Princess Promotion

Chapter 327 The dusty truth

The person sent by Minister Zhou to inquire about the news quickly brought back the news.

It was simply because Liu Rushi's Baihua Tower was famous far and wide. Even though Shangshu Zhou was far away in the old capital of Yan State, he had heard of Baihua Tower.

It was even popular for a while among the powerful and wealthy, and people used to brag about having been to Baihua Tower.

So it is easy to find out about Liu Rushi's life experience. Liu Rushi was born in the old capital of Yan State, the same year as his deceased daughter.

Not long after Liu Rushi was born, her gambling-addicted father fled to the border with his family to escape debt.

She lost her mother at the age of six and was sold to a brothel by her gambling-addicted father at the age of eight.

At the age of sixteen, she became famous for her dance and became a popular courtesan, receiving customers...

At the age of seventeen, she was redeemed and became a concubine. Not long after, she returned to Baihua Tower.

She then bought Baihualou and became its owner and madam.

In just a few words, the whole story of Liu Rushi's rough and tortuous first half of her life was told.

Minister Zhou sat in his seat motionless, as if in a trance, like a sculpture.

Suddenly, one or two drops of water fell on the book in Minister Zhou's hand.

The water droplets quickly seeped into the slightly yellowed paper and slowly spread out, and the originally clearly visible ink characters gradually became blurred.

Liu Rushi looked at the food on the table which was watery and had no oil at all.

Turning to look at Yunhua, he discussed: "Can you ......"

Yunhua simply refused: "No!"

Liu Rushi curled her lips and could only lower her head and struggle with the vegetables in the bowl.

"Knock" "Knock" There was a sudden knock on the door.

Liu Rushi and Yunhua looked at each other, and Yunhua got up to open the door.

Minister Zhou was standing outside the door, carrying a lunch box. When he saw Yunhua opening the door, he was startled at first, then he reacted and said, "Excuse me, is Miss Liu here?"

Yunhua turned sideways, revealing Liu Rushi sitting on a chair behind him.

In the dim room, under the candlelight, a face was cold and clear, clean without a trace of worldly air, but there was an aggressive color in those eyes, charming and lustful, her lips were red and enchanting, and her temperament was indescribably captivating, beautiful and ostentatious, yet delicate and difficult to approach.

They are obviously two similar faces. Mrs. Zhou was also a famous beauty when she was young.

But Mrs. Zhou's beauty is gentle and non-aggressive.

It is completely different from the impact given by Liu Rushi, but it has to be said that Liu Rushi shows the beauty of this face to the fullest.

This proves the saying that beauty lies in the bones, not in the skin.

Seeing Shangshu Zhou with a professional smile on his face, Liu Rushi greeted him, "Master Zhou, why are you here so late at night to see me? What advice do you have for me?"

Minister Zhou looked at Yunhua and asked tentatively, "I have something I want to talk to you about alone."

Liu Rushi glanced at Yunhua, and Yunhua walked out very tactfully.

Minister Zhou saw the food on the table, thought for a moment, and then placed his food box on the table. He said, "I don't know what you like to eat, so I asked someone to stir-fry some vegetarian dishes for you. After all, this is a temple and you can't eat meat."

As he spoke, he opened the lunch box and brought out plates of exquisitely presented stir-fried dishes.

Not to mention that although they are all vegetarian dishes, they look good and really make people feel hungry.

Liu Rushi didn't say anything, but picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece of wood ear and tasted it. It tasted okay.

Minister Zhou looked at Liu Rushi for a moment and didn't know how to start.

If Liu Rushi was just an ordinary person raised by a farmer, or any other ordinary person, Minister Zhou would not choose to come directly to Liu Rushi.

Instead, he chose to tell Mrs. Zhou the truth and let Mrs. Zhou come and contact Liu Rushi step by step.

Wait until Liu Rushi can accept them before telling her that they are her biological parents.

But Liu Ru is not an ordinary person, and she has experienced too much in the first half of her life, so the step-by-step approach is not suitable for her.

Liu Rushi knew his surname was Zhou from the first time they met, but Shangshu Zhou was not sure how much Liu Rushi knew.

Seeing that Minister Zhou hadn't spoken for a long time, and just watched her eat the monster infiltration, Liu Rushi took the initiative to speak: "Are you coming here to say that you are my biological father?"

