Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Di Yelei chuckled disapprovingly: “The story hasn’t ended here. Although this woman named Lin Xiner was pregnant at the time, she gave birth to several children, but none of them are alive now. Even Lin Xiner herself died of a sudden illness sixteen years ago, and the cause of the illness is unknown.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

Liu Sisi thought for a moment and then asked. She felt that there was something strange about the matter, so she asked him to investigate, but she didn’t expect that after several days of investigation, all they brought back were these irrelevant old stories.

“And you, as it turns out, look remarkably similar to this woman named Lin Xiner.”

Di Yelei said this in a subtle way, raising his head to look at her for a moment, his mouth drawn into a thin, straight line.

That look made Liu Sisi instinctively lower her head to look at herself: “What do you mean by looking at me like that?”

“No, nothing…”

Di Yelei’s gaze was somewhat evasive.

Liu Sisi frowned: “You don’t mean to say… that the former Crown Prince… has something for me?”

She thought about it and then immediately denied it: “Impossible! I don’t think so. His gaze toward me was very kind, as if he was looking at someone else through me. If he really had such a dirty mind, there’s no way I wouldn’t have felt it.”

“I’m afraid it’s really hard to say. In theory, it shouldn’t be because of the age difference, but who knows about these things.”

Di Yelei still remembered the appearance of the old man, who was both strong and restrained, clearly no ordinary person. He just didn’t expect him to have such an identity.

However, it’s not certain that he might have regarded Sisi as a substitute for Lin Xiner.

“By the way, I’ve been looking closely at that painting for the last two days, and I haven’t found anything special.”

As Liu Sisi spoke, she took out the painting scroll that had originally hung in Xuan’er’s place, carefully spread it out, and carefully examined it: “Look! According to him, it’s this painting that made everyone see something. But when I looked closely, the seal on it didn’t seem to have anything special!”

Following along the painting scroll that Liu Sisi had spread out, Di Yelei looked carefully, but it just looked like an ordinary mountain full of maple trees, large swaths of bright red. He really couldn’t see anything special about it.

“Could it be because of this symbol?”

Liu Sisi pointed with her finger at an inconspicuous spot in the corner, where there was a pattern that looked like a broken maple leaf, and asked.

“This… shouldn’t it be a symbol? It’s a maple leaf, isn’t it?”

Di Yelei said this without much confidence.

Liu Sisi thought for a moment and shook her head: “No! Given the urgency of the assassins’ pursuit at the time, even if they had discovered this painting, it must have been easy to identify it as the former Crown Prince’s property. Otherwise, where would they have had the time to search for markings slowly?”

That’s a good point. The two of them stared at each other for a long time, nearly turning cross-eyed, but couldn’t find anything special about the item.

After a moment of eye contact, Liu Sisi could only roll up the painting scroll again and carefully store it away.

Just let it go if you can’t figure it out!

Many things in this world don’t have answers!

On the other side.

The snow had stopped at some point.

Inside the bamboo house deep in the Xiangfei Bamboo Forest, it was as warm as spring.

The candlelight flickered slightly, casting a tall figure on the window lattice with the character of happiness pasted on it. The owner of the shadow seemed particularly anxious, pacing back and forth in the bamboo house as if waiting for someone’s arrival.

“Master, I have something to report to you.”

Suddenly, a deep voice came from outside the bamboo house.

“What’s going on?”

As the Master spoke, his tone was extraordinarily decisive.

The subordinates, who were already familiar with his character, naturally understood that this was a sign that the Master was about to get angry!

At that moment, they didn’t dare to delay and hurriedly reported, “Reporting to your lordship, a spy from over there has revealed the hidden secrets of the past to the inquirer. The progress is going smoothly.”

“I got it, you may leave!”

The Master impatiently waved them away.

The man who had come to report said again, “Master, Little Cui is outside asking to see you. She says she has something to report. Your lordship, should…”

“Let her come in!”

Finally, that person had arrived! Elder Leisure inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on a chair.

Sometime later, Ms. Xin came to the door and paid her respects.

“Speak up! What have you discovered again? Hmph! I don’t keep useless people around me!”

Ms. Xin couldn’t help but shiver all over, and hurried to gather herself while trying to keep a kneeling position: “Reporting to your lordship, it’s about the young miss. A lot of things happened when she returned to her mother’s home a few days ago. It took a lot of effort for your subordinate to find out the exact news, so I came to report it to your lordship!”

This news seemed to attract the Master, who raised an eyebrow in surprise: “Oh? What’s going on? Tell me in detail, and if you do a good job, I will reward you.”

“Thank you for your grace, Master.”

Feeling relieved, Ms. Xin relaxed and thought to herself that she had made it through this hurdle!

The next day was the sixth day of the Lunar New Year.

Today was the grand opening of the year’s flourishing market, a great day to start a business!

Before dawn, Liu Sisi and her group got up early to wash and dress, then set off for the small town.

Firecrackers and incense had been prepared, and as the auspicious time arrived, they lit the firecrackers and opened the shop’s main entrance.

The crackling sounds of the firecrackers signified the booming business in the coming year!

Not only their shop but also many others were opening today. Looking around, the entire street was decorated with red lanterns, lit firecrackers, and incense to welcome the God of Wealth.

The businessmen here took the annual opening ceremony very seriously. Everyone was in high spirits, greeting the fellow shopkeepers with fists outstretched. Each of them was planning for good fortune in the new year and hoping to make even more money.

On the opening day, as soon as the shop’s door was opened, customers came in even before the cleaning was completely finished.

For the first day, Liu Sisi had prepared red envelopes early on. Regardless of whether the customers would buy anything or not, she handed out the red envelope first, seeking a good omen.

Upon receiving the red envelope, the other party naturally understood her intentions, and they couldn’t stop saying auspicious words.

Soon enough, the first day’s opening went by with a lively atmosphere!

Liu Sisi, who was constantly thinking about San Mao’s affairs, asked Di Yelei to go and find Dong Chang again to learn about who exactly he sold the two children to back in the day.

Upon his return, Di Yelei’s brows were tightly knitted, and he cursed in anger!

“Dong Chang is nothing more than a beast! Not only did he refuse to reveal the whereabouts of the two children, he even laughed proudly! If it wasn’t for… I would even suspect that the child wasn’t his own!”

He angrily pounded a fist on the table, obviously unable to contain his rage!

His words made Liu Zhi’er, who was at his side, tremble and accidentally prick her finger with a needle. She quickly put it in her mouth to suck, and the gaze of her eyes darkened instantly.