"I want to see the Queen, I want to see Gu Ting!"
"Tell Gu Ting to come see me!"
"Unfilial son, he doesn't even listen to what I say? Go ask him if he still has me as his father in his heart."
Gu Zhili was furious. He was locked in the study and Gu Ting's personal soldiers were guarding the door. He could not move an inch.
However, the person he hated the most was Xie.
He never expected that decades later, Xie would dig up old things.
If he had known this, he would have dealt with Xie long ago and never let her live to this day.
"This vicious woman! Idiot! If I'm in trouble, will she get any benefit? Husband and wife are one, they prosper together and suffer together. Doesn't he understand the principle?"
Gu Zhili pounded the table.
Despite his age, he is still quite active.
Boom boom boom…
There was a knock on the rear window.
Gu Zhili paused for a moment, then hurried to the back window and opened it a crack. It was the butler Gu Quan.
Gu Quan was very nervous. It was winter and his forehead was covered in sweat.
He breathed out and whispered, "Someone is watching. I have to leave after saying a few words."
"You say!" Gu Zhili reminded him to hurry up.
Butler Gu Quan lowered his voice and said, "This matter has alarmed the Empress. The Empress has sent Eunuch Qian to investigate. She will most likely question me. Does the old man have any instructions?"
Gu Zhili's eyes were fierce as he spoke word by word, "I don't need you to teach me what to say and what not to say."
Butler Gu Quan hurriedly said, "I don't know anything. The year my wife passed away, I was just a servant running errands and doing odd jobs. I don't know anything."
"Very good!" Gu Zhili nodded with satisfaction, then asked, "Where is Xie?"
"She's locked up in a room, and the uncle has someone guarding her. It's wishful thinking for me to even take a step closer."
Gu Zhili gritted his teeth, "This unfilial son, does he know what he is doing? If this matter gets out, doesn't he know what the consequences will be?"
As the saying goes, family disgrace should not be made public, and this happened decades ago. Under normal circumstances, it would be too late to cover it up, and no one would take the initiative to uncover the truth.
Sometimes it is a kind of happiness to be able to pretend that something has happened and it never happened.
This is the attitude that a mature head of the family should have.
However, Gu Ting insisted on lifting the lid and investigating the truth, which was tantamount to disregarding the reputation of the Gu family.
Is the truth that important?
Is it more important than family honor or living people?
In Gu Zhili's view, Gu Ting's actions were childish and completely unreasonable.
This is not what a mature head of the family should do.
Gu Zhili gritted his teeth, "Ask him for me, who is more important, the dead or the living? Even if he hates me, doesn't he think about the child? The Gu family's reputation is ruined, which will not benefit him or the child at all. Even if the Queen protects him, the reputation is ruined, and no one can change it. Don't forget to remind him that he can no longer rely on the Pei family! The only one he can rely on is the Gu family."
Butler Gu Quan nodded repeatedly, "Does the old man have any other instructions?"
Gu Zhili said angrily, "Tell him again that as a member of the Gu family, he has the responsibility to uphold the Gu family's reputation. There's no need to dig up the past. Also, tell him solemnly that I have never harmed anyone. Su died of a serious illness, and everyone knows this. Tell him not to make such a fuss. How can you believe what that bitch Xie says? She's clearly trying to sow discord. She just can't stand the harmony in this family."
Someone is coming.
Gu Quan hurriedly said, "Master, I'm leaving. Take care of yourself and be patient. The truth will come out sooner or later."
After saying that, Gu Quan ran away.
Gu Zhili quickly closed the window, he was freezing to death.
He rubbed his hands, breathed out, and walked to the brazier to warm himself by the fire.
snort!
The truth is revealed?
Where does the truth come from?
There is no such thing as truth in this world.
He felt as if his heart was on fire, burning and uncomfortable.
Gu Jiu is simply his nemesis.
Even as the queen, she never gave him any benefits.
If he had known this would happen, why would he be happy for Gu Jiu that day?
However, Gu Zhili has always been confused. In his memory, Gu Jiu was very well-behaved before she got married and was relatively close to him as her father.
He didn't know when it started, but her attitude towards him became increasingly worse and colder, and sometimes he could even feel her disgust.
What went wrong?
When people get old, their memory is not as good as when they were young and strong.
Gu Zhili recalled his memory and couldn't figure out when the relationship between father and daughter began to become so tense.
"Have I ever done anything wrong to her?"
"I have prepared a dowry of 40,000 taels for her. I have fulfilled my responsibilities as a father. What else is she dissatisfied with?"
"I've never caused her any trouble. Why does she hate me?"
"Unfilial daughter!"
Gu Zhili cursed alone in the study, venting his anger.
"I worked so hard to raise my daughter, but ended up raising an ungrateful person."
"I just don't believe that she can benefit from the Gu family's bad reputation."
"She treats me like this, isn't she afraid that everyone in the world will call her unfilial?"
Gu Zhili yelled and screamed.
The personal guards were afraid that hearing something they shouldn't hear would bring them trouble, so they quickly reported it to the newly appointed Earl of Chengping, Gu Ting.
Bang!
