After seeing Mrs. Qiao off, Eleventh Lady returned to the inner room and saw Xu Lingyi leaning on the pillow on the kang by the window in a daze.

She smiled and walked over to make a cup of tea for Xu Lingyi.

Xu Lingyi came back to his senses after hearing the noise and asked her, "How about leaving the child in my hometown and letting Xiangyi take care of him?"

The image of that sturdy but kind-looking woman emerged in Eleventh Lady's mind.

"She used to serve Mother." She smiled, "The Marquis is also familiar with her and must know her character. Since he thinks she is good, I think she can't be wrong."

Xu Lingyi stood up and said, "Let's go to mother's place. We have to talk to her about this matter."

Eleventh Lady thought it would be better for Xu Lingyi to discuss this matter with the old lady himself. If she were present, and the old lady was embarrassed, wouldn't it be a waste of time?

"Won't the Marquis go to see the child?" she said, "He said he hasn't eaten. I've been worried."

Xu Lingyi hesitated for a while and said, "Forget it! We have to send him away in a few days anyway."

He looked like he was afraid of more contact.

In a flash of lightning, Eleventh Lady suddenly realized.

People build relationships through contact.

Although I was worried about the child's situation, I only asked Amber to ask about it and didn't go to see her. To put it bluntly, I was afraid that I would develop feelings for the child if I interacted with him too much...

She couldn't help but sigh slightly.

Xu Lingyi thought that Eleventh Lady was disappointed in him. He hesitated for a while and said, "Why don't you go and take a look yourself? I'll go to mother's place and tell her about this."

Eleventh Lady didn't want to go in the first place, so she naturally agreed.

After seeing Xu Lingyi off, she was hesitating whether to go see the child when Amber ran in.

Her face turned pale, and she hastily saluted Eleventh Lady and winked at her: "Madam, Manager Bai asked me to come and see you."

Manager Bai sent someone to look for her... Eleventh Lady's first thought was that something had happened to the child!

She immediately took Amber to the inner room.

Amber couldn't wait to ask: "Master Feng Qing is missing?"

Eleventh Lady's mind buzzed and her heart pounded: "Speak clearly. What do you mean the child is missing!" Her face was as pale as paper.

Amber whispered, "I brought some food over, but Master Feng Qing hid in the corner of the bed and refused to come over to eat no matter how we coaxed him. We could force him to take a bath, but eating... Later, Sister Dongqing said that we should put the food on the table and let everyone go out, and he would eat naturally. Then we followed Sister Dongqing's instructions and put the food on the table. After more than half an hour, we went in, and Master Feng Liao and the food were gone."

Eleventh Lady breathed a sigh of relief, "Maybe the child is hiding somewhere to eat."

Amber shook her head, looking a little panicked: "Butler Bai, Lin Bo, and Zhao Ying all helped to look for it, but they couldn't find it."

Eleventh Lady suddenly remembered that the person who bought the child had never been found...

She felt that things had gotten out of hand.

"Go to the Madam Dowager and inform the Marquis without alerting others." Eleventh Lady's face was solemn, and there was a solemn air between her brows, which made Amber's heart tremble. "I'll go to Banyuepan."

Although Amber didn't know as much as Eleventh Lady, it was strange that a three-year-old child disappeared from Banyuepan.

She nodded repeatedly.

"Take a deep breath. Don't let anyone notice your flaws." Eleventh Lady instructed Amber and took a breath herself.

It has already happened, and there is no point in dwelling on it. The only thing we can do now is to find a way to deal with it.

Thinking of this, my mentality immediately calmed down.

Eleventh Lady walked out with an upright posture and Amber, who looked as usual, and then asked the maid to call Zhu Xiang.

"They are packing up their things in Banyuepan, let's go and take a look." She told Zhu Xiang with a smile.

Zhu Xiang was not suspicious and smiled, "I have always wanted to go and see it. Madam, do you want to go and see it too?"

"Yes!" Shiyi Niang chatted with her while taking her and Amber to the back garden. Amber parted ways with Shiyi Niang at the garden gate and went to the lady's place along the alley beside the lattice wall. Shiyi Niang led Zhu Xiang past the Biyi Gate Pavilion, onto the east-west bluestone passage, past the Chunyan Pavilion, and along a narrow path beside the hillside.

Zhu Xiang remained calm, and seeing that there were occasional thorns sticking out from the side of the path ahead, she stepped past Shiyi Niang and walked ahead. Soon she saw a river about ten feet wide, with a red sedan chair half a foot wide on the river.

This should be the only small bridge that leads to Banyuepan in the back garden that Luyun mentioned.

She turned around and helped Eleventh Lady: "Madam, be careful."

Eleventh Lady nodded and looked at the three thatched houses on the hillside in front of her.

The surrounding area is full of towering trees that are as thick as a man's embrace, and there are human-high fences made of yellow mud and straw. The land is divided into plots and acres, and there are well platforms made of stacked stones and windlasses made of willow wood. If you raise some geese, ducks, and chickens, it will really look like a farmyard.

The two walked quickly to the gate and were about to call for help when a handsome boy of about sixteen or seventeen years old came out. When he saw Eleventh Lady, he was delighted: "Madam, you are here."

It's a reflection.

Eleventh Lady nodded.

Zhaoying took two steps at a time and came over to open the gate. "I'm afraid that Young Master Feng Liao is hiding somewhere, so the gate has been closed." He explained.

"It's better to be cautious!" Eleventh Lady responded as she and Zhaoying entered Banyuepan.

Different from the plain and natural environment outside, the thatched house has bluestone floors, glass windows, screen cabinets and brocade lattices, and yellow pear wood furniture.

Manager Bai and Lin Bo came forward hurriedly to pay their respects.

