The winter nights in Di'an were cold, without starry skies or moon, leaving only a deathlike silence.
Leaving the dining hall, Xu Yuan carried a steaming tray of three dishes and a soup through the chilled winter night, his mind drifting in and out of memories.
Although cooking seemed ill-suited to the stern Xu Changge, the fact was that the elder brother could indeed cook, and the flavor was quite decent.
He remembered when their mother passed away, after which their father and uncle vanished for a long time, and the four children in the family were confined to the inner courtyard.
To prevent unforeseen events, their father and uncle had placed many things around the Prime Minister's Mansion's inner courtyard before leaving, forbidding entry and exit.
As the only sensible child back then, if Xu Changge, the eldest, didn't cook, the other three younger ones would have starved to death without needing anyone else to assassinate them.
