No reconciliation, no forgiveness! Mr. Pei leaves with nothing.

"I'm so sorry, Jue. Today at Master Huo's house, we just wanted to test your wife's feelings for you and play a joke on her. I told her about our arranged marriage and asked her to move out of the Huo family's ancestral home, just to see her reaction. I didn't expect her to take it seriously and leave with a man by her side."

"It seems she doesn't value the relationship between you two."

"If you had been there, looking at the man next to her, you would have felt angry too."

Pei Zhan's face was gloomy and ugly. Then he saw several servants carrying a huge wedding photo downstairs. The photo showed none other than Jiang Hua and Xu Zhoulan, their intimate marriage certificate.

"Xu Zhoulan?"

"It's you! It's all because of you, you ugly monster, that my mother left. I'm going to beat you to death!" As he spoke, Gou Dan, his tears still wet on his face, raised his fist and punched Ilya. Pei Zhan picked him up and brought him back.

Kagel told Pei Zhan, "For the past two weeks, Young Master Zhou Lan has been staying with Madam. His room is right next to Madam's. However, Madam sleeps with Young Master Zhou Lan every night and always locks the door. She hasn't done anything improper."

Pei Zhan frowned deeply. "Take all his things out of here and throw them all out."

"Take these things back to where they were just moved down."

The servants responded sheepishly, "Yes, sir."

...

Jiang Hua called Xu Ma and asked her to pick up the child at the appointed time. As soon as she hung up, her phone was suddenly snatched from her hand.

"Xu Zhoulan, what's wrong with you now? Give me your phone."

Xu Zhoulan remained unmoved, turned off her phone, and tossed it onto the back seat. "Since it's an elopement, these useless burdens shouldn't exist."

Jiang Hua was helpless against his actions. Looking at the vast blue ocean in front of her, she said, "You drove for more than an hour just to bring me here?" The surging tides isolated her from all other sounds, and all her thoughts were drawn to it, allowing her to forget about everything else.

I thought he would do something, but Xu Zhoulan just unbuckled his seatbelt, reclined the seat, lay down comfortably, and closed his eyes. "If you want to cry, I can pretend I can't hear you."

She glanced back at the phone lying quietly in the back seat, then looked at Xu Zhoulan, who had quickly fallen asleep with his eyes closed.

Jiang Hua: "..."

She tried to open the car door, but it was already locked.

When Xu Zhoulan woke up, his eyes were blurry. Her figure was no longer beside him. He narrowed his dangerously cold eyes and saw only the open car window. He saw a slender figure not far away, squatting on the beach, picking something up.

Jiang Hua tied her long hair with a tie she found in his car, and carried a small pink bucket filled with colorful seashells, as well as some strangely shaped and hard shells she had never seen before.

A pair of black leather shoes caught her eye out of the corner of her eye, casting a long, slender shadow that enveloped her. "All that time, just for this?"

Jiang Hua: "You don't have children, you don't understand. Gou Dan has some craft projects, so he can take some back as materials."

"Children?" Xu Zhoulan chuckled, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, put one in his mouth, lit it with a metal lighter, took a drag, and the sea breeze blew the wisps of hair on his forehead. He exhaled another puff of smoke, the cigarette between his fingers. "You can't even take care of yourself, how can you have the heart to care about children?"

"idiot!"

"Mr. Xu, the meal is ready. You can dine now. We have prepared a private room for you with a sea view."

Jiang Hua remained silent and unhurried. She picked up her bucket and walked to another spot. Another pink seashell was washed ashore by the waves. Seeing her leave, Xu Zhoulan exhaled his last puff of smoke, waved his hand, and the lobby manager left, no longer wanting to disturb their private time. He tossed away his cigarette butt and followed behind her. "It seems you're not afraid of me at all. I thought you'd run away from such a good opportunity."

Jiang Hua picked up a seashell and washed it in the seawater. "Even if I run, where can I run to?"

"Since we're already here, let's have some fun."

Normally, Jiang Hua wanted to watch over her child 24 hours a day. She would wait for him to get out of school every day and dared not go far. One day, Gou Dan got out of school early and found that Jiang Hua was not at home. He thought she had left and abandoned him, so he cried very hard and developed a high fever the next day.

Another time, Gou Dan was fifteen minutes late leaving school. When she saw that he hadn't come back yet and she couldn't get through to him on the phone, Jiang Hua was extremely worried, thinking that something had happened to him. In the dead of winter, she rushed to the school wearing slippers, only to find that the school was playing games and that they were leaving school late that night.

