As the former daughter of a county magistrate, she had heard of Ming Gu County. It was the poorest county in the country.

None of the county magistrates there held office for long. They either withdrew or were charged with all sorts of crimes and eventually beheaded.

County magistrates sent to Ming Gu County were usually those who had offended someone—and offended them big time.

An Jiuyue replied indifferently, “Where he goes is none of my business.”

Both she and the Host no longer had anything to do with Lan Zhengfeng. The Host severed ties with him and even changed her name because she was thoroughly disappointed in her father.

Meanwhile, she never had any sort of relationship with Lan Zhengfeng.

“Are you here to take Zheng’er and Rong’er away?” she asked, looking at him.

From the moment she first heard his name. she had a feeling he would. They had a father-son relationship, after all. How could Qian Jiyun let them stay on the mountain forever after learning of their identities?

“Why would you think that?” Qian Jiyun took the cloth from her hand and gestured for her to sit down. “Let me do it. You sit over there and listen to me first.”

An Jiuyue looked up and stared at his side profile. She wanted to reject him but found a stool and sat down in the end. She wanted to hear what he had to say.

“That woman back in that house was the reason for what happened four years ago. She was not my biological mother. She was only my stepmother, and she wanted me dead.

“I almost lost my life due to some secret schemes during that expedition. However, I was lucky and did not die,” Qian Jiyun explained slowly as he washed the dishes.

“When I returned victoriously, I didn’t think of you immediately because I found Yan Yan beaten up by that woman. She almost died.”

It was a close call. Yan Yan would have been gone if he had not returned in time.

“The injuries on Xiao Yiyun…” An Jiuyue opened her mouth to speak, but she was at a loss for words.

She had seen the whip wounds on Qian Yiyun’s arms. She had also asked about it, but Qian Yiyun only gave her some excuses.

I thought there were only wounds on her arm. Are there whip wounds all over her body?

“Yes. It was because that woman hit her.”

Hatred was written all over Qian Jiyun’s face when he mentioned his stepmother. He gritted his teeth as he spoke.

“I was only told later that you were chased out by that woman. The two children were also no longer around. I interrogated all the servants and found out that the woman sent people to abandon them in the deep mountains.

“As for you, your whereabouts were unknown.”

He really had no idea where she went. For all the years she had gone missing, he had searched continuously. He never found her.

An Jiuyue pursed her lips.

“Of course, my whereabouts were unknown. Was I supposed to wait for those people to come after me?” she muttered.

“Hm?” Qian Jiyun narrowed his eyes and looked at her with confusion.

“Didn’t you already know that I was chased out of my family’s house?”

She looked up at Qian Jiyun, who was washing the dishes, and pursed her lips.

“After that, I secretly returned and asked around. It was not that Lan Zhengfeng didn’t want to acknowledge me as his daughter. He already knew about everything early that morning and decided that once I returned, he would… kill me!”