Noticing Xia Wen's suspicious look, Qiao Mei smiled and asked, "Eldest Brother, why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm just curious about how you know that there might be clues nearby," Xia Wen said.
"Maybe… it's the connection between mother and daughter…" Qiao Mei explained.
This made sense. When Wu Min pa.s.sed away from illness, Xia Wen was still in the army. At that time, he suddenly felt suffocated and uncomfortable for a long while. He thought that there was something wrong with his health, but after a few minutes, he received the bad news from home.
"I've had this feeling before…" Xia Wen said melancholically.
Qiao Mei was relieved to see that Xia Wen no longer suspected anything. She thought that Xia Wen had spotted something strange about her! It would be a disaster if her powers were exposed!
Luo Yu led three men down the road and saw a village. This village was very small and there were only about 20 families living there. It did not take long for them to ask around and find out that no one had seen Li Gui and Zhao Fei.
However, the traces that they had discovered could not be wrong. Someone had indeed been here before and the evidence of a patch of gra.s.s being crushed was clearly from a person lying on the ground.
Could it be that they did not go this way?
Luo Yu and the others quickly ran back to the road to meet up with the rest. Qiao Mei looked at Luo Yu expectantly, but he just shook his head helplessly and said, "I'm sorry, Sister-in-law. We didn't find anything. They didn't go that way…"
"It's fine. Cough, cough, cough…" Qiao Mei suddenly coughed violently. She had used too much energy just now and it was too much for her to take in her current condition. She had to replenish her energy as soon as possible, but she could not expose the situation in front of so many people.
"Qiao Mei, are you alright!" Qian'e asked worriedly.
Xia Wen immediately helped Qiao Mei into the car and everyone returned to Xu Lan's house to take a rest. Their search would have to end here today. Luo Yu and the others took turns sending people to continue looking.
Qiao Mei opened the bottle of medicinal wine at home and took a few sips before her expression relaxed slightly. She felt a little uncomfortable in her stomach and even wanted to throw up. The symptoms from when she first got pregnant were back.
She touched her stomach angrily and said, "You are really a worrisome troublemaker…"
"You still scold the baby! Look at how you scare us today! Now that we know that Auntie is not in the hands of those people from the Zhao Family Village, it means that Auntie will be saved! Don't worry, just leave the rest to us," Xia He said.
Qiao Mei nodded weakly. There was nothing else she could do now. She could only wait patiently for Zhao Fei to return and to send more people to investigate in the meantime.
After walking for an entire day, Zhao Fei finally arrived at Qiao Mei's house. He did not have the strength to even knock on the door. He crouched down on the stone steps and kept crawling towards the main door. In the end, his vision darkened and he fainted.
There was no one on the street and no one noticed him. Xu Kang only discovered Zhao Fei when she went out to lock the door at night. She was so scared that she retreated repeatedly. After confirming that the person at the door was motionless, she mustered her courage and walked up to Zhao Fei to take a closer look.
She seemed to have seen this person before. He looked like the young man who used to do business with Qiao Mei and the others! Why was he crouching at their main door? She quickly went into the house and called for Da Zhuang and Xiao Zhuang, asking them to move Zhao Fei into the house.
"Where can we find a doctor at this hour? Perhaps we should go to the hospital!" Xu Kang said in a panic.
"We don't know if he can go to the hospital. He will need to be registered there. If he had done something wrong, then won't it become our mistake? Let's call Sister-in-law to confirm it first," Xiao Zhuang said cautiously.
"Sure!" Da Zhuang quickly ran to the living room next door to make a call to Xu Lan's house. Xu Kang went to the kitchen to cook some porridge for Zhao Fei so that he could drink some to replenish his strength.
Xu Lan's helper, Wan Wen, picked up the phone and said, "h.e.l.lo, this is the Xia family."
"I'm the guard at Qiao Mei's house! There's a man here! Is Qiao Mei at home! This person might be related to Auntie's disappearance!" Da Zhuang said loudly.
"Oh, oh! I'll wake them up now!" Wan Wen immediately ran upstairs to wake Xia Wen and Xia He up. Qiao Mei had not been feeling well and she hesitated about waking Qiao Mei up. In the end, she felt that it was better to let Qiao Mei rest well.
Xia He ran downstairs quietly and picked up the phone. "This is Xia He. Who did you find? Describe him to me."