They couldn't live without each other.

Later, Jiang Hua would wait for her child to get out of school every day. Even when she went out, she was absent-minded, her mind was on her child, and she would go back immediately after going out for a short while.

She had already spoken to Xu Ma and arranged for the child to be taken back to Yulong Bay. With his father there, Gou Dan wouldn't cry.

My maternal grandfather was strict with the children.

Dog Egg prefers his father, his maternal grandfather.

As the only descendant of the Jiang family, her father wished he could give him everything. In Gou Dan, Jiang Hua also saw her own past self: unconditional indulgence and pampering. When things got out of hand, the Jiang family would always take the blame.

“When I go back, I’ll be facing Pei Zhan, and… his fiancée.”

"At least you're all alone here, so I don't have to bother one person."

This reason did surprise Xu Zhoulan. "I thought that with his return, you would be eager to go back to his side."

"After all, your car accident, and the disappearance of your two children, were all my doing."

“You should hate me to the bone and want me dead! But now… not only are you living under the same roof as your enemy, but you’ll also be having dinner with him again later.”

"To spend... a date that's just for the two of us."

Jiang Hua paused, then put the washed pink seashells into the bucket before standing up to face him. "Do you believe in karma?"

"Retribution?" Xu Zhoulan seemed to have heard something ridiculous and laughed loudly. "Jiang Hua, you really... imagine things more naively than I do."

"There is real retribution. No member of the Huo family in any generation could have survived to this day."

"The culprit who conspired with the Wang family to kill your mother is right in front of you. What can you do about her?"

With her back to the sea breeze, Jiang Hua tucked her stray hairs behind her ears. "If what you're saying is true, do you think Huo Tingshan wouldn't know what you know?"

"Xia He killed so many people, including Huo Qianxue, the woman he loved most. Shouldn't he avenge her?"

“Xu Zhoulan, some things are about logic, not about believing your lies made up in a few words.”

Xu Zhoulan chuckled, lit a cigarette, took a puff, and looked at her with a smile: "The women who can stay by his side are the fittest. Those without means and ability are not qualified to sit in the position of the Huo family's matriarch. Do you think Huo Tingshan would allow his own weaknesses to exist?"

“He can love my mother, and he can give his love to Jiang Qingcheng. Even if they die, Huo Tingshan will only blame them for not having the means or the life to live.”

"Do you really think Huo Tingshan didn't know Xia He was faking illness? Didn't know... what she did?"

“My mother, like Jiang Qingcheng, has all the beauty but no skills, so she’s destined not to survive long in this world of fame and fortune. But Xia He’s methods just happen to suit Huo Tingshan’s taste. She’s not Huo Tingshan’s favorite woman, but she has this…” Xu Zhoulan tapped his temple with his index finger, “These two combined aren’t enough. Xia He can do it all by herself.”

“No one in the entire collateral branch of the Huo family respects this so-called matriarch of the Huo family, and they don’t even take her seriously. But that doesn’t mean that Xia He has no means to consolidate her position.”

"People like you who are born into privilege, your greatest ambition is nothing more than to find a suitable family for marriage and consolidate the status of both families."

“But Xia He is different. She has no status and no background. If she wants to climb up, she can only remove the obstacles in front of her and she has to do whatever it takes.”

"You can't even handle a mere Song Qingran."

“She’s smarter than you. If I were a man, I would choose a smarter woman too. There’s never a shortage of beautiful women in this world. In this circle of fame and fortune, they are like products with a price tag. It’s always been like this.”

"Without ambition or means, all you await is to be devoured and perish."

"The island that Huo Tingshan bought for your mother was just a pretense of deep affection. Even if Xia He is jealous, she won't care about a dead person."

"She has already won just by being alive."

"The dead are nothing more than stepping stones for her to rise to power."

Xu Zhoulan changed the subject with a smile and said, "You are luckier than your mother. You were able to shoot at the head of the Huo family and still escape unscathed, and the Huo family didn't even hold it against you. You are the first person to do so."

"Xia He is not as good as you in this respect. If it were her... she would have died countless times by now."

A gust of wind blew towards her, and Jiang Hua felt a chill that cut to the bone...

...

The two arrived at the seaside hotel, where the manager led them to a private room. The food that had been cold on the table had been cleared away, and the food on the table was freshly prepared.

Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows lies an endless sea. At sunset, golden light falls on the sea surface, shimmering and sparkling, creating a mesmerizing scene.

Xu Zhoulan snapped his fingers, and a waiter brought over a glass of simmered red wine with a piece of flavored fruit inside. "Want to try some?"

Jiang Hua was still replaying Xu Zhoulan's words in her mind, which made her lose interest. "I can't drink alcohol."

Xu Zhoulan said, "Drinking just a little bit won't harm your health."

"Don't worry, I've seen your medical report. How could I bear to let you die before I'm still interested in you?"

"Even if you get drunk and have sex with someone while intoxicated, do you think I won't take responsibility for you?"

Xu Zhoulan served her a bowl of rice and placed it in front of her. He then opened a bottle of Romanée-Conti worth millions. The dimly lit environment, filled with a flirtatious atmosphere, created an indescribable ambiguous feeling. The two ate their meal in silence for fifteen minutes without saying a word. She wanted to check the time and was worried about her child at home, but then she remembered that her phone was still in the car.

Xu Zhoulan downed the red wine in his glass in one gulp, his thin lips seemingly tinged with a seductive red, his hazy gaze fixed on her as if admiring his prey.

Jiang Hua held chopsticks in her hand, and was almost full. She only drank a few sips of the bowl of wine beside her, which was more of a sweet soup with a low alcohol content than wine.

Seeing his expression, Jiang Hua also felt that he was a little drunk. With her head down, she casually asked, "Why did Huo Tingshan say at the wedding five years ago that the Zhou family's affairs were over?"

"What does this have to do with you?"

Xu Zhoulan: "Trying to trick me into telling me something?"

"Drink this glass of red wine, and I'll tell you."

There wasn't much wine, just half a glass.

Jiang Hua glanced at it and said, "I'm just curious, but it's not hard to guess that this matter is indeed related to you."

"I don't think it's worth risking my life for a single issue."

The door to the private room was closed, making it difficult for air to get in; it was too hot. He reached out and unbuttoned three buttons on his dark red velvet shirt, a cigarette between his fingers. His narrow, dreamy peach blossom eyes made him look extremely charming and wicked, and his lips looked as if they were stained with blood.

The smoke quickly spread towards her, carrying an unpleasant and pungent smell. Jiang Hua immediately threw the spoon in her hand at him, yelling, "I told you not to smoke, put it out!"

"I have a heart condition."

Despite her rude behavior, Xu Zhoulan was not angry. Instead, she obediently drank the wine from the gold-rimmed porcelain plate. "Drink this cup of wine, and I will tell you the true cause of Zhou Xu's death..."

Jiang Hua's hand rested on the table, her nails digging into the surface.

Seeing her reaction, Xu Zhoulan laughed, "Aren't you curious about how Zhou Xu died?"

Jiang Hua: "You'll tell me?"

Xu Zhoulan's lips curled up slightly, his smile enigmatic: "Why not? The Zhou family's case has already been closed. Even if I turn myself in, no one will dare to do anything to me. After all, with Huo Tingshan around, I can always get away unscathed. Carrying my guilt towards Huo Qianxue, he won't let anything happen to me."

He paused, seemingly observing Jiang Hua's reaction, before continuing, "And... that letter of understanding, don't you want to know who begged for it?"

Jiang Hua frowned slightly. She was indeed curious about the origin of the letter of understanding, but she didn't show it.

"I just want to see how you look when you drink. I'll tell you the answers to two secrets right away. It's a good deal for you."

"You'd better not lie to me." Jiang Hua didn't respond to him, picked up the half-glass of red wine, and drank it all in one gulp without hesitation.

For the past few years, she had not touched alcohol. Now, as she swallowed this sip of red wine, the alcohol quickly spread through her bloodstream, making her feel dizzy.

She composed herself, sat back down in her chair, looked at Xu Zhoulan, and said, "Now you can speak."

"Zhou Xu's first crime scene was not because of your father's car accident, but it was indeed because of your father's selfish desire to get that heart that delayed her treatment, which led to her... death in the end."

Jiang Hua was somewhat surprised: "Not the primary crime scene?"

"Yes." Xu Zhoulan leaned back, his fingers pressed against his temples, watching her languidly as she struggled to stay composed despite being drunk. "She was drugged before she left. As for who drugged her... why don't you guess?"