Gu An's expression froze and he was speechless.
"My aunt has worked so hard for the Duke's Mansion, but has my uncle ever truly treated her like his own wife?"
Ye Wanshu, completely changing her usual meek demeanor in front of him, rebuked him forcefully, "When she's compliant, you treat her with kindness. But when she doesn't do something you like, you treat her coldly. Even the servants in the mansion treat her with indifference. Is this the proper manner for the mistress of the Duke of Rong's mansion?"
"Stop talking." Gu An clenched his fists in annoyance.
"Although she is my uncle's second wife, has she ever treated my two cousins badly in all these years at home?"
Thinking of her aunt's deathbed experience, Ye Wanshu laughed self-deprecatingly. "I'm afraid no one would believe this story if it got out. Just because of a marriage that wasn't harmonious to begin with, my uncle actually threatened his niece with the lives of his wife and children. Has he ever considered how heartbroken my aunt, Qingmian, and Tingji must have felt at that time?"
"Madam," Gu An cried bitterly in front of the memorial tablet, "I'm sorry for you, Qingmian, and Tingji."
"At this point, what's the point of your hypocritical confession, uncle?" Ye Wanshu stood up angrily and glared at him. "If you had just restrained your second cousin a little bit, how could my aunt have died? How could my eldest cousin have died?"
Gu An had already realized this. Ever since the day he changed the crown prince, he knew he was wrong.
Tingzhou is honest and straightforward, and easily deceived, but he is not a bad person by nature.
If he inherited the Duke's Mansion, at least he would not kill his brother and mother, nor would he be so ignorant of the overall situation and cause chaos in the court.
Taking a deep breath with a trembling throat, Gu An said in a deep voice: "I recognize everything you said about my uncle, but Tingchen is right about one thing. You have completely changed your heart now. I'm afraid you came here today for the future of your fiancé in Yuezhou, right?"
"Isn't his future what the entire Daye Dynasty aspires to see?" Ye Wanshu said, "With the Queen Mother and my second cousin in charge of government these days, I know what the situation has been like. My uncle should know better than I do. Is this what he wants to see?"
Thinking about how his aunt and that rebellious son had acted on their own and turned Daye Dynasty into its current state, Gu An closed his eyes in dejection.
"My uncle is more familiar with the affairs of the court than I am. If we can't put down this turmoil quickly, once the northern invaders invade the south, no one will be spared."
Raising an eyebrow, Ye Wanshu finally advised, "My second cousin has already fled south with the Queen Mother. Your Majesty and Prince Yongning are not the type to kill everyone. If they disregard the lives of the people, it would be easy to completely wipe out the Gu family. However, Your Majesty has always been magnanimous and does not want to see fratricide. When I came here, His Majesty issued a verbal order that as long as my uncle can quell this war, the Gu family will not be implicated."
Hearing this, Gu An was immediately moved.
It is indeed as my niece said. Now that Prince Yongning has recovered the military power in the northern border for the emperor and joined forces with the Yuezhou army, if they have the desperate spirit of my aunt, it will not be difficult for them to wipe out the Gu family's power.
But the emperor was willing to forgive the Gu family. This magnanimity and tolerance are incomparable to ordinary people.
Seeing Ye Wanshu was about to step out of the mourning hall, Gu An suddenly called her with tears in his eyes.
"Wanwan, don't hate your uncle." Gu An's eyes were filled with tears. "I watched you grow up. Like your aunt, I have always treated you as my own daughter. But standing in my position, there are many things I must do. I have to consider the entire Gu family."
Ye Wanshu closed her eyes silently, and the words on the tip of her tongue were not spoken.
Being his biological child is unfortunate for eight lifetimes.
If she didn't come back from Yuezhou this time, Qingmian and Tingji would probably have no way out.
Gu An was also hesitant that night. Although he was unwilling to see the Gu family defeated, he could not just watch his rebellious son continue to wreak havoc on the world.
It's time to put an end to this.
"Wanwan, your uncle has one last request of yours," Gu An said earnestly, "Please don't tell Qingmian and Tingji how their mother died. Please take good care of them for me and your aunt in the future."
Ye Wanshu nodded heavily, then took Chunhong, Xingtao and others out of the Duke's Mansion.
Although she hated Gu Tingchen, she didn't want Qingmian and Tingji to live in hatred for the rest of their lives. She didn't want the siblings to live as miserably as she did.
After watching his niece disappear from his sight, Gu An slowly turned around, lit two more incense sticks, and solemnly instructed the servant beside him: "Prepare the horses, follow me to Huizhou immediately."
As he walked out, he took out two letters from his bosom and handed them to another servant. He then whispered, "Go to the palace to see His Majesty on my behalf and ask His Majesty to grant permission for the two young masters of the Marquis of Wuping's mansion to take these two letters to Yezhou and Qinzhou overnight and order them to take charge of the garrisons in the two places."
The servant took a look at the letter and immediately understood what it meant.
Now that Marquis Wuping has been escorted to the capital, the two sons of the marquis's mansion have no choice but to surrender to the court. As long as the 200,000 troops in Yezhou and Qinzhou can be stabilized, this disaster can be suppressed to the greatest extent.
......
When Ye Wanshu returned to Ji's house, it was already dawn.
The atmosphere in the entire mansion was gloomy. As soon as she entered the yard with Tao Anran, Zhu Wencai and others, Aunt Zheng, Ji Ningxuan and her daughter came out to greet them with the people from the mansion.
Qin Chulin ran to Ye Wanshu first, grabbed her wrist, and cried out with tears in his eyes, "Big Sister, you're finally back. I've been begging Master to take you back every day, but he always refused. I thought I'd never see you again."
"How could that be? He has his own difficulties. You can't blame him." Ye Wanshu sighed secretly. She didn't want to tell the little guy about her and her father's previous plan.
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