Initially, Sheng Weiqiao didn't believe their words. After asking Sheng Lanci, she got to know that it was true. Surprised, she pulled Sheng Lanci into the cabin and whispered, “Father, the two are both wanted by Yamen with an award! If we bring them back home, will it cause trouble for the whole Sheng Family?”

“Sweetheart, you've definitely grown up! Now you know to consider the whole family!” Habitually, Sheng Lanci praised her, and then he explained, “Your niece has been raised up on the island, and the generic pirates don't even have a chance to see her. If she changes her name after going to the land, who will recognize her? As for Gongsun Xi, he has been serving your brother since young. Your brother hardly shows up in public, so people don't know him very well, either.”

But still, to bring the two back to Sheng Family was risky. Sheng Lanci lowered his voice, “It was your brother who insisted on bringing Gongsun Xi with us. Haven't you said before? Since your brother has suffered a lot outside, we should try to help him as much as we can.”

Sheng Weiqiao was hesitant. She literally sympathized with Sheng Shuihe's experience, but such solicitude didn't overtake her concern for the safety of Sheng Family.

Having noticed her hesitation, Sheng Lanci beamed and told her the secret shared by the upper cla.s.s in Nanfeng County, “The navy of the imperial court isn't able to monitor the situation on the sea all the time. In the end, they need Sea Master to rule the sea area. Our county has been collaborating with Gongsun Family for over a decade. Meanwhile, they have won the battle on the sea this time. Throughout the whole Nanfeng County, even if someone recognizes Gongsun Xi and your niece, will they bother to report them?”

They would be eager to cover up for them!

After all, for a stable external environment, since decades ago, the government and the influential families in Nanfeng County all had been more or less involved with Gongsun Family. If such things were let out, even though the imperial court hadn't paid much attention to Nanfeng County in recent years, they wouldn't simply let go of it, for the sake of their decency!

At the time, n.o.body throughout the county would benefit from it!

So, unless the imperial court was able and intended to recapture the sea area, as long as the members of Gongsun Family didn't go too far in Nanfeng County, everyone would let it slide.

Such a guarantee established by mutual benefit was more reliable than any kind of promise.

During her stay on the island, Sheng Weiqiao could guess more or less that her family didn't observe the law as much as they a.s.sumed, or they wouldn't have been treated as important guests by the pirates.

But at the moment, she was still shocked when hearing her father's explanation. She even forgot to remind her father that Gongsun Yingjiang seemed to hold some improper intentions towards Sheng Shuihe. She just said that she wanted to return to her cabin and spend some time there. Knowing that his daughter needed some time to sort out everything, Sheng Lanci sent her back to her cabin with tenderness.

In fact, they brought Gongsun Xi back to Sheng Family because Sheng Shuihe was moved by Gongsun Xi's pleading. But to bring Gongsun Yingjiang with them was for Sheng Weiqiao's sake.

Because in the morning, when Sheng Lanci expressed to Gongsun Su his intention to leave, Gongsun Su told him after failing to detain him, “Your daughter is naive and vulnerable. Even though she was blessed to have escaped Han Family's conspiracy time after time, if something similar happened someday, I don't mean to curse your daughter, but luck is always intangible!”

Sheng Lanci understood what he meant. With Xuanyu E's precedent, if Sheng Weiqiao had any conflict with the others, even if it were a small one, Sheng Lanci wouldn't neglect it!

But the problem was that, as Sheng Lanci's niece, Sheng Weirao shared the same mansion with them, and they had to run into each other from time to time. If the girl really held hatred against Sheng Weiqiao, with the provocation of her immoral mother, could anyone guarantee that she wouldn't set up Sheng Weiqiao secretly?

It was said that whatever you did for prevention, you couldn't keep out a thief at your home. Especially that Sheng Weirao was one year younger than Sheng Weiqiao, so it would be several years before she got married. In the coming several years, should Sheng Lanci and Feng Yinlu keep an eye on her while attending to the large businesses of Sheng Family?

Even if they didn't find it troublesome, but if originally Sheng Weirao didn't intend to do her revenge on the first branch, however, if learned about the doubt and precaution of the first branch later, she would be indignant!

“Please enlighten me.” At that thought, Sheng Lanci asked directly.

