Su Yun'er recalled seeing a figure resembling Gai Xue at the Sun residence last year. At the time, she was unsure, but later, Gai Xue frequently sneaked to the dock and seemed very familiar with the location of Su Yun'er's stall, as if she had been there many times. So, after thinking it over, Su Yun'er was pretty sure that the cat was Gai Xue.

As a cat, Gai Xue has an even more sensitive sense of smell, so she probably sensed Su Yun'er's scent and followed her.

Wiping away the small tears from Xiaocao's eyes, Su Yun'er comforted her, "When Mother was at Miss Sun's house in the city, she saw Gai Xue running on the roof of his house. I guess she went to the city to play this time, and got carried away and was taken in by someone else, which is why she hasn't come back."

After hearing this, Xiaocao felt sad and sobbed, "Will Gaixue come back? Will he leave that family again? Gaixue is our family, Mother!"

"Yes, yes, when Gai Xue misses us, she will come back."

After much comforting, Xiaocao gradually stopped crying, but she was still in low spirits.

Su Yun'er then decided to do something to cheer up Xiao Cao.

There are also some cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and other vegetables at home.

Su Yun'er cleaned the cherry tomatoes, removed the green stems, made a few cuts on them with a knife, and arranged them in various ways to make a little rabbit.

The tomato bunny is only the size of a blade of grass's thumb; it's so cute, just what the blade of grass likes.

Then, Su Yun'er carefully peeled off the cucumber skin, made a few cuts on the dark green cucumber skin with a knife, and arranged the pieces to form a continuous green mountain.

Not only was Xiaocao attracted by Su Yun'er's actions of making animals and drawing with fruits and vegetables, but Xiaoshu and Grandma Chen also came over.

Only after coaxing Xiaocao did Su Yuer feel relieved.

On a wooden frame in the yard, there was a large bamboo rack covered with hawthorn slices waiting to be dried.

After the hawthorn slices are dried, they are sent to the shop, where the freshest plum juice is brewed every day. Plum juice itself can quench thirst and cool you down, and with the addition of ice, it tastes even better. Every day, customers who come to buy plum juice have to queue up for a long time, and there have even been times when people have fought while queuing up.

Because some people only wanted to buy some plum juice or lemon black tea, Su Yun'er set up the tent she used before outside the store. After removing the windproof walls around the tent, it could block out the sun and rain without making it stuffy.

Inside the tent outside, Su Yun'er had set up a small stall to sell plum juice and lemon black tea. This way, customers who wanted to eat and those who just wanted iced drinks were separated, avoiding any more queuing disputes.

The popularity of plum juice and iced tea quickly spread to the city. Gradually, some city dwellers began to travel to the docks specifically to buy them and try them out. However, since the journey was quite long, the main customers were still concentrated among the crowds coming and going at the docks.

Among the people living in the city who were able to drink plum juice and lemon black tea were three people named Gu Jingheng.

Of the three, Xu Meng unknowingly took on the role of cook, but since he couldn't cook, he was responsible for buying food.

When Lian Ying was in charge of buying meals, she would try to find convenient and delicious restaurants nearby. But Xu Meng was different; he often went to the pier to buy meals.

Naturally, I learned what new products Su Ji Food Shop had. Seeing many people queuing up to buy this iced drink, I bought some, poured them into a porcelain bottle with a stopper, and brought them back.

It was raining heavily that day. Gu Jingheng drank sour plum juice while listening to Lian Yingtong and Xu Meng's reports.

Having lived in Yongning City for almost a month, Gu Jingheng's soldiers gradually disguised themselves as civilians and entered the city in large numbers.

Lian Yingtong and Xu Menghui would secretly contact them from time to time to collect and pass on information. In less than a month, they had discovered some clues.

“Yongning City is not wealthy, and it has just survived a year of famine. The Qiu family is now the most prominent merchant family in the city. However, the Qiu family is in the cloth business, which seems to have nothing to do with military rations.”

"As if?" Gu Jingheng raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, it seems that although the Qiu family has not been involved in the rice business on the surface, there is a large rice merchant in Fengzhou who is frequently investigated. In fact, the Qiu family is the one managing it behind the scenes."

“Because Fengzhou is closest to the border, half of the grain produced there is reserved as military rations. The military rations that have run into problems this time were also transported from Fengzhou,” Gu Jingheng said.

“Yes, so there must be a connection between them,” Xu Meng said. “Furthermore, the relationship between the Qiu family and the Sun family is quite strange. Boss Qiu often visits Sun Chengye, and the two occasionally go out for drinks and meals. Logically speaking, merchants and officials travel together mainly for business convenience, and if two families want to get closer, interaction between their female relatives and children is essential. However, the female relatives and children of both families did not have much contact. According to our investigation, that boat trip was the only time the female relatives of the two families had prolonged contact.”

"This unusual behavior makes me feel that the two families are trying to avoid something," Lian Yingtong nodded.

"Are Mr. Qiu's interactions with Sun Chengye mostly private or public?"

“Mostly…” Xu Meng and Lian Ying exchanged a glance, considering the situation, “…privately. They rarely go out together.”

"These two do have some issues, so we should keep a close eye on them."

"yes!"

After Lian Yingtong and Xu Meng left, Gai Xue slowly scooted over and nuzzled Gu Jingheng's leg with her little head.

After more than half a month of rest and care, Gai Xue has recovered to a considerable extent. Her wounds have healed and scabbed over, and the shaved fur has slowly grown back, but the lengths are uneven, making the cat look gaudy.

Gai Xue and Gu Jingheng were very close. Every night, she would sleep next to Gu Jingheng's pillow. Cats are naturally sleepy, and because of her injuries, Gai Xue was only awake for an hour or two a day.

But every time he wakes up, he will take the initiative to go to Gu Jingheng's side and let Gu Jingheng touch his little head and chin.

Every time Gu Jingheng scratched his head and chin, he would squint his eyes with satisfaction and enjoyment, tilt his head back, and even his beard would twitch comfortably.

"Meow~ Meow~" Gai Xue meowed comfortably twice, rubbed against Gu Jingheng's hand a couple of times, and then went to eat and drink on the side.

Gu Jingheng had some fish steamed for Gai Xue. It was tender, juicy, and all the small bones had been removed, which was Gai Xue's favorite.

After eating and drinking his fill, Gai Xue wandered around the room. He seemed to really like the bookshelf on the wall at the foot of the bed; when his injuries were just starting to heal, he liked to linger under that bookshelf.

Gu Jingheng had official business to attend to and didn't pay any attention to him.

Suddenly, a loud crash and a shattering sound rang out.