No, I was just a concubine, how did I become the queen?

Zhang Miao cooked the sweet potatoes and quickly brought out some melon seeds to entertain them.

Hearing the crying next door, she trotted over to take a look and said, "What a sin! You're crying here again."

Lin Mingyan curiously followed over and asked, "Mrs. Zhang, why is the person next door crying?"

"Alas, Zhang Lang is a scholar, and he has a beautiful wife at home," Zhang Miao sighed. "It was the Lantern Festival a while ago, and he went out to see the lanterns."

"On the way back, his wife Hui Niang was kidnapped!"

"Kidnapped? Why didn't you report him to the police and look for him? Why are you crying at home?" Lin Mingyan felt uncomfortable.

You can't be thinking that you can't keep your wife just because she's been abducted and has lost her virginity, right?

"How could we not report it to the authorities?" Zhang Miao said, "Not only did we report it, we even paid the villagers to go out and look for it."

"It's been a whole month since the 16th day of the first lunar month, and I haven't found anything yet."

"Zhang Lang's family is also a farming and scholar family. Although they can't compare to the nobles in the city, they are better than those of us who dig for food in the fields."

"I spent all my money today and can't ask anyone to find me any more. Sigh~"

Lin Mingyan took a deep breath when she heard this. If they still hadn't found it in a month, then it was probably very dangerous.

When the Fourth Master heard that the mouse got lost after coming back from watching the lanterns, he felt a little uncomfortable when he remembered the mouse that followed them in the Treasure Pavilion during the Lantern Festival last year.

"Then there's no way to find it?" Lin Mingyan sighed.

In modern times, if you lose someone, you can post it online, but in ancient times it was really difficult to find them.

Zhang Miao nodded sympathetically: "That's right, a beautiful young lady should not go to crowded places."

"People say that unmarried girls are kidnapped, but it's actually the newlyweds who are dangerous."

"In recent years, many women have been abducted near the capital and are nowhere to be found."

The Fourth Master frowned and said, "Didn't I hear last year that more than a dozen victims banded together to find the murderer?"

He did not intervene too much, but just asked the secret guard to find someone to post some clues.

After all, this matter involves people behind him, and he can't see clearly, so it's inconvenient for him to expose himself.

He didn't ask about what happened later.

"Oh, that's right," Zhang Miao said, even more excitedly. "Even people in the city have heard about this?"

"But what's the point of uniting? All they do is find a habitual criminal and sentence him hastily."

"Some of those missing women have had their remains found in mass graves, while others have been completely lost."

Lin Mingyan was shocked and asked, "Didn't the murderer confess?"

"What's there to confess? He was just caught, and the next day he committed suicide in jail out of fear of punishment." Zhang Miao slapped his thigh and spat, "Damn it!"

Then she said mysteriously, "But I don't think that man is the real murderer. Otherwise, if he were dead, why would there still be women missing this year?"

"My lady, you should also be careful. You are much prettier than Hui Niang next door," Zhang Miao kindly reminded.

Lin Mingyan then nodded.

When she was in the Lin family, she would not go out if she could, and even if she did, she would make herself look ugly.

The first year she arrived, she saw with her own eyes a girl who lived on the same street being dragged away.

By the time she went out to call the adults, there was no trace of him in the alley.

I reported it to the police and looked for him, but I couldn't find him anymore.

From that day on, she became cautious.

She only dared to act so recklessly because she was married to the Fourth Master and had someone to protect her when she went out.

Zhang Miao talked for a while, then stood up with a "ouch" and went to add more firewood.

Lin Mingyan followed her and saw her open the pot, which contained a large pot of cooking sweet potatoes.

"Eh? Mrs. Zhang, why did you put so much water in?"

Cooking it like this reminded her of the pig food she cooked after school when she was a child in her previous life.

Zhang Miao smiled and said, "Yes, if you cook it like this, you'll have a bowl of it, and it will be so delicious."

Lin Mingyan: ...No! No way!

"Is this how you all eat it?" She protested. "Can't we steam it or stew it?"

If you want to peel and cut into pieces and cook sweet potato porridge, that's fine too.

If you put the whole thing in water and boil it, it will explode and it’s really not something that humans can eat!

Zhang Miao saw through her thoughts and rubbed his hands awkwardly: "Then what do you want to do, Madam?"

Lin Mingyan looked at the water in the pot, which looked like it hadn't boiled yet, and instructed, "Pull out the water and just simmer it."

Zhang Miao didn't understand. She thought it would cause the pan to stick, but she didn't dare to object.

Oh, forget it, I gave you such a big ingot of silver.

At worst, if it gets burnt, she can just spend some time brushing it.

Lin Mingyan was relieved when she saw that she had scooped out most of the water, leaving only a little at the bottom of the pot.

Zhang Miao didn't want to let her stay in the kitchen, so he added firewood and went out to the yard with her.

When Lin Mingyan saw that the Fourth Master was no longer in the yard, her heart skipped a beat: "Daya, where is my master?"

The eldest and the youngest were washing their hands and faces when they heard this and pursed their lips: "The master is talking to the scholar next door."

"Ah?" Lin Mingyan didn't expect that the Fourth Master was still so kind-hearted.

But think about it, the world will belong to him in the future, and loving the people like his own children is not just talk.

She actually wanted to help a little, but when she read novels in the past, what she hated most was the heroine meddling in other people's affairs and causing a lot of trouble, so she didn't say anything just now.

Now, it’s not that she is meddling in other people’s business, it’s that the Fourth Master wants to take care of his people, and she can join in the fun.

Lin Mingyan followed him to the next door. This yard was much better than Zhang Daya's house.

It is a proper courtyard house. The houses are all new and there are Spring Festival couplets pasted on the doors.

On the windows of the east wing, there are window grilles depicting mandarin ducks playing in the water, which is a symbol of a newlywed couple.

She sighed inwardly and walked into the yard, where she saw Zhang Lang still kneeling on the ground crying, "Please, help me!"

I don’t know what the Fourth Master said to him, but he seemed certain that they could help, and he cried with tears and snot.

The Fourth Master didn't say anything. The reason he came over was because he felt the same way.

If someone bullied Cha Cha, he would probably feel the same way.

Lin Mingyan poked the Fourth Master's bulging upper arm and said, "Master, why don't you ask someone to help him look for it?"

Meeting is fate, what if I can help him find it?

The Fourth Master turned his head to look at her and said to Zhang Lang, "Tomorrow I will send someone to discuss things with the neighbor. If you trust him, tell him and he will help you find it."

Anyway, someone has to be sent to discuss the purchase of seed potatoes with Zhang Miao, so it’s just a matter of adding one more person to help Zhang Lang.

Zhang Lang was extremely grateful and kowtowed several times.

When the two returned to Zhang's house, the sweet potatoes were already cooked. Zhang Miao said to them in amazement, "Madam, you are really amazing. You know how to make delicious things even if you have never seen them before."

"Steamed sweet potatoes without adding water are much sweeter than boiled ones."

"It's simply more delicious than a hundred-meter white flour!"