After both father-daughter woke up, Yao Ying called Lin Jian and Xiao Fang over to discuss things over. They needed to talk about in details how to cover up Aunt Yue's trails --- they didn't want others to find out that she was dead. After all, the one who was in charge temporarily was Rong Qiu and the new representative from the Han Emperor hadn't come yet, so they were afraid that the Han Emperor would blame Rong Qiu.
Not only that, Yao Ling would be the one who was being hunted when they knew that her grandmother was dead --- it was too dangerous!
At first, Xiao Fang was a bit hesitant because she didn't know how to face her godfather. Fortunately, her godfather still treated her the same as before and she sighed in relief. He welcomed her with a comforting smile and she smiled back widely.
"Godfather," Xiao Fang greeted him warmly.
Rong Qiu patted her head lovingly just like usual. He remembered how he doted upon this little girl and didn't plan to change. "Xiao Fang, from now on... you and Yao Ling are sisters." This sentence had been enough proof that he still took her as his goddaughter and Xiao Fang was grateful for that.
Xiao Fang looked at Yao Ling and smiled. "Fortunately, I always thought of her as my sister... who knows we can actually become real sisters."
"True ah~!" Yao Ling was happy as well and gave Xiao Fang with a wide grin. Their relationship became stronger than before --- from best friends to sisters.
Lin Jian asked Yao Ying, "You call us here... there must be something important that you want to tell us, right?"
Yao Ying nodded and his serious face made the atmosphere became tense. He explained everything that had just happened in the garden and finally said, "It's no longer safe for us to stay here any longer..."
Crescent Lake had become a dangerous place for them to stay!
They understood this point, however, Rong Qiu still had to maintain his pretense. He needed to take care of Bao Bei and wait until the new representative arrived... Yao Ling certainly didn't want to leave her father behind. Thus, they made a plan to bring Rong Qiu along with them.
Rong Qiu adamantly wanted to bring Bao Bei along with him and they could only helplessly agree. Yao Ling knew because Bao Bei was actually her mother's beloved pet, that was why her father didn't want to leave Bao Bei behind.
There were so many things that they needed to do, thus, they needed to divide the tasks carefully. The sooner they left Crescent Lake, the better.
Yao Ling was the only one who wasn't allowed to do anything because even after a nap, her face was still pale. Rong Qiu explained that it was the effect of using the power blindly and she needed a few days to recuperate. He knew a little bit of the power and he would guide her bit by bit after the matter in Crescent Lake had been dealt with.
Fortunately, all of them had said that she was sick a few days ago after she went into a coma. Thus, she already had the best cover from the outside world. Yao Ling didn't know whether she should laugh or cry --- after all, she didn't think that she was important enough to make people take notice of her.
Yao Ling asked, "What kind of illness that you told other people?" She wanted to prepare herself ah~! If she needed to act, then she needed to do it well.
The others looked at each other awkwardly and then Xiao Fang answered, "It's not actually an illness."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Yao Ling asked in confusion.
"We didn't want Uncle Qiu to call a physician for you, otherwise, he would find out that you were in a coma. Thus, we lied to him," Lin Jian explained.
"That's fine. Just tell me the excuse!" Yao Ling wondered why they kept beating around the bush ah~!
Rong Qiu really wanted to laugh at the others. He almost forgot about this! Thus, he was the one who told Yao Ling, "They told me that you were pregnant!"
Yao Ling gaped at them while blushing furiously! 'Pregnant?!' She thought to herself. Out of so many excuses, how could they choose this? It was too embarrassing ah~!
"So... how should I act?" Yao Ling felt embarrassed to ask. She knew one or two things when she helped her mother to treat the villagers, but she didn't know exactly what the pregnant women encountered on a daily basis.
"Er..." The trio was speechless too. Yao Ying didn't have a family, so he had never really known the exact symptoms. Lin Jian's house didn't have any women in it, so how could he possibly know? On the other hand, Xiao Fang's father also didn't have any concubines, so she also never really paid close attention to pregnant women.
Their eyes landed to Rong Qiu --- he was the only one who probably knew about this.
Rong Qiu scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Your mother mostly spent her pregnant day on the ship. The waves were pretty wild, so she always vomited until she became thin..." For Rong Qiu, that was the most painful thing that he had ever seen.
Yao Ling didn't find any of their information helpful. "Oh well... I will just stay inside my room and pretend to vomit whenever people come to meet me," Yao Ling finally decided.
She just made love once and now, she had to pretend that she was pregnant. It was very amusing to her ah~!
Yao Ling knew that they would start doing their plan tonight --- it would be started by handling Bao Bei. She didn't think that it would be hard to do, after all, Bao Bei was called as a sacred pet just for a diversion --- the Han Emperor agreed to raise Bao Bei because it was one of Aunt Yue's terms. They didn't think that the Han Emperor would care whether Bao Bei was alive or not.
Her father also needed to do his part as Uncle Qiu tonight and deal with Aunt Yue's disappearance matter. The only ones who didn't have anything to do were Yao Ling and Xiao Fang, thus, they decided to stay together and chat while waiting for the man to come back.
Rong Qiu's feelings were quite complicated. He knew that his mother was dead and he hadn't gotten the time to mourn her, he felt guilty because of it and yet, he still had a lot of things to handle. He really needed to prepare the proper prayer and burn joss paper for her after everything had been settled.
If he did it here, he knew people would become suspicious of him. However, he felt like he was really unfilial ah~!
He looked up to the sky and said inwardly, 'Mother, I'm sorry for being unfilial. After settling the matter here, I will give you a proper prayer. I'm sorry that there's no funeral... We can't find your body..."
Rong Qiu didn't feel hesitate to kneel towards the sky and kowtowed three times until his forehead was bleeding. He needed to pay respect for his own mother --- let all the grudges begone... He didn't blame his mother anymore for sealing his memories back then.
It was because Yao Ling --- without her, he wouldn't be able to calmly think things over.
He wondered where his mother's body was... He also didn't know how to break the news to Yao Ling. After he woke up from his slumber, Yao Ying told him about Yao Ling's breakdown when she guessed that her grandmother was dead --- thus, he felt even more complicated!
He decided to put this matter aside first and took care of the guards out there.
Rong Qiu decided to listen to his personal servant --- Ah Zhao's report, before coming out to handle the matter. Ah Zhao had used a good reason for his disappearance. Last night, he was busy searching for Aunt Yue along with the guards. Thus, Ah Zhao told the others that he was sick because of it and needed to recuperate for a little while.
Fortunately, the others believed in the excuse. Besides, he wasn't really in charge of them, to begin with.