Chapter 93: Meeting Old Three Again

  Also known as Old Three

  "What does he make his living from?"

  "Let's just do everything, recently it seems like the days are going by pretty well, and from time to time we even have a few drinks." The shop had no customers, so Xiao Er just started talking, Yin Ruofei listened carefully, didn't think that in this kind of life, Lao San could actually live a peaceful life, and even got married.

  Yin Ruofei nodded, "Do you know where he lives?"

  "Go straight down this street and it's the smallest courtyard at the very end."

  Yin Ruofei had bought some cured meat and wine, paid the bill, and gave a little extra silver as a tip. Carrying a bamboo tube of old wine and a package of roasted pork wrapped in lotus leaves, he walked in the direction that the waiter had pointed out.

  This is a dilapidated small courtyard, which doesn't occupy too much land, but it's really old and worn out. Even the walls have fallen off in some places, revealing yellow mud with clusters of weeds growing out of them.

  The entrance can still be seen as two vermilion-painted large doors, most of the paint has fallen off. Just by looking at this door, one can imagine that this family was originally a wealthy household, but it's unknown how they ended up in their current state.

  Yin Ruofei grasped the remaining copper ring on the door and knocked gently a few times.

  "Who is it?" A woman's voice came from inside. Before long, accompanied by the sound of light footsteps, someone arrived at the door and opened it a crack.

  "Ah..." An old woman in tattered clothes was taken aback.

  "Excuse me, is there a Mr. Yin here?" Yin Ruofei bowed slightly with his hands clasped together, and his good looks made it easy for people to have a favorable impression of him. At this moment, he smiled politely and elegantly, making it even harder for others to refuse him.

  The wife nodded and took a glance inside, then looked up and down at Yin Ruofei's outfit, "You, what do you want with him?"

  "I'm an old acquaintance of his, I just caught a glimpse of him on the street and chased him here." Yin Ruofei raised what was in her hand, "Look, I came to see him specially."

  "Come on in then." The old woman was quite talkative, the creaky door swung open, revealing just enough space for Yin Ruofei to slip inside.

  "Thank you, auntie." Yin Ruofei smiled and thanked her, following the woman towards the main house.

  There are two people talking in the room.

  "Where's Nai Ma?" It was Yin Jinhong who spoke up.

  "Master, what's wrong with you? Your complexion doesn't look good. Why hasn't the wet nurse returned yet? Is it that the Liu family has come to collect debts?" A young woman's voice echoed in the room.

  Yin Ruofei's footsteps were slightly slow, and he thought to himself, "Could this be the woman that Eldest Brother married?"

  "Old Master, this man says he's an old acquaintance of yours..." The woman introduced Yin Jinhong as soon as she entered the door.

  Yin Jinhong's face changed dramatically as he looked up, the wine cup in his hand crashing to the ground and shattering into several pieces. "You..."

  "Third brother, long time no see."

  "How did you find this place?" Yin Jinhong stood up, excited and almost knocked over the table. Of course, he was definitely not happy.

  The woman beside him also stood up, looking bewildered, glancing at Yin Ruofei and then at Yin Jinhong, hesitantly saying, "Sir, who is this..."

  "Is this sister-in-law?" Yin Ruofei bowed his head, "I've met sister-in-law, I'm the seventh brother."

  "What?" The woman beside him was surprised. "Old Master, isn't there only one brother in your family? Could this be a sworn brother?"

  Yin Jinhong's face was purplish and swollen, unable to speak. He didn't want Yin Ruofei to see his current sorry state, nor did he want his wife to know what kind of person he used to be and how he had been driven out back then.

  "What's going on?" The woman looked at Yin Jinhong in confusion.

  "Sister-in-law, I..."

  "I'll say it myself!" Yin Jinhong hastily interrupted Yin Ruofei's words, and now he had no choice but to speak up. As for Yin Ruofei, he was now disheartened, the hardships of his days having taken away his courage to compete with this noble young master.

  When the woman heard Yin Jinhong's words, she was shocked. She had never thought that this poor boy who fainted at her doorstep would come from such a noble background. Moreover, she had never imagined that this young man, who always seemed to have an extraordinary demeanor, had once been so despicable and shameless.

  The woman couldn't believe it, her shocked expression piercing Yīn Jǐn Hóng's heart.

  "Sister-in-law, all these are things of the past. As the saying goes, 'a prodigal son who returns is worth more than gold', how Third Brother is now, you should be the clearest about."

  The girl nodded and said, "Seventh brother, please sit down." At the same time, her eyes glanced at Yin Jinhong, with deep affection in her eyes.

  Yin Jinhong's eyes turned red, but after all, he was only a 17-year-old boy. The things that happened in the Hou Mansion two years ago seemed like a distant past, as if they had occurred in another lifetime. Now, he didn't have any other thoughts, as long as his wife didn't despise him, everything would be fine.

  "Sister-in-law is also sitting. Third brother!"

  "This... this is your sister-in-law, Yang Shi." Yin Jinhong saw that his former arch-nemesis brother was still smiling at him with a friendly face, and he secretly felt ashamed. The three of them sat down, and Yin Jinhong began to introduce.

  Years ago, Yin Jinhong was beaten and kicked out of the house, starting to wander with nothing. Chen Yinniang and Rui Shu were both detained and couldn't help him, let alone two people who might not care about him. The only one who was still relatively free was his younger sister Rui Yun, who was only seven or eight years old, and had no way to help him except crying.

