With legs weak, the sickly stable boy became a mad regent.

The next morning, Shen Nannan's mind was filled with those accounts.

Looking at the pair of embroidered shoes neatly arranged beside the bed,

I didn't think much of it when Qiu Yu found it.

But when I put them on, I always felt... that these shoes were more comfortable than usual.

It felt like it had been carefully kneaded.

However, she has important business to attend to right now.

The holes in the ledgers are so big that she wouldn't be able to finish checking them all by herself, even if she did it all year.

She needs someone who can directly keep the second wife in check.

—Shen Run.

Her irresponsible older brother.

Although he is seen by outsiders as a playboy who only knows how to fight cocks and chase dogs, as long as Shen Nannan speaks, her brother dares to cause a huge uproar.

"Qiuyun!" she called out.

Qiu Yun lifted the curtain and came in, seeing the shoes in her hand. "Miss! These shoes... weren't they stolen yesterday?"

"Huh? Didn't you find it?"

"Oh well, never mind, hurry up and come with me to find my brother."

Qiu Yu was taken aback: "Miss, the young master is probably still asleep..."

"Get up, get up," Shen Nannan said as she walked. "He can't sleep in."

Qiu Yu followed behind, thinking to herself, "You didn't say that before—you used to say that the young master was a 'lazy pig reincarnated, who doesn't get out of bed until the sun is high in the sky.'"

Shen Nannan did not explain.

She remembered that in her past life, Shen Run would get up at dawn every day and secretly go to the training ground to practice his spear skills.

Nobody knows about this.

Outsiders only saw him as a playboy who slept until late morning every day before getting up to play cockfighting and dog racing.

After her brother's death, Xiao Yunzhao, in a display of "great mercy," allowed her to meet her brother's deputy, Luo Fei.

Luo Fei said,

"The young general led his troops in three charges into the enemy lines before his death. The first time, he lost his left arm. The second time, he was struck by seven arrows. The third time..."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "He cut off the head of the enemy commander and hung it on the flagpole."

He said that the remnants of Shen's army knelt on the ground, begging him not to rush in.

The young general was covered in blood and could barely stand, yet he laughed and cursed at them: "I'm the eldest son of the Shen family. If I don't go for it, who will? My sister is waiting for me to come back and support her!"

Then he collapsed and never got up again.

She then learned that her father had witnessed too much danger on the battlefield, and he did not want his children to live such a life of constant risk.

I only hope that my brother and she can live out their lives peacefully and stably.

The older brother knew his father's thoughts, so he never showed them, but secretly studied hard every day before dawn.

—Brother, you have never been the spoiled brat that outsiders see you to be.

-------

Shen Nannan walked through the corridor, around the garden, and headed towards Shen Run's courtyard.

She was racking her brains trying to figure out how to bring it up with her brother.

We can't just say there's a problem with the accounts—my brother has that kind of temper; if he found out, he'd storm into the second room and overturn the table.

If we alert the enemy, the second wife can destroy the evidence, and she'll have nowhere to turn for help.

Shen Nannan was lost in thought when she suddenly heard a scolding voice coming from ahead—

"Why are you crying? You spilled tea even when I asked you to serve it. What good are you?"

It was the voice of a middle-aged woman, sharp and sarcastic.

Shen Nannan paused in her steps.

She looked in the direction of the sound and saw a woman in a dark purple jacket standing at the other end of the corridor, pointing at a thin girl and scolding her.

Tong, the second wife's wife, was her second aunt.

As for that girl...

Shen Nannan squinted and looked at it carefully.

At the age of twelve or thirteen, he was as thin as a bamboo pole, wearing faded old clothes, his head down, his shoulders trembling slightly.

Teacup shards were scattered on the ground, and tea was spilled everywhere.

"Mother, I...I didn't mean to..." the girl said softly, her voice trembling with tears.

"Not intentional?" Madam Tong sneered.

"I think you're just asking for a beating, you're exactly the same as that vixen!"

She grew angrier as she spoke, and raised her hand to slap him—

"Snapped!"

The girl covered her face, tears streaming down her cheeks, but dared not cry out loud.

That girl... looks familiar.

"Miss," Qiu Yu whispered, "that's the second wife's illegitimate daughter, named Shen Nian. Her mother was a maid in the mansion, and she died after giving birth to her. This child's life in the second wife's household... isn't very easy."

Shen Nian.

Shen Nannan's mind went blank.

She remembered.

She had met this half-sister a few times in her previous life. She was thin and small, and she felt sorry for her. She would occasionally ask Qiuyu to bring her some food, but she never paid any attention to it.

But later—

The day the Shen family's property was confiscated,

Everyone ran away; the servants packed their valuables and scattered. The second wife's family had long since severed ties with the other side.

Only this little girl,

She knelt at the gate of the Shen residence, kowtowing repeatedly to the soldiers who came to ransack the house, until her forehead was covered in blood and gore.

"The Shen family is not a traitor... The Shen family is not a traitor..."

Her mother, Madam Su, was roughly dragged out of the house by several soldiers and thrown to the ground.

She rushed over, shielding her mother, and shouted at the ruthless soldiers, "Don't touch her!"

How old was she back then?

Fourteen? Fifteen?

He was as thin as a bamboo pole, yet he stood fiercely protectively in front of his mother.

Later, Shen Nannan was imprisoned in the Regent's Palace.

I once heard Xiao Yunzhao mention, "Your younger sister is quite a tough nut to crack."

younger sister?

She was stunned for a moment, thinking he was referring to Shen Yin, the legitimate daughter of the second wife.

"Which sister?" she asked tentatively.

Xiao Yunzhao glanced at her, his eyes filled with complex emotions: "A frail little girl. These days, she's been wandering around, trying every possible way to see you."

Shen Nannan's heart tightened as she remembered this person. "What...what does she want to do?"

"What are you doing?" Xiao Yunzhao sneered, "I want to take you away from me!"

Shen Nannan's heart skipped a beat at that moment.

That thin, small girl, whom she had only been given food a few times,

How dare they come to the Regent—that ruthless regent!

"And then?" she asked.

Xiao Yunzhao did not answer.

He simply held her tighter and whispered in her ear:

"My dear girl, don't even think about running away. You'll spend the rest of your life by my side."

After that, she never heard from Shen Nian again.

But it was her,

In her past life, she casually gave the child some food, and the child remembered it for a lifetime.

When she was at her most vulnerable, it was this child who took care of her mother.

When she was imprisoned, it was this child who risked his life to try to rescue her.

Later, she heard from elsewhere that Shen Nian had been running around, begging people, and submitting petitions, trying to overturn the case against the Shen family.

A teenage girl managed to run all over the capital city.

Shen Nannan's eyes suddenly welled up with tears.

In my past life, so many people cursed the Shen family, trampled on the Shen family, and wished the Shen family would be wiped out.

But this girl, this illegitimate daughter who suffered endless bullying in the second wife's household, used her tender shoulders to shoulder the last backbone of the Shen family.

"Someone, hold her down!" Tong's voice pulled her back to reality.

"If we don't teach her a lesson today, she won't know the rules of this mansion!"

Two burly old women rushed up and grabbed Shen Nian's shoulders, one on each side.

Shen Nian turned pale with fright, but gritted her teeth and didn't cry for help.

The old woman raised her bamboo clapper, about to bring it down—

"stop!"