Minister Zhou was surprised but also somewhat expected it. How could someone who could run Baihua Tower so successfully be a dull person?

But Minister Zhou still wanted to know something, so he asked, "When did you know I was your biological father?"

Without even looking up, Liu Rushi continued picking up food and said, "About a year ago!"

After Liu Rushi knew that she was not the gambler's biological child, she calculated the time backward and then found out which newborns in wealthy families had died during that period.

This quickly screened out a few companies, and after removing those with the wrong gender, only three were left.

Then he inquired about the situations of these three families separately. Among them, the child of Zhou family was betrothed to the sister of Queen Yan.

It is easy to infer that someone wants to replace the prince with a cat, and the third daughter-in-law of the Zhou family just gave birth to a daughter a few months ago.

Ever since the arranged child of the Zhou family died, I heard that the third daughter-in-law has never appeared in public again.

Liu Rushi grew up in the market these years and has seen a lot of human greed and ugliness.

When it comes to other things, Liu Rushi may not be as good as An Tian.

But he knows everything about love affairs between men and women, and the secret affairs of the harem.

Based on this limited information, Liu Rushi could roughly infer that it was the third daughter-in-law who became greedy and wanted her daughter to replace the child's marriage.

As long as they kill the child without anyone knowing, the Zhou family will be able to save the marriage.

They will definitely want to let the third daughter-in-law's daughter take the place. The two children are only a few months apart. After a few years, as long as the Zhou family insists that this is Mrs. Zhou's child.

Who can say it isn't?

As for why they deliberately caused a stillbirth instead of killing it directly to save trouble.

Others are not fools. If the child is suffocated to death after birth, there will be marks on the body. And a real stillbirth should be due to incomplete development.

But for some reason, the third daughter-in-law's plan was eventually exposed.

Probably for the sake of the family's reputation, the news was finally blocked.

Liu Rushi's voice reached Minister Zhou's ears, exploding like thunder: "Then why don't you come find me?"

Liu Rushi smiled sarcastically and said, "Why would I look for you? You are a family of scholars and officials. You let a prostitute defile your family lintel. If you go back and throw me in a pig cage, isn't that courting death?"

Minister Zhou lowered his head silently, clenched his hands, and dug his nails deep into his palms. "It's my fault."

Liu Rushi picked at the food with her chopsticks, then finally put them down and said, "Alright! For the sake of these dishes, I'll keep this matter to myself from now on. You go your way, and I'll go mine."

Liu Rushi thought this was the best ending for them!

When Liu Rushi found out that she was the daughter of the Zhou family, she blamed the heavens and the earth, thinking that God was blind.

Why should I let her know, after she has lost everything, that she should have a life that everyone envies?

Her life was stolen!

At that moment, hatred consumed her, and she once thought about going back and taking the person who ruined her life with her to die together.

She felt sorry for herself and even fell into a state of collapse.

Sure enough, it was not Yao Chuguang who came to Baihua Tower at that time and needed her help to set a trap for the Prince of Yan.

She may have already embarked on the road of revenge.

After seeing Yao Chuguang, Liu Rushi suddenly felt less hateful.

Although the injustice of fate caused her to suffer a lot, it at least left her with a ray of light of redemption.

She didn't want Yao Chuguang to see her being consumed by hatred and turning into a hysterical mad woman.

That's too ugly!

Liu Rushi could more or less guess what Minister Zhou was planning to do.

Originally, Liu Rushi was thinking that if Minister Zhou acted condescendingly and gave alms,

He said that although you are my daughter, you have become a low-class prostitute, which is a disgrace to our family.

How could a shameless person like Liu Rushi acknowledge her daughter in public?

For the sake of blood relationship, I will just take in a helpless orphan.

Then, break away from the past, make a new start and start a new life.

You could have restored your status as a daughter of an official family, but who knew you were so spineless that you were willing to throw yourself into the world of brothels.

Liu Rushi would not hesitate to let Minister Zhou know what was truly disgraceful to the family.

But now Minister Zhou was just carrying food and talking to her as an equal.

Liu Rushi remembered that after she was taken away, Minister Zhou had bid farewell to the Zhou family's separate residence.

It was quite respectful of him to come here and break up with me peacefully.

Since you can't accept her, rejecting her from the beginning can also be a kind treatment.

Minister Zhou frowned deeply, pursed his lips tightly before speaking, "Even if everyone in the world despises and insults you because of your identity, I won't."

