This young manservant was sent by Sheng Lanci, "Second Miss, Master asked me to tell you that Childe and you are arranged to go to Feng Family and congratulate them tomorrow. Please pay close attention to Childe and make sure that Childe will go and come back with you together. Please never let Childe go anywhere else!"
"Where will he go?" Sheng Weiqiao was puzzled. "It seems that his biological mother pa.s.sed away. Or does he want to go back to his foster elder brother?"
The young manservant said with a smile, "Well… I don"t know about this. I think it"s because Childe"s injuries haven"t cured yet, so Master worries about him."
Sheng Weiqiao snorted and said, "Since father worries about him so much, why does he still ask him to go to Feng Family with me? Why not just lock him here?"
Although she said that, Sheng Weiqiao still knew that Sheng Lanci took Sheng Shuihe back was definitely because he was expecting this son to take over the family business in the future. Feng Family was not only the parents" house of Sheng Shuihe"s legal mother but also one of the three major families in Nanfeng County. Sheng Shuihe, the predetermined future head of Sheng Family, would have to deal with Feng Family sooner or later. Therefore, how could he not start contacting them from now?
She motioned the young servant to leave without expressing her opinion, but she made up her mind, "It will be better if the son of a mistress leaves! I won"t keep an eye on him! Leaving and never coming back will be the best!"
When thinking about it in this way, she returned back to Zhuying Mini Villa. The left-behind Lvjin welcomed her and reported, "Miss, Young Lord Xu sent someone to ask about the eldest Childe"s preferences just now. When hearing that you were away, he said that he would come back later."
"Tomorrow, Brother Xu is going to Feng Family as well?" Sheng Weiqiao was slightly surprised, and immediately understood, "Right, when grandfather celebrated his birthday before, he congratulated my grandfather"s birthday in public. Now that Eldest Cousin is celebrating his birthday, it is not strange to send him an invitation."
Feng Family was originally focused on business management and didn"t have a bright development in politics. Actually, they were not qualified to send the invitation to Marquis" Young Lord. However, since Xu Baomo had congratulated Senior Master Sheng in public, as the relative in-law of Senior Master Sheng, it was reasonable that they should send Xu Baomo an invitation when their eldest grandson born by the legal wife of their family was going to celebrate his birthday. It would be okay if Xu Baomo thought he was in a higher position and didn"t come. However, it would be disrespectful if they didn"t send him an invitation.
According to Sheng Weiqiao"s current impression of Xu Baomo, this elder brother was a very modest and courteous person. There was no doubt that he would come to Feng Family and prepare a greeting gift.
"Although Brother Xu is humble, we can"t be too indiscreet. Go to the guest house and tell Brother Xu that Eldest Cousin must be very happy if he could go to congratulate him. As for the gift, he doesn"t have to worry about it too much. Anything will be fine!" Sheng Weiqiao called Lvqi after she had instructed Lvjin, "Go outside and call a little maid. Send her to find a servant who runs fast to tell Feng Family quietly: Brother Xu will go tomorrow!"
In fact, it was fortunate she did so. After the Feng Family received the news, they were very surprised, "How did this Young Lord agree to come?"
When they sent the invitation to Xu Baomo, they never thought that he would be here in person since Xu Baomo had no direct relationship with Feng Family. If Feng Li, the host of Feng Family, who was in the same generation as Senior Master Sheng was going to celebrate his birthday, it would be reasonable for Xu Baomo to come. But Feng Zhiren, who would celebrate his birthday this time, was the eldest grandson of Feng Family, he and Xu Baomo were in the same generation. Considering the status gap between them, it would be good enough for Feng Family if Xu Baomo sent a gift even if he did not come in person.
Therefore, Feng Family did not prepare to entertain Xu Baomo at all and it was embarra.s.sing that they just received the news. They were supposed to prepare ceremoniously if Young Lord came here in person. Otherwise, they might be suspected that they neglect the Young Lord. However, Zhiren was a junior generation of the family and this year was not a grand year of him. It would be unruly if they made this ceremony grand.
At this time, the custom was that if there were elders in the family, even if the juniors were already full of children and grandchildren, they still couldn"t hold their birthday ceremony seriously, because it meant that they were implying that they were mature, and why didn"t the elders die as soon as possible?!
In the past, the birthday ceremonies of Feng Zhiren"s generation were more like a reason to let the married aunts go home for small gatherings rather than a celebration for juniors. Usually, they would set up a table and prepare a banquet for them in the side courtyard, and their biological mother would cook a bowl of longevity noodles by herself. This kind of treatment was fine when they entertained their relatives, but it was a little casual to entertain Ningwei Marquis" Young Lord.
