After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Chapter 280 Heartless and Unfaithful (Part 1)

When have Guo Kuan and his steward ever suffered like this?

Although the Guo family wasn't extremely wealthy, they owned a pawnshop, a general store, two rice shops, and a silk shop. When Guo's parents were alive, they had meat every day, and all their fruits and vegetables were fresh. But to pay for Guo Kuan's medical treatment and to cover the debts of that fake heiress, they sold their house and their shops, and now they had to rely on scavenging rotten vegetable leaves to fill their stomachs.

Afu's mother couldn't bear it and went to help, but only Lu Zhiyuan noticed the strangeness in the porridge.

"Is it true that Young Master Guo's illness can't be cured without eating rotten vegetable leaves?"

"Aunt..." After seeing Lu Zhiyuan's hairstyle, she changed her words: "What do you mean by that, Madam?"

“If that’s not the case, why does Butler Guo only give Young Master Guo porridge made from rotten vegetable leaves, while he secretly eats the good stuff himself?” Lu Zhiyuan gave Lu Yun a wink, and Lu Yun nodded, walked to another stove that had been extinguished, and lifted the old, seemingly dilapidated pot lid.

To Afu's mother's surprise, there was another lid under the first one, and that lid was shiny and new.

Lifting the lid revealed a half-full pot of leftover seafood porridge.

Afu's mother turned around and angrily asked Steward Guo, "What's going on here?"

Steward Guo stammered, "This, this was given to me by someone else. It's leftovers from someone else's meal. This old servant was afraid that the food would spoil and dared not give it to the young master."

"Leftovers?" Lu Yun picked it up: "The bottom of the pot is still steaming. Judging from how soft and tender the porridge is, it must have been cooking for at least an hour. The inner wall of the stove is also hot, and the charcoal underneath has been cleaned. Half of it has been moved to the stove next to it."

She glanced at the seafood in the porridge: "Seafood must be very expensive here, right? Especially such fresh seafood. This small pot alone must cost a tael of silver, right? On the other hand, the porridge you cooked for your young master is made of rotten vegetable leaves. The rice grains are still hard and not fully mixed with the water. It must have been cooked for less than 45 minutes at most. The reason the porridge is mushy is because of these rotten vegetable leaves you threw in."

Butler Guo's face turned ashen.

“It’s not just the porridge, but also the housekeeper’s clothes.” Lu Zhiyuan looked him up and down. “The housekeeper is very particular; even though he wears patched coarse cloth clothes, he has washed them clean.”

Butler Guo lowered his head and said, "It's a habit. No matter how tattered the clothes are, they have to be clean."

"Used to it?" Lu Zhiyuan gave Lu Yun a wink and then directly reached out and pulled off Butler Guo's clothes.

The clothes had two layers: the outer layer was coarse cloth, patched up, and the inner layer was silk, very comfortable against the skin. The inner and outer garments looked ordinary, but were actually made of the finest materials. How could a steward so poor he even ate rotten vegetable leaves for his young master afford such fine clothes?

Of course, the butler could explain that the clothes were from before. But how could a butler who truly serves the young master be reluctant to pawn a few pieces of clothing?

Butler Guo's face was covered in cold sweat.

Lu Zhiyuan didn't press him any further, which relieved him.

The key was hanging on Butler Guo's waist. Lu Yun used his sword to knock the key off and opened the door to Guo Kuan's room. Just as Afu's mother had said, the room was filled with a fishy stench. Rats and cockroaches could be seen from time to time. The room was messy, and cobwebs hung in the corners.

Lu Yun had never seen such a strange illness before and was afraid of infecting Lu Zhiyuan. But upon smelling the odor, Lu Zhiyuan felt relieved; Guo Kuan's illness was definitely not a contagious disease. Something was amiss with the Guo family.

Guo Kuan lay on the bed, barely alive, his form like a skeleton. No, even more terrifying than a skeleton. Seeing Afu's mother, a glimmer of life returned to his dry eyes. He tried to say something, but his lips were stuck together, and no sound came out. He tried to sit up, but he had no strength left. Right now, he was a living dead.

His clothes hadn't been changed in a long time; they were dirty and stiff, and their original color was no longer visible.

Lu Zhiyuan first pried open his eyes to look at them, then checked his pulse. The pulse was weak and feeble; he was indeed dying. Unable to push up his sleeve, she simply cut it open with a knife. His arm was incredibly thin, the skin wrinkled and the veins protruding—not the usual color, but a distinctly dark bluish-black.

Aside from the color, Guo Kuan's blood vessels were noticeably thicker than normal. This wasn't due to a congenital abnormality in his veins, but rather the result of poisoning. The foul odor wasn't caused by any disease, but by poisoning.

"Poisoning?" Afu's mother opened her eyes wide, not noticing that Butler Guo, who was originally standing at the door, took a step back.

"Where are you going, butler?" Lu Yun blocked the butler's path. "Have you thought of a way to explain Young Master Guo's poisoning?"

"This old servant... I don't know." Steward Guo's eyes darted around. "Perhaps he was harmed by those people before."

“You’re lying. He’s been poisoned with a slow-acting poison, not something that happened overnight.” Lu Zhiyuan first fed Guo Kuan a pill, then performed acupuncture to remove the poison. It wasn’t that she wanted to save him, but rather that he couldn’t die yet.

As a large amount of black blood flowed out, a glimmer of life returned to Guo Kuan's eyes, and even the stench faded somewhat.

He opened the window to let the air circulate in the room. Pointing his sword at the steward, he ordered him to clear out the clutter in the room, but the steward was already panting heavily after only a quarter of an hour. As he watched the items used to attract snakes, insects, and rodents among the clutter being discovered, cold sweat poured down the steward's back.

Embezzling the master's property or plotting against the master's family shall at least be punished with exile.

The steward panicked and knelt before Afu's mother: "It's my fault. I was greedy and had thoughts I shouldn't have. But I was thinking of the future. The Guo family is gone, the young master is sick, and I'm getting old. I have no children and don't want to live a miserable life. I took some money from selling the house, but the young master's poisoning really has nothing to do with me."

"None of your business?" Lu Yun patted his face with the scabbard: "You're quite good at lying through your teeth, but unfortunately, you've met our lady."

Butler Guo pursed his lips and remained silent.

“You said you have no children, so where did the sachet at your waist come from? And the stitches on your clothes are neither from an embroidery workshop nor a ready-made clothing store. The person who sewed your clothes was of average skill, clumsy but extremely meticulous. There are repeated stitches, backstitches, and traces of being taken apart and then sewn back together. Apart from your wife, I'm afraid only your daughter would do this.”

daughter?

"Butler Guo is not married, so how could he have a daughter?" Afu's mother looked at him: "Does the steward have someone to spend the rest of his life with?"

“He already had it!” Lu Zhiyuan stared at the sachet at his waist: “The sachet is newly made, but the rope and tassel are old. If this old sachet was made by your mother, she would never have used such a delicate pink color, and the fading would not be as pronounced as it is now. If it was made by your new wife, she would never have used the old rope and tassel. To put it bluntly, no woman can tolerate her husband having another woman in his heart. Therefore, the rope, tassel, and old sachet were made by your original wife, and the new sachet was made by your daughter. Only a daughter would cherish her mother's things so much and be happy to let her father wear them.”

Afu's mother: "But the steward has never been married!"

Lu Zhiyuan's face was gloomy, but her eyes held a smile: "That's because he's unfaithful and heartless."