Chapter 331: Chapter 331

The old man's daughter-in-law obviously didn't pay attention to this distinction. She only understood two things: first, this little bandit in front of her wasn't a real bandit, and second, this little bandit had come to rescue her.

Obviously, when a middle-aged woman like her encountered such a situation, she would ask this kind of meaningless question. If it was true, it was true; if it wasn't true, the person wouldn't tell her anyway.

Xiaoyao nodded and said, "Really. Now you don't need to worry. I'll have you do some things, tamper with the food a bit."

"That won't work. They've been watching us constantly. If I make any moves, I'll be discovered. It's useless," the old man's daughter-in-law immediately shook her head in response. It wasn't that she hadn't tried this before, but it was obviously impossible, at least for her.

"Don't worry, they definitely won't be able to tell. I won't use anything at all, just arrange the dishes for them," Xiaoyao waved his hand and smiled mysteriously. Of course, she couldn't understand what he meant.

"Just arrange the dishes? Can that work?"

"Everything in this world has medicinal properties and can be used as medicine. With proper combination, the same miraculous effects can be achieved," Xiaoyao said calmly.

"???" The old man's daughter-in-law didn't understand. For such high-level matters, it would be strange if she could understand them. However, she grasped one point: Xiaoyao could use food combinations to create a kind of poison.

Although her understanding was somewhat off, it was close to the truth. Xiaoyao didn't want to concoct poison, because that wouldn't have a very good effect—poison would be immediately detected as problematic, which might make many people suspicious.

The effect he wanted was something more chronic, and preferably triggered at a specific time. This still had to be something everyone would come into contact with. This was what Xiaoyao was considering now—what method would work best...

But before that, Xiaoyao still had things to ask this old man's daughter-in-law. Don't forget, his purpose in coming here was to find this clue.

"I'm sorry. Although the current environment might not be very suitable, I want to know—twenty years ago, a young man and woman came here. I know about the earlier events, your husband already told me about them. He also said that you might have encountered them again afterward. Is there such a thing?" Xiaoyao asked.

"Ah, this... no..." the old man's daughter-in-law denied, but her expression revealed a hint of evasion, as if there were other details to this matter.

"Tell me the truth. I just want to confirm some things. I won't do anything you don't want to see. Also, if I don't get the information, I won't rescue you. This is my bargaining chip. If you don't tell me, you and your son will die in this stronghold," Xiaoyao said. He felt that scaring this middle-aged woman might be more effective. Otherwise, with just persuasion alone, he wasn't sure he could convince her.

"No, please. I'll tell you. You don't have to save me, but you must save my son," the old man's daughter-in-law indeed compromised. This result was quite obvious. When it came to threatening their children, any parent would first consider their child, putting other moral issues aside.

This didn't mean they lacked morality—saving one's own child was also a kind of morality. It was just that someone had given them a single-choice question, forcing them to abandon one option. Obviously, most people would abandon other promises rather than their own children.

"Then tell me. I'll rescue you and let your family reunite. I'm a good person," Xiaoyao said with a smile, specifically declaring that he was a good person.

Good person? If you're a good person, why are you threatening me with my son's life?

The old man's daughter-in-law mentally complained about this. She didn't think about the fact that without Xiaoyao, her son would have been doomed anyway. This was an issue many people often overlooked—just because someone could save you didn't mean they had to save you.

However, she only thought about this briefly and didn't dwell on other matters, because she was afraid Xiaoyao might change his mind. She truthfully told him about that incident.

"Later, I did see one of that man and woman—the girl. One day... roughly twenty years ago, she came to me carrying a newborn baby boy, wanting me to adopt the baby. But later, for some reason, she changed her mind, changed the baby's clothes, gave me some instructions, and then left with the baby."

The old man's daughter-in-law narrated this, and these words undoubtedly gave Xiaoyao a lot of important information. This allowed some of the clues he had obtained earlier to connect, and some things seemed to make sense, but whether that was the case still required him to continue listening.

"She told me she was going to abandon the baby nearby. She said if she left him with me, he might be found, and then some people would take the baby away and bring disaster to us as well. She said she had to do something unexpected so that others couldn't guess."

