Du Haoran saw Ye Zhuo's face calm and unruffled, thinking that he had put medicine in the incense burner very clearly. He sat down again, looking at Ye Zhuo: "Is this the result you want? What do you want to do? Do you know that if you let this medicine burn, your reputation will be ruined, even if Du Nian is here, you can't explain it clearly."

  "My reputation?" Ye Zhuo smiled lightly, her smile filled with helplessness and desolation. "When my life is hard to preserve, what reputation am I seeking? Does Master Du know that originally, Miss Nie wanted to send a male servant to spy on me? If I didn't take advantage of this matter to make a big scene and walk out of the Nie family gate, perhaps not long after, Master Du would see my corpse."

  Du Haoran's face suddenly changed, and his expression became extremely gloomy.

  He turned his head and looked at Ye Zhuo: "Then what do you plan to do?"

  Ye Zhuo slowly shook her head: "At first, I was going to use Zhao Song and that maid to talk things over, but now they're all gone, and I don't know what to do." She raised her eyes and said softly, "If you let Du Nian help me, maybe I can still test the medicine on myself. At that time, that male servant will definitely come, let Du Nian think of a way to go out and bring people in, and stop him in time."

  "Aren't you worried about your reputation? You should know that if it's like this, you'll have a hard time getting married in the future."

  Ye Zhuo smiled lightly: "When I said that my life is hard, I didn't plan to marry. Now, even if I get a bad reputation again, it's just like this. This lifetime, I only want to rely on my own two hands to make a living and live with some dignity, I never thought of relying on men. So, reputation... having one is good, not having one doesn't matter." She looked at Du Haoran, "Besides, does Lord Du think that the Nie family will let this kind of thing spread everywhere, filling the streets? Don't they worry about ruining the Nie family's reputation?"

  Du Haoran gazed steadily at Ye Zhuo, his eyes shining brightly. After a moment, he burst out laughing loudly: "Not a single thing was left behind, excellent."

  Indeed, Ye Zhenzhong was poisoned by aphrodisiacs and would be gossiped about, affecting her reputation; but who poisoned her? And where did they poison her? Why did they poison her? Such things don't require solid evidence, just rumors and speculation can spread throughout the entire South.

  At that time, the Nie family will not be able to wash away their own uncleanliness, and Nie Weiyue's reputation is even worse than Ye Zhen's. The psychology of sympathizing with the weak and hating the strong makes everyone only sympathize with Ye Zhen and despise Nie Weiyue. Ye Zhen's reputation has been affected, but at most she won't get married. With her abilities and the kindness of the Ye family, even if she doesn't get married, she can still live a good life. But the Nie family is different, their good reputation accumulated over the years to attract talented people from the south may be ruined in an instant; and Nie Weiyue wants to marry into a wealthy and powerful family in the capital, it's hard to find a suitable match - what she did is a common tactic used by women in large households. But that's behind closed doors, and wealthy families value surface-level dignity. Nie Weiyue has not yet married but has already been given a bad reputation for using aphrodisiacs, who would dare marry her? Whoever marries her will also be tainted by her bad reputation!

  Ye Chou had just figured this out and wanted to try this desperate move.

  After Du Haoran's praise, he put away his smile, lowered his eyelids, and quietly looked at the ground in front of him. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed, as if considering something. Ye Zhuo knew that Du Haoran had a reason for doing so, so he didn't urge him, but instead sat quietly beside him, waiting for Du Haoran to think it through.

  Finally, Du Haoran raised his head and gazed at Ye Zhuo, saying: "If you really don't care about your reputation, perhaps I can cooperate with you."

  "What?" Ye Zhen thought of countless possibilities while Du Haoran was deep in thought, but still jumped at the sound of this sentence.

  Du Haoran's words meant that he was willing to accompany her in taking poison and help her escape from the Nie family.

  How is this possible?

  She didn't have much of a relationship with Du Haoran, but rather he wasn't disgusted by what she did and even admired it somewhat, so he was willing to help her out when possible without offending the Nie family. That's all.

  Now he would rather let his reputation be damaged and hurt his relationship with the Nie family just to help her, how is this possible?

  Ye Zhuo didn't think that Du Haoran would have any improper thoughts about her, so she wouldn't draw her sword in a fit of rage for the sake of love. She Ye Zhuo thought that she still didn't possess such charm. Moreover, Du Haoran's eyes were clear and bright, his gaze at her was full of appreciation, approval, and recognition, but there wasn't a hint of deep affection or infatuation. He didn't have any romantic thoughts about her.

  No matter what, no matter what his purpose was, this was a kind intention from Du Haoran, and Ye Zhuo felt grateful. She raised her eyes and shook her head at Du Haoran: "Du Gongzi's kindness, I appreciate it. But if you do this, not only will you be pointed at by others, but it will also affect your relationship with the Nie family. To help me while letting you suffer losses makes me uneasy. You just need to let Du Nian stay here and use some trickery to make someone else break into the scene at a critical moment. Not just you, even Du Nian doesn't need to show up - you don't need to stir up this muddy water."

  Du Haoran's gaze fell on Ye Zhuo's face and didn't move away for a long time, his eyes becoming increasingly bright.

  It's clear that once he gets involved, things will be greatly different. For Ye Zhuo, there are only advantages and no disadvantages.

