The old lady sleeping in the bed curtains still had her eyes closed, her skin was pale and dry, her body was shriveled and almost skin and bones, her brow bones were prominent, her eye sockets and cheeks were deeply sunken, her breathing was almost invisible between her mouth and nose, and her whole body was lifeless, like a living dead.
"Bang!"
The sound of the gong at the first watch of the night came from afar, piercing through the darkness of the night, like a hammer hitting the couple's hearts heavily.
Murong Hao pounded his knees lightly with his fists twice, looking at the old lady with flickering eyes.
The emotions are extremely complicated, including sadness, helplessness, sighing... and a hint of reluctance.
"Master, this is all for the Murong family." Mrs. Murong naturally saw her husband's hesitation and gently advised him.
Yes, for the Murong family.
Murong Hao's eyes wandered for just a moment, and then became as deep as the abyss.
"Mother," Murong Hao said in a low voice to the unconscious old lady on the bed, his voice a little hoarse, "Just hold on a little longer, hold on for a few more years, our Ayong will soon become a great man..."
He dragged out the ending, and it finally turned into a long sigh.
I don't know when a flying insect appeared in the lampshade. It flapped its wings and rushed around aimlessly. The magnified shadow of the insect was cast on the walls of the house, making the originally solemn atmosphere even more weird and eerie.
The old lady on the bed stretched out a finger from under the embroidered quilt. The finger moved slightly, and her dry and purple lips opened slightly, letting out a silent sigh...
“Rustle…”
The flying insect in the lantern flapped its wings even more violently, hitting the lampshade with a slight scraping sound.
The cat outside the window was attracted by the rapidly flapping light and the sound of the insects' wings. It flew towards the window without thinking...
The cat pushed against the branch with its hind legs, and the branch swayed again, causing a slight deviation in its calculation. The cat's two front paws grabbed the window sill, but its hind legs missed, so it could only cling to the window in a somewhat awkward manner.
At this moment, Gu Yanfei's sobbing voice rang in the cat's ears again: "Look at you, you've become as fat as a ball, be careful not to jump high or far!"
The cat's face almost collapsed. Its two front paws stretched out their sharp nails to hook onto the window sill, and its two hind legs hung in the air, trying hard to kick the air...
“Meow!”
With a roar, the cat finally mustered up all its strength to prop up its body, and climbed up onto the windowsill with difficulty. Then it eagerly raised a paw to pull at a talisman stuck on the window.
"Where did this wild cat come from!" a slightly sharp female voice shouted.
The cat made such a big noise that it was naturally noticed by the couple in the house.
Madam Murong and Murong Hao frowned and looked at the long-haired calico cat on the window, and were both startled.
"Someone come!" Murong Hao was about to order someone to beat the cat, but he saw the cat turned its head and looked at them, its emerald green eyes like gems sparkling in the candlelight.
"Meow~"
The cat's eye is so clear and transparent without a trace of impurities, so shiny and so dazzling.
The eyes are charming and captivating.
Murong Hao and Madam Murong were both staring at the calico cat infatuatedly, mesmerized, with obsession and devotion written in their eyes.
"Little cat, do you want that?" Murong Hao said softly while pointing at the talisman pasted on the window.
The middle-aged man deliberately softened his rough tone, sounding a little flattering and a little funny.
"Meow!" The calico cat called out in a commanding manner, looking down at the two stupid humans with a condescending look.
"It's too high, you can't reach it, right?" Madam Murong understood and approached the window attentively, smiling like a flower, her eyes full of flattery, "I'll get it for you."
The calico cat meowed again, with its chin held high and it squatted gracefully, its tail like a feather duster swaying happily behind it.
Murong Hao took two steps and rushed to the window, and Madam Kuai tore off a talisman on the window in one step.
Then he held the talisman in both hands and presented it to the cat respectfully, and asked considerately: "Little cat, are you hungry? Do you want to eat some dried fish before you leave?"
The cat's eyes lit up and saliva began to flow rapidly. Gu Yanfei's words, "You've become as fat as a ball," rang in its ears again.
The cat's body trembled, and it quickly calmed down. It bit the talisman handed to it by the other party, turned around and jumped, and flew towards the tree outside the window...
The Murong couple stared at the cat's elegant back in a daze, with an infatuated look on their faces. The eldest lady sighed softly, "It's really beautiful!"
The swaying branches outside the window seemed to be responding to her.
As the night deepened, the capital city became increasingly quiet. The lights went out one by one, and only the stars and the moon in the sky remained shining.
The cat treated the darkness as nothing, holding the talisman in its mouth and moving through the inky night without being affected at all.
“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…”
With a few light leaps, it returned to the Marquis' Mansion and quietly rushed into the sacrificial hall of the ancestral hall, where it saw Gu Yunzhen and Gu Yanfei standing side by side in front of the tablets in front.
Gu Yunzhen looked at the tablets of Gu Ce and Xie and whispered, "...My mother told me that my uncle and aunt were a true couple and were each other's only love."
