After staying at the estate for four or five days, it was Shen Mingjiang's birthday.

Things are different now than in the past, so the birthday banquet was not held in a big way. The kitchen simply prepared a table of food, and the family sat around the table and ate a meal to celebrate the birthday.

This was a rare occasion for the Shen family to gather together. Fang, who had just recovered from a serious illness, sat to Shen Mingjiang's right, while Shen Youying and Xue Shen sat to his left, along with Shen Huaizhou, whom they hadn't seen for some time.

Having been dismissed from his official post, Shen Huaizhou had nothing to do, so he took over the remaining shops in his family's business. After not seeing him for a long time, he had become much more tactful and was no longer as afraid of Xue Shen. He even dared to strike up a conversation with Xue Shen.

Shen Mingjiang's gaze swept over the empty seat, and he said to Shen Huaizhou, "You're not getting any younger, it's time to get married. Your mother didn't approve of the marriages we picked out for you before. Do you have anyone you like?"

Shen Huaizhou quickly stood up: "I will listen to my father and mother."

Upon hearing this, Madam Fang was displeased, but she suppressed her anger and said slowly, "My eldest son is no longer here. From now on, Huaizhou will be the pillar of the family. How can we be careless about his marriage? We must find a woman who is of equal social standing and capable of managing the household."

Shen Mingjiang couldn't bear to hear her say that, so he shook his head and said to Shen Huaizhou, "Just listen to what your mother says. If you have a girl you like, come and tell me, and I'll arrange a marriage for you."

Upon hearing this, Fang's expression immediately turned somewhat unpleasant, but considering that the King of Qin was still present, she could only suppress the urge to argue and stare at the grains of rice in her bowl, trying to calm herself.

After the birthday banquet ended, seeing Shen Youying and Prince Qin return to their courtyard, Madam Fang could no longer bear it and anxiously asked, "What did you mean by what you just said, sir? Huaizhou was once an official, and the Shen family has such a prestigious reputation. How can his wife be allowed to do as he pleases? If he likes the singers and dancers in those brothels, does that mean he should marry them too?"

Shen Mingjiang frowned: "What kind of family is the Shen family? Now they are just ordinary peasants. Do you still want him to marry a princess and a noble lady?" He slowly shook his head: "If you don't change your mindset of climbing the social ladder, you will ruin Huaizhou's marriage."

He thought of his eldest daughter, who was still in the Prince Chen's mansion, and barely suppressed the anger surging in his heart, saying, "I will make arrangements for Huaizhou's marriage. You don't need to worry about it."

Upon hearing this, Madam Fang's eyes widened: "Master, are you blaming me? Yu'er is a piece of my own flesh and blood. If I had known that Prince Chen was worse than a beast, how could I have let Yu'er marry him?"

Shen Mingjiang shook his head in disappointment: "You still don't understand where you went wrong."

If she hadn't always hoped that Shen Muyu would find a good marriage and that her daughter's marriage would help Shen Huaizhou, Shen Muyu wouldn't have been so easily deceived by Prince Chen and would have been so determined to become his concubine.

She truly loves her daughter, but she's also truly confused.

Seeing that she was about to cry again, covering her face, Shen Mingjiang was really having a headache from her crying these days, so he could only turn his sleeves and go to the study.

Shen Youying stopped under the eaves, watching her father's angry figure, and slowly sighed.

She didn't go forward, but quietly retreated, holding the pair of knee pads made by Shen Muyu in her hands, and walked towards the study.

Just now at the banquet, she clearly saw her father staring blankly at the empty chair.

Xue Shen wheeled himself to her side and said, "How could someone like your father marry someone like that..."

His expression was somewhat complicated, and out of consideration for the fact that the other party was Shen Youying's stepmother, he did not finish his sentence.

Shen Youying said, "My father is a very sentimental and nostalgic person."

My father and mother had a deep and harmonious relationship. There was only one woman named Fang in the backyard. Even so, my mother was worried that she was too weak to have any more children, so she decided to arrange for my father to take a good concubine.

After his mother passed away, his father did not remarry. Seeing that Fang was gentle and compliant, he made her his official wife.

Fang may not have been a bad person, but she always seemed to harbor a desire for her two children to one day overpower her and her elder brother. So she kept nagging Shen Muyu in her ear, and Shen Muyu took it to heart, which led to a big mistake.

She sighed again, not discussing the elders' affairs any further, and asked Xue Shen to wait for her outside before knocking on the study door herself.

Shen Mingjiang's birthday celebration was far from joyful. Only when he saw his youngest daughter arrive did he remove the gloom from his face and smile as he looked at the things in her hands: "Didn't Zhaozhao already give you a birthday gift? Why are you still here?"

Shen Youying handed him the knee pads and said softly, "My eldest sister made these for Father herself." After hesitating for a moment, she decided to tell the truth: "She originally wanted to give them to Father in my name, but I felt it was better for Father to know..."

Shen Mingjiang gripped the thick knee pads, his hand trembling slightly. After a moment of silence, he said, "Your sister isn't a patient person."

Shen Youying hummed in agreement: "But she put a lot of effort into making these knee pads. The stitches are fine and dense. When Father wears them, he won't have to worry about his knees getting cold and painful in the winter."

Shen Mingjiang didn't say anything more. His eyes were a little red, and he didn't want his daughter to see it. He turned his back slightly and said, "If she had been this sensible earlier, she wouldn't have ended up in this situation."

But there's no such thing as knowing beforehand.

The general, who once fought on the battlefield with an iron will, has now hunched over because of his children.

Shen Youying didn't know how to comfort her, so she could only whisper, "She already knows she was wrong. If Father can't bear it, you can bring her back in the future. You can raise her at home or find her another marriage. I won't blame Father for this."

Shen Mingjiang turned around and patted her head tenderly: "When your older brother was still alive, he always said you were spoiled. But I think that among the children in the family, you are the most sensible."

Shen Youying gently rubbed her father's broad and strong hand, raised her eyebrows, and winked playfully: "Big brother is not entirely wrong."

Shen Mingjiang was amused by her words, but remembering her affair with the Prince of Qin, he hesitated before asking, "Since you came back this time, you seem to have grown even closer to the Prince of Qin?"

Shen Youying lowered her head somewhat embarrassedly and gave a mumbled reply.

A thoughtful look flashed in Shen Mingjiang's eyes as he tentatively asked, "Zhaozhao, are you truly certain about him? If given the chance, would you still be willing to marry him?"

Shen Youying was somewhat bewildered upon hearing this, and carefully said, "It's not that I'm sure or not, it's just that the more I learn about him, the more I feel that he's very different from the rumors..." She felt that her father's question was a bit strange, and asked with some confusion, "Why is Father suddenly asking this? I've already married him, what chance do I have? It's just that when I married him before, I thought that being able to grow old peacefully would be a blessing, but now... perhaps my thoughts have changed a bit. If he doesn't betray me, we can probably grow old together."

A lifelong, monogamous love is a girl's innocent wish, but such a wish is too difficult to fulfill. She doesn't want to drive herself into a dead end and end up heartbroken.

It's better to just keep your heart at heart, not ask for too much, and be a respectful couple with him.