Chapter 138 At the Marquis's Residence (First Update)
The young couple held hands until they reached their doorstep before letting go.
Seeing that Xiao Liulang looked like he still wanted more, Gu Jiao leaned closer to him and whispered, "If you want to hold hands, I'll let you next time."
"No!" Xiao Liulang walked into the courtyard with a serious expression and awkward steps.
Gu Jiao took the candied hawthorns inside.
The old lady's room was the warmest, and everyone sat there.
Xiao Liulang went straight to the study, his hands and feet clasped together, and Gu Jiao brought him the candied hawthorn.
When Xiao Jingkong saw this, his big eyes lit up: "Jiaojiao, come and warm yourself by the fire!"
"Hmm." Gu Jiao gave him a string of candied hawthorns with less sugar, another string of candied hawthorns with less sugar to the old lady, and two strings of candied hawthorns with normal sugar content to Gu Yan and Gu Xiaoshun.
Gu Yan doesn't eat much; he's just having fun.
The old lady stared at Gu Yan's candied hawthorns, tears streaming uncontrollably from her mouth...
"Where's my brother-in-law?" Gu Yan asked.
“Your brother-in-law went to the study,” Gu Jiao said.
The old lady gave Xiao Jingkong the instruction: "Go and call your brother-in-law to come and warm himself by the fire."
“No need,” Gu Jiao said. “He’s not cold at all; his palms are sweaty.”
What was said unintentionally was taken seriously by the listener, causing a great stir!
My palms were sweaty.
How did you know?
You two were holding hands?
Suddenly, Xiao Jingkong realized that candied hawthorns didn't taste so good anymore!
Xiao Jingkong jumped down from the small chair and decisively grabbed Jiao Jiao's hand!
My bad brother-in-law is holding my hand, I want to hold his hand too!
Gu Yan grabbed Gu Jiao's other hand.
The little monks are holding hands, I want to hold hands too!
Gu Jiao looked completely bewildered: "..."
Gu Xiaoshun, looking even more bewildered: "..."
The old lady was overjoyed; the two clueless boys had finally made progress, and her great-grandson was just around the corner.
To commemorate this significant progress, the old lady decided to skip eating one less piece of candied fruit tonight.
She placed the saved candied fruit high on her bedside table.
happy.
The moonlight was like water.
The candied fruit, lying quietly on the bedside table, glistened and sparkled under the moonlight.
The old lady has passed away.
The old lady is back.
She grabbed a handful of candied fruit and stuffed it into her mouth!
Screw anniversaries! If you're happy, celebrate! Celebrate, eat!
The heavy snow fell all night and only stopped when it was almost dawn.
When Gu Jiao got up early, the courtyard was already covered with snow.
Thankfully, I moved the chicken coop and dog kennel to the woodshed last night; otherwise, if they had been left out to freeze overnight, they would probably have turned into little popsicles.
Gu Jiao went to the backyard to fetch well water to wash up. Despite the cold weather, the well water was warm.
After washing up, she went to the kitchen to start a fire and cook, only to find to her surprise that someone was already sitting in front of the stove and starting a fire.
It's Xiao Liulang.
"So early?"
He used to get up early, but never this early.
"Hmm." Xiao Liulang turned around and looked at her.
It was still dark, mostly just the light reflecting off the snow. An oil lamp was lit in the kitchen, its bright flames illuminating the handsome, jade-like face, making him seem like an unparalleled gentleman.
Beautiful things make me feel beautiful.
Gu Jiao smiled and asked, "Did you sleep well last night?"
“Okay, what about you?” he asked.
Gu Jiao walked over and took the firewood from his hand: "Well, that's fine. You go read your book, I'll do it."
The kitchen was small, and it felt cramped when the two of them squeezed together. He could smell the fresh scent of soapberry on her body, as well as the unique girlish fragrance that belonged to her.
He suddenly felt that the kitchen was a bit hot, so he didn't say anything, got up and went out.
However, instead of returning to his study to read, he took a shovel and began clearing the snow from the yard.
Soon, Xiao Jingkong also rose.
He was always the third one up in the family, and when he saw the yard full of snow, he was so excited that he yelled loudly!
"Aww~ I'm Tarzan from next door~ Grabbing the vines of love~"
Gu Jiao's hand trembled, and she almost set the entire kitchen on fire!
How can this even connect?!
"Don't shovel! Don't shovel! Don't shovel! I want to play in the
He threw himself into the snow.
There's never been such heavy snow in Youzhou, no wonder he's so excited.
The little guy was healthy and not afraid of catching a cold, so Xiao Liulang didn't bother him and let him play in the snow.
He took a shovel and began shoveling snow from the corridor, starting with the snow outside the old lady's and Gu Yan's house.
