Chapter 409 She's taken a liking to him
Whether it was her imagination or not, Meng Jinyao always felt that the innkeeper was looking at her and her husband strangely, and his eyes would always seem to be glancing in their direction.
Meng Jinyao had finished eating. She put down her chopsticks and called out softly, "Husband."
Gu Jingxi's gaze fell on her, a meaningful smile playing on his lips. He asked with a smile, "Little sister, why aren't you calling me Third Brother anymore? Did Third Brother do something wrong and upset you?"
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao's face froze. Thinking of his despicable behavior last night, she glared at him with a mixture of shame and anger. Last night, she had no choice but to call him "Third Brother" again and again, as he was not satisfied if she didn't. But once she did, he got excited. She should have known better than to pretend to be his brother and sister. She had really shot herself in the foot.
Gu Jingxi pretended not to notice her embarrassment and asked casually, "Does little sister have some questions?"
When Meng Jinyao heard him still calling her "little sister," she glared at him and whispered, "I think the waiter wiping the table was giving us a weird look."
Gu Jingxi looked up and met the waiter's gaze. The waiter was looking at them with a complicated expression, as if they had done something earth-shattering. Gu Jingxi seemed to be deep in thought. Remembering that she had seen this waiter when she left the guest room, she roughly understood what was going on.
He said nonchalantly, "Don't worry about him. He probably just thinks you're pretty and wants to look at you a few more times."
Meng Jinyao said, "Yu... um, the guy at the next table, Xiao Yu, is also quite good-looking. Why didn't he look at Xiao Yu?"
What she said was true. Yu Chuan looked quite pretty dressed as a girl, but she herself deliberately used makeup to cover up her good looks and didn't look as good as before.
Gu Jingxi made up a story: "Xiao Yu is taller than him, so he feels inferior and doesn't dare to look at him."
Meng Jinyao: "..."
After having breakfast, they bought some dry food and water at the inn, and the group continued their journey north.
The shopkeeper watched them leave, shaking his head regretfully. What a pair of siblings! They were doing something so immoral. Even if they didn't have the same mother, they had the same father. How could they have fallen for each other?
Previously, there was a brother and sister in their town who secretly got together, and they were punished by heaven. After the sister got pregnant with her brother's child, she stayed at home to rest and prepare for childbirth. In the end, she gave birth to a freak, who was thrown into a mass grave to be fed to wolves as soon as he was born. The sister also went crazy. Fortunately, they had no parents, otherwise they would have been beaten to death by their parents.
-
Meanwhile, in the county town where Gu Jingxi and his group had last arrived, two young men dressed in black met.
The young man, who had just entered the city, finally found their leader and said, "Boss, I've searched that ship, and there's nothing on board that the adults are looking for."
As expected, the leader wasn't surprised and asked again, "You didn't do anything to them, did you?"
The young man shook his head: "No, I searched secretly, and they didn't find anything."
The leader nodded and said, "Well done. As the master instructed, try not to cause trouble. If they die, it will definitely alarm the government. It's perfectly normal that Lord Gu and his men would be robbed and killed by bandits on the way instead of traveling by water."
The young man asked again, "Boss, where are they now?"
The leader frowned and replied, "After they disembarked and entered the city, I was tricked and lost. I've been waiting here at the city gate ever since, but I haven't found them. I checked the exit records, but I couldn't find any of them. They're still in the city, but I don't know where they're hiding. Our people should be arriving soon, and we'll find them no matter how hard we have to search."
However, after their people arrived, they secretly searched the city but found no trace of Gu Jingxi and his group of five. There was not even a record of them leaving the city, so it seemed that they had never left the county.
Unable to find them, the leader grew anxious. There were only two possibilities: either Gu Jingxi and his group had already left the city, or they were still inside. He immediately sent someone to report back to his master. However, his group couldn't remain idle either. One person stayed in the city to keep watch, while the others split into two groups: one group pursued them by waterway, and the other group pursued them by land.
When Lord Han learned that his men had lost track of the person, he was so angry that he flew into a rage and berated his subordinates.
The man was so angry he didn't dare utter a sound.
Lord Han concluded, "Get out of here and resolve this matter, or you'll come back with your head!"
The man quickly acknowledged and withdrew.
Lord Han was extremely uneasy. Now it was either Gu Jingxi's death or his own, and the Zhenguo Duke's Mansion behind him would also suffer. Those things must not be allowed to be brought back to the capital by Gu Jingxi.
It's also his brother-in-law's fault for being careless. Gu Jingxi was in Huzhou City, yet he didn't keep a close eye on him and ended up letting Gu Jingxi come to his house to retrieve such an important item.
They seem quite clever most of the time, but they're completely useless at crucial moments and can even hold others back.
-
As for Gu Jingxi, after traveling by land for a few days, he sold the carriage and switched to waterway, taking a merchant ship northward. Now that he had shaken off those people, he could directly take a ship back to the capital without any problems. After a few more days by ship, he would arrive in the capital.
On the ship.
A well-dressed young woman struck up a conversation with Meng Jinyao. From the conversation, Meng Jinyao learned that the young woman's surname was Tang, her family was in business, and she was from the capital.
Seeing that she was easy to talk to, Miss Tang asked a few more questions: "Miss Xiao, where are you going?"
Xiao is the surname that Gu Jingxi and Meng Jinyao are using to forge their identities. In fact, Madam Gu's surname is Xiao. When Gu Jingxi forged his identity, he directly took his mother's surname. If Meng Jinyao wants to be his brother and sister, she will also have the surname Xiao.
Meng Jinyao knew she was from the capital, so she didn't lie to her and truthfully replied, "I'm going to the capital."
Miss Tang then asked, "Judging from Miss Xiao's accent, could she be from Beijing?"
Meng Jinyao gently shook her head: "No, I just grew up in the capital. I lost my mother when I was young, and my maternal grandmother loved me so much that she took me to the capital to take care of me. Now I am visiting my maternal grandmother, uncle and aunt with my brother."
Upon hearing this, Miss Tang looked at Meng Jinyao with more pity. Losing one's mother at a young age is an immense trauma for a child. Young children especially need their mothers, as was the case when she was young.
Meng Jinyao smiled gently: "Miss Tang, I'm fine, it's all in the past."
"It's good that Miss Xiao has come to terms with it." After saying that, Miss Tang changed the subject and casually said, "Young Master Xiao seems to be a gentle and refined scholar. I suppose Miss Xiao's sister-in-law is also a gentle woman?"
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao immediately understood. She also realized why this Miss Tang had taken the initiative to chat with her. It turned out that she had taken a fancy to her husband and was trying to find out about him indirectly.
Even though she had concealed her husband's good looks, making him appear as a handsome but unassuming man, far removed from the refined and elegant Marquis Gu, there were still girls who liked him. This proved that temperament was very important; after all, even though her husband's appearance had changed, his temperament remained the same.
She didn't want Miss Tang to have any illusions, and chuckled, "Not at all. My third sister-in-law is anything but gentle. She's fierce, like a tigress. She's strict with my third brother too. She's the boss at home. My third brother is as obedient as a cat in front of her."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com