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Zhao Hongsheng’s voice suddenly came from behind, and Su Tianyou concealed his expression, adjusting his sleeve cuff, "Second Prince is being too generous with his praise. Young Master Zheng hasn’t told me anything."

"Heh." Zhao Hongsheng’s face was filled with disbelief, "That’s right, that’s your secret, of course you can’t tell an outsider like me."

Su Tianyou clenched his fist, finally understanding the reason why Xia Zheng had spoken so close to him before his departure; it turned out he had seen Zhao Hongsheng and had deliberately set a trap, throwing this big trouble onto him.

Once again deeply experiencing Xia Zheng’s knack for setting people up, Su Tianyou felt some regret.

Had he known he would be misunderstood by Zhao Hongsheng, he wouldn’t have appeared before Xia Zheng with the Second Prince.

Perhaps this fellow had intentionally set him up because he’d misunderstood their relationship.

Zhao Hongsheng gazed intently at Su Tianyou, and it wasn’t surprising that he suspected the Su family was in cahoots with the Xia family.

The Empress’s Eldest Prince had passed away early, and afterward, he had been physically weak, with no further offspring.

As the maternal family of Empress Su, the Su Mansion no longer had a young master to support, but if they still wanted to preserve the Su family’s position, they would have to choose a Prince to back up.

And he and Consort Shu’s son, Zhao Hongde, were the two Princes with the most competitive edge. Consort Shu was Xia Heng’s biological sister, and Zhao Hongde had the Xia family’s backing. If he gained the Su family’s support as well, who would doubt where the title of Crown Prince would land?

Zhao Hongsheng clenched his fists quietly, lamenting that Su Qiuyu’s heart was set only on Xia Zheng, unable to elicit a response from the Su Mansion even with the offer of a consort’s position. Su Zhe, that old fox, was indeed watertight in his dealings.

At Lin Family Hollow, when Lin Yuan and her family returned home, Lao Fan was worrying over the last bowl of dough ball soup. Upon seeing Lin Yuan’s figure, Lao Fan’s eyes nearly burst into tears with excitement.

Lin Yuan believed that if she had not returned tonight, Lao Fan would surely have cried over that bowl of dough ball soup until dawn.

With a secret chuckle in her heart, Lin Yuan quickly went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Having been on the road for so long, everyone was feeling a bit chilled, so Lin Yuan first made a large pot of ginger soup for everyone to drink and ward off the cold.

Dinner was a large pot of wontons, small pork meatball wontons topped with green onion and cilantro, delicious and warm to eat.

The third and fourth days of the first lunar month were for visiting aunts and uncles to wish them a happy new year. There was no need to visit the uncle’s family, and Lin Jiaxin had no sisters, so these two days, their family did not need to go out and stayed home, gathering together for a chat.

Sometimes, Lin Yuan would think that Lady Yang was so difficult with her daughter-in-law, and perhaps it was related to her not having a daughter.

If she had her own daughter, she would surely empathize and take better care of her daughter-in-law.

After all, no one wants their own daughter to be bullied in her husband’s home.

The fifth day is commonly known as "Breaking Five," a day for setting off firecrackers, and there are no particular food customs. Lin Yuan simply followed her usual habits and made dumplings, which also had a custom on this day, called "pinching the rat’s mouth.

" It was meant to prevent rats from pestering the household in the coming year, ensuring the family’s food was not spoiled.

Luckily, their family did not have anyone born in the year of the rat; otherwise, being "pinched by the rat’s mouth," they wouldn’t have any food to eat the following year.

Of course, this was just local custom, and certainly not taken seriously.

The sixth day would have been uneventful, but because of Lin Yongle’s matter, Lin Family Hollow was quite lively.

Although the funeral procession was not possible, it was still necessary to send Lin Yongle’s remains out for burial. The Lin Family Old House had stuck white paper up early but did not set up a memorial hall. The villagers brought paper and offerings, leaving earlier than usual.

After lunch, Lin Yuan and a few others also came out to see Lin Yongle’s send-off out of the city.

Although there was no funeral procession, the burial team was still sizeable, with Lin Jiazhong leading the way, followed by Lin Yongle’s coffin pulled by a cow cart from Lin Fugui House.

However, the coffin was very ordinary, even less than the one Lin Jiaxin had bought for his own prematurely deceased son.

Lin Yuan moved her delicate eyebrows, noticing the burial team was lacking quite a few people. For example, her own brother, Lin Yongcheng, was absent. Remembering what Liu Zhiyang had told her that day, Lin Yuan grew more curious about Lin Yongcheng.

Upon seeing Lin Jiaxiao’s panda eyes, Lin Yuan realized that Li Feng’e had not shown up either. While she was puzzled, she suddenly overheard a few old women gossiping nearby.

"Just look at Lin family’s third son’s eyes! I told you they had a fight that day, and you didn’t believe me. Now that you’ve seen the person, you should believe it, right?"