"I just don’t know if Ye Ziping is among those who have died," Old Mu added afterward.
When he drifted to Quanya that year, Ye Ziping had already been exiled, and he had not seen him. He also received a letter from Funan a few days ago, informing him of the attack on the Yang Family and that Mu Shaoling was almost abducted.
Mu Shaoling’s intention was for him not to tell Zi’an about this news upon encountering him in the Capital City. He also mentioned that he had sent someone to the place of exile and had investigated Mu Shaowei.
If the person Brother An had seen was indeed Ye Ziping, it meant that Ye Ziping was no longer in the place of exile, and the attack on the Yang Family might really have been his doing.
And an important point was that he found this group of people had come all the way from Shandong Prefecture City, and by the looks of it, they were headed south. If that was the case, it was feared that Ye Ziping’s thievery might go unpunished. But how did he convince more than a hundred people to follow him south, or was there some other reason?
"Uncle, do you know where those people are now? I’ll join you and help identify them," Zi’an suggested.
"That would be very good."
They had followed the trail from a nearby county city and arrived at this small town with only about twenty men left. After the roundup, the bodies had been carried off to the seaside.
Among the twenty or so corpses, three were Japanese. There may have been more, but it didn’t matter anymore, as they were already dead.
"What’s the verdict?"
Zi’an just shook his head; Ye Ziping was not among them. It seemed that one of the two who had escaped must be Ye Ziping.
Upon hearing this, Old Mu fell silent for a while, planning to send a message to Mu Shaoling as soon as he got back.
He then made another search in Shandong but, finding nothing, he returned to the Capital City ahead of Zi’an.
Meanwhile, Mu Shaoling, who was far away in Funan, was delayed in returning to the Capital City due to an issue with Luo Linhao’s eyes. Fortunately, the Capital City had the Mu Family to handle affairs, and Mu Shaofeng was also on his way there.
Compared to the chaos in Shandong, things in Funan seemed somewhat happier as today was the Little New Year.
Early in the morning, Ms. Wang asked Yang Chuxia whether they should invite the Baiyun Troupe to perform operas as usual for the New Year celebrations.
"Let’s invite them. Our family has had performances for several years in a row now. If we don’t this year, who knows what people will say about us?" Yang Chuxia replied.
Ms. Wang nodded upon hearing this, "Alright then, I’ll go and speak to Chen Sheng about it later. These things need to be arranged in advance, otherwise they might already be booked by other families."
"By the way, Mother, for the gifts to the town and the county, please add more brown sugar cakes on your end, and I will include some boxes of sugar cubes later," Chuxia added.
"Oh, I know," Ms. Wang responded.
Speaking of these brown sugar cakes, Tang Tanghai really lived up to his ancestry of sugar-making, with ample experience and great creativity. After the initial period of research, the quality of sugar he produced got finer and purer with each batch.
Later, following Yang Chuxia’s request, he also made brown sugar, which had a hint of fruitiness added to the jujube flavor of the original brown sugar. It was said that he added something else to the recipe, which remained his secret expertise.
After developing the brown sugar, he pressed it into the shape of rice cakes, long bars that could be peeled off and eaten, which he named brown sugar cakes.
As for the sugar cubes that Chuxia mentioned, they were originally created as playthings for Yunyun and the other children. He whimsically shaped some into animals and others into flowers, making them not only visually appealing but also varied in color: some were pale yellow and translucent, while others bore the hue of brown sugar.