Jiang Chuting was slightly surprised, then smiled. He hadn't expected Lin Zhi to care about this. Knowing that he wouldn't give up until he got an answer, he replied, "I was asking for...my own information."

"You yourself?" Lin Zhili's eyes widened immediately, and he asked in surprise and confusion, "Why?" He had been intimate with him many times and was very certain that the person in front of him was a real man!

Jiang Chuting explained, "I accidentally took this medicine before, so I just asked the doctor about it, and I didn't mean anything by it."

Lin Zhi was upset all night because of this, never expecting this situation. She grabbed his hand tightly and anxiously asked, "Why did you accidentally take it? How could you be so careless? What did the doctor say? Will it affect your health?"

Why did I accidentally take it? Because I was in a hurry to find you. Jiang Chuting skipped over his previous question and shook her head: "It won't have any effect, the doctor said it's fine."

"You're not lying to me, are you?"

"No."

Lin Zhi finally breathed a sigh of relief, feeling much more at ease. "That's good. I thought... I thought..."

Jiang Chuting followed up with, "What did you think I was doing?"

I thought you were with another woman!

Fortunately, no, otherwise, after waiting for so long and carefully approaching step by step, just when he was about to succeed, someone would have sabotaged him. He would have lost his mind and wouldn't know what he would do. Lin Zhi said, "I thought you had some difficulties and were deliberately hiding them from me, so I went to look up the uses of the Wangxian Grass. Who knew I would be so shocked?"

Lin Zhi grabbed his hand and pressed it against her heart, saying pitifully, "This part is all shattered. I thought you wouldn't want me anymore. Thank goodness, it was just a false alarm."

"Okay, now you know? Stop overthinking it."

Lin Zhi leaned close to him and said, "Chu Ran, I can't live without you. Please spend more time with me and look at me more often, okay? Please don't let anyone else be there, I can't bear it."

Children tend to be possessive of the things they like, and Jiang Chuting felt that Lin Zhi probably felt something similar towards him, but fortunately, he didn't find it annoying.

Jiang Chuting smiled and said, "You're so clingy. You won't think like this after you get married."

"After we get married, I'll think that way even more. I'll cling to you relentlessly, making sure you can't shake me off, and I'll want to devour you whole." Lin Zhi tilted her head and chuckled, her beautiful eyes holding a peculiar light as she stared at him without blinking. Her tone softened slightly. "How about it? Are you scared?"

Jiang Chuting took it as a joke and couldn't help but smile, raising her hand to pat his head.

Lin Zhi moved his head, rubbing it against Jiang Chuting's palm. After Jiang Chuting withdrew his hand, the two of them suddenly fell silent, their eyes meeting.

"Lin Zhi." Jiang Chuting spoke first, her gaze softening as she looked at him. "Do you... really think I'm that good?"

"How could this be fake?"

"But actually, I'm not as perfect as you imagine. I also have... a side you don't know about."

Lin Zhi was a little unhappy that his feelings had been questioned, but she said to him without hesitation and in a firm tone, "I know, I know! In short, no matter which side of you you are, you are perfect in my heart, the most beautiful and incomparable person in the world!"

Jiang Chuting said in a low voice, "Really?"

"Yes!" Lin Zhi replied decisively.

Jiang Chuting looked back at him quietly for a moment, then lowered her eyes and smiled silently before saying nothing more.

He made too many unnecessary tests tonight; it wasn't like him at all. Could it be that he's really that resentful of Lin Zhi's indifference and refusal to help?

Why bother?

Despite the men in black's attempts to dissuade them, Jiang Chuting, true to her nature, would never give up the investigation. The very next day, she and Lin Zhi began personally visiting and investigating various brothels. Half a month quickly passed, and they had covered all the brothels, but they still hadn't found anything. However, they had done quite a few good deeds along the way. Influenced by Jiang Chuting, Lin Zhi always lent a hand, making him feel increasingly kind-hearted.

