Chapter 808 Trance
Manbao frowned and started thinking.
Old Zhou was quite worried. "Manbao, if your father's affair gets out, will you and my family be held accountable? And the people in the village, since everyone helped to keep it secret, will the county magistrate arrest everyone?"
Manbao asked, "Does the whole village know?"
Old Zhou nodded and said, "Those of you who are older know this. It was so lively when your father came back. Everyone came to our house to join in the fun."
Manbao thought about it and comforted him: "Don't be afraid, even if they are hiding a fugitive, there are so many people who committed the crime, so they will only arrest the ringleaders, such as the village chief, the village head grandfather, and my father and eldest brother."
Old Zhou was not comforted at all. He clutched his chest and said, "How can this be possible?"
Manbao knew the truth, but she relaxed a lot. She repeatedly asked her mother, "Mom, are you sure that my father is not a bad person?"
Qian nodded without thinking, "Sure!"
Manbao clenched his fist and said, "Then don't be afraid. Don't worry. The one investigating the case now is County Magistrate Tang. He's very smart and has a good heart. He won't be a foolish official. My father is not a bad man, so we must find out who killed him."
Qian couldn't help but sit up straight, holding her hand and asked, "So this is still a good thing, right?"
Manbao nodded, "Yes."
Old Zhou was skeptical. "Will they be like the officials of the past? Will they rush up and accuse your father of being a bandit and then arrest us all?"
Man Bao said, "No, when I return to Yizhou City, I will go find Magistrate Tang and ask him to help investigate this case. Unfortunately, Magistrate Yang has gone back to the capital to get married, and we don't know when he will be back. Fortunately, Magistrate Tang is very good at solving cases. I heard Mingli, who is close to him, say that he is much better at solving cases than Magistrate Yang."
Old Zhou heaved a sigh of relief, "That's good, that's good."
After discussing the important matters, the room suddenly became quiet.
Old Zhou looked at his daughter shyly and said, "Manbao, although you are not my child, the blood flowing in our bodies is still the same. Daddy still loves you as before. Don't take it to heart, okay?"
"I know, Dad."
Old Zhou finally felt relieved when he heard her call him "Dad". He held her hand with his rough palm, patted it and said, "Manbao, your dad is younger than your older brother and sister. Your mom and I raised him as our own son. You, too, were raised by us. We took care of everything from birth to death. It wasn't easy. Dad loves you the most. When you marry a son-in-law in the future, Mom and Dad will live with you instead of your older brother and take care of your children. When we are old and can't move, we will ask your brothers to carry us here to take care of us and see us to the end of our lives..."
Qian gave him a sidelong glance and asked, "Why are you saying all this?"
"Why can't I tell her? Isn't this to reassure Manbao? Let her know that no matter whether she is our biological child or not, we love her the most."
"Do you love her the most?" Qian said angrily, "When did the family ever say they wanted to find a live-in son-in-law for Manbao? How could a live-in son-in-law be a good person?"
"Why isn't she a good person? The second son is also a live-in son-in-law, isn't he a good person?" Old Zhou said, "Manbao is so capable and has such a bad temper. Which boy out there is worthy of her? If she marries someone else, what if she gets bullied? It would be better to choose a good-looking one to be a live-in son-in-law. Then we can build a house nearby. With her six brothers watching over her, who would dare to bully her?"
"You still want to keep her in the village? Manbao has read so many books, and Mr. Zhuang said she has a bright future. How can you think of keeping the child in the village..."
The couple started arguing immediately.
Manbao looked at his father, then at his mother, then quietly slipped out of bed and ran away, leaving them to quarrel on their own.
Manbao ran back to her room and was still calm when she climbed back onto the bed, but as soon as she calmed down, her heart started pounding. She was still a little confused, so she was indeed not her parents' child?
Manbao scratched her head and wanted to find someone to talk to, so she found Keke, "Keke, my father is not my father, and my mother is not my mother either."
Koko hummed, and seeing that the host didn't speak for a long time, he asked, "And then?"
Manbao: "Don't you think it's amazing?"
Koko: “I don’t think so.”
Manbao: "Forget it, I won't talk to you anymore. I'm going to talk to Bai Shan."
She turned her head and looked out the window, expectantly saying, "I don't know when the sun will rise. I still want to go and pay my respects to them. I didn't know my uncle was my father before, and I didn't know my mother was buried there too."
Koko calculated and said, "There are still nine hours and thirty-eight minutes until dawn."
Manbao lay down silently, pulled the quilt up to cover himself, put his hands on his stomach and said, "Then wake me up in eight hours."
Koko took note of it and woke Manbao up before dawn.
Manbao got up and put on her clothes. She glanced at the fog outside and heard some noise coming from the courtyard. She knew her sister-in-law must have gotten up, so she hunched her neck and crawled over.
Little Qian and Feng had already gotten up to prepare breakfast and boil water. Seeing Manbao sneaking over, Little Qian quickly grabbed her hand. Seeing that it was still warm, she breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Why are you up so early? It's still dark."
"I'm going out to look for Shanbao in a while."
"There's no need to be so early. Master Shan might not even be awake yet."
Mrs. Feng asked with a smile, "Auntie, do you want some hot water to wash your face?"
Manbao nodded.
Feng then filled a wooden basin with hot water for her and said, "Go wash up quickly and put on more clothes. It's only February and the weather is still very cold."
Manbao held the wooden basin but did not leave. He asked, "Sister-in-law, Sister-in-law, are we going to the temple fair today?"
Feng: "Yes, everyone in the family is going."
Little Qian thought for a moment and said, "Dad and Mom may not go this year. Mom asked me to put away the incense yesterday, so she should let us go and burn it."
Manbao said, "I'm not going either."
Feng looked at her strangely. "Didn't you come back to visit the temple fair? Why didn't you go?"
Manbao scratched his head and said, "I will go, but I won't go so early. I have to talk to Shanbao and see if he wants to go."
Feng Shi didn't know about their scholarly affairs, so she nodded and said, "Okay, but you have to tell my mother when she wakes up."
Manbao nodded, turned around and pulled Xiao Qian out.
Xiao Qian asked, "What's wrong?"
"Sister-in-law, please pack some incense, candles, and paper money for me."
"What do you want incense, candles, and paper money for?"
Manbao lowered his voice and said, "Go burn incense for my dear parents."
Xiao Qian looked at her in surprise and doubt, not sure whether she really knew it or was lying to her.
Manbao didn't look up at her, but just sighed and said, "My father is fine. I kowtow to him and burn incense to him every year, and I also invite him to come over to eat and drink with my grandparents, but my mother has never been invited, so I want to go and see her."
Xiao Qian opened her mouth and nodded after a while, "Okay."
The next update will be around 9pm
(End of this chapter)
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