Senior brother, how can you fall for such a beautiful junior brother!

Zhao Honglan smiled bitterly: "Although it's not a very good jade pendant, it's still worth twenty taels of silver."

He pursed his lips, then continued: "Besides, this was given to me...before I left home."

When he said this, his face flushed unnaturally.

When his companions saw him like this, they knew who had given him the jade pendant.

He immediately laughed mischievously and said, "That's very important. If you lose it by accident, your face will be scratched."

Zhao Honglan stood there with an embarrassed look on his face, but his eyes kept looking towards the side hall: "I have to go and get it back quickly."

His companions also understood. Those of them who were on duty changed their clothes in a side hall. If a jade pendant worth dozens of taels of silver was left here, there was a high possibility that it would be taken away by someone.

And most importantly, the jade pendant is something that is somewhat private. If it is left in the imperial city, there is no telling when someone might take it out and make a fuss about it.

I don’t know how I died then.

So his companion said, "Then you go quickly and come back soon, and I will go back first."

Zhao Honglan nodded quickly and said, "Yes, you should go back quickly. It's best not to stay in the imperial city after the duty is over. Don't wait for me."

Zhao Honglan had been transferred here not long ago and did not have a very deep friendship with this person. It was only because Zhao Honglan was generous enough that he was able to quickly handle the interpersonal relationship.

But their relationship wasn't so good that she would be willing to take the risk of accompanying him to search for the jade pendant in the imperial city after her shift was over.

After seeing the people who were on duty with him leave, Zhao Honglan immediately put away his previous blushing look when mentioning his sweetheart, and walked nimbly towards the interior of the imperial city.

In the inn.

After listening to Lian Li and Yun Huizhou's stories, Qu Tingquan and Captain Zheng looked more solemn than each other, making Yun Huizhou and Lian Li, who were at the center of the storm, look like nothing happened.

Qu Tingquan said: "Fengling Villa... This is really a place that would make Master feel overwhelmed just by hearing about it."

Captain Zheng was not aware of what was happening at Fengling Villa. What made him look so serious was the man named Young Master Hou.

"Captain Zheng, do you also know this Hou Yuanpeng?" Lian Li couldn't help but ask when he saw that Captain Zheng looked like he knew the inside story.

Captain Zheng has been at the border for more than ten years and only returns occasionally on official business.

His parents, wife and children were also taken to the border, and he usually didn't get involved in the affairs of the underworld.

Logically speaking, he should not know Hou Yuanpeng. Even if he had heard of Hou Yuanpeng's reputation, he should not have seen him, unless Hou Yuanpeng had been to the border and had contact with Lei's army.

But judging from Captain Zheng's performance, this contact was probably not a pleasant one.

Captain Zheng did not answer Lian Li's question immediately. Instead, he thought for a while before saying, "I once saw a man who looked very similar to him at the celebration banquet held by the imperial palace for the army. However, at that time, he was only a teenager of about fourteen or fifteen years old. It has been seven or eight years since then, so I am not sure it is the same person. He was sitting with Cai Yong at that time."

Lian Li blurted out: "Could he be Cai Yong's son?"

Yun Huizhou: "Cai Yong's last name is Cai, so it's impossible for him to have the last name Hou. Could it be that he took his mother's last name?"

Qu Tingquan: "As far as I know, Mrs. Cai Yong's surname is not Hou. Could it be that he was born to a concubine, so he doesn't have Cai Yong's surname? But that doesn't make sense. If he was born to a concubine, and Cai Yong didn't let him have his surname, he must not like this son very much. How could he bring him into the palace?"

Seeing the three people start to speculate, Captain Zheng opened his mouth several times but did not get a word in.

It was Qu Tingquan who saw that he wanted to speak, and he quickly stopped Yun Huizhou and Lian Li: "Junior Brother Lian, Brother Yun, it seems that Captain Zheng hasn't finished speaking yet. We are too impatient. Let's listen to Captain Zheng finish first."

Yun Huizhou and Lian Li quickly stopped their discussion and looked at Captain Zheng: "Captain Zheng, please continue."

Captain Zheng nodded and continued, "That person should not be Cai Yong's son. The emperor was sitting at the top, and that person was sitting just below the emperor. Cai Yong was seated at the back."

He remembered that the three people in front of him were all from the underworld and might not know much about some of the situations in the palace. It just so happened that this was not a secret, so he added: "In the past, Cai Yong always sat in the seat to the emperor's left, but that time it was replaced by the young man who looked like Hou Yuanpeng. This is not the strangest thing. The strangest thing is that even if the seat to the lower left of the emperor was taken, with Cai Yong's... status at the time, he was supposed to sit in the lower right seat."

"But he didn't. Instead, he chose to sit next to the boy, in the position where the boy would attack. And during their conversation, it can be seen that Cai Yong's attitude towards the boy contained some respect."

"As for whether he was truly respectful or just pretending to be respectful, I have no idea. I only know that the young man must be someone extraordinary. However, no one mentioned who the young man was during the entire banquet."

After listening to Captain Zheng's story, Lian Li blinked his eyes, and then the three people present asked: "Do you think this Hou Yuanpeng is the boy?"

Yun Huizhou didn't reply, but just lowered his head in thought.

Qu Tingquan answered quickly: "Hou Yuanpeng himself doesn't look like a pure Jianghu person. Rather than saying he is a Jianghu person, he is more like the son of a rich and powerful family."

"Although he has always called the man in black who follows him his good friend, the man in black cannot hide his respect for him. Rather than being a friend, they are more like master and servant."

Lian Li raised his hand: "Senior Sister Qu is right, I feel the same way."

Yun Huizhou also raised his hand like Lian Li: "I think so too."

Captain Zheng: ...

Captain Zheng was silent for a moment, then said, "I think so too."

Seeing that no one disagreed with this statement, Lian Li continued, "Since everyone feels this way, let's temporarily increase the probability that Hou Yuanpeng is the boy to 80%."

Yun Huizhou asked curiously, "Why is it 80% instead of 100%?"

Lian Li said, "Because there is still a 20% possibility of other reasons, such as the boy or the current Hou Yuanpeng is disguised and coincidentally resembles each other. Or maybe they are actually twins or brothers who just happen to look very similar."

At this point, Lian Li asked again: "Senior Sister Qu, do you know how old Hou Yuanpeng is this year?"

Qu Tingquan was really confused by the question. After thinking for a while, he said, "I'm not sure of his exact age, but I know that he is two or three years older than me and Hong Lan."

Lian Li looked at Captain Zheng: "Captain Zheng, the boy you saw seven or eight years ago was about fourteen or fifteen years old, so he should be between twenty-one and twenty-three years old now. He happens to be two or three years older than Senior Sister Qu and Senior Brother Zhao."