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Chapter 572 Insects
The two stood to one side, watching the skirt writhe and tremble eerily in the sunlight, as if an unseen river was hidden beneath the bright red fabric, its waters surging.

When the runes and talismans returned, they witnessed this scene and were both startled.

"Master, Madam, what... what's going on?" Fu Lu's two broom-like eyebrows furrowed, staring at the slightly wriggling garment with a mixture of disgust and caution. "What's inside?"

"We'll find out soon enough." Zhu Yu gestured for the two brothers to go rest to the side. After all, the safest thing to do with the clothes right now was for no one to get close, and there was no point in the two brothers poking at them.

Not to mention runes and talismans, even Zhu Yu himself didn't intend to stand there and watch forever.

Having confirmed that the contents of the clothes couldn't escape, she breathed a sigh of relief and pulled Lu Qing to sit down at a warm stone table in the sun to rest for a while.

She was exhausted from performing the autopsy on the He family's daughter and didn't want to stand there for even a moment longer.

Fuwen Fulu took the strong liquor and torch from Lu Qing and sat down on the steps under the veranda. He stared warily at the garment. After a while, the garment finally stopped moving and became still again.

“Madam, I’ll go take a look!” Fu Lu asked Zhu Yu.

"Let's wait a bit longer, it's better to be safe." Zhu Yu shook his head, signaling him not to act rashly.

Looking at her cautious demeanor, tinged with lingering fear, Lu Qing recalled the day he rescued Zhu Yu, covered in blood, from a swarm of large rats. He felt a pang of unease and pulled Zhu Yu's hand into his own, offering a silent comfort.

Zhu Yuming nodded to him and smiled, "Don't worry, I'm fine."

After drying the clothes for a long time to make sure they were completely still and without any further movement, Zhu Yu finally felt relieved. She then had Fu Lu carefully pick up the clothes from the ground and lay them out on the stone table, lining facing out.

Previously, Zhu Yu and the others only saw the fragrant red jade fabric at the Tze Lü Fang, which had not yet been made into clothes. Moreover, they were stopped by Gu Lingyun halfway, so they had no chance to see it up close or even see what it looked like with a lining.

Now, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the lining of the dress is not a piece of white fabric sewn directly inside, but rather stitched into small square-like grids. At first glance, it appears perfectly normal, flat and neat, without any protrusions. If it weren't for the unusual "movement" the dress made under the sunlight earlier, anyone would find it unremarkable.

Zhu Yu took out his small leather bag and pulled out a small pair of black iron scissors.

This was the most difficult item among the set of things I asked Zhu Cheng to make for me before I got married.

As for the other things, whether the knife is a little bigger or smaller, apart from the waste material, there's not much difference. Whether the needle is straight or curved, it's just a matter of hammering it a few more times.

This small pair of scissors, however, gave Zhu Cheng's craftsmen quite a headache. Scissors used outside were generally for women doing needlework, or for soldiers to cut enemy matchlocks or arrow fletching. Regardless of their purpose, they were destined to be large, with handles large enough to fit four fingers, and blades long and wide enough to apply force and withstand the strain, capable of cutting through even the thickest ropes and fabrics.

Furthermore, these items were rarely commissioned to be forged by the Armory, let alone made with black iron.

When the craftsmen saw the drawing by Zhu Yu, they all thought that this second young lady was playing a trick on them. Otherwise, who would want such small and light scissors with a handle that could only fit one finger!
After a great deal of effort, the craftsmen finally managed to create a pair of small scissors that satisfied Zhu Yu after several revisions.

These little scissors hadn't been used much before; even when treating Lu Qing's back injury last time, this smallest pair wasn't used.

So when Zhu Yu took out the small pair of scissors, the eyes of the three people next to him were immediately drawn to it.

Lu Qing couldn't help but sigh, "Although your father's ability to govern the country was not outstanding, it must be admitted that the craftsmen under his command were indeed highly skilled and ingenious."

As the runes and talismans watched Zhu Yu's slender fingers slip perfectly into the small ring at the end of the handle, they subconsciously looked down at their own fingers.

Because of their years of martial arts training, both of them not only had thick, well-developed hands, but their fingers were also slightly thicker than average, giving them a very powerful appearance.

Such fingers can grip a large knife without any problem, but when faced with such delicate small objects, they feel a bit unable to catch or lift them.

Zhu Yu held a small, slender pair of black iron tweezers in his left hand, carefully grasped a thin layer of lining cloth, and used small scissors to cut along the seam of the checkered pattern, cutting off that small piece of cloth.

At first glance, the lining appears to be a plain white piece, but when picked up with tweezers, it is found to be exceptionally thin. When sunlight shines through it, the light passes through tiny, easily overlooked pores in the fabric.

Looking at the original spot of this lining, in the thin layer between it and the Red Jade Fragrance, lies a dead insect.

The insect was shaped like a teardrop, between the size of a sesame seed and a watermelon seed. In front of its small head was a very peculiar mouthpart. In the middle of its small pincer-like mandibles was a thin, long, thorn-like thing. It had four thin legs on each side of its body, which were now curled up on its abdomen because it was dead.

The strange insect's entire body was a dark red color, looking like dried blood that had solidified.

Zhu Yu carefully touched the dead insect with the tip of the tweezers. This thing seemed to be really afraid of sunlight. It was completely dead by now, and as Zhu Yu touched it with the tweezers, it rolled around on the fabric. Judging from its appearance, it had already sucked a lot of blood. Its whole body was round and plump, really like the shape of a small water droplet.

Zhu Yu used tweezers to pick up the insect and place it on the exposed stone slab of the stone table next to him. He held it in place with the tweezers and then used the tip of the scissors to slowly cut open the insect's abdomen.

From inside the worm's belly spilled some blood that had long since dried, but unlike ordinary blood scabs, it wasn't dirty in color. Instead, it was a whole dark red crystalline thing that looked like some kind of gemstone the size of a red bean.