Chapter 118 - Digging Rascal (2/2)

Lao Wang nodded and then began, ”Well as a child she wa-”

”I don't need to know about her entire life...The Emperor specifically asked me to look into things from three years ago.” An Hao then narrowed his eyes, ”Anything peculiar around that time? Three years ago?”

Lao Wang sighed, ”Hmm...If it's three years, she did go missing for a b-”

”She went missing? For how long? Where did she go? Tell me more...”

Lao Wang laughed, ”You still get excited so easily, you haven't changed at all...”

An Hao frowned, ”Focus! Just tell me...” Lao Wang chuckled, it was really easy to get under An Hao's skin. It seemed his years in the military did not change him much, it was good to see him still so lively.

Lao Wang sighed, ”I don't know where she went...At first, we thought maybe she was kidnapped, but then found a note she left saying she was going horse riding. In the middle of the night too! And she didn't even tell anyone!”

”Not to mention that she even drugged and tied up Ah Jin...Ah, that's her personal maid. Anyway, she did that and disappeared. It was very weird. We were all really worried, the eldest miss rarely went out over the years, only going out once in a while with the younger miss. You see she did not like being disturbed, for her to suddenly leave like that was very perplexing an-”

”So her maid didn't go with her?” An Hao interrupted with a frown.

{...If the maid wasn't there, then...then was I really dreaming? But then why and how the hell did I dre-...}

”Oh, Ah Jin eventually went to join her.”

”Oh?”

Lao Wang sighed, ”That was another weird event, a few days after the eldest miss left, Ah Jin disappeared too, apparently to go find the Miss. A few weeks later the two came back together saying they met on the road.”

An Hao's face lit up, ”What time of year was this and how many weeks?”

Lao Wang held his chin and thought for a bit, ”Um...a little over two weeks, no more than three...Ah, for the time of year, hmm, it was a few days before the Crown prince's rebellion...”

An Hao knit his brows in thought, calculating the timing.

Lao Wang sighed and continued, ”It was really at a bad time too, Defense minister Lei was really stressed at that time, there was the looming rebellion, not to mention the report came about the young master going missing on the front lines...The young miss then did this on top of everything too...It was really stressful for him. We were starting to consider that some trickster deceived her into eloping and that we would never see her again...but thankfully sh-”

An Hao suddenly stood up, ”We'll hang out later. I have something to see to do.” An Hao hurriedly said and bounded out the door, leaving Lao Wang sighing in his wake.

An Hao quickly went back home and pulled up a map and started mapping out the routes between the two locations; the capital and the army camp from three years ago.

At that time, they had just finished the won the final battle with Nanjing. Their king was dead and now it was just a matter of storming the unguarded capital. After the battle ended, they realized that Lei Yong and a few others were missing. The Nanjing army had dispersed when their king died and they had chased after them to capture them. They managed to subdue most of the units but there were still a few remnants hiding deep in the forest. A few days passed and there was still no sign of Lei Yong.

The Emperor delayed the main army's move to the capital to send out search parties. But unfortunately, the search parties yielded no results, no bodies or anything. It was becoming likely that his group had somehow been captured by those hiding Nanjing soldiers. Two weeks had gone by and they still had not found anything.

Lei Yong's name and face were widely known so if they had him, they definitely knew who he was. Given his status and the state of their fallen country, the most they could hope to get for him was money to escape with. But with two weeks gone by and no news, it was likely they chose the revenge route. And they all had to come to terms with the grim reality that Lei Yong and the others were lost.

They had finally secured the victory and the Emperor's name had surged to new heights, but he took no joy in the win with Lei Yong's loss. The Emperor's dampened mood made An Hao feel worse. He had grown quite fond of Lei Yong, he even thought him to be almost as great as the Emperor so he was in a very bad mood himself.

That fateful night, An Hao could not sleep and so decided to go off on a walk around the perimeter of the army camp. Then he heard voices, female voices.