Ling Yinghua no longer cared about being an old man or a father; what he wanted to know most right now was how his precious grandson and granddaughter had been kidnapped by child traffickers. Were all the people they had around them dead?
"Lord Ling, please calm down!" Zhang Zhi whispered to Ling Yinghua, who was swaying and about to collapse.
Ling Yinghua nodded weakly, feeling a bit exhausted, but she still stood firmly and listened attentively to what was to come.
"Lord Ling has suddenly lost two grandchildren; wouldn't he be heartbroken?"
That's right. His family didn't have many children to begin with. His two sons only had three grandsons and two granddaughters. With few children, his grandsons and granddaughters were all precious.
Losing two at once, Madam Ling died of grief because of it.
The thought that his wife might die of depression because of this made Ling Yinghua suddenly feel his eyes burning, and two lines of tears flowed silently down his cheeks. Realizing that he had lost his composure, he quickly lowered his head to wipe away his tears.
"Shouldn't they all have maids, servants, and other attendants? How could they have been abducted by beggars? Were they abducted at the lantern festival?"
This matter is a bit complicated. The Ling family is considered a large family, and the Ling family is the main branch. Although their branch has never had many descendants, the Ling family has quite a few members.
These collateral branches of the clan all lived around the Lingjiu family mansion.
There's a saying among ordinary people: "A forest has all kinds of birds." The Ling family is no exception. Some members rise to prominence like the Ling family's chief minister, while others fall into poverty and rely on the protection and assistance of their clansmen to survive.
Some even committed crimes. In one particular branch of the family lived such a family: a seriously ill father, a frail mother, a young sister, and a young child.
"Little Pearl, your talent is growing! This rhyme you've created is so catchy!"
The older sister is fifteen years old, and the younger brother is six. The older sister is already engaged and they plan to get married after the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Although their father was seriously ill and their mother was weak, the family was still quite wealthy.
The marriage was arranged with the son of my father's good friend, someone he knew well.
Unfortunately, it was precisely this deep knowledge of their background that led to their family's downfall.
"Tell me, is there something wrong with this woman's fiancé?"
[His character is utterly despicable! Ling Yingda, a member of the Ling clan, married a woman named Jiang. Jiang was a traditional woman, and rather than being weak, she was overly submissive due to being educated in the Three Obediences and Four Virtues.]
She realized that the family her husband had arranged for their daughter was inappropriate; the Xia family's son had an impure gaze. She had mentioned this to her husband several times, but Ling Yingda had always reprimanded her sternly.
He was an only child and envied families with many brothers, so he chose the Xia family, whose husband's family had five brothers, for his daughter.
Despite her attempts to dissuade him, Jiang, bound by the virtues of womanhood, could not go against her husband's wishes and had no choice but to compromise.
The reason the Xia family was willing to be engaged to the Ling family's daughter was because they were after the Xia family's wealth.
"Are they trying to steal the girl's dowry?"
No, no, no, what they're after is the entire Ling family's wealth. Ling Yingda is seriously ill, and her only son is only six years old. As for Madam Jiang and Miss Ling, they are both frail women; they don't even consider the mother and daughter a threat.
"This is not right. The people here have a very strong sense of clan. It's just that Ling Yingda's branch is a bit weak. Isn't there still Chief Scholar Ling?"
Although Ling Yingda's son is young, he is still the heir. Since others have sons to inherit their property, how dare they try to seize the Ling family's assets? The Ling family wouldn't allow it!
[What if this son is gone? What if Ling Yingda only has one daughter left? Even if they can't inherit everything, they can still get most of it. If they bribe someone in the Ling family, they might actually get the vast majority.]
"So, the flower sellers are after that Ling family brat?"
The person who hired the flower seller was Xia's son. His goal was to make his future brother-in-law disappear from the Ling family, leaving Ling Yingda without an heir, and he was also unable to have children due to health reasons.
They will be the elderly couple's support in their old age.
"The Ling family has so many members, can't they just adopt someone else? It seems like no one in this era relies on their daughter for old age, right?"
[They have already bribed an elder of the Ling family. The Xia family has many sons, so they naturally won't lack grandsons. When the Ling family's daughter marries the third son of the Xia family, they will allow one of their sons to take the surname Ling and continue the Ling family line.]
"He's quite shrewd. Indeed, a child adopted by a family is never as close as one's own daughter. I bet that fool Ling Yingda will agree."
[In the original timeline, he did indeed agree, and Miss Ling's first child was a son, who also took the surname Ling as promised. Not long after the child was born, Ling Yingda's condition worsened and he passed away.]
Two years later, Jiang also passed away unexpectedly, and the Ling family's assets were completely taken over by the Xia family.
"Was this couple the work of the Xia family?"
Yes, the Ling family girl accidentally learned of this a year before the Dayan Kingdom was destroyed. She quietly gathered the poison, sent her son away, and used the medicine to send the Xia family and herself to their deaths.
"Miss Ling did a good job. Although she ended up getting herself involved, it was indeed the best way for her to get her revenge completely."
They didn't have to suffer the pain of national subjugation, so they died a worthy death.
What's the deal with the two children from the Ling family? Weren't they after Ling Yingda's family? Why did they take their child away?
[The five-year-old grandson of the Ling family ran out of the mansion while the side gate was open and unattended. His seven-year-old sister, looking for her brother, followed him out.]
"No, no, although I have never been to the Lingji family, the layout of a large family should be similar. Five years old is still the age when children should live with their parents."
How did a little boy like him manage to run from the inner courtyard through the many gates to the outer courtyard, and how did he manage to find that the side gate leading to the outside of the mansion was open, with no servants guarding it?
This is illogical and strange in every way; was it done on purpose?
【Master, you are right. There is indeed someone playing tricks here, but let's not talk about that now.】
The brother and sister left the mansion one after the other. The younger brother headed towards the lanterns and happened to run into a beggar carrying Ling Yingda's youngest son as they emerged from another alley.
Five-year-old Lingzhi saw his friend call out and Paihuazi panicked at first. Seeing that it was evening and no one was around, she picked up Lingzhi and left.
The five-year-old child was too young to understand and thought these people were taking him to play. However, his older sister, who was following behind, saw her younger brother being carried away and ran over to stop them, trying to snatch him back.
As a result, the smaller sister couldn't fight off the larger one, and she was also taken away in one fell swoop.
After listening to the whole story, Ling Yinghua felt a deep sorrow in her heart, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes again.
"These flower-pickers are really bold. The Ling siblings must be dressed in fine clothes, how dare they mess with children like that?"
Aren't you afraid that the officials will search the entire capital for them?
After the Ling family discovered that their child was missing, they searched extensively and later found that their cousin's son was also missing. They immediately guessed that their child might have been abducted.
Ling, the Imperial Scholar, immediately reported the case to the yamen (government office). The yamen runners searched for a day and a night but couldn't find any trace of the children.
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