She was just talking to herself, not very loudly.
But Gu Yuan had sharp ears and heard everything clearly, so he asked, "What's interesting?"
Gu Yanfei smiled without saying anything, a pair of shallow dimples appeared on her face. She casually picked a tender yellow forsythia flower from the branch, and twisted it casually between her fingers.
Gu Yuanben just asked casually, and didn't dwell on it. He immediately said to himself: "Sister, after the second wife moves out, this house will be empty. I plan to lock up half of the courtyard..."
The house they live in now was bestowed by Emperor Taizu when he conferred the title on them, and it was built according to the regulations for a marquis.
The emperor did not take back the house because of the deprivation of the title, and it was a favor for them to continue living here, but they also had to show some attitude.
Gu Yanfei knew that her elder brother was just chatting with her about family matters, so she responded casually.
The brother and sister chatted in a random manner, talking about his plan to transfer Wutong's father back to the mansion, that Madam Zhuang's injury had almost healed, and that he also planned to let her come to the mansion to help Gu Yanfei, and that he planned to renovate Chenghui Garden a little bit...
The two walked and talked all the way until they arrived at the ceremonial gate.
Gu Yuan has been very busy lately and took half a day off today to deal with the family division. Now that everything has been done, he plans to go back quickly.
Unexpectedly, in addition to his beloved horse, there was also a black lacquered flat-front carriage parked at the ceremonial gate.
Gu Yuan recognized it as his sister's carriage at a glance. Seeing that she was going out, he smiled and said, "Sister, I'll give you a ride."
"Okay." Gu Yanfei was not polite to his elder brother at all, "My wife and I have an appointment to go to Shuijing Tower to watch a play, so it's just on our way."
Gu Yanfei and Wei Jiaoniang agreed that they would never go to Tianyin Pavilion again. Wei Jiaoniang then found a newly opened theater, and the two of them made an appointment to go see a play today.
Gu Yuan also knew Shuijing Tower, and said with a smile: "The operas in Shuijing Tower are pretty good."
Gu Yuan felt that girls of her sister's age should go out more often instead of staying in Yuheng Garden every day. She was even less willing to go out than her cat.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the brother and sister drove out of the door, they ran into Wei Jiaoniang's personal maid.
"Magpie?" Gu Yanfei lifted a corner of the carriage curtain.
Xi Que saluted Gu Yanfei in the carriage and said a little embarrassedly: "Second Miss Gu, my ninth daughter caught a cold last night and was detained in the house by the Crown Prince's wife and was not allowed to go out."
"The young lady asked me to come and tell Miss Gu Er that she will invite you out to play another day."
Gu Yanfei had nothing else to do, so he said, "Then I'll go see her."
Gu Yuan gave his sister a ride, and Xi Que followed behind in the Duke's Mansion's carriage.
Although Gu Yanfei came without prior notice, everyone in the Duke's Mansion knew that she was on good terms with the Ninth Miss, and the doorman respectfully welcomed her in.
The maid in blue first took Gu Yanfei to the main courtyard to pay her respects to the wife of Duke Weiguo, and then led her to the quiet and elegant left side room.
"Yan Fei, you are so thoughtful." A hearty smile appeared on the heroic face of the wife of Duke Weiguo. When she smiled, a few wrinkles appeared at the corners of her eyes, softening her slightly tough outline.
She had already heard from the maid that Gu Yanfei had come specially to visit Wei Jiaoniang.
Gu Yanfei smiled generously and said calmly: "I came to see Jiao Niang and also to greet you."
There was not only the wife of the Duke of Wei in the room, but also someone else.
Sitting at the bottom was a beautiful woman in her thirties with an oval face, crescent-shaped eyebrows, willow-shaped eyes, and an elegant appearance.
The beautiful woman wore a crabapple red jacket with ten patterns of brocade flowers, a frost white Hangzhou silk stand-up collar undershirt, and a white lace long skirt. A pair of dragonfly lotus shoes were revealed under the hem of the skirt. She looked elegant and noble.
In addition to the beautiful woman, there were two children, a boy and a girl, both about six or seven years old. Both children had fair skin and were very beautiful, but their personalities were very different: the boy was arrogant and the girl was quiet.
"Yan Fei, this is Jiao Niang's twelfth aunt, you haven't met her yet..." Lady Weiguo introduced both parties with a smile.
Only then did Gu Yanfei realize that this beautiful and noble woman was the youngest sister of the Duke of Weiguo, Lady Wei Wan, the Marquis of Ji'an.
The pair of children were a boy and a girl, born to Madam Hou, and were named Xu Luo and Xu Yao.
After Gu Yanfei saluted Wei Wan, the twin boy and girl also came forward together, shoulder to shoulder, and saluted Gu Yanfei.
The beautiful twins, a boy and a girl, were about 40% similar. They wore the same aqua blue clothes. When they stood together, they were as beautiful as the boy and girl under the seat of Guanyin.
Gu Yanfei smiled and gave the twins a purse filled with golden melon seeds as a gift. The girl took it obediently, saying "Thank you, sister". The boy pursed his lips and silently reached out to take the purse.
From his wide cuffs, Gu Yanfei could see the blood-red scar on his fair wrist, which looked like a whip mark or the imprint of an iron chain, disappearing deep into the cuffs.
Gu Yanfei looked at Xu Luo twice more, his delicate eyebrows slightly wrinkled, and then he quickly looked away as if nothing had happened.
