Mother Qi, beaming with joy, held Qin Tianru’s hand and greeted her warmly. Then, she turned to Qi Han and scolded him.

“You silly child, why didn’t you send word ahead when bringing someone home? I could’ve made proper preparations.”  

Their sudden arrival had caught the family off guard, leaving them completely unprepared. It was terribly impolite—if the in-laws found out, they might think the Qi family was deliberately slighting them.  

Qin Tianru immediately spoke up in defense of her partner. “Auntie, don’t blame Brother Han. There were unexpected circumstances, and we didn’t have time to plan.”  

Truthfully, though she kept a calm expression, she had been quite nervous inside. Given her relationship with Qi Han, coming home with him was essentially meeting the parents.  

Her own mother and grandmother had always shared a bond as close as mother and daughter, but she had also heard plenty of stories about strained mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships.  

She didn’t know if she’d be lucky enough to encounter a kind and easygoing mother-in-law, so she couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy.  

But reality far exceeded her expectations. Her future mother-in-law seemed exceptionally warm and amiable, her gaze and demeanor radiating gentleness. She looked like someone who’d be easy to get along with.  

This made Qin Tianru secretly sigh in relief. Though she knew plenty of theories, she had no practical experience in this area.  

Mother Qi smiled warmly and patted Qin Tianru’s hand. “Good child, no need to defend him. I know exactly how he is—he never thinks things through.”  

Meanwhile, Father Qi, regaining his composure, steered the conversation to the matter at hand.  

“Han, did something happen during the delivery? Boss Xu sent someone today saying they never received the goods and couldn’t reach you. They even questioned our business integrity.”  

At this, Qi Han’s expression darkened. He hadn’t expected those people to come knocking so soon.  

“What else did they say?”  

Father Qi sighed. “The moment that man arrived, he started bombarding me with accusations. I was completely caught off guard. Then I thought—maybe something happened on your delivery route.  

So, I had no choice but to try to calm him down. After a lot of talking, I managed to get him to give us some time. I promised we’d give them a satisfactory answer within a day.”  

That afternoon, he had sent a telegram to a business partner in Liuye County, asking them to help gather information about his eldest son’s whereabouts.  

The couple had spent the entire day sick with worry, but with such a great distance, all they could do was wait patiently. There was no other way to contact him.  

They knew their son well—he wasn’t the type to shirk responsibility or break promises. Over the past six months, he had handled every business deal with utmost diligence.  

So they were certain he wouldn’t have broken the agreement without good reason. Something must have gone wrong.  

Now, Mother Qi also calmed down. With everything happening so quickly, she had nearly forgotten the main issue.  

Noticing the wound on her son’s forehead, she pressed further.  

“Did you run into bandits on the road?”  

Though the country had stabilized, it hadn’t been long since its founding. Many smaller regions still had unresolved issues.  

Banditry, for instance!  

With so many people struggling to even put food on the table, countless displaced peasants turned to banditry, robbing travelers to survive.  

Such incidents were common everywhere, though most were minor and rarely involved bloodshed.