The temperamental white moonlight is back, and the entire Marquis's family obediently calls him

When Chu Yuan'er was brought out, she was covered in injuries.

She huddled behind He Ling, staring at Zhou Ningchuan with eyes full of resentment.

The latter seemed not to see her at all, his gaze sweeping over her lightly.

But this was even more devastating for Chu Yuan'er than the look of disgust.

She suddenly cried out in a hoarse voice, "Zhou Ningchuan, I misjudged you!"

"I thought you were a loyal and devoted person, but it turns out you're selfish and pathetic!"

"Do you think you're any different from me?"

"A single letter was enough to make you abandon your children and leave for seven years. You have no feelings for your children at all! Everything you've done is for your own selfish desires, for a vague possibility of seeing Lu Mingzhao again. Are you really that much nobler than me?!"

"If I were Lu Mingzhao, I would hate you for the rest of my life! If I were your child, I would never forgive you!"

"Cherish the days you have now, because sooner or later you'll end up like I said, abandoned by everyone. Then you'll find that we're the same."

Zhou Ningchuan remained expressionless, slowly lowering his eyes, his tone so calm it was as if he hadn't heard anything: "Lord He, how long are you going to keep watching this show?"

He Ling chuckled, turned and waved his hand, instructing his servants to help Chu Yuan'er out.

"Thank you, Lord Marquis. I will return this person to you after I have finished dealing with my family matters."

Zhou Ningchuan: "Then please do it as soon as possible."

He Ling nodded slightly, then turned and left.

After everyone left, Zhou Ningchuan's back slowly bent down.

Chu Yuan'er's crazy words just now hit the nail on the head regarding his most fearful nightmare.

To some extent, Chu Yuan'er was right.

No matter how hard he tried to be a good husband and father, and no matter how the outside world evaluated him as a loyal and patriotic general, he knew very well in his heart that all he wanted was Zhaozhao.

No one knew that on the night his parents died, he sat at his doorstep, expressionless, playing with a tinderbox, with a gleaming axe beside him.

The village was xenophobic, and his parents had been ostracized by the villagers when they were alive. Even when he went to ask the barefoot doctor for help, the doctor would charge his family double the consultation fee.

When my parents were seriously ill, the village chief brought a group of people to subtly try to take advantage of them, which made my parents even more ill.

If it weren't for this, perhaps my parents wouldn't have passed away so early.

Early that morning, as usual, he woke his parents up to take their medicine, only to find that they were not breathing and were ice cold.

He did not react.

After silently changing his parents' funeral clothes, he sat in front of the door, with only one thought in his mind.

He wanted to kill these people.

It was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and many people in the village had returned, gathering together to drink and boast.

They were walking home drunk, making them the perfect target.

Haven't they always been eyeing the Zhou family's assets and this house?

After killing them, burn their houses down.

He no longer cared about his own fate.

He was pondering whose house to start with when there was a knock on the gate.

...Let's start with the person who knocks on the door.

Zhou Ningchuan opened the door and saw Lu Mingzhao grinning at him, holding a steaming basket of dumplings: "My mother asked me to bring these. Half of them are radish and pork dumplings, which my uncle and aunt love, and the other half are chive and egg dumplings, which you love."

"I made the chive and egg filling, try it while it's hot."

Zhou Ningchuan watched as she squeezed through the crack in the door and then casually dragged him to sit down on a bench in the yard.

Lu Mingzhao lifted the still-hot lid with one hand, touched his earlobe, and frantically winked at Zhou Ningchuan: "Hurry up, you try one first."

Zhou Ningchuan was stunned for a long time before slowly reaching out his hand under Lu Mingzhao's urging.

Just as he was about to pick up the dumplings, he heard Lu Mingzhao cough and gesture with his eyes for him to take the ones next to him.

Zhou Ningchuan paused, picked up another dumpling, and took a bite.

It's very hot.

The noodles were grayish-yellow and a bit hard, but once he bit into them, the aroma of lard and rapeseed oil mixed inside immediately captivated his taste buds. The freshness of the chives and the tender fragrance of the eggs blended together, making him instantly forget all his troubles.

Zhou Ningchuan hadn't had dumplings in a long time.

Since his parents fell ill, he, at such a young age, has been solely responsible for cooking. In his spare time, he also has to work in the fields, and he can only eat whatever is simple and easy to eat.

After taking that bite, he realized that he hadn't eaten all day.

The cramping pain in his stomach made Zhou Ningchuan eagerly take a second bite, only to bite into something hard.

Zhou Ningchuan was taken aback. He spat it out and saw that it was a copper coin.

"Wow, you got to eat it!"

Lu Mingzhao clapped his hands and circled around Zhou Ningchuan: "I knew you'd get it! Zhou Ningchuan, you've got a copper coin, this whole year will be very lucky for you!"

Zhou Ningchuan stared blankly at the copper coin.

How could he not get any? Lu Mingzhao deliberately wrapped the copper coin in a dumpling filled with chives and eggs, and made it clear to him which one to eat.

His "luck" was carefully prepared by Lu Mingzhao.

Lu Mingzhao was feeling smug about his trick when he looked down and saw Zhou Ningchuan crying. He was startled.

"Don't cry! I've washed this coin so many times, it's clean!"

Zhou Ningchuan cried even harder.

When Lu Mingzhao tried to ask his uncle and aunt for help, he found them lying on the bed in their burial clothes, already lifeless.

Lu Mingzhao turned around helplessly and saw Zhou Ningchuan staring at her with red eyes and tears streaming down his face, his eyes so broken that he seemed about to collapse completely at any moment.

"Zhaozhao".

"You're all I have left. Will you always stay with me?"

Lu Mingzhao didn't have time to think about anything and hugged Zhou Ningchuan tightly.

Even though Zhou Ningchuan's arm was so tight that she could hardly breathe, she still patted Zhou Ningchuan's back again and again, just like a mother comforting herself.

"I will."

"Zhou Ningchuan, I will always be with you."

Zhou Ningchuan knew that he had never been a person with lofty ambitions.

He doesn't even have any hobbies of his own.

When his parents were alive, he listened to them in everything. If they told him to study, he studied; if they told him to do chores, he did chores.

After his parents left, Zhao Zhao became his only source of support to keep living.

So after learning that Zhao Zhao knew martial arts, he also began to practice martial arts, hoping to get closer to Zhao Zhao.

Later, they got married and had children, but Zhou Ningchuan didn't change.

Zhao Zhao loves children, so he acts like he loves them too. But only he knows that sometimes he even gets jealous that the children take away his attention. He does that just to be a good husband and father in the conventional sense.

He just wanted Zhaozhao to be happy.

Zhou Ningchuan's choice to join the army and fight was also for this reason.

With the arrival of the child, his burden increased, and he couldn't bear to watch Zhaozhao suffer; he had to do something.

However, coincidentally, he was really suited for the battlefield.

Because he is ruthless and has almost no extra emotions, he can understand and implement the general's troop deployment at the fastest speed and make adjustments according to the battlefield situation.

After several battles, he was quickly promoted to squad leader, centurion, and chiliarch.

Nowadays, many people and colleagues think he is a good general, not only invincible, but also always putting the interests of the people first.

They had no idea how crazy Zhou Ningchuan had been at the beginning.