“There’s no helping it. Father has already agreed. If worst comes to worst, we’ll just spread the reason why Marquis Guanjun came to take Qiao Mo. This way it becomes a touching story while protecting the Minister’s residence from any damage to its reputation.”

“What reason?”

“He said he dreamed of Zhaozhao.”

Does this work too? Madam Mao stared wide-eyed, her lips trembling for quite a while before she could speak.

“What Father has agreed to must be done, whether it works or not. Hurry up and make the arrangements.” Kou Bohai urged.

When little Qiao Wan learned she was to be taken away by the bad person who killed her sister, she was completely stunned. But she still firmly remembered her identity as a daughter of the Qiao family. With her elder brother also ill, she couldn’t act spoiled or throw tantrums and let the people of her maternal grandfather’s household look down on her.

So the little girl kept holding back until she got into the carriage, when she finally burst into tears with a wail.

Shao Mingyuan, riding on horseback, pulled on his reins.

“General, the little girl is crying,” a personal guard reminded him.

It had already grown dark, and the shops along the street had extinguished their lights. With this procession traveling the road, plus the faint sound of a young girl crying from within the carriage, the occasional passersby were so frightened they fled at full speed.

Shao Mingyuan turned his horse around and came beside the carriage, dismounted, and bent down to enter the carriage.

A lamp was lit inside the carriage. A neat woman in her forties was attending to Qiao Mo, helpless against the young girl’s crying. Upon seeing Shao Mingyuan enter, she said embarrassedly: “Lord Marquis, this old servant cannot console her—”

“Take good care of Young Master Qiao.”

Shao Mingyuan looked at Qiao Wan, whose eyes were red from crying, and asked gently: “Why are you crying?”

“Big Brother and I don’t want to go to your house.”

“You like living at your maternal grandfather’s house?”

Hearing Shao Mingyuan ask this, Qiao Wan wrinkled her brow.

She didn’t like living at her maternal grandfather’s house either. She liked living at the apricot grove in Jia Feng, and she liked living at the Qiao residence in the capital. Only in these two places was she free and at ease—they were her real homes.

But at least her maternal grandfather’s house had her female cousins. What did this bad person’s house have?

“Can you send us back?”

“What do you call me?” Facing the seven or eight-year-old girl, Shao Mingyuan asked with a smile.

Qiao Wan pouted.

This person was annoying! Did he want to hear her call him brother-in-law?

Bah! In his dreams!

“I said, can you send us back?”

The person being questioned closed his eyes and rested against the carriage wall, showing no response whatsoever to the little girl’s question.

Under the candlelight, his face was pale as ink, his eyebrows black as ink. The stark contrast between black and white made his entire being appear cold and distant.

“Don’t pretend to sleep—” Qiao Wan reached out to pull at Shao Mingyuan, but when her fingertips touched his ice-cold hand, she jerked back suddenly. Fear arose in her heart, and she blurted out: “Brother-in-law?”

Shao Mingyuan opened his eyes, his dark pupils showing amusement: “Mm?”

Having already called out, for a little girl, calling again wasn’t difficult. She bit her lip and said huffily, “Brother-in-law, why are you scaring people? I just asked you whether you could send us back.”

“No.” Someone answered crisply and decisively.

Qiao Wan glared: “You, you didn’t promise after I called you brother-in-law?”

“Uh, no. When you called me brother-in-law, I just knew you wanted to talk to me.”

“You, you… Liar!” Qiao Wan was so angry that she pressed her lips together and stopped talking.

Shao Mingyuan had no experience coaxing children. Seeing that she had stopped crying, he bent down and left the carriage.

Qiao Wan: “…” What kind of person was this? Truly a big villain!

The carriage gradually disappeared into the night. When dawn pulled back the curtain on a new day, news that Marquis Guanjun had taken his brother-in-law away because his deceased wife appeared in his dreams instantly spread throughout the streets and alleys.

Whether something could become gossip that people tirelessly spread had its particular requirements.

Marquis Guanjun’s status, his deceased wife appearing in dreams, his brother-in-law’s circumstances—each factor could instantly trigger people’s gossip instincts. When these three are combined, they naturally provide the best conversation material for people’s leisure time.

Qiao Zhao had slept soundly through the night and was eating a flower roll when A’Zhu, who had just returned from touring the main kitchen, told her this gossip.

“Cough cough cough—” Upon suddenly hearing this news, Qiao Zhao accidentally bit her lower lip, immediately drawing blood.

She coughed repeatedly, waving away A’Zhu, who was preparing to pat her back, and after catching her breath, asked: “Are people outside really saying this? That Marquis Guanjun dreamed… that his deceased wife appeared to him in a dream?”

“It’s true. Even the vegetable vendors on the street are saying that Marquis Guanjun has deep and devoted feelings for his deceased wife.”

Damn his deep and devoted feelings, damn his deceased wife appearing in dreams! That scoundrel really could lie without batting an eye. She was still alive—where did this deceased wife appearing in dreams come from?

Qiao Zhao closed her eyes to calm her emotions and instructed Binglu: “Go call Chen Guang for me.”

Since Chen Guang from the west side courtyard couldn’t conveniently come over, Qiao Zhao met with him in the pavilion as usual.

“Miss isn’t going out today?”

“I am.”

Chen Guang was stunned.

He was just asking casually! With such strong sun, he didn’t want to go out!

“To Chunfeng Tavern.”

“Alright, I’ll go prepare the horse right away!” The coachman instantly came to life.

What did hot weather matter? He had later heard from Chi Young Master’s servant Tao Sheng that Chi Young Master had waited until he got heatstroke just to see Third Miss!

Look at that spirit! If he didn’t work harder for the General, there really would be no hope left.

“Wait, I still have questions for you.” Qiao Zhao completely didn’t understand why this coachman seemed to have been injected with stimulants, and said with a stern face.

“Please speak, Miss.” Chen Guang returned.

“Yesterday, General Shao went to Minister Kou’s residence and took Young Master Qiao away?”

“Ah.”

“Then why didn’t I hear you mention it?”

Chen Guang looked aggrieved: “Miss, the General didn’t tell me! Think about it—what’s the General’s status, and what’s mine? How could the General discuss his plans with me? Don’t you think so?”

Miss Qiao’s face grew even darker.

What she meant was that Shao Mingyuan was taking Big Brother away without revealing anything to her!

Yesterday when they met, his attitude in admitting fault seemed so good, but now she understood—admitting fault was admitting fault, but he would continue being headstrong as usual!

“Then go prepare the carriage.” Qiao Zhao stood up and walked out with Binglu.

Li Jiǎo emerged from behind the flower trellis, supporting herself against a rose branch. After thinking for a moment, she returned to her room and hurriedly changed into men’s clothing. Together with her maid disguised as a servant, she left the residence, stuffed a piece of broken silver into the hands of an idle man sunning himself against the wall corner, and instructed: “Quietly follow that blue-curtained carriage stopped by that wall corner. See where the carriage goes and quickly return to tell us. The rest of this silver will be yours.”

The gleaming piece of broken silver before his eyes was like a pie falling from heaven for the idle man. He eagerly agreed, and as soon as that small blue-curtained carriage moved, he quietly followed.

Chen Guang hummed a little tune as he drove the carriage, in quite good spirits. Inadvertently turning back, he caught a distant glimpse of a figure trailing behind the carriage.

Though the person wasn’t close to the carriage, due to the keen instincts developed from years of campaign with the General in the Northern Territories, Chen Guang couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

Well, well, someone was following them!