Chen Guang felt helpless and personally made a trip to the Marquis Guanjun’s residence.

“Miss Li has some business?” Discovering that the person hadn’t been brought back, Shao Mingyuan and Qiao Mo both stared at the white silk handkerchief together, losing even their appetite for food.

“What kind of business?” Shao Mingyuan asked.

Chen Guang was stunned by the question.

What business could a young lady have? How would he know! He was just a driver, not a maid.

“Did Miss Li go out?” Shao Mingyuan asked again.

“She didn’t go out.”

The young general’s brow furrowed: “If she didn’t go out, what business could she have?”

Embroidery? Tailoring? He always felt Miss Li wasn’t that type of person.

“Perhaps, maybe, Third Miss felt that she had already come twice today and didn’t want to make another trip,” Chen Guang speculated.

Who told you to be so reluctant every time you take off your clothes? The third Miss must be angry.

“Go invite her again.”

“General?” Chen Guang looked dumbfounded.

The third Miss was someone with her mind. If she didn’t want to come, how could he invite her?

Shao Mingyuan pressed his fist to his lips and coughed lightly twice: “Just say I vomited blood again.”

“This—” Chen Guang felt troubled.

It wasn’t quite right for the General to lie with his eyes wide open, was it?

“Go quickly.” Shao Mingyuan gave him a cold glance.

Chen Guang immediately straightened up: “This subordinate accepts the order.”

Qiao Zhao was sitting under a tree, eating yangmei berries.

The fresh plums were sweet and sour, refreshing, and her fingertips and lips were all stained with a light purple color.

Upon hearing that Shao Mingyuan had vomited blood again, she couldn’t be bothered to clean up and hurried over.

Vomiting blood three times in one day would be serious indeed.

It shouldn’t be like this. Could it be that he didn’t drink the medicine she had instructed him to take?

“How is General Shao?” Walking quickly into the room, Qiao Zhao immediately saw Qiao Mo standing silently by the window.

Qiao Mo turned around, his gaze meeting Qiao Zhao’s.

He looked at Qiao Zhao for a long time, his eyes obscure like deep pools.

“Big Brother Qiao?” Qiao Zhao was somewhat puzzled by Qiao Mo’s stare. Turning her head slightly, she saw Shao Mingyuan standing up.

Qiao Zhao was even more surprised. She carefully examined Shao Mingyuan and said, “General Shao, your complexion looks good. How could you vomit blood again?”

“Uh—” Shao Mingyuan opened his mouth.

To confess or continue lying—this was a big problem.

“General Shao, please extend your wrist.”

“Asking Miss Li to come this time is for some other matter.” Upon hearing about extending his wrist, someone immediately decided to confess.

Qiao Zhao’s gaze fell on Shao Mingyuan’s face. After staring for quite a while, she said flatly: “So General Shao didn’t vomit blood?”

He had learned to lie, and she had rushed over in such a panic!

Shao Mingyuan’s gaze swept across the young lady’s lips like a dragonfly touching water, and he honestly admitted his mistake: “I apologize. There was urgent business to discuss with Miss Li.”

Miss Li had come rushing over while eating something, hadn’t she?

What she was eating seemed to be plums…

Qiao Zhao’s face darkened.

Just because there was urgent business, could he take advantage of a physician’s concern for their patient?

Fine, she would temporarily not argue with him about this.

“What urgent business does General Shao have?”

Seeing that Qiao Zhao was no longer pursuing the matter, Shao Mingyuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief and couldn’t help but look toward Qiao Mo.

Qiao Mo walked over and pushed the white silk handkerchief in front of Qiao Zhao: “Is this Miss Li’s belonging?”

Qiao Zhao didn’t deny it: “Yes.”

Qiao Mo spread the handkerchief open, revealing the blood-written characters on it, his tone grave: “And these characters?”

“I wrote them too.” Qiao Zhao knew this was something that couldn’t be denied, so she admitted it openly.

