Everyone was on edge, and the small garden was as quiet as the calm before a storm.
It worked! Gu Xiao was secretly delighted, but frowned, and said righteously: "Brother, how can you take in the Yu family? You are bringing trouble to the family!"
"Hey, are you being held responsible for something shameful?"
As he spoke, Gu Xiao shook his head disapprovingly, with a sinister light flashing in his eyes.
Once Gu Yuan is found guilty, he will naturally be dismissed from his official position, and the clan will have to reconsider the division of the family. After all, it is impossible to give all the property of the eldest house to a girl like Gu Yanfei.
There is absolutely no way the clan would agree to this.
As long as the family is divided again, his father, as the legitimate son, can get most of the family property and this mansion, and their family can move back here.
The house they lived in now was small and old. It didn't even have a racecourse, and the garden was not even half the size of this small garden. He even had to live in the same yard with his half-brother.
In just less than a month, Gu Xiao experienced what it felt like to live every day like a year.
He really missed this place. He was born and raised here. In the past, he only went out for fun for four or five days at most. He had never been away from home for so long as this time!
After today, this mansion will return to the hands of their second branch.
Just thinking about it, Gu Xiao felt his blood boiling and his heart beating faster.
He Lie rubbed the scabbard with his rough fingertips for a few times, as if he was weighing something, and said to Gu Yuan in a lukewarm tone: "Captain Gu, I'm afraid you can't leave here for the time being... and your family too."
"Don't worry, my people won't be disrespectful to Miss Gu Er."
As he spoke, a cold light flashed in He Lie's eyes. These words were polite, but also a warning, warning Gu Yuan that if he did anything inappropriate, their Jinyiwei would not show mercy.
Several Jinyiwei around him pulled out the long swords in their hands an inch in a demonstration, and the cold and shining Embroidered Spring Swords flashed a dazzling cold light in the sunlight.
Gu Yuan said calmly: "Commander He, do you think I'm a criminal?"
"He Lie, who are you trying to scare?" Lu Si said unhappily, standing beside Gu Yuan protectively.
Fan Beiran and others also had burning eyes and stood with their heads held high, forming a confrontation with the Jinyiwei.
There was a faint spark when the two groups' eyes met, and it seemed as if an invisible bowstring in the air was suddenly pulled taut.
A burst of hurried footsteps came from the direction of the secret room, getting closer and closer.
General Ni came up quickly, holding an oil lamp, and the first thing he said was, "Commander, there's no one down there..."
"How is that possible?" Gu Xiao interrupted the other person.
Before he could finish his words, he saw another Jinyiwei coming out of the dark secret room carrying a black cat. The cat was waving its limbs in the air and showing its teeth and claws.
Mr. Ni glanced at Gu Xiao expressionlessly before continuing, "There's only one cat down there."
As he spoke, the black cat that was grabbed by the scruff of the neck bared its teeth and made loud “haha” sounds, trying to intimidate the humans around it.
Everyone looked at the cat with strange expressions.
The angry black cat scratched, clawed and roared, and finally broke free from the clutches of the human. It let out a "whoosh" and ran away like the wind, disappearing among the flowers and trees in the blink of an eye.
Obviously, the noise of things falling in the secret room just now was made by this cat. And General Ni said that this cat was also the one he captured?!
There was an eerie silence around the rockery.
"Pfft!" Fan Beiran was the first to laugh, and said coldly, "What a fierce little cat!"
"It's really fierce! Look how scared he is." Master Fei Liu sighed.
The two men sang in unison and deliberately glanced at the Jinyiwei who had drawn their swords.
Gu Xiao's eyes widened, his mind buzzing, and only one thought remained: How is this possible? !
He instinctively looked at Gu Yuan, only to see Gu Yuan raised his eyebrows with a hint of surprise.
"Heh." Gu Yuan sneered softly and looked at Gu Xiao, keenly catching the other's momentary panic and helplessness.
He thought Gu Xiao and the others had already arranged everything, but it seems that is not necessarily the case.
This development was so unexpected that even He Lie's expressionless face could not hide his surprise and he narrowed his eyes.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible." Gu Xiao murmured excitedly, as if there was a fire burning in his heart, "I clearly heard the crying, and many servants also heard the baby crying at night."
"Commander He, we need to look for them again. The Yu family must have gone into hiding."
“Maybe… maybe there’s another secret room inside the secret room!”
The more Gu Xiao spoke, the more it seemed to be the case, and the more anxious he became, fearing that He Lie would not believe him.
He snatched an oil lamp from a Jinyiwei, bent down, entered the door of the secret room, and quickly walked down the stone steps.
He Lie did not stop Gu Xiao, and returned to his previous expressionless look, and asked Gu Yuan calmly: "Captain Gu, do you want to go down and take a look?"
