After rebirth, she became the favorite of the powerful minister.

Zhan Yanfeng sat for a while, chatting with some indirect hints, but Yuan Junfeng seemed a little bored, as if sighing or helpless, and looked like he had suffered a great blow no matter how you looked at him. As for other clues, there was no sign of them at all.

Zhan Yanfeng was not a person who could read people's expressions. After his attempts to probe him failed, he got up and said goodbye, saying that he had other things to deal with.

When he was leaving the house, he saw Jianshu coming in. Zhan Yanfeng stopped and looked at her. The little girl just lowered her head and stepped aside to the side of the road. Nan Yin's lively personality and such a taciturn person were a little hard to imagine. He tilted his head to look at the little girl and suddenly asked, "Your name is, Jianshu? Which two words?"

"Replying to the Third Elder, the word 'jian' means identification, and the word 'shu' means books."

It's a good name, and it really seems like something that a pretentious young man could come up with. Zhan Yanfeng nodded, and when he was about to ask something else, he saw the servant peeking out of the door, his face full of panic, as if the words "something big is happening" were written on his face. Zhan Yanfeng felt a headache for a moment, lowered his head, lifted the hem of his clothes, carefully avoided the pond that had not yet dried up, walked to the door, and lowered his eyes to look at the servant.

The servant said in a low voice at a very fast speed, "Master, Sister Hong is back."

Zhan Yanfeng's brows jumped again. Wow, it's really a big deal.

The "Hong Jie'er" mentioned by the servant was actually Hong Jie'er, who was originally his accountant. No one knew her real name, so just call her Hong Jie'er. Hong Jie'er was pretty, probably because she had suffered some emotional injuries in her early years. During the years she worked for him, she did not live on Zhixuan Mountain, but only built a wooden house halfway up the mountain and lived in seclusion. After a few years, they lived in harmony and peace.

Who would have thought that, that winter, it would rain as heavily as last night. Thinking that the mountain road was difficult to travel, I had dinner in Sister Hong's room. She suggested drinking some plum wine she brewed herself to warm up the body... Who would have thought that when I woke up again, the person had left, and there has been no news from him since then.

"Where is she?"

"In your courtyard, he said he wanted to see you urgently."

Zhan Yanfeng no longer cared about the corners of his robe that might be soaked with water, and hurried back at a brisk pace. As soon as he saw Hong Lan at the door, he was about to ask her about the matter that had been on his mind for many years, but he heard her quickly say, "Third Master! The person Nan Yin brought was not Shi Yin! It was Wen Qian, the wife of the commander of the Jinyiwei and the daughter of the Minister of Revenue!"

This news was abrupt and strange. Zhan Yanfeng didn't seem to understand it. He lowered his eyes to look at the other person's hair and frowned subconsciously, "What?"

Hong Lan swallowed her saliva. She came in a hurry. After escaping from Shengjing Prison that day, she took a small path to Zhixuan Mountain. But as soon as she got back to Zhixuan Mountain, she heard that "Master Nanyin brought two girls to Zhixuan Mountain, and one of the girls looked a bit like the late Miss Yuan Ge". She was so scared that her soul almost left her body. How could she care about anything else and ran straight to Zhan Yanfeng!

Wen Qian is still alive! Did Song Wenyuan instruct her to fake her death and come to Zhixuan Mountain to capture all of Zhixuan Mountain? !

Hong Lan, feeling uneasy, did not notice where the other person's eyes were. She swallowed repeatedly, and only by doing so could she calm her heart that was beating in her throat. She held onto Zhan Yanfeng's arm and looked up at him. Knowing that he did not like noisy women, she tried to speak slowly and gently, "Jin Su was arrested, and Zhi Xuanshan's business in Shengjing has been completely closed down. Before her death, Jin Su kidnapped the cousin of the Earl of Kejing and threatened Wen Qian to go to an appointment alone. Wen Qian's whereabouts are unknown since then. Jin Su also implicated me, and I escaped from prison. Third Master, Wen Qian is here with bad intentions!"

"Wen Qian?" Zhan Yanfeng looked at the other person's hand that was holding his arm. His face did not change, he just said "Oh" slowly, with a slightly rising tone at the end, "The one called Shiyin, right? I don't think she looks like a maid... But, Hong Jie'er, if I remember correctly, I don't have any business in Shengjing City. Besides, since you left without saying goodbye that night, I thought we were no longer in a relationship of employer and subordinate... Could it be that you are working for the second brother now?"

"I..." Hong Lan was stunned and blurted out subconsciously, "You don't want to..."

"What do I want?" Zhan Yanfeng slowly raised his hand and stroked the roughly carved wooden hairpin in the other person's hair. There was a kind of almost fierce tenderness in his slowly raised eyebrows. He looked at the other person so "gently". "What do I want? Hmm? Sister Hong, could it be that you have gone down the mountain to do some head-killing business in recent years, and now that the truth has been revealed, you want to escape back and ask me to save you? It would be fine if you asked me to save you, but you have to say that it was me who wanted it... What's the logic?"

Hong Lan shuddered suddenly, and she belatedly loosened her hand that was holding the other person's arm and tried to retreat, but Zhan Yanfeng was one step faster than her and hooked his hand around her neck to block her retreat.

The hand was cold, pressing against the skin on the back of her neck. The chill spread from her neck all the way to her limbs, making her feel like she was falling into an ice cellar.

What made her scalp tingle even more was the feeling of the wooden hairpin slowly sliding across her skin, so lightly, slowly and gently.

Treat it as if it were a rare treasure.

However, the treasure was not her Hong Lan, but the wooden hairpin in her hair.

"Third Master..." She was so upset that she forgot to take off the hairpin, and was caught red-handed. Hong Lan avoided the other person's gaze, lowered her eyebrows and opened her mouth, but could not say anything to explain. That night, she was just in high spirits and brought home-brewed plum wine, which tasted sweet. This person drank too much and got drunk. I don't know why, but I suddenly became curious about what treasure this person kept in the small box...

At this point, even Hong Lan herself couldn't tell. If time could go back to the beginning, would she still coax him to open the box when he was drunk? Or would she still choose to follow him up the mountain and get involved in this relationship that was destined to end in vain?

she does not know.

Time cannot go back to the beginning, and she is destined to have no answer.

The third elder of Zhixuan Mountain, who lives alone and keeps himself clean, secretly loves a woman whom he is destined to never get. Just like her, Honglan, she also secretly loves a man who never has her in his eyes.

After not seeing each other for several years, wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes, and there were faint lines even when he was not smiling. There were already a few strands of snow in his meticulously groomed hair. Zhan Yanfeng...is still old after all. Even though he always looks like someone forgets his age, he is still old. He has never accepted old age, and he dares not to grow old. Under the box containing the wooden hairpin, he has carved his heavy thoughts stroke by stroke -

I was born before you were born, but when you were born, I was already old.