Chapter 31
After the news of someone catching a rabbit spread in the camp today, it naturally reached the ears of the Qin family.
The female members of the Qin family knew about it, and naturally the male members of the Qin family knew about it as well.
"Mother-in-law, you don't know. It's said that the official was able to catch the rabbit because of what Gu taught him. Tell me, if Gu has such a skill, why doesn't she come and teach us? She would rather help outsiders than her own family. Isn't that too much?"
Grandma Qin San exaggerated what she heard from outside and told Mrs. Qin the first one.
Today it was the turn of Mrs. Qin and the two young ladies to go outside and dig a path in the snow. The noble lady, who had always lived a life of luxury, had seen her treatment plummet since her exile. Mrs. Qin was able to remain calm, because Prime Minister Qin came from a humble background and rose from a lowly ninth-rank official to a third-rank prime minister. She had accompanied Prime Minister Qin on his rise and had seen many ups and downs.
Although Prime Minister Qin met with an accident this time, he saved the entire mansion and even the entire Qin family's network of contacts by sacrificing himself, which can be described as a gecko with a broken arm.
She has an eldest son who is as smart and capable as her husband. She is used to seeing many officials being demoted and promoted. Before her husband died to prove his innocence, he also mentioned to her that even if she is convicted now, who can predict what will happen in the future?
Therefore, in order to give his descendants a chance of survival, he had to sacrifice his own life and put Qin to death.
The current royal family has won the hearts of the people with its benevolent policies. If the Third Prince... No, even if it is not the Third Prince who will finally ascend the throne, there will be a time for a general amnesty when the new emperor takes the throne.
Although my husband is dead, he left behind many connections. Now the Qin family is not as powerful as others, but by then, if these connections can secretly move around in the court, and with the hard work and great achievements of my husband, they may be able to get rid of the charges in the future.
As long as the green mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood.
With just a little bit of east wind, their Qin family will have a chance to rise again.
However, the most capable eldest son of the Qin family is now in trouble because of his elderly mother-in-law. As long as Mr. Qin fails to wake up, Mrs. Qin will not be at peace.
Now, hearing Grandma Qin San talking about Gu Er Niang again, his already tired and unhappy mood became even more gloomy.
She straightened her messy black hair, looked at the dry and cold multi-grain steamed buns and the light-colored ginger soup she had brought back, and then she wanted to throw them away. She stretched out her hand, but restrained herself and retracted it.
"Go, ask Sanniang to get Silang for me."
Originally, Mrs. Qin did not take this illegitimate son seriously, but she listened to her husband's teachings and wanted to cultivate an additional helper for her eldest son, so she pretended to treat this illegitimate son equally.
Now that Gu Er Niang is so disobedient, her husband must teach her a lesson, so that she doesn't think she can really go to heaven.
After hearing what A Niang meant, Qin Zhikai naturally agreed.
"Go tell her, Second Lady Gu, that the old ancestor is bedridden and in urgent need of care. Even her uncle needs to take supplements and recuperate. Is she going to be the disloyal and unfilial person that the world despises, as she only leans outward instead of inward?"
Qin Zhikai called Gu Ran aside at this time.
When he got closer to the campfire, he saw the rabbit meat that everyone was sharing and smelled the aroma of barbecue, and his throat immediately became a little more salivary.
If we were still in the Qin Mansion in the capital, what would this little bit of rabbit meat mean?
However, the Qin family had all become criminals. Not to mention rabbit meat, since they were exiled, if they wanted to eat meat, they had to specifically ask the officials to buy it for them.
And you can’t buy it more often than not, it’s so difficult to eat meat!
Qin Zhikai was also angry and annoyed in his heart: This Gu has such ability, why don’t you teach him a lesson?
He is her husband after all. If she teaches him, how can he not catch the rabbit and eat the meat?
Then he threw all of Mrs. Qin's words to Gu Ran.