The wife of the Duke of Weiguo liked Gu Yanfei very much. She took her hand with a smile and said, "Yanfei, don't worry, Jiaoniang is fine. She just caught a cold from the wind last night."
The wife of Duke Weiguo teased her granddaughter jokingly, and then kept Gu Yanfei to talk for a while. Then she ordered the head maid to take Gu Yanfei to Wei Jiaoniang in person.
After Gu Yanfei left, Wei Wan asked the wife of Duke Weiguo in a slightly excited tone, "Sister-in-law, I heard that the last time my brother vomited blood in Tianyin Pavilion, it was also this Miss Gu who saved him, is that right?"
Her eyes were unusually bright. She had heard about Gu Yanfei saving the eldest princess at Chengtian Gate, but she didn't expect that this second Miss Gu was so young, not even an adult yet. She couldn't believe it for a moment.
"Yes." Lady Weiguo nodded and said with admiration, "Yan Fei is a good person and has a broad mind. She is worthy of being the daughter of a general."
Wei Wan's mind moved. She looked at the boy sitting next to her playing with the nine-ring puzzle and asked in a low voice, "Sister-in-law, do you think I should ask Miss Gu to take a look at Luo Ge'er?"
Xu Luo lowered his head and played with the nine linked rings. Xu Yao leaned over to watch his brother play and asked him flatteringly, "Brother, do you want some candied fruit?"
Xu Luo pretended not to hear and continued playing with his nine-ring puzzle.
The wife of the Duke of Wei frowned and stared at Xu Luo for a while. She also lowered her voice and whispered in Wei Wan's ear, "Is Luo'er still not well?"
"It's not healed." Wei Wan shook her head with a sad face, her eyes slightly red, "and it's even worse. I think it's been haunted... I was so worried that I couldn't sleep for several nights."
The more Wei Wan spoke, the more her brows furrowed, and her hands unconsciously ruffled the handkerchief.
"You should have told me earlier. I just asked Yan Fei to help take care of Luo Ge'er." The wife of Duke Weiguo also looked worried.
Her sister-in-law had been married to the Marquis of Ji'an for many years and had only this pair of children. Naturally, she treated this only legitimate son as her treasure.
“……”Wei Wan looked outside hesitantly, feeling a little regretful.
The wife of the Duke of Wei patted her hand and said softly, "We will go to Jiao Niang's place together in a while."
"However, Yan Fei is a guest. If Yan Fei is unhappy, don't force it. Next time, Jiao Niang and I will accompany you to visit the Gu family in person."
Wei Wan was raised by the wife of Duke Weiguo. Although they were called aunt and sister-in-law, they were actually like a mother to each other. She always believed what her elder sister-in-law said and responded repeatedly, "Don't worry, sister-in-law. I know."
Lady Weiguo ordered the nanny to quickly prepare some snacks that the girls would like.
When the tea arrived, the aunt and sister-in-law took the food boxes and the twins, and went to Wei Jiaoniang's yard surrounded by a group of maids.
The maid ran to report quickly. In the inner room, there was laughter and joy. The two like-minded girls got together and had endless things to talk about.
Just as the wife of Duke Weiguo said, Wei Jiaoniang just caught a slight cold at night and was in very good spirits. She kept talking like a sparrow:
"…This storybook is so interesting. I wanted to read for one more hour before going to sleep, but I accidentally read until the cockcrowed."
"Yan Fei, do you want to see it? You can take it back and read it slowly."
"I have a whole shelf full of books here, you can pick whatever you want."
Wei Jiaoniang said generously, wishing that Gu Yanfei would move all these storybooks away, thinking that they could talk about these storybooks she liked next time.
At this time, a maid came in through the curtain and reported that the wife of Duke Weiguo and others had arrived.
Wei Jiaoniang was slightly stunned, and was a little surprised why her grandmother and twelfth aunt came.
Lady Weiguo asked the maid to serve the snacks she had prepared.
The kitchen knew that they had a distinguished guest coming, so they chose a petal-shaped platter. Each "petal" was placed with an exquisite dessert, including Poria cocos cake, jujube paste cake, silk candy, dragon beard cake, ice rice cake, fresh flower cake, osmanthus cake, etc., filling the table.
Wei Jiaoniang invited Gu Yanfei to eat snacks, and told her which one was crispy, which one was sweet, which one was soft and sticky, which one was salty and fresh...
After Gu Yanfei had some snacks, Lady Weiguo had Xu Yao taken to the next room to play, and then she told him her intention:
"Yan Fei, my sister-in-law has only this pair of legitimate children, and she treats them like treasures. I don't know what happened to Luo Ge'er recently, he seems to be possessed by evil spirits, I would like to ask you to help take a look..."
The wife of the Duke of Weiguo only said this much, and then signaled Wei Wan with her eyes to continue speaking.
Wei Wan's brows were knitted together, and she said in a deep voice: "I don't know where he got the 'dirty stuff' on his back... Hey!"
"Brother Luo, come here." She simply called her eldest son Xu Luo over and asked the wet nurse to help him undress.
The wet nurse carefully loosened his outer robe a little, pulled down his robe and middle garment, revealing his thin back.
There was a large blood-red scar on the boy's fair back, shaped like a hideous and distorted ghost face, occupying most of his back.
The scar was as red as blood, as if large pieces of skin had fallen off, revealing the flesh underneath. When the boy breathed, his back rose and fell, and the blue blood vessels under the skin could be vaguely seen bulging slightly...
(End of this chapter)
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