"Ah? This is the Second Miss who has been missing for many years?"
Cheng Hezhou looked at Li Jingru with a shocked expression, and then carefully examined her appearance.
It really does look somewhat similar. How come he didn't notice it before?
His parents were servants of the old lady, but he had never actually met this second young lady.
He pulled a folded portrait from his pocket; it was a picture of Li Jingru when she was young.
"Yuanyuan, I don't know him!"
When Li Jingru saw Cheng Hezhou staring straight at her, she quickly hid behind Fang Yuan and shook her head at him.
"I know, Mother is alright," Fang Yuan comforted Li Jingru.
"It really is! Apart from the costume, it's about 80% similar. How come I didn't notice it before!" Cheng Hezhou said excitedly, his hands trembling as he held the portrait.
He's damned! He didn't even notice that the young lady had been with them for so long.
“Of course it’s true, she is my aunt. Although I haven’t seen her for more than ten years, her appearance hasn’t changed, she’s just lost some weight,” Li Chengzhe said with certainty.
He thought of his aunt, a noble lady from a noble family, who had ended up marrying a hunter.
I felt sorry for her.
Cheng Hezhou wiped his eyes, put the portrait away, and bowed to Li Jingru with great excitement, saying:
"You've suffered so much these past years, my dear. I'm so ashamed that I didn't even recognize you."
He never expected that this girl from Fangyuan would turn out to be one of his own; such a coincidence, which he had never even dreamed of, had actually happened to him.
“My mother didn’t suffer because she met my father. My father treats my mother very well!” Fang Cheng quickly interjected.
She was very smart; she knew that her maternal grandparents' family was wealthy, and that these people always said her mother had suffered because they thought her father was poor.
But her father treated her mother very well, and she couldn't let them look down on her father.
"Hahaha, yes, yes, I misspoke. Is this the second young lady of my aunt's family? I apologize to the second young lady."
Now that this little girl has become his master, he dares not joke around so casually anymore.
"Okay, but you can't say bad things about my dad." Fang Cheng blushed before replying.
Is she a prostitute now?
We can't let our parents and older sister down.
“Yes, we can’t say bad things about Daddy,” the little boy Fang Yi chimed in.
"Yes, yes, yes, I feel sorry for my aunt and would never dare to say anything bad about my husband."
Cheng Hezhou looked at the group of people, who were listening to everything they said, and he felt only one or two words in his heart: happy.
The mission, which has lasted for so many years, is finally complete.
Fang Yi nodded in agreement with his second sister, then looked at Fang Yuan:
"Big sister... no, I mean big brother, big brother, can I see father? Please don't take my cloud cake, okay?"
After saying that, she covered her mouth, looking rather pitiful.
He misspoke just now, will his older sister take away his food?
Fang Yuan patted the little one's head, "Don't worry, your big sister won't punish you."
Both of them just revealed her true identity as a woman, though I don't know how they found out.
Fortunately, there's no need to hide it anymore.
"Big sister, I want to see Father too!" Fang Cheng said anxiously upon seeing this.
"Okay, but Father is injured and is recuperating. Please don't wake him up, okay?"
Fang Yuan gave the two a few instructions before leading them to the carriage where Fang Congshan was resting.
Fang Yuan's mother stayed by his side the whole time, without saying a word, but her eyes were red.
It's clear that she still remembers the man who took care of her for many years.
When the curtain was opened and Fang Cheng saw Fang Congshan sleeping in the carriage, tears immediately streamed down her face.
"It really is Father! We've found Father!"
"Daddy~ Daddy~"
Little Fang Yi had almost forgotten Fang Congshan, but upon seeing him again, he immediately remembered him and called out to him loudly.
Fang Congshan, who was in a deep sleep, seemed to hear something, and his brows furrowed slightly, but he ultimately did not wake up.
"Brother Shan~~ Brother Shan, what's wrong? Waaah~ Yuanyuan, what happened to your father?"
Li Jingru also recognized the man who had been with her for many years, and she burst into tears, wanting to go up and see him.
Fang Yuan quickly grabbed her and coaxed her:
"Don't be afraid, Mother. Father is fine. He's sleeping right now. Please don't wake him, okay?"
Her father has wounds all over his body; it would be bad if they reopened.
Is your father sleeping?
Li Jingru looked at Fang Yuan with teary eyes and asked.
"Really, Yuanyuan wouldn't lie to you. Okay, stop crying!"
As Fang Yuan spoke, he pulled Li Jingru aside and then handed her the oil paper package.
"Come on, have some candied hawthorn!"
Li Jingru's attention was immediately diverted when she saw the oil paper package in Fang Yuan's hand:
"More candied hawthorns? Mother loves round ones the most."
She was drawn to the candied hawthorns, and naturally stopped crying.
"Big sister, I want one too!"
Seeing this, Fang Yi, the little boy, immediately wiped away his tears and came over.
"Alright, you all eat your candied hawthorns quietly. Come back when Daddy wakes up."
Fang Yuan knew this would happen, so he quickly opened the oil paper package in his hand, inside which were three strings of slightly melted candied hawthorns.
She had specifically exchanged these beforehand, and now they came in handy.
They gave each of the three a string of candied hawthorns and then coaxed them back to the donkey cart.
Turning to look at Li Chengzhe and Cheng Hezhou's hesitant expressions, Fang Yuan remained very calm.
She coughed a few times and spoke:
"Um... Third Cousin, right? It's getting late, why don't we rest here for the night?"
"Of course!"
When he heard Fang Yuan call him cousin, Li Chengzhe nodded blankly, feeling somewhat unaccustomed to it.
His cousin is both scholarly and martial, capable of both strength and gentleness; he truly admires her.
However, this was the first time he had ever seen an aunt who needed to be coaxed; his aunt had always been the one to coax him when he was a child.
"Are there still bandits around here?" Fang Yuan asked again after looking around.
If there are still bandits, then things will be terrible.
They currently have only ten people in total, and they are all elderly, weak, sick, or disabled.
If there were really bandits, she might not be able to save them.
Lee Seung-cheol shook his head: "Since those people were impersonating bandits, the real bandits should have already been silenced."
All the passing caravans were killed, so how could the bandits who went up the mountain still be alive?
“What the Third Young Master says is true. These people must have come here under the pretext of suppressing bandits. We found quite a few good things on them,” Cheng Hezhou quickly replied.
When he searched the bandits' homes, he found a lot of gold and silver jewelry on them.
This looks like it was stolen from somewhere.
But real bandits would have gone back to the mountains long ago if they had looted this much stuff; these people are clearly fakes.
“Alright, let’s rest here for now. My father and that young master are still injured, so I need to find some herbs to brew some medicine for them.”
She glanced around and saw that there were already quite a few plants on the surrounding hillsides.
She has the ability to distinguish herbs, and can more or less find some herbs that match the symptoms to cover up her condition.
"Your father?"
These words left Cheng Hezhou somewhat confused.
Didn't this young lady say her father was in the capital? Where did this father come from on the way here?
“It’s the other seriously injured middle-aged guard from that carriage earlier,” Li Chengzhe replied.
He didn't refer to him as a servant, which was a way of giving his uncle face.
He was very saddened that his aunt had married a hunter.
Fortunately, his uncle had a cousin with exceptional talent, so he was slightly less disgusted.
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