Mother Xiao did not know what Xiao Yuanshi was thinking.

Otherwise, she would be like an old lady and spit at him.

“Xiao Yuanshi, why did you lure us here?”

Mother Xiao picked up the golden hairpin in her hand and pointed at him. “Don’t tell me you want to kill us to silence us?”

Xiao Yuanshi was speechless.

This woman really could think of such a thing.

He would be stupid to let someone lure them here and in order to silence them.

He had a helpless look on his face. “I suddenly heard that you guys were nearby, so I wanted to see you guys.”

He had been in a bad mood for the past few days, and Ge Chunru often came to intercept him.

The emperor only told him to reflect on his actions at home, but didn’t ground him.

Therefore, he ran to the hot spring manor at home to hide.

During lunch, he heard his personal servant report that Xiao Hanzheng had brought his family to the hot spring manor nearby.

He did not think much about it at first, but the more he thought about it, the more he could not swallow the humiliation.

Thus, he wanted to take revenge.

It was not practical to directly touch Xiao Hanzheng and Shi Qingluo, the emperor would not forgive him.

He also remembered that Kong Yuelan had given him a slap that day, and even deliberately exposed his and Ge Chunru’s identities and scolded him.

He felt an indescribable pain in his heart.

Thus, he could not help but have a wicked idea of revenge.

If he let Kong Yuelan take the initiative to become a co-wife in the general’s residence, he would be able to restore his father-son relationship with Xiao Hanzheng.

With this relationship, he could also use filial piety to control him.

Moreover, didn’t Kong Yuelan hit him and scold him? She looked like she despised him now.

If he let her return to his side, what would the others think?

They would only say that Kong Yuelan had only treated him that way because she hated him out of love.

Now, she had just obediently returned to his side as his wife.

Weren’t Xiao Hanzheng and the others very happy to be away from him?

Then they would be forced to return.

Let’s see if they could laugh again.

Because of this, he found a dress that was similar in color to the first time he saw Kong Yuelan and put it on.

Then, he got someone to bribe the servant in Shi Qingluo’s hot spring manor to bring them here.

He waited here, hoping that Kong Yuelan would fall in love with him again.

Moreover, he had always thought that Kong Yuelan definitely had him in her heart.

Mother Xiao no longer loved Xiao Yuanshi in her heart, and even the hatred was gone.

All that was left was disgust.

Now that she heard him say this with a smile so gentle, she was dazed for a moment.

It was as if she had seen Xiao Yuanshi for the first time.

This was the kind of gentle and elegant smile that made her fall in love at the first sight.

After interacting with him a few times more, he did not look like a village man at all. Instead, he looked like an elegant scholar.

He was very gentle and considerate to her.

He would even carve a wooden hairpin for her.

That was why she had tried her best to convince her parents for her to marry him.

But in the end, she ended up like this.

Mother Xiao quickly came back to her senses.

She did not fall into Xiao Yuanshi’s gentleness. Instead, she became more guarded.

She said straightforwardly, “You’ve already seen us. Can you send us to leave now?”

Obviously, she did not trust Xiao Yuanshi.

This made Xiao Yuanshi startled and very surprised.

Kong Yuelan was actually so guarded against him.

In the past, she had trusted him so much, which made him very uncomfortable.

Therefore, he changed his strategy and looked at Xiao Baoli lovingly.

“After not seeing all of you for a while, Baili has grown into a big girl.”

His eldest son was too shrewd and had a lot of resentment toward him.

It was very difficult to mend the relationship between him and his son.

However, he could make a move on his daughter and younger son and let them recognize him as their biological father.

Ge Chunru could not give birth to a child, so he attached great importance to his legitimate children too.

Therefore, he could let Tao Liu give birth to his child, but he wanted to raise a legitimate son to inherit the general’s mansion.

Xiao Erlang was still young, so as long as he was separated from Xiao Hanzheng and his wife, it would be a good choice to raise him by his side.

The key was to let Xiao Erlang maintain a brotherly relationship with Xiao Hanzheng, so that Xiao Hanzheng and his wife wouldn’t keep an eye on the general’s mansion.

Killing several birds with one stone.

Xiao Baili did not have a deep impression of her father.

When she was young, her father had gone to war, and when he came back, he was not close to them either.

He even forced her mother to be demoted to a concubine and break off his kinship with them.

Her sister-in-law always called her biological father a scumbag, hence she followed suit and called him that too.

She would never forget that her scumbag father had broken off their kinship with them for the sake of a concubine.

The old Xiao family had chased them to the old house, and her brother was unconscious.

She was almost forced to go to the Wu family to get married and die together. Those days were extremely tough.

That was why she was not used to her scumbag father suddenly being so kind to her.

Under Shi Qingluo’s constant guidance, Xiao Baili was already able to think independently and was also quite vigilant.

Right now, she only had a feeling that when he makes a courtesy call to a hen, the weasel harbors no good intentions.

She held Mother Xiao’s hand and pursed her lips as she looked at her scumbag father. “We’ve only met a few times in total. You don’t have to be so friendly.

“Moreover, we’ve already broken off our kinship a long time ago, so whether I’ve grown up or not has nothing to do with you.”

Xiao Yuanshi thought to himself, where was his weak and meek daughter?

Be it Kong Yuelan or Xiao Baili, they were all very different from what he remembered.

She had definitely been led astray by that bad daughter-in-law.

Otherwise, why would she be like this?

He suppressed the displeasure in his heart and continued with a gentle and loving smile. “What happened in the past was indeed my fault.

“When I proposed to break off the kinship, I was just angry that your big brother didn’t want to return to the capital with me, so I mentioned it casually.

“Who would have thought that he would actually agree?

“So even though I broke off my kinship with you, you will always be my biological children in my heart.”

He said guiltily, “During this period of time, I have thought deeply about it. The more I think about it, the more I feel that I have let you and your siblings down. So now, I only want to make up for it.”

Mother Xiao did not expect that Xiao Yuanshi would take the initiative to lower himself and say such words.

The key was that he wanted to snatch the children from her.

“Compensation? My ass. You don’t have any good intentions.

“Xiao Yuanshi, don’t be so shameless. If you dare to snatch my children away, I will fight with you to my grave.”

She glared at him. “I’ll go to the yamen and sue you.”

Xiao Yuanshi looked at his ex-wife, who was becoming more and more unreserved and would scold and glare at him.

He was a little surprised that he did not dislike her.

“I don’t want to steal your children. I just feel that I made a mistake in the past and want to make it up to them.”

He looked helpless again. “Don’t misunderstand.”

Xiao Baili pulled Mother Xiao back and raised her eyebrows at Xiao Yuanshi. “Do you really want to make it up to me and my siblings?”

When Xiao Yuanshi saw her appearance, he was elated. There was hope.

He knew it. How could the children not expect their biological father to care and love them.

He nodded and said, “Of course.”

He did not suggest that his daughter should return to the general’s residence as soon as he arrived. He felt that his motive was too strong.

Moreover, Xiao Hanzheng would not agree to it.

Therefore, he wanted to boil a frog in warm water.

He wanted to do it step by step and let Kong Yuelan and her daughter repair their relationship with him before proposing to bring them back home to live together.

Xiao Baili curled her lips. “Sure, then you can give us tens of thousands of taels of silver as compensation. Let us spend it.”

As long as her scumbag father dared to give it to her, she would dare to take it.