Huo Duan went upstairs, pushed the door open, and said, "Ayan, big gossip... Yao Chunlan is Zhu Kuo's wife!"

Yunze County has abundant floor heating and water, and fresh fruits and vegetables are available all year round.

The chef looked at the dishes being served on the golden elm wood table. The snow-white porcelain plates contained a few stir-fried seasonal vegetables and a large bowl of loofah and pork soup.

Gu Fengyan rolled up his sleeves, revealing his snow-white wrists, as he served soup to the two of them.

"Come and have dinner. I think the dishes are good." Seeing Huo Duan come in, he waved with a smile, as if he was not surprised at all about the relationship between Zhu Kuo and Yao Chunlan.

Huo Duan sat down, drank the tea that Gu Fengyan poured for him, then raised his eyes and said, "Ayan, why aren't you surprised at all... Did you know it a long time ago?"

"It's not that early," Gu Fengyan smiled and handed a little more rice to Huo Duan. "The waiter brought the dishes up just now, and I chatted with him for a few words. As soon as I mentioned the name Yao Chunlan, he opened up and told me everything."

Huo Duan took the meal and nodded, "This will save us a lot of trouble. We just need to go find Yao Chunlan."

Gu Fengyan picked up a piece of food with chopsticks and handed it to Huo Duan, sighing, "I didn't expect Zhu Kuo to be so bold... He actually dared to have an affair with his father's concubine. If this scandal that goes against human ethics gets out, his official career will be ruined.

It was fate that made him and Yao Chunlan fall in love with each other, but who knew that his sweetheart would marry someone else, and that person was his biological father..."

Huo Duan was unmoved, he ate the food slowly and sneered: "A Yan thinks Zhu Kuo is a pitiful person?"

Gu Fengyan put down his chopsticks and raised his eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

There was a dish of boiled shrimps on the table. Huo Duan picked up one, peeled it carefully, and then placed it in Gu Fengyan's bowl.

"This shrimp is very fresh, try it." He smiled gently, watched Gu Fengyan eat the whole shrimp, and then peeled a second one for him.

As he peeled the silk, he said, "Ayan only saw the love between Zhu Kuo and Yao Chunlan, a couple like gods. But Zhu Kuo is the most heartless and unfaithful person!"

After peeling a shrimp and placing it in Gu Fengyan's bowl, he wiped his hands and continued, "If he really cared about Yao Chunlan, he shouldn't have watched her marry his father as a concubine, let alone ruin her reputation and seduce her into having a secret relationship with him..."

He paused before continuing, "If he really loved Yao Chunlan, why didn't he take her away, but kept her here to suffer from rumors and gossip?"

Gu Fengyan picked up the peeled shrimp meat and was stunned.

Although he didn't think Zhu Kuo was a pitiful man, he still felt sorry for him in his heart.

Hearing this, Huo Duan realized that he was really thinking carefully.

He put the shrimp meat back on the plate, raised his eyes and smiled, "Then according to what Mr. Huo said, what should we do?"

Huo Duan was drinking soup. Hearing this, he put down the porcelain spoon, took a sip of tea and said, "Me? If it were me... none of these things would have happened."

He looked at the eaves with a smile.

Gu Fengyan's face flushed, "Are you so sure?"

"Of course." Huo Duan smiled even more deeply, staring at Gu Fengyan, "My love, I will protect him well and keep him at the top of my heart. No one can hurt him in the slightest. He is the only one in my life..."

As the words went on, something didn't seem right...it was as if Huo Duan was confessing his love.

Gu Fengyan buried his head in eating the food but he didn't even know what the taste was in his mouth.

He had done everything, but now his heart was beating fast because of a few nonsense confessions. He didn't dare to look at Huo Duan, pretending to be calm and said: "Really? Then your lover is quite happy."

Huo Duan chuckled, poured a cup of tea, and stared at Gu Fengyan with half-lowered eyes, "Yes, it's just that my lover's mind is hard to guess, and I don't know what he thinks of me... Ah Yan, what do you think?"

As if concentrating deeply, Huo Duan emphasized the three words "my love". The sound was so resounding in Gu Fengyan's ears that it made his whole body hot and his head dizzy.

"Bah! Shameless." Gu Fengyan cursed with a red face, "How would I know what he is thinking..."

Huo Duan came over and leaned over to look at him, "Ayan doesn't know? Really don't know?"

"Get out!" Gu Fengyan became angry and embarrassed.

Huo Duan did not move, and looked at him with a smile, "Ayan, I am very happy...I have you."

What he said made no sense.

