Qin Heng lowered his head and glanced at Gu Baozhu out of the corner of his eye, his heart pounding in his chest.
Gu Baozhu, as always, did not offer him any comfort: "...Would your father agree to this?"
Looking back at him, his eyes were full of the meaning you know: "I can't help you."
Qin Heng looked dejected, and his head drooped even lower.
Gu Baozhu continued to remind him to remember his original intention: "Besides, weren't you supposed to stay here and keep an eye on Xu Tang to prevent him from doing anything bad?"
Qin Heng grinned: "Cough, what a heavy burden this is. I'm finding Xu Tang increasingly annoying these days!"
Gu Baozhu gently patted the top of his head: "Let's go, let's take you back quickly. If your mother finds out... I'm afraid you'll have to kneel in the ancestral hall again."
Qin Heng's heroic spirit vanished instantly.
After a stick of incense had burned, the two rode their horses to the back wall of the Qin residence. Gu Baozhu turned to Qin Heng behind her and said, "Get off, we're at your house."
Qin Heng let go of her hand and muttered, "Why are you riding so fast? It's making me want to throw up. You don't know that you can't ride fast in the capital."
Gu Baozhu asked loudly, "What?"
Afraid of alerting the people inside the wall, Qin Heng hurriedly said, "It's nothing, Grandma, keep your voice down, is it something to be proud of?"
Gu Baozhu suppressed a laugh and urged him to dismount.
Qin Heng remained unmoved: "Stand up and see if there's anyone on the other side of the wall?"
Helpless, Gu Baozhu stood on her horse and peered inside. She saw that there were only two or three old servants talking at the pavilion. She took a breath, bent down, reached out and lifted Qin Heng up, then threw him over the wall.
Qin Heng felt a blur before his eyes and heard a gust of wind in his ears before he was lying down in a clump of autumn grass inside the wall.
Then came the sound of horses' hooves from outside the wall, and Gu Baozhu's shout: "I'm going back, see you tomorrow."
Qin Heng angrily pounded the ground.
"Gu Baozhu, Gu Baozhu, how could you treat me like this?!"
They just dumped people in without even saying hello.
Wouldn't it be embarrassing if word got out?
However, he was thrown in unharmed.
This guy has precise control.
Qin Heng slowly got up, circled around the corner of the wall and fled towards his own yard. When he passed the dog hole, his eyes suddenly widened, and then he angrily punched the wall.
"Gu Baozhu, you've gone too far! You could have just carried me out, why did you insist on making me crawl through the dog hole? Don't I, a grown man, have any dignity?"
...
When Lord Gu returned from the camp outside the city, the candles in the main room of Wutong Garden had already been extinguished. He walked quickly down the corridor and saw Mozhu keeping watch outside from afar.
"Has Madam already retired for the night?"
Mo Zhu was startled and hurriedly stood up to pay her respects before saying, "Madam said she was tired early this morning, and seemed to have something on her mind."
Lord Gu sighed.
There are so many things to do both inside and outside the mansion; it's certainly been quite a mental and physical strain.
"Who came today? Or is there some business at the manor?"
Mo Zhu frowned: "The only thing in the manor is the lantern festival. Shen Chang Le came and talked about it. Oh, right, Xiao Dong came and brought two boxes, one containing medicine and the other containing incense."
Lord Gu was also puzzled, so he said, "You don't need to lift the curtain, just serve outside."
Mo Zhu hurriedly stopped him: "My lord, the lady said that she is going to the family temple to offer sacrifices the day after tomorrow and needs to fast... I have already prepared your clothes and bedding. Should I have someone tidy up the study?"
Lord Gu stopped in his tracks, then waved his sleeve and said, "No need. I'll just rest in the main room. It's too much trouble to move around."
We can only look but not eat, so what's the point of allocating rooms?
That's completely unnecessary.
Mo Zhu didn't dare to stop him anymore. Lord Gu entered the room in the dark, lifted the curtain, and saw that there was only Qin Yuan's set of bedding on the bed. He had no choice but to go out to the outer room, move the bedding, and gently spread it out himself. After quickly washing up, he held Qin Yuan and went to sleep.
I had so much to say, but I had to give up.
The next day, Qin Yuan got up and learned that Lord Gu had returned in the evening and rushed back to the camp early in the morning.
Hongye exclaimed, "Lord Marquis, you are truly full of vigor! Coming and going every day like this must take a lot of effort. Others would never go through so much trouble."
Qin Yuan didn't know what to say, and only said, "I don't know if the Marquis will be free for the sacrificial ceremony the day after tomorrow."
Hongye said, "The Marquis is in charge of the camp, so isn't it up to the Marquis to call the shots?"
Qin Yuan stopped talking and led her maids to the main room to pay their respects to Old Madam Gu. Gu Baozhu happened to be there as well.
The two sisters-in-law chatted for a while, then Fu Ge'er and Kang Ge'er came in and pestered Gu Baozhu for a while, followed by Lan Jie'er.
Just as things were getting lively, a maidservant outside reported through the curtain, "Young Master Cheng and Miss Yu are outside saying they want to pay their respects to the Old Madam."
Qin Yuan frowned. Since the person was staying in the guest courtyard, it was only right that they came here to pay their respects.
However, the old lady is probably too impatient to deal with it now.
As expected, Rong Momo said, "The old lady doesn't want to see guests these days, please ask them to go back."
The maid went out and returned after a long while, saying, "I finally managed to persuade them to go back, but Hongmian said that the two young masters don't know where they'll be spending the Mid-Autumn Festival."
Rong Momo said, "Of course we've already gone with them."
How can it be allowed for the descendants of Yelü Langzhu to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with the Gu family?
If they didn't know, that would be fine, but if they did, the old lady would probably beat the twins' brains out.
The maid went out again to deliver a message to Hongmian.
Rong Momo said, "Hongmian is quite the schemer; she's gone to the twins' place again."
Qin Yuan smiled and said, "This is what they call 'everyone has their own unique talents.' Hongmian is still wasting her talents in Wutong Garden. It would be better for her to work elsewhere."
Rong Momo smiled and said, "Since Madam knows what's going on, this old servant won't say any more."
Just then, Old Madam Gu came out, supported by Qiuju's hand, and asked with a smile, "What food has Yuan'er come for this time?"
Qin Yuan stood up to greet her, supporting her with her other hand, and said, "Naturally, we came for the vegetarian dishes. The vegetarian dishes made by Xiu Niang are far superior to those in the small kitchen of Wutong Garden."
Madam Gu said, "Alright, alright, let's eat here today and go to the family temple to eat tomorrow. Those monks don't have much to do all day except chant sutras, so they've managed to make vegetarian dishes so elaborate."
Everyone enjoyed a lively meal.
Madam Gu was in high spirits and ate half a bowl more than usual.
After clearing the table, Qin Yuan chatted with Old Madam Gu about the holiday. When the topic turned to the past few days' itinerary, Gu Baozhu asked, "On Mid-Autumn Festival, I want to play football. Can I skip going to the palace?"
Madam Gu was startled: "Why did you want to play football that day? Didn't you say you were just going to meet Xu Tang?"
Gu Baozhu was quite proud: "It's because I played too well that I couldn't refuse their hospitality and stayed. On the day of the competition for the top three, of course I had to play. I'm not just bragging, but the banquet really couldn't have started without me."
After a moment's thought, Madam Gu said, "Then go play football. It won't matter if you're here or not in front of the Empress Dowager. The most important thing is that you're happy."
Qin Yuan was taken aback. Although she knew that Old Madam Gu harbored resentment towards the Empress Dowager, she did not expect her to be so direct.
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