  At first, he could still go to those friends' homes to stay temporarily and get by, but later when the fact that he was driven out came to light, everyone saw that Yin Hou didn't intend to take him back, so they all changed their attitude towards him.

  Mixed eating is not possible, Yin Jinhong started wandering, the clothes on his body were pawned off for steamed buns, and even just a bowl of thin porridge. The days are hard to pass, only now do I know how comfortable life was back then.

  After all the twists and turns, he suddenly realized that he was a fool back then. At first, he still resented his father, grandmother, stepmother, and people like Yin Ruofei, but later he came to a sudden realization that everything was caused by himself and his restless mother and sister. If he hadn't done those rebellious things, how would he have ended up in this situation?

  Of course, he hated the most was Lao Er Yin Jintang. The three of them, mother and son, were all deceived by him, and in the end, they all ended up miserable, while Lao Er escaped unscathed and lived a life of luxury. There had been similar incidents before, but he had ignored them all.

  This is also the reason why he didn't want to go back. In fact, if he was willing to kneel at the gate of Hou's mansion and beg for Yin Haicheng, it wasn't necessarily true that there would be no room for maneuver.

  But he was unwilling to be a running dog for Lao Er again, and did not want to associate with the person who had harmed him. However, he knew that he could not defeat his opponent, so he could only avoid him from afar.

  The days were getting harder and harder to get by, he, with his thin clothes, finally fell down in front of a house, cold and hungry. This house was the Yang's home.

  The Yang family was also a wealthy household, but after the parents passed away, she, as a woman, could not show her face and had to ask the shopkeepers for help. Unfortunately, she encountered unscrupulous people, those few shopkeepers were all wolves in sheep's clothing, taking advantage of her being a weak and small woman, using several tactics to transfer the ownership of the shop to themselves.

  Nowadays, the Yang family has declined and only this old courtyard is left. All the servants have been dismissed, and only her beloved wet nurse is willing to stay behind.

  It was also a coincidence that Yang saved Yin Jinhong, who fell in front of her house. Although he had fallen on hard times, the good looks passed down from the Yin family still easily moved people's hearts. Yang was no exception, and the slight movement in her heart allowed Yin Jinhong to keep his life.

  When she lost a hairpin, she gave Yin Jinhong medicine, and as the days went by, Yin Jinhong didn't mention leaving, and Yang Shi didn't open her mouth to hurry him. Back and forth, they somehow developed feelings for each other.

  During the day, Yin Jin Hong goes out to work or chop firewood in the mountains to earn some silver coins. Yang Shi stays at home with the wet nurse to prepare meals. Finally, they hired a matchmaker last year and got married.

  The Yang family finally had a decent home. Although the Yangs were poor, they at least had a home to call their own, and Yin Jinhong cherished everything quietly.

  Yin Ruofei listened silently, his past experiences were surprisingly similar to those of Yin Jintong. However, as the eldest son, although he was driven out of the house, he was not let off. Yin Jintang went all out to push him to the end of the road, but he allowed him to escape.

  Yin Ruofei gritted her teeth secretly, no matter where he was in the world, she would definitely find him.

  "Seventh brother, how did you end up here?" Everything was out in the open now, and the distance that had once existed between the two brothers seemed to have dissipated like fleeting clouds. However, it couldn't be denied that Yin Jintang was a common enemy in both of their hearts. Yin Jinhong didn't say anything, but his deliberate avoidance of mentioning the other person was enough to reveal his emotions.

  "It's a shameful thing." Yin Ruofei briefly told Ruihen about the matter, "It made San Shu laugh."

  "This cheap woman!" Yin Jinhong slammed his hand on the table. The noble ladies can't be compared to ordinary women, every move they make represents their family. Rui Xin's actions will drag down all the girls in the Hou Mansion.

  Yin Jinhong had been resentful of the Xiaolin clan all along, and now his sister was being implicated before she was even married off, how could he not be furious.

  "Third brother, let's head back home." Yin Ruofei poured a full glass of wine for the couple, "If Father were to see you now, he would definitely be delighted."

  "I'm too ashamed to see my dad." Although he knew that the Lin family had been slaughtered and his second brother had died, Yin Jinhong still didn't have the thought of going home. The him from before made the current him feel like he couldn't lift his head up.

  Yin Ruofei was about to say something when Yang's nanny came in holding a child. Having just heard the Yin brothers acknowledge their relationship, the nanny tactfully retreated, although both Yin Jinhong and Yang treated her like a mother, she still adhered to her own rules. If it weren't for the child crying at this time, she wouldn't have come over.

  "This is......" Yin Ruofei looked at the child in front of her with surprise, small hands and feet, scratching to find his mother.

  "It's my son, he's already six months old." Yin Jinhong's face showed a smile for the first time. Yang Shi stretched out her hand to hold her son, knowing that the child was hungry, and hastily retreated to the inner room with the child.

  "Third Brother, I didn't expect you to have a son already. He's the eldest of the next generation of our Yin family." The Yin brothers all got married late, and Jin Yuan had only just gotten married recently. Eldest sister Ruiqin did have two kids, but they didn't carry the Yin surname. "Has he been named?"

  "Not yet." Yin Jinhong hesitated for a moment before slowly speaking up, "He only has a nickname called Hange'er."

  "Third brother, take the child back home, can you bear to let your sister-in-law and nephew suffer with you?"

  "Will... Dad let me in?"

  "Don't worry, as long as you're willing to go back."