Therefore, he was personally granted the title of Prince Gong by the late emperor, and the title was hereditary and passed down from generation to generation.

"And this Prince Gong's Mansion is actually surnamed 'Yu'..."

“Surname Yu…” Su Hua murmured, suddenly finding the taste of the apricot in her mouth somewhat unpleasant.

Yu Feng, Yu Yu, and occasionally Yu Lei and Yu Dian, all share the surname Yu.

When she first met them, she found it strange that his subordinates did not share his surname, but instead all had the surname 'Yu'.

When she learned that Xiao Chenshi was not Xiao Jinhan's biological mother, her first reaction was that she was a stepmother. But upon closer reflection, she realized that although Xiao Zhong was handsome, he did not resemble Xiao Jinhan at all. On the contrary, Xiao Jinyan was clearly Xiao Zhong's child.

Furthermore, although Xiao Zhong was not close to either of his sons, he never abandoned Xiao Jinyan, who was mentally unstable, and instead found him a good daughter-in-law.

As for Xiao Jinhan, he was sent to the battlefield at the age of eight, became lame, lost his family, and then married a woman who had been married three times and had lost several husbands. All of these things pushed him into a pit of fire.

It turns out he wasn't the Xiao family's son at all.

Instead, they were children of Prince Gong's mansion who had been separated from their parents and were living elsewhere.

This finally explains why he immediately acquired a restaurant worth a thousand gold pieces in Qingshui County and Tangshan Prefecture, why the incident where the constable Gao caused trouble at the spicy hot pot stall happened only in the morning, yet he was able to obtain the land deed for renaming it by the afternoon, and why the wooden plaque he gave her was engraved with the character 'Yu', and why this plaque could command the Yu family strongholds throughout the entire Dayu region and even the southern border and western Rong kingdoms.

This man really kept his true colors hidden.

However, if Xiao Jinhan is indeed a child of Prince Gong's mansion who was lost and wandered away, why did he follow Xiao Zhong and his wife from the north to Shanghe Village when they fled famine? Now that he has made contact with Prince Gong's mansion, why has he been confined to the small village?

Just as shocked as Su Hua was Su Dahu.

Everyone else thought the restaurant was rented, but he knew perfectly well that it was a gift from Xiao Jinhan.

At the time, he only thought that it was an asset acquired by Xiao Jinhan in the military camp, and that he was a general with real power.

But they never expected to be connected with Prince Gong's Mansion.

During the reign of Yu the Great, the hereditary titles of most princes and nobles were limited in number, and each time a title was inherited, the heir's rank would be reduced by one level. The only exception was the Prince Gong's Mansion, where the title of Prince Gong would remain for generations.

They were worlds apart from this hereditary royal family.

If he were just an ordinary wealthy family, he could study hard for years to pass the imperial examinations and become famous, which would give him support for Hua'er. But across from him was a royal mansion, second only to the emperor...

Judging from her mother's recent behavior, it's clear that she's treating Xiao Jinhan as a prospective son-in-law, and Hua'er isn't entirely indifferent to Xiao Jinhan either.

Su Dahu became more and more conflicted as he thought about it, but then he couldn't help but feel secretly glad that Hua'er had kept the restaurant a secret from the beginning, otherwise, who knows how many more waves it would have caused.