After thinking hard about it, Feng Family finally thought of a compromising plan: Zhiren"s birthday ceremony would no longer be held at home this time. They would reserve Orange Osmanthus Courtyard and let the young generation hang out there!
Orange Osmanthus Courtyard was the estate of Xuanyu Family which was not inside the county. On the contrary, it was located in an osmanthus forest on the sh.o.r.e of Fangfei Lake, which was a famous tourist resort outside the city.
Not only the chefs could make excellent cuisines in this place, the layouts inside and outside were also ingenious. Besides, some entertainers from Tianxiang Lou and other famous brothels would play music in the lobby in turn, and the entertainers could also enter the elegant private room to accompany them. Although they couldn"t really do anything through this companion, it could at least activate the atmosphere with the traditional stringed and woodwind instruments on the side and the beauty holding the pot.
If the weather were good, they could also place the banquet inside the osmanthus forest and on the sh.o.r.e of Fangfei Lake: there were hundreds of birds which were feed by Orange Osmanthus Courtyard in the forest. All of them had rich feathers and were good at singing and dancing. Guests could put their alcohol under the branches and leaves like they were in an uninhabited forest and the earthly hara.s.sment, which could make hustle and bustle go away instantly; There were a large number of koi fish inside the lake. Whenever they saw people coming, they would gather beside the sh.o.r.e and ask for food. Green water and red scales enhanced each other"s beauty, which made the water brighter and the koi more flamboyant.
… Xuanyu Family had taken a lot of effort into this restaurant, so there was no doubt that the price was high. Those who could often come here were all the top wealthy people of Nanfeng County. If Feng Family didn"t come personally and the one who would be entertained was not Marquis" Young Lord, Mrs. Feng might not agree to their reservation. Feng Family had done this consciously, which would not only show how they value Young Lord"s coming and congratulation so much but also would not break the custom. It was so perfect and well-considered!
However, there were unpredictable circ.u.mstances. It was still sunny and bright in the morning, but after the group of people arrived at Orange Osmanthus Courtyard, even before they finished introducing and greeting each other, the sky became gloomy quickly, the black clouds gathered, the thunder roared, and lightning flashed. It seemed that it was going to rain!
Although Orange Osmanthus Courtyard was less than five miles away from the gate of the county, there was a saying that the son from a rich family could never be near the dangerous place. There was also a Sheng Weiqiao who could only take the carriage. If the horse which was drawing the carriage stumbled and this sweet baby girl fell and b.u.mped, everyone except Xu Baomo could probably be punished.
Therefore, Feng Zhiren and Xuanyu She collected everyone"s opinions. Then he decided to tell Orange Osmanthus Courtyard to start preparing and send a servant to go back to the city and report, "If the rain doesn"t stop in the evening, we will stay in Orange Osmanthus Courtyard for one night. In case there might be an accident because of the muddy road."
As a result, the rain really did not stop or become any lighter when it got dark. The three families in the city had already sent a reply in the afternoon to express their agreement with the arrangement but they told them to be careful and especially not to leave Sheng Weiqiao alone.
"So, still not any news about Third Miss Sheng and Miss Shen?" After hearing this, Feng Zhiren and others naturally understood that he was worrying that Sheng Weiqiao would follow in the footsteps of the two sisters and just disappear. In fact, Feng Family was relatives only with the eldest branch of Sheng Family. As for the daughter of the second branch and the cousin of Sheng Family, they were not familiar with them and naturally were not very concerned about them.
After hearing the euphemistic reminder from the Sheng Family, they mentioned, "How could it happen like that? Youngest Uncle offered a reward of one hundred thousand taels. Even if the kidnapers were much greedier, they should send a message anyway to make Youngest Uncle raise the price or something?"
After hearing that, Sheng Weiqiao said sadly, "Maybe there will be some good news tomorrow."
Of course, her words were just a good hope. In fact, now many people thought that these two sisters might have been murdered even before Sheng Lanci had offered that reward.
After all, both Sheng Weirao and Shen Jiuniang were girls who were raised in deep boudoirs and rarely showed their faces. They were unlikely to be involved in events related to hatred or love debts, so the kidnappers must have been all for money.
The reason why no one had undertaken that task was mostly that the sisters were no longer alive. No one could send them back to Sheng Family in peace. Once the truth is found, the murderer would have to bear the rage of Sheng Family. Therefore, it was still being hidden perfectly until now!
Feng Zhiren and the others thought so too. At the moment, they comforted Sheng Weiqiao and then shifted the topic, "I heard that younger cousin will take the apprentice examination next year?"
