kingnovel Chapter 290 Butterfly Hairpin
Chapter 290 Butterfly Hairpin
While a few people were still at a loss, Wu Huan successfully painted three or four portraits.
Each one is slightly different, but they all have one thing in common: the girl has two curved eyebrows, as slender as willow leaves, and her eyes always seem to have a layer of mist, faint and distant.
There was sadness between her brows, but it wasn't as if she was in great pain, but seeing her eyebrows and eyes, it added a bit of charm, like a deer waiting to be redeemed.
The sadness was not heavy and oppressive, but rather like the ripples on the lake in the early morning, soft and delicate.
In addition, Wu Huan drew several pictures of her figure and facial expression. Some of them had a mole on the tip of the nose, some had red lips, and some had a cherry mouth.
In short, each has its own differences.
But when the governor of Kyoto saw her for the first time, he was stunned. Wasn’t this the dead Madam Rong?
Gu Qingyun saw his expression, how could he not understand? He sighed deeply, "Sir, why don't you go back and send him away first? It's not a good idea to keep him in Yan Gui Pavilion like this."
The prefect nodded and looked at the portrait a few more times, "The matter of Madam Rong will be handed over to the Dali Temple."
Gu Qingyun said unhappily, "Don't have any unreasonable expectations of the Dali Temple. We have tried our best to deal with this case half a year ago. I am afraid it will not be very meaningful to bring up the old case again."
The governor of Kyoto had an expression of understanding. He naturally knew how difficult this case was, but he didn't have much expectations.
……
On the other side, in the Marquis' Mansion, the spy who went to explore Qianling River finally returned.
"Tell me, what did you find out this time?" This was the umpteenth time that An Yonghou asked this question, but the investigation happened more than ten years ago.
The people sent out this time were the children of the spies back then.
The young boy stood at the door and bowed respectfully, "The Marquis asked us to investigate what happened more than ten years ago. We asked a lot of people, but only some elderly women in the village knew about it. More than ten years ago, a strong man did take a little girl and fled to Qianling River, but no one in the village knew where they went in the end... They only said that it rained heavily that year, and the strong man took the little girl directly to the mountains. There were wolves, tigers and leopards in the mountains, and many people thought they could not survive."
An Yonghou frowned, "After that, don't pick up words I've heard before."
The young man then glanced at Marquis Anyong secretly and said, "According to the location given by the Marquis, I went to a town behind the Qianling River and found a family. The woman was the daughter of a former pharmacist. Her husband passed away a few years ago. She left behind a son who is studying in a local school. It is said that he is doing well and will probably go to Kyoto Prefecture to participate in the autumn examination this year."
"How old is that child?" An Yonghou asked anxiously.
"He was about sixteen or seventeen years old. My subordinates don't know the details. That family was a bit unkind. Especially when they saw strangers, they would hide away, as if they were very afraid of seeing strangers." The boy recalled the strange things he encountered in that town.
He paused and continued, "But that family doesn't seem to like the people in the town. They live in a very remote place. When I asked other people about it, they looked embarrassed, as if they were hiding something. After asking a lot of people, I found out that they originally had a daughter, who should not be born to the current lady. The man in the family fell ill and sold his daughter. Over the years, people often came to inquire about this young lady, but they were all driven away. It seems... it seems to be related to the palace."
An Yonghou's pupils shrank sharply. What did that mean? Besides him and Gu Qingyun, there were others asking about... what were they asking about?
"Those people came here to ask something. Did you ask?" An Yonghou's face froze. He thought of something and became even more anxious.
"I asked around but couldn't get any information. It was only after I gave copper coins to a few kids at the entrance of the village that I found out. Someone kept asking around about a baby girl who was lost 18 years ago, and someone else was looking for someone with a portrait. Oh, and there were people from the palace, too. But the person they were talking about was just a eunuch with a pointed chin and monkey cheeks, who might not have been from the palace." The young man recalled carefully, fearing that he had missed any key details.
An Yonghou sighed, what a ghost! "So, I'm not the only one looking for her, and I gave up looking for her in the past ten years..."
An Yonghou thought that if An Qiao was indeed his youngest daughter, then it was a good thing that she was sold by her vicious stepmother and bought to the safest and most unsafe place in the world. Otherwise... if An Qiao had stayed there, she might not have survived until now.
But An Yonghou could never have imagined that the young lady had lost her life in the torture all day, and the young lady now was just occupying the body of his daughter...
"Do those people go there often?" An Yonghou asked again. He always felt that this kid was like squeezing toothpaste.
"Not very often, but pretty diligent. About once a year. But since the people who go there are different each time, it's hard to tell. I only know that people have been asking about that young lady and her mysterious father. Especially after her father passed away, more and more people have been asking about her." The young man recalled and said, "In addition, there is also a portrait left behind."
The young man handed the portrait to An Yonghou, and it turned out to be his wife. It seemed that they didn't know what their daughters looked like, so they could only use their wives' portraits to find her.
"It's impossible to find this portrait. If it could be found using this portrait, I would have found it long ago." An Yonghou closed his eyes tiredly.
"Oh, maybe because I tried too hard to find out, unlike those other vicious people. An old lady took me to a pawn shop and bought something. It was said that it was the last thing that the young lady sold before she was sold. It seemed that she was buying medicine for her father."
The young man took out a pure silver hairpin from his pocket. There were two playful butterflies engraved underneath. Compared with ordinary butterfly hairpins, these two butterflies looked extremely tender and even had a bit of childishness.
The moment An Yonghou saw the hairpin, he felt like his breathing almost stopped. Wasn't this the butterfly hairpin that his wife insisted on making for her when she was pregnant with the little girl?
He was in such a hurry to escape that the hairpin was not tied properly, so his wife stuffed it directly into the little girl's swaddling clothes and never saw her daughter again since then.
An Yonghou was so anxious that he wanted to go out to find An Qiao. It was almost certain that An Qiao was most likely his daughter.
When the young man saw the marquis’ expression change because of a hairpin, he couldn’t help but wonder, could it be that he really found the right person at once?