Lanqin looked at Xueying in surprise. The little girl didn't seem to be talking nonsense, nor did she seem to be guessing randomly. So she asked, "How did you come to this conclusion?"

Xueying looked up at Lanqin. She had thought that Lanqin would hate her because she was the Fujin's niece. However, since she first met Lanqin in Wuxihana, Xueying felt that this concubine did not seem to hate her. On the contrary, Gengshi clearly disliked her.

“Because I said some things to the Fifth Prince, which must have made him very unhappy. It’s quite possible that the Fourth Prince went to a nearby tavern for lunch with the Fifth Prince in an attempt to persuade him,” Xueying said. “Since we don’t have any clues right now, I think we should try to investigate these places first, and maybe we can get some clues.”

Lanqin found Xueying's words very reasonable, and thus developed an even greater liking for her, so she said, "Alright, I'll go and inform the Prince. You can go back now."

Xueying rose, bowed, and took her leave.

Lanqin sat in the main seat without speaking for a long time. The maids beside her, seeing her like this, all assumed that she was worried about Hongli and Hongzhou, and dared not go forward to comfort her.

"Prepare the car, I need to go to the Jingzhao Yin's office," Lanqin said, snapping out of her reverie.

Meanwhile, the two brothers, sleeping in the unknown house, were completely unaware that their mother and father were desperately searching for them. After Hongli explained the situation outside to Hongzhou, the two decided to find out exactly what this place was before making any further plans.

Instead of tying them up with ropes, the robbers locked them in a house, preventing them from moving around freely.

“Hongli, why don’t we escape and head south? I refuse to believe we can’t get out,” Hongzhou said.

“No, this place is surrounded by mountains on all sides. I don’t even know how long it would take to walk south. Besides, there are bound to be wild animals in these areas. We have no food and no horses. It’s too risky,” Hongli disagreed.

“What can we do then? We’re just waiting here. That scarred man from last night was incredibly ruthless. If he comes back, our situation will be even worse. And if he has any other ideas, we won’t be able to handle it,” Hongzhou said.

“I suspect these people are just after our money. They still haven’t figured out who we are, so they won’t do anything easily. I’ve already decided to use a letter to tell Mother and the others where we are. So now, we must find a way to determine our location,” Hongli said.

"Do you want to tell Ama in the ransom letter?" Hongzhou asked.

“That’s right. I used an acrostic to tell Father that these people are obviously uneducated and rough, and they might not understand acrostics. So our most urgent task is to figure out where we are,” Hongli said.

“That Ah Wu seems easier to talk to,” Hong Zhou said.

“I’m thinking about how to get him to tell us what this place is,” Hongli said.

The two brothers sat together brainstorming, while Scarface was drinking with his men at a tavern. They had already bought everything they needed.

"Brother, I tried to get close to the cook in that mansion, asking around and asking questions, but I couldn't get any information out of him," one of his subordinates said to Scarface.

"And what about you?" Scarface glanced at him, then turned to another subordinate.

"Brother, I waited specifically at the side gate of this mansion, and finally the men carrying night soil arrived. I asked them for a long time, but I couldn't find out anything," the subordinate said.