After finishing his phone call, Chen Bangrui returned to the living room and found that Li Qiugui was not there, and the envelope on the coffee table was also missing. He didn't suspect anything and assumed that Li Qiugui had put it away.

A short while later, Li Qiugui brought Chen Niannian, who had packed a change of clothes, downstairs. Li Qiugui glanced at the envelope on the coffee table and noticed it was missing, assuming that Chen Bangrui had put it away.

And so, the money ended up in Chen Huibo's pocket.

The first thing Chen Niannian did after coming downstairs was to go find Zhang Xinyue.

"Auntie, is there a letter for me these past two days?" Chen Niannian asked directly.

"It seems there was a letter for you, but you weren't home, so I kept it for now." Zhang Xinyue was caught off guard by the question and glared at Hehua.

"Then please give it to me."

"Okay, you wait here, I'll go find it."

A short while later, Zhang Xinyue brought the letter over and handed it to Chen Niannian.

Chen Niannian noticed that the letter seemed to have been opened, but she didn't have time to dwell on it; she just wanted to see what had happened.

He took out the letter and read it quickly. Apart from some trivial daily matters mentioned by Fang Yuan, it did indeed mention that Cao Yujiao had found him and asked him to write a letter to Chen Niannian, saying that she was coming to see Chen Niannian.

Come to think of it, Cao Yujiao must have escaped not long after the letter was sent. The thought of Cao Yujiao still being unaccounted for made Chen Niannian lose her appetite.

She plans to go to the police station to ask if there's any way to find the person.

They ate their meal hastily without really tasting it, talked about when they would come back next time, said goodbye to Chen Bangrui, and then Chen Niannian and Li Qiugui left.

As she left, Chen Niannian wrote down her aunt's address on a piece of paper, slipped it into Li Hehua's hand when no one was looking, and then glanced at her.

Li Hehua immediately gripped the note tightly and nodded vigorously.

As they walked out the door, Chen Niannian mentioned the incident to Li Qiugui. Li Qiugui was also anxious and hurriedly pulled her towards the police station. It would be a big deal if such a young girl got lost.

Just as the two reached the intersection to flag down a car, Chen Niannian, without noticing, kicked a soft, squishy thing at the corner, startling her so much that she took a step back.

"Hey, don't you watch where you're going?" A familiar local accent rang out.

"Cao Yujiao! What are you doing here!" Chen Niannian was overjoyed to hear the voice, not expecting Cao Yujiao to be here.

There is only one long, tree-lined path leading from outside to the Chen family home, with the Chen family home at the end of the path.

Along this road, there are a few small villas scattered around. These families have to go out through this tree-lined path whenever they want to leave their homes.

"Niannian! I've finally found you! You wrote the wrong address for me, but luckily I'm smart and I know that school starts on September 1st, so I've been waiting here. I've finally found you."

Cao Yujiao was overjoyed to see Chen Niannian. It turned out that after being sent away yesterday, she saw several houses around and wondered if Chen Niannian had written the wrong house number. She knocked on several doors, but no one was home.

She didn't panic. Instead, she thought that since the village schools all started on September 1st, the city schools should be the same. So, she decided to wait at the intersection every day. If Chen Niannian went to school, she would definitely run into her.

As luck would have it, just as Chen Niannian and the others returned to the Chen family home, Cao Yujiao squatted down at the intersection. That's how Cao Yujiao was found.

"Yu Jiao, it's so good to see you." Chen Niannian grabbed Cao Yu Jiao's hand, and Cao Yu Jiao excitedly returned the gesture, tightly gripping Chen Niannian's hand as well.

“Niannian, I…” Cao Yujiao suddenly saw a middle-aged woman standing next to Chen Niannian, and swallowed the words that were about to come out.

“This is my aunt,” Chen Niannian quickly introduced, “She is also my closest relative.”

Hearing these heartwarming words, Li Qiugui felt as refreshed as if she had eaten an ice pop in the sweltering heat, and smiled as she patted Chen Niannian's head.

“Let’s go home and talk about it. It’s not convenient here,” Chen Niannian said again.

"good."

When they arrived at Li Qiugui's house, Chen Wenjing greeted them as soon as they entered. She was taken aback to see another unfamiliar girl, and then said, "Aunt Liu said that Niannian has lost weight today, so we closed for the day to buy some good food and cook for Niannian to help her recover."

“We’ve already eaten, why didn’t you say so earlier…” Li Qiugui said, frowning.

"Cousin, how did you know I wasn't full? Besides, I really want to eat Aunt Liu's cooking." Chen Niannian hadn't eaten much because she was worried about Cao Yujiao, and the food Li Hehua cooked didn't suit her taste either.

Just then, the aroma of food wafted from the kitchen, followed by a "clucking" sound. Chen Niannian looked in the direction of the sound and saw that Cao Yujiao's face was as red as a ripe shrimp.

"I... I only ate a steamed bun for lunch."

"Haha!" Chen Niannian laughed heartily, and Li Qiugui and Chen Wenjing also pursed their lips.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Chen Wenjing opened the door and saw Li Mengmeng rush in. "Sister Wenjing, is Niannian back yet?" Then she saw Chen Niannian and another unfamiliar girl in the room.

"Niannian, who is she?" Li Mengmeng looked at the unfamiliar girl in front of her.

He was tall and strong, with dark but smooth and rosy skin, and his features were regular and simple, making him look just like the protagonist in the movie "Little Flower".

"Dinner's ready! Everyone, come and eat!" Aunt Liu called out to everyone in the dining room.

"Come on, let's eat and chat." Chen Niannian pulled Cao Yujiao toward the restaurant, and everyone else followed.

"This is Cao Yujiao, my neighbor from Fangjia Village, whom I grew up with. Her family arranged a marriage for her, but she ran away."

After everyone sat down around the table, Li Mengmeng said she had already eaten and only took a glass of juice to sip. After Chen Niannian said this casually, she spat out a mouthful of juice and then coughed incessantly.

The others looked at each other in bewilderment, and Aunt Liu's chopsticks, which she was holding, seemed to be frozen in mid-air.

"Oh, Miss Cao, you're too reckless. After dinner, I'll find a car to take you home. You just ran off like this; your family must be so worried," Li Qiugui said first, somewhat reproachfully.

"Pah, what family? They married me off to an idiot just to arrange a marriage for my brother." Cao Yujiao shoveled rice into her mouth, picked up a piece of braised pork, and took a big bite.

"This meat is so delicious!" Cao Yujiao exclaimed.

Everyone was shocked by her previous statement; except for Chen Niannian, everyone else gaped in astonishment.

"What exactly happened?" Even Chen Wenjing couldn't wait to know the details.

Chen Niannian gestured for Cao Yujiao to eat first, and then she explained the whole story in detail.