After Xu Yixing and his father had their say, the father and daughter tacitly went about their own business, and no one pursued the matter of what happened at the Sun Mansion that day.
Sun Ziyou was unable to find the two nails and was terrified. He even made an excuse to come to Xu's house, but Xu Yixing claimed to be ill and did not meet him.
Xu Yixing was busy learning various etiquettes every day, preparing for the future ceremony of enthroning the prince's wife. Old Man Xu was also in the mansion one day and away the next, and no one knew what he was busy with.
The New Year passed quickly, and it was not until the seventh day that Gu Shuang received the news that Madam Gu had died. She was suspicious and wanted to find someone to perform an autopsy, but was stopped by the Jingzhao Prefecture.
Nonsense, the person died on the first day of the new year and was dragged out and thrown away long ago, so where would the body come from?
No matter how many doubts Gu had, she could only swallow them. Besides, Gu was not someone who cherished the past. She thought Nanny Gu was unfaithful and was only sad for a few days. So she quickly asked the borrowed teacher to check each store according to Nanny Gu's account book.
The more she investigated, the angrier she became. She had originally thought that Mrs. Gu was just greedy for some of the money that leaked from her hands, but she had actually falsified the accounts and swallowed up at least 30% of her money!
Gu was so angry that she was fuming. She had used up all her last bit of kindness and secretly sent people to take back all the money and land from Gu's children.
Who knew that Mrs. Gu had already prepared everything, and she did not have any assets in her name. Her children had escaped slavery early on and were not slaves of the Gu family at all. Naturally, Mrs. Gu had no way of taking away the things in their names.
Of course, upon hearing the news, several people quickly sold off their assets and fled the capital. Gu was out of reach and could only vent her anger by smashing two valuable porcelain bottles. She had ultimately fallen into the trap set by Madam Gu.
Xu Yixing listened to Yingjiu's reports every night, calculating the number of times and the amount of things Huixiang stole, and also calculating when his father would probably get angry and kill Gu Shuang.
Xu Yixing had no doubt that his father had feelings for Gu Shuang.
Just like he treated his mother Bai, Yi Yan's mother Liu, and Yi Wen's mother He, Dad loved each of them equally, but also cared about each of them equally.
Xu Yixing never understood why. Were all men like this, easily disliking the old and liking the new, weighing the pros and cons? Then what would it be like for her to marry into the Seventh Prince's mansion?
Madam Jing had been to the Xu residence several times. Every time she saw her father, his smile became more sincere. It was not until the last time when the wedding date was finally agreed upon that her father finally breathed a sigh of relief and no longer had any worries.
"September 15th... Why does this date sound so familiar?" Xu Yixing was copying Buddhist scriptures while chatting with Siqin. This wasn't a punishment, but Xu Yixing had taken it out to copy because he felt uneasy.
Ever since I got Yi Yan's memory, even my handwriting has become much more similar, and I don't need to imitate him deliberately anymore.
"Of course I'm familiar with it. This was the day when the eldest daughter got married last year! It shows that the master loves you too and is not partial to you at all." Siqin smiled, and her whole body exuded the aura of a mother, making Xu Yixing feel like she was the second Nanny Bai.
"'Also' love me? Don't you think there's anything wrong with your wording? Besides, the prince's wedding process takes at least a year, and I've only been married for nine months. It's totally against the rules."
Xu Yixing even felt that if there were no rules blocking her, her father would have wanted her to ride in a sedan chair to the Seventh Prince's Mansion that night. After all, the sooner she married Lu Anyuan, the sooner her father would feel at ease.
"Hmm... isn't it because the Seventh Prince is already twenty years old that His Majesty is worried?"
"No matter how anxious he is, it's only three months away. How can he be so impatient?"
"Oh! The young lady has been getting rather irritable lately. It's only been three months, isn't it worth getting so mad at you? We don't have to worry about anything, just wait for the master and mistress to make the arrangements."
Xu Yixing fell silent, his handwriting becoming uglier and uglier. The dowry his father had given him was incredibly generous, but now that he was marrying the prince, he wondered if his father had the financial resources to afford another. He must not let Lu Anyuan look down on his family.
"Siqin, harness the horses, I'm going to Jingxi Temple." Throwing the pen away, Xu Yixing decided to go out for a walk.
This time, they still took a small carriage, sneaking out of the north gate and heading up the mountain. Xu Yixing asked Siqin to burn sutras in front of the Buddha for him, and then secretly went to the underground palace and met Ying Si.
"Why is the Second Miss here? What do you want?"
"Nothing, kid. I asked you to find the body of my sister Yixing. What happened to her?"
Ying Si was very unhappy that Xu Yixing called him that, but he didn't express any opinion.
"We've explored the Sun Mansion many times and haven't found any dungeons. Ying Jiu should have already responded to you. Are there any new clues?"
"It really is," Xu Yixing took an apple from the altar, wiped it with his sleeve, and ate it, not at all bothered by its unknown origin. "We guess it's in a dungeon somewhere in the Sun Mansion's farm. I wonder if you can check it out?"
Ying Si frowned: "It's not a good habit to eat randomly like this."
"It's none of your business."
"If we can pinpoint the specific village, we can go and search. Otherwise, we don't have enough manpower to conduct any investigation."
"If I were sure, would I still come to you? I would just lead the Royal Guards to raid your house, huh!"
"Second Miss is going to be the prince's consort, so what's wrong with that?"
The tone was sarcastic; Ying Si was definitely biased. "Even a princess consort must abide by the law. Otherwise, if the emperor gets angry, hundreds of people will be implicated. Ying Si, don't you want me to be a princess consort?"
"That's not the case. I just don't want to be called a pervert and watch pornographic movies."
Ying Jiu! Humph, this traitor! He actually told them all this!
Xu Yixing's eyes were wide open and she was about to curse, but she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her stomach and bent over in pain.
"Ouch...help me..."
Ying Si saw that she was in pain, but he didn't try to help her. He just smiled and said, "I told you that your habit of eating casually is not good."
"What?" Xu Yixing threw away the half apple in his hand. Oh no, he was ambushed!
"Don't worry, it's not fatal, it just hurts."
These words... Hey! Xu Yixing suddenly remembered this familiar feeling. Isn't this the poisoned wine that his grandson You gave him?
As this thought crossed her mind, the pain in her body seemed to lessen a lot. She straightened up and said, "This is just painful but not fatal? Then is there a poison that can cause people to suffer a lot of pain and then slowly die?"
Ying Si was surprised, not by the medicine she'd mentioned, but by the fact that the pain had subsided after a short while. That couldn't be right. Could it be that the dosage in the experiment was too small? How could she have known that Xu Yixing was just trying to achieve a moral victory? In fact, her stomach still hurt.
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