The message was sent, but there was no reply for five or six minutes.

Ruan Bei was extremely anxious, and at the same time, he was certain that Qin's father really knew Lu Sibai's mother; otherwise, he could have simply replied that he didn't know.

A little while later, just as Ruan Bei was about to send Qin Zhengze another message because she couldn't wait any longer, her phone suddenly rang. It was a call from the other end.

Ruan Bei and Qin Gu exchanged a glance, and Ruan Bei immediately pressed the speakerphone button.

"I know her..."

Qin Zhengze, due to his background and excellent personal qualities, had a natural arrogance in his personality. He usually spoke with a decisive and calm tone, but this time, Ruan Bei could hear hesitation in his voice.

"Her name is Zou Na, she's An... she's Kunkun's mother's friend..."

Then, through Qin Zhengze's narration, they learned about a grudge from more than twenty years ago.

More than 20 years ago, ghosts and demons roamed freely, and evil practitioners were rampant.

Both the state and the Taoist community intend to restore order and purify the world.

At that time, the leader of the younger generation of Xuanmen was Xuan Ningcheng, the eldest disciple of Xuanqing Temple. Due to an accident, he met Fu Zhao, the youngest son of the Fu family in the capital. The two hit it off immediately and found that they shared the same ideals and became close friends.

Later, the two came up with the idea of ​​establishing a special affairs bureau, with the Xuanmen (mystical sect) cooperating with the state. Coincidentally, the two of them and the forces behind them each had a certain status and strength on both sides, so they joined forces.

The Special Affairs Bureau faced numerous obstacles in its early days. Fu Zhao brought along some young people who were determined to make a difference, and Xuan Ningcheng also brought out some talents from the Xuanmen sect.

Qin Zhengze was just twenty years old at the time. He had started school early and skipped grades, and had just graduated from university. He had no intention of pursuing further studies.

Because of the relationship between Qin Zhengping and his mother, he harbored resentment towards his father, resulting in a poor father-son relationship. He spent most of the year at the sanatorium with his mother.

After graduating from university, Old Master Qin asked him to join the Qin family business, but Qin Zheng refused. At that time, he felt that the Qin family business was more of a constraint for him than a constraint.

His mother didn't want him to be idle, so she asked his younger brother, Fu Zhao, to come and take care of his nephew.

Fu Zhao was busy with the Special Affairs Bureau at the time. Although Qin Zhengze was not a cultivator, he was capable, had connections, and was not short of money, so he was a very useful assistant. Fu Zhao took him along.

During the handover between the two parties, Qin Zhengze began to interact with the Xuanmen talents brought by Xuan Ningcheng, including Qin Gu's mother He Cong'an, Luo Zikun, and Zou Na.

In terms of seniority, He Cong'an and Luo Zikun should be Xuan Ningcheng's senior uncles, even though he is much older than them.

Qin Gu's maternal grandfather was a physiognomist, but He Cong'an's talent was that of a celestial master. Qin Gu's talent was inherited from his mother.

Grandpa He was acquainted with Master Xu Ziduan of Qin Gu. The two had been friends for many years. Logically speaking, it would have been most appropriate for He Cong'an to join Xuanqing Temple, a prestigious sect with reliable friends watching over him.

But Grandpa He lost his wife at a young age. He was a man raising his only daughter alone. It was alright when she was little, but as she grew up, there were always many inconveniences.

Therefore, he wanted his daughter to find a female master so that she could receive more guidance and care in life, and someone could help her sort out some of the troubles she had during her adolescence.

He was simply a loving father, wanting to consider his daughter's needs in every way, which Xu Ziduan could understand.

Unfortunately, their Xuanqing Temple had female Taoist priests in the past, and they also took in female Taoist novices. However, there was a gap in the line, and they did not have a suitable one to take He Cong'an as their disciple.

After much deliberation, Xu Ziduan went to ask his master's wife for help. His master's wife was the daughter of a declining noble family. She and Xu Ziduan's master became Daoist partners, but later broke up peacefully due to personality clashes.