Qiao Mo’s eyes tightened, and he stepped forward: “Could Miss Li write a few characters for me to see?”

“No need.” Shao Mingyuan spoke up.

Qiao Mo looked at him.

Shao Mingyuan handed Qiao Mo a prescription: “This is a prescription Miss Li just wrote. Uncle, you can take a look.”

Qiao Mo stared at the prescription intently. The ink traces on it seemed not yet completely dry, and he could smell the faint fragrance of ink.

After a long while, he placed the prescription and the white silk handkerchief side by side, his gaze falling on Qiao Zhao’s face: “Miss Li, could you explain why your handwriting is identical to my eldest sister’s handwriting?”

Qiao Zhao pressed her lips together.

Although she and her big brother had a good relationship, they hadn’t spent much time together.

In front of her big brother, she had never planned to hide anything. Deep in her heart, she had perhaps hoped that her big brother could, like Grandfather Li, become suspicious of her from various details, thus naturally leading to their recognition of each other.

But was now the right time?

Qiao Zhao couldn’t help but glance at Shao Mingyuan, feeling inexplicably nervous.

Borrowing a corpse to return the soul—although Grandfather Li could believe it, she had no confidence that her big brother would believe it, and even less confidence that Shao Mingyuan would believe it.

Of course, whether Shao Mingyuan believed it or not didn’t matter to her, but she didn’t dare gamble with her big brother.

She had no conflicts of interest with Grandfather Li, and Grandfather Li wasn’t the type to consider such things. But her big brother was different. With the sudden fire at home, her big brother couldn’t help but think more.

“Miss Li imitated my eldest sister’s handwriting. I wonder what purpose you had?” Qiao Mo’s thin lips parted slightly as he asked this question.

His eldest sister’s death was a wound in his heart. No matter how good an impression Miss Li had initially left on him, he could not tolerate anyone using his eldest sister’s name to seek something.

For example—

Qiao Mo lightly glanced at the Marquis Guanjun.

For example, the position of Marquis Guanjun’s wife, or the things that the fire had covered up.

Qiao Mo looked indifferently at the young lady before him.

This was a girl who was too clever. She could easily approach him and break down his defenses by virtue of her similarities to his eldest sister.

But were these similarities mere coincidence, or were they man-made?

With one fire, the family was instantly destroyed. Now, even the maternal family couldn’t be relied upon. What else could be trusted? Was this girl standing before him herself, or was she cultivated by some faction?

“Purpose?” Even though she had a premonition that her brother wouldn’t easily accept the fact of borrowing a corpse to return the soul, hearing Qiao Mo ask this way, Qiao Zhao felt as if she was experiencing again the pain of an arrow piercing through her heart when she stood on the city wall of Yan City that day.

The pain made her breath catch, and tears immediately flowed down.

She cried?

Qiao Mo was dumbfounded.

How did she start crying? He had prepared so many questions, and he’d only asked one!

If some faction had produced such a girl, they were truly sinister and crafty. With this crying, how could anyone continue questioning?

Crying in front of her brother was one thing, but with Shao Mingyuan standing nearby, Miss Qiao felt somewhat embarrassed.

She raised her hand to wipe the corners of her eyes and glared at Shao Mingyuan.

The young general looked completely innocent.

He hadn’t said anything!

Faced with the crying young lady, both men were momentarily dumbfounded.

“Uh, Miss Li, don’t cry. I was just asking casually—” For some reason, even though he suspected the young lady before him had impure motives, seeing her tearful eyes, Qiao Mo suddenly felt his chest tighten.

Upon hearing this, Qiao Zhao felt even more upset.

Asking casually? Big Brother was suspicious of her. How could it be asking casually?

When she had come for the first time today, Big Brother’s attitude toward her had been very cold. She had noticed it long ago.

Miss Qiao felt extremely wronged and raised her hand to wipe her tears.

Qiao Mo cast a pleading look toward Shao Mingyuan for help.