After a night of tossing and turning, Xu Yixing returned to the mansion with red eyes and was almost discovered. Fortunately, the shadow guards were around him and he barely avoided the servants who got up early.
Xu Yixing dragged his tired body to the ancestral hall and picked out one of the three copies of the confession and burned it to ashes.
"Mother, two aunts, this is the truth of what happened back then. I have punished the real culprit, and I have avenged you all. But mother, I really don't know how to face father. Lu Anyuan is unreliable, and father is even more unreliable. What should I do?"
"You met your tragic death, but who knows if it wasn't because you trusted the wrong person? Now, I absolutely cannot follow in your footsteps. Please forgive me for not bringing honor to our family, and even for not being able to bring the culprit who murdered you to justice. Mother, I'm sorry."
With no outsiders around, Xu Yixing muttered to herself in front of Bai's tablet. After all, she couldn't tell anyone else about these things.
Now that she had decided to break off the engagement with Lu Anyuan, the Xu family would be the first to bear the brunt of the consequences, regardless of whether it succeeded or not. Would her father still be able to protect her and safeguard her then? Or would he simply abandon her like he had done before?
There are wolves in front and tigers behind, and if we advance, we will die, and if we retreat, we will perish. Why did things develop into this state?
"Forget it. If fate is on my side, I will naturally leave a way out for myself. If fate is not on my side, it will be in vain." Xu Yixing respectfully inserted three incense sticks into the incense burner. She still believed in her heart that God would not treat her badly.
After all, not everyone has the luck to be resurrected from the dead and to be able to completely take over the life-saving artifacts left by his grandfather.
Xu Yixing wanted to say something else, but Si Wen's inappropriate greeting came from outside the door: "Greetings to the Madam, Madam, good luck!"
Si Wen spoke in a loud voice, clearly reminding Xu Yixing who was inside the door.
Xu Yixing glanced at his clothes, quickly tossed his black cloak and mourning strips onto the beam, and handed them to Yingjiu. He knelt on the mat, his heart filled with confusion: It was just dawn, and what was the Gu family doing in the ancestral hall?
Gu outside the door was even more confused than Xu Yixing at this moment. Why was Si Wen at the door of the ancestral hall so early in the morning? Who was she guarding for?
"Mian, why are you here? Is there anyone inside?"
Si Wen hurried down the steps and replied with his head down, "Madam, the second young lady is praying inside, and I am waiting here."
"Pray for blessings?" Gu walked up the steps and pushed open the door. Sure enough, she saw her second daughter kneeling in front of the hall. She didn't know how long she had been there.
Xu Yixing heard the noise and pretended to have just noticed it. He turned around and asked, "Why is mother here so early in the morning?"
Gu took two steps forward, glanced at the ashes in the copper basin on the ground and the incense that had not burned for too long, and his heart moved:
This morning, I heard Huizhi talk about Grandma He. Rumor has it that her hair turned white overnight, and her seven souls and six spirits must have been lost. She came to the ancestral hall for this very reason. Could it be that my second daughter was here for the same reason?
"Xiao Yan, why are you here so early in the morning? And what's burning in this?"
Xu Yixing stood up and said, "Mother, I had a lot of dreams last night. I seemed to have dreamed of several ladies and concubines. But when I woke up, I couldn't remember anything. I thought I should come and pay my respects. Maybe it would make things better."
Gu felt a chill down her spine when she heard this. Could it be that Liu really had sent a message to her daughter in her dream?
In reality, Mrs. Gu wasn't entirely clear on what Mrs. Gu had done, but she had a rough idea. Master and servant, they had maintained this tacit understanding for years: I wouldn't ask about your whereabouts, and you wouldn't tell me. Anyway, the goal was achieved.
When she heard this morning that Grandma He had an accident, the first thing Gu thought of was to come to the ancestral hall to burn incense, not to pay tribute, but simply because she was a little scared.
Mrs. Gu is dead, and the things she did have disappeared. Mrs. Gu just came to seek peace of mind.
"Inside this basin are some Buddhist scriptures I copied earlier. I brought them here specially to burn." Xu Yixing also explained about the paper ashes.
Gu didn't comment, but just looked at Xu Yixing's bloodshot eyes, and then looked at her wrinkled clothes. It seemed that she didn't sleep well last night.
"Thank you for your hard work, Xiaoyan. Now that you have burned the incense, you can go back quickly. Your mother is in heaven and will surely sense your filial piety and will not disturb you anymore."
"Yes, my daughter will take her leave."
Although Xu Yixing didn't know if his words could deceive Gu, as long as she let him go right now, he would never change his words. No matter who asked, he would tell her that it was because of Aunt Liu's dream that he came to burn incense so early in the morning.
Gu Shuang watched her second daughter disappear into the backyard, bit her lip, and asked Hui Zhi beside her: "Tell me, is the second young lady hiding some secret from us?"
Although Huizhi wasn't as ambitious as Huixiang, she was very good at reading people's moods. Upon hearing this, she immediately added fuel to the fire: "I feel the same way. The second young lady runs out of the mansion every day. I don't know what she's doing, and the master doesn't care. Madam, should we let the second young lady stay at home and prepare for her wedding?"
Gu Shuang shook her head. Over the past year, she had discovered that her second daughter wasn't so easy to control. She was almost always behind all the previous losses she'd suffered. She was no longer the little sparrow that could be trapped by simply copying Buddhist scriptures.
"Go tell Hui Ting to have everyone at the door keep an eye on the Second Miss to see if she sneaks out."
After saying this, he squatted down and carefully turned over the ashes in the copper basin. Unfortunately, it was too thoroughly burned, and there was no trace of the words. For the time being, he could only believe that it was a Buddhist scripture.
Xu Yixing returned to his room, changed his clothes, washed his face, and prepared to go to bed. But before he could lie down, Ying Jiu suddenly appeared again:
"Master, after you left, Gu said that he would have the gatekeepers keep an eye on your whereabouts, and he also turned over the confession we burned."
"Huh? She figured out we have a problem. She's pretty smart."
Xu Yixing smiled. What good would it do to discover it? This kind of thing is like having an affair. It only counts if you catch them in bed. What's the point of doubting it?
"What about us?"
"You guys, just continue to stay with me. I won't be going out recently."
Yingjiu said goodbye and left. Xu Yixing used the excuse that he didn't sleep well and closed the door to block Siqin Sihua's sight.
That's right, she really didn't plan to go out recently. If she did, she would be targeted by the Gu family and would also run into Lu Anyuan, neither of whom she wanted to mess with right now. But at the latest, she would wait until Mid-Autumn Festival. Even if she wanted to pretend to be dead by then, her father would definitely let her go out to the party.
When that time comes, that will be the day when Yingba will show his skills and lead him out of the sea of suffering.
Everything was going according to plan, there was nothing to be afraid of. She patted her chest and soothed herself to sleep.
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