Gu Yuan had never heard his grandfather and father talk about this secret room before, so he nodded and said, "Okay."
He Lie raised his hand and made a gesture, and the Jinyiwei who had drawn their swords put their swords back into the scabbards in embarrassment.
The murderous aura in the air completely disappeared, and even the gentle spring breeze became warm.
Gu Yuan and He Lie walked into the narrow door one after the other. They were both tall and kept their backs hunched as they went down the stone steps.
After walking up more than twenty steps, they finally landed on a stone floor.
This secret room is only two rooms wide, and the air is filled with a cold, musty smell that is unique to secret rooms, which makes people feel uncomfortable.
There were only two oil lamps lit here, the light flickered and the light was dim.
There were cabinets, bookshelves, and camphorwood boxes on the four walls, all of which were opened, revealing everything inside.
There really isn't anyone hiding here.
Gu Yuan slowly looked around and his eyes fell on a long sword with a copper sheath and a Qilin pattern hanging on the wall.
My father is good at using a sword, while my grandfather is good at using a knife.
Gu Yuan remembered his father saying that his grandfather had a sword called "Qilin".
So, this secret room once belonged to my grandfather.
A middle-aged man with a vague voice and appearance emerged in Gu Yuan's mind. When his grandfather Gu Xuan died, he was only in his early forties, but his hair was already half white.
At that time, he was still very young and didn't have many memories of his grandfather. He only vaguely remembered that his grandfather was very kind to him and personally taught him how to hold a pen and write, which gave him enlightenment.
Gu Yuan slowly walked to the bookshelf and randomly pulled out a book from one of the shelves. The words "Yin Fu Jing" were clearly written on the blue cover.
He picked up another book at random, this one was the Daoist Canon.
These books are obviously very old and have not been exposed to the sun for a long time, so the pages are somewhat insect-eaten and moldy.
Gu Yuan quickly flipped through a few pages, and his grandfather's familiar handwriting on the pages came into view.
He had seen some calligraphy, letters, annotations, etc. left by his grandfather in the mansion, so he recognized his grandfather's handwriting.
In other words, all the Taoist books on these three rows of bookshelves were collected by my grandfather.
Boom boom! Gu Yuan's heartbeat quickened twice, and he thought of his grandfather's tablet in the ancestral hall. His sister said that there was a trace of their grandmother's soul in the tablet. When his grandfather was alive, he did his best to keep his grandmother alive.
Gu Yuan's eyes were slightly sore, and his heart seemed to be blown by a breeze, creating ripples.
"Where is the person..." Gu Xiao roughly pushed open a cupboard and muttered to himself in disbelief, "Where on earth is the person hiding!"
A cold wind suddenly blew in from the entrance of the secret room, causing the light in the oil lamp to swing wildly, and the light was almost extinguished.
The flickering lights at that time cast a strange shadow on Gu Xiao's face, making his face look extremely hideous and strange.
He couldn't help but walk around the secret room again, sometimes hitting the wall, sometimes looking at the cabinets and boxes to see if there were any mezzanines, but still found nothing.
Gu Xiao was going crazy, sweating profusely and breathing rapidly.
"Have you seen enough?" He Lie didn't have the patience to wait for Gu Xiao, and asked coldly, "Gu Xiao, where are the concubine and baby of the Yu family you mentioned?"
Gu Xiao: “…”
General Ni stroked his moustache leisurely and sneered coldly, "Gu Xiao, you are not daydreaming, are you?"
Gu Xiao opened and closed his mouth, trying to say that he was not lying and was not daydreaming, but it didn't sound convincing at all to say that now.
He did not give up and searched the walls of the secret room for the umpteenth time, knocking on the wall repeatedly.
He wanted to find the room within the room, but after searching for nearly a cup of tea, he still found nothing.
Gu Xiao broke out in a cold sweat without realizing it, even the hair on his temples was soaked, and his face was as pale as a dead person.
"No, it's impossible." Gu Xiao became more and more impatient, muttering to himself almost crazily, "The secret room must be somewhere!"
He Lie was not interested in playing with Gu Xiao any longer. He turned around without any regrets and ordered, "Retreat."
Seeing He Lie was about to leave, Gu Xiao panicked and became afraid. He tried to catch He Lie and shouted, "Let me look for him again, let me look for him again..."
The Jinyiwei next to him were not blind, so they would never let Gu Xiao bump into their commander, and they kicked Gu Xiao hard in the abdomen.
"Ah!" Gu Xiao screamed like a pig being slaughtered, staggered and hit the wall behind him. His abdomen was in severe pain, and he bent over in pain.
Neither He Lie nor Gu Yuan looked back, letting the screams from behind echo in the small secret room...