  First, he and the male servant of Nie's family were not on the same level in terms of status. Ye Zhuo being bumped into by Nie's male servant was a great insult; but if she was with him, there would only be shame, without any insult. They were of similar age and both unmarried, so even if they were caught in some ambiguous situation, due to his presence, others wouldn't be able to say anything shameful or insulting about Ye Zhuo. The damage to her reputation would be minimized.

  Secondly, Ye Zhuo's trip is to make the Nie family owe her. When she made a fuss about leaving the Nie family and expressed that she didn't want to be Nie Zhongkun's disciple, the Nie family couldn't say a word of blame to her. If Ye Zhuo had an affair with the male servant of the Nie family, the Nie family might choose to force Ye Zhuo to marry the male servant in order to suppress the matter, and compensate her only in terms of money or the status of the male servant. If Ye Zhuo only had one elder from the main house, it would be easy to say that as long as the whole family didn't agree, the Nie family wouldn't have a choice but to let her leave; however, now there's Ye Yuzhang who is willing to sell everything for his own benefit, this matter has taken a turn. For this reason, Ye Zhuo might still struggle a lot. But if she were to replace the male servant with him, it would be different. As long as he didn't mention marrying Ye Zhuo or taking her as a concubine, the Nie family would only feel more guilty towards Ye Zhuo, and apart from agreeing to send her away properly, they might also give her some material compensation. Moreover, Nie Weiyue's unprovoked anger would also subside, and she wouldn't continue to oppose Ye Zhuo, biting down on it relentlessly.

  In the end, pretending to be with him is still better than being entangled with a male servant. This feeling will definitely be an important factor in influencing her decision.

  It stands to reason that for the wise Ye Zhuo, who remained calm and composed in the face of Xie Yunfeng's sabotage and Wang Chengdong's provocation, using a series of clever tactics to lure Yan Qingchun and Gong Zhiming into his trap and helping Yang Jianxiu rise to power, there is no reason why he wouldn't understand.

  But she disagreed, just because she didn't want this innocent person to be affected unfairly!

  There are many clever people in the world, but those who possess great wisdom, have a kind heart, clear goals and perseverance, can distinguish right from wrong, and make decisions based on gratitude and resentment, such women are truly rare!

  After a long time, Du Haoran finally shifted his gaze, calming the turmoil in his heart, and said: "I didn't make this decision without reason."

  His expression gradually became solemn, he glanced at Ye Zhuo, shook his head slightly, then closed his eyes, feeling everything around him. Ye Zhuo didn't know what he meant by this action, but she also didn't make a sound, quietly waiting instead.

  After a few breaths, Du Haoran felt that except for Du Niancang hiding in the tree next to the house, there was no one else around, and he opened his eyes and said: "I came to the south to find something very important to me. In the past year or so, I have had some dealings with the Nie family. Although the Nie family has been good to me for their own benefit, it is a fact that they have not treated me poorly. If it weren't for the involvement of the imperial court's power struggle, I would be willing to help them gamble on one or two jade mines. But just now, when you sent Autumn Moon to find me, I received a secret edict from the Emperor, forbidding me from helping the Nie family gamble on the mine."

  The second prince won, from Gu Chen's arrival and action, it can be seen that Ye Zhuo heard this news was not unexpected. She raised an eyebrow and said: "So to speak, the emperor has made a decision, deciding to make the second prince the crown prince?"

  Du Haoran looked at her in surprise, then smiled and nodded: "I thought it would be like this." Ye Zhuo came from a humble background, which limited the people and things she came into contact with, and the level was not high. But relying on these few words alone, she was able to reveal the key point, showing how clever and perceptive this woman was! Although Du Haoran felt that he already knew Ye Zhuo well enough, at this moment he couldn't help but be surprised.

  Now that it's come to this, Ye Zhuo thought for a moment and understood what Du Haoran meant earlier. She smiled and looked at Du Haoran: "Young Master Du also wants to take advantage of today's incident to make trouble with the Nie family like me and move out of the Nie Manor?"

  Having been surprised earlier, Du Haoran no longer made any predictions about Ye Zhuo's cleverness. He nodded: "That's right." He looked up at her, "Do you want to think again? Are you sure you want to leave the Nie family in this way?"

  Ye Zhuo nodded: "Okay." Her clear eyes shone with a firm and calm determination.

  Du Haoran looked at her deeply, got up and walked into the screen, took a look at the incense placed on the windowsill, and found that the incense had been burning for half. He returned to the chair, sat down and said: "The incense has burned halfway."

  Two clever people together, no need to say more. Ye Zhuo completely understood his meaning and stood up, nodding: "The time should be about right. You can smell the medicinal scent with a sniff, it's probably quite potent."

  Du Haoran didn't say another word, picked up the teacup on the table, poured himself a cup of tea, brought it to his nose and sniffed, then drank it all in one gulp. After finishing that cup of tea, he picked up the snacks on the table and started eating again.

  (I'll be going back to my hometown for Qingming Festival to pay respects and sweep the tombs, so I'll only be updating once a day for the next few days. Thanks to Dongfang Fengyun for spending money on a 10-point evaluation vote, thanks to Doufu for the reward of a Peace Symbol, and thanks to Ningning71 and Lianyang for the pink votes! If you like this work, feel free to come and cast a recommendation vote or monthly vote - your support is my greatest motivation.)