After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

When Xie Chaoyun led Lu Zhiyuan out, the servants of the Zhu and Lu families were fighting fiercely, and the commotion was so great that it even alarmed the people of the Commandant's Mansion.

Zhu Guozhi's coffin fell to the ground, the nails on the coffin were loose, and a putrid smell emanated from it.

Holding the memorial tablet, Madam Zhu cried out, "My lord, please do justice for me and arrest Ji Wanwan, who committed adultery and conspired to murder her husband."

Lu Huai was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly pushed Ji Wanwan away and shouted, "Where did this shrew come from? What nonsense are you spouting?!"

Old Madam Zhu wiped the blood from her face, stood up shakily from the ground, and held up the memorial tablet in her hand, saying: "My son Zhu Guozhi and Ji Wanwan were registered in the government office and were a legitimate couple. My son was murdered innocently, and my daughter-in-law spent her days mingling with you. Even the daughter she gave birth to took your surname, Lu. Do you dare to say that you and my daughter-in-law have nothing to do with my son's death?"

The onlookers were buzzing with discussion, and Lu Huai's expression changed. He hurriedly asked Ji Wanwan what was going on.

Ji Wanwan avoided eye contact, not daring to look at Old Madam Zhu at all. She only said that she didn't recognize this person and that he might be deliberately trying to cause trouble. Lu Huai was about to speak with the Commandant's Office when he caught sight of Xie Chaoyun out of the corner of his eye and quickly walked over.

"Why did Yunniang come out? You're still not well." He pulled her into his arms, putting on the act of a good husband, and said loudly, "I don't know where you unruly people came from, but please open your eyes and see clearly. This is my wife, the daughter of General Xie Yuandao, the Pillar of the State."

Madam Zhu stepped forward carrying the memorial tablet. "So it's General Xie's daughter! I had no intention of causing trouble in front of the Marquis's mansion, but my son died unjustly, and my daughter-in-law is entangled with Marquis Lu. I beg you, Madam, to see the truth and do justice for my son."

"My lord, what exactly happened?" Xie Chaoyun asked as he ordered a maid to help Old Madam Zhu up.

Lu Huai feigned ignorance and instructed Xie Chaoyun to use the Xie family's connections to resolve the matter as quickly as possible. Under the emperor's nose, any slightest disturbance would reach his ears. He had just returned from Weinan and hadn't yet reported to the palace; he couldn't afford to jeopardize his future because of this.

Xie Chaoyun said in a low voice, "Forcibly driving people away might give people something to say, making it clear that the Marquis and my cousin have an unspeakable improper relationship."

Lu Huai felt guilty and dared not look her in the eye: "Then what should we do?"

Xie Chaoyun gestured for him to calm down and walked up to Madam Zhu: "Is Ji Wanwan Madam's daughter-in-law?"

Madam Zhu instructed her servants to bring out the tokens of their love and the record made at the government office.

The token of love was a personal item, and Xie Chaoyun couldn't verify its authenticity. She simply accepted the registration and handed it to the captain. This registration was equivalent to a marriage registration in the real world, including the names of both parties, their place of origin, age, and residence. Based on the information, it was undoubtedly Ji Wanwan.

Xie Chaoyun returned the file to Madam Zhu: "Ji Wanwan is the Marquis's cousin. She came back to the manor with my Marquis a few days ago to seek refuge. She does have two children, and those two children do have the surname Lu. I always thought that was my cousin's husband's surname."

Old Madam Zhu looked at Xie Chaoyun with pity: "My son's surname is Zhu, my maternal family's surname is Wang, and there is no one in our family with the surname Lu."

"Then we'll have to ask Cousin Ji." Xie Chaoyun turned around.

"I--"

Ji Wanwan pleaded with Lu Huai for help with her eyes, but Lu Huai ignored her and instead urged Ji Wanwan to explain to everyone.

Ji Wanwan's eyes reddened, and she tearfully recounted that she had indeed married Zhu Guozhi and had called Old Madam Zhu "Mother" a few times. However, the Zhu family looked down on her, and after Zhu Guozhi's death, they kicked her out of the house despite her being six months pregnant. If she hadn't met Lu Huai, she and her unborn child would have died long ago.