The group filed out of the secret room one after another, returning from the dark and narrow place to the bright and spacious garden outside.
"Captain Gu, I am sorry to bother you today." He Lie simply bowed to Gu Yuan and said, "Goodbye."
Gu Yuan simply responded: "Goodbye."
As he spoke, Gu Xiao, sweating profusely, covered his abdomen and staggered out of the secret room. Or rather, he was driven out by two Jinyiwei.
"Gu Xiao," He Lie's eyes were as cold as ice when he looked at Gu Xiao, and his voice was also sinister, "Emperor Taizu said that if it is a deliberate false accusation, the person will be caned fifty times and exiled to the army for three years!"
Deliberate false accusation is frame-up, which is a more serious crime.
"Commander He, something must have gone wrong." Gu Xiao was so frightened that his lips turned pale and cold sweat trickled down his cheeks. He was almost out of his wits.
Fifty sticks would cost him half his life, and three years of exile would probably make him give up the remaining half of his life in this wild land of Liaodong! No, he didn't want to be exiled!
The two Jinyiwei immediately approached Gu Xiao, and restrained him on the left and right with rough movements.
"Brother..." Gu Xiao was really scared. With trembling legs, he looked at Gu Yuan with pleading eyes, hoping that he could beg for mercy for him.
Gu Yuan was never a person who would repay evil with kindness. He just pretended that he didn't understand Gu Xiao's look of seeking help and ordered Wu Tong, "Send Commander He out for me."
A group of Jinyiwei came in a threatening manner and left in a threatening manner.
The area around the rockery suddenly became much more empty.
Fan Beiran frowned, looked at Gu Xiao's back, who was almost being held up by someone, and said, "A Yuan, what on earth is your cousin doing?"
"Gu Xiao has always been a coward," Lu Si said to Gu Yuan, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "He actually dared to go to the Northern Pacification Office alone to report you for harboring the remnants of the Yu family. There must be something fishy going on."
The others also felt the same way and frowned.
Yue Jun recalled that Gu Xiao had tried to get close to him outside the mansion this morning, and his face straightened. He said in a deep voice, "Before Gu Xiao went down to the secret room, he was very sure that the person was hiding inside..."
Everyone looked towards the secret room in the rockery cave, puzzled.
Young Master Fei Liu said, "A Yuan, you'd better be careful. Gu Xiao did this at the behest of your second uncle. I don't know what they are up to. I think they may have more tricks up their sleeves."
A few birds flew over the branches above, and the dense branches and leaves swayed gently above.
Gu Yuan's eyes flickered, but he said nothing.
After a while, he patted Lu Si's shoulder and said concisely: "I know what's going on."
He just suddenly thought, it should be his younger sister, right?
The situation was resolved without making a sound.
Gu Yuan looked up at the black swallow soaring in the blue sky, his lips curved into a smile, his brows softening.
"What are you thinking about? Why are you smiling so secretly?" Lu Si smiled and bumped Gu Yuan with her shoulder.
Gu Yuan's lips curled up a little higher, and he turned and walked towards the water pavilion, saying only: "Let's go, let's continue drinking!"
The tall and straight young man left behind a high-spirited back view.
Lu Si, Fan Beiran and others in the back looked at his back and exchanged glances tacitly.
After they go back today, they must ask the elders, brothers, in-laws and others in the family. They cannot let Gu Yuan be bullied for no reason again.
Gu Yuan waited for nine years before he got a chance to vindicate his father.
They all grew up together, and even though Gu Yuan never spoke, they all knew what Gu Yuan had been working hard for all these years. He joined the army, he charged into battle, risking his life to win military merit, all for one goal.
And now he finally sees hope.
Even if they couldn't help much, they at least hoped to help Gu Yuan clear away the thorns that were in the way.
"We won't go home until we're drunk today!" Lu Si strode in the direction of Gu Yuan, "Don't let those sinister villains ruin our fun."
While chatting and laughing, the young masters surrounded Gu Yuan and walked towards the water pavilion.
The atmosphere returned to its previous lively state, and the water passed without leaving a trace.
Fan Beiran smiled and put his arm around Gu Yuan's shoulder and said, "Ah Yuan, these Lihuabai and Zhuyeqing are not enough to drink, do you have Erguotou here?"
"If not, I'll send someone out to buy some!"
Erguotou is a strong liquor. As soon as Fan Beiran opened his mouth, he immediately attracted a lot of enthusiastic seconding. No one cared about Gu Yuan's opinion at all.
After a cup of tea, ten jars of Erguotou were delivered to the water pavilion. By the time all the jars were empty, two hours had passed and the young masters were all drunk.
Of course Gu Yuan didn't let them ride away on horseback. Some of them rested directly in the guest room of the Gu Mansion, while others were sent back by the Gu family's carriage...
