This was the first time in Yu Shaoqing’s life that he had been reprimanded by his eldest sister-in-law. He was in a miserable state and did not feel good.

Aunt treasured these little fellows very much. In the past, she already liked them very much before she knew that they were her family’s children. Now that she knew, she wished she could tie them to her belt.

The three little fellows also coaxed Aunt very happily. When Aunt washed the vegetables, they helped to scoop the water. When Aunt cleaned the courtyard, they handed her a broom. When Aunt went to the garden to plant vegetables, they helped to pull the grass, a whole bunch of grass.

Aunt was speechless. Children, those were vegetable sprouts.

At dinner, Uncle personally cooked a table of good dishes. His leg injury was much better, and he could occasionally throw away his walking stick and take a few steps. Although it was not too far, it was much better than before.

He killed a chicken bought from Aunt Luo’s house and stewed a large pot of golden and fresh chicken soup. He also cooked four wild carps that his sons had caught from the river. The carps were fat and their meat was tender. He distributed the meat on the fish stomach to the children. He also steamed the children’s favorite egg custard. They don’t have scallops and shrimps, so he changed to putting in minced meat. After he finished cooking, he sprinkled a few green onions and a spoonful of sesame oil, making the children drool.

Little Bruiser had a big appetite now. Yu Wan pinched his fat waist. “Eat less. You can’t wear your pants anymore.”

Little Bruiser: Hmph!

The three little munchkins’ appetite combined was less than half of Little Bruiser’s. Yu Wan tried to give them two more spoonfuls of egg custard, and the three of them obediently ate it without wasting a single bite.

Uncle liked them no matter how he looked at them. The most beautiful children Uncle had ever seen were from his third brother. His third brother was beautiful when he was young, and there was no one in the village who was better-looking than him.

After that, he was married and had Ah Wan. Ah Wan was also pure and beautiful. However, Ah Wan was fat when she was young, and her eyes were squeezed into slits. Then there was Bruiser. Although Bruiser’s facial features were exquisite, he was a little sallow and thin. He had only slowly recovered in recent months. In that case, among the two-year-old children, the most beautiful ones were these three little fellows. They were just too thin.

Uncle could not help but scoop half a bowl of chicken soup for the three of them.

“Can your stomach still fit?” Yu Wan asked as she touched their stomachs.

The three of them nodded and drank the chicken soup.

This time, they really couldn’t feed them anymore. Yu Wan and Aunt went to collect the bowls while the three little lads played in the central room. Yu Shaoqing walked over with a dark expression. He had wanted to teach these little fellows a lesson for a long time, but they actually complained about him in front of his eldest sister-in-law. If he didn’t teach them a lesson, they wouldn’t know who had the final say in this family!

Yu Shaoqing rolled up his sleeves and his gaze landed on the three little fellows. The three of them looked exactly the same. Uh… who was the eldest, who was the second, and who was the third…

Yu Shaoqing casually grabbed one. How light! It was as if he didn’t catch anyone!

The one Yu Shaoqing picked up was Xiaobao.

Xiaobao spat out bubbles and looked at Yu Shaoqing.

Yu Shaoqing narrowed his eyes coldly. “Kid, listen carefully. If you dare to complain again, I’ll—” Before he could finish his sentence, Yu Shaoqing felt his chest heat up.

Xiaobao had peed.

“Waah—” Xiaobao started crying at the top of his lungs.

You peed on me, and you still have the right to cry?!

“Sister-in-law, look!” Yu Shaoqing pointed at his clothes and decisively complained!

Yu Shaoqing was reprimanded by Aunt again, the reason being that he had scared the children until they peed their pants. “Why do you have to make things difficult for these children! They’ll be frightened sooner or later!”

Yu Shaoqing, who couldn’t win no matter what: “…”

… .

At night, Yu Wan brought the little fellows back to her house. The three of them slept at Yu Wan’s room, and Little Bruiser could only go to his parents’ room.

Little Bruiser hugged the pillow and said reluctantly, “I want to sleep with my brothers.”

Yu Wan corrected him. “Not your brothers, your nephews.” If my sons are your brothers, then what am I to you?

“Oh.” Little Bruiser patted their heads. “Goodnight, little brothers.”

