Chapter 643 News

"Sigh! There's nothing we can do about it, so let's not talk about it anymore."

The old lady felt that if she listened any longer, her mood would also worsen.

Gu Shuyan naturally didn't want to talk to them about those things, so she asked about Gu Renjie's marriage.

The couple had been engaged for some time, but due to the disaster, the wedding date had not yet been set.

When the topic of marrying off her son's wife came up, a smile finally appeared on Madam Ji's face. "Before, I thought you wouldn't be able to come back, so I set it for the first month of next year. Later, when I received the news that you were coming back, I moved it to the sixteenth of this month."

"Sixteen is great. Once my sister-in-law is married, I can spend the New Year with her at home."

Gu Shuyan also really liked the twelfth lunar month. Ouyang Jing had entered the family before the new year and gave birth to Gu Congzheng the following year. If Meng Wei could also have a nephew or niece the following year, it would be so lively when she came to visit.

Seeing that Gu Shuyan was even happier than the person in question, the old lady couldn't help but scold, "Who said this is a married girl? Look at her, she's already thinking about spending the New Year at her parents' home."

"Grandmother, if you know, just don't say it! How can your granddaughter come home often after this?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Shuyan deliberately acted coquettishly and playfully towards the old lady, making everyone in the room laugh heartily.

After having dinner at the Marquis's residence, Gu Shuyan did not linger. They had just returned today, and the two cartloads of things they brought back still needed to be unpacked.

Yun Yichen didn't return to his residence until evening after entering the palace. Because the emperor had hosted a banquet, all officials of the third rank and above were present, and Yun Yichen was forced to drink quite a bit of wine.

Lying in bed that night, Gu Shuyan thought Yun Yichen would fall asleep immediately.

Unexpectedly, as she lay down, Yun Yichen slowly spoke.

"Shushu's trip to Suzhou must have been more than just going to keep me company!"

Although Gu Shuyan never told him the purpose of her trip to Suzhou, based on Yun Yichen's understanding of her, he knew that Gu Shuyan could not possibly have gone to Suzhou so blindly simply because she was worried about him.

Gu Shuyan smiled awkwardly at Yun Yichen's words, "You can't hide anything from me. I do have something else to do this time."

"Tell me! What have you done?" Yun Yichen said, already reaching out to pull her into his arms.

"It's nothing really." Gu Shuyan touched her nose and then recounted how she bought grain from Xu Yunzhi.

"Originally, I was worried that you might run out of food, so I thought I would stockpile more. But it turns out that the shortage of disaster relief food in Suzhou is not too big, so I had people transport those grains to several cities that were more severely affected by the disaster."

According to Gu Shuyan's calculations, Yun Yichen wouldn't be back until next year at the earliest, and with such a large food shortage, the amount allocated by the emperor would definitely not be enough.

But who would have thought that He Biyou could hide so much grain, and with the grain harvested by the people, there was naturally a lot more grain than expected.

Yun Yichen was surprised that Gu Shuyan had gone to buy grain from Xu Yunzhi. Thinking of his heartless younger brother, Yun Yichen couldn't help but ask, "How much did you pay for that grain?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Shuyan made a one-finger gesture, and Yun Yichen immediately couldn't help but rub his forehead, "I thought I had secretly made quite a bit from He Biyou this time, but I didn't expect that Madam had already spent it all for me in advance."

“I never expected things to turn out this way. At that time, the only person I could think of who would sell me grain was him.”

Gu Shuyan pouted, looking a little aggrieved. Seeing this, Yun Yichen quickly comforted her, "It's alright, it's alright. I'll get the money back next time."

"Besides, that grain isn't really useless. Although the disaster situation seems to have stabilized now, the autumn harvest is still a long way off, and the price of grain will definitely continue to rise. With Madam's grain, it might just be able to stabilize the market price."

In fact, Gu Shuyan thought so too. Now that Yun Yichen was comforting her like this, the self-blaming Gu Shuyan immediately put on a sweet smile.

Seeing how quickly the little girl's expression changed, Yun Yichen couldn't help but peck her on the cheek.

Then, the lights flickered, and the bed curtains were drawn.

The next day, Yun Yichen went to the morning court as usual.

After sorting through the things she brought back yesterday, Gu Shuyan sent most of them to the Marquis's residence, and a portion to Madam Ji.

"What kind of random things has Shu'er bought? Look at this, what's the use of its fancy appearance?"

Looking at the piled-up front hall, Lady Ji felt a headache coming on.

“My daughter-in-law thought this could be made into a decoration and hung in my brother’s new room. That way, when it jingles and clangs, it will sound festive.”

Ouyang Jing glanced at the colorful, jingling thing and arranged its whereabouts.

When Ji heard Ouyang Jing say this, she thought it was a good idea and immediately called a maid to send it to the bridal chamber and hang it by the window.

"And what about this? What is this thing? I've never seen it before?"

Ji Shi stared at a large wooden block that looked neither round nor square, and was once again perplexed.

Ouyang Jing glanced at it and thought that the things might be useful for sitting, so she suggested again, "Why don't we put them in Big Brother's new room?"

Thus, anything that Ji Shi and Ouyang Jing didn't want and didn't know the purpose of became decorations in Gu Renjie's new room.

At this time, Gu Renjie was unaware that his new house, under the arrangement of Ji Shi and Ouyang Jing, had become the strangest new house in the capital.

In the imperial palace, the emperor was in high spirits because the disaster situation had stabilized.

It is said that double happiness comes to the family. Sure enough, the emperor had just finished the morning court in high spirits and was about to have a meal with the empress when the commander of the Imperial Guards suddenly arrived.

Upon hearing from the eunuch that he had made progress in his inquiry, the emperor disregarded his appointment with the empress and immediately summoned the man.

"Have you found them?"

The emperor looked somewhat excited, and before the commander of the Imperial Guards could even salute, he had already spoken.

Upon seeing this, the leader of the Imperial Guard hesitated for a moment, then decided not to perform the salute at all, and directly clasped his hands in a fist salute to the emperor, saying, "My men did indeed send back a message yesterday."

The Imperial Guard Commander paused, glanced at the Emperor's expression, and continued, "According to my investigation, the one who took the Second Prince away was a eunuch from Consort Yun's palace."

"Eunuchs?" The emperor narrowed his eyes upon hearing this. Those eunuchs from Consort Yun's palace back then should have all been executed.

Could it be that the eunuch pulled off a clever escape?

The Emperor, recalling Consort Yun's original identity, suddenly realized that such a possibility wasn't entirely out of the question. If Consort Yun had helped with the plan, the eunuch might very well have faked his death and escaped the palace with the young prince.

"Have you found that eunuch?" the emperor asked in a deep voice.