"Sir! I dare not lie, I truly lost the items, they’re not with me. Back then, after my cousin let me escape with the items through the secret passage, I was unwell, in a daze for several days, that’s when the items disappeared."

Xue Miao’s lips trembled with fear, with a sword at his neck, who wouldn’t be afraid?

Having lived in hiding for so many years, he lost the courage of his youth long ago. Who wouldn’t want to live if they could?

He once thought that losing the items was better than following his cousins. What meaning was there in living alone?

But over the years, he became accustomed to the simple life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset in River Village.

Gradually, he integrated into the River Village community, becoming a true rural farmer.

Gu Chengyu looked at his demeanor and sighed internally; time indeed heals all wounds. Such deep-seated hatred, this person doesn’t seem to want to revisit it but let it vanish into the flow of history as time passes.

"It seems you don’t want to vindicate the Xue Family. You’ve lived, so you don’t care about those deceased clansmen? Aren’t you afraid their restless souls might haunt you at night? Back then, you must have had a wife and children, right? What about them? Don’t you think about them?"

Gu Chengyu moved the sword away from Xue Miao’s neck; he resembled a defeated soldier, unwilling to advance bravely, only wishing to retreat to save his own life.

Indeed, as he spoke, a pained expression appeared on Xue Miao’s face.

Tears welled up in his eyes again; wife and children, indeed!

Back then, his second son had just turned one, adorable and lovely. His eldest was even brighter, diligent in studies, already a young scholar. The teacher at the ancestral school said that as long as he worked hard, there was hope for achieving the title of Advanced Scholar.

His heart was filled with joy; though he himself didn’t strive for scholarly success, fortunately, his eldest son did.

Yet all of this had become the past; that day at the Meridian Gate, he went. However, he never dared to witness the scene of his wife and children being executed; he feared he couldn’t bear it.

He took a deep look at the young sir before him, considering his actions in Jiangnan, perhaps this sir could truly clear the Xue Family’s grievances, vindicate them, and rewrite history in the chronicles.

After a moment of silence, he finally spoke up.

"Back then, when my cousin let me leave through the secret passage, I wasn’t the only one to escape. At that time, the Xue Mansion was surrounded by the Military Department, my nephew’s wife was giving birth. Before those people broke in, a baby girl was born. My cousin asked me to take my grandniece along, as a continuation of the Xue bloodline. Unfortunately, she was a girl, not able to revive the Xue lineage."

Speaking of this, Xue Miao still looked regretful.

"Later, my cousin found a wet nurse’s child to take the place. Since there was no escape from the mansion, death was inevitable. Being a man, I couldn’t care for the baby girl, so I took along a maid to care for her, about thirteen or fourteen years old."

Gu Chengyu listened patiently to Xue Miao, his blood boiling at the thought that perhaps the evidence was with that grandniece?

Yet, he soon realized that Xue Miao was now alone, with no idea of the grandniece’s whereabouts. Could it be she was lost or perished in a flood?

"Where is the grandniece? Did she succumb to a flood?"

Xue Miao frowned, "No, I’ve long been separated from my grandniece."

Hearing this, Gu Chengyu couldn’t help feeling a sense of powerlessness. Xue Miao claimed his cousin entrusted him with secret tasks, yet he seemed so unreliable.

With such a charge, having a child in tow, shouldn’t he have found a hiding place, waited for things to calm down, before taking the grandniece elsewhere to start anew?

That he lost the baby girl was truly baffling, compared even to a naïve family maiden like Guo Moruo.

The Guo Family, too, faced complete eradication, though not to the Nine Families extent, but Guo Moruo also lost her closest relatives.

Even such a young girl knew to pull herself together and raise her younger brother, while Xue Miao truly fell short.

"I had instructed that little maid to care for my grandniece. Unable to resist, I disguised myself and went to the Meridian Gate. When I returned, I was dazed, my mind muddled, and collapsed as soon as I entered the yard. Neighbors found me and brought me inside to care for me."

"When I woke up two days later, I called for the maid, but the neighbors who cared for me said there was no one at home except for me lying sick on the bed. They even remarked on the odd absence of a baby’s cries during those two days, having heard them earlier. Knowing something was amiss, I dragged my ailing body to ask the neighbors to help search together."

"What about the child? Couldn’t find her?" Gu Chengyu scoffed. Xue Haozhen truly entrusted the wrong person!

"Two days had passed; how could I find her? I thought child traffickers had taken them, but didn’t dare report to the government and couldn’t do much but search on my own. Nearly using up all the Silver I had brought out, I only learned that the maid was indeed taken by traffickers, and my grandniece’s whereabouts were unknown."

Xue Miao squatted down, holding his head, filled with remorse. He shouldn’t have gone to the Meridian Gate, but what happened had happened, and he didn’t know what to do.

He had let his cousin down! 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Did you place the evidence with them?" Gu Chengyu couldn’t comprehend why such important items weren’t kept with Xue Miao himself.

"At that time, fearing someone from the Xue family might escape, the government had the entire city on lockdown. Afraid the evidence would be discovered, I hid them in my grandniece’s swaddle, and a couple of items on the maid. The maid was illiterate; I just instructed her to keep them safe. Who would have thought both would suddenly disappear?"

At that time, they hid in a small house he had whimsically purchased earlier. He had taken a liking to a concubine in the brothel and wanted to keep her secretly.

To remain unnoticed, the deed was under another’s name; otherwise, there’d be no place to hide.

Thinking back, when the Xue family’s situation was dire, he still had the mind to keep a concubine, he really was a fool.

Gu Chengyu was left speechless, feeling this task had been handled decently until it took such an absurd turn.

It was simply fate! Perhaps Xue Miao was too shocked back then, losing his bearings.

"Sir! Orphaned from a young age, I struggled to make a living with the family. If it weren’t for my cousin, I wouldn’t have had those better days. My cousin’s kindness was like a mountain, yet I lost the grandniece and the evidence, failing my cousin’s trust. Sir, please find the truth, locate the grandniece, and clear the Xue Family’s name!"

Xue Miao knelt, sobbing quietly.