Fu Zhiyu looked at this man and couldn't help but recall everything about himself and Shen Yang. Now, looking at the young face of this talented commoner who was still wearing a well-washed robe, he had mixed feelings for a moment.
Shen Yang is not some unknown person. He is already very famous among the people. He is a top talent among the students from poor families. He has been a student of Xu Daxueshi for five years and is a hot candidate to win the imperial examination this year.
In his previous life, he did come out on top and was personally chosen as the top scorer by the emperor during the palace examination.
However, this number one scholar Shen had no background, and as he grew taller, he attracted more wind and got into trouble. Less than a month after enjoying glory at the Qionglin Banquet, he was involved in a cheating case, which pointed out that he had been secretly colluding with the invigilator at the time. This number one scholar did not live up to his title.
In order to solve the problem as quickly as possible, Fu Zhiyu in the book did not conduct a thorough investigation, but pushed the invigilator and Shen Yang to be scapegoats, thus clearing himself of all charges.
But the real Fu Zhiyu was very stubborn and didn't believe Shen Yang would cheat at all. He knew in his heart that this was a trap set up by the prince to target him, and Shen Yang was just innocently implicated. He investigated for a month despite the rumors and finally cleared Shen Yang's name.
Shen Yang was grateful and was determined to follow Fu Zhiyu from then on. He did do a lot for her in all kinds of situations, but he stabbed her in the back at the last critical moment.
Perhaps there are very few people like Yuan Mingdao. After all, the truth of the world has always been that those who know the times are heroes, and it is also human nature for good birds to choose the right trees to roost in. Fu Zhiyu was once disappointed by this matter, but after he read the original book, he realized that Shen Yang did not belong to his side.
Because of Fu Zhiyu's different choices in the original book, Shen Yang did not die, but suffered a lot until Xie Ke rescued him, restored his innocence, and gave him a new life.
Shen Yang followed Xie Ke, fighting monsters and leveling up all the way. After Xie Ke unified the continent, he became the prime minister, which meant he was second only to the emperor.
It turned out that I changed Shen Yang's fate and snatched the opportunity to become the protagonist. In fact, he just returned to the main storyline.
Only then did Fu Zhiyu understand.
After his epiphany, he had let go of this knot in his heart. He even thought that it was really unfair for Shen Yang to follow an emperor like him who had no ability. Although he was the prime minister at that time, he had no idea how many times he had been bullied by the old officials in the court. It was not as refreshing as following Xie Ke.
Fu Zhiyu also felt that he had already repaid the so-called favor a long time ago. He was not the kind of person who would demand others to repay him for the rest of their lives just because they had done a favor once. Now he just felt that what happened between the two of them had canceled each other out and had nothing to do with each other anymore.
Now when he looked at this person, apart from some emotions brought by memories, there was only calmness left.
He held Yuan Mingdao's hand tightly, glanced at him, and said in a light tone: "This king had a serious illness, and many people don't remember it clearly. Mingdao, let's go."
"Wait--" Shen Yang seemed a little anxious, "I really have something important to discuss with King Zhao!"
Without King Zhao's order, the guards naturally stopped him. Shen Yang, a scholar, was stopped by the guards and could not move a step. At this time, Fu Zhiyu had already boarded the carriage with the Yuanming sword and pulled the curtain.
"Let's go to Yuan Mansion," he said to the driver without caring about what was happening outside, "Go faster, it's already noon, don't waste time here."
The driver received the order, whipped his whip, and the carriage left. The guards naturally followed suit and rode away. Shen Yang had broken free from the shackles, but he had not given up yet and kept running after Fu Zhiyu's carriage from outside.
"Prince Zhao!" He was not in good health and was out of breath after running a few steps. He seemed to be in a hurry. In the end, he no longer cared about his face and shouted loudly in the street, "I really have something important to discuss with you. Please, Prince Zhao, please stop the carriage for a while. I really only have a few words. Please..."
But the carriage was moving too fast, and after Fu Zhiyu turned a corner, he could no longer hear his voice.
