With the withdrawal of the Western barbarians and the distribution of grain by the government, the refugees who had gathered around the capital city gradually embarked on their journeys back to their hometowns, and the price of grain in the capital city gradually returned to normal.
With the food shortage problem alleviated, the people of Kyoto were able to put aside their previous anxieties and resume their usual routine of eating and drinking.
As a result, the food and beverage industry in Kyoto gradually returned to its former prosperity.
The Yun family was also celebrating.
The government returned all the confiscated property. To get rid of the bad luck, Zhou spent tens of thousands of taels of silver to renovate the original Yunhou Mansion before the whole family moved in.
Wan'er and her sister-in-law also temporarily stayed at the Yunhou Mansion.
This day marked the joyous occasion of the Yun family moving to their new home.
Early in the morning, the place was a riot of color and bustling with activity.
The winds of change swept through the entire capital city. Everyone knew that the Yunhou family had once again rendered great service and had regained the Emperor's favor.
Madam Su arrived early in the morning and accompanied Old Madam Yun in the flower hall, chatting and laughing with the guests.
Zhou had just welcomed in a woman who was an old friend of the Marquis of Anning.
The Lady of Anning Marquis kept apologizing and offering congratulations along the way, which Zhou Shi was tired of hearing.
Before the two even entered the flower hall, Lady Anning saw the beaming Su Shi inside and couldn't help but turn her head and laugh, "This Su Yiren really doesn't distinguish between you two."
Zhou's heart skipped a beat, and she smiled and said, "That's right! My cousin Su and my mother-in-law are like mother and daughter."
Lady Anning sighed, "Back then, we raised her in the capital until she was thirteen, and we all thought she would marry someone from the capital. Who would have thought she would actually return to Dingzhou and even earn the title of the most talented woman in Dingzhou?"
Zhou said casually, "She is a member of the Su family after all. It's not a big deal that she was raised in the Yun family when she was young. Now that she's grown up, she will naturally have to go back to Dingzhou to find a husband."
Lady Anning leaned closer to Zhou and whispered, "I'm afraid you don't know, but she and your husband were childhood sweethearts. My mother mentioned that she once inquired about your mother-in-law's intentions, and it seemed she wanted to leave her with her eldest son! They were about the same age and grew up together, so their bond was naturally extraordinary. It's just that I don't know why, when she reached the age to be married, she returned to Dingzhou."
Zhou forcefully suppressed the wild beating in her heart and helped Lady Anning up, saying, "Watch out for the threshold."
As they spoke, the two stepped over the threshold and greeted Madam Yun, Madam Su, and the others with smiles.
After exchanging a few jokes and settling the guests in, Zhou turned around and went out to greet them again.
The moment he stepped out of the flower hall, his expression turned bitter.
She never imagined that at the moment of great joy, when she was welcoming her husband's reinstatement and the restoration of the Yunhou Mansion's former glory, she would discover such a devastating truth.
The incident occurred seven days prior, when the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Revenue returned all the property confiscated from the Marquis's residence that day to the Marquis's family.
As the matriarch of the household, Zhou naturally had the responsibility to receive and verify each order.
Afterwards, they would be collected one by one and placed in their respective rooms.
One of the boxes contained items confiscated from her husband Yun Yue's study.
She usually just tidied up and cleaned the things in her husband's study without looking at them closely. But after this box of things was put away, she had to take them out and put them back in their places, so she had to open them one by one to check them.
There was a small box among them, which she had seen before, but it was locked. She assumed it was a toy from the Marquis's youth and didn't pay much attention to it.
This time, perhaps because they needed to open the boxes to inspect the items during the search, the lock was knocked open, and she opened it easily.
Inside was a stack of letters.
She glanced at it casually, and seeing the familiar handwriting, she was stunned.
That's Su's handwriting.
She had been corresponding with the Su family quite a bit over the past six months, so she could recognize him at a glance.
Curiosity led her to open the top email. The content was nothing special, just ordinary chat. But when she read to the end, she felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
Because the final signature was: Nuannuan.
She knew that name all too well.
For over a decade since her marriage to Yun Yue, she had always known that her husband harbored a secret love for someone, whom he would sometimes call out in the middle of the night—Nuan Nuan.
But apart from these few clues, there were no other signs.
Even though she was in the capital city and her husband was far away in Dingzhou, she had never heard of such a person by his side.
Of course, she wouldn't be foolish enough to directly ask him who Nuannuan was, but she had tried asking him several times whether he needed to prepare a concubine or maidservant since he was guarding the border alone in Dingzhou with no one to take care of him.
But he rejected them all decisively.
And all these years, that woman named Nuannuan has never appeared.
She thought the name she heard in the middle of the night might have been a hallucination, and gradually put it out of her mind, feeling overjoyed.
Although the couple had spent little time together over the past ten years, they had a harmonious marriage, and their son and daughter were quite outstanding. She felt that her life was complete.
Even after this ordeal of having her home ransacked and being exiled, she has never regretted it.
The upheaval did not last long, and the Marquis's mansion regained its former glory.
But she never expected that at such a moment, the name Nuannuan, the evidence of her existence, would appear so clearly and distinctly before her.
She never expected that this Nuannuan was actually... the Su family, who had done her and the Yun family a great favor!
She hadn't slept well for several days, her head was throbbing, and she was also busy preparing for her housewarming banquet.
After being spoken to by Lady Anyuan, she felt both cold and pained.
It turns out that her husband really did once hold this cousin in his heart.
But why did the mother-in-law treat Su as her own daughter back then, yet not let her marry her son?
Thinking this, she stepped out of the door. Zhou raised her eyes and immediately greeted her with a smile.
The eldest princess and the wife of the Duke of Zhenguo were alighting from their carriages one after the other, followed by a little girl who looked about eight or nine years old. She rushed into the room like a cannonball, shouting, "Little Youran! Little Youran, I'm here!"
Zhou felt a pang of bitterness. The Yunhou family had never been able to reach these two powerful figures before, and their relationship was very superficial. Today, many noble ladies had come, and she feared that half of them were there for Su Yiren and Xiao Youran, as well as Xiao Youran's adoptive mother, the Eldest Princess.
But he still greeted her with a smile, exchanged a few more polite words, and then respectfully welcomed her into the flower hall.
The busy activity continued until noon, when the banquet began. Guests and hosts enjoyed themselves immensely.
On the other side, the Yong'an Marquis's mansion was in utter misery.
Not only was it deserted, but even at mealtimes, the pots and stoves were still cold.
The servants in the mansion had already been mostly sold off, and Madam Gao was almost driven crazy by the debt collectors who lent her money at exorbitant interest rates!
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