Gu Fengyan was stunned for a moment, then raised his eyes and stared at Huo Duan, and saw the seriousness in his eyes, which was like a bottomless black spring that could drown people.

Everything was quiet. The wind blew through the treetops, and a sycamore fruit dropped... He could hear his own heartbeat, like thunder and drums.

Gu Fengyan couldn't move his eyes away at all. He opened his lips and finally kissed the corner of Huo Duan's lips, "I know."

Huo Duan stroked the back of his neck, "Eating."

Gu Fengyan froze and the atmosphere was gone instantly.

It turns out that this bastard despises me.

"Get out!" He pushed Huo Duan away and rubbed his lips hard with the back of his hand.

Huo Duan laughed for a while, held Gu Fengyan tightly, and kissed him lightly on the lips, "I'm just joking. It's fine for Ah Yan to be whatever he wants."

Again and again... Half of Gu Fengyan's body went limp and he could no longer speak. He could only stare at Huo Duan.

Huo Duan pressed him into his arms again.

The restaurant had a nice environment, facing the water and the street. After dinner, they had some tea and then, without delaying for a moment, went to the north of the city that Zhao Sanniang had mentioned.

The Zhu family had several generations of nobles, a number one scholar, and countless other talented scholars... It was a family of scholars, but by the time of Zhu Kuo's father's generation, they switched careers and became businessmen.

Zhu Kuo's father was not a scholar, and as his family fell into poverty, he switched to business and became a wealthy businessman in the local area.

Since ancient times, farming and studying have been valued more than commerce. Zhu Kuo's father's behavior was tantamount to disobeying the ancestors and was extremely unfilial. The locals were quite disdainful of his behavior, and some scholars even stabbed him in the back.

You can poke me...but I have money!

Even the threshold of the house in front of them was much higher than that of other houses. This was the first time that Gu Fengyan and Huo Duan had seen such a grand house since they had traveled through time.

The two men stood at the door, looking at the two large gold-plated characters on the lintel - Zhu Mansion. The two ebony doors with bronze lion-head door knockers gave them an oppressive feeling that made them almost collapse.

It’s a pity that it is a bit dilapidated and only vague traces of its former grandeur can be seen.

"Does anyone really live in this place? Is Yao Chunlan still living here?" Gu Fengyan looked around and saw that it was deserted, with not even a passerby. He couldn't help but doubt the accuracy of the information.

Huo Duan had already taken a few steps up the stairs and knocked on the door. "Just knock and you'll know if anyone is knocking."

Gu Fengyan followed him up. They stood on the steps. A hibiscus flower peeked out from the wall beside them. It was in full bloom. No one had swept the ground, and there were spots of red on it.

"Knock knock"

Huo Duan knocked lightly on the doorknob. After a moment, there seemed to be a noise from inside the door, as if something was passing through the grass, making a rustling sound.

"There really is someone here." Gu Fengyan said.

Huo Duan was about to knock again when the door slowly opened with a creak and a figure leaned out... She was a middle-aged woman, wearing an inappropriate lilac-colored thin shirt, her gray hair tied into a bun, and a flower-patterned hairpin hanging in it, swaying gently.

"No..." The woman's eyes lit up for a moment, then turned lifeless after seeing them. She lowered her eyes and said dully, "Who are you looking for?"

The first time he saw her, Gu Fengyan knew that this person was Yao Chunlan.

"Yao's daughter, Chunlan." Gu Fengyan leaned over and saluted with a smile.

Judging from her appearance alone, Yao Chunlan is not a lunatic as Zhao Sanniang said.

"Looking for me..." Yao Chunlan stared at her toes, then suddenly looked up and grabbed Gu Fengyan excitedly, her eyes wide open, "Did Tan Lang ask you to pick me up?!"

"Tan Lang" naturally refers to Zhu Kuo.

Gu Fengyan felt pain in his wrist from being pinched by her bright red nails painted with nail polish, and felt sad.

"Let him go," Huo Duan frowned and pulled back Gu Fengyan, fearing that this crazy woman would hurt him again, "If the Tan Lang you are referring to is Zhu Kuo, I'm afraid you will be disappointed again..." he sneered.

Yao Chunlan had obviously lost her mind. Her face was pale, her cracked lips, which were covered with lip balm, moved, and tears oozed from the corners of her eyes, washing away the cheap powder on her face...

"It must be him! He said he would come and pick me up, he said so!" Yao Chunlan repeated to herself hysterically.

She was once the most beautiful woman in Yunze County, with a charming smile and beauty like a crabapple in the rain. But now she is like a faded mural, relying only on bright rouge and powder to maintain the last bit of bright color...so that her lover can recognize her.

