[It was said that the child would be sent to stay at his maternal grandparents' house for a while. Xue Chao was so carefree that he sent five people to accompany the child, one of whom was Xue Ju's personal servant.]
When Xue Ju returned to the Xue family, he gave a vague account of his disappearance, which was only revealed after a major event occurred.
People then pieced together the events surrounding Xue Ju's disappearance based on the information they had gathered.
Three days before the Lantern Festival, eight-year-old Xue Ju went to his maternal grandfather's house with a servant boy and four servants sent by his father.
Xue Ju's maternal grandparents lived in Rongcheng, which was 200 miles away from the capital.
Why not stay at the Marquis's residence for the Lantern Festival before leaving?
His father, Xue Chao, gave him the reason that he should go to his maternal grandparents' house for the Lantern Festival, which would make the two elders happier.
As for the actual details, only Xue Chao himself knows best.
Xue Chao, who was called out, looked dejected and ignored the glances his colleagues were giving him.
Only the two gazes from above made him feel uneasy, and a cold sweat broke out on his body.
He recalled that his wife's younger brother (his second wife) had approached him before the New Year, saying that their family wanted a grandson with a title. The reason they were willing to marry their sister to him, a widower, was because they valued their family's title, which would bring blessings to their descendants.
If this request had been made when they were first discussing marriage, he might have rejected the proposal. But with the wedding still over a month away and the invitations already sent out, Xue Chao was now in a difficult position.
More importantly, he had met the Liu family girl several times, and it could be said that she suited Xue Chao's taste in both appearance and temperament.
He had to admit that he preferred Liu, who was in the prime of her life and gentle and charming, to his ex-wife Liao, whose strong personality made her look at him with eyes full of admiration.
He then asked his brother-in-law, Liu Yuzhou, what Lingniang thought about this matter. Liu Yuzhou told him that his sister was filial and followed her parents' arrangements in everything.
After returning home, Xue Chao thought about it for three days. Then he heard that his eldest son was fighting with his second brother's son, Da Ge'er. He was furious. The decision he had been unable to make for a long time seemed to finally have an excuse to send his son away.
The five of them traveled in two horse-drawn carriages, and they hadn't gone far, only about ten miles outside the city. They stopped at a teahouse to rest and have some tea...
When he woke up again, he found himself in a different place, with ropes tied around his body and children around him. Xue Ju immediately knew that the teahouse where they had been drinking tea was a shady establishment.
Those people must have been sentries placed outside the city by Brother Que De. They must have seen that Xue Ju and his group of four only had a young master and a half-grown boy with them, while the six of them were driving two carriages.
Judging from the tire tracks left in the mud, the vehicle must have been loaded with a lot of things. It was greed that led them to rob the people, disregarding the fact that the men clearly came from a powerful and wealthy family.
After the Lantern Festival, Xue Ju and the three children from the Ling family were secretly transported out of the city and sold to various places far from the capital.
"Little Bead, is what you're saying true?"
These are all outsiders' speculations. The truth is that the carriage that took Xue Ju to his maternal grandfather's house didn't go far out of the city before it reached a mountain valley where several people were already waiting.
Upon seeing the group, the four drivers jumped off the carriage without a word and left without looking back, leaving only the unsuspecting Xue Ju and his servant on board.
Once the two were taken to the scoundrel's lair, there was no escape.
"Was Xue Ju handed over to human traffickers by the Xue family? No, not handed over! There were still two cartloads of things, weren't there? They gave him away to human traffickers as payment."
Who did it? Xue Chao or Xue Yao?
The faces of the Xue father and son had turned from pale to deathly white, and cold sweat was slowly seeping from their foreheads.
【Master, guess what's most important to the Marquis's mansion in the eyes of the Xue family?】
After a moment's thought, Yue Fuguang said, "A noble title?"
Yes, it's a noble title. Having a noble title means having status, power, and wealth. The Xue family only has one noble title, and it's currently a certainty that it will be inherited by Xue Chao, who has already been appointed as the heir apparent.
But the Xue family has more than one son. Xue Yao currently has five sons, four legitimate and one illegitimate.
Let's not even talk about his half-brother; he's the youngest and also a son born out of wedlock, so it's not his turn anyway.
Do you think Xue Chao's other three brothers want this title?
"Was Xue Ju given away for a pittance by his own uncle? They are, after all, brothers of the same mother as Xue Chao. Even if they wanted to seize the title, shouldn't they have killed the heir Xue Chao first?"
How can we directly target the third generation?
Even without Xue Ju, Xue Chao, who is about to get married, can still have another legitimate son, right?
"It's not like he can't have children. With hens laying eggs, why worry about not having enough?"
Xue Yao closed his eyes, his face ashen. His worst fears had come true. In order to dispel his sons' hopes...
He had long ago requested that the eldest son be granted the title of heir apparent, intending to put an end to their hopes, but little did he know that they had not given up at all.
Although Xue Chao, who was able to lay eggs, looked unwell, he felt that Xiao Xianjun's words, though rough, were reasonable. As long as he was still alive, even without Ju Ge'er, he would have other sons.
His heart sank at the thought. Was his good brother going to make a move against him next?
"Should we just get rid of him? Then Father..." Xue Chao looked at Xue Yao, and both father and son understood each other's meaning.
Before they could think further, they heard the divine artifact say, "Master, what if Xue Chao wasn't born to the current Lady Hou? What if Xue Chao can't have children in the future?"
Xue Yao closed his eyes, while Xue Chao opened his eyes wide, looking at his father in disbelief.
Wasn't his mother's lack of closeness to him due to the fact that he was raised in his grandmother's room since childhood? Was his younger brother's lack of closeness to him also due to the same reason and his grandmother's favoritism?
And...and what does it mean that he can't have children anymore?
He already had Ju-ge'er and Rui-jie'er. If Liao-shi hadn't died along with her unborn child, he would have had a second son named Gui-ge'er by now.
Why...why can't he have children?!
Xue Chao stared intently at his father, Xue Yao, hoping he could give him an answer.
Under the gaze of his eldest son, which seemed to pierce through him, Xue Yao kept his eyes tightly shut, unable to face him at all.
"What does it mean that he wasn't born to Lady Hou? Does it mean that Xue Chao, like Xi Ling, was born to someone else?"
And what does "infertility" mean? Xue Chao seems quite healthy, and the presence of Xue Ju and Xue Rui proves he is fertile.
Xue Chao nodded frantically in his mind. Yes, yes, he has sons and daughters, how could he suddenly become incapacitated!
【Master, let's talk about the first one. Xue Chao and Xi Ling do look a bit alike, but Xue Chao's birth mother is dead and has not remarried.】
His birth mother was Jiang Wan, a wealthy young lady whom Xue Yao met while stationed near the border of Nanzhao. The two fell in love at first sight and got married after meeting again.
The following year, she became pregnant with Xue Chao. Just as she was about to give birth, the Nanzhao army launched a night attack on the border city. Jiang Wan was terrified and went into premature labor and a difficult delivery. She gave birth to Xue Chao with great effort, but then died from postpartum hemorrhage.
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