Chapter 72: Selling

“Father, I…”

Recalling everything that had happened, a surge of guilt welled up inside her, and Wang Huaiyu couldn’t help wiping the tears that spilled over.

‘If I hadn’t been so willful, would Hongfang not have left so suddenly?’

‘If I had stopped Liu Shan and taught him earlier, would none of this have happened?’

‘If Father hadn’t…’

The regret flooded her mind, and Wang Huaiyu lowered her head, sobbing uncontrollably.

Wang Chengye, propped against the bed, only watched his daughter silently, an unreadable emotion flickering in his clouded eyes.

But in the end, he let out a long sigh.

“…Child, it’s your father’s fault.” Wang Chengye reached out and touched Wang Huaiyu’s hand, his voice trembling slightly. “It’s your father’s fault for not being good enough, for not fulfilling a father’s responsibilities…”

“But your father doesn’t want you to go down the wrong path either…”

Wang Chengye cupped his daughter’s face, studying it carefully, tears streaming uncontrollably down the wrinkles on his cheeks.

He had already laid bare the past—whether it was the debt he owed his daughter or the guilt toward his late wife, Wang Chengye no longer hid anything.

Now, all they could do was face it honestly.

Facing her father’s unreserved expression of emotion, Wang Huaiyu stopped crying and softly responded with a nod.

Seeing that his daughter was no longer lost in her grief, Wang Chengye breathed a quiet sigh of relief and withdrew his hand.

But after all that, the two of them fell back into the initial silence.

Once all the emotions had been vented, the atmosphere in the room became awkward.

“Child, you seem to have lost a lot of weight.” Wang Chengye looked at his daughter’s face, so different from before, and asked with concern.

Wang Huaiyu was stunned, then touched her cheek with her hand.

Over the past few days, in order to take over the burden of the Wang Family, she had been forcing herself to do work she wasn’t good at, even to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep.

With such continuous exertion, it was a miracle Wang Huaiyu hadn’t fallen ill.

“No, I’ve just been busy lately and haven’t been eating properly…” Wang Huaiyu forced a smile to reassure her father. “Father, don’t worry, I’ll take good care of myself.”

“You’ve been exhausted these days too. The Physician said you just need to rest quietly, so don’t worry about me.”

“…It’s that second uncle of yours, isn’t it?” Wang Chengye sighed, a hint of displeasure in his tone.

Wang Huaiyu said nothing, simply sitting quietly by the side.

“I knew that good-for-nothing brother of mine would cause trouble for our Wang Family while I’m recovering.”

“Hmph, if it weren’t for your grandfather’s will, I would have already driven that wasteful fool out of the Wang Family!”

Wang Chengye closed his eyes, speaking as if he were discussing some irrelevant person.

“…But he still bears the name Wang. As long as he doesn’t get involved in shady matters like the Zhou Family, let him be…”

After saying this, Wang Chengye rubbed his temples, looking troubled and helpless.

But Wang Huaiyu beside him was not so calm. She had been lost in her own thoughts from his earlier words, but when she heard the last part, she froze completely.

“…Father, what do you mean by ‘shady matters like the Zhou Family’?”

An inexplicable unease and unbearable curiosity forced her to ask.

Wang Chengye was silent for a moment, as if considering where to begin. Finally, he sighed and lowered his voice:

“After Hongfang went to Lin’an, I felt uneasy. The Zhou Family’s downfall came too suddenly, too suspiciously… I secretly asked someone to investigate.”

“I searched for a long time, piecing things together, and barely managed to find some clues.” Wang Chengye’s gaze fell on the bedding, not looking at his daughter.

“On the surface, the Zhou Family was in the tea business, but behind the scenes… they were involved in human trafficking.”

Wang Huaiyu looked up at her father, her pupils contracting sharply.

“The imperial court has explicitly forbidden such things now. If discovered…” Wang Chengye’s voice was laced with exhaustion and pain. “Tell me, what do you think caused the Zhou Family’s overnight ruin?”

“Father…” Wang Huaiyu’s voice tightened. “Are you saying the Zhou Family’s annihilation was because of the Government Office?”

“I don’t know.” Wang Chengye shook his head. “I only found out what the Zhou Family did. Who made the move and why—I dared not dig deeper.”

Wang Huaiyu lowered her head, her fingers clutching the hem of her clothes until her knuckles turned white.

She remembered Zhou Hongfang’s always calm eyes, his restrained and patient demeanor when he was in the Wang Family.

‘Did he know what his father was doing? Would he have… no, that can’t be.’

A strong unease surged from the bottom of her heart—not doubt about Zhou Hongfang, but fear.

Could his disappearance be related to the Zhou Family’s secret? Could the assassins targeting her second uncle also be connected to it?

In the past, she always acted cold toward Zhou Hongfang, but deep down, Wang Huaiyu cared about him a lot.

Not to mention her inability to resist the marriage contract, his companionship over the past six months and his consistently steady nature had given her a good impression of him.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have used alcohol as an excuse that night to…

“Father, I’m going back now.”

Filled with anxiety, Wang Huaiyu stood up abruptly and walked toward the door before Wang Chengye could respond.

“Yu’er?”

Wang Huaiyu didn’t turn back. She pulled the door open hastily. The night wind rushed in, messing up her hair.

“…Please get some rest early.” With that, she left without looking back.

In the hallway, Wang Huaiyu walked quickly, almost running back to her own room. She pushed the door open, closed it behind her, and leaned against it, her chest heaving violently.

Human trafficking, second uncle, the Zhou Family…

‘Looks like I need to find a helper.’

In the night, inside the dim candlelit room, Wang Huaiyu was left alone with her thoughts.

At the other end of the night, the cicadas kept chirping.

In a room at an inn, a young girl sat at a table, propping her chin and muttering to herself.

“One roll of cloth costs three guan, one set of clothes costs two guan, and staying at the inn these past few days has cost over one guan…”

“Adding in the reserved travel expenses, I can still consider myself fairly well-off for now.”

“Sigh, luckily I took on a Bodyguard job along the way, so I won’t go hungry.” Liu Yao sighed, propping her face up as she lamented about money.

“I hope Yi An will like this apology gift…”

Liu Yao pulled her thoughts away from the money bag and looked down at her dark night clothes. She reached out to check her tightened sleeves and waist, making sure nothing was out of place.

“Alright, time to get down to business.”

She stood up and pushed open the window. The night wind hit her face, carrying the heat of late summer and the faint chirping of cicadas in the distance.

The girl took a deep breath, pressed down on her reed hat, and with a light flick of her toes, she flipped out of the window.

The daytime investigation was just an appetizer. What she really needed to do was take advantage of the night to thoroughly look into the matter of those prisoners.