Lord Gu laughed. "Come to visit Bai, you've punished her for so long, that's enough. According to my opinion, from today on, don't punish her anymore."
Besides, Chunhe, this maid, is knowledgeable and sensible. I think she is quite good. I will pick a date tomorrow and make her my concubine. What do you think?"
Xie smiled, "Master has already made the decision, does my opinion matter?"
Master Gu looked as if he was thinking of Mrs. Xie. "Chun He is your maid, after all, so naturally I have to ask."
Xie glanced at Chun He and said, "Alright, I'll make Chun He my concubine. The marriage that was arranged for her before will be treated as if it never happened. This maidservant is so devoted to following the master that when she was working in Furong Courtyard, she was always thinking about doing needlework for the master. Master, is Chun He good at needlework?"
Xie's eyes moved, full of sarcasm.
Lord Gu laughed heartily. "Very good, very good. Please hurry up and take care of the matter of raising Chun He as your concubine. I have other important matters to attend to, so I will be leaving first."
Mr. Gu acted like a hands-off boss and left.
The entrance of Acacia Courtyard suddenly became deserted and empty.
Chunhe was decisive and knelt directly on the ground.
She raised her hand and slapped herself hard.
"Madam, please be magnanimous and forgive me this time. In the future, I will continue to serve you wholeheartedly as always."
Xie walked forward and without saying a word, raised her hand and slapped Chunhe several times.
Xie slapped Chunhe left and right, and after a few slaps, Chunhe's face became swollen.
Chunhe endured the pain and let Xie beat her.
After Xie had finished beating her, she continued, "I have never thought of betraying Madam. My loyalty to Madam is evident to all."
Mrs. Xie sneered, "Shut up! You still have the nerve to claim loyalty? Do you really think I can't deal with you just because you've climbed into the master's bed?"
"Please spare my life, madam. Please spare my life, madam." Chunhe kowtowed repeatedly.
Xie kicked her over and said, "How dare you betray your master, you slut?"
"I have never betrayed my master, nor would I dare to do so."
"You still dare to be so stubborn!"
Xie raised her hand to hit him.
The gate of the courtyard next to Xiangsiyuan suddenly opened from the inside, and Aunt Tan walked out.
"I pay my respects to the Madam. I heard a commotion outside early this morning. The maid said the Madam was outside. I didn't believe it at first. But when I came out, I saw that the Madam was really here."
Xie withdrew her hand, and she suddenly realized that the person she had to deal with now was not Chunhe, but Aunt Tan.
Aunt Tan is the real threat.
As for Chunhe, since she is determined to get into bed, just help her.
Using Chunhe to deal with the Tan family is also a good idea.
Xie looked towards Aunt Tan and said, "If you have nothing to do, go back to your room and lie down. There is nothing for you to do here. Chunhe, follow me back to Furong Courtyard."
"I obey Madam."
Chunhe stood up from the ground and followed Xie away.
Aunt Tan secretly spitted.
She looked at Aunt Bai next door, smiled contemptuously, and went back to the courtyard gate.
Aunt Bai's eyebrows relaxed, her eyes gleaming with the light of success. She had suffered so much.
Back at Furong Courtyard, Xie ordered Chunhe to kneel down.
Chunhe knelt on the ground obediently.
Xie slammed her hand on the table, "Who gave you the courage to collude with Aunt Bai and climb into the master's bed?"
"This servant is eager to serve the master, please help me, madam."
"How dare you! As you get older, your heart becomes wilder. Why, are you not satisfied with the marriage I arranged for you?"
Chun He lowered her eyebrows and said submissively, "I dare not."
"I think you're very brave."
At this point, Chun He had nothing to say. She lowered her head, waiting for Xie's punishment.
Unexpectedly, after waiting for a long time, she heard Xie say, "Since you are determined to become the master's concubine, I will grant your wish."
Chunhe was overjoyed, but then full of doubts.
"What do you want, madam?"
Xie smiled and said, "You are indeed smart. You should know what to do without my instructions."
Chun He came back to her senses and nodded repeatedly, "This servant knows. This servant will definitely help Madam and make Concubine Tan fall out of favor and have no place to stand in the mansion anymore."