Their child, Luo Zikun, took his mother's surname and sometimes stayed with his mother, while at Xuanqing Temple, he stayed with his father.

Through Xu Ziduan's connections, He Cong'an became a disciple of the Luo family and became Luo Zikun's legitimate junior sister.

“Zou Na is Luo Zikun’s distant cousin, so distant that she’s beyond the fifth degree of kinship,” Qin Zhengze said.

Zou Na had lost all her family members and was eventually sent to the Luo family. When she was sent there, He Cong'an had already been an apprentice for several years and got along very well with Luo Zikun.

Qin Zhengze was unwilling to elaborate on these details, but Ruan Bei gleaned a clue from his words.

It turns out that Aunt He and Luo Zikun were childhood sweethearts, no wonder Uncle Qin was unwilling to talk about these past events.

After Zou Na was sent here, the three of them ate, lived, and cultivated together. He Cong'an was, after all, a girl, and no matter how good her relationship with Luo Zikun was, there were always some things she couldn't say.

Zou Na has a gentle and mild personality, but perhaps because she lives under someone else's roof, she is always timid and hesitant in her dealings with others.

He Cong'an has a cheerful and generous personality. Although he is two years younger than her, he treats her like a little sister and takes good care of her.

The three of them grew up together. Later, Xuan Ningcheng went to the capital, and He Cong'an wanted to go after hearing about it. Luo Zikun and Zou Na also went with him.

Then they met Qin Zhengze in the capital.

Qin Zhengze said that he fell in love with He Cong'an at first sight.

To put it bluntly, it's lust at first sight.

Although Qin Gu looks about 60-70% like his father, the rest of his features are also quite good, which gives an idea of ​​how beautiful his mother must have been when she was young.

He Cong'an knew she was good-looking, and she was even a sucker for good looks, so she wasn't averse to Qin Zhengze's advances. After all, a handsome man of his caliber wasn't someone you saw every day.

Qin Zhengze has an extremely aggressive personality. He's the kind of person who will pursue what he likes and get what he wants. As for whether he'll change his mind later, that's a matter for the future.

So he began to pursue He Cong'an. However, in the process of getting along, he gradually went from simply liking her appearance to enjoying the process of being with her.

He grew increasingly fond of her and became more and more deeply involved; Qin Zheng successfully trapped himself in the process of pursuing her.

Unfortunately, He Cong'an is great in every way except when it comes to romance, he's completely clueless.

"Luo Zikun had a crush on her but didn't dare to say it. She always treated him like an older brother and never suspected anything." Qin Zhengze said with a hint of pride, glad that he had acted decisively and won the beauty's heart before Luo Zikun.

"How did you know that my uncle has a crush on my mother?" Qin Gu asked curiously. "Is he making it very obvious?"

“He hindered my pursuit of An’an,” Qin Zhengze said. “He also tried to sow discord between An’an and me, attempting to make us turn against each other, but I saw through his plan and he didn’t succeed.”

Qin Gu: "..." You seem quite pleased with yourself.

"What does that have to do with Zou Na?" Ruan Bei asked. "And Lu Sibai, if he is Zou Na's child, then who is his father?"

Qin Zheng was silent for a while, then sighed and said, "There's a misunderstanding with her."

When he first started pursuing He Cong'an, he accidentally stumbled upon a young boy confessing his feelings to her, but she rejected him without hesitation. Afterward, she tried to avoid contact with that boy.

With a bit of ulterior motive, he asked He Cong'an why. He Cong'an said that she didn't like that boy, so there was no need to give him hope, and it would be best not to have any contact with him in the future to avoid embarrassment.

Qin Zhengze learned a lesson from this: if you are not confident enough, do not confess your feelings lightly, otherwise you will not win the heart of the beauty, but the beauty will run away.

So he used every means to win over his crush, hoping to lay a good foundation for their relationship so that He Cong'an would fall for him and then confess his feelings, thus winning her over in one go.

