Ninggu City.
Yuan's Gathering Treasure House.
Today, the Young Master, Yuan Liang, was not practicing swordplay in the back courtyard as usual. Instead, he sat glumly on the steps. His hair was a mess, and he had not even groomed his beard. He looked utterly haggard.
"Young Master Yuan, what's wrong?"
A regular customer saw him and asked with a smile, "Did your father scold you again?"
"Ugh."
"I'm a little troubled."
"Leave me alone."
Yuan Liang said listlessly, not even bothering to lift his eyelids.
"Oh?"
"What troubles could the Young Master of the Yuan Family have?"
"That's a rare sight."
"Tell me about it?"
The regular customer was Zhang Qun. He was only in his thirties and not much older than Yuan Liang. The two often interacted in their daily lives and had frequently visited brothels together before, making them drinking buddies of a sort.
He walked over as if they were old friends.
Yet he saw several photographs laid out on the steps in front of Yuan Liang.
Cameras were still rare in this era. Moreover, hampered by the technology of the time, photographs were black and white, and the images often came out somewhat distorted.
Seeing that Yuan Liang did not object,
Zhang Qun picked one up.
He looked at it.
It showed several men and women standing beside a lake, all wearing brilliant smiles. Yuan Liang was leaning against a woman, and the two looked extremely intimate.
Nothing wrong with it, right?
What was the problem?
Zhang Qun glanced at Yuan Liang, then picked up the second photograph.
This one had been taken on the street.
There was only Yuan Liang,
and the woman from the first photograph who had seemed so close to him. The two stood beside a street food stall, while the