Su Xingze spent the whole day at the Duke Residence without saying a word. By nightfall, the old Duke decreed that he should stay for the night. Unable to defy the old Duke, he stayed over.
The old Duke had a good drinking capacity, and Su Xingze had a bit too much to drink that day. Zhou Gu took Su Xingze to the guest room, ordered some hangover soup for him, and after he drank it, he laughed and said, "Grandfather drank a lot today, too. He’s grown old, and has rarely drunk this much these past two years. It’s obvious that he likes you a lot, brother Su."
Su Xingze rubbed his temples, thinking that he had underestimated the importance the Duke Residence placed on Su Rong. He would have to write another letter tomorrow, letting Xiaoqi further consider whether they should indeed break off this engagement.
He put down his hand, glanced at Zhou Gu, and for a moment he didn’t know what to say.
Zhou Gu took the initiative to explain, "Regarding Duanhua, after she returned to the Capital City, she went crying to her mother, Princess Qingping, who went to the Palace to complain about me. I compensated them with two bottles of jade facial cream and five thousand taels of silver, both her and her mother were scolded by my grandmother. Left without face, she shouldn’t bother me again."
Actually, Su Xingze didn’t want to hear about this. After all, Su Rong was talking about breaking off their engagement. What happened to Zhou Gu didn’t relate much to Su Rong. But since Zhou Gu was volunteering this information, he couldn’t just cut him off. All he could do was nod at him to show that he understood.
Zhou Gu always sensed that Su Xingze was not as friendly towards him as before. When they were in Jiangning County, he saw him as a future brother-in-law, and even though he was in a difficult situation every day, he could feel Su Xingze’s care and closeness. But on the journey back to the Capital City, he started to feel a bit estranged. This estrangement was not shown through any kind of cold behavior, it was an invisible sense of alienation. He attributed this to Duanhua’s troublemaking, which resulted in him feeling more disgusted by Duanhua.
Seeing that Su Xingze just nodded and didn’t say anything, Zhou Gu asked worriedly, "Brother Su, I didn’t give Duanhua an inch. You will mention that in the letter to Xiaoqi, won’t you?"
Su Xingze took a moment before answering, "Of course."
Zhou Gu breathed a sigh of relief, and broke out in a smile, "That’s good. Even though she might not care, I can’t let her misunderstand."
He cleared his throat and added earnestly, "This is the self-cultivation of a fiancé, isn’t it?"
What else could Su Xingze say? All he could do was simply nod and sigh, "Right!"
The next day, Su Xingze left the Duke Residence. Zhou Gu personally escorted him back and proposed to accompany him to Xie Residence in the Capital City for a period of study and asked if he minded the extra company.
Su Xingze wanted to decline, but seeing Zhou Gu’s hopeful expression, filled with sincerity, he couldn’t bring himself to dismiss him. So he put it as delicately as possible: "The Xie Residence is not as comfortable as the Duke Residence. You better..."
Zhou Gu interrupted him, "Brother Su, are you finding me annoying? I’ve even slept on tree trunks before."
Su Xingze felt helpless and couldn’t think of another excuse to reject him, so he agreed, "Alright then."
Zhou Gu was delighted, waved his hand grandly, and said, "Let’s get going then!"
With Zhou Gu following Su Xingze to the Xie Residence in the Capital City, the Duchess had an excuse to send a carriage full of items there.
Su Xingze had no choice but to accept all this and had to put up with the manager from the Duke Residence making additions to Xie Yuan’s house, filling up the somewhat empty place.
Seeing Su Xingze becoming somewhat emotional, Zhou Gu hurriedly reassured him, "Our two families are like one family. Brother Su, if you don’t mind my company, there’s no need to concern yourself with these trivial matters. In the end, we need to live somewhere comfortable so we can study in peace."
Su Xingze regretted agreeing to Zhou Gu’s request. He gave him a glare, turned around, went back to his room, and ignored him.
Zhou Gu touched his nose, reasoning that since he had already moved in, he could bear some cold stares. This was still better than being distant from him. He suspected the tests that Su Rong put him through were the reason why she didn’t want to marry him, hence her lack of urgency. And Su Xingze’s attitude towards Duanhua’s obsessive behavior probably influenced his opinion of him.
Once back in his room, Su Xingze contemplated and wrote a letter detailing his visit to the Duke Residence, the way they treated him seriously, and how Zhou Gu moved into Xie Yuan’s house among other matters. He also mentioned at the end of the letter that it might be difficult to break off this engagement and asked her to carefully consider everything.
After finishing the letter, he sealed it with wax and had it sent to Jiangning.