Eleventh Lady asked seriously, "Where did you search?"

There was a stern look between her eyebrows, which startled Chief Steward Bai and Lin Bo. After a pause, Chief Steward Bai said, "We have searched everything. We are preparing to search the outer courtyard." Before he finished speaking, Dongqing and Binju, whose eyes were as red and swollen as walnuts, walked out of the east room timidly.

"Ma'am, it's all our fault." The two knelt down at the same time, "We didn't do what you asked us to do."

"Get up!" What's the point of pursuing these things now? The important thing is that everyone works together to find the person.

Zhu Xiang stepped forward and helped the two of them.

Eleventh Lady, accompanied by Manager Bai, Lin Bo and Zhao Ying, observed the house.

The east room is the study. It is filled with books. There is a big kang next to the window, a large kang table, and a copy of the Heart Sutra on the kang table. The west room is the bedroom. There is a six-post nanmu bed with a continuous inscription of ten thousand characters, a half-new stone-blue brocade curtain, a beautiful blue mattress, and a royal blue quilt. There is an agarwood screen next to the bed, a tall cabinet with four doors, a Longquan sword hanging on the wall, and a guqin on the long table next to the window.

"Where did the child go?" she asked.

Dongqing murmured, "It disappeared in the bedroom."

Eleventh Lady looked carefully but did not find the back door. She asked Zhaoying, "Besides the gate we came in through just now, is there any other way to go out?"

Zhaoying led Shiyi Niang out of the door and stood on the steps, pointing to a small path paved with bluestone at the foot of the hillside. "From here, there is a lane leading directly to the outer courtyard. Go west and straight ahead. There is a corner gate. After passing the corner gate, you will reach the outer courtyard. But this corner gate is usually locked. Only Linbo and I have the key." As he spoke, he took out a copper key strung with a red rope from his collar and said, "This is mine."

Lin Bo, who was standing by, also pulled out the copper key hanging around his neck and showed it to Shiyi Niang: "This is mine."

"We just checked. The key to the corner door is fine. The secret mark we left last time is still there. No one has touched it."

Eleventh Lady nodded and went into the house with Lin Bo, Zhao Ying, Manager Bai, Zhu Xiang and others.

She instructed Zhu Xiang, "Go get some pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and write down all the places we have searched to see if there is any place that has been missed. Then we will divide the places into blocks and search again - children are not objects that can move around." She looked at Manager Bai and said, "I will trouble Manager Bai with this matter. Let's say that something was lost in Banyuepan. Please check if anyone else has entered Banyuepan except us. Let me know in half an hour. I will know the situation and can make arrangements."

Seeing that Eleventh Lady spoke softly but in an orderly manner and clearly, Manager Bai knew that he could only arrange it this way. He also remembered that the Marquis had moved all his daily necessities to the main house... He bowed and replied "yes", and went to check the whereabouts of the women and servants.

Zhu Xiang first made a cup of hot tea for Shiyi Niang, and then got together with Binju, Dongqing, Linbo and Zhaoying to make a list of all the places they had checked.

"Under the bed, behind the curtains, behind the screen, in the high cabinet, under the desk..."

It seems like I've searched everywhere I could.

Eleventh Lady asked Zhaoying: "Who is in charge of the east room? Who is in charge of the west room? Who is in charge of the hall?"

Zhaoying said, "Ms. Dongqing and Miss Binju are in charge of the east room. Linbo and I are in charge of the west room. Miss Amber and Chief Butler Bai are in charge of the hall."

"Okay then. Now Dongqing and Zhaoying will be in charge of the main hall, Binju and Zhuxiang will be in charge of the east and west rooms, and Linbo will be in charge of the west room. Let's search again."

The six people responded in unison and searched the three rooms again, but still found nothing.

Even under the supervision of a shrewd and capable person like Bai Zongguan, there was no result, so it was impossible for me to make a qualitative change. This was within the expectations of Shiyi Niang, but the matter was of great importance, so I didn't search again, and I was a little unwilling to give up.

Now it seems that we can only wait for news from Manager Bai.

Everybody was discouraged, especially the holly and beach daisy, which looked like eggplants hit by frost - wilted.

You know, it was Holly who proposed it and Binju agreed. If we trace it back, they are the culprits.

Eleventh Lady smiled at everyone soothingly, "Let's sit down and have a rest! We've been busy for most of the day and must be tired." Then she told Zhu Xiang to make everyone a cup of tea, "Refresh yourself. Let's search the yard again!"

No one wants something like this to happen, so we need to remain calm and not try to blame others at this moment, as this will discourage everyone - if we need to search for people later, everyone will be afraid of taking responsibility, and will not seek credit but only avoid mistakes, and will definitely not do their best.

Zhu Xiang made tea skillfully.

Except for Holly and Daisy, who still had sad faces, everyone else looked relieved.

But Eleventh Lady's mind didn't stop.

She always felt that if she was kidnapped, the kidnapper would not go to the trouble of taking away the food as well.

But we searched everywhere. If he hadn't been kidnapped, how could he have flown away?

The thought flashed through her mind, and she couldn't help but look up at the roof.

Perhaps to fit in with the simplicity of the thatched house, Banyuepan did not install a ceiling, but instead painted the beams and columns black and left them exposed on the outside.

"Linbo, Zhaoying, follow me!"

The two of them hurriedly dropped their teacups and followed Eleventh Lady to the west room which was used as Xu Lingyi's bedroom.

"You go up and take a look." She pointed to the ceiling of the nanmu bed with six columns and a continuous pattern of swastikas.

The two were shocked and said nothing.

Lin Bo quickly brought a stool over, stepped on the stool, and looked up while holding on to the pillar.

"Madam!" He turned his head with a look of joy, "Master Feng Qing is upstairs."