When Yan Duan came to the county town with the money from the separation, the first thing he did was to find his Xiao Cui in the Spring Breeze House.
“Oh, isn’t this our great gifted scholar Yan?”
When he was walking outside the Spring Breeze House, he was stopped by a somewhat familiar person.
“It’s me, Liu Sanzhu, don’t you recognize me? We played together when we’re kids.”
The other party wore richly bedecked, and looked so imposing, Yan Duan thought for a long time before remembering the other party.
Liu Sanzhu used to belong to Yongning Village. The other party had a different surname and lived by renting land with the Yan clan to make ends meet. Liu Sanzhu was the third son of the Liu family and a well-known prodigal son in the village.
Yan Duan remembered that the other party stole the money his father used to marry his second brother to marry a wife to embrace a girl in the Spring Breeze House, and almost did not make his father die from an excess of anger. Anyway, the Liu family no longer recognized this son, and he had not seen the other go back to Yongning Village.
He remembered it because Liu Fuchun liked to talk about the gossip of his family. He could memorize it when he heard too much.
One could see from this person’s dress in front of him, it did not seem to be an in dire straits appearance.
“What, it’s too surprising to think that Liu Sanzhu can mix up like this?”
Liu Sanzhu seemed to see Yan Duan’s doubts, but he was not angry. He asked with a smile.
“It’s also a coincidence. I don’t know if the great gifted scholar Yan will bestow me the honor to have fun with me, and let me, this uncultured person, receive benefit from your refined self.”
At other times, Yan Duan did not necessarily have anything to do with people like Liu Sanzhu, but he was in a bad mood today, and the other party’s words made him happy.
His position was not very firm and he declined a bit, and then left with Liu Sanzhu.
“Isn’t this a gambling house?”
In Yan Duan’s opinion, it was elegant to have the girl in the Spring Breeze House as the study companion. But once one was addicted to gambling, it was not easy to quit.
“What are you afraid of? Look at me, Liu Sanzhu. I was driven out of the house by my old man and brothers. But now I have tasty food and strong drinks. My life’s nowhere worse than before. Other people think gambling isn’t good. That’s because they have no ability.”
Liu Sanzhu with disdain: “It’s a fate for you to bump with this humble brother today. Come on. If you win, it’s yours, and if you lose, it’s mine.”
He enthusiastically took Yan Duan’s hand. Yan Duan followed him in after making a show of resistance.
There was a lot of noise in the gambling house. Yan Duan looked at everything strangely. He could not play any of them. In the gambling house, he also met his two former classmates, who also saw him. There was no embarrassment at all but complex eyes. They retracted their gaze and stared at their card.
The bets in the gambling house were large or small. Yan Duan looked at the ingot of gold on some gaming tables. Today, he got more than 30 taels from his family’s separation. He thought it was quite a lot. Here, he could not even make a little ripple.
“How about the simplest bet? How many?”
Liu Sanzhu took his hand and came to a long table, surrounded by many people. He directly took out an ingot of ten taels of silver from his arms and asked Yan Duan: “One, two, three are small. Four, five, six are big. Buy big or buy small?”
“I won’t.”
Yan Duan was a little nervous.
“What’s so bad about this? It’s luck to bet, but you’re the Duke of Wenchang, your luck’s always better than mine.”
Liu Sanzhu’s words made Yan Duan a little bit conceited. Looking at the dice cup, he gritted his teeth: “Buy the big one.”
Without any hesitation, Liu Sanzhu directly put the ten taels of silver in the box with the Big(大) character.
The people on the side also made a good stake. The people in the gambling house saw that no one had made a bet. They yelled to buy and lifted the lid of the cup. It was really big.
Yan Duan almost jumped up with joy, watching the ten taels suddenly become twenty taels, he could not help but feel a little enthusiastic.
“Here, as we agreed that if you win, it’s yours and if you lose, it’s mine.”
Liu Sanzhu also kept his word and directly handed over the ten taels he had won to Yan Duan.
“How can I ask for your money?”
Saying no, yet Yan Duan’s actions honestly took over the ten taels.