Gu Ran was already very impatient. She was just about to eat meat when Qin Zhikai jumped out to get in the way. Now she heard that he was condemning her on behalf of Mrs. Qin and was indirectly accusing her of being unfaithful and unfilial!
Don't think that Gu Ran didn't know. When the original owner was seriously ill and couldn't walk, lying in Qingyi, it was this Mrs. Qin who ordered Qin Sanna and Qin Sanniang to take away the original owner's things. When the original owner cried and begged her for help, what she said at that time was clearly in the original owner's memory.
"Gu, I see you are a pitiful person. Unfortunately, we are not Bodhisattvas. Your illness cannot be cured. Why don't you just rest assured? I have already spent money to choose a good place for you to be buried. When we have the chance in the future, I will ask Silang to come back and pay tribute to you."
After saying that, he rolled away the quilt and jacket that covered her, asked Grandma Qin San to put them away, and left.
The original owner died of anger after this.
"Qin Zhikai, Madam Qin wants to scold me for being unfaithful and unfilial, but I want to scold her for being unkind and unjust!" Gu Ran was furious. "If she still has any dignity, she should return the things she stole from me the first time she sees me."
"Steal? What do you mean by steal? How can it be considered stealing if the mother-in-law takes her daughter-in-law's things?"
Qin Zhikai had heard from his sister Qin Sanniang that before Gu died, her mother asked her to put away Gu's things.
At the time, he felt there was nothing wrong.
That’s right, since Gu is about to die, her things should be left behind. Doesn’t that mean the people in the cheap inn will be left behind?
After exile, all supplies are very important, not to mention the warm coats and quilts.
Now the jacket is worn by my younger sister, and the quilt is given to the old ancestor. As for the things in the bundle, they have all been distributed, and not even a penny is left. How can I return it to her?
"How can it not be considered stealing? That's my property, my stuff, mine." Gu Ran couldn't help but point a finger at Qin Zhikai. "As a mother-in-law, not only did she not save her dying daughter-in-law, she also coveted her daughter-in-law's things. I, Gu Ran, have never heard of such a cruel and vicious person."
"Second Lady Gu."
"Qin Zhikai, you have been unkind to me, so you can blame me for being unfair to you. Madam Qin, don't try to use your status as mother-in-law to pressure me in the future. When I arrive in Minzhou, I will cut off all ties with your Qin family."
Gu Ran originally wanted to wait until she arrived at the place of exile to bring up this matter, but she didn't expect that even though she didn't provoke the Qin family, the Qin family still had the nerve to find trouble with her. She really couldn't stand being forced to have anything to do with the person who killed the original owner and someone she didn't know at all, so she simply made things clear.
Otherwise, these members of the Qin family would use the original owner's identity to gossip about her or suppress her, which would be very annoying to her.
"What did you say?" Qin Zhikai thought he had misheard.
"I said, I want to divorce you!" Gu Ran said it to him word by word.
The commotion here was so loud that the prisoners and soldiers nearby all looked over.
Qin Zhikai felt humiliated, snorted coldly, and then laughed: "Gu Erniang, you want to divorce me, are you crazy?"
"You Qin family treated me like that. I'd be crazy not to divorce you."
"Okay, divorce. I'll divorce you. Just wait. Don't regret it when you get to Minzhou."
"Okay, then you just wait and see."
Qin Zhikai looked at Ran with an indifferent expression, and he was also disdainful and left in a huff.
He was extremely angry when Gu Er Niang married him because she was the adopted daughter of the Ningyuan Marquis Mansion, but he endured it for the sake of maintaining a friendly relationship with the Ningyuan Marquis Mansion.
He just used her things because he thought she was dying. All the things added up were no more than fifty taels. When she married into the Qin family, her food, clothing and other expenses were more than this amount. Now he was nitpicking with him?
What do you mean by "the wife of Ningyuan Marquis raised a woman who is well-educated and well-mannered"? It's just a lie.
Since they were tired of each other, they would just divorce. It would depend on how she, a lone woman, could survive in such a desolate place like Minzhou without his and the Qin family's protection.
