Madam Gu rolled her eyes and fell forward with her upper body exhausted. She could only hear Gu Jian's worried voice from afar: "Mother..."
Madam Gu's consciousness was soon completely swallowed up by the darkness and she fainted.
After that, she knew nothing.
There was endless darkness all around, cold and merciless...
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a carriage. The carriage was shaking slightly, and the monotonous sound of horse hooves and wheels outside the carriage came into her ears.
Madam Gu felt as if she was in a dream, as if everything that had just happened was just a nightmare.
"Mother, you're awake!" Gu Jian saw that Mrs. Gu had woken up and shouted excitedly, "How do you feel?"
Madam Gu turned a deaf ear to him, her confused eyes still a little vague, and she told herself in her heart: Yes, this is just a nightmare.
When I returned to the Marquis' Mansion, I woke up from this nightmare...
At this time, the carriage came to a steady stop, and the carriage shook slightly. A familiar female voice came from outside the carriage, sharply and unhappily scolding: "How insolent!"
"What are you doing?! This is the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion, you won't be allowed to do whatever you want..." Then came the angry voice of a young man.
"I am also following orders. You two should not make things difficult for me, so as to avoid accidentally bumping into others." Another strange and cold male voice could hardly conceal the threat.
The driver outside shouted in doubt: "My Lord!"
Gu Jian quickly lifted the curtain and looked out the window. Yuan'an Street, where the Marquis' Mansion was located, suddenly came into view. They had arrived at the Marquis' Mansion.
But……
Gu Jian couldn't help but widen his eyes, his eyes almost widened to the extreme, and he suffered a heavy blow once again.
The gate of Dingyuan Marquis Mansion was so familiar, yet it was so strange at this moment, completely unrecognizable and in a mess.
The plaque above the gate with the four large characters "Dingyuan Marquis Mansion" inscribed on it had been taken down, and the vermilion lacquered gate with seven vertical and five horizontal nails, a total of thirty-five door nails, had also been removed.
Next to them, several imperial guards wearing bronze helmets and iron armor were carrying two stone lion-guarding beasts onto a carriage. Madam Wang and Gu Xiao, mother and son, were confronting the two imperial guards.
The mother and son were furious, and the imperial guards looked indifferent.
There were still some passers-by gathered on Yuan'an Street outside the Marquis' Mansion. These passers-by gathered in groups of three or four, pointing in the direction of the Marquis' Mansion with curiosity.
Those eyes watching the show made Wang feel uneasy, and she felt that their mansion was being laughed at.
"Marquis!" Wang saw the carriage of the Marquis's mansion and also saw Gu Jian hurriedly getting out of the carriage. Her eyes lit up as if she had seen a savior.
Wang hurriedly walked towards Gu Jian, holding a handkerchief in one hand and pointing at the guards with the other hand, complaining: "My Lord, look at them, they actually dared to tear down the plaque and gate of our mansion!"
A cup of tea ago, the servants came to report in fear that the imperial guards had arrived and were going to forcibly demolish the plaque of the Marquis' Mansion. Wang then hurried over with Gu Xiao to see what was going on.
But these imperial guards simply ignored their obstruction and acted like robbers, turning the mansion into a mess.
Wang became angrier and angrier as she spoke, and said angrily, "My lord, this matter cannot be..." and just let it go.
She stopped talking halfway through.
Wang was a beat late and only then realized that there was something wrong with Gu Jian. He looked distraught, as if he had suffered some kind of blow.
Thinking that Gu Jian was going to the palace to pick up Madam Gu, Wang looked up at the carriage behind him and asked, "My Lord, where is my mother?"
These two words are like a knife to Gu Jian at this moment.
If my mother hadn't taken her anger out on Gu Yuan, it wouldn't have come to this! Gu Jian's face darkened, and he felt like a large piece of his heart had been cut out, and he was in excruciating pain.
The empty gate of the marquis's mansion is a silent irony.
It felt like there was an angry rhinoceros rampaging in Gu Jian's heart, and the angry and crazy emotions were almost about to burst out from his body.
Gu Jian pushed Wang away angrily, causing her to stagger back two steps. Fortunately, Gu Xiao supported her in time.
Gu Jian turned a blind eye and rushed towards the empty gate without looking back. His slightly hunched back made him look miserable and embarrassed.
"My Lord!"
"Father!"
Wang and Gu Xiao shouted to Gu Jian almost at the same time.
The mother and son were completely confused and still don't know what was going on.
At the back, the patriarch got off another carriage with the help of a servant, sighing and looking gloomy.
No one paid any attention to Madam Gu in the previous carriage, as if she had been completely forgotten.
"Grand uncle," Gu Yuan leaped down from a tall black horse, walked to the patriarch, clasped his fists and said, "Please preside over the division of the family."
Patriarch: “…”
The clan leader wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and his wrinkled mouth was pursed into a straight line. His helpless eyes seemed to ask, do you still want to divide?