Minister Zhou raised his head and slowly looked towards Liu Rushi, as if to engrave her image deeply into his heart. He said, "I'm so glad you're still alive!"

Liu Rushi turned her head away and said, "You are a loser. You didn't even know your child was switched."

Minister Zhou's throat seemed to be blocked by something foreign and he couldn't utter a word.

Minister Zhou took a deep breath and said, "I know you have every right to blame and hate me, and I have no right to say anything to you from a father's perspective."

"If you are willing... you can come back and live with us if you are willing. If you don't want to, it doesn't matter. I will wait for you whenever you want to come back."

"I can't give you anything, Nuno. I selfishly gave up you for the sake of this family."

"I have no right to ask for your forgiveness. Whatever compensation you want, I can give it to you as long as I can do it."

Minister Zhou thought for a long time and decided that Liu Rushi should tell the truth.

Liu Rushi: "You want me to hide my identity, pretend nothing happened, and go back with you to be an official lady."

Minister Zhou was stunned and shook his head helplessly, saying, "I can't do that. Your Baihua Tower is too famous. Even I, far away in the old capital, have heard of it. It's impossible to silence all those powerful people."

When Liu Rushi heard this, she suddenly remembered that Yao Chuguang had said something similar when he redeemed her a few years ago.

Minister Zhou saw that Liu Rushi's expression had suddenly softened, and he continued, "If you're willing to come back, then come back openly. At most, you won't be able to get married. I'll prepare enough money for you to live comfortably for the rest of your life."

Liu Rushi raised an eyebrow and said, "Just going back like this? As far as I know, your two children are both unmarried. If people knew they had a sister like me, would they be able to find wives and get married?"

Minister Zhou: "I don't deny that I hesitated because of those two children before I came here, but this is not your fault, it's my fault. You shouldn't be the one to bear my mistakes. If they want to blame someone, blame me!"

Liu Rushi raised her head for the first time and looked at the man in front of her seriously.

This man speaks in a serious manner, and you can tell at first glance that he is a very decent person.

He is the kind of person Liu Rushi has seen the least in the past ten years of her life. This man is indeed a responsible man.

If all this had not happened, I would have been happy growing up under his care.

Unfortunately, nothing can go back!

Liu Rushi retracted her gaze and said, "Go!"

Minister Zhou opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but he finally stood up and walked to the door and said, "Eat more. I'll come see you tomorrow."

After seeing Minister Zhou leave, Yunhua pushed the door open and was stunned when he saw Liu Rushi.

Liu Rushi picked up her chopsticks and continued eating, saying, "Come and eat with us!"

Yunhua walked over and sat down. After tasting each dish, he looked up at Liu Rushi several times.

Liu Rushi naturally noticed Yunhua's abnormality and asked, "What's wrong?"

Yunhua hesitated and asked, "Is this dish really that delicious?"

Liu Rushi: "I just want to be average!"

Yunhua: "I thought the food was so delicious it would make people cry."

Tears?

Liu Rushi realized it belatedly and put down her chopsticks. When her fingertips touched her face, she found it was wet.

It turned out that I was already in tears without realizing it.

When Minister Zhou returned to his residence, he saw Madam Zhou, Zhou Yunqi and Zhou Xinan all sitting at the table waiting for him.

When Zhou Xinan saw Minister Zhou coming back, he immediately stood up and ordered the servants to bring the warm food over. He said, "Father, you're finally back. I was starving waiting for you."

Minister Zhou forced a smile and replied to Zhou Xinan: "Next time, you don't have to wait for me. Just eat first."

Zhou Xinan shook her head and said coquettishly, "How can this be possible? We must wait."

Minister Zhou patted Zhou Xinan on the head and said, "Let's eat. After dinner, I have something to tell you."

When Zhou Yunqi heard what Minister Zhou said, he felt a little uneasy.

Mrs. Zhou was also a little absent-minded. There were four people at the table, and except for Zhou Xinan who knew nothing, the other three had difficulty eating.

After finishing his meal, Minister Zhou looked at Madam Zhou intently and said, "Madam, there's something I've kept from you for over a decade. Back then, I thought it was a done deal, and telling you would only cause you more pain, so I took it upon myself to conceal it."

When Mrs. Zhou heard this, she looked at Minister Zhou in disbelief.

Is it possible…………

Minister Zhou nodded and told Madam Zhou the whole story.