When he came out of the shower, Shen Wu simply washed himself.

When Lu Xuan was teasing Manman, Shen Wu supported her chin and said, "I have something to ask you."

"What's the matter?" Lu Xuan turned around.

Shen Wu took out a photo from her bag and put it in front of Lu Xuan.

Lu Xuan was slightly stunned when he saw the photo, but there was nothing he didn't understand.

"It's not that I don't want to tell you about this, but besides being related to me and Old Four, it's not something that I'll be proud of." Lu Xuan held up the photo: "But Aunt Zhang gave this to you, so she probably told you too."

Shen Wu nodded.

Lu Xuan recalled and said, "Back then, around the beginning of the 1960s, an old man came to our place. He said he was an old man from the palace, a eunuch, and his ancestors had some connections with my family..."

"I have many children, and they wanted to adopt one from my family to take care of him in his old age. However, my father didn't agree. That old man brought a lot of things from the palace. My father didn't agree to adopt a child, so he would come to my father from time to time to drink and bring him some food. After a few visits, the two families became very familiar with each other."

"At that time, we also said that we would take care of him in his old age and see him to the end of his life."

"The seventh child was the youngest at the time, only four or five years old. He would secretly call that old man godfather. He was sweet-talking, and the old man gave him money and bought him food. The two of them were closer than others."

Lu Xuan frowned when he mentioned this. "Old Four and I were both in our teens at the time. We were already half laborers, often working in the fields. When we weren't working, we would go up the mountains and down the river to look for game. We weren't close to him, and this went on for several years."

"Five or six years passed like this, and the family had already tacitly accepted that the seventh son was his half-son, and that they would take care of him in his old age and see him to the end of his life."

Lu Xuan added, "He doesn't need to support himself in his old age. He stole a lot of things from the palace in his early years and is much richer than farmers. Otherwise, my father, who cares about face, would not have followed the seventh brother."

"So your father was not happy with Lao Liu and Mai Miao's marriage because they had too little money?"

Lu Xuan was silent for a moment and nodded slightly: "Not really, my father just said it with his mouth, but actually he took the money and complained about it."

Chen Wu: "And then stand?"

Lu Xuan was silent for a long time and nodded.

Chen Wu also realized that this discussion was about her nominal father-in-law, and she coughed lightly: "Keep going, don't go off topic."

Lu Xuan's face darkened slightly. "But one time, I don't know how the fourth child was coaxed into his house. When I went to look for him, Lu Tao told me that he went to the old eunuch's house..."

Lu Xuan's face was cold. Shen Wu suddenly remembered what Tong Lao said about Lu Ye's face attracting both people and troubles, and she had a guess in her mind: "Has he been bullied?"

"It's too late. When I got there, I don't know what medicine they had given the fourth child. He passed out and is now..."

Lu Xuan found it a little difficult to say it, and it took him a long time to finish it.

"He's kneeling down to the fourth brother's crotch."

"I didn't understand what was wrong with him at the time. I thought he was used to serving people in the palace and his knees were weak when he saw anyone. Later, when he went to undress the fourth child, I felt something was wrong. Then I kicked the door open, beat him up, and took the fourth child away."

Chen Wu's expression was similar to that of someone who had eaten a dead fly: "Beat him to death? And then you went to labor camp?"

"I didn't kill him." Lu Xuan said, "It was quite a big fight at the time. I beat him half to death and was then pulled away by the village elders."

"At the time, my thinking was immature. As this matter became a big deal, it was inevitable that some rumors would spread. Most of them were cursing the damn eunuch, but it was also inevitable that some rumors would involve the fourth brother. During that period, the fourth brother did not dare to go out."

"My father scolded me again at home. He thought it was because the fourth child was too good-looking that he seduced that damn eunuch."

"I beat up everyone who gossiped about me. They all got pretty bad beatings. One night, I even stood over the bed of the person who started gossiping with an axe. When he woke up and saw me, he was so scared that he almost went crazy. After that, no one dared to gossip about me anymore."

Shen Wu...this method of solving the problem is clean and neat.

No wonder those people looked like they had a secret they wanted to tell her but were hesitant to speak. It seemed like they were afraid that Lu Xuan would do something like this again.

"No one died, so he was at fault first. If someone had called the police, you wouldn't have been sent to a labor camp, right?" Chen Wu said, pointing to the photo. "Aunt Zhang said that the old man died, so they first suspected you and took you away."

Lu Xuan said calmly, "There are rumors in the village. I've heard some of them. They say that the old eunuch is a rootless bastard, and he just... worships others. Some people also say that the old eunuch likes young boys and girls."

"The more I think about it, the more disgusted I feel. I beat him for six months straight, controlling myself to avoid killing him, then continuing after recovering. This went on for over six months, and I didn't hide it at the time..."

Now it was Chen Wu's turn to be silent. Who else could she suspect if not him first?

Lu Xuan also touched his nose and felt that what he did when he was young was too careless, and continued to tell the story.

From what Chen Wu heard, it felt like there happened to be a riot that year, and people were being investigated. The old eunuch's identity was under investigation, and he was criticized by the whole village from time to time. In addition, Lu Xuan beat him up every now and then, so the old eunuch had no intention of committing suicide.

Someone died, and those people realized that the matter had become a big deal. Naturally, they didn't want to put the blame on themselves, so they pushed it onto Lu Xuan, who had some connections. Lu Xuan was arrested and taken away before he even knew what was going on. Then, no one knew who confessed for him, but he was taken to the farm.

Chen Wu looked at his photo. He was thin and his eyes were full of hostility. "How did you live on the farm? Was it hard?"

If Lu Xuan said it wasn't hard, he knew his wife wouldn't believe him. "It was hard, of course. When I first went in, there were bullies, but I beat them up and almost killed them. They were half dead for a month, and I was locked up for most of that month. After I got out, no one dared to bully me anymore."

He laughed as he spoke: "Actually, there are quite a lot of talented people there, including those who have studied abroad. Those scholars speak very well, and I have learned a lot from them..."

He spoke lightly and brushed aside all the bad things, but Shen Wu felt a little uncomfortable. According to Aunt Zhang, he was originally favored by Tong Lao and could join the army, and his future was bright.

The more she thought about it, the more bitter she felt. She hugged Lu Xuan and shoved him into her arms: "Do you regret it?"

Lu Xuan stroked her long hair and said, "No, I even dug up the grave of that dead eunuch in the village when I got out."

"I threw all the bones into the back mountain."

"But if I had given it more thought at the time, I might have been less ostentatious."

Chen Wu looked up at him with misty eyes and said, "You were only fifteen or sixteen at the time. How could you have considered everything so carefully? That's already quite impressive."

Lu Xuan said, "I've always felt that this matter is strange. Apart from my father, only the seventh brother and that damn eunuch are familiar with it. The fourth brother and I don't go there very often."

Chen Wu asked, "Do you suspect it has something to do with Lu Ming?"