As Ji Wanwan spoke, she rushed to Old Madam Zhu and grabbed her clothes: "It was Old Madam who drove my mother and me out of the house. It was Old Madam who said with certainty that the child I was carrying was not Guozhi's daughter, and that I should not think about marrying into the Zhu family. As a woman who married far away, I had nowhere to go after leaving my husband's family. Fortunately, God took pity on me and let me meet Brother Huai, who was on his way to take up his post in Weinan. The surnames of the two children were given to me by Brother Huai, and my aunt also intended for them to be adopted. There is nothing special about this surname."

"When my son died, your eldest daughter had not yet been born. Do you dare to say that your youngest son has no relation to Lord Lu whatsoever?"

“This is my private matter and has nothing to do with you. I was kicked out of the Zhu family a long time ago,” Ji Wanwan said. “I was widowed young, so it is only natural for me to remarry and have children.”

Old Madam Zhu sneered, "My son is dead. Whether your child is my son's or not is not important. Anyway, he won't be buried in my Zhu family's ancestral grave. On the contrary, Madam Lu should send someone to Weinan to investigate carefully."

Lu Huai suddenly panicked and grabbed Xie Chaoyun to explain, "Jin Yao is a child of the Zhu family. It was Wanwan who begged me to let her take the surname Lu. As for Jing Yuan, he changed his surname to Lu because he was to be adopted by the Lu family. He has his own father. The situation is special and inconvenient to explain. I will explain it to you in detail later, Yunniang."

Xie Chaoyun lowered her eyes slightly, concealing the mockery in them: "Yunniang believes in the Marquis!"

After hearing the explanation, Ji Wanwan almost tore her sleeves to shreds.

The Zhu family's children?

He begged for the surname he received.

Even Jingyuan became an illegitimate child whose biological father was unknown.

Ji Wanwan knew the situation was special and it wasn't time to reveal the children's true identities yet, but she couldn't help feeling wronged. Why could Xie Chaoyun and that sickly man stand openly by his side, while she and her children were like rats in the shadows, treading carefully in Weinan, and even more so in the capital, having to hide, be scrutinized, and ridiculed?

In front of the Commandant, Xie Chaoyun steered the conversation to the cause of Zhu Guozhi's death, which was also the purpose of Old Madam Zhu's journey to the capital with his coffin.

She received a letter saying that her son, Zhu Guozhi, had not died suddenly from an illness, but had been murdered by her daughter-in-law, Ji Wanwan. The old lady Zhu was skeptical, but ordered her son's grave to be dug up.

Inside the coffin, the son's body was not decomposed, exactly as described in the letter.

In her quest for the truth, Old Madam Zhu took stock of her men overnight and brought Zhu Guozhi's coffin to the capital, which led to the farce in front of the Marquis's mansion. What she wanted was never the origins of the two children, but the cause of Zhu Guozhi's death.

“Since we all want to know the truth, let’s open the coffin and examine the body in front of everyone.” Lu Zhiyuan walked to the coffin, crouched down and looked inside: “This coffin is a bit strange, and the person is a bit strange too. Who knows, there might really be a case of injustice.”

There were some patterns on the coffin, drawn with cinnabar. After ten years, the cinnabar faded, and the patterns became somewhat blurred, vaguely resembling a talisman.

The talismans drawn on the coffin were mostly for suppression, which shows that the person in the coffin had indeed died a violent death.

Ji Wanwan felt her heart pound.

As she left the mansion, she saw the coffin. Before it was opened, she had assumed it was empty, something Old Madam Ji had brought in to make a show of things. The moment the coffin was opened, Ji Wanwan was stunned. When she saw what was inside, her legs went weak with fright.

She never expected that Madam Ji would actually dig out Zhu Guozhi's coffin, never expected that she would bring such a coffin to the capital, and even more unexpected that Zhu Guozhi inside the coffin had not decayed for ten years, with even the scratches on his face still clearly visible.