“I’m going to play some difficult games. You can play and watch here. It’s agreed that if you win, it’s yours and if you lose, it’s mine.” Liu Sanzhu patted Yan Duan on the shoulder, and then he went for the big bargaining chips. Yan Duan looked at the ingot of gold taken out of his bosom and was no longer worried.
On this day, Yan Duan learned what was a large and small bet and what was blackjack. He won and lost, but overall he won more. When he finally got out of the gambling house, he already had more than 50 taels of silver in his hand.
“It’s too easy to get money.”
Yan Duan thought about the silver banknote in his bosom until he sat in the Spring Breeze House, still a little elated.
“That’s right. We’re capable people. Those who lose money can’t blame anyone. However, you’re luckier than me. On the first day when I went in, I only earned three or four taels of silver. It seems that Liu Sanzhu will have to rely on you in the future.”
Liu Sanzhu called several girls. One of them was Xiao Cui, who Yan Duan liked. With the beauty and good wine, Yan Duan was giddy and felt that there was nothing more comfortable than today.
Studying was for being a government official, and being an official was to rake in money. Now he also had money, and there were beautiful women beside him, so why bother to study those boring books?
Yan Duan felt correct that he had indeed entered the city today and found himself a way to get rich.
At this time, he was still a little sober, but with the next few days, he was able to win money back from the gambling house every day, and his original vigilance began to disappear.
After making money, he bought a house in the county town and redeemed his favorite Xiao Cui. He forgot his parents, and he also forgot that he had a wife at home.
He forgot to study, put on silk satin, and from time to time he went to the Spring Breeze House to find the top girl to be free and easy. For him, money was the most useless thing.
After more than a month, Yan Duan started to lose money for the first time.
In his opinion, it was just an accident, but the next day, he still lost more money than the first day. Yan Duan thought something was wrong and wanted to stop. But at this time, Liu Sanzhu appeared again and told him that he had been like this for some time, but it did not matter, just got through it. Anyway, he had won so much money before. Was he still afraid of losing?
Yan Duan believed the other party’s words, and he was indeed addicted to betting on this stuff. Now, as long as Yan Duan did not play cards for a day, he felt uncomfortable.
He began to gamble more and more and lose more and more. The gold, silver, and jade artifacts he bought when he won were mortgaged one by one. He began to borrow money from the gambling house because he believed that he would win back one day.
Whenever he lost confidence, he would win for several days, but he won very little. It was not as good as what he poured out again later. But again and again, Yan Duan could not cut off that little hope.
When he began to borrow money from the gambling house, Xiao Cui, who had been redeemed by him from the Spring Breeze House, ran away with a few valuable things at home. Yan Duan smashed all that he could smash at home, cursed that ruthless woman, and then sold the small courtyard. In addition to the money he gave back to the gambling house, the rest of the money was used as the gambling capital, and he fell into it again.
It was not until he had lost all that he could lose and owed more than 300 taels of silver to the gambling house that Yan Duan realized what he had done in this short period of more than a month. At this time, he could not find Liu Sanzhu anymore.
Yan Duan realized that he seemed to have been cheated. He was swindled by Liu Sanzhu and the gambling house altogether.
It was not good to provoke the people in the gambling house. It did not matter what someone’s connection was behind. Who dared to open the gambling house? Either paid back the money or cut off his hands. At this time, Yan Duan had lost all his money, including his land. For his own life, he could only focus on his father, Yan Changxue.
“How could such a thing happen?”
Oldman Yan was lying on the bed, coughing constantly.
The eldest grandson gambled and owed a lot of debt. He could not pay back the money. So he stole the deed of the house in his town. He also stole the money from the tavern where Yan Changxue was the shopkeeper.
It just so happened that the big boss came to inspect. Yan Changxue wanted to clamp his tail for fear that his accounting fraud would be found out. It was fine at the moment, but Yan Duan’s doing*24doing*from 干 [gàn] that can mean as to do or to f*ck (vulgar) had aroused the big boss’ vigilance. The other party called four or five experienced accountants to carefully check the account books in recent years, and his embezzlement of his master’s money had been discovered.
