“What do you mean she’s missing?! That can’t be, Miss Meng! How could you lose Miss Lu?!” The proctor stared at Meng Jiao with bewilderment. The woman just informed them that Lu Xinyi had been missing, and she had no idea where her partner went.

Meng Jiao lowered her head and flinched. She inwardly sneered at the thought. Whether Lu Xinyi survived alone or not wasn’t her problem. Now that she was gone, there would be no other reason for her teammates to complain if she took over the remaining activities.

She arrived late in the afternoon when lunch had been served and already graded. While she and Lu Xinyi weren’t around for lunch, the two still earned the points their team gathered since they were still part of the meal planning.

“I really don’t know, Miss Xuan. Lu Xinyi and I agreed to meet at the same spot within an hour, but she never showed up. I waited for another hour, but it was pointless as I’ve never seen even her shadow. Do you think… do you think something might have happened to her?” she stuttered.

“You are spouting nonsense!” Miss Xuan exclaimed. The color on her face drained as she realized what could happen to her once the Shen family finds out that Lu Xinyi went missing. She threw a worried glance at General Li who had been silent the whole time, but the man never uttered a single word.

He stood up, went outside, and was met by the rushing Long Feng.

“Yuren, we got a tip that they are going to push through the plan tomorrow morning. The village on the western side would suffer a blow. As for Miss Lu, we couldn’t find any clue to where she’d gone. The heavy rainfall washed away any traces.”

“Her GPS location?” Li Yuren continued to stride towards his own tent and decided to start his plan ahead.

“Her signal was lost,” Long Feng confessed. Li Yuren halted his steps to glare on his subordinate.

“Find where the last signal was sent. It should give us a clue.”

Li Yuren stepped inside his place and prepared the necessary items he needed. Of course, he didn’t buy Meng Jiao’s claims. Her breathing wasn’t stable, and she couldn’t look directly at the proctor she was speaking with. She was talking in sentence fragments and being vague with providing specific details of what happened. Clearly, these were signs that she’d been lying between her teeth.

“Why are you still here?” Li Yuren frowned. Long Feng stood still at his doorway as if hesitating to talk.

Li Yuren’s eyes sharpened which made Long Feng shivered under his gaze.

“Alright. I’ll talk. Miss Lu’s signal vanished near the route at the southwest border,” Long Feng sighed. Of course, he already knew that there was a possibility that Lu Xinyi was stuck somewhere near the southwest border although he hoped that she’d managed to find Weeping Willow Village.

Li Yuren unbuttoned his uniform coat and took a black coat from his desk.

“We will proceed with the plan. We will block all possible exits before the sun rises. I’ll let you take three platoons to secure the area. I’ll take another group to scout the village.”

“What about Miss Lu?” Long Feng creased his brows. Why was his commander being weird right now?

“If she’s lucky, she must be at the village as we’re speaking, but that village will be infiltrated by the escaping bandits and traders as we blocked their way. If they found out about her identity…”

Li Yuren didn’t need to explain more as Long Feng understood at once what it meant. She wasn’t an ordinary citizen. It would be bad if the mercenaries took an interest in her. The bandits might overlook her, but the mercenaries wouldn’t. Li Yuren wondered what would Shen Yi’s reaction be if he knew what was happening to his wife.

“You are leaving now? I thought we’re going to send the troops later?” Did this mean that he couldn’t have a chance to eat Silver Leaf’s meals tonight? Long Feng regretted that he wasn’t able to enjoy his meal earlier. Had he known that Li Yuren would send them off earlier than their original plan, he should have eaten more.

Li Yuren shrugged his shoulder and took a saddle bag from his seat.

“We cannot delay any further. They may not harm the villagers, but if they saw Lu Xinyi that’s another matter.”

It was for the simple reason that Lu Xinyi’s identity and heritage would be enough for the mercenaries to catch her. If Lu Xinyi was able to avoid the disaster of meeting the bandits while roaming the mountain, dealing with the illegal traders and mercenaries would be a dangerous encounter.

Meng Jiao might have got the idea about the situation at the southwest border so she brought Lu Xinyi to that route. Li Yuren refused to believe that all was just a coincidence. Meng Jiao, being the sponsored student of the Sun family, wouldn’t make her innocent.

—

In the evening, Lu Xinyi was about to take her sleep when a sudden guest of her host family arrived, knocking insistently at their door. Before she could ask what was happening, loud sounds from the other side of the door reverberated throughout the house.