Mrs. Xie picked up the teacup and took a sip. "My training in you has paid off. What's going on with the Bai family?"
Chun He looked guilty, "I promised her that after the matter was completed, I would speak for her in front of the master and exempt her from the work."
Xie looked at Chunhe with disgust, "You are quite insightful."
"I am wrong, please punish me, madam."
"Why punish you? Go away. I'll pick a good day tomorrow and make you my concubine."
Chun He was overjoyed. "Thank you, Madam, for your help. I will be loyal to you for the rest of my life."
Xie smiled and sent Chunhe away.
lifetime?
Beautifully said.
Anyone who dares to betray her once will betray her twice. Chun He, this lowly servant, cannot be kept after we deal with Aunt Tan.
Three days later, it will be an auspicious day.
Xie officially promoted Chunhe to be her concubine and happily drank the tea that Chunhe handed her.
From now on, the second house will have an extra concubine, Chun.
The eldest wife, Zhang, teased Xie, "My sister-in-law is so open-minded. What about Concubine Tan, Concubine Chun, one after another."
Xie raised her eyebrows and smiled, "It's more fun when there are more people. If the eldest sister-in-law is envious, why not add two new people to the eldest master?"
Zhang laughed heartily. "I don't envy you. We have enough people in the main house. There's no need to add any new ones. It would bring bad luck."
Who says it’s not!
Newcomers come one after another, which is really unlucky.
Xie picked up the teacup to hide the cruelty on her lips, but what else could she do?
Ever since she and Lord Gu had a falling out, Lord Gu no longer listened to her.
No matter what she said or did, Lord Gu suspected that she had bad intentions.
In this situation, even if she had a hundred and eight martial arts skills, they would be useless.
Praising Chunhe is purely an act of helplessness.
Xie's heart was bleeding, but she still had to put on a smile.
The next day, as expected, Mrs. Xie fell ill again.
The doctor came to check on me, and as expected, I still had a heart disease and was depressed.
"Madam, you should relax. I'm worried that if this continues, it will affect your lifespan," the doctor advised sincerely.
Xie sighed, "I want to relax, but things in the mansion keep coming one after another, and there's not a single day that I don't have to worry about."
The doctor stroked his beard and said, "I'll prescribe some medicine for you, Madam. Please take it as directed. Take good care of yourself and avoid getting too excited or angry. This will help your body recover."
"Thank you, doctor."
The weather is getting colder day by day, and the twelfth lunar month is getting closer.
Gu Jiu's dowry has been prepared, and the next step is to draw up a guest list and prepare for the wedding.
On an auspicious day, the royal palace asked a matchmaker to deliver the betrothal gift, which amounted to 25,000 taels.
The betrothal gifts were placed in the flower hall, full of them.
Qingmei and the other girls were overjoyed.
I originally thought that it would be great if the palace could send a betrothal gift of 20,000 taels, but I didn't expect that they actually sent 25,000 taels.
This shows that the palace attaches great importance to this marriage.
However, when Gu Jiu saw the eunuch Lin Shuping following the matchmaker, he knew that it was not the case at all.
If this betrothal gift was indeed prepared by the princess, the person who came would not be Lin Shuping, but the princess's trusted maid.
Lin Shuping's arrival only proves that the betrothal gift was prepared by Liu Zhao.
Liu Zhao bypassed the prince and princess and sent her a betrothal gift.
Gu Jiu sighed secretly, the road ahead was bleak.
Even before she got married, she was already disliked by the princess. One could imagine how the princess would make things difficult for her once she got married into the palace.
Everyone sent their blessings to Gu Jiu, saying that Gu Jiu was blessed.
"Second sister, congratulations. With this betrothal gift, you will be able to have a grand wedding." Gu Shan said with a smile.
The eldest young lady, Xiao Zhang, also said, "I feel relieved now. Wait for my second sister to marry into the palace and live a good life."
Gu Jiu lowered his head and smiled. What good day was that? It was clearly a miserable day full of suffering.
Gu Jiu found an opportunity to talk to Lin Shuping in private.
Lin Shuping told her, "Originally, the young master wanted to come, but it was against the rules. The young master asked me to tell Miss Gu to prepare for her marriage and not to have any extraneous thoughts."
