Exile with Storage Space: Family Fortunes in the Barren Lands-Chapter 573 - 0534 Signpost (1)

In the Liu Family courtyard, the neighbors who came to watch the commotion hadn’t left yet. They were all waiting to see the outcome when they saw Liu Laoda and a few others pushing two women along.

Everyone looked at them in surprise.

Some even gathered around.

"Oh, isn’t that Shuangcheng’s mother and sister? What, did they take the child?"

"But I don’t see the child anywhere?"

Er Niu and San Niu heard the noise in the courtyard and ran out to see. Seeing Aunt Hu and Hu Dan Ni being brought in, they both ran back into the bedroom. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Mom, big sister, Dad, and brother-in-law brought Aunt Hu and Sister Hu here," Er Niu hurriedly said.

In bed, Liu Da Niu, who was distraught, jumped off the bed at her sister Er Niu’s words, and she rushed into the courtyard without even putting on her shoes.

"Da Niu, wear your shoes!" Lady Liu grabbed her shoes and quickly chased after her.

The Liu Family women sitting inside also followed out to see.

Princess Consort Luling and Prince Luling, along with Li Yu En, also went to see what was happening.

Liu Da Niu rushed up to Aunt Hu and Hu Dan Ni, grabbed their hair, and started to hit, "Where is my son? Where is he?"

Lady Liu handed the shoes to Er Niu, telling her to put them on for Da Niu, while she too grabbed Aunt Hu and fought.

But Da Niu was busy hitting and wouldn’t cooperate to put on her shoes.

Er Niu sighed, had to let her be, and stood by supporting her.

Hu Shuangcheng came over and also held onto Da Niu, "Da Niu, the child... the child is not with them."

"Then where is he? Where is he, Shuangcheng?" Liu Da Niu cried bitterly, clinging to Hu Shuangcheng.

The village chief hadn’t gone home and was waiting to see how the Liu Family’s matter would be handled.

He walked over here.

Liu Laoda immediately grabbed him and said, "Village chief, come and judge this. These two women stole my grandson and hid him, but they say my grandson was snatched by someone else. Such malicious women must be reported to the authorities!"

Aunt Hu felt so wronged. She shouted hoarsely, "I didn’t hide him. He was really snatched away."

"You did hide him. Everyone in this village knows my family. Who would dare snatch my grandson? You vicious woman, stop talking nonsense!" Liu Laoda angrily pounded Aunt Hu while cursing.

As he cursed, Liu Da Niu also hit and cursed.

Lady Liu joined in too. The bricklayer Liu, who had fainted, was carried back from the room. After learning the news, he also came with his grandson Liu Jinbao, wielding a cane, intending to beat Aunt Hu to death.

Aunt Hu started crying.

Crying for the missing grandson, crying in fear of being beaten to death.

"If you beat me to death, you’ll never find your grandson again. I’m the only one who saw that woman’s face. Won’t you ask about that person’s appearance?"

The Liu Family didn’t listen; they only kept hitting.

They vented all their anger on Aunt Hu and her daughter.

Fists and feet rained down on the two like raindrops, making them cry out in pain.

Hu Shuangcheng stood pale and silent, watching his mother and sister with angry eyes.

Prince Luling was an outsider, he came over and said, "The Hu Family’s woman speaks with such conviction, let’s have her explain. It’s possible that woman really took the child? Let’s hear her out, follow her lead to find the person. If we find them, it proves she’s not lying. If not, then she’s lying, and it’s not too late to report to the authorities then."

The village chief agreed, "Yes, yes, Mr. Li is right. Let’s clarify the matter before continuing hitting her. The child went missing from her hands. If you beat her to death, you’ll never find out the child’s whereabouts."

With the persuasion of the two most respected people in the village, Liu Laoda finally stopped hitting and also urged others to stop.

He cupped his hands towards Prince Luling and the village chief and said, "My grandson is missing. It’s like the sky is falling. I’ll leave everything to you two to question her."

The village chief said, "That’s expected. Liu Da, don’t panic." He then cupped his hands to Prince Luling and said, "Mr. Li, you’re experienced. Please ask her questions."

Prince Luling nodded, "It would be rude to refuse."

He asked those around if anyone had paper and pen, wanting to write it down.

Among the Liu Family relatives, there was a child who was his student and had taken leave today to attend the feast. That child immediately said, "Mr. Li, we have some at home. I’ll go get it."

The child darted home quickly and soon returned with paper and pen.

The child also pushed aside the bowls and chopsticks on the nearby table, spread out the paper, and started grinding ink.

Prince Luling picked up the brush, dipped it in the ink, and began to ask Aunt Hu, "Speak, explain the whole process clearly. This will determine the number of beatings you receive in the government office."

Prince Luling’s distant relative was the County Magistrate, and his father-in-law was the Lord Prefect. Who dared not listen to him?

