Sacrifice comes at a different price.

"You? Do you think you can succeed?"

"What's wrong with me? I'm perfectly fine now. Don't come looking for me again." Ye Qingzhou walked to the carriage and ignored Yu Xi.

He quickly helped Ye Qingzhou onto the carriage, then proceeded to redraw the painting and the pumpkin.

Ignored by them, Yu Xi's face darkened, her hands clenched into fists, and her dissatisfaction overflowed.

Yu's mother, carrying a jar, bumped into Yu Xi and winked at him.

Why did they start arguing again? Yu Xi thought of her son and relaxed her clenched fist. He took the jar and chased after the carriage: "Madam, Mother made you some chicken soup."

"Daughter-in-law! Daughter-in-law!" Mother Yu ran after the carriage.

With a crisp crack of the whip, the horse ran even faster.

Yu Xi, clutching the jar, chased after the carriage to the alley entrance, but it had already vanished.

"What are we going to do? Those people are here again to collect debts! Those heartless bastards, the interest keeps snowballing, it's already hundreds of taels." Mother Yu's eyes scanned the people at the intersection, and she would stare at anyone who looked well-dressed and rich.

Yu Xi leaned against the wall, panting heavily, still defiant: "I am her man, the father of her child. She can never wash her hands of it."

She can only rely on her son. If she stays with him, won't she be living a life of luxury from now on?

Mother Yu felt energized and more alert. She took the jar and said, "Going on a long trip has really set her off. She should be beaten every day until she's obedient."

Ye Qingzhou ran away, and Liu Yan'er was also lost in the scolding. Yu Xi looked at the hatred in his mother's eyes, and remembered the son who had made him happy for a few days, who had also disappeared with Liu Yan'er.

Yu Xi is a bachelor again.

They were even more destitute, no different from stray dogs in the corner.

Those warm, golden candlelight, and his gentle wife beneath it, along with the warm and delicious meals, had been gone from him for far too long.

It felt like a long, drunken dream. The wind, blowing through his thin clothes and carrying a chill, sobered him up.

His wife, Ye Qingzhou, had left him less than a year ago.

"If it weren't for Qingzhou, that heartless woman who abandoned her husband and children, how could you have suffered like this? It breaks my heart." Mother Yu took out an old handkerchief and wiped her son's sweat.

“Mother is right.” Yu Xi tilted her head, and her mother’s hand missed its mark, so she stopped wiping.

acid.

My mother's handkerchief was old, dirty, and smelled of sweat.

Ye Qingzhou always had a fragrance about him.

His mother was right last night. He had to harden his heart and hold Ye Qingzhou firmly in his grasp. If he controlled her, he would get the Ye family's money. Yu Xi knew very well that Ye Qingzhou was the greatest gold ingot he could obtain in his life.

Only by capturing Ye Qingzhou can he live a life of luxury for the rest of his life.

As the sun rose, its rays shone into the alley. Yu Xi's downcast eyes suddenly came to life, and she gazed intently at the closed gates of the Ye residence.

His gaze was even more intense and focused than that of the ravenous, drooling mangy dog ​​at the alley entrance, staring intently at the jar in Yu's mother's hand.

"Get out! This is for my son." Yu Xi chased the mangy dog ​​away. After scolding the person, Yu's mother went on to scold the dog.

Yu Xi and her son were playing with their dog at the alley entrance. Two horsemen were walking down the long street. They saw them from afar, but for some reason, they turned and walked away.

"Are you leaving again?" Outside the Liu family compound, Miss Liu stopped the carriage.

The carriage stopped, and a man dressed in a light blue robe and wearing a six-sided hat, with a fair complexion and no beard, and a very handsome appearance, leaned out with a smile. His hand, fair and slender, held Miss Liu's hand affectionately: "This journey will be long and arduous. I will surely meet you again when I return."

After saying that, he and Miss Liu looked at each other, their heads remaining still, but all four of their eyes simultaneously glancing to the left.

Fortunately, the old butler of the Liu family saw everything.

The old butler knows, and Master Liu will know too.

Miss Liu was secretly delighted. She decided to do something to make her father nag less for a while. She leaned forward and hugged the man tightly.

The man in the light blue robe was taken aback at first. Then he smiled warmly, hugged Miss Liu back, and gently stroked her hair with one hand: "Elder sister, I will come back to see you again."

