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

Chapter 281 Heartless and Unfaithful (Part 2)

How...how did she even know this?

Just because of his clothes and the sachet hanging from his waist?

She only glanced at it.

Butler Guo slumped to the ground and began to recount the events of that year.

That year, he was in his early twenties. While inspecting the country estate with his master, he fell in love with a peasant girl. He originally wanted to marry her, but after returning from the estate, he was promoted to steward of the Guo family.

How could a steward marry an illiterate peasant girl?

After only a few days together, the peasant girl became pregnant. Her parents took her to the Guo family and forced Steward Guo to admit to the affair. The situation was embarrassing, leaving Steward Guo in a difficult position. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, he gritted his teeth and denied any relationship with the peasant girl.

Having an affair without a matchmaker and having a child out of wedlock, they are not tolerated in the countryside, or even in the city.

I heard that she was kicked out by her parents, and that she died in childbirth elsewhere. Butler Guo felt guilty, but he didn't go looking for her in private, fearing that others would associate him with that country girl again.

Besides fearing her harassment, there was another matter: Master Guo had arranged a marriage for him. The woman was the illegitimate daughter of a small merchant family, and if he married her, his status would become extraordinary.

On the eve of his marriage to that illegitimate daughter, she ran away from the wedding, making him a laughing stock and causing him to be depressed for several years.

Five years later, he encountered a child on the street. The child's features resembled hers quite a bit. He followed the child to the courtyard and saw the farm girl he had abandoned.

Afu's mother: "You mean this courtyard?"

Butler Guo nodded: "They were renting here, but I bought it later. It wasn't stolen; it was my savings from the Guo family over the years. At that time, she was terminally ill and didn't have many days left. Her only worry was her daughter. My daughter is mine; I know that without her saying it. I promised her that I would take good care of the child after she passed away."

Lu Zhiyuan: "Overwork has led to illness?"

Butler Guo shook his head: "She has contracted a venereal disease, a real venereal disease. She's a peasant girl, pregnant when her parents kicked her out. She's illiterate, has no one to rely on, and can only do those kinds of work to support her daughter. She's not bad looking, but she has no talent. All she can do is entertain guests."

Lu Zhiyuan: "It's your fault. If it weren't for you, she would still be living a good life in the countryside. She would have married a farmer whose parents were happy with her, and lived an ordinary life working at sunrise and resting at sunset."

Butler Guo: "It is indeed my fault. I have let her down and our child down."

Afu's mother: "Where is your daughter? Is she already married?"

Butler Guo hesitated, glancing at Lu Zhiyuan several times.

Lu Zhiyuan: "Why are you looking at me? She is the young mistress of your Guo family. If the young mistress is asking a question, she should answer truthfully."

Butler Guo looked resigned to her fate: "She died of a sexually transmitted disease. My daughter was with her day and night, so it's hard to say she didn't catch one. It's not that I didn't care about her; if I had, I wouldn't have spent all my savings to buy this courtyard for her and her daughter to live in. I was scared and wanted to wait and see, to make sure she wasn't sick before bringing her back to the Guo family. I never expected she would be kidnapped by thieves. When I saw her again, she was doing the same kind of work as her mother."

Lu Zhiyuan sneered: "Wait and see how you wait and see. Let me guess, do you leave such a small child in this yard and ignore her? Do you think that as long as she has a house to live in, you don't need to care about anything else? After all, she wasn't thirsty, hungry, sick, or frozen to death before she was recognized by you."

Butler Guo nodded: "Yes!"

Lu Zhiyuan kicked him: "She's a human, not a goddess. She can't live on air and dew. She was able to live before because she had a mother. Her mother was just sick, not neglecting her. You, her father, didn't care about her before you recognized her, and you didn't care about her after you recognized her. And now you're still making excuses here."

Afu's mother came to her senses: "The fake heiress, could that fake heiress be your daughter?"

Butler Guo lowered his head and remained silent.

How could a woman like Liu Ying, who made a living by selling herself, have fooled the shrewd Mr. and Mrs. Guo without the help of others in the household? How could she have harmed Mr. and Mrs. Guo, allowing Guo Kuan to turn a major issue into a minor one, and a minor one into nothing? And without his interference as the steward, the Guo family's warehouses and shops wouldn't have been so easily ruined.

"Sister, you might as well investigate. Nine times out of ten, the Guo family's shops are registered under that fake heiress's name. And that fake heiress is probably being hidden away by her good father. As for her good sisters, they're probably already dead."

Afu's mother: "Butler Guo, is what Madam said true?"

Butler Guo looked awkward, twisted his head, closed his eyes, and said, "I did it, I did it all."

Speaking of reuniting with his biological daughter, Butler Guo looked embarrassed. He never imagined that his daughter, who had disappeared as a child, was in a brothel not far from him. In the past years, he had passed by her many times, but because he looked down on those prostitutes and thought they were dirty, he had never looked at their faces carefully when he passed by them.

It wasn't until his daughter, slightly drunk, pounced on him and, in the struggle, dropped her sachet that he noticed her face.

The identity of the prefect's daughter was a figment of Guo Kuan's imagination. Steward Guo simply had his daughter impersonate the daughter to win Guo Kuan's heart and become the young mistress of the Guo family, so that they could control the Guo family's wealth.

Butler Guo turned to Afu's mother and explained, "It's not that this old servant is greedy. Even without my daughter, the young master doesn't like you, Madam. The master and madam look down on you even more. Rather than letting someone else benefit from you, it's better for this old servant and my daughter to benefit from you. You should understand, Madam, right?"

Afu's mother: "Just because of greed, you want to kill Guo's parents? They treated you well."

Steward Guo: "If they hadn't been so meddlesome, why would I have gone to such lengths to harm them? And the young master, if he hadn't become suspicious and secretly investigated the cause of the master and madam's deaths, I wouldn't have resorted to such a desperate measure. I originally wanted him to have a child with my daughter, and raise him well, regardless of gender, so that he could rightfully take over the Guo family in the future. As for the young master, he's just a scholar. If I pamper him, spoil him, and drain him with wine, women, and money, he won't live for more than a few years. He's in a hurry to go to the underworld, so I can only grant his wish."

There's no need to ask about what happens next; leave it to the authorities. As for his daughter, the authorities will find her themselves. The embezzled property and shops will be returned to Afu and her son. This is also the reason Lu Zhiyuan allowed Guo Kuan to live a few more days.

As Lu Yun left the Guo family, he whispered, "Why do they call those people prostitutes?"

Lu Zhiyuan stretched out her arms and patiently said, "Oriole originally refers to those orioles that drift around without a place to stay. Because those women, like orioles, drift around without a place to stay, they are collectively referred to as orioles. Don't tell Liuying about this. If she finds out, she will definitely cry and make a fuss about changing her name."