Chapter 1063: Return

"What did you put in this? Why is it so delicious?" Yu Yanluo asked, looking at Zu'an in shock.

Zu'an smiled. "I'm glad you like it, Madam."

The beautiful Yu Yanluo's face still held the expression of recent shock. "You still haven't answered my question!"

Seeing her playful tantrum, Zu'an thought to himself that it was no wonder beautiful women had privileges; even their tantrums were adorable.

It wasn't a secret, so Zu'an replied, "This is called MSG. After I met you, Madam, I learned that you didn't have much of an appetite, so I had my subordinates research something specifically for you. I hope it helps stimulate your appetite."

"MSG?" Yu Yanluo smacked her lips and couldn't help but exclaim, "This is truly miraculous! It makes food so delicious. No, not just delicious, it deserves every praise imaginable. The umami flavor has been enhanced by hundreds, even thousands of times!"

Zu'an chuckled, "You don't need to overthink it, Madam. While it seems magical, it's not difficult to make. Just dry shiitake mushrooms, grind them into powder, mix them with dried scallops and other flavor enhancers, and the resulting substance will greatly improve the freshness of food."

Yu Yanluo blinked, her expression turning extremely peculiar as she looked at Zu'an. "You're telling me the formula so easily?"

Zu'an was momentarily stunned. "What's the big deal? I'm short on time and could only make a small amount of MSG. To ensure you have it in the future, I simply told you. With the Yu family's capabilities, recreating MSG shouldn't be difficult. This way, you can always enjoy your meals and won't waste away due to a poor appetite."

Yu Yanluo couldn't help but sigh. "Do you realize how much business you just handed over with that casual remark?"

"I just want you to live more comfortably, Madam. I wasn't thinking of anything else," Zu'an said with a smile.

Yu Yanluo observed him for a long time, and seeing no hint of pretense in his demeanor, she couldn't help but exclaim, "You are truly different from other men in this world. In such a short time, you've given me so many surprises. Last time, the hand warmers were already a huge business, but compared to this MSG, it's like night and day. While hand warmers are practical, the families that use them are typically wealthy or noble."

"But MSG is different. Based on the processing method you just mentioned, mass production could bring the cost down to a negligible level. This means ordinary families could use it. Although the profit per unit might be less than hand warmers, the overall market is so much larger that the total profit would far exceed that of hand warmers."

Zu'an listened, wide-eyed, and finally couldn't help but say, "Madam, you truly are a business genius. You can uncover such immense business opportunities from anything."

Yu Yanluo smiled, pursing her lips. "That's just professional habit. Ultimately, it's all thanks to your brilliant ideas. How about this: if you don't mind, I'll take charge of this business in the future, and we'll split the profits fifty-fifty."

Zu'an wasn't pretentious. "I hadn't thought that far ahead. It's all up to you, Madam. If you think it's valuable, then I'll defer to your arrangements."

Yu Yanluo couldn't help but sigh with emotion, "I've only seen you a few times, and yet you've already brought me wealth multiple times. You must be my lucky star."

"It is truly my honor to be your lucky star," Zu'an said, giving her a gentleman's bow.

Yu Yanluo's smile became even brighter. "Alright, I'll take that as no objection. I'll instruct my subordinates to follow up on the MSG business."

Zu'an smiled slightly. "How much money we make is secondary. My greatest hope is that you always have a good appetite from now on."

Yu Yanluo's face flushed slightly, and she couldn't help but scoff playfully. "You truly are a charmer. Even I'm a little swayed. You could easily fool any young maiden."

Zu'an feigned surprise. "Aren't you a young maiden, Madam?"

Yu Yanluo paused, then burst into uncontrollable laughter, shaking with mirth as she playfully hit his shoulder. "You seem honest on the surface, but you're actually incredibly smooth."

Zu'an sighed. "You truly don't understand me, Madam. I may appear smooth, but deep down, I'm very honest."

Yu Yanluo scoffed again. "If you're honest, then there are no honest men in this world."

Although she said this, there was no hint of resentment in her tone.

Women are strange. They speak highly of honest men, yet they often don't find them appealing, preferring instead men who are a bit 'bad.'

Yu Yanluo didn't know why, but talking with Zu'an always brought her great pleasure, a feeling she had never experienced with any other man before.

The two quickly devoured the meal. Yu Yanluo still seemed to want more. "I haven't eaten so much in a long time. I hope I didn't take too much of yours."

Zu'an chuckled. "It's fine. I'm sturdy. It wouldn't matter if I didn't eat for a day or two, let alone after just having a good meal."

Yu Yanluo had a bit of a headache. "What will we do in the future? I can't let you starve every time."

"That's not a problem. We can have hotpot. I can bring some ingredients from outside," Zu'an suggested.

"Hotpot?" Yu Yanluo frowned slightly. "I'm not very used to the strong smell of lamb, and regular hotpot usually tastes a bit bland to me."

She hadn't had much of an appetite for a while, so she wasn't very interested in plain hotpot.

"That's easy. We can make spicy hotpot," Zu'an said, somewhat nostalgic for the flushed face and sweat he used to get from spicy food in his previous life. "You're sensitive to cold, so eating something spicy would be good to dispel the chill."

"Spicy hotpot?" Yu Yanluo's eyes lit up. "That sounds quite interesting. We can try it then."

After she called a servant to clear the dishes, she and Zu'an resumed their training.

