The two of them stood aside, watching the dress wriggle eerily under the sunlight, trembling as if an invisible river was hidden beneath the bright red fabric, rippling with water waves.

When the talisman returned, they happened to see this scene and were taken aback.

"Master, Madam, what is... happening here?" The talisman frowned, its two broom-like eyebrows furrowed, staring cautiously and with distaste at the subtly wriggling garment. "What’s inside this?"

"We’ll find out soon." Zhu Yu gestured for them to step aside and rest. After all, the safest thing was for no one to get near the dress; the brothers standing there was of no use.

Not to mention the talisman, even Zhu Yu didn’t intend to stand there watching indefinitely.

Upon confirming that whatever was inside the dress couldn’t escape, she sighed with relief, pulling Lu Qing to a stone table warmed by the sun for a rest.

The previous autopsy of the He Family’s daughter had exhausted her thoroughly, and she didn’t want to stand there a moment longer.

The talisman took the strong liquor and torch from Lu Qing’s hand and sat nearby on the steps under the corridor, vigilantly watching the dress. After a while, the dress finally ceased all movement and returned to stillness.

"Madam, should I go over and take a look?" the talisman asked Zhu Yu.

"Wait a bit longer, it’s safer to do so." Zhu Yu shook her head, signaling him not to act rashly.

Lu Qing, seeing her cautious demeanor due to fear, recalled the scene of rescuing the bloodied Zhu Yu from a swarm of rats and felt a pang of anxiety, pulling Zhu Yu’s hand into her palm as a silent comfort.

Zhu Yu nodded knowingly at him, smiled, and said, "Don’t worry, I’m fine."

After basking in the sun for a long time, ensuring the dress was entirely still without any movement, Zhu Yu finally relaxed a bit and instructed the talisman to carefully pick up the dress from the ground and spread it out on the stone table, with the lining facing outwards.

Previously, they had only seen the Red Jade Fragrance fabric at the Headdress and Shoes Workshop before it was made into a dress, and they didn’t get a chance to look at it closely or see the lining because they were intercepted by Gu Lingyun halfway.

Now, looking closely, the dress’s lining wasn’t just a piece of white fabric sewn inside but was stitched into small square-shaped grids, which appeared perfectly fine at first glance, flat without any protrusions. If it weren’t for the unusual "movement" under sunlight earlier, anyone looking at it would think it was ordinary.

Zhu Yu took out her leather pouch and pulled out a pair of small black iron scissors. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

These were the most challenging piece in the set she asked Zhu Cheng to help her make before she got married.

The other items, whether slightly larger or smaller blades, apart from waste material, didn’t differ much. Whether the needle was straight or bent, it was just a matter of additional forging.

But this small pair of scissors was quite the challenge for Zhu Cheng’s craftsmen.

Scissors used outdoors were typically for women doing needlework or for the military to cut enemy fuses or arrow feathers. No matter their use, they were designed to be big enough for four fingers to grip, with long, wide blades for strength, able to cut through thick rope or fabric.

It’s rare for things like these to be entrusted to the Weapon Supervision for crafting, let alone using Black Iron.

When the craftsmen saw the diagram that Zhu Yu had drawn, they thought that the second young lady was playing a joke on them. Otherwise, why would anyone want such a small and delicate pair of scissors where only one finger could fit through the handle!

After much effort and several revisions, they finally managed to craft a pair of small scissors that pleased Zhu Yu.

Previously, the small scissors hadn’t been put to much use, not even for treating Lu Qing’s back injury.

So when Zhu Yu took out the small scissors, the three people’s eyes were drawn immediately.

Lu Qing couldn’t help but admire, "Although your father’s ability to govern isn’t outstanding, you have to admit, the craftsmen under him are indeed skilled, with extraordinary craftsmanship."

The talisman and talisman rune both observed Zhu Yu’s slender fingers fit perfectly into the small ring handle, and they instinctively looked down at their own fingers.

Because they practiced martial arts for years, not only were their palms thick and sturdy, but their fingers appeared slightly thicker and stronger than most people’s.

Such fingers had no problem gripping large blades, but they struggled with delicate objects, feeling as though they couldn’t handle them.

Zhu Yu used her left hand to hold a slender black iron tweezer, carefully pinching a thin layer of lining and cutting along the grid stitches with the small scissors, cutting away a small piece of cloth.

This lining appeared to be a plain white piece at first glance, but when held up with tweezers, it was exceptionally light and thin. Sunlight shining through it revealed tiny fabric pores that were easy to overlook.

Looking at where the lining had been, in the thin layer between it and the Red Jade Fragrance, lay a dead insect.

The insect was shaped like a droplet and was somewhere between the size of a sesame seed and a watermelon seed, with a peculiar mouthpart at the front of its tiny head. It had pincers with a thin, needle-like appendage in the middle, and four slender legs on each side of its body, now curled toward its belly in death.

The strange insect’s entire body was a dark red, appearing as if formed from coagulated blood.

Zhu Yu delicately nudged the dead insect with the tweezer’s tip. It seemed the creature truly feared sunlight, thoroughly dead now, rolling stiffly on the fabric as Zhu Yu prodded it, appearing quite round and plump, much like a small droplet shape.

Zhu Yu used the tweezers to lift the insect onto the exposed stone slab of the stone table, pinning it down with tweezers and carefully cutting open its belly with the scissor tip.

From the insect’s stomach poured out some completely dried blood. Unlike typical blood scabs that were dirty in color, this was a whole dark red crystallized substance, resembling a small gemstone the size of a red bean at first glance.