Gu Ting kicked over the small stool.
He was filled with rage. "Even at this point, he still won't stop. He even dared to ask Gu Quan to pass on a message and warn me. I don't think he has any remorse at all."
"The matter has not been investigated clearly yet, so don't be anxious." Pei Man advised him.
Bang!
Gu Ting slammed his fist on the table. "What on earth is he thinking? What reason does he have to hate my mother? No, I have to ask him in person."
Pei Man held him back, "Don't go! You won't get anything out of him if you ask him now. It's better to wait for Eunuch Qian's investigation results."
Gu Ting was like a trapped animal. "You want me to do nothing and just wait?"
"Why don't you go back to the Jing camp for training?"
If you have anger, practice more and it will all come out.
Pei Man's plan was perfect, but Gu Ting was not happy.
"I've asked for leave. I don't have to return to the camp before the Lantern Festival."
Pei Man frowned, "Then you should go to the training ground to train your personal soldiers. In short, don't be idle."
It's easy to have random thoughts when you have free time.
Gu Ting took a deep breath, said nothing, and ran out.
…
It is not easy to find out the truth about something that happened decades ago.
Almost all the servants back then died.
Qian Fu looked through all the relevant household registration lists and mobilized all his spies, and finally found a former servant of the Gu family who was still alive and might know the truth of the past and had changed his name.
After some coercion and inducement, the old man's mouth was finally opened.
"...The Second Young Master is fond of women and prefers them to take the initiative... The Young Mistress comes from a scholarly family and is dignified and elegant, but the Second Young Master finds her dull and boring. Their relationship has been strained since their marriage... The most serious incident occurred when the Young Master developed inappropriate thoughts, leading to a fierce argument between the two... For a long time, the Second Young Master refused to enter the Young Mistress's room..."
The young man the old man was referring to was Gu Zhili when he was young.
The second young lady is Su when she was young.
Qian Fu asked, "You just said that your young master had some thoughts he shouldn't have? Let me ask you, what exactly did he have in mind?"
The old man is very old, with all his teeth falling out and looking frail, as if he will die at any time.
The old man has been hiding his identity and living a hard life these years.
He rested his weight on his cane and reminisced, "The young master fell in love with the Second Young Mistress's cousin, who was within five generations of kinship, and took advantage of the banquet to make advances on her. The Second Young Mistress found out... and there was a huge fight... That cousin, who was within five generations of kinship... then disappeared..."
"He's disappeared. Is he dead?"
"I don't know. No one saw him alive, and no one saw his body dead... After a while, the young master started going in and out of the Second Young Lady's room again. It was around that time that the Second Young Lady became pregnant with the Empress."
"Why has no one ever mentioned this? The Su family has a missing daughter, and no one is making a public announcement?"
"I don't know! Maybe the Su family didn't dare to speak out because they were afraid of being embarrassed."
"Did your young master have a mistress in the past?"
“Never heard of it.”
"The young lady from the Su family is having an affair with your young master. Why didn't the concubines in the Gu family know about this person? If we calculated the time correctly, Xie would have already entered the Gu family by then."
"Neither the Second Young Master nor the Young Mistress said anything. The Second Young Master was in the wrong, and the Young Mistress came from a family of scholars and had to protect her dignity, so she naturally couldn't tarnish her family's reputation."
"Is it possible that your young master hates the Su family because of this matter?"
"The young master is not an open-minded person. It's not surprising that he does anything."
"Did your son poison Su to death?"
"have no idea!"
"How could you not know? You were his personal servant back then. How could he have kept his affairs secret from you?"
The old man strained his broken throat like a leaky bellows.
He let out a few meaningless roars, "I've forgotten everything that happened back then. I don't remember anything. You're asking the wrong person."
"Old man, if you don't think about yourself, you should at least think about your descendants. Su is the Empress's biological mother. The Empress is determined to find out the truth. Do you think you can just get away with saying you don't know? You are old and dying. Our family can't do anything to you. But your descendants, crushing them is like crushing an ant. Are you sure you want to play tricks on us?"
Qian Fu's tone was light and his eyes were gentle, but the words he spoke were filled with murderous intent, which made people tremble with fear.
Truly intimidating language never needs to be shouted.
Just a few words are enough to scare people.
The old man tightly grasped the cane's handle and said, "I, I... I only know that the young master was very excited while Su was bedridden. He even personally instructed another servant, Gu Cong, to find herbs to nurse Su back to health."
"Where is Gu Congren?"
"Dead."
"How did he die?"
"He fell into the water while drunk and died."
"When did it happen?"
"That's right, it was half a month before Su's death."
"He actually died before Su died?"
"Yeah! Gu Congai drank a few sips, but he never thought he would get drunk and fall into the water."
"No one doubts the cause of death?"
“No, no…”
"to be honest!"
"Not at first. But when Su passed away, I saw the young master was very excited and laughing in private, and even drinking to celebrate, so I had some vague suspicions. But I didn't tell anyone about it, and I haven't mentioned it a single time in all these years."
"Anything else?"
"No, that's all. I was just a boy running errands back then, and that's all I know."
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－－
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