Gu Ran returned to the campfire and picked up the rabbit meat that was allocated to him and started roasting it.
Everyone around heard what she and Qin Zhikai said clearly, but they kept silent. Gu Ran noticed something unusual, but didn't take it seriously. However, he didn't know what to explain to everyone, so he just focused on grilling.
The silence lasted until the aroma of meat slowly wafted up and oil seeped out. Then Mai Xiang mustered up the courage to say, "Mother, Sister Gu, the oil is coming out. Hurry and get our baked buns!"
Everyone started to work quickly, but Xu Langjun was the only one who was puzzled: "What are you doing with the steamed buns?"
"Eat!" Maidong, who was sitting next to Xu Langjun, demonstrated to him. He tore off a piece of the soft steamed bun, smeared it with the oil from the roasted rabbit meat, and put it in his mouth to eat it with relish.
Xu Langjun couldn't help but disdain: "Rabbit meat has little fat to begin with, and it tends to get burnt easily. All the fat from roasting has been wiped off with your steamed buns. Where's the fresh flavor of the rabbit meat?"
"It's fresh enough for us, Mr. Xu." Mai Liu said from the side.
Xu Langjun waved his hand at them, coughed, and took out a cloth bag from his pocket. He untied it and said, "Today I want to teach you what real delicious rabbit meat tastes like!"
"What does it taste like?"
Inside the cloth bag that Xu Langjun opened, there were small porcelain bottles. He opened the lid of each porcelain bottle and sniffed it. When he found the smell was right, he sprinkled some of the contents on the half rabbit that belonged to him.
"Mr. Xu, what is this?"
Others didn't know, but when Gu Ran sprinkled the powder on the rabbit meat, he could smell the scent of fennel and angelica from the roasting.
It's spices.
This Mr. Xu was exiled and still carried spices with him?
If there are spices, then there must be salt, right?
Gu Ran then said, "Mr. Xu, do you have any salt?"
"Yes, yes." Mr. Xu was about to put away all the spices when he heard Gu Ran ask this. He immediately nodded in response, and then he saw everyone looking at him.
"Mr. Xu, why didn't you tell me you had salt earlier?" Maidong stretched out his hand with a smile, and saw that he was still holding the steamed bun in one hand and grilling meat with the other. He wanted to pat his shoulder but couldn't pull his hand away, so he simply bumped him with his arm.
"We have such a good relationship with you, can I borrow some salt?" Mai Liu also asked.
There is a huge difference between meat with salt and without salt.
Looking at the eager gazes, Xu Langjun was too embarrassed to refuse. "Alright, since we're just friends over a meal, why bother borrowing? I'll just give it to you."
So they started with Maidong, who was sitting next to him, took his salt bottle and sprinkled some salt on their own barbecues one by one.
When it was Gu Ran's turn, he looked at the spilled salt.
The quality of this salt was much better than the small bag of salt he had hidden away. He was indeed worthy of being a rich young man with servants serving him.
However, Mr. Xu has a very good reputation not only among the officials, but also among the prisoners.
It is said that the Xu family is a royal merchant family, and Xu Sanlang is the youngest son of the family. He likes to stand up for the weak and the weak. He committed the crime because he protected a good lady who was being oppressed by a powerful eunuch on the street and injured the eunuch's guard. The powerful eunuch took the opportunity to arrest Xu Sanlang.
The powerful eunuch had great influence in the capital, and the Xu family was just an imperial merchant. They did not dare to offend the powerful eunuch's family members. They went to the eunuch's house many times to apologize and ask for peace, but their way of support was still cut off, so Xu San was exiled.
The barbecued meat sprinkled with salt tastes even more flavorful than before.
Although Gu Ran didn't get as much barbecue this time as last time, she was satisfied with the meal. After she got into bed and lay down comfortably, Pei Liuniang, who was lying next to her, suddenly turned her head and looked at her: "Why didn't you call me when you petted the rabbit today?"
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