Xie Jingyan went out and didn't come back for lunch. He didn't see him again until dinner.

The maid was setting out the meal when she heard familiar footsteps. Shen Wan got up and saw Xie Jingyan enter. Shen Wan asked, "Have you found him?"

Xie Jingyan said with a grave expression, "The person is missing."

Missing?!

Shen Wan's voice rose, "How could she have disappeared?"

Xie Jingyan sat down, and Shen Wan poured him tea. Xie Jingyan said, "I questioned the soldiers guarding the city with his portrait. A few days ago, I saw him going in and out of the city several times. Each time he left the city empty-handed and came back with prey. After so many times, I don't know if he has left the city again. I found the inn where he was staying. His clothes are still in the inn. He hasn't been back for several days."

Shen Wan sat down and asked, "Was he arrested by the heir of the Duke of Mao?"

The heir of the Duke of Maoguo is narrow-minded and vindictive. Tang Ze advised him to leave the capital because he was afraid that the heir of the Duke of Maoguo would retaliate against him.

Xie Jingyan said, "When I came back, the Prince of Yanping and Tang Ze had gone to find the Prince of Maoguo."

Xie Jingyan left the mansion in the morning and had a casual lunch. Now he was a little hungry, so he washed his hands and sat down to eat.

Shen Wan served Xie Jingyan some food, and only after hearing his story did she learn how the son of Princess Huyang ended up in the hands of the hunter couple.

Back then, Princess Huyang had a difficult childbirth. She struggled to give birth to the child in her womb. The wet nurse cleaned up the child and brought it out for the prince consort to see. The prince consort tied a longevity lock around the child's neck. The midwife inside cried out that something was wrong, because Princess Huyang had suffered a postpartum hemorrhage.

Fortunately, two imperial physicians were waiting outside the delivery room and provided timely treatment, pulling Princess Huyang back from the brink of death. Due to excessive blood loss, Princess Huyang was unable to conceive again and was so weak that she had to stay in bed for more than two months.

For more than two months, the prince consort stayed by Princess Huyang's side almost every step of the way. He would occasionally hold the child without noticing anything amiss until he saw the wet nurse changing the child's diaper and discovered that the child had been switched.

Only after interrogating the old lady of the Du family did they learn that the child had been switched before Princess Huyang's postpartum hemorrhage had stopped. The maid secretly took the child out of the mansion, and because she needed to relieve herself, she left the child outside the outhouse, and the food box containing the child disappeared.

This is what the eldest son-in-law knew. What the hunter couple knew was that when their uncle went to the capital on business, he heard a few weak cries in an alley. At first, he thought it was a cat meowing, but upon closer listening, it sounded like a child crying. After searching around, he found the child lying on the verge of death in a food box.

The uncle picked the child up from the food box and waited for a while, but no one came looking for him. Fearing that the child might die, he took him to see a doctor.

He raised the child for a few days, but couldn't find anyone in Kyoto to take care of him. He couldn't bear to abandon him, so he finally made up his mind to take the child back to the village. If his wife was willing to adopt him, he would raise him as his youngest son. If she really wasn't willing, he would give him to the hunter couple to raise. They had been married for several years but had no children. They had seen doctors and taken a lot of medicine, but still couldn't conceive.

As expected, the eldest aunt refused to raise the child, even suspecting that the child was the eldest uncle's illegitimate child. She threatened to commit suicide. Even when the eldest uncle offered to let them raise the child, she refused, since the two families lived close by and she could see the child anytime. In the end, the eldest uncle swore an oath, and only then did the eldest aunt calm down.

And so, the child came to live with the hunter couple. From a young age, he loved playing with knives and sticks. At the age of five, he went hunting in the mountains with the hunters. He was especially gifted in archery. The hunter couple were afraid of wasting his talent, so they used almost all their savings to pay for his martial arts training. They treated him like their own flesh and blood. In the sixth year after the child came to live with them, the hunter couple finally became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. From then on, they had both a son and a daughter.

The child was lost and found in different places. It is likely that the child thought the food box contained food and took it away without thinking. However, when the child was found to be a child, the child was abandoned in the alley in a panic. Fortunately, the child was rescued and eventually ended up with the hunter couple.

If he had remained in the hands of the old lady of the Du family, there was no guarantee that she wouldn't vent her resentment towards Princess Huyang and the eldest son-in-law on the child. He might not have even lived to see the eldest son-in-law find him. Although he couldn't live a life of luxury with the hunter couple, the eldest son-in-law's talent for archery was not wasted, which was a stroke of good fortune amidst misfortune.

Shen Wan and Xie Jingyan ate and chatted, and the meal took almost half an hour.

Just as they finished eating and put down their chopsticks, a maid came in and reported, "Your Highness, the biological son of Princess Huyang has been found. He was beaten and covered in bruises. The heir of the Prince of Yanping and the eldest son of the Duke of Tan brought him to the Prince's residence to see Doctor Tao for treatment."

He was beaten black and blue?

Xie Jingyan immediately got up and went out, and Shen Wan followed him to the outer courtyard.

When they arrived at the outer courtyard, Doctor Tao had just arrived from his own courtyard. The hunter, the son of Princess Huyang, was lying on a small couch, his body covered in whip marks, even worse than the punishment that Prince Yanping had suffered at the Ministry of Justice that day.

Xie Jingyan looked at the Crown Prince of Yanping and his group. The Crown Prince of Yanping said, "Guess where we found him?"

This means it's definitely not at the Duke of Mao's residence.

The Crown Prince of Yanping replied, "At the City Patrol Division."

“During the hunt, we forced the heir of the Duke of Mao to let him go. We put pressure on the heir of the Duke of Mao in the street. The heir of the Duke of Mao let it go at the time, but afterwards he had his men accuse him of theft, arrested him and locked him up in the city patrol office, and even had the city patrol office teach him a good lesson.”

The patrol team was recommended by the Duke of Maoguo. The Duke of Maoguo's heir ordered the patrol team to teach a hunter a lesson, which was practically torture to death. But unexpectedly, the flood washed away the Dragon King Temple, and the family members did not recognize each other.

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