Chapter 91: Keeping a Concubine
Gu Yan explained: "My grandmother did not want to be the empress dowager during her lifetime and became one of the concubines of the late emperor. She hated the concubines in my grandfather's harem. After my grandfather abdicated to my uncle, she took him to Yongxing City. It was only after her death that she was named the empress dowager by the late emperor.
I had heard that my grandmother had opened a school in Jiangnan for a few years, but I never thought you would be her student."
Yun Xiangye smiled and said, "Since I am your grandmother's disciple, do you have to call me uncle-master?"
Gu Yan snorted.
Yun Xiangye smiled faintly at Gu Yan and said, "Call me uncle-master."
Gu Yan said: "..."
Seeing that Gu Yan was unwilling, Yun Xiangye chuckled and said, "It's really a coincidence in this world. We are nearly three or four thousand miles apart, but I have already met your grandmother and grandfather."
Yun Xiangye reacted and said, "Isn't your grandfather the emperor? Then why would he be willing to give up his power and live in seclusion in Jiangnan with your grandmother?"
Gu Yan said: "My grandfather thought my grandmother had been dead for more than 20 years. He had not had a good night's sleep in those 20 years. His health had been bad for a long time. After finally reuniting with my grandmother, he gave up his power and followed my grandmother to live in seclusion in Jiangnan."
Yun Xiangye said: "I haven't had a good sleep for more than 20 years, but I can give birth to the King of Chu and the King of Xiang..."
Gu Yanlian covered Yun Xiangye's lips and said, "You are quite courageous. You even dared to make up stories about my grandfather."
Yun Xiangye pushed Gu Yan's hand away and said, "You said your grandmother hated men who had three wives and four concubines and were fickle, but Mr. Linlang never said that to us. I think she was heartbroken. No wonder His Royal Highness acted like this. It seems he inherited the late emperor's ways."
Gu Yan said: "Don't talk nonsense. The late emperor had three palaces and six courtyards. At least the Crown Prince only has one woman by his side now."
Yun Xiangye frowned slightly and said, "He is not even as good as the late emperor. After all, the late emperor gave those women status! He would not abandon his own children."
Yun Xiangye continued to embroider the peony in her hand and said, "Mr. Linlang liked Sister He very much when she was young. She always praised Sister He for her talent and said she was her most satisfied student. If she knew that Sister He was bullied by her grandson like this, and that she had changed from a bright and generous woman to a timid and submissive woman who suffered so much, her spirit in heaven would probably feel bad too."
When Sister He left Jiangnan, Mr. Linlang was still teaching in the school.
But at that time, Sister He was afraid that Mr. Linlang would be disappointed to see her most outstanding female student become a slave, so she did not tell Mr. Linlang that she was dropping out of school to become a palace maid. She only said that she had to leave Jiangnan for something.
Yun Xiangye thought that if she had told Mr. Linlang that she was going to be a palace maid, Mr. Linlang would definitely help her. Even if her second uncle failed to complete the number of palace maids and was short of one, with Mr. Linlang's help, nothing should be a problem.
It's too late to regret now.
After all, Mr. Linlang is no longer alive.
This matter is really sad. If Mr. Linlang were still alive, I could ask him to let my sister leave the palace.
But unfortunately, Mr. Linlang is no longer with us.
Gu Yan coughed lightly. After all, he couldn't say anything about the Crown Prince.
Yun Xiangye sighed and said, "If only I had known Mr. Linlang's identity earlier, then the word "Linlang" in Linlang Restaurant also means Mr. Linlang's "Linlang"? I thought it meant a wide variety of dishes."
Gu Yan said: "Linlang is the name of my grandmother."
Yun Xiangye said: "Then I have to manage the restaurant well."
Although Yun Xiangye had the ambition to manage the restaurant well before, it was just that Gu Yan thought she was not good at it. She wanted to make Gu Yan understand what it meant to look down on others.
However, with the intention of divorcing Gu Yan, she didn't care about the restaurant as much as she cared about the embroidery workshop.
Now that she knew that Linlang Restaurant was left behind by her mentor, she would be more attentive to it.
Yun Xiangye was talking to Gu Yan, and she finished embroidering the peony in front of her after an hour.
Yun Xiangye had just put down the embroidery needle in her hand when Gu Yan picked her up horizontally.
Yun Xiangye quickly put her arms around Gu Yan's neck and asked, "What are you doing?"
Gu Yan said: "Try whether this new bed is firm or not."
Yun Xiangye said, "Don't you think the street vendors are dirty?"
Gu Yan said, "Don't misinterpret my meaning. I meant that the wontons sold on the streets don't have a storefront, so even if they add dirty things, they won't be able to find anyone. I didn't mean to look down on the market."
Yun Xiangye looked into Gu Yan's eyes and believed his explanation for the time being.
Gu Yan let down the bed curtains.
There were twin lotuses carved on the top of the new bed, and Yun Xiangye felt the lotuses swaying violently all night long.
She didn't know when she fell asleep. She only knew that when she was half asleep, Gu Yan seemed to be helping her wash up.
…
The next day, Yun Xiangye was woken up early by Gu Yan beside her.
Gu Yan whispered in Yun Xiangye's ear: "I have to go to the morning court. I will pass by the princess's mansion. You should come back with me. After all, you have not returned to the mansion all night. It is not good to go back alone."
Yun Xiangye was very sleepy and ignored Gu Yan and continued to sleep.
Gu Yan touched Yun Xiangye's sleeping face and couldn't help but smile, "Forget it, whatever you want."
Gu Yan left through the side door, and he did not forget to look around when he went out the side door.
Then he mounted his horse and rushed to court.
Outside the alley, Wei Qian, the son of the Duke of Wei, looked at Gu Yan coming out of the courtyard and whispered, "How could Gu Yan come out of this courtyard before the morning?"
It was not yet daybreak, but Wei Qian recognized Gu Yan's official uniform and the Ferghana horse he was riding at a glance.
This BMW was the best horse offered as tribute from the Western Regions four years ago. At that time, His Majesty gave it directly to Gu Yan as a birthday gift.
The servant beside Wei Qian said, "There is an ancestral precept in the Princess's Mansion that men are not allowed to take concubines. After all, Prince Ning is only twenty-one now, so it is inevitable that he will have affairs outside. After all, his wife is a plain-looking woman from a common family."
Wei Qian couldn't help but sneer.
At Gu Yan's daughter's two-year-old birthday party, his mother and sister kindly went to celebrate the birthday of a younger generation, but Gu Yan drove the Wei family out.
Wei Qian wanted to see how Gu Yan, the new censor, would keep a mistress.
Wei Qian said to the servant beside him, "Go and keep an eye on this room and see the woman who will come out from it later."
As soon as Wei Qian finished speaking, two women dressed as women came out of the house.
It was dark at the moment, but one could still see clearly that they were two young women.
"We worked too late last night. We are so tired. Let's go to the market early to see if there are any good chickens. We can stew the chicken with Gastrodia elata to nourish ourselves."
"It's too late. I'm afraid I won't be able to buy good food. Let's go quickly."
In order to meet the deadline for the opening of the embroidery workshop, the two embroiderers worked until very late last night. But they were afraid that if they were too late they would not be able to buy good food, so they had to leave early.
Wei Qian looked at the two women dressed as women and saw them walking gracefully, thinking that Gu Yan was really lucky.
Gu Yan is quite capable as he has two mistresses at once.
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