Early that morning, the two got up and wandered around the city. When they passed through a secluded alley, they found a newborn girl.

Jiang Chuting wouldn't ignore something like this. And coincidentally, when they discovered it, the person who abandoned her hadn't gone far. Without Jiang Chuting saying anything, Lin Zhi had already used his lightness skill to catch the person and bring him back.

The weather was getting colder, and it was just getting light. A chilly wind was blowing, and leaving the child in this secluded alley was tantamount to deliberately killing her. When Jiang Chuting picked her up, the child's face was already bluish-purple, but thankfully she was still alive. Jiang Chuting asked Lin Zhi to take an outer garment from her bundle and quickly wrapped the child in it. She then lovingly warmed the child's cold face with her own warm hands.

The woman who lost her child was an old woman, dressed in coarse cloth, with a hunched back, but she looked very shrewd. Seeing that both men were carrying swords, she was afraid, but she still shouted defiantly, "Why are you arresting me! Let me go! What! Do you want to kill me!"

Lin Zhi's ears hurt from her loud shouting, so he tightened his grip on her shoulder slightly, causing her to scream even louder in pain.

Lin Zhi coldly said, "Shut up! I'll tear your mouth apart if you yell again."

The old woman shrank back in fright, not daring to utter a sound. Jiang Chuting carefully held the child, frowning as he asked her, "Why did you abandon the child?"

I was wondering if she was having some kind of trouble, but to my surprise, she stuck her neck out and said righteously, "So what if she's lost? She's my daughter's child, what business is it of yours whether we lose her or not! Unlike others who are thrown into ponds to drown, I'm already being kind by leaving her here on the roadside."

Was it born to her daughter? Could it be that she had the child out of wedlock and was too ashamed to keep it, so she threw it away?

The old woman tried to struggle away from Lin Zhi, but she was no match for the strength of a young man. Lin Zhi could subdue her without even using his internal energy.

Lin Zhi had no patience for her at all. "If you move again, I'll drown you in the pond, do you hear me?"

The old woman was both shocked and frightened, and her tough stance crumbled. She said tremblingly, "Two heroes, if you can't bear to see this, you can take it back and raise it yourselves. I won't stop you, just don't come looking for us again!"

Lin Zhi sneered, "You don't want your own daughter, and you want us to raise her? How can you be so delusional? Where's the child's father? Take us to him."

After Lin Zhi finished speaking, the old woman cried out and wailed loudly, "This won't do! If you go looking for my daughter, she'll never be able to get married! You can't do this! You, you must give my child back to me right now, I won't abandon her!"

Lin Zhicai was too lazy to believe her nonsense. "Here you go, you're going to throw it back into the water, right? Behave yourself, where is your home? Lead the way."

The old woman wiped away her tears, still hesitant. Lin Zhi drew his sword halfway out, and a flash of cold light pierced the air. The old woman turned pale with fright, her legs trembling. "I... I'll lead the way."

She still tried to escape on the way, but Lin Zhi kept threatening her, which terrified her. She had no choice but to obediently lead the way and return home.

The old woman's courtyard was neither large nor luxurious, but it couldn't be described as shabby either.

As soon as Jiang Chuting stepped through the door, the baby in his arms started crying like a kitten. She was probably hungry. Just as Jiang Chuting was about to speak, a young woman with disheveled hair and wearing only a thin shirt ran out of the house, staggered to Jiang Chuting, and stared at the infant in his arms.

Her face was haggard and pale. She took the child from Jiang Chuting, kissed her cheek, and tears streamed down her face. "My child, my child..." This must be the child's biological mother. It seems that throwing the child away was not her intention.

Seeing her like this, the old woman slapped her thigh hard and shouted angrily, "What are you crying for? Blame it on your own womb for being so useless! Let's see what you're going to do in the future!"

She just held the child tightly, crying without responding.

