My Mother is the White Moonlight of a Tyrant - Chapter 5: Her Hiding Place

Chapter 5: Her Hiding Place

What did you say? Did Qin Shaozong truly say that? Are you certain you heard correctly? Jiang Chonghai repeatedly questioned the man before him.

If Dai Li were here, she would certainly recognize this man being questioned as Manager Lin, whom she had encountered before.

Manager Lin nodded repeatedly: I heard correctly. Marquis Qin indeed said his beloved concubine had gone missing within the mansion and requested to search the premises. He also asked Lord Jiang to be understanding.

Jiang Chongjiang, Jiang Chonghai’s younger brother, frowned upon hearing this: A beloved concubine missing? When Qin Shaozong arrived initially, I accompanied them from start to finish, escorting them all the way to the courtyard. I remember it was all men, without exception. Where did this beloved concubine come from?

Manager Lin whispered: She might have been hidden in the carriage earlier without showing herself. I did see her later – that lady possesses stunning beauty, clearly meticulously cared for. And…

At this point, Manager Lin paused briefly, his expression seeming somewhat hesitant.

Jiang Chongjiang’s curiosity was piqued by the unfinished sentence. And what? Speak up if you have something to say. What’s with this stammering?

If I didn’t mistake what I saw, she was wearing leather shoes at that time. This discovery was also coincidental – he had originally intended only to observe the provisions that the highly-ranked Marquis Qin provided for his beloved concubine.

Cattle are important livestock. Farmers who use oxen for plowing are forbidden to slaughter them. Basically, one must wait until the ox dies of illness or becomes too old to plow before it can be sent to the butcher’s knife, only then can beef, leather, and sinews be obtained.

Of course, Jiang Chonghai was well aware that many rules simply couldn’t constrain the powerful and influential, especially those of high nobility. If Qin Shaozong wanted leather, he believed the strongest bull could be made to die of illness that very day.

If that woman truly wore leather shoes, she was undoubtedly Qin Shaozong’s favored concubine. After all, the ability to provide his concubine with leather shoes was something no ordinary man possessed.

Wait outside for now. Jiang Chongjiang dismissed Manager Lin.

Only after the door closed again did Jiang Chongjiang speak: Although it’s unclear why a favored concubine has suddenly appeared, the fact remains that Qin Shaozong wants to search for someone. Elder brother, for this to happen at such a critical juncture – could it be that Qin Shaozong is doing this intentionally? Might he have learned something and is now testing us deliberately?

Jiang Chonghai stroked his chin with thick, short fingers: What you say is possible. Qin Shaozong is cunning and treacherous, most adept at schemes. When he captured Bingzhou, he used a terrifying spy plot. Who would have thought that Kuang Ye – who served under Rong Bingzhou for seven years, risking life and limb for him, acting as his most capable right-hand man – was actually a hidden stake Qin Shaozong had planted long before.

Speaking of this event from a year ago – Rong Bingzhou’s devastating defeat that shocked all regions – Jiang Chonghai still felt lingering fear.

Imagine your most trusted subordinate who has followed you for years, who would shield you from open and hidden attacks, even go through fire and water for you – suddenly turning traitor one day. First eliminating your other trusted aides, then drugging you, finally seizing control and opening the city gates to welcome the enemy forces…

If this happened to other powerful leaders, wouldn’t they be afraid?

The answer was naturally yes.

After news of Bingzhou’s annexation spread, numerous powerful leaders were literally frightened into having psychological shadows. It’s no exaggeration to say that during that period, everyone was jittery and suspicious, to the extent that even regional governors would sometimes look at their own trusted aides with doubtful eyes.

If Qin Shaozong could plant a nail beside Rong Bingzhou for as long as seven years, with the hidden stake penetrating directly into the core leadership, who’s to say he wouldn’t use this nearly devastating, underhanded tactic a second time?

Who would be the next Rong Bingzhou? No one wanted to be the next Lord Rong.

Jiang Chonghai also felt a chill down his spine.

