantly darkened.

"How could he still be alive?" A hint of undisguised doubt flashed in Lu Qin's eyes, and then she looked at Shao Tong. Her dissatisfaction with Shao Tong was not something that had started just today.

Shao Tong shrugged innocently, "Don't look at me, I don't know either. I really have modified their memories. What they took back must be those few pairs of fur shoes. You also went to ask those merchants afterwards, you shouldn't suspect me."

"Then how do you explain that Wang Fugui was able to survive?" Lu Qin questioned.

"Then who should I ask? Perhaps he's just lucky." Shao Tong explained aggrievedly, but the cunning hidden in her eyes made Lu Qin shudder.

Lu Qin lowered her voice, leaned in, and stared eye to eye, very close to Shao Tong, "I warn you, don't play any tricks. I can bring you out, and I can send you back, so you can stay in that ward for all eternity, until you die."

Shao Tong crookedly saluted and replied very seriously, "I understand, my caretaker. I will listen to you in everything."

Seeing that she hadn't caught Shao Tong's flaw, Lu Qin turned her attention to Jiang Cheng's back, and after a moment, made a decision, "Let's go, we'll follow him. The problem must be with him."