When Zhan Xinjia returned to the general's mansion, the soldiers were cursing and swearing as they put up seals on the gate.
At the door, her mother was grabbing her father's ear tightly.
"You, surnamed Zhan! Are you still thinking about your childhood sweetheart?! Let me tell you, now that you've married me, you'll never get rid of me, Liu Ruyan, for the rest of your life!!"
"Ah Yan, be gentle, be gentle..."
The burly, middle-aged man hunched over, looking timid and submissive.
He bowed his head, and even though his ears were pulled red, he didn't dare to struggle at all, cowardly letting his wife yell and curse at him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Zhan Yue caught sight of Zhan Xinjia, who had been watching the show with her arms crossed for who knows how long. Feeling embarrassed, Zhan Yue, as the father, began to explain in a soft, hesitant voice.
"No, no, it's nothing, Ah Yan, calm down~ Our precious daughter is back."
Upon hearing this, Liu Ruyan finally took pity on her and released her fingers.
She swung her arm and kicked Zhan Yue hard in the butt in a bad mood.
"Ouch!"
Ignoring Zhan Yue, who was clutching his backside and tumbling down the steps with a howl behind him, Liu Ruyan turned around and instantly smiled like a loving mother, her voice becoming gentle.
She stepped forward and affectionately took Zhan Xinjia's hand, lovingly taking out a handkerchief from her sleeve to wipe the sweat from her precious daughter's forehead.
"Oh dear, our little paper is back! To be honest..."
"Our house has been raided again?"
When Zhan Xinjia responded, Zhan Yue and Liu Ruyan froze as if they were being punished, staring at each other in bewilderment.
The two men exchanged an awkward glance, their toes digging into the ground as they carefully chose their words, trying to preserve a fragile semblance of dignity in front of their daughter.
Zhan Yue, who was still rubbing his buttocks, blushed.
"Can being demoted to a commoner be called confiscation of property...?"
"Uh... well, little paper, your father just lost his job, which is practically the same as resigning from his post."
"Hmph, your mother is right. I simply couldn't stand those scheming factions in the court, so I retired to my hometown ahead of schedule!"
For a moment, a joyful atmosphere filled the room and the surrounding area...
Zhan Xinjia spread his hands expressionlessly and shrugged to indicate that he didn't care.
She skillfully dug out a neatly packed floral rag bundle from a dog hole sealed with wet mud in the corner of the wall.
Calmly dusting herself off, she quickly hoisted the bundle onto her shoulder.
"Alright, I got it. Let's go beg for food."
Zhan Xinjia was already very familiar with the process of begging on the street.
After all, this is the seventh time her home has been raided this year, and less than four months have passed...
"Wow, General Zhan has been stripped of his official position again!!"
"Hahahaha, the one above must be furious again."
"Alas, poor Zhan family's youngest daughter! She must have committed murder in her past life to be reborn into the Zhan family! From birth, she's lived a life of constant wandering with her parents. Today she's a pampered young lady of a general's mansion, tomorrow she might be a homeless beggar on the streets."
"Sixteen years have passed, and this child is still alive and healthy. It's truly remarkable..."
At this point, the passerby couldn't help but cast an admiring glance at Zhan Xinjia, giving him a thumbs up and expressing great approval.
"Child, you're invincible!"
Zhan Xinjia: "..."
Carrying his tattered bundle, Zhan Xinjia walked down the street, facing the pointing fingers of passersby who were either pitying, gloating, or sighing. He kept a straight face the whole time and secretly ground his back teeth.
For the umpteenth time, she had the urge to smash the entire capital city with a single punch.
Her father was a war god general who rose to fame in battle at a young age! Handsome and dashing! Tall and dashing!
Unfortunately, he had once had a secret childhood romance with the delicate Empress in the palace, and had been a devoted admirer for several years.
Although he didn't get to lick her hand, His Majesty still holds a grudge against him every now and then.
Before His Majesty remembered, her father was the most prestigious First-Rank General of the Cavalry in the capital.
When His Majesty remembers, her father will have to pack his things and get out, waiting for his family's property to be confiscated. A sycophant who licks the boots will end up with nothing.
In a couple of days, once that capricious emperor has calmed down, he will find a way to reinstate her father to his original position, allowing the General of the Cavalry to once again enjoy a secure government job.
And her mother—she's even more important.
The legendary "Emperor Ruyan" has red lips, black hair, a textbook-perfect fox-like face, a pair of alluring peach blossom eyes that are as soft as silk, and a bright red silk dress as red as fire.
