Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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When the little girl’s emotions finally calmed down, Luo Zhan led Tang Ran and slowly walked along the Z-shaped wooden staircase to the second floor of the Tang family’s main house.
Turning around the platform between the first and second floors, Luo Zhan was about to step onto the first step, but when he saw two people standing in the corridor on the second floor a dozen steps above, he stopped.
After two or three seconds, Tang Ran noticed something and looked up in confusion: “Luo Luo, what’s wrong?”
“…”
Hearing this address in person, complex emotions flashed in the eyes of Mr. Luo who was standing in the corridor on the second floor.
But under his nose, his always rebellious grandson seemed to have gotten used to it and directly withdrew his gaze from him.
“Nothing, I just ran into someone.” Luo Zhan said nonchalantly, “Let’s go.”
He originally wanted to hold the little girl’s hand and continue to walk up, but Tang Ran grabbed the corner of his clothes tightly. The little girl’s face showed obvious worry and panic.
This time it was Luo Zhan’s turn to be surprised. Tang Ran was blind and not familiar with Old Man Luo, so there was no reason for her to notice anything.
He patiently lowered his voice and asked, “Why don’t you leave?”
Tang Ran hesitated for a few seconds and pulled the corner of Luo Zhan’s sleeves towards her. Luo Zhan understood, and leaned down, not forgetting to block the sight of the little girl from the second floor.
Then he heard the little girl whispering in his ear carefully and worriedly: “I didn’t hear any footsteps just now, so they must have come earlier than us. Did they hear what we said?”
Luo Zhan raised his eyes and looked towards the second floor. He looked at Mr. Luo and the housekeeper Lin Yi beside him for a few seconds, then he looked back and nodded: “They should have heard it.”
“What should we do then?” The little girl looked even more worried.
Luo Zhan asked: “Are you afraid that they will go to the old lady of the Tang family and complain about you?”
Tang Ran hesitated for a few seconds and said honestly: “Grandma won’t care about me. At most, she will ask me to stay in the side house and not come out. I’m just afraid she will tell Grandpa Luo. Will Grandpa Luo scold you…”
The little girl’s concern and worry for him were evident in her words, and Luo Zhan couldn’t help but curl up the corners of his mouth.
Among all the tricks and methods that the young master was best at, the self-torture trick was something he had never bothered to use. But now in front of Tang Ran, he could use it easily without any practice.
“The old man has a bad temper. A scolding is the least of my worries. At home, he would look for a cane to beat me every few days.”
Tang Ran hesitated, still a little unconvinced: “But everyone says that Grandpa Luo treats you very well.”
Luo Zhan sneered: “I didn’t know I was coming to the Tang family at first. In order to force me to come, he found a team of professional grappling and fighting experts to come below my house in order to tie me up.”
“Ah?” The little girl said anxiously, “Then, what should I do? Otherwise, I will go and explain to Grandpa Luo…”
“Fine.”
Luo Zhan didn’t want the little girl to worry too much, so he smiled happily and comforted her, “I know the people who heard it, they are from the Luo family. They won’t go to your old lady to complain.”
Tang Ran finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After walking up a few more steps, Tang Ran remembered something and turned her head to ask in a low voice, “Will they not complain to Grandpa Luo?”
Luo Zhan faced the old man’s obviously unfriendly gaze and smiled lazily: “No.”
Tang Ran was relieved, “You are very familiar with them, right?”
“Yeah.” Luo Zhan added casually, “The two managers of the Luo family–” He paused, thought for a moment, “Old Master.”
Suddenly, the old man who had lost his life to his grandson: “…?”
The butler didn’t care about this and stood there trying to hold back his laughter.
Under those two gazes, Luo Zhan remained unconcerned and continued to do his own thing. He helped the little girl up to the corridor on the second floor without even looking at them.
He stopped at this moment, less than 20 centimeters away from the old man.