Yu Wan, who was speechless: “…”

Yu Wan bathed the three little fellows and changed into dry pajamas. The three of them slept all the way during the day. They were not tired now. They lay on the bed and widened their black eyes. Yu Wan did not rush them and quietly sat at the side to read the medical book left behind by Grandpa Bao.

The villagers gradually rested, and the village fell into silence. The three little fellows did not know how to speak, so only the sound of Yu Wan flipping the pages was left in the room.

Finally, Dabao couldn’t take it anymore and quietly turned over on the bed.

Dong! It actually made a loud sound!

Dabao was so frightened that his neck shrank. He carefully looked at Yu Wan. Seeing that Yu Wan did not scold him, his eyes rolled twice. They really wouldn’t be scolded. Er’bao and Xiaobao couldn’t hold it in anymore. They also turned over on the bed, turning over and over, sweating profusely.

Yu Wan’s lips curled up. Although she didn’t look at them, she could accurately catch them every time they fell off the bed.

The three of them were tired and fell asleep.

Only then did Yu Wan put down the medical book. She scooped the little fellows over and wiped their sweat with a cotton cloth. She changed them into dry pajamas before turning off the oil lamp and sleeping with them.

… .

The moon was dark and the wind was strong.

After Xu Shao bade farewell to Yu Wan at the city gate, he went to the Tianxiang Restaurant on Chang’an Street. He handled official business there for the entire afternoon and only left in a carriage after dinner. He had something on his mind and let the carriage circle around the Capital before returning to the Xu Manor late at night.

At the entrance of the house, there was a two-horse carriage parked there. He was not unfamiliar with the royal emblem on the body of the carriage. The only person who could stay in his house was his nephew, the Second Prince.

Xu Shao alighted from his carriage and walked to the carriage. He cupped his hands respectfully. “Your Highness.”

The curtain was lifted and Yan Huaijing alighted from the carriage. He did not call him uncle as usual. Instead, he glanced at him indifferently, turned around, and lifted the curtain.

Xu Shao was secretly shocked. Could there be someone in the carriage? And who could trouble the Second Prince to lift the curtain for him?

A figure in a black cloak walked down. The hood of the cloak covered the person’s face. It was not until that person reached Xu Shao that he could see the person’s face clearly. Xu Shao’s expression changed. “Your Highness?”

Worthy Consort Xu looked around.

Xu Shao understood and quickly said to the coachman and pageboy not far away, “All of you, stand down!”

The group tactfully retreated.

Xu Shao brought Worthy Consort Xu to the reception pavilion. There were no servants in the reception pavilion, so Worthy Consort Xu took off her cloak.

Worthy Consort Xu sat at the head of the table. Yan Huaijing stood beside her, while Xu Shao stood in the middle of the hall, as if he was the target of interrogation.

In fact, that was indeed the case.

Xu Shao asked softly, “Your Highness… why did you leave the palace so late at night? If His Majesty finds out, I’m afraid he’ll become suspicious of you.”

Worthy Consort Xu snorted coldly. “If I didn’t come out, I wouldn’t have known that you had done so much behind my back. Xu Shao, just because I call you brother doesn’t mean you can ride on my head!”

“Your Highness.” Xu Shao bowed sincerely and bowed even lower.

Worthy Consort Xu said coldly, “You have nothing to say, right? You hid it from me so well! If my son hadn’t gone to see Yan Ruyu, I wouldn’t have known that you had long colluded with her to deceive me!”

Yan Huaijing naturally did not discover the relationship between the two of them because he saw Yan Ruyu on the pleasure boat. Instead, he first discovered the two of them “having an affair” through Xu Chengxuan before going to the pleasure boat to track Yan Ruyu. However, Yan Huaijing did not let Worthy Consort Xu know about this.

Xu Shao couldn’t care less about how Yan Huaijing had targeted Yan Ruyu. The most important thing now was to appease Worthy Consort Xu and the Second Prince’s suspicion. He sighed and said, “Your Highness, you’ve misunderstood.”

Worthy Consort Xu sneered. “Misunderstood? Alright, I’m already here. Tell me, what did I misunderstand about you? Did I misunderstand that you and Yan Ruyu joined forces to scheme against Yan Jiuchao? Or did I misunderstand that you’re disloyal to me?”

