Chapter 242 Where is my husband?
The family dinner is scheduled for the evening.
Apart from Gu Xuanyi, who is already married, and Gu Xiuwen, who is studying at Lingshan Academy, the twelve members of the Gu family are celebrating today's happy occasion.
Everyone was overjoyed. Two of the family's children had passed the imperial examinations, a great joyous occasion. Everyone's faces were beaming with happiness. The success of the descendants of the Marquis of Changxing meant that the glory of the Marquis's family could continue into the next generation.
Gu Xiuming found it extremely grating to hear his family members speaking with a smile in their voices.
Especially when he saw his two older brothers' smiles never fading, a deep sense of resentment welled up in his heart. He believed that he was no worse than his two older brothers. When they were working hard, he was not lazy either. He even often asked his father for advice. How come in the end, he was the only one who failed the exam?
Could it be that his father secretly kept some things from him when he was teaching him?
Gu Xiuming silently turned his gaze to his father, only to see that his father's expression was indifferent. His father seemed to have no emotional fluctuations today, and even after learning that he had failed the exam, he remained unmoved. Could it be that he had already anticipated that he would fail?
His heart sank, and he became even more certain that his father had been hiding something, intending to spoil him and make him useless so that his fourth brother could be adopted as the heir. He also suspected that Meng Jinyao had influenced him in this way.
So what exactly is he?
His father married his fiancée, which has made him a laughingstock. People say his bride has become his new mother, but he doesn't care about that anymore. Now he even wants to ruin him.
Don't even think about it!
He failed the imperial examination this autumn, but he will be on the list in three years. The position of heir apparent is his; he has held it for more than ten years, how could he let someone else have it?
Gu Jingxi had been paying attention to his son. When he noticed something was off about his son's eyes, he hesitated to speak, but ultimately said nothing. He took care of his wife beside him, putting food in her bowl and making sure she ate more to fill her stomach. Drinking on an empty stomach is bad for the stomach, even though it was a fruit wine that wasn't easy to get drunk on.
The others at the table, seeing his blatant doting on Meng Jinyao, felt that what they heard from the servants was far less than what they saw with their own eyes. How could he treat his wife like this?
That's clearly serving the ancestors!
Gu Jingxi asked calmly, "Xiuyuan, Xiuhong, do you have any plans for the imperial examinations early next year?"
Upon hearing this, Gu Xiuyuan and Gu Xiuhong were slightly taken aback.
After a moment, Gu Xiuhong answered first: "Third Uncle, I want to give it a try."
“Then give it a try.” Gu Jingxi nodded slightly. After thinking for a moment, he added, “If you don’t understand anything in your studies, you can ask me.”
Gu Xiuhong was overjoyed and quickly nodded, "Yes, Third Uncle."
Gu Xiuyuan replied, "Third Uncle, I won't participate in next year's imperial examination. I plan to wait three more years and participate in the next one."
Unlike his second brother, who ranked eighteenth and might be able to pass the imperial examination next year, he couldn't. Shuntian Prefecture only admitted 126 people in total, and he was ranked 120th. When the provincial examination came, candidates from all over the country came to participate, and he basically had no hope.
Seeing his composure and calm demeanor, Gu Jingxi gave him an appreciative look and replied, "That's good. Let him settle down for three years and accumulate knowledge before unleashing his full potential."
After the family dinner, everyone was full and went back to their own courtyards.
Meng Jinyao was already somewhat drunk and her mind was a little fuzzy. After stepping out of the house, the autumn wind, carrying a slight chill, blew against her face, instantly sobering her up considerably.
Seeing Gu Jingxi silently gazing in the direction Gu Xiuming had left, she seemed lost in thought and hesitated before asking, "Husband, should you go up and say a few words of comfort?"
Gu Jingxi withdrew his gaze, shook his head slightly, and said in a low voice, "If my words were really useful, he wouldn't have participated in this autumn examination. I advised him not to participate for now, in case he failed and it would affect his mentality. I told him to calm down and reflect, but he didn't listen to me and insisted on his own way."
Meng Jinyao asked again, "Did you already foresee that he would fail the exam?"
Gu Jingxi said helplessly, "He was very diligent during that period, often asking me for help, but he had distractions in his mind. He wasn't studying for himself, but only to show me. He crammed knowledge into his brain without truly understanding it. I talked to him about this problem, but he didn't listen. Even if he went to the exam, he would just be a pretty face with no substance, and it would be normal for him to fail."
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao glanced in the direction Gu Xiuming had left and said calmly, "The most valuable thing about a person is to have self-awareness; being overconfident is arrogance."
Gu Jingxi didn't want to interfere. No matter how much she said, it was useless to disobey a child. She reached out and took her little hand, and said gently, "Let's go back."
Meng Jinyao nodded, took a step forward, and observed the man beside her out of the corner of her eye. She saw that the man's expression was indifferent, and he seemed to be indifferent to Gu Xiuming's failure in the exam. It seemed that he was really indifferent and didn't care anymore.
The son I raised with such care for so many years turned out to be an ungrateful, morally deficient, narrow-minded, and unrepentant brat who repeatedly ruins the family's reputation. He never reflects on his own actions and only blames others for his mistakes. Even when you try to educate him, he complains about you.
With such a troublesome son, even Gu Jingxi would be heartbroken, let alone her.
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Wei Rui Xuan.
Back at Wei Rui Xuan, Meng Jinyao instructed her maid to prepare a hangover soup. Then she took a bath and changed her clothes. After drinking the soup, she soon felt sleepy and dragged Gu Jingxi to bed.
Seeing her yawning repeatedly, Gu Jingxi asked with a smile, "It's still early, why are you sleepy?"
"He probably drank too much and was feeling drowsy."
After saying that, Meng Jinyao couldn't help but yawn again, and then lay down on the bed.
Gu Jingxi chuckled helplessly, lay down beside her, and said with a smile, "Look at how excited you are. Anyone who didn't know better would think it was your son who passed the imperial examination, drinking so much with your sister-in-law."
Meng Jinyao stopped pretending to be a loving mother and said without any hesitation, "I'm happy to see him fail the exam. Even if someone as immoral as him enters officialdom, he won't be a good official."
Gu Jingxi pinched her cheek, his tone tinged with helplessness: "You little rascal."
"It's broken already?"
Meng Jinyao rolled her eyes at Gu Jingxi and snorted, "Compared to what he did to me, what I did is nothing. I just said a few hurtful things to him, and he's upset? Because of him, I'm still being ridiculed. If I were weak and just married him, my life would be ruined."
She paused for a moment, then continued, “Although you are a wise elder who distinguishes right from wrong, if I really marry him, he will make me suffer all kinds of grievances. As his father, you can at most give him a few words of advice, after all, it is not appropriate for you to interfere in the bedroom affairs of the younger generation. I will not receive my husband’s respect, suffer all kinds of humiliation, and die of depression in a few years.”
Gu Jingxi's heart tightened, and he pulled her into his arms, saying gently, "Ayao will live to be a hundred years old."
Meng Jinyao reached out and hugged his waist, replying, "I dare not think about living to a hundred. I'll be content if I can live to fifty. It would be best if I could outlive that rebellious son. That would give me a sense of accomplishment. At worst, I'll offer him some incense."
Upon hearing this, Gu Jingxi couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Why do you have such a hard time with him?"
Meng Jinyao honestly replied, "I hold grudges. There were two reasons why I married you in the first place: one was that I didn't want Gu Xiuming to bully me, and the other was that I had the status of an elder so that I could bully him back and make him obediently bow to me and call me mother."
After hearing this, Gu Jingxi asked in a low voice, "And what about your husband?"
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