Back in Jiangning County, Su Rong was still in the Xie Residence recovering from her injuries. There was an array of matters waiting for the new Inspector to deal with in Jiangzhou, so the day after Su Xingze left, Su Xu set off alone for Jiangzhou. After Su Rong’s injuries were healed, the senior lady would bring the family over.
After more than ten days of recovery, Su Rong was able to move about freely, although she still could not move on from her daily routine of drinking and changing medicines. Nurse Zhao watched her closely, and Madam Xie visited the Xie Residence every day, so she did not dare not to take good care of her injuries.
One day, after Su Rong had finished her medicine, Nurse Zhao said to her, "Yun An hasn’t returned to the Capital City yet and has been waiting for your reply. Early this morning, when I went out, he found me and told me that the Crown Prince has been urging us for a reply. Have you thought about how you will respond to the Crown Prince?"
Upon hearing this, Su Rong thought for a moment and told her, "Tell him to come see me. I have some questions for him before I can decide how to reply to the Crown Prince."
Nurse Zhao nodded with a smile.
To avoid being detected by Zhou Gu, Yun An, who had not left Jiangning County that day, naturally missed Su Rong’s assassination attempt. Therefore, during the days he waited for Nurse Zhao’s response, he quickly realized that something was wrong. Su Rong had moved into the Xie Residence, and the doctor from Huichun Hall had to visit there daily. He suspected that Su Rong had been injured, but with the many guards at the Xie Residence, he did not dare to rush in to confirm it. He could only wait for the chance to speak to Nurse Zhao, but waited for several days before Nurse Zhao left the residence and he got a chance.
After Nurse Zhao received Su Rong’s message, she sent someone to invite Yun An from his lodging.
After receiving the message, Yun An breathed a sigh of relief and entered the Xie Residence.
Upon seeing Su Rong, Yun An respectfully paid his respects, "I am Yun An, sent by the Crown Prince especially for Lady Su Qi."
Su Rong smiled at Yun An and gestured for him to sit, "I didn’t purposefully delay replying to the Crown Prince. I was just injured and couldn’t write. I made the Crown Prince wait, I apologize."
Yun An also noticed that Su Rong had been seriously injured. After all, she looked ashen and sickly. Though he had guessed more or less what happened, seeing Su Rong looking like this still made him worry, so he asked, "When did Lady Su Qi get injured? Was it the day we sent Zhou Gu away?"
After all, since his arrival at Jiangning County, he had been keeping an eye on Su Rong’s movements and he was quite certain that she was fine before that.
"Yes, it was that day. We were ambushed by assassins from Nanchu outside the city," Su Rong confirmed.
Yun An was irritated. "It is outrageous for Nanchu’s assassins to carry out their tasks in broad daylight."
He somewhat regretted not secretly following them out of the city that day. He could have kept his distance, and Zhou Gu and his people might not have discovered him, and he could have protected her in time. If the Crown Prince found out that he was in Jiangning but still allowed Lady Su Qi to get injured, he would surely be penalized for negligence.
Whether they are outrageous or not, as long as they are effective, they almost succeeded in killing me," Su Rong said. She was indeed taken by surprise on that day.
"I will report this to the Crown Prince," Yun An pursed his lips. "I wasn’t sure about your condition these past days, which is why I hadn’t reported it to him. The Crown Prince was worried because he hadn’t received any messages from me."
Su Rong nodded, "I can write now, and I can reply to the Crown Prince today. However, before I do so, I want to understand a bit about the Crown Prince’s situation. Tell me what you can."
Yun An straightened up immediately and tentatively asked, "What would you like to know about him?"
"Of course, I want to understand the current factions within the court and the actual situation of the Crown Prince," Su Rong smiled. "I dare not pry into his personal matters."
Yun An hesitated for a moment, thinking that even if you want to probe into his personal matters, the Crown Prince would probably be happy to let you do so. However, since you are the fiancée of Young Master Zhou, he hesitated to say that aloud.
Lady Su Qi might not be aware of the Crown Prince’s feelings for her, and she could joke about it, but he did not dare to make that joke.
So, he nodded and seriously explained the current factions within the court and the current situation of Crown Prince Yan Huisheng. Especially when it came to the emperor’s attitude toward the prince, suppressing the prince, supporting other princes, and the ambitions of other princes, he made everything clear and understandable.
After listening to Yun An, Su Rong understood the situation and sighed, "The situation of the Crown Prince is really worrying."
Yun An wondered if he had said too much and scared her off. He was about to say something to make up for it when he saw Su Rong stand up. She said to him, "I’ll write a reply to the Crown Prince right now. As the matter is grave, I’m worried about the possibility of messages being leaked during the transmission, so you should take it back personally. Also, tell the Crown Prince that he doesn’t need to write me back. I’ll be arriving in the capital soon, and we can discuss the rest in person."
Yun An relaxed and nodded in agreement.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