Gongsun Su was also straightforward, “Though my daughter Yingjiang was a little wild, being raised on the sea, she has learned from her daily life about all kinds of cunning tricks. And like my son Yingdun, she has learned some martial arts since young. I don't dare to say she's an adept, but her ability is already enough to deal with fights in the boudoir.”

Sheng Lanci was surprised, “You have only one daughter, but you decide to bear the pain of letting her leave?”

“Because she's my daughter, I don't want her to waste her youth on the island.” Gongsun Su explained, “The girl is of the same age as your daughter and only one month younger than her. On the sea, it's already the time to seek a good match, but among my followers, there isn't anyone for her. Besides, I still have a son who can take over my businesses, so I also hope that my daughter could go to the land and live her life happily. If your daughter could hire her as a maid and find her an affluent family with kind parents-in-law for her marriage, I would be delighted!”

Sure enough, Sheng Lanci didn't believe what he said. When Gongsun Su persuaded him to kill his niece Sheng Weirao but had saved her back, Sheng Lanci was skeptical about his intentions. It now appeared that he wanted to recommend Gongsun Yingjiang as a near servant of Sheng Weiqiao.

But though he didn't believe him, Gongsun Su's words touched Sheng Lanci's weakness. No matter how much he and Madam Feng loved Sheng Weiqiao, as the eldest son and the eldest daughter-in-law, they couldn't stay by Sheng Weiqiao's side all the time. While at her age, Sheng Weiqiao wouldn't be willing to follow them all day long like when she was little.

With Gongsun Yingjiang's age and gender, she could stay with Sheng Weiqiao all the time. Considering her life experience as a Sea Master's daughter, in terms of both the calculation and Kungfu, she should be able to handle the normal schemes and violence.

For that, even though Gongsun Su had his own planning, Sheng Lanci thought it tolerable.

After all, though Sheng Family was one of the three most influential families in Nanfeng County, since it was the last one among them to build up a family fortune and had the weakest financial base, Sheng Lanci didn't think about having a guard for his daughter. And at the time, even though he wanted to reject Gongsun Yingjiang, he could find no one else to be a subst.i.tute.

After sending his daughter back to her cabin, Sheng Lanci had some small talks with other people on the s.h.i.+p. “But it's improper to make Miss Gongsun a maid.” Seeing that the s.h.i.+p had set sail and left Daimao Island, he called his nearest servant Sheng Fu to his cabin and talked about it, “First, because Gongsun Family once adopted Shuihe as a son, I couldn't make their daughter a maid of my sweetheart. Second, a maid is inferior, so she will be bounded by many rules and can't protect my sweetheart well.”

So, he decided, “We'd better give them a decent ident.i.ty!”

Sheng Fu said, “How about we say that they are the children of an old acquaintance in Chang'an?”

“This time, though I blocked the information as soon as my sweetheart, Shuihe and the boy of Xu Family had left Orange Osmanthus Courtyard, and I also ordered the people who knew the fact to keep silent, you understand that since there were many people there that day, all of a young age, even though they didn't mean to do harm to my sweetheart, as time goes by, they may leak something involuntarily.”

However, Sheng Lanci shook his head and said, “Though she was blessed during this journey on the sea and wasn't really hurt, the rumors in the society are always sarcastic. I have to resolve the problem, anyway!”

Sheng Fu had no idea about why he mentioned this topic all of a sudden. Having contemplated for a while, he said tentatively, “We shouldn't let the news about Second Miss's journey on the sea spread. But luckily, Childe and Young Lord Xu also went missing that night. They were both Second Miss's brothers, so with their company, no one could say anything mean about Second Miss.”

“Even though it's true, we need to prepare a proper explanation since three children disappeared at midnight.” Sheng Lanci pondered, “How about… we say that they happened to learn about Weirao's traces and were impatient to verify it, so they left hastily without informing Feng Family and Xuanyu Family?”

Sheng Fu thought it about it and said implicitly, “In this way, many people would doubt about Third Miss's experience when she was missing. Why would they hide it from Feng Family and Xuanyu Family?”

“Though Miss Gongsun and Gongsun Xi are both going to Sheng Family, aside from the gap of status when they were on the island, even if in Sheng Family, Miss Gongsun would live in the backyard with my sweetheart, while Gongsun Xi will surely continuing being a close servant of Shuihe.” Sheng Lanci said slowly, “How do you like this version? Miss Gongsun and Gongsun Xi, the lady and her servant, saved Weirao. In this way, we averted the rumors about why Weirao didn't return to Sheng Family until such a long time after she went missing, and we'll have a reasonable excuse to invite them into Sheng Family.”