Jiang Chongjiang hesitated and said, Brother, over twenty people followed Qin Shaozong into the estate. Now that he wants to search for someone, he might mobilize all of them. If we let them move around freely, wouldn’t that cause chaos?

There won’t be chaos. The only crucial areas in the estate are the study and the hidden vault. We just need to assign more guards to these two places. The rest of the estate doesn’t matter much. Jiang Chonghai paced back and forth in the room a few times. Let them search if they want todon’t stop them. If they ask for help from the estate’s guards or servants, have our people put on a show. No need to actually exert effort. We’ll respond to changes by staying unchanged. I want to see what trick Qin Shaozong has up his sleeve.

Jiang Chongjiang beamed. As expected, Brother has a plan.

Dai Li stood beside a pavilion courtyard, concealed in the night, staring blankly in a certain direction. Her eyes were unfocused; rather than observing, she seemed lost in thought.

In truth, Dai Li’s thoughts were indeed growing increasingly disordered.

She had just repeated her earlier method, directly cornering an isolated servant to question. She had arrived with hope, expecting someone here to tell her

Yes, not long ago, there was a rather peculiar young servant, about nine years old, roughly this tall, who kept saying he wasn’t originally from this place…

But there was nothing.

In this second servants’ quarters, there was still no sign of the person she was searching for.

If her son wasn’t here, could he be somewhere else in the estate? Or was he not in this estate at all, perhaps not even in this era?

At the thought of this last possibility, Dai Li’s temples throbbed violently. Gazing into the boundless night, she felt only confusion and despair.

No, it can’t be that Zhou Zhou isn’t here. The school bus and roadside surveillance clearly showed that no one got off before the bus plunged into the river. None of the bus windows were extensively damaged. The driver was there, the teachers were there, the other children were thereonly Zhou Zhou was missing. He must be here, he must be here… Tears welled in Dai Li’s eyes.

News reports stated that the Red Sun Bilingual Elementary School bus accident had claimed thirty-nine lives, including one driver, two teachers, and thirty-six students, based on the body count inside the bus.

Yet almost no one knew that there hadn’t been thirty-nine passengers on that busthere had been forty.

Dai Li hadn’t seen her son on that submerged bus. He had vanished, gone into the river with the bus. The windows were intact, yet he was bizarrely absent from the vehicle.

No trace of him alive, no body found.

At first, Dai Li had clung to immense hopehope that her son had gotten off alone midway, hope that after the bus plunged into the river, he had been washed out by the current and carried to the riverbank, where kind-hearted people had rescued him.

But she had reviewed the surveillance footage over and over, searched the riverbanks time and again, even spent a fortune hiring rescue teams to patrol. She waited day after day, endured bizarre dreams night after night. Yet after six full months, Dai Li had neither found a body nor witnessed a miracle.

If he’s not in the estate, then I’ll search outside. Dai Li tilted her head up slightly, the moisture in her eyes quickly vanishing.

She had an indescribable intuition that her little one was definitely in this unfamiliar era.

But…

Just then, commotion erupted not far away, as if a crowd had gathered. Faint voices drifted over.

Some of us will go this way, you go that way.

Alright, we’ll regroup and exchange information in two quarters of an hour.

Dai Li’s heart surged as she gazed toward the clamorous area before swiftly turning to head in a specific direction.

Normally, the mansion would never be so noisy and disruptive when distinguished guests were present, unless all this commotion was by the guests’ own order.

He had discovered her.

To have seen through her lie, he must have sent someone to the courtyard where the Dancers resided. Those two courtyards had already undergone one round of questioning and shouldn’t be due for another so soon.

The West Garden was situated at the edge of the estate. She remembered two thriving apple trees thereperhaps she could hide among their branches to evade the remaining searches. When dawn approached, during the darkest hour when vigilance waned, she might attempt to scale the walls and escape.

Truthfully, this was her only option. Without a map of the mansion, Dai Li had relied solely on asking for directions to navigate this far.

