Having learned from her previous experience in buying fabric, Lin Yinan selected all the necessary fabrics, including some coarse cloth suitable for making shoe uppers.

Seeing that they bought a lot, the shop owner not only rounded down the price but also gave them a lot of scraps of cloth as a gift.

Because there were other things to buy, the shopkeeper arranged for the purchased fabrics to be delivered to the city gate later at a later time.

As Lin Yinan and Qianwu arrived at the entrance of the restaurant, a guard stepped forward.

"Please come with me, Madam. Eleventh Brother has reserved a private room on the second floor."

"Where are the others?"

The guard said, "We found the Chen family steward, bought the grain, and passed by here. Eleventh Brother invited us to eat together."

Upon reaching the private room on the second floor, Yun Shiyi and her guards were chatting quietly. When they saw her come up, they all stood up and bowed.

"Greetings, Madam."

"Have you ordered yet?" Lin Yinan asked.

"Not yet, I'll wait for Madam to come up before ordering," the guard said respectfully.

"Order whatever you like, don't be shy."

Lin Yinan then called over the waiter and asked everyone to order.

The guards looked at each other, but none of them moved.

Seeing that they were hesitant to order, Qianwu took the initiative to order several dishes with fermented black beans from the waiter.

She said proudly, "If you're going to eat, try the local specialties of Longtan and see if they're authentic."

Yun Shiyi's eyes darkened. Yun San's younger sister was far too presumptuous, but the deep-seated sense of hierarchy prevented him from acting recklessly in the slightest.

So he symbolically ordered two vegetarian dishes.

The other guards shook their heads, still hesitant to order, indicating that they weren't picky eaters.

Finally, Lin Yinan took the initiative to order five meat dishes: charcoal-grilled pork brisket, lychee kidney, braised rabbit, perilla fish, and the waiter's highly recommended signature dish: steamed chicken with he leaves. The staple food was two flatbreads and a bowl of rice for each person.

After ordering so many dishes, the waiter, following the restaurant's rules, was to bring a pot of wine.

Since there were important matters to attend to in the afternoon, Lin Yinan decided to replace the wine with a vegetable soup.

The restaurant was well-prepared for the market day, and the food was served quite quickly.

After the dishes were served, everyone sat at a table, and the guards were initially quite reserved.

When they saw that the lady ate quickly and elegantly without the slightest hesitation, they were momentarily stunned.

Is this still their wife?

Yun Shiren pretended to be nonchalant and kicked each of them under the table.

Looking up, he saw Qianwu staring at him with a puzzled expression. "Eleventh Brother, why did you kick me?"

Yun Shiyi was instantly speechless and tried to defend herself, saying, "No, it's nothing, haha, I bumped into it by accident."

The guards all lowered their heads and drank the soup in their bowls, not daring to look at Yun Shiyi's petrified face.

Lin Yinan focused on eating her meal. Qianwu had fed her a lot of snacks along the way, so she wasn't very hungry. She quickly finished eating and put down her chopsticks.

I poured myself a cup of tea and sat by the window, sipping it while watching people come and go below, a scene of prosperity.

Before long, Qianwu put down her chopsticks, pulled up a chair, sat down, and stared blankly at the street, resting her chin on her hand.

After a while, she suddenly pointed to several women on the street and said, "Madam, look! It's Aunt Que and the others!"

Lin Yinan looked down and saw that the mountain sparrow girl and the others looked anxious.

"Mountain Sparrow Girl, what should we do? We've searched the whole street, but we still can't find her!!"

Shi Tu Niang was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

Mountain Sparrow Girl took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, and said in a feigned composure, "Don't rush, there must be some alleys we've missed. Let's go take another look."

Lin Yinan, with her keen hearing and sharp eyesight, could tell from their words that they must have encountered some trouble.

Just as the group was about to split up to search, they heard Lin Yinan's cold voice.

"Mountain Sparrow Girl, what happened?"

The mountain sparrow girl had already lost her composure and turned to look around.

Shi Tu Niang looked up and saw Lin Yinan sitting in the restaurant. She tugged at Shan Que Niang's sleeve and pointed towards the restaurant.

"Lord Lin is upstairs!"

When Sparrow Girl saw Lin Yinan, she seemed to have found her pillar of support, and tears streamed down her face.

"Lord Lin, the mountain sparrow has disappeared!"

Lin Yinan was taken aback, then took out a silver ingot and handed it to Qianwu, "Qianwu, go pay the bill, I'll go downstairs and check."

Before Qianwu could react, she opened the other two windows and jumped off the building.

Yun Shiyi reacted quickly. As soon as Lin Yinan opened the window, he grabbed two flatbreads and stuffed them into his arms, then jumped out of the window after her.

"Hurry, something's happened!"

Seeing Lin Yinan suddenly appear in front of her, Sparrow Girl didn't have time to be surprised and grabbed Lin Yinan's arm.

"Lord Lin, we split up to buy things, but there were just too many people on one street. When we finally managed to squeeze through, we found that Sparrow and Stone were gone."

"Did you go back to look for it?"

Shi Tu Niang: "I've run back and forth on that street three times, but I still can't find it."

Lin Yinan's heart skipped a beat, and she immediately sensed something was wrong.

Mountain Sparrow and Stone Soil were already twelve or thirteen years old. They weren't the kind of children who didn't know their place. Even if they were separated from their families, they would eventually run into them after Aunt Mountain Sparrow and the others searched for them two or three times.

The fact that we haven't encountered them yet means something must have happened to them.

Lin Yinan turned to Yun Shiyi and said, "Shiyi, have the guards search along the streets of the county town again."

"Yes, I'll go right away."

At this moment, the other guards had already gone down to the first floor with Qianwu.

Yun Shiyi quickly divided the group into teams and sent them to search in different directions.

"Make sure you find it thoroughly, don't overlook any corner."

Looking at the guards who were scattered and searching in all directions, Lin Yinan turned to Shan Que Niang and Shi Tu Niang and said, "Aunt Shan Que, you two wait at the city gate first. We'll meet there as soon as we find it."

In the innermost private room on the second floor of the restaurant, Chen Gu was listening to the manager's work report.

"Wait, tell me more about the guests at that table on the second floor who are very generous."

The shopkeeper, unaware of the young master's intentions, swallowed hard and slowly said, "At first, four or five young men dressed in black came in, and at the end, a lady came with her personal maid. They specifically ordered two dishes with fermented black beans, which the waiter heard the maid say were specialties of Longtan."

Chen Gu suddenly stood up. "Where are they now?"

"It seems someone got lost. They left all the things they bought at the restaurant for safekeeping, saying they'd come back to pick them up later," the manager said.

"Have you found out what kind of item it was?"

"The waiter at the restaurant entrance said they looked like two teenagers."

"Has anything unusual happened in the city today?"

"No." The shopkeeper recalled for a moment, then remembered something and said, "Oh right, a group of unfamiliar street performers came."

Chen Gu waved to the shopkeeper, "Okay, I understand, you can go now."

After the shopkeeper left, he got up and walked outside.

As soon as he stepped out of the restaurant, he saw his personal servant walking towards him, covered in sweat.

"Young master, a lot of people have gathered at the county government office. They all reported that their children are missing. The county magistrate is in a terrible state and wants to ask our Chen family for help."

"What a coincidence?"

Chen Gu murmured.