Chapter 391 Extra 1

The capital city in winter is so cold that it makes people shiver.

Gu Xi has lived in the capital for seven years, but he still can't get used to this kind of weather.

In particular, he had to get up at the hour of Yin every morning and personally prepare the medicine to send to the first wife.

But she was calm in her heart.

Because she has a son now.

She became pregnant in the sixth year of her marriage to Pei Tong.

That year, Pei Tong and Shen Fang from the Shen family took part in the Spring Examination together.

Shen Fang passed the imperial examination the first time he took it, but Pei Tong failed the second time he took it.

Pei Tong didn't say it, but she felt very bitter inside. During the day, she went out to congratulate her old friends from Jiangnan who had passed the exam, but at night when she got home, she locked herself in the study and drank for several days in a row.

She couldn't stand Pei Tong being like this and thought she had no ambition.

Many people took the exam five or six times before they succeeded. Pei Tong was still so young, but his spirit seemed to be broken. He was too decadent.

Not to mention the men who walk around outside, even the women in the inner house, if she had accepted her fate early on because of the torture by her stepmother, would she still be where she is today?

That day, she specially brought a bowl of sobering soup to Pei Tong's study.

Pei Tong's eyes were red with gratitude at that time. She held her hand and kept talking about the first wife: "She must be very disappointed in me! She told me to study hard since I was a child... She was happy when I did well in my studies... My father's death was a blow to her. She was very happy when I split up the family line. She was holding her breath, hoping that I would pass the imperial examination and be proud in front of those people in my hometown... Not only did I fail to make her proud, but also..."

He couldn't go on.

Gu Xi has always disliked her mother-in-law.

What? I have never been able to tell north from south!

Even her sister-in-law from her mother's family didn't want to have anything to do with her mother-in-law after meeting her a few times when she first came to the capital. If there was anything, she would either send a maid to deliver the message or call her back to her mother's family to talk. Even the Yang family, except for the time when Mrs. Yang came once to comfort her after the news of Pei Tong's failure in the imperial examination spread, she hasn't set foot in their house for several days.

She couldn't help but encourage Pei Tong at the time: "Look at my brother, he was also planning to take a break after passing the exam before continuing. You are a little too impatient."

Pei Tong didn't speak for a long time.

Yin Mingyuan also asked him to wait for a few more classes, but his mother... so much so that Yin Mingyuan rarely speaks to him from the bottom of his heart now.

He didn't want to blame all this on his mother who had stayed in the inner courtyard of the house for so many years, but his mother's urgency was like a knife on his neck.

Pei Tong couldn't help but smile bitterly, and said insincerely: "It's still because I don't have the ability. Look at A Chan and A Bo."

Pei Chan and Pei Bo took the imperial examination three years ago and passed it right away, and both of them became Shujishi. Now that their observation of the six ministries has ended, he heard from his second uncle Pei Xuan that Pei Chan stayed in the Censorate as a historian, and Pei Bo stayed in the Ministry of Works.

This is also the result of the struggle between the Pei family and the Peng and Jiang families in recent years.

His third uncle was not someone who could be ignored, whether in the court or in the opposition.

Five years ago, his third uncle started targeting the Peng family for unknown reasons, causing the Peng family to lose resources from the Censorate and also confronting the Jiang family, tearing a big hole in the Ministry of Works that belonged to the Jiang family.

The whereabouts of Pei Chan and Pei Bo are the result.

Moreover, his second uncle Pei Xuan had just been promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Revenue because of his good financial management, and was granted the title of Grand Academician of the Jianshen Palace and became the Second Assistant of the Inner Cabinet.

After many years, the Lin'an Pei family once again stood at the center of the storm and became one of the most prominent families of the time.

If Pei Tong could think of it, how could Gu Xi not think of it?

When she saw Pei Tong, who was so sad that she couldn't even cry, she suddenly thought of the way Yu Tang hugged Pei Yan when they split up the sect.

Gu Xi couldn't help but hug Pei Tong, and she didn't realize it herself, in a tone that was similar to the one Yu Tang used to comfort Pei Yan, and said, "It's okay. The Dragon Boat Festival is coming soon, and I'm going to give my second aunt a holiday gift soon. I'll tell my second aunt about your matter. They have always taken good care of us.

Pei Tong's eyes were filled with tears.

The next New Year she gave birth to a son.

Her son not only looks like his uncle, but also has the same personality and character as her elder brother Gu Chang.

Thinking of his son still sleeping soundly in bed, Gu Xi felt warm in his heart, and the biting cold wind in the capital city became bearable.

He Xiang married a housekeeper in the family, but still served Gu Xi.

She became more low-key and understood Gu Xi better.

Seeing Gu Xi's expression, He Xiang deftly put the steaming medicine into the thermos and said with a smile, "Should we go to Pei's house in the next two days? This year, we can buy so much charcoal in our house, thanks to the Second Madam."

Those of them who came over from Pei Mansion were still accustomed to addressing people from Pei Mansion according to their seniority. In this newly built mansion, it was considered a kind of showing off their qualifications.

Gu Xi had never thought about breaking off relations with the Pei family.

It is said that there was a bandit disturbance in Shanxi this year. Not only has the price of charcoal in the capital increased, but even idle people cannot buy it. If she had not often been around the Second Madam, and the Second Madam had not been thinking about them, their family would probably have difficulty burning charcoal this winter.

"I definitely have to go." Gu Xi said without giving it much thought, "The last time I went there, the Second Madam had a severe cough. This time, remember to bring some of our homemade pear paste."

The second wife was just like her. She had been in the capital for so long, but she still couldn't adapt to the climate. Someone from the Gu family had been an official in the capital before, and left a prescription for nourishing the lungs. She followed it and made some, and it worked well. After that, she would send some to the Pei Mansion every year.

