Chapter 42 - Three Little Munchkins

Gao Manor.

Gao Yuan stood under the cold wind and looked at the heavy snow in the courtyard.

Qi Lin did not sleep well. He planned to “escape” in the middle of the night and go to the most prosperous place in the Capital to take a stroll. Unexpectedly, when he pushed open the door, he saw his great uncle standing at the door in a daze. He was so frightened that his knees went weak!

But soon, he realized that his great uncle did not see him. He secretly heaved a sigh of relief. After hesitating for a while, he walked towards his great uncle. “Great Uncle, it’s so cold. Why are you standing in the wind?”

Gao Yuan’s gaze was still on the heavy snow. “The weather is going to change.”

“Change?” Qi Lin looked at the snow that filled the sky and said in confusion, “It’s already so cold. How else can it change?”

“I’ll ask you again. Where is my son?”

“Chancellor Gao, I’ll give you one last chance. I’ll count to three. If you still don’t tell me where my son is, I’ll kill your grandnephew.”

Gao Yuan closed his eyes with a complicated expression. “Two more days… Two more days before they go missing…”

His voice was extremely soft, but Qi Lin’s hearing was good.

Qi Lin was puzzled. “What is missing? Who’s missing?”

Great Uncle has been really strange recently…

…

Yu Wan was woken up by the sound of chewing. She turned around and saw a big bump on the blanket beside her. Little Bruiser was kneeling under the blanket with his butt up. He was holding a piece of soft and sweet shrimp puff pastry in his hand and stuffing it into his mouth.

He thought that his voice was not loud, but he did not know that he had woken Yu Wan up.

Yu Wan did not know whether to laugh or cry.

For the past two nights, she kept hearing the sound of a little mouse biting something. It turned out that she wasn’t dreaming, nor was it a little mouse. It was this little Bruiser who stole food.

“How many times have I told you not to eat at night? You’ll damage your teeth, understand?”

As soon as Yu Wan’s voice sounded, there was no more movement from the blanket.

Yu Wan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Alright, it’s dawn. Come out and eat if you want.”

Little Bruiser refused to come out.

At this moment, a faint sound came from behind the kitchen.

Yu Wan looked in the direction of the kitchen and patted Little Bruiser’s butt through the blanket. “I’ll deal with you when I get back.”

With that, she put on her clothes and went to the backyard to open the door for Yu Feng.

They received three orders at the Bai Manor’s birthday banquet. They were thirty pounds of white braised mutton, ten braised ducks, twenty braised pork knuckles, ten pounds of braised tofu, five pounds of braised intestines, and ten pounds of pork belly. Today was the delivery day, and the location was at White Jade Restaurant.

However, Yu Feng was not here to ask her to deliver the goods. He was here to deliver buns to Yu Wan. “The buns that have just come out of the pot. They have cabbage fillings, mutton fillings, and brown sugar.”

“Thank you, Big Brother.” Yu Wan took the basket, started a fire, and heated the buns in the pot. After washing up, she took a brown sugar bun and left with Yu Feng.

They took the ox cart that they had rented with Shuanzi’s father two days ago to town.

The town was even livelier than usual. There was a lot of traffic and pedestrians were rubbing shoulders with each other. Some were returning to the Capital, while others were returning to their hometowns. The restaurants and inns were all full. Even the Jadeite Pavilion, which had lost most of its business to the White Jade Restaurant, was filled with customers.

The siblings carried the braised food into the White Jade Restaurant.

“The Yu siblings are here?” Shopkeeper Zhou walked over with a smile.

“Shopkeeper Zhou,” Yu Wan greeted. “We’re here to deliver food.”

Shopkeeper Zhou said pleasantly, “You’re really early. They haven’t arrived yet, but it doesn’t matter. Miss has already instructed that if they haven’t arrived yet, you can just leave the dishes here. I’ll pay you the money first.”

Yu Wan did not refuse. “Thank you, Shopkeeper Zhou.”

“It’s a small matter!” Shopkeeper Zhou waved his hand and turned to check the goods.

Yu Feng suddenly said, “Is Miss Bai not around?”

Yu Wan glanced at him.