The man who opened this tavern was the prefectural magistrate’s brother-in-law, the person whose country magistrate dared not to provoke. They immediately became angry. On the same day, someone from the Yamen50Yamengovernment office in imperial China came to take Yan Changxue away, as well as a small amount of cash in the family and the part of the property given to Yan Tao, which was used to make up for the loss of the tavern.
Yan Changxue was sentenced to exile for six years. Because of his affairs, although Yan Tao’s honor as Xiucai56Xiucaia person who has passed the county-level imperial exam was not changed, he was also banned from the subsequent preliminary round of imperial examinations. This was the truth that when a father was corrupt and his son suffered from it.
For Yan Tao, there was nothing worse than this blow, and Liu Fuchun was not much better.
Her eldest son cruelly harmed her husband, and her younger son’s future was ruined because of this. She could not bear this shock. Yan Duan’s hands were cut off by the people in the gambling house because he could not afford to pay back the money. Then she ran away and went completely crazy.
Fortunately, she was awfully quiet for a crazy. She did not hit or scold others. Similar to a child, she still worked obediently. After the house in the town was taken away, she followed Yan Tao back to the old house. She stayed at home and did not go out, helping Li Qiuyue with the housework, which was much more likable than before.
Yan Tao was shut in his room these days. Li Qiuyue felt that this nephew was also pitiful. She gave him three meals every day on time. Now that the old man and the old lady were all ill, she had more important things to do.
Fortunately, before that, Yan Changxi and his eldest brother’s family had separated, and they were already two families in the genealogical record. Therefore, this incident did not involve their family.
“Why does this happen?”
Yan Tao could not understand. All of this changed too fast. He had found out who framed him and could perform the imperial examination normally. Because of Yan Changxue, everything was ruined. Did he kill his whole family in the past life? This life was as miserable as in his last one.
“I’m not Yan Tao, I should be you. I should be you, Yan Chu, do you understand? I’m Yan Chu, I’m the future of you. I know everything that happened in the next ten years. I shouldn’t be like this now.”
Seeing Yan Chu coming in and closing the door, Yan Tao rushed towards him and said to him.
“I know.”
Yan Chu spoke softly.
“You don’t know, you, how would you know?” Yan Tao widened his eyes and looked at him incredulously.
“I know who you are, then do you know who I am? That night, the wind was so strong, our Jun’er was crying, my body hurt so much, where were you at that time? You had your tender princess wife, you had your lovely little princess, can you still remember me and Jun’er who stayed in Yongning Village? Do you know how painful my body and heart were when I died?”
Yan Tao looked at the horrible face of “himself”, and subconsciously stepped back several steps, feeling shocked in his heart.
“You, you-you-you, you’re Fu Zhenzhen.”
He swallowed: “I didn’t kill you, it was Yan Duan, Yan Changxue, and Liu Fuchun. Go to them.”
Yan Tao shivered and struggled with his legs. Looking at the familiar face, he felt strange for the first time.
“Little Treasure, don’t be afraid.”
Yan Chu, who was still showing hatred, suddenly returned to a gentle look. His expression that Yan Tao was very familiar with, but he could not remember it.
“Don’t you like to eat raspberries the most? When Second Sister went up the mountain with you, I was bitten by a snake to gather raspberries for you. Fortunately, it’s non-toxic. Now that I think about it, I still feel pain.”
Yan Chu touched his arm as if there was a wound there.
“Second, Second Sister, are you Second Sister?” Yan Tao remembered what she said. Only he and his second sister knew about it. Because she was bitten by a non-toxic snake, they did not say anything about it, including his third sister and fourth sister.
Was the person in front of him Fu Zhenzhen or Second Sister? If it was Fu Zhenzhen, why would the other party know such secret things? Yan Tao was going crazy.
“Little Treasure, Second Sister loves you so much. I’ve always left everything good for you, let you study, offended our grandparents, and finally got married to such a man.”
Yan Chu’s eyes were full of resentment. At this moment, Yan Tao indeed seemed to see his second sister in his previous life.