Shrill screaming of a woman made the two children trembled in fear. Lu Xinyi stepped out from the room provided to her and quickened her pace. As expected, the family wasn’t living peacefully like she had suspected earlier.

“Qiao Lian! You better pay your debt right now, or else I’ll take your children as collateral!” ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ​ꪶ​

Qiao Lian threw a worried look at Lu Xinyi before opening the door. As soon as she opened it, she was dragged by an old woman by her arm. Next to Lu Xinyi, Su Mei started crying while Su Yu tried to console her.

The old woman threw Qiao Lian to the ground. With her weak body, Qiao Lian could only groan in pain.

“Please, Mother. I beg you! Don’t take the children away from me!” she begged.

“Don’t call me ‘Mother’! I don’t have a useless daughter-in-law like you! Scram and don’t show your face to me again! I have tolerated you enough. If you can’t pay your debt tonight, you can’t stay here in this place anymore!” The old woman kicked Qiao Lian away.

Lu Xinyi was rendered speechless to what she had witnessed. How ruthless!

How could this old woman cut her ties to her own blood and kin like this?

The old woman’s attention then turned to Lu Xinyi. Her anger rose to another level.

“And you dare to let a stranger in my own home?! You shameless woman!” She slapped Qiao Lian’s face twice before pushing her back on the ground. “Get out of my property at this instance. I don’t want to see your face ever again!” She huffed and turned her back, leaving the family.

“Mother, what should we do?” Su Yu asked. He only turned thirteen recently, and he wasn’t old enough to work legally. The family of three only survived by scavenging the discarded crops that the farmers threw out and by hunting food from the mountain.

“We should leave before she comes back,” Qiao Lian sighed. “Miss Lu, I’m sorry for witnessing such a scene.”

Lu Xinyi shook her head and helped Qiao Lian back on her feet.

“Are you hurt anywhere? Maybe the three of you should come with me back to Jiang City.”

“But where we’re going after that? We have nothing, and we don’t have any relatives to help us.” Qiao Lian confessed.

“What about your family?” Surely, she still has her maiden family? Lu Xinyi thought.

“I’m an orphan. I don’t have a family anymore except for Yu and Mei.”

Lu Xinyi thought for a while. Su Yu and Su Mei reminded her of her childhood and her relationship with her brother Tian Lingyu. Them being kicked out from their own home also happened in the past, but unlike the Su family, no one had extended a hand to help them.

Her eyes then landed on the children. The two should be attending school at their young age. Qiao Lian only needed the right treatment so she could recover from what the woman told her.

Lu Xinyi then remembered that the manor that was still under her mother’s name was unoccupied for years. If she hadn’t met and married Shen Yi, she was probably living in that deserted place at this moment. It was a little far from the capital city, but it should be fine.

“Miss Qiao, if it’s alright with you. I have a proposition to make,” she started.

“What is it, Miss Lu?” With the sparse clothing and furniture the family had, the three were able to get most of their baggage ready.

“I have a small manor back in the capital city. I need someone to look after it.” It’s been months since she last visited the place, maybe it needed some cleaning by now. “If you can work for me, I’m willing to take your family in and support your children’s education.”

Qiao Lian fell on her knees and started crying. No one had been this good to her and her family ever since her husband passed away from an accident. The old woman, which was her mother-in-law, had blamed her for the misfortune that fell on her son.

“Miss Lu, helping us like this… how can I express my deepest gratitude? I’m in debt with Miss Lu. Whatever you want me to do, I’ll gladly help.” Her tears continued to flow.

Lu Xinyi was giving her a chance to start a new life with her children. How could she say no? If Lu Xinyi was a bad person, she wouldn’t have picked up Su Mei and helped her to come home. Her children deserve a better life than staying here at Weeping Willow Village.

“Then it’s settled,” Lu Xinyi nodded to herself. “Let’s get ready, and wear thick clothing. Are we going to hike up the mountain?”

“Go and help your sister dress herself,” Qiao Lian told her son, “Miss Lu, we can’t take the children up the mountain. It would be dangerous for us. We can take the other route—though—to reach the other side of the mountain, but it might take us two days to reach your campsite.”

Lu Xinyi agreed. A delay of a day or two should be fine as long as they could reach the campsite safely.

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