Fei Zhiwen and Pei Yan went to the pavilion next door.

Pei Yan thought Fei Zhiwen would talk to him straight to the point about this matter, but Fei Zhiwen just looked at the scenery for a long time without saying a word.

In the early summer, there were already small insects flying around everywhere. Pei Yan swatted several of them. Fei Zhiwen hadn't even started talking yet, but he became a little impatient and said, "Brother, you're not here to talk to me about your job at the Ministry of Personnel, are you?"

Although Fei Zhiwen and Pei Yan were fellow apprentices, their age and experience meant that they were not particularly close in personal relationship. He had heard from Zhang Ying that Pei Yan was straightforward and intelligent, but he had never expected Pei Yan to be so direct and clever.

He thought of Yu Tang and Pei Yan together and couldn't help but laugh at himself. Then he said softly, "I came to you for a private matter!"

Having said this, he was silent for a long time.

Pei Yan was still thinking about Yu Tang who returned to his residence alone. Hearing this, he secretly rolled his eyes and said, trying hard to suppress his displeasure: "Brother, since you have come to me, you must have a lot of considerations. Apart from other things, you should think that I can listen to these words and I am suitable to listen to them. Then what are you hesitating about? Or, think about it for a few more days? When you think you are ready, tell me again?"

Fei Zhiwen laughed and said, "Why are you in such a hurry to go back? Mrs. Pei has so many maids and servants around her. Are you afraid that no one will accompany her?"

Pei Yan said without blushing: "How can a maid compare to me? She should want me to accompany her the most!"

His righteous tone left Fei Zhiwen speechless for a long time. Finally, he smiled and shook his head, saying, "Are you so confident?"

"Of course!" Pei Yan said, "After all, I am her husband. If she would rather have maids accompany her than me, then she must be dissatisfied with me, and I have to find a way to find out what makes her dissatisfied and eliminate this dissatisfaction! Otherwise, if she doesn't say it and I don't ask, over time, there will definitely be problems. If you don't believe me, ask Yin Mingyuan. I see that he often accompanies Madam Yin for a stroll and doesn't mind her talkativeness. If you want to ask me about this, you might as well ask him. In my opinion, no one is more troublesome than Madam Yin. Yin Mingyuan can respect and love her, which shows that Yin Mingyuan is really amazing!"

Fei Zhiwen laughed and said, "You don't want to get involved in my business, right? That's why you want to push me to Yin Mingyuan. If Yin Mingyuan knew that you said that about his wife behind his back, he would definitely be unhappy."

Pei Yan said: "I said the same thing in front of him."

Fei Zhiwen laughed loudly, but then he looked sad and said in a deep voice: "Actually, my wife hanged herself."

Pei Yan looked at Fei Zhiwen in surprise, and all the sounds were blocked in his throat.

Or maybe it was because he said the most difficult words, but Fei Zhiwen seemed relieved. He looked at the green mountains in the distance and whispered, "She wants to divorce, which is impossible. Even if I agree and my family agrees, her family can't afford to lose face. My father-in-law has clearly stated that there is no aunt who returns home in their family. My uncle even said that if she dared to leave the Fei family, he would strangle her to death with his own hands. I know my own Yue family. Because she married into our family, the whole family regarded this as an honor. The girls and boys in her family have become daughters-in-law and sons-in-law that are sought after in the whole village. They can do what they say.

I discussed with her at the time and suggested that she move to another village. Anyway, I was not planning to marry again.

She thought there was no other way, so she agreed.

But I didn’t expect that she would still hang herself.”

Speaking of this, he looked even more bewildered: "I can't figure out why she would hang herself? It's impossible for her to really be with someone else. Is it because of this? Did she feel that life was meaningless?"

Pei Yan hurriedly asked, "Is that why you asked me what women want most?"

"Yes!" Fei Zhiwen said frankly, "I want to know why your wife can follow you willingly, but she can't."

Pei Yan was very unhappy after hearing this and retorted: "My wife didn't marry me for this reason! It was mainly because she loved me!"

Fei Zhiwen was already aware of his shamelessness and was unwilling to discuss this with him. He only asked his own question: "If she had been angry at me back then, would I have still tried to marry her?"

Pei Yan said: "Since you have done nothing wrong to her, why do you care what she thinks? Didn't you say that you are not going to remarry? Even if your family helps you to remarry, it is impossible for them to find a commoner, right?"

Fei Zhiwen was choked by what he said, and after a while he said, "I used to think that I didn't owe her anything, but seeing you guys like this, I feel that I haven't done as good as you. The dead are the greatest. I think that the things she didn't think of when she was alive, after her death, I should compensate her!"

"What's the point if the person is dead!" Pei Yan muttered twice in a low voice, and soon came to his senses. It was Yu Tang who deceived Fei Zhiwen for his sake. He couldn't let her hard work go to waste. His mind turned quickly and said, "She hanged herself to death. There must be a lot of gossip in the family, right? The more you explain this rumor, the more people will think you are guilty. So my wife is right. You might as well be a good official and ask for a title for her. When others see your attitude, they will naturally change their comments about her. A goose leaves its voice behind, and a person leaves his name behind. You can't let her rest in peace even after she goes to the underworld!"

