Distraught Lin Qing

When Wu Tian had sneaked out, no one had noticed he was gone. Lin Qing had been busy with household affairs. Now that her husband was on a journey it had fallen to her to lead the mansion.

The fact that someone had tried to assassinate her only made the situation worse. She had to make sure that the incident did not cause any chaos to erupt.

She sighed and tiredly massaged her brow as she sent out yet another concerned official. While Wu Zemin ruled over the county, it didn't mean he grasped all the power. There were other families and forces that were rooted in the county.

They had their own means and had of course heard that there had been an assassination attempt in the county lord's mansion. The forces, families and officials had of course rushed over to determine the county lord's attitude over this matter. If the lord was infuriated, then they had to find a way to navigate this matter.

As she sent away the family head of the Lin family she sighed again. She was glad that the matter was finally over. One thing that gladdened her was that this kept her mind off the fact that she was almost assassinated.

It had been a long time since she had participated in this sort of intrigue and it brought back bittersweet memories. She was once again thankful that she Tianer, her special little boy. She wondered how he was holding up. The experience from last night was his first one and it must have surely been impactful.

She decided to find him and check up on him. She looked in his room but couldn't find him. She wondered where he had run of to. She checked in the library and then the garden but couldn't find him.

She called for Wei Lin who was similarly clueless and now getting concerned got the maids to search for him.

Two hours later, Lin Qing was extremely worried. They had searched all over the mansion. The last anyone had seen of him was the maids who had spotted him running towards the entrance, however the guards swore up and down that they had not let the young master leave.

Lin Qing began to panic, the fact that no one had seen Wu Tian leave didn't mean that he couldn't be taken away. At the thought that she might lose son again she felt that she would go crazy, her first son's death had been excruciating but losing Wu Tian might break her.

She frantically summoned the guards and the county garrison, ordering them to assemble and look for her son.

The aristocratic families and other forces also panicked, wondering if this was retribution for the assassination attempt and who was going to be unlucky. It was also in this atmosphere that Wu Tian found when he appeared at the mansion's entrance shadowed by Xiao Ren.

The guards at the entrance were baffled, but so was Wu Tian. He wondered what the garrison soldiers were doing here. The guards felt a cold sweat spring up on their brow, they had sworn on their 100th ancestor that the young master had not been through the gate but here he was. They swiftly reported this and took the young master in, along with a now intimidated Xiao Ren.

Wu Tian was walking along with the guards when he saw his mom run towards him, she seemed extremely worried and the distraught expression on her face made his heart ache. She rushed towards and hugged him tightly crying.

This made his heart ache more and showed him how thoughtless his actions had been. She looked at him carefully making sure he wasn't hurt then asked worriedly "where have you been? What happened?" Wu Tian had prepared a whole roster of events but seeing the worry on her face he came clean

Lin Qing listened to her son as he narrated his experiences, she didn't know how to react. Should she be angry he snuck out? Should she be relieved he was ok? Should she be thankful that Xiao Ren had saved him. She was all this and more.

As the relief set in she looked at her son again. She could feel that he himself had reflected on his behavior, she could even hear it in his voice .

"Tianer, you shouldn't do this again. If you want to go out you have to let someone know you are still too young to go out alone. Allright?"

Wu Tian nodded obediently. She then looked at Xiao Ren, she was doubly thankful in her heart that he had been there. Unlike Wu Tian she was more experienced, she knew that if they had kidnapped him and found out he was from the county lord's mansion they would have likely killed him to silence him and ran away. The county lord was not someone they could ask for ransom.

She thanked Xiao Ren profusely and then ordered Wen Lin to draw up a bath for both of them. As Wei Lin led the two to the bath, Lin Qing summoned Vice-captain Hou Yu. He had been nearby and came promptly where he was unlucky enough to find Lin Qing with a belly full of anger, since she didn't want to scold Wu Tian she took it out on the poor vice-captain.

She wondered what manner of guards would allow a three year old to walk past them. If that was the quality of the guards didn't that mean anyone could just waltz in, she ordered him to tighten the security and up his game.

After scolding the captain, Lin Qing felt much better and congratulated him for swiftly reacting during last night's attack, after all you had to give someone a carrot after beating them with a stick, she then ordered him to find the men who dared to kidnap her Lin Qing's son. As she thought of this she could feel her anger rise again and seeing this Hou Yu quickly made his move to carry out her instructions