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According to Qingwen, the bamboo forest was located near Fengyao Bridge, not far from Yihong Courtyard. If he passed through the forest, taking Fengyao Bridge to the gate was much faster than walking Qinfang Bridge.

According to Qingwen's statement, Sun Shaozong also remembered that he had indeed passed through a bamboo forest during his detour at noon.

At present, Sun Shaozong breathed a sigh of relief. The Zhuojin Tower, where Jia Yingchun stayed, was almost separated from the Yihong Courtyard by the entire Qinfang Pool. Whether the thieves wanted to escape through the wall or seek shelter, it was unlikely that they would disturb the other side of the Zhuojin Tower.

Therefore, he discussed with Jia Lian that it was inconvenient to search for thieves in the Grand View Garden due to the dark lights. It was better to first disperse these servants and send them to the courtyards of the women's families; there was no need to rush. Let them guard their doors so that the thieves wouldn’t take advantage of the chaos and harm others.

As for himself, he naturally went to the Yihong Courtyard first to see what was going on. If Baoyu had nothing to do, he would instruct him to gather the female relatives in the garden one by one to take refuge in the front yard together.

"We also need to leave someone to guard the front yard here, otherwise those thieves will take advantage of us and disturb the Old Lady, Aunt, and others. Our guilt will be even greater."

"This matter is of great importance, and others may not be able to handle it properly. I'm afraid I can only trouble you to stay here."

This naturally showed that Jia Lian was timid and didn’t dare to venture into the yard, deliberately giving him a step-down.

And Jia Lian saw that Sun Shaozong's arrangement was top-notch, and he didn't need to take risks himself. He pecked his head like a small chicken and didn’t have any different opinions.

So Sun Shaozong took the initiative, leaving Jia Lian with half of his men to guard the main and corner gates of the front courtyard, while the other six or seven servants were assigned tasks to guard the women in the garden.

Sun Shaozong asked the remaining servants for whistles and torches and also led a team of people to prepare to go through the bamboo forest to the Yihong Courtyard. Although it was unlikely that the thieves would still stay in place, it was necessary to investigate at the same time.

Besides, he didn’t know if anyone has been injured by those thieves at the moment. In case any injured person was abandoned near the bamboo forest, it was easy to lend a helping hand along the way.

"Lord Sun!"

As Sun Shaozong was about to lead the team, Qingwen quickly approached and demanded, "I am very familiar with this garden and willing to lead the way for you!"

Sun Shaozong glanced at her and arched his hand at Jia Lian, saying, "Second Brother, could you please tie up this girl and send her back to my mansion?"

Speaking without looking back, he led the team into the garden.

The crowd was bustling, first following the willow embankment to the front of the Qinfang Bridge. Most of the people and horses crossed the bridge to find their respective targets, while Sun Shaozong followed down the river from the Fengyao Bridge to the opposite bank.

Walking a hundred or ten steps across the bank, he saw a medium-sized bamboo forest blocking the way.

Sun Shaozong turned around and saw the six people behind him, all looking a bit hesitant. He said, "Don't be afraid. I'll be exploring the way ahead later, and you guys will line up in front of each other, shouting your own names. If one of you loses contact, I will immediately go to rescue you, and you won't be in danger."

Although those servants were still anxious, seeing Sun Shaozong leading the way, they couldn't back down and expressed their intention to follow Sun to kill the bandits and protect the Lord.

So Sun Shaozong took the lead in the middle and entered the dense forest. As soon as he took a few steps forward, he heard the calling of names started, "Deng Guida", "Zhao Tiedan", and "Wang Amao" behind him. Everyone was afraid that their voices would be drowned out by others, and the calling was exhausted.

However, this was exactly the effect that Sun Shaozong wanted; after all, he was only infinitely powerful and not invincible. If thieves were sneaking in, they might be attacked.

With these shouts, the thief would naturally flee upon hearing the news. Regardless of whether he could detect the trace or not, chasing after the thief could at least ensure his own safety.

As he arrived at the center of the bamboo forest, Sun Shaozong suddenly felt a sense of clarity. It turned out to be a small pavilion made of bamboo in an open space, which looked quite interesting.

However, the pavilion, which was ventilated on all sides, couldn't hide anyone at all, so Sun Shaozong didn't pay much attention.

He lowered the torch in his hand and prepared to pass through the middle of the pavilion.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the pavilion, he stepped on a few broken stones. Sun Shaozong immediately stopped and took a half step back, looking at his feet with suspicion.

Although the upper part of this pavilion was made of bamboo, the lower part was a stone platform, which was more than three inches higher than the ground. Even if there was no one to clean it normally, it was only contaminated with some dust. How could there be so many broken stones inside?

When Sun Shaozong lowered his head and looked, he saw not only a few broken stones listed on the bluestone slab but also some moist soil, irregularly scattered in a circle on the ground.

This was…

Sun Shaozong held a torch and scanned around again, only to find that, except for his own feet, the rest of the area was very flat, and no stones or soil were seen.

"Lord Sun, have you found something?"

At this moment, someone timidly inquired from behind. Sun Shaozong looked back and saw that there were two servants holding torches, who had also searched for this empty space. He casually said, "It's nothing, just some footprints left by those thieves."