“Most importantly, Miss Gongsun is of the same age as Second Miss, and neither of them has reached adulthood.” Sheng Fu got his point and said knowingly, “So after having saved Third Miss Sheng, though the reward posters of Sheng Family had been put on everywhere, she didn't bring Third Miss to see us, because she was young and timid. She dared not to get in touch with Sheng Family directly, so she took the chance when Childe and Second Miss were in Orange Osmanthus Courtyard to tell them the truth. In this way, Childe and Young Master Xu could be excused for leaving Orange Osmanthus Courtyard with Second Miss to see Third Miss at night!”

After all, though Sheng Shuihe was Sheng Weirao's cousin, he hadn't been back home for long and wasn't close to this cousin. It was similar when it came to Xu Baomo who had been there for the first time. Meanwhile, considering that they were males, it would have been natural for them to bring Sheng Weiqiao together in case of the inconvenience caused by gender.

As for why they didn't inform Sheng Family about this but acted independently, it was because Orange Osmanthus Courtyard located in the suburban region, and the gate of the city was already closed at midnight. Anxious about their cousin, they couldn't wait to go back home and report until dawn, so they went to look for their cousin first, which had demonstrated the love between peers and the virtuous deeds of Sheng Family, hadn't it?

Sheng Fu also told Sheng Lanci's other intention, “You once promised a great reward for anyone who sent back Miss Shen or Third Miss. But Miss Gongsun and her servant were weak. If we gave them the money and showed them out directly, it would certainly put them in danger! So Senior Master would make Miss Gongsun a foster granddaughter, which would correspond with the rank of Miss Gongsun, Childe, and Second Miss. Meanwhile, all people inside and outside would praise that we know to recompense other's grat.i.tude and are thoughtful in dealing with everything!”

His mind was filled with appreciation. Though he had been working for Sheng Lanci for many years and was very conscious of the ability of his master, he still believed that Sheng Lanci's method of dealing with all kinds of stuff was worth learning and imitating. It was regrettable that such an insightful master had a naive daughter.

Sheng Weiqiao knew nothing about her father's effort behind. Following his arrangement, several days later, when the s.h.i.+p entered the port, she didn't go back to Sheng Family directly after she went off the s.h.i.+p. Instead, she left for the foster home where Sheng Weiqiao was accommodated.

Before entering the room, even though in company with Lvqi, Lvjin and Gongsun Yingjiang, Sheng Weiqiao felt stressed.

Because she didn't know to confront Sheng Weirao, with everything she had suffered so far?

But when she really stepped into the room, the confusion was solved. The moment she entered the room, Sheng Weirao wept, looking at her.

So, she also cried.

They fell into each other's arms, sobbing on each other's shoulders. For the suggestions of the maids around, they combed the hair and washed the faces, and then they got the chance to observe each other. Sheng Weiqiao was treated as a guest of honor on Daimao Island, so naturally, she had nothing unwell unless she became a little thinner after the illness.

But Sheng Weirao had completely changed in the past few days. She was much thinner, and on her delicate face, there was a one-inch scar made for unknown reasons. Though it had scabbed, a permanent scar seemed inevitable.

Worst of all, because of the position of the scar, it couldn't be hidden with bangs.

Aside from the damaged look, she wasn't as shrill and indulgent as before. On the contrary, she got very numb. The blankness in her eyes looked pitiful.

Sheng Weiqiao didn't dare to ask about her recent experience, nor recall the old days with her. She pondered and only told her about the plans to make up.

But this topic didn't help to sustain a long conversation, either. Because Sheng Weirao listened to the end, peaceful, and said tamely, “I'll obey uncle.”

With little human traits in her voice, she sounded like a puppet.

Sheng Weiqiao turned away. Tears streamed down to her chin and were sopped by her collar.

Luckily Nanny Zhang, who was dispatched here by Old Madam Ming expressly to console Sheng Weirao, entered in time and reminded all the people, “Third Miss should get some rest. Since Second Miss and this young lady had experienced a tough journey today, how about an early night?”

That day, Sheng Weiqiao was sleepless the whole night.

However, the next day, when she got up and sat down in front of the dresser, Nanny Zhang came in, pale, and brought her a piece of shocking news!