"Let's ignore him," he said to Yuan Mingdao in the carriage, his tone and expression softened all of a sudden, "Let's ignore this kind of strange person in the future. There are some cakes in the carriage that I brought from the palace, would you like to try them?"
Yuan Mingdao nodded, his bright eyes fixed on him, sweeping away Fu Zhiyu's unhappy mood just now.
"We are going to my mother's home now," Fu Zhiyu explained to him patiently, "Everyone in Yuan Mansion is very kind, and I miss them too."
After a while, the carriage stopped in front of Yuan Mansion.
The daughter of the Yuan family had just been conferred the title of Imperial Noble Consort, but this mansion was very low-key. There were only two red lanterns hung at the door, which were usually hung during the Chinese New Year. The door was not big, and a closer look revealed that a lot of the paint on the door had fallen off, and it had been unknown how long it had been since it was repaired.
The master of the Yuan family is named Yuan Herong. He is a military commander in the court and a third-rank supervisor. To put it bluntly, this official is responsible for all kinds of military resources. Master Yuan is now in charge of food and grass, and there is indeed a lot of money, but it happened that Master Yuan took on this responsibility and made this department a clean government office, and nothing went wrong.
He is a bit aloof and pedantic by nature, but he is upright and never flatters the powerful and looks down on the weak. He is a good man.
In addition to the daughter Yuan Wanyun, the Yuan family also has two sons, who are Fu Zhiyu's two uncles.
The eldest uncle Yuan Jiangxing led his family to guard a small town on the border and could only return to Beijing to report on his work every three years. The younger uncle Yuan Jiangwen did not choose to be an official. After passing the examination for a scholar, he became interested in business. He led a caravan to travel all year round and made a lot of money. However, in this dynasty, being a businessman was always considered inferior to being an official in the eyes of others. No matter how much money he made, it was not as real as being a ninth-rank official.
It is no wonder that Emperor Qing Yuan felt that this family posed no threat at all.
But in Fu Zhiyu's eyes, he didn't think his mother's family was useless. Instead, he was very glad that he still had such a family. Although it was not as powerful as the Xue family, everyone here was kind to him sincerely without any conflicts of interest.
But the ending for the Yuan family was not good. When the competition between him and the prince was fierce, all the members of the Yuan family were strangled by the prince, and not even a single one was left alive.
Fu Zhiyu was in great pain at that time and couldn't sleep at night. Even though he later killed the prince and became emperor, he couldn't bring his relatives back. The wound remained in his heart and could never heal.
After being reborn, his heart had calmed down a lot, but he still had some regrets, such as his mother, Ming Dao, and the Yuan family, which he felt needed to be made up for.
Perhaps it is only after experiencing real death once and understanding the nature of this world that one can more deeply understand how rare true love is.
Holding Yuanming Dao, he walked through the gate, walked in the familiar small flower corridor, and smelled the aroma of stewed meat from afar.
The old lady of the Yuan family is good at stewing beef, and she is very good at it. The beef is soft and melts in the mouth. Fu Zhiyu likes it. Every time he comes back, the old lady will stew it on the stove early. She has to stew a big pot, and it can't be finished in three days.
The fragrance seemed to sweep away all the bad memories that Fu Zhiyu had recalled, leaving only the good ones. Things like Shen Yang, whom she had just met, and Xie Ke, whom she was about to meet, were all forgotten. She felt that they were not important, and Fu Zhiyu couldn't help but smile.
The courtyard of the Yuan Mansion is not big, and there are not many servants in the house. Unlike other families with three wives and four concubines, such a large place cannot accommodate them. Old Master Yuan and his two sons only married one woman, and they made a vow to live together forever and kept their promise.
Fu Zhiyu guessed that he was so infatuated in his previous life because he probably inherited it from the Yuan family. It was just that neither he nor his mother were as lucky as them to have a true and devoted person.
Now he was standing in the hall, looking at the small and simple courtyard in front of him, and he felt extremely relaxed in his heart. He felt more comfortable here than in the magnificent Glass Palace, as if this was his real home.