Because firstly, Xu Baomo needed to hide him from Gongsun Yingjiang. Secondly, he was curious about Daimao Island, and he often wandered around since he was on the island, he didn"t always cling to Sheng Weiqiao.

However, he always kept the goal in mind, which was to turn Sheng Weiqiao into “Mrs. Xu”, so basically, he would walk around in front of Sheng Weiqiao every day.

But counting the time, Sheng Weiqiao hadn"t seen him for four or five days!

She couldn"t help worrying about whether something happened to Xu Baomo. Fortunately, the result was that Sheng Lanci had arranged him to go back ash.o.r.e to contact the sailors of the imperial court.

Sheng Lanci explained to his daughter in this way, “My good Nephew Xu treats you like he is your elder brother, so how can father not give him a reward? The sailors of the imperial court went to the sea this time because they had taken our family"s money. Now no one in Sheng Family was in the imperial court. It will be a great loss if this credit just goes to the sailor in this way. Therefore, I arranged that kid to go there specifically, and then he can share the credit for destroying the pirates!”

In fact, this was just one of the reasons why he had done this. There were also two reasons that he didn"t tell his daughter. First, he now had the casual t.i.tle of senior official, and he was not utterly powerless in the court, but civil officers and military officers were different. His influence on the sailors of the imperial court was limited.

But Xu Baomo"s father, Ningwei Marquis, Xu Zijing, was a key military member of the Country Mu Army. He sent this nephew to the navy, and then the navy would not dare to be perfunctory, and it could also avoid the possibility that the navy would just take the money but would not do their job.

Second, Sheng Lanci was requested by Gongsun Su to a.s.sist Sheng Shuihe to in charge of Daimao Island when Gongsun Su was out to fight the enemy. He worried that he would be too busy to let Xu Baomo take advantage of this opportunity to hook up with his daughter, so he thought he had better make this good nephew leave!

Sheng Weiqiao didn"t know the intentions of her father. After confirming that Xu Baomo, who was following the navy"s actions, would not be in danger, she began to worry about her two sisters, “Father, Sea Master Gongsun has been in battle for two days. Is there any news about Little Jiuniang and my Third Sister?”

“I am waiting as well!” Sheng Lanci sighed, “But the pigeon letter still hasn"t mentioned them. Maybe it is because of the battle? I have told Sea Master Gongsun to pay attention again and again. I think they surely can find the traces of the two children in a few days.”

In fact, until half a month later, under the attack of the navy of the imperial court and Gongsun Family, Han Family and Pan Family fled in panic after being defeated. They were forced into the sea area covered with reefs, and almost the whole army had been annihilated. The war was basically over, and the navy of the imperial court"s letter to request rewards had all been reported to Chang"an, but there was still no news about Shen Jiuniang and Sheng Weirao!

Sheng Weiqiao and her father had gone through countless hopeful and disappointing moments during this period. They had already felt hopeless when Gongsun Family"s fleet returned to the island, and they thought Shen Jiuniang and Sheng Weirao had disappeared entirely in the chaotic army.

But what they hadn"t expected was that after Gongsun Su returned to the island and took a short break, on the one hand, he ordered someone to prepare for the feast; on the other hand, he asked Sheng Lanci to talked to him in the study room, “Miss Shen in your family was indeed not found. It was said that because of some reasons before the war, she was bought by a merchant related to Han family. As for the merchant, I am really sorry that the people involved in this event have all died in the chaotic war, and there was no clue, but the third Miss in your family has come back with my boat this time.”

Sheng Lanci was originally mentally prepared that both the two juniors could not come back. Now it was indeed a real surprise that he heard one of his nieces would still come back. He quickly thanked him, “Thanks for the effort of Sea Master! Sheng Family will never forget the great favor and great virtue of Sea Master!”

As for why Gongsun Su did not mention anything in the previous letter, and he only told him personally until now, Sheng Lanci thought that he was afraid of leaking the notice and brought trouble to Sheng Weirao"s reputation.

However, Gongsun Su waved his hand, “There is a reason why I brought your niece back quietly, and I didn"t dare to report it in advance.”

