Isn't Nonghua beside Second Sister?

We exchanged glances, both seeing confusion in each other's eyes.

"Second Sister?" I panicked.

"Let her in," Wang Gongzi said with a solemn expression.

Nonghua entered through the door and immediately knelt down when she saw us. "Gongzi, Third Miss, Second Miss, Second Miss... she's gone!"

"What?" I felt a sudden darkness engulf me, and my whole body trembled.

Wang Gongzi suddenly realized something, his face turning pale.

"No! Quickly return to the mansion."

Summer days always seemed particularly long. As we hurried back to the mansion, the sky was filled with the crimson hues of the setting sun, staining the entire sky with a bloody color.

We went straight to Second Sister's courtyard, but her bedroom was already empty.

"What about other places? Have you searched the entire mansion?" I looked at the vacant room, on the verge of collapse.

"Upon Miss Liu's arrival, we had already searched everywhere. The Gongzi had given prior instructions, and we dared not slack off," the guard said, bowing respectfully.

No, how could it be? How could a person vanish into thin air like this?

My face turned pale as I slowly walked out of the room and strolled aimlessly in the courtyard.

"Has Father returned?" Wang Gongzi suddenly spoke up.

"The master returned in the morning, but his current whereabouts are unknown."

"Keep searching!" Wang Gongzi's voice grew stern.

I stood in the courtyard, looking at the evening glow on the horizon. It eerily covered more than half of the sky, with half a sun hanging on the edge, casting a red hue over the bamboo forest in the courtyard.

Suddenly, a few red dots flashed in my peripheral vision. I swiftly turned my head and bent down to take a closer look.

A few bright red adzuki beans lay quietly in the grass, shimmering in the afterglow of the evening sun.

"Wang Gongzi, Wang Gongzi!" I called out loudly, as if grasping at the last straw of hope, as if the person moving against the current had seized the last glimmer of light in the darkness.

Wang Gongzi hurried over.

"Look quickly," I pointed at the red beans on the ground. "These are from the red bean sachet I gave to Second Sister. It must be her doing!"

Indeed, as we searched around, we found one or two more not far away.

These scattered red beans led us to a desolate path behind the courtyard.

"It's gone." A nearby high wall blocked our way. Looking at the vanished red beans, I felt anxious and regretful that I hadn't given Second Sister more.

"No need to search anymore," Wang Gongzi's voice sounded.

I didn't understand.

"This path has been abandoned for a long time. It only leads to one place." Wang Gongzi looked at the high wall as if he could see beyond it.

I followed his gaze.

"This wall was built ten years ago." Wang Gongzi approached and then reached out, gently embracing my waist.

"Pardon me." Before I could react, we had already leaped over the high wall.

I didn't care about being polite; I followed closely behind Wang Gongzi.

He led me around a few corners, and a familiar structure appeared before me.

A Buddhist hall.

It was the place where Wang Gongzi had brought me that day.

"Why didn't I think of this?" Wang Gongzi murmured as he looked at the Buddhist hall in front of us.

Unlike that day, there were several guards stationed outside the Buddhist hall.

Ignoring them, Wang Gongzi had them removed directly and brought me inside.