Xu Shao said earnestly, “I did scheme against Yan Jiuchao, but I didn’t betray Your Highness. Everything I did was for Your Highness and the Second Prince.”

“You make it sound better than singing!” Worthy Consort Xu’s eyes were cold.

Xu Shao sighed slowly. “Your Highness, you’re my biological sister. We came from the same mother’s womb, and she only gave birth to the two of us. If I don’t side with Your Highness, who else can I side with? I did make a decision back then, but I also want to remove a stumbling block for Your Highness and His Highness.”

Worthy Consort Xu said seriously, “Yan Jiuchao has never been a stumbling block for me and my son!”

Xu Shao shook his head. “How can it not be? Didn’t Your Highness see how His Majesty treats Yan Jiuchao? Why should you deceive yourselves that His Majesty dotes on him because he doesn’t have long to live?”

Worthy Consort Xu raised her chin. “He indeed doesn’t have long to live.”

Xu Shao said, “But what if His Majesty insists on passing the throne to him?”

Worthy Consort Xu’s eyes turned sharp. “How is that possible? He’s not His Majesty’s flesh and blood!”

Xu Shao said helplessly, “If I hadn’t obtained concrete information, why would I take the risk to scheme against Yan Jiuchao?”

Worthy Consort Xu’s expression softened. “Where… where did you get the news?”

“Your Highness, I didn’t open such a big Tianxiang Restaurant at a loss just to expand the Xu family’s trading company.”

“You’re gathering information?” Worthy Consort Xu asked.

Xu Shao laughed self-deprecatingly. “It’s not easy. What I can gather is usually useless information. However, if one out of ten thousand is useful, it proves that my Tianxiang Restaurant didn’t open for nothing.”

Worthy Consort Xu fell into deep thought. After a while, she muttered, “Your Majesty really intends to pass the throne to Yan Jiuchao?”

Yan Huaijing clenched his fists.

Xu Shao said thoughtfully, “Maybe that palace servant was talking nonsense after drinking, but I don’t dare to take this risk.”

“Why didn’t you tell me back then?” Worthy Consort Xu looked at him without blinking, as if she was trying to distinguish the truth in his words.

Xu Shao met her gaze openly. “Your Highness, it’s too eye-catching for you to make a move. It’s easier for me to hide it. Besides, if the matter is accidentally exposed, I’ll take all the blame. Your Highness and His Highness might be able to escape without knowing… However, I didn’t expect Your Highness and His Highness to find out in the end. It seems that I didn’t hide it well enough. I’ve implicated Your Highness and His Highness.”

Worthy Consort Xu looked down at him and said, “You’ve indeed implicated me. Do you really think that we won’t be blamed just because you’ve committed a crime? The mind of an Emperor is unfathomable, and the truth is sometimes not important. Look at the Xiao family, then look at the Yan family. Did the Yan family really collude with the enemy and commit treason? What was their outcome? Does His Majesty really not know that Yan Jiuchao doesn’t like Yan Ruyu? But why did he praise the Yan family without care? The dynasty belongs to His Majesty. Whoever he wants to live can live. Whoever he wants to die must die. No one can keep the things he wants to take back, and no one can refuse the favor he gave. This is His Majesty.”

Xu Shao lowered his head. “I know my mistake, Your Highness.”

“How did you make this happen alone?” Worthy Consort Xu was puzzled.

Xu Shao said truthfully, “I’m not alone. There’s someone else.”

“Yan Ruyu?” Worthy Consort Xu asked with a frown.

“It’s not her,” Xu Shao said. “He’s never shown his true face, but I can feel that he’s not an ordinary person. Fortunately, he also wants to deal with Yan Jiuchao and is in the same boat as us.”

Worthy Consort Xu said sarcastically, “How do you know that he doesn’t want to see us fight so that he can reap the benefits?”

Xu Shao said firmly, “Your Highness, he’s not interested in the throne. The only person he wants to deal with is Yan Jiuchao.”

When she heard that he was not here for the throne, Worthy Consort Xu’s expression softened slightly, but she could not figure out who they were. “Could it be that group of people?”

“Her Highness knows him?” This time, it was Xu Shao who was puzzled.

