"It's fine, but I'm not willing to risk my life," the old man said, clinging to his life.

"Come with me, I'll find someone skilled in drawing. You describe it, and he'll draw it. Is that alright?" Lan Yamei had already figured out how to find the two missing people. Although there were no security cameras in this era, two grown people couldn't just vanish into thin air. People who have fainted are as heavy as stones! Someone must have seen them being moved!

"Alright, I'll be a good person this time too." The old man said, stuffing the silver ingot into his pocket, hiding his tools in the grass, and then following Lan Ya Mei away.

According to the previous owner's memories, there was a private school on the main street, where an old scholar taught about a dozen students. In this era, anyone who could write and draw could definitely be found in a private school.

Just as she reached the door, a child of about eleven or twelve years old came up to her with a smile and greeted her, "Good morning, Aunt Lan."

Lan Ya Mei was completely bewildered. Relatives here? She quickly searched her memories and realized it was the son of Zheng Xiu Jing, the fishing boat owner on the river in the village. She hurriedly grabbed the child's hand and asked, "Are you studying here?"

The child nodded.

Lan Yamei quickly asked, "Can you draw?"

The child nodded again.

"Okay, would you be willing to do me a favor, Auntie?"

Seeing that it was still early, she said, "Okay, Aunt Lan, you go ahead." The little schoolbag the child was carrying was a piece of cloth with several books rolled up inside, tied horizontally on his back, which looked quite cute.

The old man led the two to a nearby breakfast stall, asked for a table, and the child listened and drew, making corrections as he went. In less than the time it takes to drink two cups of tea, a lifelike horse-drawn carriage appeared before Lan Ya Mei's eyes.

Lan Yamei took the painting and asked the old man, "Is this the kind of car?"

The old man looked at it carefully and nodded, "This is it! Don't let my age fool you, my eyesight is still good, I can't be wrong! There are three people in total, and a masked man in black is driving the carriage."

After thanking the old man and giving the child some copper coins, he hurried off to the Flower Pavilion.

She had seen this carriage before at the Flower Pavilion. Back then, when she was waiting at the entrance to follow the old Taoist priest, she witnessed the exact same carriage enter the corner gate of the Flower Pavilion.

When she arrived, she saw from afar that Hua Manlou was completely surrounded by soldiers, and there were also many onlookers. Just as she was about to get closer, someone grabbed her from behind. When she turned around, she saw that it was Qiu Zeyu.

The two retreated to a less crowded corner.

"Why are you here?" Qiu Zeyu had just arrived when he discovered that something had happened at Hua Manlou, so he could only stop at the door to watch.

"Then, take a look." He said, taking the painting out of his pocket.

Qiu Zeyu glanced at it and asked, "What do you mean?"

Lan Yamei then recounted how she had discovered the clues, and pointed to the carriage in the painting, saying, "This carriage belongs to Hua Manlou! I've seen it before."

"Oh? But we can't get in now! Murong Xingchen is a new broom sweeping clean, and the first thing he did was burn down Hua Manlou." Qiu Zeyu clicked his tongue twice.

"What about Aunt Guan and Uncle Ouyang?" Lan Yamei worried that their lives were in danger. Now that the authorities were investigating, what if they decided to kill them all?

"Don't worry, they should be safe. I already searched the place before Murong Xingchen brought his men, but they weren't there," Qiu Zeyu reassured him.

Lan Yamei had no choice but to give up and asked, "What charge did Murong Xingchen give you?"

You know, a woman can't manage such a large operation on her own; there must be someone behind it! To bring down Hua Manlou, we need a very good reason.

"They say it's to harbor remnants of the previous dynasty!" Qiu Zeyu said calmly.

"Is he crazy? How dare he spout such nonsense?"

Qiu Zeyu was speechless, somewhat confused by Murong Xingchen's tactics.

At this point, the crowd began to stir, and many people even started whistling.

A procession of horses pulled prison carts, carrying this group of beautiful women, headed towards the Lin'an government office.

There were more than fifty vehicles, with twenty people in each vehicle. The women huddled together, trying to hide their faces, while onlookers feasted their eyes and cheered. The crowd was eventually dispersed by the soldiers.

The last prison cart carrying Hua Yuhe was escorted by Murong Xingchen on horseback, a very impressive sight.

Lan Yamei and Qiu Zeyu squeezed through the crowd and waved to Murong Xingchen. Hua Yuhe saw the two of them, snorted disdainfully, and turned her head away.

Murong Xingchen dismounted, clasped his hands in greeting, and asked, "Gentlemen, I have urgent business to attend to. What is it?"

Lan Yamei said simply, "This morning, Aunt Guan and Uncle Ouyang both went missing, and the clinic has been forced to close! Has Lord Murong been able to find them?"

Qiu Zeyu nodded in agreement.

"Any suspicious clues?" Murong Xingchen was very concerned about Doctor Mei's life, after all, his younger sister and brother still needed Doctor Mei's care.

Lan Yamei took out the drawing and handed it to Murong Xingchen, saying, "Someone saw that this carriage took the person away."

Before Murong Xingchen could speak, Hua Yuhe, inside the prison cart, burst into laughter, her body shaking with mirth and her face contorted in rage.

"What are you laughing at?" Lan Yamei finally lost her temper.

"I'm glad you're so clever, you even know how to draw a picture!" She then covered her mouth and burst into laughter. "But you'll never find your dear aunt again!"

"Did you tie her up?" Lan Yamei rushed over and shook the wooden cage, wishing she could grab her by the neck and make her explain.

The other person turned away and refused to say a word.

Just as Qiu Zeyu was about to draw his sword, Murong Xingchen stopped him, "If you two trust me, go back and wait for news. I will send someone to inform you immediately if I have any leads!"

Since that's the case, we can only watch as Murong Xingchen leads his team away.

The commotion subsided, and the streets returned to their usual appearance. Only the Flower Pavilion was sealed off by soldiers and guarded by officers!

The two exchanged a glance, both looking dejected. The world is so big; hiding someone is too easy, finding someone is too hard!

On the way back to the shop, I ran into Tie Tou, who was riding a horse.

"Boss! Boss!" Tie Tou dismounted, clasped his hands in a fist salute to Qiu Zeyu, and hurriedly said, "Er Gou and his wife will be buried this afternoon."

"Now that things have come to this, I really have no face to see them." Lan Yamei never imagined that in this era, getting things done and taking revenge would be so difficult!

"Let's go see him off! Catching Wu Tongling won't be a matter of a day or two," Qiu Zeyu advised.

The two returned to the shop, retrieved their horses, and led Wang Fengyang towards the village where Er Gou lived.

In the distance, I saw a group of people dressed in mourning clothes, scattering paper money to clear the way. No one was crying; they just walked silently, eerily quiet.

When people in the village died, their bodies were sold to their ancestral graves. The four of them silently tied white mourning cloths around their necks and followed the procession.

Only after the last shovel of yellow earth was thrown up, and everyone took off their mourning clothes, burned the wreaths and the remaining paper money for the deceased, did they return to the village in twos and threes.

The entire funeral was handled by the village head, and it was done beautifully. After seeing everyone off, the village head came over to Lan Yamei and said, "You've worked hard these past few days, go home now!"

"Thank you, village head," Lan Yamei said sincerely.

The village head waved his hand, took out a stack of receipts and money from his pocket, stuffed them into Lan Yamei's hand, and left with his hands behind his back.