"She also said to not look for him for one day, and if the child happened to be picked up by someone, I shouldn't interfere. I should treat this matter as if it never happened and not mention it to anyone. As a result, I didn't find that child. I heard he was picked up by a wealthy family. That family seemed to have come to our village to ask around, but since no one except me knew about it, they didn't find out."

Upon hearing this, Xiaoyao seemed more and more certain that the baby was him. However, aside from knowing the reason he was abandoned, there didn't seem to be any particularly useful information.

"Who was that woman? Did she tell you her name? Also, didn't she say why the man who was with her didn't come?" Xiaoyao asked.

Why was she alone, and who were those people she mentioned? Xiaoyao really wanted to know these things, but he believed that woman definitely hadn't mentioned them at the time, because she didn't want to implicate this middle-aged woman in front of him. At the same time, these matters didn't need to be explained. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel⸺fire.net

Although he knew this, Xiaoyao still wanted to get more information to piece together the original appearance of this matter.

"She didn't say, and didn't mention any names. They addressed each other as senior brother and junior sister," the old man's daughter-in-law shook her head and continued to answer.

Senior brother and junior sister relationship? Childhood sweethearts who grew up together, innocent young love, then fell in love with each other, and then their parents or one side's parents disagreed, so in helpless desperation, they eloped.

Eh, why would I have such thoughts? I must have watched too many plays.

Xiaoyao shook his head and smiled self-deprecatingly, pushing aside the thoughts in his mind and continuing to ask, "Did she say anything else?"

"She said some things, but... alright, I'll tell you this too. She also said that if one day this child found me and knew about these things, I should tell the child not to try to find them and to live well here."

Although this middle-aged woman in front of him couldn't express the expression of that woman at the time, Xiaoyao could sense that the woman had been filled with helplessness and guilt.

"Also, she finally said that she was sorry to that child."

"Is there anything else? Any details would be fine, even seemingly insignificant ones. Also, did anyone else come to inquire about this?" Xiaoyao continued asking, although he knew these questions might not have answers.

Details—those were things from twenty years ago, very difficult to remember. What could be remembered should have already been said. As for whether there were other people at the time, even if there were, they wouldn't have let the people of the small mountain village know.

"That's all. I've told you everything I know. Please, you must save my son."

"I will. I'll rescue you." Xiaoyao nodded and said. He was still thinking about some things. He didn't understand—if he had just been thrown there like that, if someone had really wanted to find him, they would have been able to. Why didn't they?

Was it that the people at the time simply didn't want to look, or had that woman managed to deceive them?

Xiaoyao felt the latter possibility was higher. After all, if she wasn't even comfortable leaving him in the small mountain village, she must have tried to conceal it somehow. Although he didn't know what method she used, the result was as it was.

"By the way, you still remember what they looked like, right? Describe them to me," Xiaoyao said. He hadn't had time to ask this last time before being interrupted by the Cao family young master. Naturally, he had to ask now, as this was the most direct clue.

"They were both very noble. The man was the most handsome and elegant I've ever seen..."

"Compared to me?" Xiaoyao interrupted and asked.

"..." The old man's daughter-in-law was speechless for a moment. "Compared to you, he was a bit better. I'm not saying you're not handsome, it's just that you're not that obvious..."

"Cough, cough, continue..." Xiaoyao coughed a few times in embarrassment.

"Speaking of which, he did have one thing very similar to you. Your eyes were very alike, giving people a feeling that was very... very... I don't know how to describe this feeling, just that kind of look that seemed very comfortable," the old man's daughter-in-law said. The vocabulary she could use was insufficient to describe what she meant.

"People can be similar, especially just the eyes. Previously there were... wait, look and see if these are the two people?" Xiaoyao used charcoal to quickly draw a sketch at extremely fast speed, presenting two faces on the ground.

At this moment, the old man's daughter-in-law didn't have time to be amazed at how Xiaoyao had drawn them, how he had drawn two people's faces in the blink of an eye, and so realistically at that.

What shocked her more now was that she had seen these two faces—they were those two—