Her eyes, with their subtle shifts between a frown and a smile, were captivating.
Just standing there, she exudes the alluring and seductive aura of a vixen.
It is said that her mother once boasted that she had saved the current emperor's life when she was young, and with her seductive and cunning methods, she almost became a concubine from a brothel.
Unfortunately, less than half a month later, His Majesty discovered that her mother was an imposter, and that the one who actually saved His Majesty when he was drowning was the Empress, who was then just a female physician.
Her mother appeared charming and alluring on the surface, but was actually a greedy, lustful, and vicious shrew inside.
Within seven days of entering the palace, she maliciously framed the weak and submissive empress dozens of times.
Emperor: "Where is my Empress?!"
Eunuch: "You were sold off by Miss Liu a long time ago, didn't you know?... Sigh, you illegitimate emperor, you'd better be careful yourself these days." / *Sigh* (pats shoulder)
Finally, His Majesty, unable to tolerate it any longer, flew into a rage and banished him from the palace to fend for himself.
As for how her parents, the "Sleeping Dragon and the Young Phoenix," got involved in such an affair, that's an even more outrageous story...
Zhan Xinjia wasn't interested in reminiscing for the time being; she just wanted to eat a few steamed buns to fill her stomach.
"Little paper! Little paper~ slow down, wait for your parents."
Zhan Yue quickly caught up.
He suddenly slapped his forehead and frantically rummaged through all his pockets, finally managing to pull out a few meager old copper coins.
He chuckled a few times, then handed it to his daughter with a fawning expression.
"Oh dear, our little one hasn't had dinner yet, has he? We don't need to beg today, Dad has some money! Go buy two sesame cakes, one for you and one for your mother!"
Liu Ruyan, who was walking behind, snorted coldly, turned her head away, and looked on with disdain.
But her expression did soften a little.
"Don't think I'll forgive you so easily just because you gave me a pancake!"
The letter arrives at the perfect station, a place to settle down and move forward.
She glanced at Zhan Yue, the henpecked husband on her left, who was wiping away cold sweat and trying to curry favor with his wife, and then at Liu Ruyan on her right, who was glaring angrily, hands on her hips, as if she wanted to kill her husband to prove herself.
After a long while, Zhan Xinjia resignedly tugged at the corners of his mouth.
She sighed inwardly, took her parents' hands, and held them tightly in her own palms.
"Dad, Mom, stop arguing. It's better for the three of us to live like this than anything else."
Upon hearing this, the couple nodded with satisfaction.
Zhan Xinjia felt that her life was ruined.
——
In his short life of only sixteen years, Zhan Xinjia experienced his home being raided 176 times.
Children born into difficult circumstances mature early; she learned to save money from the age of seven as a backup plan.
Unfortunately, although his father held a high official position, he was targeted by the emperor and his salary was ridiculously low. In a year, he earned less than a convict who was exiled to Ningguta to perform corvée labor by digging stones.
Her father was an honest and incorruptible official, and apart from the imperial house that was frequently confiscated and was barely worth anything, and a broken tiger tally that could mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, there was nothing of value in the family.
During their poorest year, Zhan Xinjia even considered persuading his father to resign from his official post and go work in a black coal mine.
Although coal mine workers are treated like donkeys, at least they actually pay their wages!
At the age of ten, Zhan Xinjia, who was dirt poor, finally saved enough money for a down payment by scavenging discarded trash in the palace. He secretly bought a small mud-brick courtyard in the slums of the south of the city.
And with tears in her eyes, she took on a twenty-year mortgage.
Although the courtyard was simple and shabby, it was still better than living on the streets year after year with these two unruly parents.
Pushing open the courtyard gate, one finds it overgrown with weeds, but the house where one had stayed two weeks prior is still relatively clean.
Zhan Xinjia casually tossed his bundle onto the rickety old wooden table, then collapsed onto the kang (a heated brick bed) and began to contemplate life.
Outside, Liu Ruyan, for some reason, twisted Zhan Yue's ear and started cursing again. After cursing for a while, her mother spat a few times before swaying her waist contentedly to pick vegetables and cook.
Zhan Yue stood under the eaves for a while, scratching the back of his head in grievance, and then went to the yard to chop firewood to start a fire.
The world suddenly became quiet, and life was peaceful.
Zhan Xinjia, lying on the kang (heated brick bed), turned over expressionlessly.
A simp father, a glamorous mother, an unruly family, and a broken woman.
Someone needs to talk her out of it, she's about to explode!!
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