After pursuing He Cong'an for a while, unsure of the progress, he subtly probed, pretending that he had someone he liked and didn't know how to pursue her, in order to test He Cong'an's attitude.

As a result, He Cong'an immediately assumed that he had fallen for someone else, and even tried to analyze the situation for him as a friend. After much analysis, he concluded that he had fallen for Zou Na.

After all, during that period he only frequently came into contact with a few people, and He Cong'an never thought of himself, assuming it was Zou Na.

Ruan Bei had heard him mention it before, but this was the first time Qin Gu had heard about his father's dark history. He said speechlessly, "And then? You really went after that Zou Na?"

He was a little overwhelmed; his dad had actually pursued Lu Sibai's mom? What kind of shocking news was this?!

"How could that be!" Qin Zhengze thought his son was foolish: "If I really pursued Zou Na, would I still be able to pursue your mother?"

If you pursue someone's best friend and then tell them you like them, you're just asking for trouble.

"Oh, so how did you do it?" Qin Gu felt that his father was far inferior to him in terms of pursuing people. Look at Xiao Bei, the little wife he had protected and raised, he took a liking to at first sight and brought her back to his nest as soon as she came of age.

Qin Zhengze: "...I'll go find Zou Na and explain things to her, and ask for her help."

"And then? She just agreed?" Ruan Bei asked, sensing that Zou Na was no pushover.

"I agreed." Qin Zheng coughed lightly and said vaguely, "She likes me."

His daughter An'an is silly, but he's not. He's seen too many admiring glances, and he noticed Zou Na's expression as soon as it appeared.

Ruan Bei: "..."

Qin Gu: "..."

Ruan Bei still had some reservations, but Qin Gu was utterly blunt: "Dad, you're such a jerk!"

Knowing full well that the girl likes him, he still asks her to help him pursue her. Isn't that like stabbing her in the heart?

"This isn't some romantic entanglement you caused, is it?" Qin Guqi asked. "If he wanted revenge, he should be looking for you or me. Why would she be looking for Xiao Bei?"

"Yeah, why is she targeting me?" Ruan Bei was very confused. The grudges of the previous generation had nothing to do with him, and the Lu family couldn't get involved either.

Moreover, when he was transferred, Zou Na couldn't have guessed that Ruan's father would pick him up, or that he and Qin Gu would become childhood friends, so it's unlikely that she was implicated.

“How would I know what she was thinking?” Qin Zhengze said, “After I married An’an, she went on a mission alone with Luo Zikun. Later, it was said that she went to another place and never appeared again. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have forgotten about her.”

Ruan Bei: "..."

In other words, two heartbroken people went to heal their wounds together. One liked the groom, and the other liked the bride, but the wedding had nothing to do with them. They left sadly, which was too tragic.

"By the way, what's that scar on her palm?"

“I do know that; I witnessed her being injured firsthand,” Qin Zhengze said.

At that time, the Special Affairs Bureau had just been established, facing both internal and external troubles. The external trouble was the Ghost King and his subordinates, who had already gained power, while the internal trouble was the evil cultivators who used cruel methods and killed indiscriminately.

At that time, more than half of the missions carried out by the Special Affairs Bureau personnel were fighting against evil cultivators. The evil cultivators would not sit idly by and would often organize counterattacks.

"Once, during a mission, they were ambushed by evil cultivators. Luo Zikun was almost beheaded with a single blow. At that critical moment, Zou Na, who was standing next to him, reached out and grabbed the sharp blade."

Ruan Bei murmured, "So, my martial uncle owes Zou Na a life. No wonder he helped Lu Sibai."

Qin Gu's focus was quite unusual: "Dad, you're just an ordinary person, why are you able to go on missions with them?"

Qin Zheng remained remarkably calm: "I'm smart enough to help them solve problems outside of combat, and besides, your mother will protect me."

Qin Gu: "???"

Qin Zhengze: "She said that with such a beautiful face, I can't get hurt."