Xu Li led Changming and Bo Mu away.

Xu Erlang was the most bewildered. At that moment, he felt that it wasn't Xu Li who was leaving, but his own life.

However, Xu Li will not see their fate for the time being.

Staying to watch the spectacle might lead to Xu Tiezhu and Liu Ermei clinging to him; only by leaving decisively and without hesitation can he truly make Xu Erlang despair.

After galloping several miles, he reined in his horse and said to Changming, "Changming, you stay here and quietly see what happens next."

"Then where shall this servant look for the general?"

"Go to the prefectural city; His Majesty has already returned."

Xie Zhaozhao and Zhou Shaoyu have returned to the prefectural city, but Zhou Shaoyu took Xiao Heng'er to Changhe Town.

Xie Zhaozhao didn't go because Manman and Moyan, who went to Jianmen Mountain to find Tang Caiyun before the New Year, came back with Hao Yonggan.

Accompanying them was a middle-aged beautiful woman who wore a shawl and practiced Buddhism.

When Manman returned, her beautiful eyes were filled with tears.

“My lady, I’ve found your family,” Manman whispered. “I didn’t tell her your identity.”

Xie Zhaozhao nodded in satisfaction, her loyalty complete and unwavering.

Manman has tentatively decided that she is a member of the Yu family.

Xie Zhaozhao raised an eyebrow; this trip out of the palace had been quite fruitful.

They not only inspected the experimental site, but also unexpectedly found Manman's relatives.

Manman cut through the mess quickly and told Xie Zhaozhao a story about her background, though it was a bit melodramatic.

The Yu family is a prominent family in Lizhou for centuries.

Yu Changrong, the eldest son of the Yu family, is the transport judge and deputy envoy of Lizhou Prefecture, and also Manman's biological father.

Manman's grandmother, who was the old lady Yu whom Xie Zhaozhao summoned for questioning a few days ago, had two legitimate sons and three illegitimate sons.

When Yu Changrong reached marriageable age, Madam Yu wanted to strengthen family ties by marrying her niece, Cai Ping'er, to her eldest son.

Cai Ping'er had been living in the Yu family home and had always admired Yu Changrong.

However, Yu Changrong's grandmother (Manman's great-grandmother) was still alive at that time and disagreed with the marriage. Instead, she arranged for Yu Changrong to marry Tang Caiyun, the legitimate daughter of the prefect of Jianzhou.

Madam Yu's elder brother was merely a county magistrate, incomparable to the Tang family.

In a fit of anger, Cai Ping'er married Yu Changrong's younger brother, Yu Changlin.

Yu Changlin was a sickly man who hadn't even passed the imperial examinations. Cai Ping'er was a suitable match for him. Neither family had any objections, and Cai Ping'er married Yu Changlin smoothly.

As a result, less than a month after their marriage, Yu Changlin caught a cold and died.

Tang Caiyun knew nothing about it. Only after marrying into the Yu family did she realize that Cai Ping'er and Yu Changrong's relationship was not right.

Both she and Cai Ping'er were pregnant. Cai Ping'er was always sick, with pains here and there, and she would come to her older cousin for everything.

Especially during her ten months of pregnancy, Cai Ping'er gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Whenever the children had a headache or fever, they would cry and call for their cousin.

Yu Changrong always offered help by saying, "My brother has passed away, and my cousin is having a hard time taking care of two children alone," while neglecting his own children.

Under Cai Ping'er's deliberate instigation, Yu Changrong became increasingly displeased with his wife and children.

Tang Caiyun is the eldest daughter-in-law of the eldest son's family and is in charge of managing the household affairs. Cai Ping'er is often unwell and asks for all kinds of tonics. If they are not available, she pretends to be sick and goes to Yu Changrong to cry.

As time went on, no one in the entire mansion said anything on the surface, but all the concubines in the courtyard were gossiping about it in private. Tang Caiyun reminded Yu Changrong to be careful, but Cai Ping'er instead turned the tables on her with tears and sobs.

Yu Changrong reprimanded Tang Caiyun, saying that she was not kind enough and was too harsh on her family.

Having inherited Cai Ping'er's true skills, Cai Ping'er's son, Yu Huaimin, began to steal things from Tang Caiyun's eldest son, Yu Huai'an.

Whenever a conflict arose between the two, Yu Changrong would punish his son.

After Yu Changrong's grandmother passed away, her mother-in-law took even more control over Tang Caiyun.

Openly and secretly, the old lady indulged her eldest son in taking care of her niece from her maternal family.

Even when Yu Huaimin pushed Yu Huai'an into the lake and he almost drowned, Tang Caiyun asked someone to send Yu Huai'an to study under the scholar Feng Yizhi, so he was away from the mansion for a long time.

Tang Caiyun's second child was a daughter named Yu Huaizhu, who was born beautiful and lovely, much to the delight of Tang Caiyun and Yu Changrong.

Who knew that Cai Ping'er harbored resentment and always felt that her cousin was too good to Yu Huaizhu, so she kept causing trouble. When Yu Huaizhu was a little over one year old, the servant took Huaizhu to watch the dragon lantern dance. He was pushed by someone and fell into the Jing River. Yu Huaizhu was swept away, and the servant was gagged and beaten to death by Cai Ping'er.

Tang Caiyun searched frantically in the river for a long time, even searching hundreds of miles downstream, but she still couldn't find it.

And just like that, the eldest daughter was gone.

During the days after her daughter went missing, Cai Ping'er's daughter, Yu Hanyan, said that she had fallen and injured her knee, and fainted from the pain. She asked Yu Changrong to take her to the hospital and take care of her.

Tang Caiyun lost her daughter for no reason, and hated Yu Changrong and Cai Ping'er for their illicit relationship. She also felt that her mother-in-law was not upright and that the Yu family was full of filth. Disheartened, she went to a nunnery in Jianmen Mountain and never returned to the Yu family.

Cai Ping'er seized control of the household affairs and doted on her children, while relentlessly suppressing Yu Huai'an, resulting in her raising a pair of unruly twins.

Yu Hanyan originally wanted to participate in the imperial concubine selection (Emperor Hui). Her son, Yu Huaimin, was inferior to Yu Huai'an in every way. Cai Ping'er nagged him that he was incompetent. Annoyed, he actually engaged in a risk-free business with his own uncle - tomb raiding!

This was indeed a quick way to make money. They started by digging up the tombs of ordinary landlords and selling the jewelry they found to other states, earning tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Not content with that, they began to plunder the tombs of emperors from previous dynasties. These imperial tombs were extremely rich, containing countless jewels and ornaments, all of which were of the highest quality and were very profitable.

He earned hundreds of thousands of taels of silver by excavating just one tomb from a previous dynasty.

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