Faced with Ren Ye's questioning, Xu Bangzi replied unhurriedly, "My family was the only one in Lust Village that worked as blacksmiths. Whenever the Xu Residence had a celebration coming up, they would hire my adoptive father for some handiwork, like repairing the ancestral hall or painting the iron gates. Those jobs required bringing materials into the residence to work, so my adoptive father also saw some interesting things at the Shen Family's place. When he had nothing to do at home, he'd talk about how Guo Litao's daughter-Guo Ying-was always visiting Shen Yuan, but that young master barely gave her the time of day and even mocked her. They had two big fights, too, but Guo Ying was always the one who backed down."
Lust Village wasn't very big, after all. Contracting small jobs out to the village blacksmith made sense.
Ren Ye nodded slowly and asked, "How much else do you know about Shen Yuan?"
"I also know Madam Shen doted on Shen Yuan and spoiled him rotten," Xu Bangzi said softly. "So Shen Yuan never had a very good reputation in Lust Village. He was pretty overbearing. But that's normal. If I had a dad like his, I'd be even fucking worse."
Ren Ye looked thoughtful. "What else? Preferably some personal characteristics of Shen Yuan's."
"Personal characteristics..." Xu Bangzi thought back carefully. "When the incident happened in Lust Village, Shen Yuan was about eighteen or nineteen. Nearly twenty years have passed, so he should be thirty-six or thirty-seven now, right? Does that count?"
Ren Ye's eyes brightened. "It does. Go on."
"Yeah. Apart from that, my adoptive father also said Shen Yuan was good-looking, very handsome. Took after his mother. He was about six feet tall, too."
"Nothing else?"
"Nothing else. That's really all I know." Xu