Chapter 47 This Marquis has come to see this venomous woman.
In the Yong Prince's mansion, the girl who calls him "Father"—isn't that Gu Nanyue? Sure enough, as soon as Gu Nanyue finished her provocative words, the Yong Prince said angrily:
"If that lowly maid dares to seduce Wen'er and Wu'er, I will have her beaten to death immediately and thrown into the mass grave."
Then came Consort Xu's voice: "Your Highness is right. We must not let a mere maid cause such a scandalous affair between brothers. She's just a dissolute woman; we should just beat her to death and throw her out."
Then came Xu Shulan's voice: "It's a pity that Xiao Lang values that maid so much. She actually did such a shameful thing behind Xiao Lang's back. She is indeed a lowly slut raised in the countryside and cannot be trusted."
After exchanging a few words, the group arrived at the corner, but they did not see Yunxi. Instead, they saw the two brothers, Gu Nanwen and Gu Nanwu, lying stiffly on the ground with their eyes closed.
Consort Xu was the first among the crowd to react. She ran over in a panic, crying and shaking her two sons on the ground.
At this moment, Prince Yong also realized what was happening and immediately ordered a servant to summon the royal physician. After a period of chaos, Gu Nanwen and Gu Nanwu had already been carried away by servants. Only Xu Shulan remained, looking around anxiously.
Seeing that Prince Yong and the others had gone far away, Gu Nanxiao appeared from behind the rockery with Yunxi. Xu Shulan did not expect to run into Gu Nanxiao here, and her tone was naturally a little flustered: "Xiao... Xiao Lang... what are you doing here?"
Gu Nanxiao said with an extremely gloomy expression, "I've come to see how this venomous woman schemes and plots."
Upon hearing Gu Nanxiao's words, Xu Shulan knew he had probably guessed the whole story, but the more crucial the moment, the more composed she needed to appear. So, she shifted the blame to Yunxi and said:
"I only asked you to help me ask Xiao Lang for a chance to meet. If you don't help me, fine, but why do you slander me like this in front of Xiao Lang?"
Seeing her instantly switch into her green tea persona, Yunxi sneered and retorted, "I really don't know how many faces you have. Now you're not pretending to be the matriarch, but instead you're playing the delicate white lotus?"
Xu Shulan knew that Yunxi was a sharp-tongued and difficult person to deal with, so she ignored her sarcasm, pulled out her handkerchief, and began to sob.
Gu Nanxiao was in a bad mood and had no time to watch her performance. He took Yunxi's hand and started to walk back, but Xu Shulan suddenly caught up with him, grabbed Gu Nanxiao's sleeve, and pleaded pitifully:
“Xiao Lang, our marriage is not an arranged marriage between families. I truly admire you. Your skills in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting are all learned from you.”
Please don't be so cold to me. Could you spare some attention for me? I don't ask for much; just allow me to be near you.
Yunxi found Xu Shulan's hand, which was holding onto her sleeve, extremely offensive. Before Gu Nanxiao could react, she pulled out a dagger from her sleeve and slashed the corner of her sleeve with a sharp sound.
Then, turning to Gu Nanxiao, she said, "The sleeves are dirty, let's not use them."
Looking at the little girl's expression, which resembled a leopard cub guarding its food, Gu Nanxiao's gloomy mood eased somewhat. He raised his hand and pinched Yunxi's cheek, replying affectionately, "That's right, if she's been corrupted by a venomous woman, we won't want her anymore."
Watching the two figures disappear into the distance, Xu Shulan was so angry she wanted to throw the sleeve in her hand to the ground. But after holding her hand high for a long time, she finally tucked the sleeve into her bosom with tears in her eyes.
She murmured, "This is the first gift Xiao Lang gave me. I will cherish it and sleep with it every day."
Gu Nanxiao would never have imagined that a piece of his unwanted sleeve would be molested; otherwise, he would have done anything to get it back.
After sending Yunxi back to her study, Gu Nanxiao told her to rest first. Then he summoned Yunxi's personal guard, Qianyu, to go find Prince Yong and explain the whole story.
Yunxi immediately stepped forward to stop him, signaling Gu Nanxiao not to go. She felt that, given the Yong Prince's bias, even if he knew the truth, he wouldn't uphold justice.
She might say something hurtful again, stabbing Gu Nanxiao in the heart. But she couldn't say too much, because as long as the heart isn't completely broken, there will always be illusions.
Yunxi was right; Gu Nanxiao did still have some faith in his father. He always felt that even if his father favored Consort Xu and her son, he wouldn't tolerate it after learning of their disgraceful deeds.
In his eyes, his father was always a strict father. When he was a child, his father would severely discipline him for any mistake he made, and would even punish him with family discipline from time to time.
Although he didn't know how his father educated his two half-brothers after he went to the border, he believed that as the head of the family, he should still provide his sons with proper education.
Gu Nanxiao arrived at the Prince Yong's courtyard and was told by a servant that the Prince Yong was still in the rooms of the Second and Third Young Masters and had not yet returned. He asked the servant to deliver a message that he was waiting for the Prince.
Gu Nanxiao had avoided visiting Consort Xu's and her son's courtyard since childhood. He avoided Qiuxiang Garden because he disliked Consort Xu, and he avoided his half-brother's courtyard because he was always framed by Consort Xu and her son whenever he went there.
When he was young, he loved to go play with his two younger brothers. However, every time he left, his two younger brothers would either get sick or injured.
In short, every time he went there, there would be all sorts of traps set for him. And his father would punish him severely each time, no matter how he tried to explain, his father would not believe him.
After a while, he finally understood that in his father's heart, his two younger brothers were his biological sons, and he was just a vicious older brother who often harmed his younger brothers.
While waiting for his father to return, Gu Nanxiao did not enter the courtyard. Although his father had told him before that he didn't need to be so formal, he no longer took it seriously.
After all, he wasn't the only one who could get in. If he lost or broke something after he left, he would have no way to explain himself.
He had tried to perform well before, naively attempting to gain his father's approval and salvage their father-son relationship, but all he received in return was disappointment and pain.
The reason he was standing here again today was to clarify the events of the afternoon with his father. Firstly, he didn't want Consort Xu and her son to smear Yunxi.
Secondly, at the last family banquet, his father did say a few fair words. His father's change made him suddenly feel that some things could still be discussed rationally.
Gu Nanxiao stood outside the courtyard and waited for a short while before he saw the menacing Prince Yong.
The moment the father and son met, Prince Yong didn't even let Gu Nanxiao enter the courtyard. Instead, in front of the servants, he began to berate him harshly:
"Your concubine has really gone too far! She actually dared to lay a hand on her master! You bring her here right now, I'm going to break her legs and sell her to the mines!"
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