Gu Jiu asked, "Has your young master returned to the barracks?"
Lin Shuping nodded and said, "I have returned to the military camp."
Because Liu Zhao and the emperor's eldest grandson had a fight in the military camp, the whole capital was in chaos because of these two people.
First, like children, they naively sent people to the streets to smash and destroy the other party's shops.
Later, the case was brought before the emperor.
This time, the emperor was unusually conciliatory and gave each of them fifty lashes of the cane, ordering them to reflect on their mistakes behind closed doors. After their injuries had healed, they were to return to the barracks.
He also issued an order strictly prohibiting the emperor's grandson from fighting privately in the military camp.
This farce seems to be over.
However, after this, the emperor issued three consecutive edicts to reprimand His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and three officials of the Eastern Palace were dismissed.
At the same time, the emperor issued an edict to reprimand His Royal Highness Prince Ning, who was living a life of drunkenness and debauchery in the imperial mausoleum, and scolded him for being unruly. He also specially sent the Jinwu Guard to the imperial mausoleum to watch Prince Ning clean the mausoleum every day.
His Royal Highness Prince Ning was in great pain and cursed Liu Zhao three hundred times, calling him an unfilial son.
If Liu Zhao was in front of Prince Ning, Prince Ning would definitely draw his sword and kill Liu Zhao.
It has to be said that Liu Zhao was lucky enough to escape the disaster.
In addition to the misfortunes of the Eastern Palace and Prince Ning, the other princes and royal family also had a hard time.
If a person serves as emperor for too long, he will become more and more cruel.
From ancient times to the present, all those who have been emperors for more than 30 years, without exception, have become more suspicious and more cruel as they grow older.
Emperor Kaiyao did not escape this rule.
Every few days, he would catch the princes and scold them.
In front of the court officials, he pointed at the princes and nobles and cursed them as worse than pigs and dogs and not worthy of being human beings.
Such a harsh rebuke made the princes and nobles miserable. They all had a look of deep resentment and were under tremendous pressure.
As much as people looked forward to attending court in the past, they now resist it.
Everyone said privately that the old emperor was crazy. He either scolded or beat his sons every day and treated them as non-human beings.
He is a prince, but he lives worse than pigs and dogs.
How sad this is.
At this time, some people thought of Prince Ning, "Prince Ning was so cunning that he escaped early."
After this reminder, everyone finally came to their senses.
Prince Ning is indeed a treacherous man.
When Prince Ning was exiled to guard the imperial mausoleum, everyone laughed at him.
Unexpectedly, Prince Ning thought further than anyone else. He must have anticipated this day a long time ago and expected that the old man would become more and more crazy, so he deliberately angered the old man and took the opportunity to hide away.
"Prince Ning is shameless. We must find a way to get him back."
"We finally drove him out of the capital, and now we have to bring him back. Wouldn't all our efforts be in vain?"
"The old man goes crazy every day. If he continues like this, we can't handle it. Look at what happened to the prince. He was almost driven crazy by the old man. Do you think we will follow in his footsteps? If so, wouldn't it be a good thing for Prince Ning?"
"That's true. We are brothers, and we should share the good and the bad together."
"We can't let Prince Ning continue to hide outside."
So the princes and nobles began to plan to bring Prince Ning back to the capital to suffer with everyone.
Lin Shuping reminded Gu Jiu, "There's been a bad trend in the capital lately, Miss Gu, please pay attention."
unhealthy trend?
Gu Jiu asked, "How long will this unhealthy trend last?"
Lin Shuping whispered, "I'm afraid it won't be finished this year, so we'll have to continue next year. The one in the East Palace is still firmly sitting in that position, and he won't stop."
Gu Jiu asked with concern, "Will it implicate my father?"
"Let Lord Gu listen to the old marquis's advice, and he should be fine."
Gu Jiu felt relieved.
The Marquis' Mansion next door is the best at reading the wind's direction. As long as Lord Gu doesn't act on his own, everything should be safe.
"Thank you, Eunuch Lin."
"Miss Gu, you're too polite. I should go back now."
"I'll see Eunuch Lin off."
