"General, are we really just having a meal together? Then please promise that you won't do that again..."
Chen Yao blushed and stopped talking without going on.
What happened just now...?
Xiao Yan knew it of course.
He also understood that he had indeed gone too far these past few times and nearly lost control every time.
"Yaoyao, cough, I... will try my best..." He only answered her question vaguely.
Chen Yao: ...
If this had to happen every day, she would feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. After all, in some ways, Xiao Yan was much more difficult to deal with than Xiao Yue.
"By the way, Yaoyao." Xiao Yan suddenly remembered the proposal they hadn't finished discussing. "How about I have a matchmaker come to your house to formally propose marriage in the next few days? What do you think?"
Propose marriage?
The greedy faces of her biological father and stepmother flashed quickly in Chen Yao's mind, and her brows furrowed slightly.
Is now really a good time?
"General, why don't we wait a little longer? Let's talk about it after a while." Chen Yao suggested. She wanted to wait until Qi He found out what he wanted to find out.
Xiao Yan immediately looked at her quietly, that look, tsk...
"Yaoyao, why don't you go earlier? I want to marry you soon."
Chen Yao: "It won't be too late to propose marriage after your injury has healed, General."
Xiao Yan was stunned. He actually overlooked this.
Indeed, just as Chen Yao said, it would be better to propose marriage after his injuries have healed.
"Yaoyao, I'll listen to you then." He said with a smile.
"Okay." Chen Yao also smiled.
*
General Zhongwu's Mansion.
Since Qi He found his aunt's portrait, he has been staying in the study, frowning and thinking.
Chen Yao's facial features and demeanor look so much like her aunt's, so she is most likely her aunt's daughter.
Then, we just need to check the residence information provided by Chen Yao, and we will soon know the real situation.
But...if my aunt really lives in Qingshui Village, then why hasn't she ever returned home in all these years?
Could it be that she encountered something else and didn't want to go back home?
Or rather—
Can’t go back home?
in addition……
Another point of confusion is, if the aunt was in Qingshui Village, why did the people they sent out to look for her in the mountain village on the edge of the north city never find her?
In the meantime, there are still many areas that need to be checked.
Qi He quickly wrote a few words on the paper and called the secret guard.
"Ruofeng, Ruoying."
"General." Ruofeng and Ruoying, who were on standby at any time, quickly stepped forward and saluted.
Qi He folded up the paper with dried ink on it and handed it to them, saying, "Be careful and don't make too much noise."
"clear."
…
It only took a few days to investigate and we got a lot of useful information.
After learning all the information, Qi He went to see his father.
In the study.
Qi He's expression was serious and solemn: "Dad, I have something important to report."
General Qi Huaian, the Loyal and Martial, looked at him in surprise and said, "What's the important matter? Just tell me."
So Qi He told his father everything he had found out about his aunt.
At first, Qi Huaian was ecstatic when he heard Qi He say that he had found out that Qi Qingyun had given birth to children in Qingshui Village.
But soon, when he heard Qi He say that Qi Qingyun had passed away more than ten years ago, he felt a black screen in front of his eyes and a dull pain in his heart, and he almost couldn't recover.
When Qi He noticed something was wrong with his father, he stopped talking.
He knew the deep affection between his father and aunt, and he also knew the pain his father and grandfather had felt over the years, and he knew their deepest hopes over the years.
They always believed that even if they couldn't find Qi Qingyun, she should still be alive, and one day they would be able to see her again.
Only now——
But this is the result and reality.
How can this not make people feel sad and devastated?
"He'er, maybe... the person you found out is not your aunt?" Qi Huaian said with a trembling voice.
Qi He pursed his lips and said, "When I first got the news, I thought the same as you do now, so I asked Ruofeng and Ruoying to take the portrait I copied and quietly ask a few households to see how they reacted.
As a result, they all said without exception that the person looked exactly like him, but the person in the village did not look as elegant and noble as the person in the portrait when he was alive..."
Qi Huaian found it hard to accept this reality. He moved his lips for a long time but couldn't utter a word.
Just as Qi He was hesitating whether to continue, Qi Huaian suddenly spoke:
"But...we've sent people into Qingshui Village with portraits before to investigate. Why do all the villagers claim they've never seen one?"
When this was mentioned, Qi He clenched his fists slightly.
"Dad, back then, the man who rescued my aunt secretly hid her at home and didn't let her show up in public. A long time later, when they were about to get married, the villagers finally learned that there was a new person in his family."
"The people we sent to look for my aunt probably went to Qingshui Village shortly after the accident. They happened to be in hiding during that time, so they didn't find any trace of her."
"No wonder... No wonder..." Qi Huaian closed his eyes, unable to hide his grief.
"At first... we searched every village on the northern edge of the city. After searching several times without success, we evacuated everyone and began to focus our efforts on searching further out..."
"Who would have thought... that I would miss it so abruptly..."
"He'er, Daddy hates me so much... I regret it so much..."
Qi He comforted him: "Dad, this is really fate, don't blame yourself too much."
Then he thought about how he had met Chen Yao by chance, and that was how he was able to follow the clues, so he said:
"Finding someone is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. This time, if I hadn't happened to meet someone who looked very similar to my aunt, I wouldn't have been able to find all this so quickly."
Qi Huaian was stunned. "He'er, what did you say? Someone who looks very similar to your aunt?"
Qi He: "Dad, it's like this. I saw someone who looked very similar to my aunt in General Dingyuan's mansion, so I wanted to investigate further."
Qi Huaian was shocked. "Tell me the details quickly."
So Qi He told her that Chen Yao was his aunt's daughter, and also told her about her tragic experiences over the years.
As for her current situation, Qi He actually didn't know much about it, mainly because Xiao Yan didn't give him any chance to find out more.
Therefore, he simply said that Chen Yao should be doing some servant work in General Dingyuan's mansion.
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