When I stopped licking, the lady panicked.

"Your Highness, we are here on official business," the guard reminded him.

Xiao Zhan was extremely frustrated. He glared at Lin Xuan angrily and said, "Let's go!"

He immediately turned around and got into the carriage.

Lin Xuan pulled the little girl up from her kneeling position, letting Xiao Zhan's carriage pass by.

Yun Xiyue gazed at the departing carriage with a complicated expression, lost in thought.

"Why are you kneeling in the middle of the street? Don't you know this is a commercial street with many carriages coming and going?" Lin Xuan asked.

The little girl's eyelids were red and swollen, and she said with a pitiful expression, "Because...because I had no other choice..."

"What do you mean?" Lin Xuan asked.

The little girl knelt down in front of Lin Xuan, crying, and then handed him a crumpled piece of paper.

Lin Xuan stared at the blank sheet of paper, completely bewildered, and asked, "What does it mean?"

The little girl said, "My family is all dead..."

"They're all dead? What happened?" Lin Xuan asked.

"I was killed," the little girl cried.

Lin Xuan then asked, "Then why didn't you report it to the authorities?"

"I dare not..."

"You dare not?"

"I saw bad guys at the county government office."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xuan frowned and said, "You mean, the murderer who killed your family members is someone from the government?"

The little girl nodded through her tears.

Lin Xuan was even more puzzled.

The little girl was dressed in coarse, tattered clothes, with unkempt hair and a dirty face. She didn't look like a child from a wealthy family at all. Why would the officials kill her whole family?

This makes absolutely no sense!

"Where are you from? What's your name?" Lin Xuan asked.

The little girl said, "I'm from Qingzhou. I don't have a name. My family calls me Mumu."

"What are your family members' names?" Lin Xuan asked again.

Mu Mu replied, "My father's name is Shen Geng, my brother's name is Shen Mu, and my mother..."

"Wait, what did you say your brother's name is?" Lin Xuan was taken aback.

Mu Mu replied, "Shen Mu."

"Did your brother participate in the martial arts competition?" Lin Xuan asked again.

Mu Mu nodded and said, "My brother is very capable."

Lin Xuan immediately felt a chill run down his spine.

She is the younger sister of Shen Mu, the military genius.

"What about your brother? Is he dead too?" Lin Xuan quickly asked.

He had to find out whether Shen Mu was dead or not. After all, Shen Mu would become the military genius of Daqing in the future, and having him would be more useful than having a million soldiers.

Mu Mu lowered her head and cried. After a long while, she hesitated and murmured "Mmm".

This news struck Lin Xuan like a thunderbolt.

"Are you sure? Is your brother really dead? Did you see it with your own eyes?" Lin Xuan asked emotionally.

That was a future military genius! And he just died like that?

Mu Mu cried even harder, saying, "My brother was hacked to death and burned to ashes while protecting me... I... I..."

"Lin Xuan, stop asking!" Yun Xiyue scolded. "Do you have to reopen old wounds?"

Lin Xuan didn't speak, silently watching Mu Mu cry.

He is feeling very heavy-hearted right now.

He finally met the future military genius, but then he died.

The experiences in this life are completely different from those in the previous life.

Because Lin Xuan made a different choice, history unfolded in a different direction.

Even the future military genius died in the womb.

"Get in the car first. We'll take you back to Qingzhou after the auction," Lin Xuan said.

Mu Mu looked at Lin Xuan, sobbing, and asked, "Big brother, can you help me? I don't know who else I can ask for help..."

"I was afraid of being caught by bad guys, so I ran away to Kuiwen City. Every day I would kneel down in front of passing carriages and beg them to help me."

"But not only was no one willing to help me, some people spat at me, cursed at me, hit me, and told me to get lost."

"And some people just don't stop at all, they almost hit me..."

Lin Xuan felt a deep sadness upon hearing this and asked, "Then what does it mean that you're holding a blank piece of paper?"

"My brother used to tell me that if I encountered difficulties, I should go to the yamen to report to the authorities. He said that reporting to the authorities requires writing a petition, but I don't know how to write one..." Mu Mu said, choking back tears.

Lin Xuan understood.

She wanted to seek justice, but she was uneducated, illiterate, and penniless. She could neither afford to hire a lawyer to write a petition nor write one herself. All she could do was find a blank piece of paper to use as a token of her grievance.

To her, this blank piece of paper was not a piece of waste paper, but the only vessel of hope.

She didn't know who could help her, who wouldn't dare to help her, or even which specific person or force she would be facing.

Therefore, powerless and without influence, the only way for her to seek justice for her family was to "kneel down whenever she saw someone who looked powerful," placing all her hopes on "luck."

That's why she knelt before passing carriages, because in her mind, people who could ride in carriages were all very powerful adults.

For such a young girl, this sense of helplessness and despair—not even knowing who to turn to for help—is so profound.

What can a little girl with no education, no background, and whose family has been destroyed do in a chaotic world? She can do nothing.

She had no bargaining chips, no voice, and might not even be able to articulate a complete "plea for justice."

Kneeling was the only thing she could do to get attention, and it was also the last bit of dignity she could let go of.

This kind of "indiscriminate kneeling" and "blindly kneeling without regard for consequences" is not "stupid," but rather "an instinctive reaction when there is no other way out."

She may have knelt before countless carriages, been driven away, insulted, and beaten, but she had no choice but to continue kneeling, because if she didn't kneel, her family's grievances would never be known, and she wouldn't be able to survive.

This sense of humility and bitterness—"knowing it might be useless, yet still having no choice but to persevere"—broke Lin Xuan's heart.

She didn't just happen to find the right person; rather, after countless desperate pleas, she finally met someone willing to stop.

Lin Xuan felt a pang of pity, rubbed her head, and said, "Don't worry, child, I am the heir of the Prince of Zhenbei. Come with me, no one can touch you, and no one dares to touch you."

"Get in the car first. After this auction is over, I will help you investigate everything."

"The Lin family will take care of things that the government won't handle, and we will help those that the government won't help."

Mu Mu cried and said, "Thank you, big brother..."

He then knelt down and kowtowed three times to Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan helped her up and put her in the car. He didn't say a word the whole way, and his expression was particularly sinister.

Although he didn't know who did this, he could guess pretty accurately.

Apart from Zhang Yan, no one would want to exterminate Shen Mu's family.

In truth, the tragedy of Shen Mu's family was caused by Lin Xuan, so Lin Xuan couldn't just ignore it.

Soon, the carriage arrived at the entrance of an inn.

Lin Xuan took Mu Mu upstairs, had Yun Xiyue give Mu Mu a bath and tidy her up, and then took her to buy her a new outfit.

After being cleaned up, Mu Mu looked especially cute, with big eyes and chubby cheeks, but her eyelids were red and swollen, probably from crying.

"You stay at the inn for now, we're going to the auction," Lin Xuan said to Mu Mu.

Mu Mu's eyes were full of fear as she clung tightly to Lin Xuan's clothes, refusing to let go.

Lin Xuan said to the black-armored soldiers around him, "Protect her well. If even a hair on her head is harmed, you will be held accountable!"

"Yes," the black-armored guard nodded.

Lin Xuan patted Mu Mu's head and said, "Stay put and wait for us to come back. Don't worry, I, Lin Xuan, will take care of this."