Fei Zhiwen looked at him with a smile, as if to say, don't show off your little thoughts in front of me.

Pei Yan thought, it’s not me who wants to plot against you, it’s you who knew there was a trap but still jumped into it, can you blame me for that?

He continued calmly, "If you don't believe it, you can ask someone else. People are gone now, and it's up to future generations to decide who is right and who is wrong."

"No wonder my teacher said that if you become an official, you will definitely be a powerful official." Fei Zhiwen said with a smile, "Whether it is right or wrong, it will be left for future generations to judge. Aren't those historians just for show?"

"Whether it's just a decoration or not, we all know it in our hearts." Pei Yan didn't argue with him, and said, "Regarding reputation and imperial edict, it's also my family's talk. Maybe my wife said it to comfort me, so you just need to listen to it."

Fei Zhiwen did not comment.

Seeing that he had no intention of discussing serious matters with him, Pei Yan was too lazy to entertain him. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he took his leave and returned to his residence.

Yu Tang looked up eagerly, and when he saw him, he immediately pulled him into the inner room and asked him anxiously, "What's wrong? What did Master Fei say to you?"

Pei Yan just wanted to laugh at the gossiping look on his face. He said, "Have you guessed what Master Fei is going to say to me?"

"Isn't that nonsense?" Yu Tang nudged Pei Yan with his elbow and said, "It's so late, I blocked you there, and I asked you those questions before. What else could it be if I didn't want to tell you about my family's private affairs? Master Fei is just lying to me."

"You are so awesome!" Pei Yan pinched Yu Tang's nose with a smile.

Yu Tang turned his head away, avoiding Pei Yan's hand, and urged with a wrinkled nose: "Hurry up and tell me! What did he tell you?"

Pei Yan told her about Mrs. Fei's death.

Yu Tang was stunned and said, "This is really... Did she die at home?"

Pei Yan said: "I didn't ask."

Yu Tang couldn't help but mutter: "If it were me, I wouldn't know where to die."

Before she could finish her words, Pei Yan scolded her for "nonsense". He then said, "Children should not be restrained in their words. How can you say such things in the temple? No, you can't say such things outside. Be careful that the Bodhisattva hears you!"

"Oh!" Yu Tang responded quickly, "Then Lord Fei asked this question because he wanted to give Madam Fei some face?"

Pei Yan told Yu Tang everything that he and Fei Zhiwen had said.

Yu Tang frowned when he heard this, and didn't know who to blame for a moment, so he could only praise Pei Yan: "You are right, since Mr. Fei also did something wrong, let Mrs. Fei rest in peace in the underworld!"

Let her die with a clean reputation.

She pondered and said, "What do you think Mr. Fei will do?"

"I don't know." Pei Yan spread his hands. "I think my senior brother is a little too hypocritical. If you have made a decision, don't regret it. If you regret it, you should act immediately. It's useless for him to just sit there and think about it!"

Yu Tang sighed.

When they went down the mountain, Fei Zhiwen did not go with them, saying that he wanted to stay here for a few more days to perform a memorial service for the deceased Mrs. Fei.

Yu Tang and Xu Xuan didn't say much about this matter. They returned to the capital city in the same car and parted on the street in front of Pei Mansion Hutong.

Home is still the best!

Yu Tang lay on the newly woven cool mat and felt that the heat had dissipated a lot.

She just felt a little sorry for Mrs. Fei.

Better to live a miserable life than to die.

As long as you are alive, there is always hope.

It just so happened that the new chef was very good at making pasta, and he made the dough with hot and sour soup. Even Yu Tang, who didn’t like pasta very much, ate all kinds of noodles for several days in a row.

Xu Xuan was a little disgusted and said, "This is too sour. Where did you hire the chef from? He must not be a chef from Jiangnan. Look at this big bowl, it's too solid."

Yu Tang gave her a thumbs up and said, "It's the Sichuan chef. The side dishes he made are also very delicious. I had porridge this morning and ate a lot. Do you want to try it? I'll ask them to bring you a small pot."

"Okay!" Xu Xuan came to Pei's house to eat because she felt that the food at home was tasteless. She said, "Then he should know how to make spicy oil. You can make some spicy oil for me to take back and I will eat it quietly."

Yu Tang didn't dare.

They only had some snacks that day.

When Pei Yan came back in the evening, he talked to Yu Tang as usual, but Yu Tang could clearly feel that he was not in a good mood.

After dinner, she took Pei Yan for a walk in the yard and pointed at the lilies and said, "Look, they're about to bloom. What do you think?"

Pei Yan responded casually with a few words.

Yu Tang simply stopped beating around the bush and asked, "Did something happen to Master Fei?"

"What could possibly happen to him?" Pei Yan wondered, then suddenly realized something and smiled, "You think Senior Brother Fei came to us on purpose, so he must have made a decision, right? Speaking of this matter, there really is something - he has recently started to frequently go in and out of the inner palace, and has even started to write poems for the emperor. The emperor was very happy and said that he would go to Baiyun Temple in a few days, and kindly asked Senior Brother Fei to go with him."