At that time, the other party came to seek him, but what did he say? He said that he could not have a divorced sister. After that, he never saw the other party again, nor received any messages about her.
At that time, Yan Tao felt that he was not wrong and that a woman should be faithful unto death. Since Second Sister married Second Brother-in-law, shouldn’t she endure some of the other’s small shortcomings?
“I love you so much. When that man hit me, my body hurt, but my heart didn’t hurt. But it was when my most beloved brother gouged out my heart. Little Treasure, Little Treasure, say, how much I should hate you?”
Yan Chu clutched his chest, a drop of tears slipped from his eyes, and Yan Tao squatted down, clutching his head.
“Don’t blame me, it’s the person that our grandparents gave you. Boo hoo hoo, Second Sister, don’t blame me, don’t blame me.”
Yan Tao felt that he was not wrong, but looking at the sad Second Sister and the desperate Fu Zhenzhen that he had just seen from him, he seemed to feel that he was indeed wrong.
In Yan Chu, he saw a lot of people, in addition to his second sister and Fu Zhenzhen, there were also his parents, third sister, and fourth sister in succession. Those people truly existed, and the other party could tell many secrets that only they knew each other. From Yan Chu’s mouth, he knew what kind of mood those people were in after his cold refusal to get along with them.
“Daddy.”
The last one, how innocent and unaffected Yan Chu’s expression was at this time.
“Zhuzhu, are you Zhuzhu?”
Yan Tao put down his hands that covered his ears, raised his head, and looked at the person in front of him. He wanted to get closer but was timid.
He did not have much affection for the son Fu Zhenzhen gave birth to, but he had never forgotten his daughter who had been doted on since childhood.
“Zhuzhu, it’s Daddy, Zhuzhu’s Daddy.”
He raised his hand, wanting to hug his daughter. When he got exposed, that child was only six years old, at an ignorant age, and he did not know how she was going after he was banished to an army post.
Although he was such a father, Zhuzhu had the mother princess after all. Nevertheless, the Royal granddaughter’s life was unlikely to be bad.
“Daddy, Zhuzhu hurts so much.”
Yan Chu was sobbing, making Yan Tao’s heart cold.
Hurt, why Zhuzhu hurt?
“The king of the foreign kingdom is terrible. He loves to beat people. Grandfather asked Zhuzhu to bear it. Zhuzhu obediently endured it. But isn’t Zhuzhu married to the foreign king? Why did Zhuzhu marry his son after he died? Zhuzhu’s so afraid.”
The tears that Yan Chu shed at this time were like a sharp knife thrust into Yan Tao’s chest. He was at a loss. Why would his Zhuzhu endure those things?
But why was it so difficult for him to understand?
Because of her father, Zhuzhu was destined to be sacrificed.
If he were not greedy for vanity, he would not be with the princess. If he was kind to Fu Zhenzhen and chose a place so that the other party and their child could spend their lives in peace, Fu Yugui might not want to tear his face apart.
He always said that he was right, but in fact, he was sorry for many people, he was sorry for his family who truly loved him, he was sorry for Fu Zhenzhen and their son, he was sorry for the princess, he was sorry for their daughter.
Yan Tao burst into tears. It turned out that he was so wrong.
Seeing Yan Tao like this, Yan Chu stopped his performance just now and restored his original voice.
“In this life, you have come to repay the mistakes you have made. Make atonement while all the mistakes that have not happened now.”
Speaking of it, the original self did not commit a fatal fault, so although according to the client’s intention, he should punish the original self severely. But he felt that instead of making the original self suffer, this kind of treatment was better than letting the original self suffer all the pain without knowing where his faults were.
He would live in the painful past, but he would start a new life to make up for his mistakes. That was enough.
He also had to thank the film emperor for his accumulated experience in his lifetime. In the beginning, he was not used to mastering the other party’s acting skills and could not use them proficiently. However, with the integration of one world and another, he began to have 80% of the other party’s strength.
Because of this, Yan Chu discovered that whenever he was acting as a person, he was also learning, which made every reincarnation a bit more interesting.
Since then, Yan Tao had become quiet. With decades of experience, he started doing business with a small amount of capital.
