After the divorce, I was adorned in a phoenix robe, while my ex-husband's entire family dug up

"Lu Zhufeng, you piece of trash! I must have been blind to have fallen for you! Summon the imperial physician now! Are you trying to kill me?! Don't forget you're just an ordinary citizen now! How dare you oppose the Duke's Mansion and the Earl of Dongyang's Mansion?!"

A storm brewed in Lu Zhufeng's eyes. He sneered, "Crawl back yourself and never come back."

"Otherwise, do you think I don't have the ability to bring down your Dongyang Marquisate? Do you think I don't know what you've been up to?"

Wei Jiaruo, enduring the pain, cursed, "You're a madman! A madman!"

"hawthorn!"

"Yes, Madam!"

Wei Jiaruo, dragging a trail of blood, left the Marquis's mansion with her daughter and ran back to the Dongyang Earl's mansion.

I heard that she suffered severe injuries, with festering wounds that left permanent scars, and her heart was also damaged. She doesn't have many years left to live.

However, that's a story for another time.

Looking at the bloodstains on the ground, Lu Zhufeng thought to himself, "The Marquis's mansion is truly a complete mess."

How did things turn out like this...?

Lu Zhufeng felt only anger at Wei Jiaruo's betrayal, without a trace of regret for their relationship.

He finally realized that he didn't actually like Wei Jiaruo. All Wei Jiaruo brought him was excitement compared to Wei Zhaoning's rigidity. No man dislikes excitement, and no man can resist it.

But after the initial excitement, he realized that his true love was still Wei Zhaoning.

So he wasn't saddened by Wei Jiaruo being kicked out; what saddened him was how he had ended up like this, with nothing left.

Feeling ashamed before her ancestors, the old lady committed suicide by banging her head against a wall.

Lu Zhufeng's family fell to rock bottom.

He originally thought that even without his title, he would at least have an ancestral home and be able to live better than ordinary people.

But things never go as he wishes; the rope always breaks at its thinnest point, and the debt collectors soon found their way to the ancestral home.

Lu Ze was already on the verge of death. The men threatened, "If you don't pay up, we'll kill this son of a bitch. He's broke and still comes to gamble; he deserves a lesson!"

The knife tip was already aimed at Lu Ze's neck. If it stabbed in just one more inch, Lu Ze would be bleeding profusely on the spot.

In the Dayong Dynasty, even when collecting debts, one certainly cannot kill people indiscriminately.

The problem is that the Lu family is now just an ordinary family.

Most of these debt collectors are backed by powerful figures; for them, killing an ordinary citizen is nothing.

The murdered have nowhere to seek justice. No one cares about the lives of ordinary people; they are too insignificant and not worth mentioning. They can be suppressed with the flick of a finger. If the matter is pursued further, it might be their relatives or friends who die.

"Brother, save me..." Lu Ze's eyes were full of sorrow, and his survival instinct made him place his hopes on Lu Zhufeng.

In truth, he knew that his brother would abandon him, just as he had abandoned his family countless times before. But he wanted to live so badly. He was unwilling to accept the disparity between this life and the previous one. He had to live, because only by living could he turn the tide.

Looking at his glistening eyes, Lu Zhufeng couldn't help but think of Lu Ze when he was a child, chasing after him and barely able to stand. A pang of sadness welled up in his heart.

He recalled how he had abandoned his family countless times, for the sake of the Marquis's interests. But what did he have left now? His elder sister had been beaten beyond recognition, Ashuang was dead, Wei Jiaruo had left, and Wei Zhaoning no longer wanted him. What could he possibly have left?

He can't live without his family anymore.

He squatted down, his hunched figure making the once imposing marquis look frail and weak.

"Aze, your brother will make sure you live well, don't be afraid."

Lu Ze was deeply moved and looked at Lu Zhufeng in disbelief.

"Is mortgaging this ancestral home enough for you?"

"Brother! This is important!"

"Don't talk, it will hurt if you move the wound."

The debt collectors looked the house over and over. Although it was in a state of disrepair, it was not hard to tell what it must have looked like in its heyday. It occupied a large area and the interior decorations were valuable.

They released Lu Ze. "Tomorrow, someone will come to review the property deed, but that's far from enough. Your brother owes 70,000 taels of silver, and this house is only worth 40,000 taels. There's still 30,000 taels left. I can give you time to pay it off within a year."

Lu Zhufeng quickly thanked him, "Thank you, thank you."

"Brother, I'm sorry..."

Lu Ze felt a pang of guilt.

"Just be okay."

Lu Ze once thought he would hate Lu Zhufeng for the rest of his life, hate him for his selfishness and for his indifference towards him. But after everything settled down, after Lu Zhufeng sold his ancestral home to save him, he found that he felt more heartache for his brother.

His brother was so cold because he was trapped by himself, trapped by fame and fortune, struggling in the mire, doing many things he couldn't accept but had to do, and losing many things he shouldn't have lost.

At that moment, he reconciled with himself and with his brother; they were family.

The debt collectors came to collect the house the next day.

Lu Zhufeng led Lu Ze for one last look at the house.

In this house, he saw memories of Wei Zhaoning and him before they got married. They were so beautiful, like a dream.

A fleeting moment, a pipe dream.

He has nothing left, this house means nothing to him anymore. Are material possessions really that important? After he dies, this house will belong to someone else.

In his entire life, he couldn't hold onto anything.

The two of them had very little money, only enough to rent a dilapidated thatched hut, which they tidied up and settled in.

"Brother, I will work hard in business from now on, pay off the debts as soon as possible, and redeem the house," Lu Ze said.

Lu Zhufeng looked at the dilapidated surroundings, smiled, and said nothing.

What does he need so much money for?

He doesn't want money, he doesn't want anything, he just wants people to be like they were back then.

If only life could be like the first time we met.

He's becoming more and more of a believer in fate.

If his memories were erased and he were given a second chance, he would still make the same choices: hurt Wei Zhaoning, abandon his family, and get stuck in the mire.

Why does he care so much about fame and fortune? Why is he so blind to his own limitations and hurt his loved one?

He couldn't find the source; perhaps everything was ordained by fate. He was destined to walk this tragic path; this was his life, his end.

Even if you do it ten thousand times, there won't be the slightest difference.

Fate is unfair, and what's unfair is that people often don't realize it when they still have choices, only understanding what they've missed after utter defeat.

What's harder to accept than never having had it at all is having had it in the past.

Is life just a process of gaining, losing, regretting, and feeling remorse?

No one can escape the control of fate.

Is the idea that "my fate is in my own hands, not in the heavens" a sign of ignorance or arrogance?

All beings suffer, yet all phenomena are fundamentally without form.