Shopkeeper Zhou was stunned for a moment before saying, “Miss has returned to the Capital. I’m afraid she won’t come back before the New Year.”

“She went back by herself?” Yu Feng asked.

Shopkeeper Zhou smiled. “The Old Master brought her back.”

“I see…” Yu Feng was a little surprised.

Yu Wan was the same. She originally thought that Old Master Bai was biased to the bone and did not care about Bai Tang’s life at all. It seemed that he still doted on her. It was just that perhaps he was not that fair at all.

“Eighty copper coins for a pound of braised mutton, one hundred copper coins for a braised duck, eighty copper coins for a braised pork knuckle, ten copper coins for a pound of braised tofu…” As Shopkeeper Zhou read, he calculated with his abacus. Soon, he calculated all the accounts. “A total of four taels of silver and eight hundred and forty copper coins.”

This was the New Year’s price, and it was double that of usual.

Yu Wan was very satisfied. After taking the silver, Yu Wan thanked Shopkeeper Zhou.

“I’m going to drive the ox cart. Wait for me here,” Yu Feng said. Their ox cart was parked in the alley on the right of the White Jade Restaurant, and there were workers watching it.

Yu Feng left.

Yu Wan waited for him in the hall, but after waiting for a while, she did not see Yu Feng drive the ox cart over. Yu Wan felt that something was wrong and quickly walked to the alley where the ox cart was parked.

The ox cart was still there, but Yu Feng had disappeared.

Yu Wan asked the shop assistant about the carriage, but was told that Yu Feng did not come to drive the ox cart at all.

Yu Wan went to the toilet and backyard to look, but there was still no sign of Yu Feng.

This was strange. Yu Feng was not someone who would leave without saying goodbye. If he had any changes at the last minute, he would definitely inform her first.

“Are you looking for your big brother?” Asked a young shop assistant who was dusting.

Yu Wan nodded. “Have you seen him?”

The young man pointed to another alley not far away. “He and a few others went that way.”

Yu Wan’s first reaction was that Yu Feng had been kidnapped.

In fact, Yu Wan had guessed correctly. Yu Feng had been kidnapped by a few hooligans. When the siblings pulled the cart of goods into the White Jade Restaurant, the hooligans had already targeted them. However, the hooligans probably did not expect that the silver was not with Yu Feng but in Yu Wan’s hands.

In that case, Yu Feng would probably suffer.

Yu Wan’s eyes turned cold. “Are you sure it’s that alley?”

“Yes, the alley after you turned right,” the shop assistant said with absolute certainty.

Yu Wan clenched her fists, grabbed the sickle from the basket, and walked in the direction the young man pointed.

“Shh—keep your voices down! It wasn’t easy to catch this person. Don’t alert the officials!”

When she passed by an abandoned house, Yu Wan heard the man’s voice coming from inside.

Yu Wan stopped in her tracks and heard another person say, “Even if the officials come, we’re not afraid. We have more than ten brothers!”

Yu Wan, who was about to rush into the courtyard with her sickle, stopped in her tracks.

“Besides, wasn’t he drugged? He won’t wake up.”

They even drugged him?

A strange feeling surged in Yu Wan’s heart.

“You guys, come over.” The leader whispered something to his brothers. Soon, the door opened.

Yu Wan hurriedly hid behind a big tree.

About seven or eight people left.

With half the number of people gone, Yu Wan had a higher chance of winning. However, she still did not plan to barge in.

She looked at the big tree in front of her, put the sickle on her waist, climbed the tree with her bare hands, and climbed over the wall.

“Time to eat!”

“Alright!”

This house didn’t look big, but it had two entrances. The place she turned over happened to be in the last row of rooms. The local ruffian guarding it had gone to the central room to get his food. Yu Wan wanted to save Yu Feng before he returned.

Yu Wan came to the locked room. She pulled off the hairpin on her head, pried open the lock, and silently entered.

The room was quiet. The curtains on the bed were lowered, covering the inside tightly.

The strangeness in Yu Wan’s heart grew. Wasn’t it a little too grand to treat a country vendor like this?

She frowned and lifted the curtain!

This was definitely not her brother! It was clearly three little munchkins who were less than two years old!