"Little beggar, do you want to take it off yourself or do you want me to help you?"

In a guest room of the Yingbin Restaurant, next to a large, misty bathtub, Si Chengfeng crossed his arms, looking at Shan Zuo with a half-smile.

Although this restaurant serves meals, it also has several guest rooms for guests who need to rest, in order to prevent them from getting drunk. Of course, they have to pay a fee. Currently, Si Chengfeng and Shan Zuo are in one of the guest rooms.

"I...I can do it myself."

Facing Si Chengfeng's scorching gaze, Shan Zuo's face was slightly embarrassed. Although he was only nine years old, he was still a little embarrassed to take off his clothes and take a bath in front of a strange man.

"Also, my name is Shan Zuo, not a beggar." Shan Zuo stiffened his neck and defended angrily.

"Look at yourself now. Do you believe that you are not a little beggar?" Si Chengfeng curled the corners of his lips slightly. This little wolf cub's bad temper is really comparable to that of his sister Feng Qiyan.

I don’t know if my adoptive grandfather endorsed him to his adoptive grandmother, mother and father after returning to the General’s Mansion... Thinking that he would be going back to the General’s Mansion with Hua Qingcheng soon, Si Chengfeng felt a little uneasy inexplicably.

"snort!"

Shan Zuo took off his tattered, muddy, and ill-fitting black clothes, leaving only his underwear. Just as he was about to dive into the bathtub to swim, he was grabbed by Si Chengfeng.

"Wash your face and hair first."

Si Chengfeng used a small wooden basin to fill a basin of water from the large bathtub and placed it on the stool, then threw the towel to Shan Zuo.

Holding the white and soft towel in his hand, Dan Zuo narrowed his eyes slightly and then opened them again. However, he did not use the towel to wash his face immediately, but put it on a stool beside him.

He scooped up water from the wooden basin with both hands, wet his face, and began to rub it non-stop. After rubbing for a while, many balls of mud fell off his face. Dan Zuo rubbed and rubbed until there was no more mud. Then he scooped up water from the wooden basin again and washed his face clean.

Si Chengfeng was surprised to find that after washing his face, Dan Zuo looked exactly like Dan You. Although they were twin brothers, Dan Zuo's bright eyes flashed with a sharp light, while Dan You's eyes were softer.

"Dan Zuo, this is flea powder."

Seeing Shan Zuo's face clean of dirt, Si Chengfeng finally stopped calling him "little beggar." He opened a paper packet and sprinkled half of the powder into the wooden basin. The powder quickly dissolved in the water until it was no longer visible.

"I...I don't have fleas."

Shan Zuo glanced at Si Chengfeng from the corner of his eye, his fair face flushing slightly. Previously, Shan Zuo had always made himself look disheveled to gain sympathy when begging. Although he did feel a little itchy on his head, he would never admit such an embarrassing thing.

"It's better to be prepared."

Si Chengfeng looked at Shan Zuo with charming eyes and a smile as warm as a spring breeze, but Shan Zuo inexplicably felt that this man was smiling but had a dagger hidden in his heart, and was very dangerous, and he couldn't help but feel alert.

Shan Zuo washed his hair twice with water soaked with flea powder, and then rinsed it three times with clean water before he finally cleaned his hair, which was as messy as a bird's nest.

"Boy, what do you two brothers do at home?"

After washing his face and hair, Dan Zuo soaked in the large tub, though the water only reached up to his shoulders while he sat down. Si Chengfeng condescended to scrub his back.

"Home?"

When Shan Zuo heard this, the light in his pair of sparkling black eyes dimmed instantly.

"My mother and father are both dead, and Ayou and I were taken as government slaves. After being sold several times, we were sold to Liu Yue's family in Wuyang Prefecture." Dan Zuo's eyes were leisurely and his face was slightly sad, as if he was recalling the past.

"Official slave? What did your mother do before? And what crime did she commit?"

Although it was a bit cruel, Si Chengfeng still had to ask about some things. After all, if the two of them had unknown origins and really followed Hua Qingcheng in the future, it would probably bring trouble to her.

"Have you heard of the late Queen Phoenix Feng Lingyan?" Shan Zuo turned his head and looked at Si Chengfeng, his eyes full of loneliness.

"Feng Lingyan?" Si Chengfeng's eyes widened slightly when he heard that.

He had naturally heard of the "Bei Lingyan" in the "Nan Li Shi Bei Lingyan", the eldest son of the general's mansion and his adoptive mother's brother - Feng Lingyan, and knew a lot about him.

"Yes. My mother was exiled to the frontier because of him and died on the way to the border." Shan Zuo stared at Si Chengfeng with his bright eyes.

"This... shouldn't be possible, right? After all, Queen Phoenix died sixteen years ago. If your mother is convicted because of him, then you..."

Si Chengfeng didn't say the rest of the words, but he felt that the other party understood them clearly. After all, Dan Zuo and Dan You looked no more than ten years old. If their mother was implicated in the death of Queen Feng sixteen years ago, how could she have given birth to these two brothers?

"It is rumored that sixteen years ago, on the day of the winter solstice, the Phoenix Queen was on her way to the imperial mausoleum to attend the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven on her own chariot. When she passed by the Cliff of Forgetfulness, she was so heartbroken because of missing her son that she fell into the icy abyss along with her chariot in a trance, and her body was never found." Shan Zuo said slowly.

"Well, I've heard of that, but why is your mother involved in this?" Si Chengfeng nodded slightly, his eyes slightly cold. The death of Feng Lingyan, the eldest son of the Feng family, a man of extraordinary talent and as famous as his father, was truly a cause for regret.

"My mother was the Minister of the Imperial Household, in charge of the Emperor's carriages and travels. Two years ago, while looking through old files, she noticed something fishy about the Empress's fall from a cliff sixteen years earlier. She expressed her doubts in a memorial, intending to present it to His Majesty."

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