There Will Always Be Protagonists With Delusions of Starting a Harem

Chapter 75

Everyone sat down in the main hall. The atmosphere was a little cold and also a bit awkward.

Tao Dong kept glancing at Ye Zhizhou with an expression full of worry and distress, having the appearance of wanting to be concerned but not daring to do so.

On the way here, Shen Tingwei began to roughly understand the replacement marriage situation, but he could see Ye Zhizhou's dislike for his birth mother, Concubine Tao. With another cold expression, he said, "Father-in-law, even if you brought a concubine to welcome guests, how could you let a concubine attend to them?"

When Zou Qing heard Shen Tingwei's words, his face turned black and he turned to stare at Tao Dong, "Why are you still here? Withdraw! Let a servant bring tea!"

Tao Dong tightly gripped her handkerchief and pressed down her moodiness. She stood up submissively, said goodbye and left. When she left, she deliberately passed by Ye Zhizhou's side and gently patted him on the shoulder, giving him a meaningful look.

Ye Zhizhou acted like he didn't see it. He hung his head and sat beside Shen Tingwei, pretending to be quiet.

Waiting for her to leave, Zou Qing straightened out his emotions and took the lead to say, "Young General Shen..."

"Father-in-law doesn't have to be so polite. You can call me Tingwei," Shen Tingwei interrupted him, saluted again and said, "Previously, I was busy recovering so I couldn't bring Xiao Lan back to visit. I hope father-in-law won't take offense."

Zou Qing felt extremely uneasy with Shen Tingwei addressing him as father-in-law so he moved his gaze to Ye Zhizhou. He habitually frowned and put on a strict father's face, "Lan-er, if you wanted to come back with Shen...with Tingwei... Then you should at least send someone in advance to inform me. Father also needs time to prepare to prevent neglecting precious guests."

"I wanted to give Xiao Lan a nice surprise, so I didn't tell him ahead of time," Shen Tingwei strongly took the blame, then very stiffly changed the topic to government affairs, "These days, it seems like the emperor is investigating the salt gang in Huainan. I wonder if father-in-law has heard about it?"

Zou Qing's complexion changed a bit. The Huainan salt gang has a lot of poisonous tumors from the Ministry of Revenue and several of them were even promoted by him. It seemed like the emperor was truly preparing to regulate that place... He looked at Shen Tingwei inquiringly but saw that the other party still had an emotionless cold face. He churned these thoughts in his head for a bit before his facial expression eased up to be more relaxed and he turned to Ye Zhizhou to say, "Lan-er, since you finally got the chance to come and visit, don't delay here with Father. Go and see your mother."

He was sending him away because he wanted to discuss proper business. Ye Zhizhou firmly held back Shen Tingwei who was about to speak while rising to say goodbye, "Then Lan-er will be excused first. Father, husband, have an enjoyable talk." After saying goodbye, he shook off the hand that snuck over from Shen Tingwei, quickly saluted and turned around to eagerly walk towards Yuan Hui's courtyard, seemingly calm but was actually impatient. He came to the Zou mansion ready to make a scene, how could he continue to accompany Zou Qing and waste time?

When he arrived at the garden's entrance, he felt Tao Dong's presence in his spiritual net and frowned. He stopped a Zou family servant and gave him an order. Then, he changed his path and walked towards Yuan Hui's courtyard.

Yuan Hui's courtyard door was tightly closed, not at all as lively like it was before, in the original Zou Ming's memory.

He knocked on the door and waited awhile for it to open, but the first thing the person who opened the door did was question him with a bad attitude. He was not in the mood to deal with these difficult servants, so he used his spiritual power to clear the way and was unhindered as he went to the family hall where Yuan Hui was confined to. The momo that constantly accompanied Yuan Hui wanted to block his path, but she was simply and crudely knocked out by a pill. In the family hall, Yuan Hui heard the movements and came out quietly, just in time to see the momo collapsing. She was so frightened that she opened her mouth to scream, but was quickly stopped by Ye Zhizhou.