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

Lu Zhiyuan frowned: "You're so obedient. If I tell you to lock you in the side courtyard, you'll go obediently? Now that you've confirmed that it was Guo Kuan who consummated your marriage, go to the government office to file a complaint and let the government investigate properly."

“It’s no use. No one in the Guo family will speak up for me.” Afu’s mother lowered her head. “I was originally an orphan living in the Guo family. To them, I’m just a pathetic wretch clinging to them. They won’t offend Mr. and Mrs. Guo, or the eldest son of the Guo family, Guo Kuan, for my sake. Just like on our wedding night, even though there were maids guarding the door, this rogue swaggered in without being notified, and left without being caught. They know perfectly well that I consummated my marriage with Guo Kuan and haven’t done anything to wrong him or the Guo family, yet they still lie through their teeth.”

To prove himself, Guo Kuan even found a courtesan and claimed that he wasn't at home on his wedding night but had spent the night with her. Without witnesses or physical evidence, what good would it do to take the case to the authorities? It would only give the Guo family a legitimate reason to drown themselves.

Long before that scoundrel produced the red bellyband as evidence, and Guo's parents, without investigating further, stood with Guo Kuan and accused her, she had already lost all hope in them and the Guo family.

Unable to prove their innocence or protect themselves, they chose to swallow their anger and submit.

The Guo family's courtyard wasn't large, and the so-called side courtyard wasn't too remote, just not as clean as the main courtyard. The side courtyard was close to the back gate, so people could occasionally go out to find odd jobs and earn a few coins to support themselves.

She hadn't expected to get pregnant with Afu, and neither had the Guo family.

At first, Guo Kuan denied that the child was his. They had only spent one night together, and he believed that such a coincidence was impossible. The child must belong to someone else. Guo's parents were also unsure. After all, their son hadn't been fully conscious on their wedding night, and who knew if their daughter-in-law was a virgin? What if their son was telling the truth? What if that scoundrel was indeed their daughter-in-law's lover? Where would the Guo family's reputation be?

The mother and her two children discussed the matter for half the night, but the result was that she was forced to have an abortion.

She brought up her deceased parents, pointed scissors at her own throat, and swore that the child in her womb was Guo Kuan's. She declared that if the child was born and had no relation to the Guo family, she would take the child and die herself, without needing Guo's parents.

For those ten months, she lived in constant fear, terrified that the Guo family would sabotage her in the side courtyard. Until that moment, she still held onto hope for Guo Kuan and the Guo family, hoping that her child's birth would prove her innocence.

Pregnant in October and giving birth once.

When Afu was born, there was no one in the side courtyard; everyone was in the front courtyard preparing for the wedding.

Guo Kuan was getting married to the woman he had fallen for, who was said to be the daughter of a prefect, and that her father could help Guo Kuan get promoted. To please this so-called heiress, he demoted her from his principal wife to a concubine.

The Guo family maintained a consistent story, claiming she was an orphan adopted by them who became pregnant due to improper behavior. Since she was the descendant of their benefactor, the Guo family had no choice but to arrange a marriage between her and Guo Kuan to silence public gossip.

What could she explain? It was a fact that Guo Kuan didn't love her and didn't have her in his heart.

As everyone knows, on the day of her marriage, Guo Kuan did not personally escort her to the wedding ceremony; she even performed the wedding ritual alone. Furthermore, the fact that she traveled from the post station further solidified the accusation that she was using a debt of gratitude to force Guo Kuan into marriage.

She gave birth to Afu alone, gritting her teeth as she cut the umbilical cord with scissors. She pushed the placenta out herself, and afterwards, she took the baby to the small kitchen and baked herself a dark pancake. It wasn't that she was greedy; she was just hungry and needed to fill her stomach to regain her strength.

When the child was almost a month old, Guo's parents finally arrived. The child looked very much like Guo Kuan; his hair, face shape, eyebrows, and nose were all identical. Without needing a blood test, it was clear that the child belonged to the Guo family.

She proved her innocence, but Guo Kuan and his family didn't care. They were only afraid she would bring this matter to their pampered daughter-in-law. Looking at her infant child, she couldn't imagine herself and her child being trapped forever in a secluded courtyard like rats living in darkness. She requested to be divorced, but the Guo family refused. Their pampered daughter-in-law wasn't pregnant yet, and even if she were, it wasn't certain it would be a boy.

Ah Fu is the real deal.

Seeing that the Guo family refused to let go, she reluctantly pleaded with Mr. and Mrs. Guo to allow her to move out of the Guo mansion with her child. Not far away, at the post station, she wanted to properly manage the business left by her parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Guo did not try to stop her, letting her leave the Guo family with the child. For the first two years, they would occasionally send a maid or nanny over. Besides checking if she was really running the post station, they also wanted to see if she was properly raising their grandson.

In the third year after they moved to the post station, they stopped sending anyone. Guo's mother fell ill; the illness came on suddenly and severely, and she died within a month of falling ill. Before the mourning period was over, Guo's father had an accident. He drowned after drinking, and when he was found, his entire body was stiff.

Lu Zhiyuan pinched her chin: "It doesn't sound like death from illness or accident, but rather like it was caused by someone."

Afu's mother said, "Madam is indeed clever! That's right, they were all killed by the daughter of the prefect whom Guo Kuan married. She wasn't a daughter at all, but a prostitute, someone who secretly engaged in the shady business of sex. The day she met Guo Kuan, she happened to be riding in an official sedan chair and was mistaken for an official's daughter. Seeing that Guo Kuan spoke elegantly and dressed well, she had a plan and pretended to be the prefect's daughter to get close to him."

Lu Zhiyuan: "Guo Kuan was a scholar, after all. How could he be so easily fooled by her?"

Afu's mother said, "I don't know if he was blinded by greed, or if that fake heiress was too convincing, or if he was just a fool who never doubted her identity in the three years of their marriage. He did mention a few times that he wanted to meet his father-in-law, but that fake heiress always made excuses to avoid it. If the Guo family's business hadn't encountered difficulties and they hadn't needed the help of their in-law, who was a prefect, Guo's father and mother would have been deceived by her as well."

Guo's mother was the first to discover all of this.

She was in charge of the household finances and knew the money in the mansion best. She discovered that her daughter-in-law, a wealthy young lady, had never used her own dowry, and even had to draw money from the mansion's accounts to buy menstrual belts. Such stinginess, and disregard for her own reputation, didn't seem like the daughter of a prefect at all.

She had never met the prefect's family, but she had met the county magistrate's family, and the county magistrate's daughter was not as petty as she was.

Without evidence, it was difficult to confront them directly. A private investigation, however, was discovered by her daughter-in-law. The food was harmless, the ginseng soup was harmless, and the pastries contained no poison, yet eating them together resulted in a deadly poison. The principle is similar to eating crab first, then persimmon. Once or twice might be harmless, but eating this every meal will surely bring death to your family.

It wasn't an accident for Guo's father; it was his daughter-in-law who tampered with the drinks, and she also led him to the place where he drowned.

"What about Guo Kuan?" Lu Zhiyuan asked, leaning on the table. "Was he also harmed by that fake heiress?"