Good heavens, look what she heard!

Han Wanzhen covered her mouth with her hand, not daring to make a sound. She tiptoed out.

The two people inside the house naturally knew that there were people outside the door.

However, sometimes it's good to play dumb.

Han Wanzhen returned to the inn with her guards, saying she was tired and needed to rest. She then went to her room, collapsed onto the bed, and remained motionless.

She desperately wanted to faint so she wouldn't have to overthink things and wouldn't be scared to death by her own thoughts.

"If, if I am Xu Dongsheng's sister, then who is his biological father? Or who did my mother have an affair with?"

Pshaw, my mother would never be a promiscuous woman.

If it's not the mother's problem, then it must be the father's problem.

Half-brother?

Who is the elder brother? Could it be Han Xuri? Oh my god, oh my god, if Xu Dongsheng is…

Han Wanzhen refused to think about it; she was afraid that if she continued to speculate, someone would die.

That's not just a simple crime; it's a heinous crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family.

Will this implicate my mother, brother, and maternal relatives?

Although Han Wanzhen was willful and sometimes even a bit brainless, that was because of her status; she didn't need to use her brain much.

But that doesn't mean she's really stupid.

He got up, ground the ink, and picked up his pen to write a letter.

"When disaster struck, Mother devised a plan to sever ties with the Duke of Huguo's mansion and take my brother with her."

She wouldn't dare write more, but she believed that with her mother's intelligence, she would surely find a way to resolve the issue.

Quickly seal the envelope with a secret letter and have the guards send someone to deliver it to Mother as fast as possible.

In fact, by the time Qiu received Han Wanzhen's letter, she had already successfully caused herself to be divorced.

Even so, Qiu happily packed her dowry and left the Duke of Huguo's mansion.

Over the years, she has saved a considerable amount of money on her own, both openly and secretly.

It's just an empty shell of the Duke of Huguo's mansion, nothing special.

As the former Duchess of Huguo who had lost her daughter, lost her son, and was ruthlessly abandoned by her husband, Qiu was still quite pitied.

No one said there was something wrong with her; they just said it was fate playing tricks on her.

A mother's heart is connected to her child's; any mother who has gone through such a ordeal would be considered incredibly strong if she didn't go insane.

After returning to her parents' home, Qiu immediately urged her brothers to sever ties with their main family.

It would be best to exclude the clan.

Qiu's brothers were naturally unwilling, all saying that Qiu had lost her mind.

In her haste, Qiu revealed that the Duke of Huguo might have murdered the princess, which frightened the Qiu brothers so much that they slid off their chairs.

There was nothing we could do about it; who knew that the Duke of Protectorate would do such a terrible thing?

Even without Qiu Shi as a second wife, the Qiu family and the mother of the Duke of Huguo were still distant relatives.

The Duke of Protectorate was sentenced to have his entire clan executed, and the Qiu family couldn't escape it either. Having figured this out, the Qiu brothers felt relieved.

If my sister hadn't had this inside information, the whole family wouldn't have known how to escape their predicament.

After weighing the pros and cons

The Qiu brothers, feeling that their sister's divorce had brought shame upon their ancestors, requested to be expelled from the clan.

I will never be a member of the Qiu family in this lifetime.

The Qiu family elders initially hurled a torrent of nasty remarks at Qiu because she had been divorced.

They even wanted Qiu to either hang herself or live a life of seclusion and devotion to Buddhism.

The more hatred the Qiu brothers felt back then, the more relieved they are to sever ties now.

Don't call them heartless.

If this family had shown any more compassion for their daughter, they would have revealed some information.

Right now, the best course of action is to escape.

In just three days, the Qiu brothers disposed of all their assets in Beijing and fled with their families.

Even more shockingly, in an attempt to sever ties, the family used their connections to re-register in the household registration system and change their names.

Mother and son were soon reunited.

If Qiu hadn't sent someone to intercept the letter, Han Wanzhen would never have received it.

After exterminating the Qiu family,

The Qiu family elders then revealed their shameful nature, eager to seize the family business that the Qiu brothers had built up.

Little did they know that when they arrived, the house had already changed owners.

They then went to all the properties owned by the Qiu brothers that they knew of, only to find that they had all changed hands.

The clan elders cursed the Qiu brothers for their wolfish ambitions and for the Qiu family's moral depravity, saying they had ruined the bright futures of the Qiu family's daughters.

Before he could finish complaining, the Duke of Protectorate was stripped of his title, his property was confiscated, and he was imprisoned.

As for what specific crime he committed, no one knows.

Immediately afterwards, all nine clans of the Duke of Huguo were exiled to the northern lands to reclaim wasteland. The Qiu clan happened to be among those nine clans that were on the border.

The Qiu clan elder, dressed in prison garb, vaguely felt that he had missed something.

By the time he finally understood, he was already exhausted and on his way to exile.

He then realized just how terribly wrong he had been.

If they had treated the children of their clan with kindness, they wouldn't have ended up with the entire clan being exiled.

It was too late for regrets.

Han Wanzhen, having figured out all the key points, was indeed furious and embarrassed for a long time.

But in the end, I came to terms with it.

It seems like having a good-looking and talented older brother is a pretty good thing.

Mother said back then that once we left the capital, we could never go back.

Now that I know I have this older brother, I might as well stick with him.

Han Wanzhen clearly remembered the suffocating feeling of being choked by Xu Dongsheng, how disgusting it was to see him like this.

Now that we're sure, that person won't really strangle me, so what's there to be afraid of?

Thus began Han Wanzhen's performance of repeatedly teetering on the edge of Xu Dongsheng's position.

It's also very satisfying to annoy people.

As Xu Dongsheng roared 600 times, Han Wanzhen made a face at him.

"What are you yelling for? No matter how loud you yell, you can't really strangle me. I'm your sister, your own flesh and blood."

Han Wanzhen's smug and fearless attitude was infuriating.

Xu Dongsheng suddenly revealed an evil smile.

“Indeed, I cannot strangle you. To do so would taint my reputation and damage my integrity.”

"Now that you know she's my sister, hitting her isn't illegal, right?"

As he spoke, he grabbed a bamboo stick from the side of the table and swung it at Han Wanzhen.

Han Wanzhen was so frightened that she turned pale and ran away.

Her guards stood in the tree with their arms crossed, watching the spectacle.

He thought to himself that this young lady "deserved" to be beaten. If she were their sister, she would have been beaten eight hundred times over.

They knew perfectly well how busy Magistrate Xu was.

In just a few months since taking office, the entire city of Kenqing has undergone tremendous changes.

Many of the people who left have returned.

At the same time, there is also a significant influx of people from other regions.

They were all there to do business, their main purpose being to acquire cattle, sheep, and medicinal herbs from northern Mongolia.

Beimeng was also renamed; there is no longer a Beimeng in the world, but Mengzhou.

When Mengzhou was first established, a large number of artisans from the inland areas came to teach them various skills in exchange for local cattle, horses and other supplies.

People from Mengzhou also dared to enter the territory of Shenlong Kingdom openly, especially Dawar. The herdsmen of Mengzhou led their cattle and sheep to exchange for salt and grain.