Perhaps it was because the old man’s aura was too strong, but the little girl next to Luo Zhan seemed to notice something and nervously clutched the corner of Luo Zhan’s sleeves.
Luo Zhan slowed down his pace: “The temperature and humidity outside are very comfortable tonight. I’ll accompany you to the terrace for a walk.”
Tang Ran hesitated: “Aren’t Grandpa Luo and the others still waiting?”
“They had something to do, so they went downstairs a while ago. They probably haven’t come back yet. I’ll take you upstairs to say hello when they come back.”
“……Good.”
Watching the two figures, one tall and one short, walk to the end of the corridor and then disappear around the corner, Mr. Luo stood in front of the stairs in silence for a long time and then slowly sighed.
He asked: “Lin Yi, what do you think?”
Butler Lin had long guessed that he would not be able to escape this, so he was not surprised at this moment. He pondered for a few seconds before speaking with a gentle smile: “I was just taking a look, but I have never seen the young master like this in all these years. It is really new.”
“Not only have you not seen it, but I, as his grandfather, haven’t seen it either.” The old man shook his head. “I should have guessed it at the beginning. If this little girl didn’t have such an influence on him, his personality wouldn’t have changed so much after what happened that year.”
The housekeeper asked tentatively, “Then old sir, do you think the young master looks good in this state?”
The old man was silent for a long time, hummed softly, and said reluctantly: “…It’s a bit awkward, but overall it’s not bad.”
The housekeeper smiled, “If Young Master has a better personality, it’s all up to you.”
“…”
The old man turned his head and frowned, but in the end he didn’t say anything.
The housekeeper waited for a while, and seeing that the old man still didn’t speak, he said again: “I see that the young master can talk to the little girl in this way despite his temper. He is really like a different person. It turns out that when he meets someone he likes, even a young master with such a personality can’t stand it.”
“Like?” The old man was indeed irritated by the sharp words in this gentle message. He snorted coldly, “He said that to a 16 or 17-year-old girl. He is not afraid of being called a hooligan. It’s a pity that we heard it. If it was someone else, I’m afraid they would poke him behind his back!”
“Sixteen or seventeen years old. In a few years, won’t she be the legal age for marriage?” The housekeeper smiled good-naturedly.
“…”
The word “marriage” made the old man’s face darken even more.
But at least he didn’t get angry directly, which meant there was still plenty of room for maneuver.
The housekeeper thought for a few seconds and asked, “Are you worried that the old lady from the Tang family will not agree?”
“Whether she agrees or not is not a big deal,” said Old Master Luo, frowning, “but even if she agrees, she won’t acknowledge Tang Ran’s identity. If that happens, everyone will think that the future wife married by our Luo family’s heir is an illegitimate daughter of the Tang family.”
Butler Lin’s smile faded, and he said helplessly: “The young master won’t care about this.”
“Humph, of course he won’t care. What do these young people care about? After all, they are still young. They just think that they can shut people up with their own abilities and capital, but they don’t even know how to write the four words “fear of people’s words”. They don’t think about the fact that since ancient times, the emperor has been able to control the life and death of the world but still can’t stop the people from talking – ‘it is more important to guard against the people’s mouths than to guard against the river’. Such truths are taught in their textbooks all day long, but how many of them really take it to heart?”
Butler Lin smiled bitterly: “But you may not be able to persuade the young master with his temper. You can’t really do it like today, where you have people tie him up every time he doesn’t obey.”
Mr. Luo was silent for a while, then suddenly asked, “Has there been any news about the daughter of the Tang family who married abroad in recent years?”
Lin Yi was stunned: “Are you trying to use her to clear up Tang Ran’s past?”
The old man said nothing but looked at him seriously.
Butler Lin lowered his head quickly and replied, “I haven’t heard of it. Since Tang Shiyu had a falling out with the Tang family and married abroad that year, there has been very little news coming back. I heard that she has never been in contact with the Tang family.”
