Sweeping floors, watering flowers, doing odd jobs, earning a few silver dollars a month. He had to bow and scrape before everyone, greeting them all with a smile.
Was he honest? Yes. Did he know his place? Yes. But all of this was only because Zhou Daniu had no power.
What could a powerless man do if he wasn’t honest? What could he do if he didn’t know his place?
After all, any arrogant fool without power would surely get beaten to death.
But things were different now. Zhou Daniu had power. He was an Early-stage Anjin Martial Artist.
While this Realm wasn’t considered top-tier in Yun Port City, it was more than enough for him to lord it over ordinary people.
’If you had absolute power, who wouldn’t want to be a Homelander and do whatever they please?’
Glory, riches, and beautiful women—there wasn’t a single normal man who didn’t want these things.
He’d never dared to dream of them before because he wasn’t worthy. Suddenly, Zhou Daniu thought of the young maidservant from the neighboring courtyard. She was so delicate and pretty, and she always lowered her head and hurried past whenever she saw him.
Back then, Zhou Daniu never dared to look too long, afraid people would say a toad was lusting after a swan’s flesh.
But now... Zhou Daniu’s smile grew stranger. His eyes glinted with greed, ambition, and a hint of madness he himself hadn’t even noticed.
The gardens of the Lu Family Residence were vast, filled with pavilions and verandas, rockeries and streams, and an abundance of flourishing flowers and trees.
It was just after nine in the morning. The warm sunlight spilled down, illuminating the blooming flowers and the group of people admiring them.
A dozen or so female servants waited nearby, some holding trays of tea and snacks, some holding fans, and others holding garments, all ready to attend to any command.
In the center of the garden, two young women were admiring the flowers with their children. One of them was the Lu Family’s eldest daughter-in-law, Shen Luoying.
She looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six, in the prime of a woman’s life.
Her face was so exquisite it could have been painted. Her eyebrows were like distant mountains tinged with charcoal, her eyes like autumn waters rippling, and her pale cherry lips held a natural allure.
She wore a pink Western-style dress, the height of current fashion, with a hem that stopped at her knees, revealing a pair of fair, slender calves.
The waist was cinched tight, perfectly accentuating Shen Luoying’s voluptuous and tantalizing figure.
She had on a pair of matching high heels, making her stand tall and graceful.
At that moment, Shen Luoying was holding a little boy, pointing at a moth orchid in a flowerbed and whispering something to him.
The little boy was her and Lu Jingteng’s eldest son, and also Lu Yun’s eldest grandson.
Beside her was the Lu family’s second daughter-in-law, Li Zhiyu. She was dressed in a simple and elegant cyan qipao that perfectly outlined her slender figure.
Li Zhiyu was also holding a child, who was gurgling and reaching for the nearby flowers.
The nearby female servants would occasionally steal glances at the two women, their hearts filled with envy.
Who wouldn’t want to live a life like Shen Luoying’s and Li Zhiyu’s?
To marry into the Lu Family and bear a child meant a lifetime of endless wealth and glory. Moreover, their father-in-law was a Grandmaster of Divine Intent and the Military Governor of Yun Port City.
’Where else could you find a husband’s family like that?’
In the distance, Zhou Daniu was holding a broom, sweeping a small path at the edge of the garden. This area happened to be part of his designated cleaning zone.
Just then, waves of charming, seductive laughter drifted over, scratching at Zhou Daniu’s heart like tiny claws.
He couldn’t help but gaze toward Shen Luoying in the distance, his broom forgotten in his hands.
Zhou Daniu stared at the figure in pink, his eyes practically glued to her.
He had seen the First Mistress before; he would catch a distant glimpse of her every time he came to the garden to sweep.
But he had never dared to look for more than a moment before. He felt inferior. ’What right does a lowly sweeper, a poor devil who can’t even fill his own stomach, have to stare at the master’s wife?’
So, every time, Zhou Daniu would steal a quick glance and then immediately lower his head and get back to his sweeping.
But today, for some reason, ever since eating that small piece of black flesh and gaining that power, he had completely changed.
The dark side of his personality, suppressed for over thirty years deep in his heart, felt as if it had been hooked and was now being drawn out, bit by bit. He was even starting to lose control of his innermost desires.
’The First Mistress... so beautiful.’
Zhou Daniu stared at the figure in pink, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
That voluptuous, tantalizing figure, that face that could bewitch the world, the charm in her every frown and smile... she far surpassed the maidservant he had once liked. In fact, there was no comparison at all.
’What was that maidservant? How could a rotten fruit compare to a ripe, juicy peach?’
Zhou Daniu’s gaze traveled from Shen Luoying’s face to her neck, to her chest, to her slender waist, and then to her fair calves.
Finally, he couldn’t help but swallow hard. ’If... if one day I could be with a woman like that...’
Zhou Daniu didn’t dare let the thought continue, but once it had sprouted, it could no longer be suppressed. He could only grip his broom tightly with both hands, staring intently at the distant pink figure.
All sorts of images churned in his mind—images he had never even dared to imagine before.
Just as Zhou Daniu was lost in these fantasies, a figure suddenly appeared in his line of sight.
Upon seeing the newcomer, Zhou Daniu’s body froze. Not far from Shen Luoying, an old man in a black Zhongshan suit, leaning on a cane, was slowly walking into the garden.
Zhou Daniu’s face turned deathly pale in an instant. He quickly bowed his head, staring fixedly at the ground.

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