It was Xiao Wan, whom he had met at the Green House before.

And she called the dead middle-aged woman... Mother.

His gaze shifting back and forth between Xiao Wan, the middle-aged woman, and the Zhou butler beside them, Fatty took a deep breath. So they were... a family.

"You..." Xiao Wan glared, her eyes looking murderous.

She was quite beautiful; otherwise, she wouldn't have been called one of the Twin Perfections alongside Xuanji. But at this moment, her pretty face was filled with resentment.

"Why... why?!" She clenched her fists and roared hoarsely, "Why are you people helping that scoundrel?"

"After doing so many evil things back then, shouldn't Master Huang be dead?!"

Zhou Butler was currently holding the middle-aged woman's body, trembling all over. One could see that he had genuine affection for the woman in his arms.

He stroked the middle-aged woman's face, carefully smoothing her hair.

"Back then..." Fatty was taken aback for a moment.

Xiao Wan, however, seemed to have gone mad, crying and cursing at them. Gradually, Fatty's gaze began to shift from confusion to clarity, and finally, even his pupils began to tremble.

No one likes having their wounds torn open, not just because they are afraid of the pain, but even more so because they refuse to face the bloody reality beneath the wound.

Their previous guesses... weren't entirely correct.

At least not regarding Xuanji.

She... was truly Zhou Butler's daughter, and Xiao Wan's... own elder sister.

And what shocked Fatty even more was that Xuanji knew all of this.

She wasn't just a victim of the conspiracy, but also a participant, and even... the most steadfast executor.

Even the conspiracy itself was Xuanji's idea in the first place.

And in order to convince her father, mother, and sister to carry it out, she spent countless hours, and finally, the family agreed with tears in their eyes.

The purpose... was revenge.

Revenge against Master Huang.

Although now it seemed that Master Huang was a downright good person, and even anyone in the town knew of Master Huang's title as the Great Philanthropist.

In the eyes of the townspeople, Master Huang was kind-looking, amiable, and charitable. During disaster years with bad harvests, he would even set up porridge sheds in the town to give away porridge.

Even people from nearby towns would come to beg for a bite to eat.

Many families survived starvation because of that bite.

But only Zhou Butler and the other survivors knew how this kind-looking, wealthy "Great Philanthropist" had made his fortune back then.

What despicable and vicious methods he had used!

Ten years ago, about 30 *li* from here, there was a picturesque place called Miao Village.

Although it was called a village, it was actually a village with a population of fewer than two hundred people.

This Miao Village was no ordinary place. It was picturesque, with outstanding people and abundant resources, especially famous for producing tea. Every monsoon season, the tea merchants who came to collect tea almost trampled down the village gate.

The village chief here was called Miao Fu, who was Zhou Butler's biological father.

When disaster struck, Zhou Butler was away with his family and wasn't in the village, so he barely escaped.

When he returned to Miao Village, everything had changed.

The originally picturesque village had become fragmented, with corpses scattered everywhere. When he trembled and pushed open the door to his home, the scene before him almost made this strong man faint immediately.

Nine heads were strung together and hung on a wooden stake.

At the top was his father, then his mother, brothers, and sisters... and at the bottom was his little nephew, who was not yet five years old.

Pairs of bloodshot eyes glared angrily, unable to rest in peace.

A breeze blew, and the string of heads swayed slightly.

The corpses were piled messily to the side, and the unrestrained blood beside the headless cavities silently accused the perpetrators of their evil deeds.

Almost immediately, this man named Miao Cheng knew who the murderer was.

Less than 30 *li* from Miao Village, there was another village called Huang Village.

It was also famous for producing tea, and it was a business rival of Miao Village, which was not far away. The two families had been fighting openly and secretly for many years.

Recently, news came from above that the prince was considering choosing a tea as this year's tribute.

This was a great honor.

After all, within a hundred *li* around here, the only two that could offer such tribute were Miao Village and Huang Village.

The final winner would definitely be one of these two.

So the prince sent people to inform the two families to prepare tea, and he would personally taste the tea to decide the final winner.

But on that day, the old butler responsible for making the tea, when routinely tasting it for the prince, turned black and fell to the ground.

He died shortly after.

And the tea he drank was sent by Miao Village.

Later, after the pharmacists in the prince's residence examined it, they found a potent poison in several of the tea products sent by Miao Village. What was even more malicious was that only the best teas were poisoned.

The murderer's vicious intent was clear.

The prince was furious, and more than a hundred people from Miao Village were beheaded, and the entire village was almost burned to the ground. More than a hundred acres of tea fields were trampled by warhorses.

Afterward, a notice was posted, declaring the Miao Village group guilty of treason and exterminating the entire clan.

Miao Cheng and his group became wandering ghosts. They changed their surnames and even used some desperate measures to change their appearance, falling from a carefree wealthy young master to the most humble actor.

Of course, he didn't dare to show his face in the theater, so he could only put on paper clothes, dress himself as something that was neither human nor ghost, sing ballads for people, and beg for a bite to eat.

Finally, by chance, he found some survivors from Miao Village, and then took them in, and everyone gathered together to make a living.

Among them was a child who had survived the massacre. She had been stuffed by her mother into the gap in the grass wall and barely escaped.

Her parents and relatives all died.

According to her, the people who came with the soldiers at the time were the stewards of Huang Village, who was now the Huang, the Great Philanthropist, Master Huang.

He also took advantage of the soldiers' inattention to leave the same poison as in the tea for the prince's residence at the scene, which was undoubtedly searched out by the soldiers.

Confirming Miao Village's great crime of plotting rebellion.

After that, the entire village was slaughtered.

From then on, Miao Cheng, under the alias Zheng Ban, and the only purpose of these homeless ghosts gathered together to survive was revenge.

At the same time, Huang Village's business was booming, their tea was valued by the superiors, and Master Huang himself was rising step by step, even bribing his way into a nominal, but powerless official position.

He moved to the town and lived a leisurely life.

Perhaps knowing that he had committed great sins, he sought gods and Buddhas everywhere, and monks and Taoists often came to recite scriptures and ask about rituals.

He was also charitable and kind to people, and over time, he was actually given the title of Huang, the Great Philanthropist, and his only son, Young Master Huang, was Master Huang's pride.