Yu Qizhe's eyes darkened slightly as he waited quietly for Lu Jin's next words.
Lu Jin lowered his voice and slowly spoke, "The old mute said that seven or eight years ago, there was indeed a distinguished guest who often went to Tianxiang Pavilion for dinner. He was a handsome man. When the man went to Tianxiang Pavilion for dinner, he often brought a little girl of five or six years old with him. Coincidentally, the old mute knew the little girl."
"The old mute said that the little girl's name was Ah Fu. She moved to Huairou with her parents the year the new emperor ascended the throne. She lived next door to the old mute. The father loved Ah Fu very much, but the mother was not very kind to Ah Fu. Ah Fu was very thin and often hid to cry. The old mute felt sorry for her and once gave her a candy man. Since then, Ah Fu often went to the mute's yard to play."
Yu Qizhe seemed to realize something. He curled his fingers slightly and continued to listen with an expressionless face.
"More than a year later, one day the old mute went to Tianxiang Pavilion to deliver firewood. When he came back, he brought spring rolls from Tianxiang Pavilion to Ah Fu. When he got home, he saw someone guarding the door next door. He didn't know who had gone there. He waited until dark that day. The spring rolls were cold, and Ah Fu didn't go to play with him. The next day, the old mute saw that no one was guarding the door next door, so he went to knock on the door, but it turned out that no one was inside. It seemed that Ah Fu's family next door had moved out in a hurry overnight. Since then, Ah Fu's family next door has never returned."
"More than half a year later, the old mute went to Tianxiang Pavilion to deliver firewood and unexpectedly saw Ah Fu following a handsome man. He asked the people in the kitchen of Tianxiang Pavilion, but they were very secretive and only said that the handsome man was a nobleman from the capital, a big shot that even the Huairou prefect could not afford to offend, and that he came from the palace. The old mute was thinking about Ah Fu. It happened that the new emperor ascended the throne in those years and the palace was short of people. Poor families often sold their children to serve the nobles in the palace. The old mute was worried that Ah Fu was sold to the palace by her mother to be a maid. One time, he deliberately carried firewood and waited outside the door of Tianxiang Pavilion. But Ah Fu didn't know him when he saw him. He heard Ah Fu calling the handsome man Master and being ordered by the man to do things. Moreover, the man didn't call Ah Fu Ah Fu, but another name."
"Yu Jiao?" Yu Qizhe closed his eyes, and was certain in his heart, "That man is Cheng Ying?"
Lu Jin nodded, "The old mute thought Ah Fu was really sold out by her mother, so he followed Cheng Ying's carriage in a hurry, all the way to his residence, and was caught by Cheng Ying's men and brought to Cheng Ying. Little Ah Fu... that is, Miss Yu no longer pretended not to recognize him, and cried and pleaded for the old mute in front of Cheng Ying. Cheng Ying saw that he was a mute who could not even speak and could only gesture, so she asked her men to throw him out. Little Ah Fu secretly followed him out, and called him Uncle Mute as before, and told the old mute that Cheng Ying was a eunuch in the palace, very powerful, and loved to kill people, and told the old mute not to look for her again in the future."
"The old mute still misses Ah Fu. He knows that I came from the capital, and he asked me if I had ever been to the palace and if I knew a girl named Ah... Yu Jiao in the palace." Lu Jin said, "He thought that Miss Yu was sold to the eunuch by her mother and entered the palace."
Yu Qizhe had a complicated look on his face. According to Lu Jin, Cheng Ying had known Yu Jiao many years ago, accepted her as her apprentice, and changed her name to Yu Jiao.
Well... now that he has adopted Yu Jiao as his adopted daughter and treats Yu Jiao a little differently, it does make sense.
But if Yu Jiao had been with Cheng Ying since she was young, why does she not remember Cheng Ying at all now?
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