Although the expression on his face was not grim, it was also not relaxed. He said in a deep voice, “It is because that your niece, or your two nieces, had such an ordeal because they replaced your daughter to go through this in a sense!”

“What?!” When Sheng Weiqiao was mentioned, Sheng Lanci"s pupils contracted suddenly, and his face went dark!

He leaned forward slightly, “May I hear the details!”

In fact, it was not they replaced Sheng Weiqiao to go through the disaster. It could only be said that they were implicated. The cause was the conflict between Xuanyu Che and Sheng Lanci"s children.

Xuanyu Che said that he was beaten hard by Sheng Shuihe. Sheng Lanci said that it was just a flesh wound, and no muscles or bones were hurt. Besides, it was this guy who didn"t learn good things stir up this trouble. He also scolded Madam Feng, who was his elder. Therefore, it was not undeserved for him to be beaten!

Although Mrs. Feng had reminded him to be careful about the revenge of Xuanyu Che"s parents, Sheng Lanci still only told his daughter"s guards to pay attention, but he did not take it seriously.

After all, Xuanyu Family, like Sheng Family, had lived in Nanfeng County for several generations. The two families see each other all the time. Even if they had hatred against each other, he couldn"t make vicious revenge. He regretted and raged, saying, “Unexpectedly, the Xuanyu couple was so narrow-minded!!!”

Xuanyu E was Xuanyu Che"s father.

“In fact, this was just a trigger.” Shaking his head slightly, Gongsun Su said, “The real reason was, the year before, Xuanyu Le, your brother-in-law, suddenly died. It became the hazard buried in the battle of the family property of Xuanyu Family. The concubines whom Xuanyu Le was very fond of were given by Xuanyu E. It was also because of the pillow-talks of these concubines, Xuanyu Le relied heavily on Xuanyu E among his brothers and gave him more power than other brothers.”

“But after the sudden death of Xuanyu Le in the year before last, the Old Madam and her son were in charge of Xuanyu Family now. The first thing she did was to kill or sell Xuanyu Le"s concubines. Those concubines who were sent by Xuanyu E were among the list that people would be killed by rods. So, it was easy to guess the Old Madam of Xuanyu Family"s expression on Xuanyu E himself.”

“If no elders in Xuanyu Family were here and Xuanyu E were also vigilant, that Old Madam even wanted to send himself down to h.e.l.l to accompany those concubines!”

“The relationship between the uncle and sister-in-law was so bad. Xuanyu E was not willing to lose power, so naturally, he hated Old Madam!”

“He wanted to murder Old Madam"s only son, the nephew of yours, Xuanyu She, but Old Madam was superior. He couldn"t find a chance, and he was worried that he would be retaliated heavily by Old Madam after being detected, so he decided to find external aid!”

However, the external aid Xuanyu E found was the pirates, Han Family.

This was because Mrs. Feng was capable. After supporting his son to be the head of the family, she settled everything quickly. It was said that it was easy to put the icing on the cake, and it was hard to show their love when someone was in times of trouble. If Xuanyu E found a helper inside Nanfeng County, which would definitely be told to Mrs. Feng by someone to ask for credit.

However, some contacts outside the county were not powerful enough to help him defeat Mrs. Feng.

In the end, he could only resort to the desperate pirates at sea.

“Gongsun Family has always been friendly to the other three families, and my father was especially close to you. You are the brother-in-law of Old Madam in Xuanyu Family. If he knew that his sister-in-law was in trouble, how could he just watch and not take any actions?” Gongsun Su said, “Therefore, Xuanyu E could only choose Han and Pan!”

When Xuanyu Che had a conflict with Sheng Weiqiao and his elder brother, Xuanyu E was secretly entertaining the emissary from Han Family in the house. After learning that the only son was beaten, he and his wife made trouble with Mrs. Feng, but Mrs. Feng berated and threatened them. Under the new hatred and old hatred, they proposed to the Hans a plan of kidnapping Sheng Weiqiao.

The reason was that Sheng Weiqiao had extremely close relations with the current princ.i.p.als of the three major families in Nanfeng County.