Aunt Hu shivered in fear and immediately began to speak.

"I wanted to see my grandson, so I took my daughter to the Liu Family, but the Liu Family wouldn’t let me see my grandson. I had to think of other ways..."

She repeated how she tricked the child out, exactly as she had just described to Hu Shuangcheng and Liu Laoda.

Then, she again talked about how the child was lost, just like she had mentioned before.

A chorus of astonished voices arose around, snatching kids?

The village chief said, "This is the first time something like this has happened in the village. We’ve only heard similar stories from other villages, where children were stolen or snatched, but in our neighboring two or three villages, nothing like this has ever occurred. Hu Family’s, what did the person look like? Quickly, describe!"

Prince Luling reminded, "Describe carefully, what kind of attire, fat or thin, the features of the face, the hair, don’t leave anything out."

Aunt Hu, terrified, repeatedly promised to do so, then described the appearance of that woman.

Prince Luling frowned slightly, picked up a pen, and started drawing the woman’s likeness.

After finishing the drawing and making some modifications, he picked up the paper to show Aunt Hu and Hu Dan Ni, "Is it this person?"

Aunt Hu and Hu Dan Ni nodded together, "Yes, yes, it’s her. It’s this woman!"

Liu Laoda and his family crowded over to look at the person in the drawing, and everyone said, "But she’s wearing a veil, how do we find her?"

The village chief also said, "Although this person is veiled, judging from the figure, she doesn’t seem like a person from our village. How do we find her?"

Prince Luling said, "Then let’s gather everyone to search for her, unless she vanishes into thin air, we shouldn’t be afraid of not finding her. She has a newborn in her hands, and if the baby gets hungry it will cry, it will also cry if it feels uncomfortable, as long as the baby cries, it would be easier to find her."

The village chief nodded repeatedly, "We can only do it this way."

Liu Laoda said to his family members, "Everyone take a good look at the woman in this picture, and please help."

Liu Da Niu cried and even knelt down to people.

The village chief also urged everyone to search together.

Many people offered to help search, and after taking a good look at the person in the drawing, they all left to search.

Finally, there was some news about the child, Liu Da Niu stopped crying, but her spirits were still not good.

Lady Liu and Er Niu, San Niu helped her back to the room.

Hu Shuangcheng glanced at his mother and sister, said nothing, and left with Liu Jinbao and two others to look for the child.

As for Aunt Hu and Hu Dan Ni, if it weren’t for these two tricking away the child, the child wouldn’t have been snatched by someone. Liu Laoda ordered them to be tied up and restrained them to a tree in the yard.

Liu the bricklayer got angry when he saw these two and hit them several times with a cane.

Prince Luling, Princess Consort Luling, and Li Yu En did not leave, they sat in the yard waiting for news.

With such a mess at home, and not letting the guests enjoy the banquet, Liu Laoda felt very guilty, continuously apologizing to those who came with gifts.

Everyone consoled him, "Once the child is found, we continue to eat, right now finding the child is more important, if we’re hungry we’ll find something to eat ourselves, you don’t need to worry about us."

.

Li Yuzhu and Mu Yuanxiu, followed the child’s guidance, and ran ahead all the way.

The countryside roads were all dirt roads, unlike the city, which were not paved with bluestone slabs or gravel, it was difficult for carriages to leave any traces.

The two of them followed the tracks pressed by wheels from the village to the wilds.

Li Yuzhu also discovered, that for every distance they traveled, they could see a handful of crumpled paper scraps.

The paper scraps were red paper, torn into several pieces and crumpled into small balls.

Mu Yuanxiu crouched down, spread out those paper scraps and said, "These are from Uncle Liu’s house, the names of four people are written on these, these are the names of villagers, it’s a guest list."

Because the villages had running water banquets, not close family sitting at the main table, everyone queued from late morning till afternoon.

But the villagers still had to farm and work, it was impossible to wait at the banquet host’s house for a whole day.

After eating and giving gift money the night before, the next day they would go about their usual business.

On the day of the feast, the banquet host would immediately have the accountant write the next batch of guests for seating after the first batch has eaten a few dishes, having people take the list to inform villagers to come eat.

Also because everyone lived scattered, there would be several people notifying, each notifying a few people.

Some of the runners didn’t recognize words, so the accountant would write simple marks on red paper.

On the red paper that Mu Yuanxiu pieced together, there were markings drawn, and when the accountant was drawing these marks, he was watching from the side.

Li Yuzhu also guessed it belonged to the Liu’s.

This paper was newly torn, and now in Taohua River Village, only the Liu’s were holding a wedding banquet.

"Could it be Guoguo or Jingjing who tore it?"

"Probably Guoguo, today she picked quite a bit of red paper to hide in her pocket to play with." Mu Yuanxiu looked ahead, "Guoguo dropped the paper scraps to point the way for us."

Li Yuzhu was surprised, "This girl is quite clever!"