Not following the expected path? Reborn and unexpectedly married to a demon.

"Young Master, why did you suddenly bring up these two people?" Seventeen racked his brains but couldn't figure it out.

Chu Luo's appearance and temperament seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with that family.

Madam Chu's appearance reflected her true nature; she had a sharp and mean-spirited look.

Chu Yinmei and Chu Luo are two extremes; one is so beautiful that she attracts attention, while the other is so fierce, hateful, and ugly that she is unforgettable.

“When you mention last year, I’m reminded of the time we met this mother and daughter during the anti-piracy campaign last Mid-Autumn Festival. Do you remember?” Jin Wuchen said.

Seventeen recalled the incident of suppressing pirates. There were a great many pirates and civilians involved. If it weren't for the mention of these two people, Seventeen wouldn't have even noticed.

But now that he thinks about it, he seems to have some recollection of it, or rather, he remembers it as a painting.

"They were robbed of their gold and silver jewelry, and they said everything was meant to be given to a high-ranking official in the court. Among the items they took was a painting."

Seventeen and Jin Wuchen entered the island and encountered pirates amidst a great commotion.

A woman was kneeling on the ground, begging the pirate captain to return their gold and silver. The woman next to her was holding a long box with exquisite carvings.

The pirate captain snatched the painting and looked at it for a long time.

Seventeen was hiding in the shadows at the time, and the paper for that painting was new.

Therefore, I conclude that it is not a famous ancient painting.

He vaguely saw a person in the painting, a graceful woman, or someone like the young master, Bu Yuyi.

"Back then, that greedy pirate captain looked at the painting and seemed to agree to some request they made," Seventeen recalled.

"The person in the painting should be Chu Luo, and the painting should be the work of the old painter Ning Hai."

The figure in the painting gradually merged with Chu Luo. He was always very accurate in his judgment, so he was quite certain.

"Since Madam Chu and Chu Yinmei dislike the young mistress so much, how could they be willing to spend so much money to commission a painting?"

Seventeen sensed something was wrong; something unusual must be amiss.

"Could it be that, besides sending gold and silver to their maternal home to give to some high-ranking official, they also plan to send the young mistress as a gift?"

When Seventeen mentioned this, she looked at Jin Wuchen, who clearly thought the same thing.

A beauty like the young mistress would indeed be an extremely rare treasure if given as a gift.

But Chu Luo was a plaything that brought disaster.

If the recipient of the gift is of average rank, then it will pass through the hands of several officials.

Unless she was sent to Feng Zhe's hands.

Otherwise, even if she were sent to the palace, she would still be unable to escape Feng Zhe's clutches.

"The mother and daughter saw me make a move, so when I went to the Chu family to rescue Chu Luo later, they recognized me immediately."

Jin Wuchen spoke of these things in a calm and collected manner.

Seventeen knew that if it weren't for the connection with the young mistress, Jin Wuchen would never have thought of those two people.

"It seems the painting was eventually destroyed, and the wicked mother and daughter, having been robbed of their money, must have returned home."

"Our young mistress was almost given away by those two. Luckily, we happened to be out suppressing pirates and intercepted them. It seems you and the young mistress were connected long ago; this is a good deed that has brought you good fortune."

Seventeen was somewhat sentimental.

The campaign to suppress the pirates was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but rather the result of Jin Wuchen receiving two pieces of information.

One is that some people are using pirates to rob passersby in his territory, and this is becoming increasingly rampant.

Secondly, some people were transporting large quantities of Wushisan (a type of powder) by sea to Dazheng (another type of tax). Pirates knew this and intended to hoard it, then resold it to the border troops. This phenomenon also occurred in the farthest northwest troops.

The second piece of news came secretly and involved even greater harm; after investigating, he found this to be true.

That's how he ended up raiding the fourteen pirate dens.

That time, we did manage to stop Madam Chu for a while.

After Madam Chu and her daughter returned home, Chu Yinmei, having been frightened and beaten in the pirate's den, fell seriously ill.

The original plan to visit my maternal grandfather's house during the Mid-Autumn Festival was delayed until the end of the year.

Because her carefully prepared money was stolen, Madam Chu secretly took more of the Chu family's money. Master Chu was unaware of this, and Chu Luo had a handle on him.

It was this very weakness that led Chu Luo to demand half of Chu Yinmei's dowry from her before their marriage.

"If the young mistress knew that you had helped her so much, wouldn't she be very grateful to you?" Seventeen asked.

"No," Jin Wuchen answered crisply.

"Why? After all, you changed her tragic situation. The young mistress isn't an ungrateful person. Are you mistaken?"

The young mistress is kind and considerate of others' kindness to her. Even he has received a lot of thanks and benefits from her, which is definitely not what the young master said.

The fact that the young master made this judgment shows that he doesn't understand the young mistress as well as the young master does.

It serves him right that he can't find the young mistress now.

Seventeen had a very different opinion from him on this matter.

Because she won't know about this.

Jin Wuchen explained the reason.

"Why not let her know?" Seventeen wondered.

"You're asking too many 'whys,' and your skin is getting thicker and thicker. She's the one who sent us to wipe out the pirates. How can we let her know we're grateful?" Jin Wuchen rolled her eyes at him.

"Besides, we only stopped her that one time. From that time until she married into the Jin family, there was plenty of time in between when that mother and daughter gave her away. Moreover, Chu Songyuan was missing for a period of time."

"But she wasn't sent away; she's stayed with the Chu family. Why don't you want that?"

Jin Wuchen thought more than Seventeen.

"Right, why wasn't it delivered later?" Seventeen realized upon hearing this.

Jin Wuchen recalled the day he first met Chu Luo and said, "It wasn't that we stopped her that time and that solved her crisis; it was how she saved herself."

"Her mother wasn't particularly cunning or manipulative, yet she managed to stay in the Chu family for so many years despite their difficult circumstances, until she was bullied terribly after her marriage."

"And she, with her notorious reputation since childhood, was coveted by many. That mother and daughter were constantly plotting to get rid of her and torment her. If she were truly an innocent little rabbit, she would probably have been utterly destroyed long ago."

She was trying to save herself.

Jin Wuchen didn't feel that he had saved her.

He also regretted that he appeared in her life too late; with him around, she wouldn't have suffered so much that would have broken his heart.

He felt sorry for Chu Luo because she was the most precious person in his heart.

From another perspective, he admired her resilience and intelligence; she relied on her own abilities and never depended too much on anyone else.

That's why she was able to leave him so easily and decisively, abandoning him.

Thinking of this, Jin Wuchen felt somewhat helpless.

"So it seems we weren't helpful at all. We should have known better than to let that mother and daughter go back in the first place."

Seventeen was indignant about Chu Luo's situation, feeling that it was too unfair to his young mistress to be entangled with that vile mother and daughter.

A person like the young mistress should be as pure and untainted as the bright moon.

"Not entirely. That time, the pirate raid helped me out."

"What kind of help? Besides getting a large sum of gold and silver and ruining the Five-Stone Powder, what else is there?"