"Just to watch." Sheng Shuihe was aware that Sheng Weiqiao had been concerned about Shen Jiuniang and Sheng Weirao for the past two days. Even if she represented her parents to come to congratulate Feng Zhiren, she was not in a good mood. Sheng Shuihe didn"t want to completely annoy this younger sister. Unlike in Xuanyu Family before, he attracted people"s attention and didn"t care about the host"s face. Today, he kept silent. Now when asked by Feng Family, he finally smiled slightly and said, "Father meant to let me feel the atmosphere in the examination. But I am dull after all and I am not sure whether I can pa.s.s the examination."
"Speaking of the apprentice examination, although I don"t know whether the details of the apprentice examination of two counties are exactly the same or not, I have some experience and would like to discuss it with my younger brother." Xu Baomo interrupted with a smile, and said, "When I took the apprentice examination…."
On that day, there was only one female guest, Sheng Weiqiao, and all the other guests were male.
The rules of Feng Family and Xuanyu Family were the same. The ancestral property could only be inherited by the son born by the legal wife, and the other sons shared the other property. If they wanted to stand out, they would have to rely on themselves. Therefore, many of the six brothers of Feng Family also wanted to take the imperial examination and they were naturally very interested in Xu Baomo"s experience. They listened and asked again and again for a while and their discussions were in full swing. They even didn"t want to stop and longed for more until the end of the dinner.
However, they did not know that Xu Baomo who had attracted them had glanced at Sheng Weiqiao secretly several times and had seen that this girl, who had been designated as his granddaughter-in-law by his grandfather, staring at the bowl in front of her eyes listlessly and feeling bemused. He sulked secretly because actually, he didn"t plan to come here in person when he received that invitation. On one hand, as Feng Family had guessed, he was in high status. On the other hand, the two missing cousins still had no news. No one had said that it was his fault, but after all, if he didn"t come to Sheng Family, Senior Master Sheng wouldn"t need to arrange this trip to entertain him and the two girls might not be in trouble.
Xu Baomo felt a little guilty. He had been paying close attention to the result of the reward these days, and naturally, he was in no mood to go out.
However, when he was planning not to come in person but just to send a gift, he heard surprisingly that the six Childes in their generation of Feng Family were all unmarried and unengaged!
He thought of the phrase "cousin brother and cousin sister are born to be a pair" immediately at that time. In order to prevent Feng Family from "robbing" his prospective fiancée, he decided to come in person to investigate the situation of his "enemies"!
However, he hadn"t found any information about his "enemies". In contrast, because of the phrase that he wanted to please his prospective brother-in-law instinctively, he ignored Sheng Weiqiao indirectly.
Xu Baomo was so anxious and unsettled, hoping that Big Weiqiao would not blame him because of this.
When the feast finally ended, Xu Baomo still wanted to find a chance to say some good words to Sheng Weiqiao. However, Xuanyu She wanted to arrange a place for him firstly to show how they valued this most distinguished guest. Orange Osmanthus Courtyard was just a restaurant, not an inn.
However, because the surrounding scenery was beautiful and the chef"s culinary skill was good, members of Xuanyu Family occasionally came to stay for a short time.
Especially when orange osmanthuses were in full bloom in the autumn, Mrs. Feng would even come in person to taste the osmanthus cakes made by the chef. Therefore, a small building was set up near the lake, which was not open to the public, but only to entertain friends and relatives who had a relationship with Xuanyu Family.
This group of people was naturally eligible to stay. This place had been cleaned after it rained in the morning and had also been fumigated with some insect repellent herbs, which made the whole building full of a slight medicinal fragrance.
Xuanyu She and Feng Zhiren insisted on arranging Xu Baomo in the largest and most luxurious room. Xu Baomo tried so hard to give the room to Sheng Weiqiao, but finally, he did not even get the room next to Sheng Weiqiao"s and he had to live next door to Sheng Shuihe. In order to implement the elders" instructions, the room arrangement was as follows: Sheng Weiqiao was in the center and Sheng Shuihe and Feng Zhiren, as the older brother and the oldest cousin, were set in Sheng Weiqiao"s left and right side separately.
The room next to Xu Baomo"s was Sheng Shuihe"s, and then the others of Feng Family and Xuanyu She.
Although no one thought Orange Osmanthus Courtyard would be in danger, for the sake of caution, before Sheng Weiqiao entered her room, Feng Zhiren went in and inspected by himself. He also bolted the window tightly for her, and even lay down to check that there was nothing wrong under the bed. Additionally, he also told his younger cousin not to open the window, let alone open the door casually. After that, he finally sent her into the room to settle down relievedly.
They thought they were cautious enough, and there would be no problem. But at noon of the next day, when the people of Feng Family and Xuanyu She woke up contentedly from a smooth sleep, they were told a piece of news which almost made all of them jumped into the lake: Xu Baomo, Sheng Weiqiao, and Sheng Shuihe, they three were all missing!!!