Because he was backed by Yan Chu, a promising Juren57Jurena successful candidate in the imperial provincial examination cousin, he did not suffer too much hardship.
The squeamishness and haughtiness cultivated by his previous generation were gone. He was like the most ordinary businessmen. He had suffered and endured grievances. Gradually, the scale of his business began to expand, and he became a little famous in the counties and even prefectures.
In their daily life, Yan Meihua and her sisters had changed their prejudice against this cousin. The two sides had become closer. Although they were not as close as their brother Yan Chu, they were also much better than the other relatives.
He took the initiative to support the two elderly in his family. When Yan Chu went to the capital for the imperial examination, he treated Yan Chu’s parents as his own.
For his older brother’s wife, he once proposed to give her a sum of money to let her return to her natal family, remarry or not, the Yan family would never interfere.
However, she grew up under the most severe female precepts. How dare she want to remarry? She would be supported by Yan Tao all her life. She abstained from eating meat and chanted the names of Buddha, and hardly ever went out of the house.
That kind of boring and painful life was the most respected admonition of women in Yan Tao’s previous life. Thinking about his second sister’s more miserable life in her previous life, Yan Tao naturally regretted it even more.
After knowing the news that his younger brother was well-developed, Yan Duan once sneaked back, but he was beaten out by Yan Tao. He was found by the people who used to play in the gambling house and broke his leg. After that, he never heard any news about the other.
When Yan Chu went to the capital to take the imperial examination, he took his fourth sister Lanhua and his adopted sister Fu Zhenzhen with him. After he passed successfully as the top scorer in the palace examination, Lanhua and Fu Zhenzhen also found their own endings.
Fu Zhenzhen married a close friend that Yan Chu met when he rushed for the imperial examination. The other party lost his mother when he was young, and his biological father married a step-wife. They were separated before he was crowned. Naturally, there was no one to manage his marriage for him.
Yan Chu saw that the other party was sincere, and his father’s family was far away. There would be few intersections in this life. After confirming that Zhenzhen herself was willing, he agreed to his friend’s proposal.
When she got married, everyone from the Yan family came. As her maiden family, they organized a lively marriage for her.
Yan Tao took out ten thousand taels of silver, which was almost all his wealth at that time. Although the person he should compensate is no longer the one in front of him, only doing this could make him feel better in his heart.
It might also be fate, after going round, Yan Chu unexpectedly was still the princess.
As a new top scorer in the palace examination who was liked by the emperor, he often went in and out of the court. The princess who coveted his beauty was just like the previous life. But he did not marry. After the princess reached marriageable age, the emperor decreed marriage for him, which made a good marriage.
Fortunately, Yan Chu maintained his face well in his life. His face fascinated the princess for a lifetime. Although they had only one daughter, they were also harmonious for the rest of their lives.
Yan Tao was unmarried all his life. After the death of Oldman Yan and Madam Yan, Liu Fuchun went crazy again. His aunt and uncle who separated could not manage his marriage, so it let him delay so much.
He made up for the people he owed and guarded his Zhuzhu for the rest of his life.
“Here, here, Master Uncles are here.”
The residence of the Minister of Rites’ assistant minister was full of mourning.
Fu Yugui and Yan Chu rushed to the house anxiously. It was obvious that there were many people in the woman’s bedroom.
“Mother, the uncles are here.”
Fu Zhenzhen’s eldest son leaned in her ear and whispered to her.
She struggled to open her eyes and looked towards the door. Two figures came into her eyes.
One was tall and burly, the other was the same height, but a little thin, tall and straight as pine and cypress.
“That’s good.”
Fu Zhenzhen opened her mouth. After saying this, she closed her eyes with a smile, still holding a pink already pan yellow old silk flower bead hairpin tightly in her hand.
It was not that she was bad, and it was not that he was bad. As chance had it, it was just that she not properly gave birth, and it happened to be unsuitable.
She should be grateful. Although she did not have a strong love, she had a long relationship with her husband. Moreover, in her life, there were two brothers, one guarding the first half of her life and the other compensating the second half of her life.
She was really happy.
