Chapter 2332: I Saw the Killer

"Aunt Hong said that after Uncle Hong passed away, the Hong family separated, and she could no longer take good care of Gouwa, so she entrusted the child to me. After that, I took him back to Dongan Province, named him Song Le, and taught him to read and write. So rest assured, he is doing well now."

Wei Qin’s throat tightened, and tears streamed down.

Yes, she believed.

From the attire of the people in front of her, it was clear that her cousin’s family was well off. They adopted Gouwa, so the child should not be lacking in food and clothing.

Good, truly good.

After Meng Yunzheng let her digest this for a moment, he continued, "Earlier this year, I went to the Capital to take the exam, while my wife brought Gouwa back to the Capital to meet Aunt Hong once more. We also encountered Wei Tang, who was loitering around Aunt Hong’s doorstep. It was then that we learned of your whereabouts from Wei Tang. Gouwa misses you very much, so we sketched your portrait based on the account of the Hong family and went to Huajiang Prefecture to inquire about you. Unfortunately, the wealthy family there had already completely declined, and they couldn’t find you, nor could we. However, we heard someone saw you heading to the dock and boarding a southbound ship."

"We speculated you might have intended to head north to return to the Capital but took the wrong ship. However, the southbound ship has stops all along the way, and we don’t know where exactly you disembarked, making it difficult to find you. We never expected to see you appear in the southwest."

Wei Qin was already sobbing uncontrollably. Hearing that Gouwa misses her left her unable to contain her emotions.

She misses Gouwa too; she never imagined that Gouwa’s cousin would go to such great lengths to search for her, even creating her portrait.

Luckily, she persevered, surviving through hardship.

Otherwise, how heartbroken would Gouwa be to learn of her death?

Zhao Xi frowned slightly, exchanged a glance with Meng Yunzheng, signaling that they should say no more. Her severe injuries not yet healed, further emotional agitation wouldn’t bode well for her recovery.

Shu Yu immediately advised, "You should rest well first. Once you’ve recovered physically, we can tell you all about Little Song Le’s life these past few years."

Wei Qin took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, and looked up with her red, tearful eyes, "Thank you, thank you both."

"We’ll head back to the room for now." Although Shu Yu was eager to inquire about how she got injured, how she ended up boarding the wrong ship, and became a servant here.

However, Wei Qin’s condition was indeed too dire, so it was better to wait until she recovered to talk.

Shu Yu and Meng Yunzheng exchanged a glance and were about to leave.

Unexpectedly, just as they turned away, Wei Qin seemed to remember something and suddenly spoke up, "Wait."

"What’s wrong?" Shu Yu turned back.

Wei Qin looked at them, took a deep breath, appearing somewhat excited, "I have something to tell you, regarding the massacre of the Song Family. I... I saw the murderer."

Everyone in the room froze in place.

Wei Qin’s throat moved slightly, raising her eyes to look at Meng Yunzheng, who was also a descendant of the Song Family. He surely wanted to know who killed the Song Family members.

At this moment, Wei Qin still didn’t know that Meng Yunzheng had already sent Gong Qiu, the real culprit behind the scenes, to the guillotine.

"After you took in Gouwa, did you notice a bead on him?"

Shu Yu and Meng Yunzheng’s expressions changed slightly, "Are you referring to the wooden bead he always carried with patterns carved on it?"

"Yes, that bead was accidentally left behind by the murderer on the day the Song Family was massacred. It used to be in Dazhuang’s possession; I’m very familiar with it. Recently, I spotted someone wearing a string of identical beads on their wrist."