They will not be delivered all at once, but in small amounts over the entire winter.

It's a strategy.

He Xiang wrote it down.

The two of them, surrounded by maids and servants, walked along the corridor, through the garden, and came to a small courtyard with three rooms to the east where the eldest wife lived.

From a distance, they could hear the eldest wife coughing.

Gu Xi and He Xiang couldn't help but look at each other.

Pei Tong failed the imperial examination for the second time. The first wife could not bear the blow. She cried all night and contracted lung disease. After that, every winter, she coughed so hard that she couldn't breathe. Therefore, she especially liked to call Pei Tong to scold her when she coughed badly.

Although Gu Xi knew how to make pear paste, she didn't want to honor the first wife, so when she gave the pear paste to the first wife for the first time, she put a lot of Fritillaria cirrhosa in it. The first wife thought it tasted bad, so Gu Xi added rock sugar. The first wife ate too much rock sugar and her cough became even worse.

She simply stopped sending pear paste to the first wife, and said to Pei Tong: "After all, this is just a health-preserving recipe. I'm afraid that mother-in-law has injured her lungs. It's better to take proper medicine."

Pei Tong thought what she said made sense, so every autumn, she would invite a doctor to take the eldest wife's pulse and prescribe medicine. As for Gu Xi, she would take care of her throughout the winter. Over the years, with the help of her sister-in-law Yin from her natal family, she spread the word, and basically all the officials from Jiangnan who were in the capital and the wives of the wives who were involved in the marriage alliance knew about it. Gu Xi also gained a reputation as a "virtuous, filial and obedient person."

The eldest wife was horrified after hearing this, and she looked at Gu Xi even more displeased.

This made Gu Xi have to get up at 3:00 a.m. every morning to boil medicine for her.

Gu Xi has been living under her stepmother's care since she was a child, so she has a lot of experience in controlling the inner courtyard. Moreover, the Pei family, whether intentionally or unintentionally, gave her all the money that Old Master Pei gave to their family. Although she has a mother-in-law above her, the family's money is in her hands. If she wants to make this family as solid as a rock and not a single word can be heard from outside, then she can make it so.

The eldest wife has a plan, and she has a countermeasure.

When Pei Tong went back to the inner room to spend the night, she got up at yin time. When Pei Tong was reading in the study, it was hard to say what would happen.

In addition, after Pei Tong failed the exam last time, Gu Chang found him, and Uncle Lang closed the door of the study and talked for a long time. He also found a new teacher for Pei Tong. Pei Tong has been studying in the study most of the time in the past two years. Even if the eldest wife wants to complain, she has to make Pei Tong willing to listen and have time to listen.

So when Gu Xi and He Xiang went in, the eldest wife couldn't help but start to mock her daughter-in-law in a sarcastic way: "How come the eldest young lady has time to come here today? Don't you have to accompany your husband to study?"

When his subordinates were defeated, Gu Xi would talk to her if he was in a good mood, but if he was not in a good mood, he would just keep his head down and remain silent, acting respectful and humble, just to make the first wife angry.

She was in a good mood today. After asking He Xiang to pass the medicine to the maidservant serving the eldest lady, she sat on the embroidered cushion opposite the eldest lady without being invited, and said softly, "My husband rested in the study yesterday. But I have to go to Pei Mansion today, so I have to leave early." Then she was thankful, "Fortunately, mother-in-law's medicine came early, otherwise I would have to rush over in the afternoon."

The eldest wife was so angry that she started coughing violently on the spot.

This was also one of the things she was very dissatisfied with Gu Xi.

In recent years, Gu Xi has been going to Pei Mansion whenever she has time, and she is more filial to the Second Wife than to her mother-in-law.

The maidservant beside her was busy helping the eldest lady to calm down.

After fighting for so many years, Gu Xi certainly knows what the first wife's worries are.

She smiled slightly, looking very happy, and continued amid the cough of the first wife, "I heard that the fifth aunt will also pass away next year. I have to go and ask her, and then I have to prepare some exam preparation materials and send them over."

This is another concern of the eldest wife.

Some people are lucky and will have good luck all their lives.

Pei Dan was gentle and shy at first, not outstanding among her sisters. But who would have known that she would marry the best.

But a few years had passed, and Master Qin had been a scholar and a judge for many years, and this year she was going to take the imperial examination.

Lord Qin's official power is growing day by day.

The fact that the Pei family was able to tear a huge hole in the Jiang family's Ministry of Works had a lot to do with the Minister Qin.

Lord Qin has the final say in the Ministry of Works, and with the support of the Pei family, he almost sidelined Jiang Hua.

This was something no one expected at the time.

Gu Xi didn't want anything to happen to the first wife, otherwise Pei Tong would have to observe mourning for three years and would not be able to take part in the imperial examination next year.

She stayed with the eldest lady for a while, then returned to her own room, watched her son Yuan Ge'er have breakfast in person, and then carried him to Pei Mansion.

Pei Dan's eldest son is about the same age as Yuan Ge'er. Madam Qin treats him like a treasure and never lets him go even when she has free time. The second wife rarely sees her grandson, so she is especially good to Yuan Ge'er.

Gu Xi carried his son over, which was also one of the ways to please the second wife.

But she didn't expect that when she arrived at Pei's Mansion, there were many maids and servants in the courtyard to the west of Pei's Mansion, and they seemed to be cleaning that courtyard.

In recent years, the second wife and her family have lived in the east yard.

The courtyard on the west side was where Yu Tang lived in the past.

Gu Xi's heart suddenly began to beat wildly, and he quickly pulled a familiar-looking servant over to ask, "What's going on? Laba hasn't even arrived yet, and you're already stirring up dust?"

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(End of this chapter)