Huo Duan wanted to say more, but was stopped by Gu Fengyan. He shook his head, "She is a pitiful person who has given her heart to the wrong person. Don't provoke her. We just need to take her to Zhu Kuo... It can also be regarded as fulfilling her wish. If she is willing to wake up, let her see what kind of person Zhu Kuo is who has been waiting for decades."

"Madam, we were sent by Lord Zhu to take you to meet him." Gu Fengyan said.

Yao Chunlan stopped talking immediately, wiped her tears with her sleeve, and looked up at them, "Really?"

"Really." Gu Fengyan nodded bitterly.

Yao Chunlan was like a young girl, she quickly touched her face, adjusted her sleeves, and picked a row of flowers from the trumpet creeper stand and put them in her hair. "He likes me to wear lilac the most, he loves to see my red lips and nail polish, in the spring he picked a bunch of hibiscus for me,"

She turned around happily, then touched her face anxiously, trying to smooth out the wrinkles from years of weathering. "Tell me, am I really ugly? Will he not recognize me?" It seemed that no matter how much she touched her face, it was all in vain, and she was quite discouraged.

She met the wrong person and gave her true love to the wrong person, so she was so nervous and terrified, afraid that if she was not careful, she would be cruelly abandoned.

She has waited too long in this life.

Gu Fengyan smiled and said, "Master Zhu said that you are still as charming as ever, and you haven't changed at all."

Yao Chunlan widened her eyes, smiled like a little girl, pursed her lips, and lifted a strand of hair that fell from her temples. "I'm old, old... I'm not as good as I was back then."

At this time, hibiscus flowers fell all over the ground and on her shoulders, as if it was the spring when she first met Zhu Kuo. The sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy stood under the tree and said to her, "You are so beautiful. I will definitely marry you."

What happened next? Yao Chunlan tried hard to recall, but her head hurt so much that she couldn't remember anything.

Why did she get old? Why didn’t Zhu Kuo come to see her? Why... why? So many whys.

She was too lazy to think about it.

She is going to see him.

Huo Duan and Gu Fengyan drove to Qianmo County with the excited Yao Chunlan.

Yao Chunlan no longer has a good memory and has forgotten half of her forty years of life. She only remembers things about Zhu Kuo.

Zhu Kuo said that he would go back to pick her up after Qianmo County was settled.

But he didn't come after waiting for a long time. At this point, Yao Chunlan lowered her head and smiled, explaining for Zhu Kuo that he was busy.

Huo Duan and Gu Fengyan listened along the way and guessed most of what was going on.

Yao Chunlan entered the Zhu Mansion and became Mr. Zhu's eleventh concubine. Zhu Kuo was unwilling to accept this, so he had a secret relationship with Yao Chunlan behind his father's back. Later, the matter was exposed. Mr. Zhu, considering the family's reputation, donated an official position to Zhu Kuo in another place, and kept Zhu Kuo's whereabouts hidden from the outside world... As for Yao Chunlan, it was originally planned to sell her, but Mr. Zhu died, and the matter was delayed.

Zhu Kuo promised Yao Chunlan that he would take her away, but he was afraid that her presence would affect his reputation, so he never came.

Gu Fengyan sneered, "There are so many fickle people in this world. They may be glorious today, but they will be like yellow flowers in the west wind tomorrow... It would be better for Zhu Kuo to kill her with a packet of poison. This will give people thoughts and make people despair."

"Yao Chunlan is a stain to Zhu Kuo. How could he keep a stain around him as a constant reminder of his past?" Huo Duan analyzed calmly.

Yao Chunlan smudged in front of the mirror, not caring what they said.

Gu Fengyan looked at it for a while, sighed deeply, and remained silent for a long time.

Huo Duan smiled and said, "Zhu Kuo left this stain, but it gave us a handle. He had an affair with his husband's concubine and abandoned her. Ethics and moral principles are above all else, and the laws of the country are strict... If this matter is exposed, Zhu Kuo will be ruined."

"Ayan, don't feel guilty." He saw what Gu Fengyan was thinking at a glance and comforted him, "Zhu Kuo brought this upon himself. If he hadn't passed the knife to us, it wouldn't have reached us."

The carriage was moving at a very high speed, Gu Fengyan looked at the sky through the window... No trace of flying birds. "I feel sorry for Yao Chunlan. Half of her life has been ruined by Zhu Kuo." He said.

Huo Duan took him into his arms and coaxed him gently, "Nothing is perfect in this world, it's all your own choice."

Gu Fengyan nodded and decided not to think about it anymore.