Bang bang bang~~
Suddenly, there was a loud knocking at the courtyard gate, and Granny Wang quickly went out to open it.
The Fourth Master strode in with a gloomy expression and went straight into the courtyard. Several maids were discussing how to tell the Fourth Master that Lanqin had not yet returned. When they suddenly saw the Fourth Master appear so openly, they immediately panicked.
Xi Cha knew Lan Qin's instructions: never mention her late return to anyone, including Fourth Master.
"Where is your master?" Fourth Master's cold gaze swept over the group of people.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, the Princess... she hasn't returned yet~" Xi Cha told the truth tremblingly, because she couldn't help but feel uneasy under the Fourth Prince's murderous gaze.
"If it weren't for the two sedan chair bearers returning, you probably would have kept the courtyard gates tightly shut and managed to keep it a secret!" The Fourth Master had just returned to the front courtyard when the Head Granny came to report to him with two sedan chair bearers. Instantly, his recently relaxed heart clenched again. It was already past 7 PM! Damn it, why hadn't that woman returned yet?!
"Where did she go? Tell me now!" the Fourth Prince almost roared. "Did she say what she would do after leaving the Seventh Prince's residence?"
Xi Cha and the others were so frightened that they knelt down and cried, saying, "Gege said that after seeing Dong Gege, she would go to the temple fair in Dashilan. The other servants don't know anything about that."
Fourth Master frowned. What they said matched what the sedan bearers said, but that was all. Lanqin had arranged to meet the sedan bearers at a certain time, but she didn't meet them at the agreed place. Something must have happened that prevented her and Nianxue from going to the agreed place.
Damn it, where is that woman right now?
"I'll come back and settle the score with you when I find her!" Fourth Master kicked over a potted plant in the yard in a fit of rage, his whole body burning with fury. Su Peisheng had never seen Fourth Master lose his temper like this before. He was always cold and taciturn, and had never shown his inner anger to anyone.
Before long, the head nanny had gathered all the guards in the mansion in front of the Fourth Master, as instructed by him.
"Take this portrait and search every tavern in the Dashilan area right now to see if anyone has seen the people in the painting!" In less than half an hour, Fourth Master sketched portraits of Lanqin and Nianxue with a brush.
Fourth Master knew that if Lanqin went out on her own, she would definitely go to a place like a tavern.
Eating is always one of her favorite things.
The group was divided into several teams, each carrying portraits of Lanqin and Nianxue, and set off under the cover of night. The Fourth Master, of course, wouldn't just sit in the house and wait. He had Su Peisheng bring the two sedan chair bearers to him again. Their eyes were darting around, and they were uneasy, their hands nervously tucked behind their backs so that the Fourth Master wouldn't see their inner tension.
But just because Fourth Master couldn't see it didn't mean others couldn't. Su Peisheng was standing to their side and naturally saw the little thing he was doing behind his back.
"Do you know your crimes?" Fourth Master sternly swept his gaze over the two men with their heads bowed before him.
"This servant shouldn't have gone to Dashilan with Princess Niu and failed to dissuade her. Please forgive me, Your Majesty." Wang De clenched his fists tightly, trying to make his voice sound calm.
"When did you servants become so ungrateful that you knew your master had made a mistake but did nothing to stop him or report it immediately? Su Peisheng, it seems I need to give these people a good talking-to." The Fourth Master had naturally noticed Wang De and Zhang Chu's panic and immediately became suspicious of them.
"My lord, please forgive me. I didn't mean to. I had no choice but to accept Princess Yan Yu's money," Zhang Chu suddenly said.
At this moment, Wang De wished he could kick Zhang Chu. His master hadn't even mentioned Yan Yu's matter, yet Zhang Chu had brought it up himself.
"What did you say? Tell me the whole story right now! Su Peisheng, go and have the head maid bring some men over. If these two dogs don't tell the truth, drag them out and beat them!" Fourth Master raised his long eyebrows and shouted at the two servants in front of him.
The two men were so frightened that they immediately knelt on the ground with a thud. Zhang Chu, in particular, was so scared that he begged for mercy repeatedly, saying, "Master, I'll talk, I'll tell you everything."
Meanwhile, one of the groups of people who left the Fourth Prince's mansion finally found a clue about Lanqin at the tavern where she had once been.
Needless to say, before the portly chef could even figure out what was going on, he was taken away by these skilled martial artists. The tavern had already closed, and the manager was in the kitchen with the portly chef, tallying up the day's ingredients, when suddenly the door was broken down. The intruders were all dressed in matching black robes, clearly not ordinary people. The manager didn't dare to be careless. After understanding the intruders' intentions and glancing at the portrait—the portly chef did too—he uttered only four words, "I've seen her before," before being blindfolded and taken away.
When his eyes saw light again, he found himself in an unfamiliar room. A strange man stood before him, whose innate air of nobility and oppressive presence made the fat chef extremely uncomfortable.
"When did you see the women in the painting, and where did they go? Tell me everything you know, without missing a single word. If you say anything false, I guarantee you won't see the sun tomorrow." Fourth Master's face was so gloomy that it could freeze anything, and even Su Peisheng stood aside, not daring to breathe.
Lanqin has been missing for several hours now, how could he not be anxious?
"This young lady appeared in the kitchen of the tavern where I cook around 3 PM today. She said someone was chasing them and asked me to lead them out the back door. I took them to the back door, and they left. However, as soon as I returned to the kitchen, I saw two more people asking about the back door, just like those two young ladies. I didn't think much of it at the time and led them to the back door as well. That's all I know; I really don't know anything else." Even if the fat chef was slow-witted, looking at the Fourth Master's robes, he knew that the person standing in front of him was definitely not an ordinary wealthy family, so he immediately told him everything he knew.
"What's special about those two men behind them? Have you seen them before?" Fourth Master's eyelids twitched. To find Lanqin, he had to find out the characteristics of those two men. He was almost certain that Lanqin's disappearance was related to those two.
"I only remember that one of them had a full beard and a hooked nose, and his clothes were similar to ours, but they must have been foreigners." The fat chef tried hard to recall the two people he had seen, trying to come up with some distinctive features.
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