For some reason, both of them felt time was flying by, and before they knew it, two days had passed.

Yu Yanluo nodded in satisfaction. "Excellent. No one should be able to spot your disguise now."

"Thank you for your meticulous guidance, Madam," Zu'an said sincerely. In truth, merely impersonating Jian Yanyou wouldn't have made him this grateful.

It was primarily because during their time together, Yu Yanluo, as a master of painting, had given him a lot of pointers.

Although his previous drawings were very similar in appearance, they lacked a certain 'spirit.' Thus, a true master of painting could easily spot the flaws.

Now, having grasped Yu Yanluo's method and borrowing her power, he had vaguely comprehended many aspects of capturing that 'spirit.' This meant that in the future, when he impersonated others, there would be virtually no flaws in his facial disguise.

"As expected of someone with supreme talent, you learn everything quickly," Yu Yanluo said, smiling with pursed lips. "I'll call Gong Pan in a moment. He's Yanyou's personal guard captain. If you can fool him, then there will be no issues when you go to the Duke's Mansion. He can then escort you there."

"So soon?" Hearing her words, Zu'an suddenly felt a bit conflicted.

Yu Yanluo couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry, don't lose confidence just because I saw through your disguise the first time. In fact, your disguise skills are already very high, and after these days of training with me, I might even be fooled if I didn't know the situation."

"It's not that I'm worried about going to the Duke's Mansion, it's just..." Zu'an hesitated. "Madam, could you call over a male servant?"

"Why?" Yu Yanluo asked curiously. "Male servants are generally not allowed near my residence. Calling one suddenly would be a bit odd."

"Uh... I need him for something," Zu'an stammered, unable to tell her he needed to pretend to be a woman to deceive someone. It was truly a pain!

Seeing him hesitate, Yu Yanluo's expression also turned strange. "You're not... attracted to men, are you?"

Zu'an: "..."

"Of course not," Zu'an said, feeling a headache coming on. They had been eating and living together for days, becoming friends who could talk about anything, so he finally decided to explain. "It's just that my disguise technique is a bit special. Before I can disguise myself as the target, I first have to... pretend to be a woman and deceive a man. Only then can I use it."

Unable to explain the existence of the voice changer, he could only blame it on his cultivation technique.

Yu Yanluo's beautiful eyes widened, and a smile appeared at the corner of her lips. The smile quickly grew wider and wider, until she could no longer hold back, shaking with laughter.

Still laughing, she apologized, "I'm sorry, I don't usually laugh like this, unless... I really can't help it, hahaha..."

Zu'an wore a look of utter despair; this was simply too embarrassing.

After her laughter subsided, Yu Yanluo still called a servant from the mansion to come over and personally witnessed the entire process of him pretending to be a cute girl to deceive the man. She laughed so hard she was bent double the whole time.

When the servant left, he felt like he was floating, thinking to himself that Madam never called men near her private chambers, but today she had called him.

That sweet-voiced young girl—he wondered what her relationship with Madam was. Such a beautiful voice, her real self must be soft-spoken and delicate.

And Madam had been smiling the whole time. Although she had clearly tried to hide it, he could still hear her. Could Madam be interested in him?

She rarely smiled at others.

Oh, my ancestors' graves must be smoking with good fortune! I must go offer more incense when I get back.

Inside the room, Zu'an had already taken on Jian Yanyou's appearance, and he glared grumpily at Yu Yanluo beside him. "Enough already. Haven't you finished laughing after all this time?"

Yu Yanluo covered her lips. "Because it truly was hilarious."

Zu'an: "..."

He cleared his throat. "You can call Gong Pan now."

Yu Yanluo also remembered the main task, and suppressing her laughter, she sent someone to find Gong Pan.

Not long after, Gong Pan arrived outside. "Greetings, Madam. How may I be of service?"

Yu Yanluo motioned for Zu'an to follow, then slowly opened the door. "Commander Gong, look who this is."

Gong Pan looked up and, seeing the man beside her, his eyes widened in extreme shock. "Duke!"

"It's been a long time," Zu'an said with a smile, using the tone of Jian Yanyou that he had trained for days.

"Duke, it's really you!" Hearing the familiar voice, Gong Pan was both surprised and overjoyed. He rushed over and clutched Zu'an's leg, a grown man weeping uncontrollably.

"Get up quickly, why are you crying so much?" Zu'an quickly helped him up.

"Duke, you don't know, ever since you left, so many of us have died or scattered..." Gong Pan quickly wiped his eyes. "Oh, never mind that. Your return, Duke, is the greatest news."

Yu Yanluo, standing nearby, said, "Yanyou is still recovering from severe injuries. Not only has his cultivation decreased, but he's also lost some memories. In the future, Commander Gong, I'll have to trouble you to look after him."

Gong Pan immediately said with a serious expression, "As long as I'm here, anyone who tries to harm the Duke will have to step over my dead body."

Zu'an quickly offered a few words of encouragement.

Following this, Yu Yanluo, accompanied by members of the Yu family and Gong Pan, escorted Zu'an back to the Duke's Mansion.

During this period, the official circles in Yunzhong Commandery had experienced a series of upheavals, so all major factions had already pricked up their ears, watching for any slightest stir.

Not long after, a startling piece of news quickly swept through the entire officialdom of Yunzhong Commandery.

The Duke of Yunzhong Commandery, who had been missing for a long time, had returned!