Worthy Consort Xu shook her head. “No, I don’t know him. I just heard about some things from back then. Do you know why the former Emperor banished his Empress to the Cold Palace back then?”

Xu Shao shook his head.

Worthy Consort Xu looked at the boundless night and said, “Because the late Empress was secretly pregnant with someone and gave birth to a child that doesn’t belong to him.”

Yan Huaijing was shocked.

Xu Shao was stunned. “That child is…”

Worthy Consort Xu nodded and said, “It’s Prince Yan. In order to cover up the royal scandal, the late Emperor didn’t announce the late Empress’s crimes. He only used the excuse of her persecuting his child to seize her throne and throw her and Prince Yan into the Cold Palace. In order not to arouse suspicion, His Majesty was also thrown into the Cold Palace.

“However, His Majesty was very hardworking. Even though he was implicated by his mother and brother, he still relied on his outstanding intelligence to win the late Emperor’s appreciation. If the late Emperor wanted to make him the crown prince, he had to release the late Empress from the Cold Palace. Otherwise, his identity would cause too much criticism and be disadvantageous to the competition for the throne. Prince Yan was naturally released.

“The late Emperor hated Prince Yan, but in order to not let His Majesty, the Crown Prince, have a stain, he hid Prince Yan’s background tightly until his deathbed. The late Emperor knew that he did not have long to live and he did not know if this secret could be kept after he died, so he wanted to sentence Prince Yan to death. Unexpectedly, His Majesty discovered it and poisoned the late Emperor to death in order to save his brother.”

This was the first time Yan Huaijing heard such a secret, and he broke out in cold sweat.

Xu Shao was also shocked. “How, how did…”

Worthy Consort Xu said coldly, “Now you know that His Majesty could even poison his biological father to death for Prince Yan. If His Majesty finds out that you touched Prince Yan’s child, guess what he will do?”

Xu Shao had cold shivers all over his body.

Worthy Consort Xu suddenly smiled. “However, it’s not that the late Emperor didn’t have a backup plan. He left a group of sacrificial soldiers to deal with the Yan Manor…”

Sacrificial soldiers? Xu Shao didn’t think so.

At the mention of the former Emperor, Worthy Consort Xu became talkative. “Actually, even without that group of sacrificial soldiers, Yan Jiuchao won’t live past twenty-five. Do you know why?”

Without waiting for Xu Shao to guess, Worthy Consort Xu said mockingly, “Because he was cursed and was cursed at a young age. Not only did he not live past twenty-five, but his descendants were also cursed until… Prince Yan’s bloodline completely died out.”

Yan Huaijing felt a chill run down his spine again. He could not imagine Yan Jiuchao, who was only a few years old back then, being pulled to the front of the hall by his grandfather and obediently eating the curse that his grandfather had personally fed him.

This was… too cruel.

“Great Uncle!”

In the Gao Manor, Gao Yuan was sitting under a peach tree, reviewing the examination papers of the directorate’s students. Among this batch of students, there was an outstanding, talented literary student with a humble background who he liked very much.

Qi Lin, on the other hand, was unwilling to be left aside by his great uncle. He held his cheek and sat opposite him. “Talk to me, Great Uncle! You’ve been reading these documents for the entire day! It’s time to talk to me!”

Gao Yuan smiled gently. “I asked you to go to the directorate, but you didn’t go. If you go, I’ll be able to teach you a lesson every day.”

Qi Lin stuck out his tongue. “I don’t want to study! By the way, Great Uncle, you haven’t finished telling me about your dream last time.”

“Ah… that. You haven’t gotten tired of hearing it yet? Where were we?” Gao Yuan put down his pen.

Qi Lin thought for a while. “We stopped when Yan Jiuchao died when he was twenty-five. His sons came back and massacred the Capital. What happened after that? Did they usurp the throne?”

Gao Yuan paused and said, “They’ve turned against each other.”

“Huh?” Qi Lin was surprised.

“But it didn’t last long,” Gao Yuan added.

Qi Lin raised his eyebrows. “Have they reconciled? I knew it. They’re brothers. How can they have an overnight feud?”

Gao Yuan shook his head. “They didn’t reconcile. They died.”

The three demon kings all died tragically.