"In the years since my great aunt passed away, I don't know how many matchmakers have advised my great uncle to remarry, saying that my eldest brother and third sister need their mother to take care of them, but my great uncle has never thought of remarrying."
"Mom said that men like my great uncle are very rare, and most men are like my father and grandfather..."
Gu Yanfei gazed deeply at the tablets of his parents, his brows were soft and his expression was peaceful.
The candle next to it had burned down to only two inches, and the dim flame was flickering.
"Meow!"
The cat noticed that neither of them noticed its presence and cried out in displeasure.
Gu Yunzhen was immediately attracted by the cat. He smiled happily and said, "Qingguang, you're back!"
The cat raised its tail proudly again, walked up to Gu Yanfei with its head held high, and handed the talisman in its mouth to her.
Then, it squatted proudly on another cushion next to it, raised its little chin, and waited for praise.
The cat kept the talisman in its mouth for a long time, and one third of it was soaked with saliva.
Gu Yanfei shook the wet talisman, flicked it between its eyebrows with one hand in disdain, and said jokingly: "It's all your saliva!"
“Meow meow meow!”
The cat was so angry that its fur almost exploded, and it meowed several times in dissatisfaction.
Gu Yanfei chuckled, lowered his head, leaned over gently and hooked the cat's chin with his finger.
The cat subconsciously rubbed back into her palm, like a spoiled child, and meowed at her non-stop.
However, Gu Yanfei only uttered two words lightly: "I don't understand."
The cat's green eyes widened, and its long furry tail exploded again! Gu Yanfei couldn't help but curl his lips in laughter, and casually took out a piece of chicken jerky from his purse and threw it to the cat.
The cat swallowed the jerky in no time and licked its paws, still feeling unsatisfied. However, if you eat too much at night snack, you will get fat.
The cat was thinking in confusion, while Gu Yanfei held the talisman and studied it carefully, concentrating fully.
The runes on the rune paper are black.
Gu Yanfei brought the talisman paper close to his nose, sniffed it, and raised his eyebrows.
This rune should be drawn with cinnabar mixed with blood and black blue stone powder.
It was a talisman drawn by mortals in this small world, and it was very different from what Gu Yanfei learned in the Yaoling Realm.
However, no matter how things change, the essence remains the same.
As long as it is a symbol, there must be a pattern to be found...
"Meow!" The cat came closer again, crying aggrievedly.
It went through so much trouble to cross half of the capital city in the middle of the night, but was actually treated to a mere piece of dried chicken. This was really too perfunctory for the cat.
So, Gu Yanfei reached into his sleeve again, took out a bell ball, and threw it out.
Qingguang meowed and rushed out, happily chasing the bell ball.
Gu Yunzhen finally came back to his senses and continued, "My grandfather and grandmother also had a period of time as a perfect couple, but it was a pity that it only lasted for less than two years."
Gu Yunzhen noticed that there was some candle wax on his grandfather's tablet.
She took out a handkerchief and wiped the tablet gently. The tablet accidentally hit the incense table, making a "click" sound.
Gu Yunzhen carefully placed his grandfather's tablet in place and said quietly, "When my grandfather passed away, I was only two years old, so I don't have a deep impression of him. Many things about him were told to me by my stepmother and mother."
The "stepmother" that Gu Yunzhen mentioned refers to the Third Master's biological mother, Aunt Sun.
Gu Yanfei silently moved the candle a little to the side.
Gu Yunzhen looked at Gu Yanfei beside him, thinking that his second sister had just returned to the Marquis' Mansion and probably didn't know much about the affairs in the mansion. Especially since his eldest cousin was a man and his mind was not that delicate, he probably wouldn't tell his second sister too much in detail.
Gu Yunzhen sorted out his thoughts and said, "Our Dingyuan Marquisate is only the fourth generation. My great-grandfather was only 40 when he got my grandfather's only son. He naturally raised him with great care."
Although there are so many ancestral tablets in the Gu clan ancestral hall, in fact, the Gu family was just an ordinary farmer in the previous dynasty. It was because his great-grandfather Gu Yao followed Emperor Taizu in the uprising and established great military achievements that the Dingyuan Marquisate was later established.
The tablets above that were all unknown, with their names not even being allowed to be mentioned on the surface. Even the tablets of many collateral relatives were placed in this ancestral hall.
"My grandfather lived up to my great-grandfather's expectations and made many contributions to the court."
"My great-grandfather was very concerned about my grandfather's marriage. He carefully selected the daughter of the Qi family from Yingchuan, Yuzhou... my grandmother. At that time, my great-grandfather even asked Emperor Taizu to issue an edict to grant the marriage. This marriage was very grand and praised by people."
At that time, those nobles who followed Emperor Taizu to make great contributions were basically military generals from humble backgrounds.
After the establishment of the new dynasty, they either divorced their wives and remarried, or married their children and grandchildren to daughters of aristocratic families, hoping that the next generation would have the nobility of a "high-ranking family".
The Yingchuan Qi family could not be considered a noble family, but only a family of scholars. It was because my great-grandfather felt that Qi was not a good match for him that he chose a daughter of the Qi family as his daughter-in-law.
(End of this chapter)
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