The atmosphere inside Yu Suo Ge was heavy, and Qin Xiang knelt down beside Lao Tai Tai's legs, crying and begging.

  "Auntie, just help me this once, just this once, okay?"

  On the side, Lao Lao's body trembled slightly as her withered hands gently wiped away the tears on Xiangxiang's face. She sighed pitifully and said: "Miss, I really can't bear to see things go on like this... Let's just live in peace and quiet, okay?"

  "Not, not, not, just a little bit more, please. Believe me, believe me!" Qingxiang almost hysterically shouted. "Just this once, really just once, I won't do anything else again. Please...please."

  Qin Xiang finished speaking and made a gesture to kneel down and kowtow to Lao Tai Tai. Lao Tai Tai hastily turned pale and grabbed Qin Xiang, who was already sinking down, and also sobbed: "It's really sinful, sinful!"

  Jian Niang had already shown signs of loosening up, and Xiang knew that Jian Niang had agreed.

  Right and wrong, in an instant. If you deliberately calculate without a conscience, ultimately harming others and yourself.

  On this day, the weather was refreshing. Qinyin and Yuenniang made an appointment to take a walk in the small garden. As they passed by the waterside pavilion, Yuenniang saw that there were no other people around, so she pulled Qinruo to sit down at the railing of the waterside pavilion.

  "Hey, I'm telling you, something strange happened to me recently," said Yueniang in a low voice.

  Qin Miao saw her mysterious and mysterious, covering her mouth and laughing: "How, on the way, I saw gold, hehehe..."

  "Others are talking about serious matters, don't laugh!" Yueniang was anxious, this person is really... "It's still related to you, do you want to listen or not?"

  Qin Miao laughed enough, seeing Yueniang slightly angry, hurriedly made a bow to apologize: "Listen, why not listen, hehehe..."

  The moon girl looked around again and then whispered in Qin Miao's ear. Upon hearing this, Qin Miao's smiling expression disappeared instantly.

  "Really?!"

  Moon Goddess nodded: "A few days ago, I accidentally bumped into that Xiangxiang and helped her up. Unintentionally touching her wrist, I knew at once. That wasn't the pulse of a pregnant woman."

  "I really underestimated her, to tie down this man and climb up the glory and wealth of this marquis's house, she has gone to great lengths." A hint of amusement flashed in Qin Miao's eyes, but the next moment another possibility floated into his mind.

  Since she didn't get pregnant, why did Xie Xun want to pretend again? She couldn't figure it out and decided to take the opportunity to investigate the truth at Yu Suo Ge. Just as she was lost in thought alone in the Chao Lu Yuan, a servant came to report that Qing Feng Pu's second master was eager to see Hou Ye Fu Ren and was waiting outside the corner door.

  Upon hearing it was Qin Lang, who had not visited in a long time, Qin Miao promptly told Yulu to go and bring him in.

  Before long, people arrived. Qin Lang came in a flurry, his face full of worry. After seeing Qin Miao, his emotions became even harder to control.

  "Anu, something's happened at home."

  Seeing his pale face, Qin Miao was startled and wondered if something had happened to her grandmother. Qin Lao Tai Tai had lost her husband at a young age and had been working hard for her whole life, now that she was old and frail, Qin Miao's first reaction was to think of whether her own grandmother's life was in danger.

  Qin Lang sat on the stool, his hands clasped to his head, exerting great self-control not to reveal his weakness at this moment. Qin Miao felt that things were more serious than she had thought.

  "Second brother! Speak, speak!" She shook Qin Lang vigorously, her heart sinking more and more...

  Qin Lang wiped away the tears on his face and pinched Qin Miao's arm, opening his mouth with difficulty: "It's Uncle Yi, and also Big Brother..."

  "How could it be... how could it be..." Her father and older brother had always been healthy, let alone both having accidents at the same time. Qin Miao was stunned, she couldn't understand.

  "Second brother, speak clearly, what's going on!"

  Mrs. Li heard that the second master had returned home, and she was carrying a new tea into the room. As soon as she entered the door, she saw Qin Miao tightly hugging a man and crying bitterly. The man was also overcome with emotion, constantly patting her back. People who didn't know what was going on thought they were long-separated lovers reuniting.

  Mrs. Li hastily stepped forward, pulling Qin Miao out of the man's arms, and at a glance recognized that the man was indeed the second master of the Qin family.

  "Second Master, what are you doing? Miss is confused, are you also confused? With so many servants in the Hou Mansion watching, if this gets out, it will be a disaster!"

  Li's heart was anxious, although Qin Miaoru is now the first person in the Thank you for the back house, but there are many mouths and tongues, and it's hard to guarantee that there won't be some careless and talkative people who will stir up trouble. Now that Missy and Hou Ye have already had a falling out over the Rain Fragrance Pavilion incident, if this matter with Second Master is added on top of that, it'll be even more troublesome.

  Qin Lang only then realized that he had been out of line just now, turned around and wiped his face, and waited for his emotions to stabilize before apologizing to Li Nian.

  "A'nuan, don't be too heartbroken. The body of your adoptive father has been found, but the whereabouts of your elder brother are still unknown. With our ancestors watching over us, we will eventually find a way to bring your brother back home. I plan to sell our shops in Beijing and return to Hangzhou with the silver we collect. I'm afraid...I'm afraid that our ancestor alone..." Qin Lang didn't finish his sentence before he quickly turned around and walked away.

  "Miss, what...what's going on? The old master and the young master..." Just a moment ago, the nanny was still concerned about Qin Miao's reputation, but after hearing Er Ye's words, the nanny's astonishment could not be described in words.

  It happened suddenly, and Qin Miao was still sobbing. She never thought that in the peaceful Jiangnan region, her father and brother's silk merchant caravan would encounter bandits. Her father was kidnapped, and her brother was thrown off a cliff with an uncertain fate. The bandits were brazen, demanding 100,000 taels of silver after learning that the Qin family had some money in Hangzhou City. A business family like theirs didn't have that much cash on hand, so their ancestors reluctantly sold half of their property to scrape together the silver. However, the bandits took the money but didn't release the hostages, and instead killed them. After hearing the news, the old ancestor fell ill and never recovered. The entire Qin family was in disarray, with only the eldest sister holding on, taking care of her one-year-old nephew.

  The merchant's family, profits come and go, profits leave and disperse. As soon as the Qin family's good silk was snatched away, people were gone, and the several households that had jointly invested came to the door one after another, asking the Qin family for compensation. This is not a small sum of money, a full 80,000 taels of real gold and silver. The elder sister, a woman in the back house, even if she has a strong mind, cannot withstand the debtors who come in a mighty manner. So she hurriedly let Qin Lang go back to preside over the overall situation.

  Qin Miao gazed at the withering leaves in the courtyard, her melancholy deepening. The Qin family was the warmest place she had ever known, where her loving grandmother and father, two doting elder brothers, and a gentle sister-in-law who was like a mother to her, all lived. But now, just like the trees before her eyes, they could not withstand the turmoil of the fierce winds, and the leaves were falling one after another.

  "Mother, open my private storage room and divide the gold and silver jewelry and the deed to the shop into small packages. Let Yulu secretly take them out tonight and give them to Second Brother." She couldn't bear to see the Qin family struggling to survive, for even if they lost their possessions, they could still earn more, but if they lost their people and their home, then they would truly have nothing left.

  Qin Miao personally led Li and Zi Xuan to tidy up the household items in the house, while Yu Lu guarded the door and did not allow the servants to enter at will.

  In the northeast corner of the Hou Mansion, there were also a few people secretly plotting a major event that would change the fate of the Hou Mansion.