She simply did not believe that at a Buddha Mother Festival, Wang Chan would just get lost.
In recent years, the Daughter’s Day and the Lantern Festival in the capital had been in vogue. But the livelier it was, the more cautious great households became, nothing more than for fear of accidents.
The Wang family could be considered ranked among the notable families in the capital, and Wang Chan was favored. When she went out, she must have been followed by many people. How could something like being abducted happen so easily?
Moreover, from what Wang Chan said, someone had even wanted to sell her.
Madam Lu bit her lip, feeling as though her soul were floating in the sky. Even Qi Yuan’s voice seemed distant.
It was only when Qi Yuan called her “Aunt” again that Madam Lu came back to her senses. With a bitter smile, she said, “It’s just as she said. There were too many people at the Buddha Mother Festival, so Ah Chan accidentally got separated from the servants below. We immediately had people search for her.”
Her head throbbed as if splitting apart. As she spoke of this matter, her temples still pounded incessantly. Her chest felt tight and her breath short, almost to the point she could not breathe.
But she still gritted her teeth and finished: “She was found very quickly. Nothing at all happened. It’s just people outside spreading rumors!”
When speaking of rumors, Madam Lu truly gnashed her teeth in anger.
Qi Yuan, however, was silent for a moment before raising her brows at Madam Lu. “After such a major incident, where are the servants who were following Ah Chan?”
At the mention of them, Madam Lu hated them so much she clenched her teeth. “If not for their poor supervision, Ah Chan would never have encountered such a thing. As soon as something happened, I had them all locked up. They will all be sold off!”
Qi Yuan nodded. “Let me ask them first.”
Madam Lu immediately became extremely tense and grabbed Qi Yuan’s wrist. “Yuan Jie’er! There’s no need…”
Qi Yuan turned to look at her, her gaze gradually turning cold.
She had already felt that something about this matter was not right.
First, Wang Chan was already grown, yet she got lost, this was in itself extremely inconceivable.
What were the Wang family’s servants doing?
Secondly, the Wang family had reacted immediately and even had a maid impersonate Wang Chan and return home. So why were the rumors still spreading like wildfire, even reaching Wang Chan’s ears to the point of driving her to attempt suicide?
Under Qi Yuan’s gaze, Madam Lu felt uncomfortable all over. She pressed her lips together and called out softly, “Yuan Jie’er.”
Qi Yuan looked at her deeply. “Aunt, once something has happened, it has happened. There’s no point in covering it up. It doesn’t matter if you deceive me, but you cannot deceive Ah Chan, nor can you block the long tongues of the people outside.”
Madam Lu could no longer hold back. Clutching her chest with both hands, she collapsed into a chair and suddenly began crying as well. “Yuan Jie’er, I had no choice! I truly had no choice!”
Qi Yuan simply looked at her quietly.
Madam Lu cried for quite some time before calming down, her face filled with bitterness. “That girl Ah Chan… I don’t know who she offended…”
Her hands trembling, she took out a sachet from her bosom as though it had taken all her strength. “Take a look.”
Qi Yuan reached out to take it and immediately opened the sachet. Then she unfolded the paper inside and instantly narrowed her eyes.
Inside was a portrait of Wang Chan.
Of course, it was nothing decent.
Her fingers tightened. With a slight force, the paper inside turned to dust.
“This is why you were unwilling to report to the authorities and didn’t want to make a big fuss of it, isn’t it?” Qi Yuan looked at the utterly haggard Madam Lu and asked in a deep voice, “How did you obtain this sachet?”
The Wang family was no ordinary household. To abduct Wang Chan, draw such a portrait, and send it back to the residence,
The other party certainly would not be ordinary people either.
Qi Yuan let out a cold laugh, killing intent surging in her eyes.
Madam Lu wiped the corners of her eyes. At this moment, she was truly exhausted. “When Ah Chan was rescued, her sachet had already been swapped for this one.”
Since everything had already been laid bare, Madam Lu simply broke the jar and stopped concealing anything.
She covered her eyes bitterly. “At that time we were all frightened senseless. At first we didn’t notice. We could only do our best to suppress the matter. We first dealt with the servants who had followed Ah Chan, but in truth, even those servants didn’t know exactly what had happened…”
By now Madam Lu’s back was soaked through with cold sweat.
Thinking back to the events of that night before yesterday, she still felt as though it had only been a nightmare, terribly unreal.
“As soon as your uncle returned, he interrogated them harshly. They said that at the crowded lantern festival, they were suddenly pushed apart by those carrying the statues of the deities.”
At the Buddha Mother Festival, statues of various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas would be carried in procession through the streets. At that time, the common people would all crowd around to follow, and indeed it was the easiest moment to get separated.
So many people who went out with children would quickly pull their children aside to avoid the procession when the statues came out.
For those people to choose that moment to act showed it had long been premeditated.
Many thoughts flashed rapidly through Qi Yuan’s mind, and then she suddenly asked Madam Lu, “Aunt, why did you suddenly think of going to the Buddha Mother Festival?”
Madam Lu felt even more pain. “Your grandmother and I are both believers in Buddhism. We go to the Buddha Mother Festival every year.”
Every year.
So the Wang family had long been targeted.
Qi Yuan lowered her eyes. “Then… have you offended anyone recently?”
Offended someone?
Madam Lu thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Our family has always been like this. How could we have offended anyone?”
Even if there were political enemies, that would be matters between men.
Qi Yuan pondered, picked up the sachet again, examined it repeatedly in her hand, gave a soft “Mm,” and said quietly, “I understand, Aunt. Don’t worry.”
Don’t worry?
Madam Lu’s tears immediately fell again. “How can I not worry? They deliberately sent this painting back to disgust us. They certainly don’t only want to humiliate us so simply. Your uncle and I have been on tenterhooks, afraid that…”
After all, Wang Chan had gone missing.
Who knew what else those people might have taken from Wang Chan.
If they had taken some personal belonging, destroying Wang Chan would be as easy as turning over one’s hand.
That was also why the entire Wang household had been in chaos these past few days.
Qi Yuan gave a soft “Mm.” Knowing what Madam Lu wanted to say, she stated plainly, “Aunt is afraid they still have something else in their hands that they haven’t used yet, isn’t that so?”
Madam Lu let out a heavy sigh, her heart burdened. “Yes. The most frightening thing is that we still don’t know who is behind this.”
They could only wait in fear and anxiety.
She now felt as though her very spirit was about to scatter, her whole person on the verge of collapse.
If anything happened to Wang Chan, she would not be able to go on living either.
Moreover, this concerned the reputation of all the Wang family’s daughters.
Just thinking of these things made it impossible for her to have any peace of mind. These past days she had been unable to eat or sleep properly.
Qi Yuan smiled faintly. “I understand.”
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