Speaking, he looked at the soil and gravel a few more times before finally igniting the torch and continuing to search forward.

And this time, until stepping out of the bamboo forest, there were no other discoveries.

Outside the bamboo forest, several lanterns and embroidered shoes with high-soled wooden clogs were thrown haphazardly.

Sun Shaozong immediately ordered, "Spread out and shout around to see if anyone had been injured or abandoned near here."

After leaving the woods, those servants were much bolder and scattered around, shouting. However, they didn't hear a response for a while, so they gathered again next to Sun Shaozong.

So Sun Shaozong led them towards the Yihong Courtyard again.

Unexpectedly, upon arriving at the Yihong Courtyard, there was no one inside or outside the empty space!

"Lord... Lord Sun."

A few servants couldn't help but panic, and one of them couldn't help but say, "It couldn't be those thieves who captured Second Master Bao and the others, right?"

"Do you think it's possible?"

Sun Shaozong asked the servant in reverse, and when he saw this servant nodding foolishly, he couldn't help but say, "Even if three thieves could hold onto the elderly, weak, women, and children in this courtyard, the dozen or so brought by Steward Zhou were all guards of the mansion. They wouldn't have taken them all together, would they?"

As Sun Shaozong spoke, he led everyone into the western room and opened one of the cabinets. He saw that it was full of close-fitting clothes such as innerwear, and then expressionlessly reopened the other one, pointing to the obvious signs of being flipped over inside the package. He explained, "When the servants in this courtyard left, they also brought clothes for washing. Obviously, they didn't leave in a panic, how could they be so calm if they were kidnapped by thieves?"

"In my opinion, Steward Zhou has likely escorted us to the front yard, but it's only because we walked on the Fengyao Bridge that we were staggered from each other."

Looking back, he saw several robust young students, all drooling at the small clothes coming out of the cabinet. How could anyone care about his reasoning?

Sun Shaozong sighed silently and took these silly goods out of the Yihong Courtyard. He headed north and deep into the garden, preparing to turn counterclockwise to escort all the women in the garden.

After heading north for a distance, Sun Shaozong led the crowd to abandon the main road and headed east along the path. About a few dozen steps, a temple faintly appeared in the mountains and forests.

This territory was naturally the Longcui Temple, where temples led hair cultivation.

Seeing that it was quiet inside, only the oil lamps were lit in the central Buddhist temple, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but feel a little suspicious. Theoretically, he had put in a lot of effort in the bamboo forest, and the people and horses assigned to Longcui Temple should have arrived long ago.

Without expressing his doubts, he strode to the mountain gate and shouted, "Is Lady Miaoyu inside?"

As soon as the words fell, a heart-wrenching cry of a baby could be heard coming from the meditation room. After a while, someone inside was annoyed and said, "Who is outside? What are you doing in this quiet place at night?"

The voice seemed to be the little nun under Miaoyu's command, and there was nothing unusual about it. However, Sun Shaozong didn’t relax his guard and instead spoke loudly, "I am Sun Shaozong, the Governor of the Central Judicial Office. As there have been thieves in this garden, I have been entrusted to take you to the front yard for temporary shelter. Please come and meet me at the door, Lady Miaoyu."

When she heard that it was Sun Shaozong. The little nun glanced through the crack in the door and quickly opened it, saying, "I'm going to invite the abbot out!"

Not long after, Miaoyu hugged a baby girl and led two little nuns outside.

Sun Shaozong finally let go of his mind and secretly jotted down the whereabouts of the servants, saying, "I still need to gather other female relatives in the garden. Lady Miaoyu, you are quite familiar with this garden. I wonder which lady is closest to here?"

Miaoyu frowned and said, "Has there really been a thief in this garden?"

Before Sun Shaozong could answer, she said again, "I'm not close to any sides here, except for being closer to Second Master Bao's Yihong Courtyard, but you should have been to Yihong Courtyard long ago."

"You can either turn back to Yihong Courtyard and head west, you can go to Lady Lin's Hall, or continue north and then west, you can go around to Lady Xue's Hengwu Garden..."

Before she could finish speaking, Sun Shaozong asked her, "Which way is closer to Zhuojin Tower?"

Miaoyu was taken aback for a moment before saying, "It's closer to Hengwu Garden."

Sun Shaozong said decisively, "Then I will go to Hengwu Garden first!"

In this garden, he was most concerned about his Sister-in-law, Jia Yingchun, followed by Li Wan, and the Zhuojin Tower happened to be not far from Li Wan's Daoxiang Village. If it weren't for this, Li Wan wouldn't have been so easy to convince to go into the building and have a private meeting with him at first.

So everyone went out again by the small path and hurried along the main road towards Hengwu Garden.

Not far away, he saw several people holding torches and welcoming him in front. He looked closer, and it was the team of servants assigned to Longcui Temple.

Sun Shaozong approached with cold words, and only then did he realize that they had lost their way and had not been able to find the location of the Longcui Temple.

Upon hearing this, Sun Shaozong's heart trembled slightly, and he couldn't help but turn back to glance at Miaoyu.