Chapter 64 Gu Family Past
Gu Nianxue's coffin lay exposed in the grave, but the soul-suppressing nails had been removed and the blood had been cleaned. While it didn't look as hideous as it had during the day, it still felt somewhat terrifying.
Only two capable guards were left by Gu Huai's side, and the others stood a little further away to avoid hearing anything they shouldn't.
"Deputy Envoy Lin, can you tell me now? What exactly is going on?"
Lin Qingyue said, "It's better to let the person involved tell the story. Miss Gu, you can come out now!"
As the words fell, the Netherworld Umbrella suddenly spun, and the runes on the umbrella surface glowed with golden light, and the glittering light seemed to come alive.
The cold wind blew the rotten leaves towards Gu Nian'an, causing him to close his eyes instinctively.
When the wind stopped, the blood-red oil-paper umbrella was still trembling.
A female shadow suddenly appeared under Lin Qingyue's umbrella, with her moon-white gauze skirt cascading down.
The woman's face remained the same, but her pupil-less eyes were filled with confusion and melancholy.
As if she noticed Gu Nian'an's gaze, she slowly turned her head. Her pale face still had traces of blood and tears, and was filled with the regrets of her life.
"Sister... Sister!" Gu Nian'an rushed over, trying to throw himself into his elder sister's arms like he used to. However, his body passed straight through the shadow.
The sister he respected and loved the most had become a ghost, never to be touched again.
The story of the Gu family begins when Gu Huai was young.
Gu Huai's original surname was Sun, and his name was Sun Huai.
Sun Huai was born into a poor family. He lost his parents at a young age and was bullied by his uncles and aunts. They not only seized his property but also drove him out of the house and left him to fend for himself.
With nowhere else to go, Sun Huai took refuge with his aunt in the capital.
My aunt's husband's family is surnamed Gu, a branch of a large aristocratic family. Although they are not a top-tier wealthy family, they are also a distinguished family.
When Sun Huai was in the Gu family, his uncle arranged for him to work in the family business to learn some business skills.
Unexpectedly, a few years later, the grown-up Sun Huai fell in love with his cousin Gu Xiu. The two secretly decided to spend their lives together and even became husband and wife.
When the aunt found out, she was so angry that she almost beat Sun Huai to death.
The Gu family is a noble family, and their daughter is a legitimate daughter. How can she be a match for Sun Huai, who has such a high status?
Later, it was Gu Huai who took the initiative to express his willingness to marry into the Gu family, and only then did his aunt and uncle agree.
After marrying into the family, Sun Huai became Gu Huai. But at that time, he could only barely squeeze into the aristocratic circle, and still could not erase his low status.
Outside, he does not receive recognition and respect from the upper class.
In order to please his father-in-law and mother-in-law, he could only try his best to be nice to his wife.
After his wife gave birth to their eldest daughter, Gu Nianxue, he took care of the child himself and gradually gained the recognition of his father-in-law, who gave him many resources and even helped him obtain the right to run a tea business.
Gu Huai was a business genius. In just a few years, he made his business flourish and accumulated a huge fortune.
That year, Qi was struck by a devastating disaster, leaving the land ravaged by starvation. Gu Huai, a shrewd man, had already stockpiled a large amount of grain, hoping to profit handsomely.
His wife advised, "Making money like this will only harm your virtue. We don't need money, so why should we drink the blood and flesh of the disaster victims? Why not use all the money and rice you've saved to help with the disaster? Consider it a way to accumulate virtue for our daughters."
This sentence instantly enlightened him. He no longer lacked money, but only a step to move up, and this was the perfect opportunity!
So he listened to his wife's advice and donated money and supplies when Emperor Zhao of Qi had just ascended the throne, the treasury was empty, and he was worried about the victims.
Emperor Zhao of Qi just needed a role model to command other wealthy and noble families to come out and help.
Therefore, Emperor Zhao of Qi made an exception and conferred the title of "Marquis Wenshang" on Gu Huai, and praised him lavishly.
Although "Wenshang Hou" was only an honorary title without any official position or power, this title enabled him to successfully gain a foothold among the gentry.
It was also because of this identity that he was able to become a royal merchant. His business grew bigger and bigger, and he eventually became the richest man in Qi!
But a man's heart is always unsatisfied.
After gaining power, fame and fortune, he began to indulge in beauty and kept one concubine after another.
When his father-in-law and mother-in-law passed away one after another, he simply stopped hiding the truth and brought the woman home.
His wife cried and asked him, "You promised my parents that you would never take a concubine. Have you forgotten your vow in just a few years?"
The man who was once gentle and considerate now looked at his wife with impatience on his face:
"Any man in the world who has some money has multiple wives and concubines. Don't you see how old you are? You're still jealous of those teenage girls. You don't have the bearing of a mistress at all!"
His wife was so angry that she fell ill, but he didn't care at all. He even married a concubine into the house on the grounds that his wife was too weak to take care of the household chores.
On the day he married his second wife, his wife passed away, leaving behind a pair of poor children: Gu Nianxue and Gu Nian'an.
At that time, Gu Nianxue was already a teenager. She had been raised under the care of her father, had witnessed the love between her parents, and had also enjoyed the most kind fatherly love.
Therefore, it was difficult for her to accept her father's subsequent coldness and ruthlessness, but as a daughter, she could do nothing about it.
All she could do was to escape from this already unfamiliar home as soon as possible.
When her mother was still alive, she had arranged a marriage for her with a distant relative from her mother's family, a man of good character. Most importantly, the two of them had feelings for each other.
However, in order to win over high-ranking officials around the emperor, Gu Huai broke his engagement and betrothed his daughter to the then Shangshu Ling as a concubine in exchange for benefits.
Gu Nianxue originally preferred death to obey, so Gu Huai brought up her brother Gu Nian'an:
"Nianxue, if you don't think about yourself, you should at least think more about your brother's future. He's the eldest son, and everything in the Gu family will belong to him in the future. But if you, the eldest sister, don't live up to your expectations and only care about your own romantic interests, what will happen if Nian'an follows suit? How can father trust him with the family business?"
This was said tactfully, but Gu Nianxue could hear that her father was using her brother's future to pressure her.
Gu Huai now has many women and has no worries about having children.
But she only has this one brother!
The siblings were ten years apart in age. Before their mother died, she held Gu Nianxue's hand and told her, "Your father can no longer be relied upon. Nianxue, I can only leave my brother to you."
In the many years that followed, as the eldest sister, she took on the responsibilities of a mother, urging her younger brother to study and teaching him to be a good person.
Younger brother Nian'an also loves his sister very much. When his stepmother bullies his sister, he will stand in front of his sister like a little wolf cub.
When he learned that his sister was forced to marry an old man, the then-tiny brother rushed to Gu Huai and fiercely demanded, "Are you worthy of being our father? Which father would treat his own flesh and blood like you?"
He started to sob as he spoke: "You've already let Mother down, why are you still bullying us?"
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