The child's mother, Susu, had just turned sixteen. She was very grateful to Jiang Chuting and Lin Zhi for helping her save her child, but her eyes were filled with a deep sense of melancholy.

After listening to her bitter account, Jiang Chuting finally understood what was going on and remembered that she had heard a little about this place before.

This city is called Jian'an. Most of the people here are quick-witted and good at business. Over generations, they have accumulated wealth, and almost all the families in the city are wealthy. If you randomly pick ten people on the street, seven of them will be rich.

Having acquired some wealth, these people became arrogant and condescending. Many years ago, a tacitly accepted rule existed in Jian'an City: to marry into a wealthy family, one must first conceive and give birth to a son before the groom's family would allow the marriage to proceed. If a daughter was born, some would be kept and raised to have another son, while others would be abandoned by their in-laws or drowned. Many who couldn't conceive were kept as concubines or simply abandoned.

Even with such stringent conditions, a large number of people from both the city and neighboring cities still flocked to it, especially those from ordinary families who wanted to use it to climb the social ladder. For example, Su Su's mother.

Su Su's mother had finally managed to marry into a wealthy family, hoping her daughter could enjoy a life of luxury. However, Su Su gave birth to a daughter after ten months of pregnancy.

After the child was born, the rich young master didn't even come to see him, and directly handed him a letter saying to throw him away.

Susu couldn't bear to part with the child, but her mother made her own decision. While Susu was tired and asleep, she secretly took the child and abandoned her far away.

If Jiang Chuting and the others hadn't found them, the child would probably have frozen to death by now.

Before parting, Su Su expressed her gratitude to them again, and then, with tears in her eyes, promised, "I will not get married and I will not let anything happen to my child. If anything happens to her, I will die with her."

Su Su's mother was still crying and cursing inside the house. Jiang Chuting sighed, thinking that the child was lucky to have a loving mother. Hearing her words, he felt a bit of respect for her and said, "Take good care of yourself."

After leaving the house, it was already broad daylight. Jiang Chuting and Lin Zhi strolled through the streets of Jian'an City.

Lin Zhi couldn't help but say to him, "If this happened in our family, we would all be beaten to death."

The Lin family revered women, and Lin Zhi, as a young master, was an exception. However, among the servants, maids held a higher status than male servants, and in the event of any conflict between them, the male servants were usually punished. When his grandmother, Lin Xuan, was still alive, she established Ming'an Halls in various places, which would take in women in distress, provide assistance to women facing difficulties, and even teach them how to fight back and become independent. Because of this, she incurred extreme resentment from certain groups who habitually controlled women, and suffered considerable suppression and sabotage, experiencing many setbacks, but she persevered.

Even though she's no longer here, Ming'an Hall has been preserved and has helped countless people.

His grandmother hated men who trampled on women, and she also hated women who trampled on women. If she were still alive, none of these men would have a good end.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Chuting looked ahead and silently continued walking.

He certainly knew what the Lin family's values ​​were. Zi Que had told him years ago that he had felt extremely oppressed in the Lin family. Because, in this male-dominated world, the Lin family had simply gone to the other extreme.

Jiang Chuting remained silent, but Lin Zhi kept glancing at him sideways.

This was the longest period of time the two had spent together since their reunion. They ate, slept, and traveled together every day. Before closing her eyes to sleep, she could see his face, and when she woke up, she could see him immediately. She could hear his voice and see him all the time. She didn't have to worry about him leaving immediately, nor did she have to wait for those extraordinarily long ten days.

Once that wonderful feeling seeps into your bones, it's hard to go back.

Of course, he didn't plan to go back.

The two of them had been out for a stroll since early morning, picking up and returning the child, and hadn't eaten anything yet. Lin Zhi pointed to the breakfast stall in front of them and said to Jiang Chuting, "Chu Ran, let's go there and eat wontons."

Jiang Chuting snapped out of her daze, looked in the direction he was pointing, and nodded, saying, "Okay."

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My typing speed is getting slower and slower... =.=