Other locationslike the warehouse, the Lord’s concubines’ quarters, or the kitchenremained entirely unknown to her.

My Lord, we found a concealed bundle in the rear garden. Mo Yanyun returned carrying the package.

The bundle’s color looked familiarappearing ink-black under the lantern light, with a sleeve dangling loosely where it hadn’t been properly fastened.

Mo Yanyun unwrapped the bundle to reveal a purple gown, a black upper garment, and a pair of shoes.

My Lord, aren’t these the garments the young woman was wearing earlier? Since Dai Li had been draped in male attire when she emerged, Mo Yanyun hadn’t seen her underlying clothing.

Qin Shaozong lifted a sandal’s strap with his finger, his tone ambiguous. Calfskin?

Mo Yanyun paused in surprise, then pinched the sole and exclaimed in astonishment: My Lord, this calfskin is remarkably soft and smoothtop-grade material! That scoundrel Jiang is too extravagant, using such fine leather for shoes meant to be trodden underfoot by mere concubines!

There were distinctions even among calfskin hides. Even if originating from the same premium source, differences in tanning methods and materials could create worlds of disparity in quality.

This has nothing to do with Jiang Chonghai. Qin Shaozong released the sandal strap and instead ran his fingers over the purple gown. The fabric felt cotton-soft and sleek, like flowing spring water in his palm.

The gown carried a fragrancehe detected that subtle, elegant scent again. Not overpowering but rather gentle and pleasant. Qin Shaozong’s lips curved. This quality of fabric… I suspect even Jiang Chonghai himself doesn’t possess anything comparable.

When he’d demanded the person earlier, Jiang Chonghai had hesitated momentarily.

Recalling it now, that brief pause wasn’t reluctance but confusion. Plainly, the name Fengchun meant nothing to him.

Mo Yanyun grew more perplexed. Unrelated to Jiang Chonghai? But if she had no connection to Jiang, how did she end up in this Jiang Mansion? She couldn’t have simply materialized out of thin air. But My Lord, she is here in the mansion.

Qin Shaozong didn’t respond to this. The man gazed into the distance, lantern light concentrating into pinpoints in his light brown eyeslike gleaming knife tips, or the focused pupils of a tiger locking onto its prey. Search the rear garden and both East and West Gardens at the zi hour (11pm-1am). We might gain something.

Mo Yanyun wore a puzzled expression. He instinctively turned toward his side, habitually seeking Yan San’s assistance, then remembered Yan San was occupied elsewhere. Forced to ponder alone, his thick eyebrows knitted into a prominent 八 shape.

Ignoring his subordinate’s evident curiosity, Qin Shaozong turned and returned to his chamber.

Mo Yanyun stood in the courtyard muttering to himself: I understand the need to move at midnight when all is quiet, it eliminates many unnecessary distractions. But why the back garden and the East and West Gardens? Weren’t those places already investigated earlier…

Mo Yanyun had a habit: when he couldn’t figure something out, he would retrace his steps from the beginning, searching for a new thread to pull.

What was the starting point again?

Ah, yes it was the investigation confirming there was no Fengchun in the estate, followed by Yan San mentioning he encountered a minor steward named Lin, who claimed the beautiful woman had asked him for directions…

Mo Yanyun suddenly shuddered, as if a lamp had lit up above his head.

She asked for directions, meaning she was unfamiliar with the estate’s layout. Given the large-scale search underway, those unfamiliar with the environment would instinctively choose the place where they felt safestsomewhere they knew best.

For example, she had hidden the package in the back garden.

The East and West Gardens had already been searched earlier. Common sense dictated they wouldn’t be subjected to a second round so soon, especially since both courtyards housed beautiful young womensome of them newcomers. Hiding among them would be far more discreet than anywhere else.

Mo Yanyun had an epiphany and couldn’t wait for time to pass quickly.

Once the beautiful woman was captured, all doubts would be resolved.

Midnight was approaching.

Author’s Note:

Rose] Dengdeng is right on time Heart