The old man asked again: “Which family did she marry into?”
Lin Yi shook his head: “I don’t know. The old lady of the Tang family had arranged it for her, but didn’t she deliberately find someone else to marry?”
The old man was reminded of his memories of that younger generation and shook his head with a headache: “Speaking of which, Tang Ran’s personality is really different from her mother’s.”
Lin Yi also smiled bitterly: “That’s right. Back then, the reputation of this young lady from the Tang family was so great that many young masters from aristocratic families were terrified… If it weren’t for her strong character, and if this old lady really had no curse to cast, I’m afraid she wouldn’t have resorted to such cruel means as using a dead fetus to deceive her own daughter.”
After listening to this, the old man snorted in disapproval: “She used such ruthless means, but her daughter shouldn’t take the blame for her.”
Lin Yi nodded: “That’s right, old man.”
“Then do you think, with Tang Shiyu’s temper, she would really marry so hastily?”
Lin Yi hesitated for a moment, then spoke frankly: “In fact, some people said that Tang Shiyu wanted to escape her mother’s control, so she found a pretext for marriage and married abroad – but there has been no news in recent years, so I dare not say anything specific.”
“Well,” Old Master Luo pondered for a moment and said, “Find someone to follow the news, check what happened in her husband’s family, and then find out about her current situation.”
Lin Yi looked surprised: “Old sir, are you really going to clear Tang Ran’s name?”
The old man was silent for a few seconds, then snorted coldly, “I was forced by that brat and have no choice – I have to make preparations for both situations, or else I would just let him drag the Luo family into the ditch in the end, right?”
Butler Lin smiled and said, “Yes, yes, your reasons are all correct.”
The old man looked at him coldly: “What do you mean by reason?”
Butler Lin smiled gently and said nothing more.
“Okay, let’s go upstairs. Didn’t you hear that brat warn me before he left? He was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to catch up in time, and the little girl who had finally come out would be disappointed.”
The old man sneered, full of resentment.
“I’ve raised him for so many years, but he treats me even less than I do that little girl. And he still calls me an ungrateful person.”
Lin Yi followed with a smile, and finally asked: “Since we are going to investigate Tang Shiyu, should we also investigate the man who got Tang Shiyu pregnant before marriage?”
The old man paused as he was going upstairs and asked, “Is he her former boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“From a poor family?”
Lin Yi thought for a moment and said, “It seems so… There is really no information. When you asked me to check the girl’s origins to help her find her parents, I couldn’t even find out her father’s name. I guess all traces have been erased by the Tang family.”
“Humph, this old lady is so cruel to her own daughter, let alone an outsider who delayed her marriage plan.”
Lin Yi also sighed softly: “At that time, I only found out about the school they were studying in. Maybe in order to avoid the eyes and ears of the Tang family, their relationship was also kept underground, and few people knew about it. Only Tang Shiyu’s roommate vaguely heard her mention that the other person was an orphan and a poor student who lived on grants and scholarships. His grades should have been good, but no specific information was revealed.”
The old man was silent for a moment, and as he walked upstairs he asked in a low voice: “What happened next? Where did the person go?”
Lin Yi: “I don’t know. It seems that he disappeared from the face of the earth.” Lin Yi hesitated and lowered his voice to the lowest level. “I suspected at that time that he might have been…”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
The old man interrupted him unhappily.
“Yes.” Butler Lin smiled bitterly. “But even if nothing happened, a poor student with no background would not end well against a giant like the Tang family.”
“Yes.”
The old man sighed softly.
“At least there is no place for him to stay in China. He must have drifted to a corner of some unknown small country.”
Lin Yi: “Then do we still investigate him?”
The old man said, “No need. There are poor guys like this everywhere in the world. It won’t cause any trouble if we find out. Let’s just follow Tang Shiyu’s lead and find out the situation.”
“Yes, old sir.”
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