Miss Xie was so anxious that she was about to cry.
Nan Qianyue helped her up, "Don't rush, tell me slowly, what happened to him?"
With a sob in her voice, Miss Xie recounted, "Yesterday, my brother and father argued over my mother's dowry. In a fit of anger, my father beat my brother fifty times. This morning, I went to deliver medicine to my brother, but he wasn't in his room."
"I've ordered people to search everywhere, but we can't find him at all. I know Miss Nan knows my brother better than I do, so I have no choice but to beg you. My father and the others don't care whether my brother lives or dies and won't even let me go looking for him..."
Miss Xie could no longer hold back her tears. She had had enough of struggling alone. If it weren't for her grandmother protecting her, she probably would have gone to see her mother long ago.
Now that her brother has finally returned to the capital, all she wants is to be filial to their grandmother with him and to protect the property left by their maternal grandfather and mother. If anything happens to her brother, how will she live, and how will she fight against that stepmother?
Nanqianyue had a general understanding of Xie Yanzhou's family. She hugged Miss Xie with heartache and stroked her back, saying, "I will do my best to find him."
There are many servants here, so Miss Xie probably can't go into details.
"Green Robe, go and tell the steward to arrange a carriage."
“I have a carriage, take mine!” Miss Xie raised her tear-stained face.
...Inside the carriage.
Only when no one else was around did Miss Xie dare to tell Nan Qianyue all the messy things that happened in her family, down to the smallest detail.
The more I listened to "Southward Migration," the angrier I got. The villains in the play, if they were in real life, would really make me grit my teeth in hatred.
That Prince Xie was a heartless and vicious man, a typical example of favoring his concubine over his wife.
The emperor immediately promoted his concubine, Huang, to the position of wife after his first wife, Yu, died. He even allowed Huang to take over the first wife's dowry, treated Huang's two sons like treasures, and treated the first wife's sons like dirt.
Fortunately, Miss Xie was the only daughter in the family, so she was able to retain a place in society. In addition, she had always been raised by her grandmother, which prevented the concubine from succeeding in harming her.
“My mother’s death was suspicious from the start. My brother suspected that the bandits who killed my mother were not by chance, but were arranged by Huang. That’s why he went to the Jianghu to find evidence.”
"Yesterday, my elder brother presented my father with evidence of Huang's embezzlement of my mother's dowry and her arrangement for bandits to kill my mother. However, my father did not even look at it and directly pointed at my elder brother and cursed him."
"My elder brother got into an argument with Father because he couldn't stand it, and Father used that as an excuse to have him beaten fifty times. My brother's previous injuries hadn't fully healed, and now he'd been beaten so many times. How could his body possibly withstand that?"
Miss Xie cried bitterly, sobbing and shrinking into Nanqianyue's arms.
While comforting her, Nanqianyue pondered carefully: Where would Xie Yanzhou go?
"Where did you search? Could he have gone to your mother's family home?" Nan Qianyue guessed.
To everyone's surprise, Miss Xie cried even harder. She sobbed, "My mother was an only child. When my maternal grandfather learned of my mother's death... he fell seriously ill, but he couldn't be saved and followed her..."
She has no family home.
After moving south, Yue realized that the richest family in the capital was not the Xie family, but the Yu family, the maternal family of Xie Yanzhou's mother.
After the passing of their mother and maternal grandfather, the Yu family's property was handed over to Xie Yanzhou and his sister.
Surely Xie Shizi and Huang Shi wouldn't consider the Yu family's property as their own, otherwise why would people in the capital say the Xie family is the richest?
How despicable.
"I understand!" Miss Xie suddenly raised her head, her face red from crying.
Nanqianyue blinked. "...Do you know where your brother is?"
Miss Xie sobbed, "Grave! Mother's grave!"
——
In the western suburbs of Beijing, the trees are sparse but towering.
Many large families have their cemeteries here, making it look quite "lively." However, Miss Xie's mother's grave is located in a more remote area, perhaps because the young master Xie deliberately buried her far away.
The carriage could only enter the outer perimeter of the cemetery, and could not go to the remote areas, so the group of people who were migrating south were on foot heading to the Yu family's tomb.
The moonlit night was bright, and from afar it could spot a forlorn figure in front of the gray tombstone.
"Xie Yanzhou is right there." Nan Qianyue pulled Miss Xie behind a tree.
Looking at Miss Xie, whose eyes were red and swollen, she suggested, "You are his own sister, why don't you go and find out how he is doing?"
Upon hearing this, Miss Xie's tears fell again. "...I think my brother would rather see you, Miss Nan, please, go see my brother..."
"Alright, alright, stop crying, or you'll go blind. I'll go with you, let's go." Nan Qianyue pulled her away.
"I'm not going." Miss Xie shrank back behind the tree to hide. "Miss Nan, you go ahead. We'll wait for you here."
Looking at Miss Xie and then at the people at her grave, Nanqian Yue finally relented, "...Alright."
The main problem was that she suddenly realized she didn't know how to comfort people anymore. Xie Yanzhou's condition was too serious, and she didn't know where to begin in comforting him.
Xie Yanzhou knelt before the tombstone, his entire being exuding an aura of death.
As he moved south, Yue tried to walk as quietly as possible. Only when he got close did he see that his back was covered in bloodstains, the bloodstains from being beaten with a board.
Why is he hitting the back? How is this any different from being flogged? What kind of father is this? He's too cruel! Does he want to beat his own son to death?!
"Is it Qianqian?"
Xie Yanzhou did not move, but made a weak and feeble sound.
Nan Qianyue was shocked. The man who gave her the dagger last time was so cheerful, but only a day later, he had become so dejected.
"It's me."
Nan Qianyue walked over and squatted down beside him, looking up at him. His handsome face was devoid of any vitality.
“You are badly injured. Let me treat your wounds first. I brought the medicine; it’s in the carriage.” Nan Qianyue reached out to support his arm, but did not force him to get up. She waited silently for his reply.
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