A dowry of one billion, and I'll marry him!

"Young Madam, would you like some lotus flowers?" a servant asked, noticing the lotus flowers in full bloom.

Some people like to pick some newly opened lotus flowers and put them in a vase to admire them.

"No need, I want to eat some fresh lotus seeds," Shi Yanxia said softly.

The servants, holding her red envelope, naturally worked harder. Watching them pick the fruit, she turned and looked upstairs, where she saw Zhan Jinglin and the old man standing upstairs watching this scene.

She winked at them, then turned her head and pointed to the lotus pond.

"Does this girl really just want to eat lotus seeds?" the old man asked, somewhat doubtful.

It seems that Shi Yanxia always acts unpredictably, and her actions are hard to fathom. Even he can't see through her thoughts. Although she is only 20 years old, she is definitely not the kind of person who would be so willful as to let so many people pick things for her.

"She's probably trying to give us an opportunity," Zhan Jinglin said in a deep voice.

The old man listened, frowned slightly, but didn't ask any more questions.

Sure enough, just as Zhan Jinglin finished speaking, a servant who had rowed to the center of the pool suddenly exclaimed, "There's something here, something at the bottom of the pool."

"What is that?" someone whispered.

In an instant, the lotus pond was thrown into chaos.

Zhan Jinglin and the old man exchanged a glance, then turned and walked outside. After taking a few steps, Zhan Jinglin stopped and said to him, "Grandpa, you should still use a wheelchair."

"..." The old man stood there, forced back into his wheelchair, and was pushed downstairs by Zhan Jinglin.

He touched his leg, which had just been put in a cast by Zhan Jinglin, and fell silent.

His leg was healed and no longer in pain, but he still had to pretend to be dead and sit in a wheelchair, and he couldn't show it off to anyone! He felt a bit stifled. If he could talk about it, he would definitely make those old guys drool with envy.

After all, not everyone is so capable; there must be a childhood betrothal who understands metaphysics and traditional Chinese medicine.

The more he thought about it, the more he believed he had been prescient! Naturally, he was in a great mood.

Beside the lotus pond, Shi Yanxia took a lotus pod handed to her by a servant, casually picked some fresh lotus seeds, peeled them, and ate them. While doing so, she peeked out and asked curiously, "Why is there something in the pond?"

"I don't know! We usually clean the pool, and we've never heard of anything in it before," the servant said in a low voice.

Two servants carried the harvested lotus pods to the shore and placed them there. Others rowed a boat toward the shore, with freshly caught items on the boat.

"What's going on?" The old man's voice came even before he arrived.

Upon hearing the old man's voice, the butler said with a trembling voice, "Old man, there seems to be something in the pool."

"What is that?" the old man shouted angrily.

The servants were a little uneasy. After all, the lotus pond was cleaned once a week, but now something had been found in it. If the old man blamed them for being lazy, they would lose their jobs.

The Zhan family's jobs pay much more than those outside, and they're also very easy! Nobody wants to be fired.

"I don't know, it was in a cloth bag, it looked quite old, and it even smelled a bit bad." The butler shuddered as he spoke.

The more he said this, the less confident he became.

After all, he's the housekeeper; if something goes wrong, he'll definitely have to take responsibility.

"Bring it here and open it," the old man said in a deep voice.

The servants immediately brought the items over. They saw that the cloth bag was covered in moss and was of poor quality, with several tears in it.

"Yes," the servant replied quickly.

Someone took a pair of scissors and immediately cut the object open, revealing a set of clothes inside.

"It looks like a set of clothes. Someone probably didn't want it anymore and accidentally threw it into the pool. It sank to the bottom, so we didn't find it when we cleaned the pool," the butler said, wiping away cold sweat.

The old man narrowed his dark eyes slightly, and after a long while, his expression darkened.

"Since they're unwanted clothes, then forget about them. Just be more careful when cleaning the pool next time," the old man said, waving his hand.

The butler wiped away a cold sweat and quickly nodded, saying, "Yes."

"Since there's nothing serious, you can all go now," Zhan Jinglin said in a deep voice.

Upon hearing this, the steward immediately led the servants away, and the pavilion instantly returned to silence.

Shi Yanxia ate lotus seeds as she walked over. After glancing down at the housekeeper, she looked at him and whispered, "Is this housekeeper someone from your uncle's side?"

"How did you know?" Zhan Jinglin asked, somewhat surprised.

Outsiders cannot access information about these people, Shi Yanxia stated directly.

“I just gave red envelopes to all the servants and bodyguards in the old house. The red envelopes have talismans I drew on them. If they touch them, I can tell if their hands and feet are clean.”

“I noticed that the butler’s aura is similar to your uncle’s, so he probably has some connection to your mother’s side. Also, there are two bodyguards and another servant, which seems suspicious as well,” she said.

She took out her phone, dug out the photos she had "accidentally" taken when she sent out red envelopes, circled the people with problems, and sent them to Zhan Jinglin's phone.

“These people are probably all on your mother’s side. Grandpa just needs to keep an eye on them,” Shi Yanxia said.

The old man looked at those people and felt a chill run down his spine.

"These two bodyguards are my trusted confidants who I take with me when I'm away from home all year round. How could they have become her people?" The old man's voice was tinged with confusion.

Zhan Jinglin narrowed his dark eyes and said after a long while, "They are indeed her people. Gu Qing investigated their private whereabouts a few days ago. They go back to the old house there every month."

“I’m afraid my uncle has disappeared all these years. My mother has always claimed to have no contact with them, but secretly she’s been making contact through these two bodyguards,” Zhan Jinglin said.

The person she pointed out was the very person he had already identified.

“And this, do you recognize it?” Shi Yanxia pointed to the cut-open cloth bag on the ground.

The old man slowly closed his eyes, and after a long while, he said in a deep voice, "These are the clothes of my dead son. I gave them to him before the accident."

"I never imagined that someone would throw my clothes into the pool." The old man's voice trembled.

He was trying his best to control his emotions, but after all, it was his son whom he had raised with his own hands. When he died a violent death, he almost followed him. If it weren't for Zhan Jinglin's young age, he really wouldn't have had the courage to live.

"The clothes were thrown into the lotus pond. You used to enjoy drinking tea and playing chess in this pavilion all year round. The clothes of the dead have been tampered with and have been in close contact with you for many years."

"This has led to a series of misfortunes for you in recent years, ultimately forcing you to retire," Shi Yanxia said.

The old man remained silent for a long time, then nodded slightly and said, "Indeed, ever since my son had that accident, my luck has been declining, and the Zhan family's businesses have also encountered problems one after another."

“Until Ah Lin took over the family business, I realized that as long as I didn’t interfere, the family business would be fine, but if I did, something would definitely go wrong.”

"After a while, I stopped managing the family business and faded from everyone's sight," said Old Master Zhan.