T/N: Thank you patrons for sponsoring this chapter part.
Title: ChongFei Manual
Chapter: 170.1 out of 171
When Li Song opened his eyes again, the young girl in front of him was looking at him with a confused expression.
He was holding her wrist so forcefully that her pink lips were tightly pursed. Her clear, black eyes were shining with uneasy and trepidation. Li Song continued to stare at her face without blinking. Although her face was slightly different from the Wei Luo that he knew, they were still the same person.
Just as he was about to say something, the corner entrance's door was suddenly pushed opened by someone. An older female servant came out of the residence. She was wearing a honey-colored robe and harshly said without restraint, "Didn't I tell you to leave? What kind of place do you think Duke Ying's residence is? Is this a place that you can come and go as you please? Why don't you look at yourself? Why would Fifth Master agree to see you?" As she said this, she spat on the ground.
Li Song's brow twisted and he loosened his grip on Wei Luo's wrist. A moment later, Wei Luo broke free from him and ran towards the alley. She ran very quickly. By the time Li Song returned to his senses, she had already disappeared past the end of the alley.
Li Song had only felt as if something had left his grasp. He turned around to look at the older female servant that had an angry expression and asked, "What's going on?"
This older female servant's job was watching the corner entrance. She had just started working at Duke Ying's residence last year. When she saw how simply Wei Luo was dressed, she assumed that she was an impoverished girl trying to obtain money by pretending to be related to Fifth Master. Most likely, she knew one of the female servants in the residence and decided to use Fifth Master's name as a way to enter the residence.
This older female servant knew Li Song's identity, so her expression immediately changed. She piled on layer upon layer of smiles as she said, "Heir Li, you don't know. That girl had come here several times. She said she's looking for Fifth Master. How could Fifth Master be someone that she can meet just because she wants to? This servant has mentioned this matter to Fifth Madam. Fifth Madam had specially ordered this servant to not let that girl inside the residence…"
As the older female servant said a bunch of words, Li Song's face continued to sink the more he heard her speak.
In the end, he turned around without saying a word and headed in the direction that Wei Luo had left in.
Lu Shi saw that he wasn't coming back to the carriage, so he caught up to him and asked, "Young Master, where are you going? Weren't you going to go back home?"
Li Song didn't respond as he quickly walked.
Unfortunately, after he had searched the entire alley, he couldn't find any traces of Wei Luo. The end of the alley connected with a busy street. She had probably already run far away. Li Song stood at the end of the alley as people passed by him. His face was expressionless as he thought of the words that the older female servant had said. A long time later, he slammed his fist against the wall.
Lu Shi felt painful just looking at him. While he wondered why Li Song was acting so strangely today, he said with a smile, "Young Master, did you know that young girl?"
Li Song was silent for a moment. Instead of answering his question, he said, "Let's go back."
Lu Shi froze, but he quickly recovered and agreed. He went back to tell the carriage driver to drive the carriage here. He still didn't understand what had happened as they went back to Prince Ru Yang's residence.
After they returned home, Li Song directly went to the study and ordered Lu Shi to investigate the matter of Duke Ying's family's Fifth Miss's kidnapping again.
Although Lu Shi didn't understand why he cared so much about a stranger, he still obediently withdrew to investigate this matter.
The news he brought back wasn't that much different from the previous time. It wouldn't be easy to thoroughly investigate this matter and get clear answers. Too much time had passed.
Li Song thought of the words that the older female servant had said. After contemplating for a long time, he said to Lu Shi, "Send a few people over to keep watch of Du-shi's actions. If there's any anomaly, immediately tell me."
Lu Shi nodded. Before he left, he couldn't resist asking, "Young Master, this insignificant one audaciously asks, do you know that Fifth Miss? Her kidnapping happened so long ago and Duke Ying's household doesn't even care about this matter anymore. Why do you still want to look into this matter?"
Li Song paused before saying, "I care because no one else is concerned about this matter."
This world seemed slightly different from his previous world. Wei Luo actually wasn't living as Duke Ying's family's Fifth Miss. Wei Chang Hong was engaged to Li Xiang. What went wrong? He had to get to the bottom of this.
Lu Shi hesitated, but didn't ask another question.
Later, Li Song went to Duke Ying's residence two more times. He deliberately took a detour and left through the corner entrance each time, but he didn't see Wei Luo.
Today, Li Song came to Duke Ying's residence with Elder Princess Gao Yang. Elder Princess Gao Yang had exchanged a few words with Fifth Madam Du-shi. She was probably hoping that after Li Xiang married into Duke Ying's family, Du-shi would treat Li Xiang magnanimously as her mother-in-law.
Du-shi was the daughter of a concubine and her status was much lower than Elder Princess Gao Yang's. Her attitude was very respectful and her tone was very amicable. She didn't show any disagreement towards Elder Princess Gao Yang's words.
When Elder Princess Gao Yang was leaving, Du-shi personally sent off the elder princess to the entrance with a smiling face from beginning to end.
Seeing that it had started to rain, Du-shi hurriedly had a servant girl bring over two umbrellas to Elder Princess Gao Yang.
After Elder Princess Gao Yang thanked Du-shi, she held a servant girl's hand for support as she went into her carriage. When she turned around, she saw Li Song standing in place. She asked, "Song-er, why aren't you coming? The raining is getting worse. Hurry and get inside the carriage. Don't let yourself catch a cold from standing in the rain."
Li Song returned to his senses and said to Elder Princess Gao Yang, "I'm going somewhere else first. I made plans with other people. Mother, you can go back home without me." Then, he accepted the oiled-paper umbrella from the servant girl, opened the umbrella, and went the other way with only Lu Shi following him.
Elder Princess Gao Yang called after him once. He seemed as if he hadn't heard her and continued walking away. He soon disappeared at the opening of an alley.
Elder Princess Gao Yang anxiously furrowed her eyebrows, "That child…"