บท 33: 33. The untold story

When they arrived, the official for the state affair had a key to the estate and officially unsealed the doors. Then he stepped back and with a bow presented the key to Lord Liu Shan.

Liu Shan stepped forward, unlocked it and pushed the door open with both hands. He only had a few servants with him, so he just let them close the door as soon they entered and Liu Mei could look around. Her pale face and shaky eyes showed her excitement.

How pretty. This house was completely in the old Chinese style, like in those storybooks. The beautiful roofs, separate rooms with long walkways and a bunch of flowers and trees. Of course, there was so much to do since no one lived inside this place for decades.

With a strange expression, Xiao Ran followed them and her face became even more astonished by the time they entered the inner yard. Hua Lan could see the excitement on Liu Mei's face and strangeness in Xiao Ran's, so she became curious. "Uhm, the two of you seem to be quite astonished? Or am I wrong?"

Xiao Ran followed her mistress in a daze, as she saw the household. When Hua Lan asked her the question she snapped out of it. "Mistress has had many strange dreams for a while. She said she dreamed about some place in her dreams and painted it. But seeing a house that looked similar to what she painted is really strange for me. Please forgive me for behaving unproperly. "

Her face became calm, but her eyes still darted here and there from time to time.

Hua Lan and Liu Shen, aka Lord Liu, were surprised. It made his decision hrrl even more right. He sighed as he patted Liu Mei's head. "Now I am even more certain that the two of us are somehow related. My decision to write you into our family book isn't wrong at all. Liu Mei, this or that way you are my family. Now come. I will show you the rest of the house." He started explaining the rooms until they came to one room that looked strange.

Liu Mei stood in front of it and blinked. "Brother, before we enter this place have you ever been inside?"

He shook his head. "Mother has forbidden me to enter this place. They never explained why..." He suddenly stopped as he saw the old woman, that should help Hua Lan with the baby delivery, starting crying. "You, do you know something? "

She glanced at Liu Mei and cried even harder. Between her sobs, words could be heard. "Our missing miss. It's truly our missing miss..."

Hua Lan approached her with fast steps and held her hand with excitement. "Speak... What do you know about this? "

The old woman nodded and looked at Liu Mei with a big smile. "I am actually one of the old servants from this estate. Young master, you were just a small baby, not even a year old when young miss went missing. At that time old master, your grandfather was fighting the whole organizations of people that were stealing children all over the country and selling them into slavery."

Lord Liu nodded. ''I know about that case. My elders told me about it. There were so many bad things going on at that time so my grandfather, father and all my uncles went all over the country to search for any lead. With that, they found more organizations that did even worse things. Unfortunately, the old Emperor died making new the Emperor having a heavy burden, as he had his hands in many of those nasty things. Of course, our family would be first to be attacked.''

Hua Lan nodded as she heard many stories about famous the Liu clan that lived righteously. That is one of the reasons she married Liu Shen. ''But how comes we never heard about young miss?'' The Liu clan would never hide such a thing.

Lord Liu turned his head at the flabbergasted Liu Mei and suddenly had a thought in her mind. ''Could they have hidden, so they could silently investigate further my sister's disappearance? Maybe the people that stole her travelled far away, very far away.'' With those words, he looked at her eyes with a growing smile.

The old woman didn't notice anything and her eyes became glossy as she thought about the past. "The more master fought them, the more attacks he and his people got from all sides. One day he got a threat, that if he doesn't stop they will make him feel sorry. He was one of the stubborn people that would finish what they started. So after a long and arduous time, he finally destroyed them but lost something precious. His firstborn child, our little miss. She was just five when she went missing. He rose a search trough the whole country and even the Emperor sent his people to help, but nothing could be found. After three months he asked the Emperor to stop and gave the money to the state treasury for the costs that were spent. He almost emptied every penny in his household making many people feel queasy, as many tried to send their daughters as his concubines. Later he changed greatly and until end searched for the young miss. "

With slow steps, she opened the door and the whole cloud of dust flew out. After the dust settled they could see that probably nothing was moved from the space since the small girl left. Her toys lying around, small trinkets, pictures and other little things just standing like frozen in time. It just like some child finished touching it and was about to come back.

They entered the room under the watchful eyes of Hua Lan and Lord Liu and they saw strange expression spreading over Liu Mei's face. Confusion and astonishment could be seen all over it. The old woman smiled at her and took her to another room.

She slowly entered the room and took one scroll that was lying in the corner. When they saw the picture their eyes turned towards Liu Mei. Even Hua Lan gasped looking at it.

Liu Mei curiously looked at it and her breath stocked...