"Alright, you need to come back quickly and propose marriage to my father." Miss Liu clung to the man.

"good."

"Fine, fine. You're so stupid, is that all you know?" Miss Liu punched him.

The man continued to smile, his handsome face full of tenderness. He took Miss Liu's hand and blew on it to warm it, saying, "Don't be angry, little sister. I'm not good with words, I won't make you angry again, okay?"

Hiding behind the willow tree, the old butler, who was eavesdropping, smiled broadly, but couldn't help but curl his lip: "You're not good with words? You've charmed our young lady so much that she won't go on any blind dates anymore."

A young couple, who had been inseparable for a long time, finally parted ways with reluctance.

The carriage circled halfway around the city before stopping at a flatbread stall in front of the Yuelai Inn. The driver bought the flatbread before leaving the city.

Upstairs in the inn, in a second-floor room, the man dressed in a light blue robe, who should have been leaving the city, was sitting at the table, looking at a letter.

"Master, Miss Liu has sent another letter?" Pumpkin peeled off his glued mustache, rubbed his face, leaned forward, glanced at the letter, and his voice suddenly rose: "She wants you to stay tonight? With her...?"

"Keep your voice down." Ye Qingzhou pressed his temples and picked up his pen to reply.

"Oh." Pumpkin lowered his voice: "So, are you going?"

"Go? Share a bed with her? If Jinghong finds out, will I ever be able to live in peace?" Ye Qingzhou wrote as she thought, to avoid upsetting the young lady again.

"Given your current state, and with Mr. Jiang's temper, things could get complicated."

"Then don't say anything." Ye Qingzhou glanced at Pumpkin, distracted. "You have something on your face. Go wash it off."

"Oh." Pumpkin went to the outer room to wash his face, took off his hat and outer robe, revealing his usual cross-collar shirt. After straightening his clothes, he muttered, "We agreed to put on an act, so why do I have to offer myself up?"

"Butler," Ye Qingzhou called out.

Pumpkin responded and quickly went over to take the letter.

"Would you like some flatbread, sir?" someone knocked on the door.

The flatbread vendor arrived just in time. Pumpkin, holding the letter, went briskly to open the door: "Brother Hu, I was just about to look for you."

Ye Qingzhou was in the inner room when she heard Nangua's cheerful voice suddenly stop, which she found strange. She stood up, walked past the table, stepped over the door of the side room, her sleeve brushing against the wooden chairs, and came to the open door.

"The child was so flustered that he didn't even close the door."

Pumpkin outside the door was about to answer Ye Qingzhou's question when the tall man on the left covered its mouth, preventing it from making a sound.

Ye Qingzhou raised his hand and closed the door.

Just as the two doors were about to close, a hand reached in.

The door was pushed open.

A large foot, clad in a pair of auspicious cloud-patterned shoes, followed closely behind and stepped through the door.

The man wore a large hat and hung his head somewhat dejectedly. The wide black brim of the hat obscured his face, making only his lips and chin visible.

"Jing...Jing Hong?" Ye Qingzhou recognized him and sensed his displeasure.

Jiang Jinghong only sighed.

Then, he closed the door behind his back and locked it.

Jiang Jinghong grabbed Ye Qingzhou's arm, preventing her from escaping. He finally raised his head, and upon seeing Ye Qingzhou's face, the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up, as if the entire room was illuminated by blue sky and white clouds.

Ye Qingzhou was his medicine. This medicine had penetrated deep into his internal organs, his heart, blood, and meridians.

However, this medicine, like the ginseng doll that has come to life in the story, always tries to escape.

That won't do.

Ye Qingzhou blinked, her mind racing with thoughts of escape. The man before her was tall and robust, almost like a small mountain. Moreover, an unseen undercurrent was swirling within his eyes.

How can they escape?

Ye Qingzhou took a step back.

Those auspicious cloud-patterned shoes immediately followed.

And so, Ye Qingzhou retreated step by step, and Jiang Jinghong followed step by step. Ye Qingzhou retreated, past the wooden chair, into the side room, and back to the table.

Finally, forced to back down, he sat in the grand master's chair.

Jiang Jinghong went around to the back of the armchair, leaned down, pressed against Ye Qingzhou's back, took out the letter, opened it, and pointed it out to her: "Madam, would you like to rewrite one?"

His finger tapped on the letter, making a soft thud. The letter ended with two lines: "Dedication, that's a different price."