After sending the people away, Gu Jiu returned to the flower hall.
Xie wanted to find fault with the betrothal gift, but she couldn't find any fault with it, so she could only sulk by herself.
How could Gu Jiu have deserved to be chosen by the Emperor's grandson, and even have His Majesty personally decree their marriage? She truly was just lucky.
The more Xie thought about it, the more she felt that Gu Jiu had been very lucky in the past two years, while she had been very unlucky.
The little girl who was about to die of illness not only survived unexpectedly, but also became better and better. She grew taller and more beautiful.
Look at Gu Jiu now, he is becoming more and more eye-catching.
It was originally thought that since Gu Jiu had lost his biological mother and his maternal family had fallen into decline, it would be impossible for him to find a good marriage.
Unexpectedly, this wave of good fortune actually brought good luck to her marriage.
The emperor’s grandson’s wife!
The dowry of 40,000 taels plus the betrothal gift of 25,000 taels, totaling 65,000 taels, can be fully loaded on 160 platforms.
It was a grand wedding, absolutely a grand wedding.
It's so infuriating.
Little bitch Gu Jiu, how could she have such great luck? God must be blind.
Xie was very jealous, but there was nothing he could do.
She didn't have the guts to disrupt a marriage arranged by the emperor himself, unless she wanted to die.
Lord Gu waved his hand and asked Gu Jiu to come over and talk.
"All these betrothal gifts will be counted towards your dowry. Here is the betrothal gift list, please keep it. Is your wedding dress embroidered?"
Gu Jiu bowed and said, "Thank you for your concern, father. The wedding dress has been embroidered."
Master Gu was relieved. "Have you chosen the bridegroom?"
Gu Jiu nodded, "This is the dowry list, please take a look, father."
Lord Gu looked through the list and saw that the dowry included four maids, a nanny, and three maids-in-law.
After reading it, Lord Gu frowned slightly and asked, "Isn't the dowry a little too small?"
Gu Jiu said: "My daughter thinks these people are enough."
Er Zhuang was outside and found a lot of talents for Gu Jiu.
Gu Jiu doesn't need so many people as a dowry.
Among the servants in the Gu Mansion, the only ones she could truly trust were the few people around her.
Gu Jiu didn't want to bring anyone else to the palace.
She would rather work harder and select and train the people around her herself.
These days, the most important thing is loyalty, followed by ability.
Lord Gu asked, "Is that really enough? This number of people is not enough for you."
Gu Jiu said, "Father, don't worry. When you get to the palace, they will arrange for servants to serve you. Also, I heard from Nanny Fang that according to regulations, the Shaofu will also send a few people to serve you."
Lord Gu thought about it and felt that what Gu Jiu said made sense.
The palace has no shortage of servants, and the Shaofu will also send people. Gu Jiu really doesn't need too many maids as a dowry.
Lord Gu asked again: "Are these people reliable?"
"They are all elderly people around my daughter, absolutely reliable."
"That's great."
Xie suddenly interrupted, "Master, should we add two more beautiful maids to the Second Girl's dowry? You know, the Second Girl is marrying the Emperor's grandson. If she doesn't have one or two beautiful maids around her to help consolidate her favor, what will happen?"
When Lord Gu heard this, he felt it made perfect sense.
From a man's perspective, Lord Gu naturally believed that all men in the world were like him, lustful and easily bored with the old.
When Gu Jiu married the emperor's grandson, she naturally had to consider using maids to consolidate his favor.
Gu Jiu glanced at Xie, then said, "Father, I have my own ideas about securing my favor. There's no need to prepare a maid with a bright appearance."
Xie pursed her lips and smiled, "Second girl, are you afraid that the maidservants will take away your favor? Don't worry, the maidservants are still maidservants and can't surpass you."
Gu Jiu lowered his head and smiled, "It's my fault for making Madam worry about me. As the saying goes, don't do to others what you don't want done to you. Madam must still be sad now, and she has to worry about consolidating my favor. Madam must be in a difficult situation."
Xie's expression changed. Gu Jiu was clearly talking about Chun He's affairs. This was too much.
Gu Jiu added, "Actually, if Madam just keeps her mouth shut, she won't be embarrassed."
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