Gu Yuan didn't say anything, he just raised his eyes and looked at the empty door lintel in front of him.
After the plaque with the words "Dingyuan Marquis Mansion" was taken down, a plaque shape was left on the door lintel.
He was clearly smiling, but he looked heavy, as if something heavy was on his shoulders. However, his posture remained upright, like a pine tree or a long sword.
The clan leader stared at Gu Yuan's handsome profile in a daze, and vaguely felt the sense of mission from his bright eyes and firm lips.
The future of their Gu family depends on Gu Yuan.
This thought suddenly came to the patriarch's mind, and then he understood it all as if he had suddenly realized it, and his mind was as clear as a mirror.
Yes, from today we can see that Madam Gu and Gu Jian, mother and son, are narrow-minded and will not tolerate Gu Yuan making a breakthrough.
If the family does not separate, who knows what trouble will arise between this mother and son in the future, hindering Gu Yuan's future.
Things have come to this point, the first and second houses will no longer be able to tolerate it.
Let’s split up.
The clan leader nodded heavily, put his hands behind his back and said, "Brother Yuan, let's go to the hall first."
Wang looked at Gu Jian's back, then at the clan leader's solemn face, and felt even more unsure, with a sense of foreboding.
She tightly grasped the handkerchief in her hand and watched the stone beast Suan Ni being carried away by the imperial guards.
Gu Xiao frowned, his jaw tensed, and said to Gu Yuan in a sarcastic tone: "Brother, someone is making trouble at home, are you just going to watch and do nothing?"
Isn't Gu Yuan always arrogant? Now he allows people to bully him right at his doorstep without even saying a word! It turns out that he is just a bully at home.
Gu Yuan only glanced at Gu Xiao indifferently, as if Gu Xiao had not even entered his eyes. He ignored him completely and directly extended his hand to the clan leader, "Grandun, please."
Gu Yuan walked forward side by side with the clan leader and stepped over the high threshold.
Gu Xiao's clenched fists were crackling, and he could only pull Wang back to the mansion. He said to himself in his heart that his eldest brother could only be arrogant for this moment, and when the Marquis' Mansion was completely divided, their eldest branch would move out of the Mansion.
Thinking of this, Gu Xiao straightened his back and walked towards the main hall of the outer courtyard with big strides.
The sky outside was sunny, but in the main hall, people were in panic.
The hall was in a mess. The boxes containing the account books were half opened and most of the books inside had been taken out. Some were piled high, and some were spread out on the long desk and the coffee table.
None of the elders were interested in looking at the account books; some sat down to drink tea, some paced back and forth in the hall, and some looked anxiously in the direction of the gate.
"The patriarch is back!" Someone shouted.
The elders were immediately cheered up, and all looked towards the clan leader and Gu Yuan outside the hall with happy expressions on their faces.
The elders gathered around the clan leader and said in unison: "Brother, you are back."
"Where's the Madam? Has she been brought back?"
"Hey, why isn't the Marquis with you? Is he dealing with the imperial guards at the door?"
"You should have seen the imperial guards at the door, why are they here?"
“…”
Since the clan leader and his companions left, the clan elders have been looking at the account books here, watching the accounting office check the assets. Later, Wang called Gu Xiao to come and keep them company.
Everything was going fine, but who would have thought that the imperial guards suddenly came with such a fierce momentum.
The elders of the clan felt uneasy and had no time to take care of the account books.
Facing a series of inquiring looks, the clan leader waved his hands feebly and uttered three words exhaustedly: "Delisted."
Removed from the title?!
The elders of the clan were shocked, and Wang and Gu Xiao, mother and son, could not believe their ears.
Several people sat down on the chairs at the back exhausted, some stood there in a daze, and some blurted out in disbelief: "Delisted? How could he be stripped of his title?"
Although the title of Marquis Dingyuan belongs to the branch of Gu Yao and Gu Xuan, for the entire Gu family, the title is a guarantee, a help, and even an honor.
Dingyuan Marquis Mansion is the strength of the Gu family.
How could the title of the Marquis be taken away? !
The elders became more and more agitated and distressed the more they thought about it. They surrounded the chief and asked, "Chief, what on earth is going on?"
"Yes, how could the Marquis' Mansion be stripped of its title for no reason?"
It was like a spoonful of cold water poured into a hot oil pan, and the main hall was filled with crackling sounds.
In the midst of the commotion, only Gu Yanfei sat calmly on the side, without even moving his eyes or eyebrows, with an expression of composure that showed no change even when faced with a mountain collapsing in front of him.
Gu Yuan walked straight to Gu Yanfei's side and sat down, took the tea handed to him by his sister, and smiled slightly.
Wang was so shocked by the sad news of being stripped of her title that her mind went blank.
After she came to her senses, her first reaction was to think that Gu Yuan was the one who caused the removal of the title. Her angry eyes scraped towards Gu Yuan's face like a knife, and she raised her finger and pointed at him.
(End of this chapter)
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