The subordinate could only stutter, "This... this subordinate doesn"t... doesn"t know too! We haven"t found her yet!" He had tried to search along with the rest of the hidden guards that had survived, but they found no trace of Aunt Yue. He had no choice but to make a report after that.
Without a second thought, the handsome man threw a small blade toward the kneeling subordinate and it landed on his throat. He couldn"t even say a word before he fell down in a thud.
"Useless!" He threw a glance at the person beside him and said, "Clean it up!" He was feeling disgusted at the dirty sight in front of him. He didn"t need useless people!
The person beside him clapped his hands and two hidden guards appeared, they quickly cleaned the body without saying a word. Even though they pitied the dead man, it was his own fault for being useless.
The handsome man asked his right-hand man, "Any news?"
"Not yet, Young Master."
"Why does it take so long?!" The man started to get angry once again. Why did all of his subordinates suddenly become useless, huh? Did they want to anger him to death?!
The right-hand man started to sweat, knowing that his young master was in a bad mood. "It seems like there"s a powerful person behind her disappearance. We can"t even find any trace of them. But..."
The handsome man"s interest was piqued when he heard the "but". "Is there something else that I need to know?"
"We found a trace. Several people had been there last night. Even though there was no trace from the burning house, there were several footsteps that led through the house the side door," the right-hand man explained.
The quartet came in by walking, thus they left their footsteps there. One the other hand, they were pushed by Aunt Yue"s power when they left the premise --- thus, they didn"t leave any footsteps after that.
"Hmm..." The man started to feel calmer when he heard that. It meant that there was hope to find Aunt Yue"s whereabouts. "Do you find out their ident.i.ties? How many different footsteps anyway?"
The right-hand man shook his head. "Not yet, Young Master. However, we are working on it. This servant is pretty sure that we will find out about them soon. There were three different footsteps and judging from the size... one of them is a woman."
The handsome man felt frustrated but he also knew that there was no use to get angry. The only thing they could do was checking out the lead. "Go! As soon as you find something, you must quickly tell me!" The handsome man gave his order while waving his hand, gesturing to his right-hand man that he should quickly go.
After all of his subordinates were gone, he was thinking to himself. "Two men and one woman, huh? Who are they?"
He had monitored Aunt Yue"s movement for several weeks and nothing was suspicious for the past few days. The only difference that the maidservant that Uncle Qiu brought the previous day. It couldn"t be said as a weird occurrence per se... After all, Uncle Qiu never brought the same servants whenever he went there.
Was this a coincidence or...?
The handsome man clapped his hands and a hidden guard appeared in a flash, "Check out the ident.i.ty of the maidservant that Uncle Qiu brought to meet Aunt Yue the previous day!"
"Yes, Young Master!" After answering, the hidden guard disappeared in a flash.
He had a gut feeling that that maidservant was the woman that came along with the two men, however... he wasn"t too sure either, because it was just a mere guess. He was just trying his luck...
The handsome man decided to take a nap, just to let him calm his mind. After he finished taking a nap, he would feel refreshed and maybe... there would be a satisfying report from his subordinates. If he let his anger get the best of him, this room would have been wrecked by him --- fortunately, this place didn"t belong to him, that was why he needed to hold his temper back.
By the time the handsome man fell asleep, Yao Ling"s eyelashes fluttered and she finally opened her eyes. Yao Ying, who had been worried about her all along, quickly came to her side and asked cautiously, "Are you okay?"
He really wanted to kiss her hard on the lips, however, there were two light bulbs behind him! Thus, he could only hold himself back.
Yao Ling blinked her eyes a few times, trying to clear up her hazy sight. She felt a ma.s.sive headache, but she didn"t care about her own condition for one bit. She turned her eyes and asked Yao Ying in a hoa.r.s.e voice, "Grandmother? Where is my grandmother?"
Yao Ying trembled when he saw the desolate look in her eyes, but he could only answer with the truth... Yao Ying shook his head slowly... the meaning was clear, but Yao Ling still asked in a flat tone.
"Tell me clearly!" Yao Ling knew that she shouldn"t blame Yao Ying, after all, he did nothing. But still... because of the pain in her heart, she wanted to hurt him too! Why didn"t he do anything? Why didn"t he bring her grandmother along with her?!
He could have done something! But... he didn"t! That was the thing that made her feel hurt the most!
"I... I..." Yao Ying felt at a loss at what to do. He decided to explain everything that had happened the previous day with the help of Lin Jian and Xiao Fang. They reminded him if he missed some details.
Yao Ling looked up with eyes full of hope. "So... there"s a possibility that she"s still alive?"
Yao Ying could only say, "En." However, he didn"t dare to look at her eyes directly. Yao Ling was too happy about it, thus, she didn"t pay attention to Yao Ying"s movement.
The trio clearly knew that there was no possibility for Aunt Yue to survive, but they didn"t dare to say anything under Yao Ling"s current state of mind. They saw the blank look on her eyes just now and became afraid... It seemed like Aunt Yue"s death would really hit her.
After listening to Yao Ying"s a.s.surance, Yao Ling quickly smiled, "That"s great... that"s great! At least, there will be hope that my grandmother is still alive!"
The trio looked at each other helplessly, but they still tried to smile back at Yao Ling. Otherwise, the latter would feel suspicious.
Yao Ying sighed, feeling bad for actually having to lie to Yao Ling. Sooner or later, he had to break her bubble and told her the truth. However, they didn"t exactly lie... after all, they really didn"t know where Aunt Yue"s body had gone after she met "the man".
Yao Ying decided to distract her by asking, "Ling-er... how come Aunt Yue suddenly become you grandmother? Are you really a Bei Yue?" Yao Ying didn"t care where Yao Ling came from, but he was still feeling baffled by her ident.i.ty. He would never think she was actually from a prestigious hidden clan --- even more... with hidden power ah~!
Yao Ling took a glance at Xiao Fang and she didn"t know whether she should tell her about Uncle Qiu"s real ident.i.ty or not. When she woke up, there were a lot of new memories that she had gotten from Aunt Yue. Mostly, it was about her power and she knew how to undo the spell that her grandmother had cast upon her father --- but... should she undo the magic? After all, she hadn"t found out her mother"s whereabouts yet.
This was so confusing!