As long as they got her in their hands, Sheng Family would definitely give them what they want!

Even Xuanyu Family and Feng Family would definitely be scrupulous, not only because these two families also loved Sheng Weiqiao, but also because they had to consider the result of offending Sheng Lanci on this matter!

The reason why Han Family sent an emissary to meet Xuanyu E was that they needed the support of large local households since they were going to an expedition with many people. Naturally, they were very interested in Xuanyu E"s proposal.

So from that day on, Han Family secretly sent their trusted subordinate to the sh.o.r.e. And under cover of Xuanyu E, he was ready to take Sheng Weiqiao away.

An opportunity came soon. In order to entertain Ningwei Marquis" Young Lord, Sheng Family decided to let their grandchildren generation to accompany Young Lord to travel.

The people of Han Family followed the group of people from outside Nanfeng County, but because they saw there were many guards and servants, they decided to wait and kidnap her until they arrived at Lingxi Mountain when the team got loose on the mountain road.

Unexpectedly, they suddenly separated another batch of people halfway and sent a carriage to go back. People from Han Family did not know that Sheng Weiqiao was not there, so they continued to follow the large team while sending someone to follow up and ask about the situation.

“Those people hadn"t seen your daughter, but only knew your daughter"s age and appearance from Xuanyu E and his son. The most important thing was that Xuanyu E and his son told them that your daughter was originally Second Miss Sheng in Sheng Family, but because my younger brother had gone back to your family, Sheng Weiqiao might be Third Miss Sheng now!” Gongsun Su sighed and said, “So when they heard the servants called the two girls in the carriage "Miss Shen" and "Third Miss Sheng", they thought it was the sisters who were there when Xuanyu Che"s was beaten by the younger brother that day!”

Sheng Lanci"s face was livid. Sheng Weirao was only one year old younger than Sheng Weiqiao, and it was not easy to distinguish a twelve and a thirteen years old girl. As biological cousins, they were both beautiful, and it was natural that there were some similarities between them. How could those who hadn"t seen them not recognize them wrong just based on the description alone?

Although Sheng Family recognized Sheng Shuihe as a member of their family, they planned to put him in the pedigree of the clan when they opened the ancestral hall in Spring Festival. Although Sheng Family did not deliberately keep it secret, they did not specifically promote it either. The relationship between Xuanyu E and Sheng Family was originally not intimate, and it got worse after Xuanyu Che had been beaten. Therefore, it was reasonable that they didn"t know this detail!

The problem was, if Han Family hadn"t misunderstood “Third Miss Sheng” as Sheng Weiqiao, they would not have kidnapped Shen Jiuniang and Sheng Weirao!

What would the second branch think after hearing the inside story? What about Shen Family? What would Old Madam Ming feel?!

Seeing Sheng Lanci"s expression change, Gongsun Su paused for a while and then whispered, “Han Family was vicious, and after knowing that they had kidnapped the wrong person, they told everything to the two girls.”

The hint in his words was palpable. If Sheng Weirao had known that she and her cousin had been kidnapped, how wouldn"t she tell her family after she went back?

After telling them, the second branch of Sheng Family, Shen family, and Old Madam Ming might transfer their anger to the eldest branch!

Gongsun Su certainly knew that Sheng Lanci might be able to deal with that situation, but!

Anyway, Sheng Lanci didn"t lack a niece, but Sheng Weirao had been tortured to have only one breath left. Even if there were no twists and turns that Han Family had kidnapped the wrong person, it would take a lot of effort to bring her back and do harm to the reputation of Sheng Family. If she died in a chaotic war, they hid this secret and told the family that the two children were unfortunate, then they would not need to worry about it.

“Although it was the third day that the two children were missing when I released the reward notice, why hadn"t Han Family been tempted since the two children were still alive?” Sheng Lanci concentrated attentively for a while and did not answer Gongsun Su"s temptation, but he asked again, “At that time, they should have known that they had kidnapped the wrong person, and neither my nieces would be able to threaten the three major families. Even Sheng Family would not be willing to pay a great price for them. Using them to exchange for 100 thousand taels was already very impressive, but why did they still take them back to the sea?”