After settling everyone down, Gu Yuan went to Yuheng Garden, reeking of alcohol.
The courtyard is quiet and peaceful, filled with a strong scent of bamboo and flowers. Colorful flowers sway gently among the green branches and leaves, quiet and elegant.
Gu Yuan walked through Yuheng Garden with familiarity and came to Gu Yanfei's small study.
After lifting the curtain, he was stunned by the scene in front of him. He saw that the room was covered with talisman papers on bookshelves, desks, and cupboards. The windows on the east side were wide open, and the breeze was blowing, causing hundreds of talisman papers to tremble.
The girl in front of him was working at her desk with her back to him.
At first glance, this scene is really weird, and it doesn't look like the room of a lady from a noble family.
Gu Yuan smiled slightly and felt warm instead.
For him, as long as his sister is happy, that's all that matters.
He looked at the girl in front of him quietly for a long time before he took a step, walked lightly, and sat down quietly beside Gu Yanfei, who was concentrating on drawing talismans.
"Are they all gone?" Gu Yanfei asked casually as he put down his pen.
Gu Yuan leaned lazily against the window sill and said with a smile, "Everyone else has left, only Fan Beiran and Yue Jun are staying in the mansion today."
"Fan Beiran praised our Erguotou as being better than other places, and asked me where I bought it."
His eyes were clear and bright, and his consciousness was very lucid.
Everyone in the Gu family can drink a lot, including Gu Yuan and Gu Yanfei.
"Those wines are from Qiongfangzhai." Gu Yanfei smiled and said proudly, "Since he likes them, let him take a few jars with him when he leaves. I have a cellar full of wine at home, let him choose whatever he wants."
Gu Yuan smiled and raised his hand to rub his sister's soft hair. "My sister is so generous."
"It's my duty." Gu Yanfei smiled generously and brightly.
Throw me a wooden peach, and I will repay you with a jade.
There is always give and take between people.
While the brother and sister were talking, Juanbi brought a cup of hot hangover tea.
Gu Yuan drank the whole cup of hangover-relief tea in one gulp, the taste of which was even more indescribable than medicine.
With the idea of sharing the happiness, he specifically instructed Juanbi: "Ask the tea room to make some hangover tea, and send it to Fan Beiran and Yue Jun when they wake up."
Juanbi misunderstood, nodded repeatedly, and replied seriously: "Master, don't worry, I will tell them and will not neglect the two young masters."
He walked away with brisk steps.
Gu Yuan pressed his lips together, a sharp light flashed across his eyes, "Gu Xiao brought the Jinyiwei here this morning and found a secret room in the small garden..."
The taste in his mouth was bitter and Gu Yuan frowned subconsciously.
Gu Yanfei raised his eyebrows, casually pulled out a talisman from the side, and slapped it neatly on Gu Yuan's forehead.
If anyone else dared to attack Gu Yuan like this, he would have been slapped away by him long ago. But in front of Gu Yanfei, he was extremely well-behaved and didn't move a muscle.
After a moment, Gu Yuan pursed his lips, and a faint arc of joy appeared at the corners of his eyes.
The bitter taste in my mouth turned into a sweet taste.
Gu Yanfei raised his chin proudly, "Not bitter anymore, right?"
"It's not bitter anymore." Gu Yuan nodded, with the corners of his lips slightly raised.
"I drew a lot of talismans today." Gu Yanfei pulled his sleeves and boasted proudly, "Look, this immobilization talisman can make a person motionless, just like the acupuncture points mentioned in the picture book; this wine talisman can turn water into wine; this wine-transforming talisman can do the opposite, turning wine into water, which is most suitable for socializing."
Seeing his sister's high interest, Gu Yuan cooperated and pointed at the talisman she had just drawn and asked, "What about this one?"
"This is a failed product." Gu Yanfei crumpled the talisman into a ball and his eyes fell on the jade bracelet on his wrist.
It has only been a few months, and this is already the fourth piece of jade artifact containing spiritual energy that she has found.
She had been thinking about it these past two days, maybe she could design a spirit-gathering talisman for her compass, and maybe she could use the compass to find ancient artifacts containing spiritual energy.
As a result, he failed to draw the spirit gathering talisman, but instead accidentally drew a bunch of other talismans.
The brother and sister chatted and laughed. When the sun was setting, Juanbi suddenly rushed in and reported cheerfully, "Master, the fourth young master Lu just sent his servant Xingwang over to say that Commander He just took people to the second master's house in Luwei Hutong."
"They said the old lady was harboring a wanted criminal from the imperial court, and they wanted to search the house of the second master and his family."
Thinking about the Jinyiwei's search of the mansion in the morning, Juanbi still felt a little scared.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