About 15 minutes later, Gu Xiaoshun also got up.
At this point, Xiao Jingkong had successfully transformed himself into Little Snowman Jingkong.
He was covered in snow from head to toe, with snowflakes clinging to his long eyelashes.
Little Jingkong sat in the snow, blinking at him: "Brother Xiaoshun, do you want to play?"
"Okay, sure." Gu Xiaoshun walked over, rolled Xiao Jingkong into a small snowball, and started rolling around!
Xiao Jingkong was rolled around so much that his tongue was sticking out and his eyes were rolling back!
Hey! I told you to play in the snow! Not to play with me!
Gu Xiaoshun: But you're more fun.
The two, one big and one small, played wildly for a while until Gu Jiao came out and took the little Jingkong, who was covered in sweat and soaked inside and out, back into the house to change his clothes.
Gu Xiaoshun also grabbed a shovel and shoveled snow with Xiao Liulang.
Breakfast consisted of tofu kimchi soup and mutton stew. To make up for Xiao Jingkong's regret that he couldn't eat mutton, Gu Jiao made him a basket of rabbit buns. The snow-white little rabbits were bite-sized, and Xiao Jingkong instantly felt like he was a super fierce little tiger!
Xiao Jingkong has recently become obsessed with tigers, so Gu Jiao even sewed him a tiger backpack.
After dinner, he quickly slung his little tiger backpack over his shoulder and, accompanied by his wicked brother-in-law, went to the Imperial College with great vigor!
Gu Yan and Gu Xiaoshun also went to Qinghe Academy.
The family members left one after another, and only then did the old lady lazily get up.
Gu Jiao served her a bowl of mutton soup: "Auntie, I'm going to the clinic in a bit. If you're feeling bored..."
"I'm not bored, I'm not bored, you can go now." The old lady waved her hand.
Gu Jiao gave the old lady a strange look. Based on her understanding of the old lady, this was probably another trick up her sleeve: "What... have you done now?"
The old lady took a sip of the mutton soup: "I didn't do anything!"
I invited all the aunts and uncles in the alley over to play cards for a few days, and I won quite a bit, haha.
Gu Jiao felt that her great-aunt was really capable. She could never stay still anywhere and always got along well with people. Her social skills were top-notch, far surpassing Gu Jiao's and Xiao Liulang's.
The old lady was a shrewd woman. Gu Jiao wasn't worried that she would be deceived; the one who should be worried was someone else. She wondered what bad luck it had been to fall into the hands of her own aunt.
"Remember to bring an umbrella," the old lady said.
Gu Jiao turned around and smiled: "Okay."
Gu Jiao wasn't afraid of the sun or rain, but the experience of someone reminding her to bring an umbrella was quite novel.
She happily took an oil-paper umbrella, bid farewell to her aunt, and went to the clinic.
The second boss was a man of action. In less than ten days, the clinic had taken shape. The layout of the lobby was impressive, retaining the original features of the clinic while adding a new information desk.
The second landlord laughed and said, "Didn't you say that having someone knowledgeable here to triage patients would make the treatment process more efficient?"
That's right, she did say that. Perhaps it's the second boss's ability to understand and do it without even realizing it.
Thinking of something, the second landlord added, "I secretly sneaked in yesterday to inquire, and it really is a girls' school next door! The school buildings are almost finished on the open space behind it, and I reckon they'll open around the same time as us! When they have a lot of people coming, we can get some of their good fortune!"
"It doesn't matter who opens first." Gu Jiao didn't care; she opened her clinic based on her own abilities and didn't need to rely on anyone else's momentum.
The two were talking at the door when a man suddenly appeared. He looked to be about thirty-five or thirty-six years old, dressed in fine clothes and exuding an imposing aura, unlike an ordinary person.
The other person glanced at the two of them and asked, "Where is the owner of your clinic?"
The second landlord said, "That's us."
"Both of them?" The other person looked at Gu Jiao suspiciously. Gu Jiao was not only young, but also a woman, and her clothes were not classy.
Gu Jiao had seen this kind of look many times before. She glanced at him indifferently and asked, "What is it?"
The man was still quite polite: "I'd like to ask if you would be willing to rent your clinic to me?"
"What do you mean?" the second boss asked.
The man chuckled softly, “To tell you the truth, I’m from next door. I don’t know if you’ve heard about our girls’ school? It’s run by the Crown Princess, and we’re currently missing a suitable space for a music hall. So I’d like to rent your shop and convert it into a music hall.”
"No, I won't rent it." Gu Jiao refused without hesitation.
The man glanced at Gu Jiao in surprise, clearly not expecting that even after he had brought up the Crown Princess, she would still be so unsympathetic.
Actually, the girls' school wasn't started by the Crown Princess; it was His Majesty's idea. However, when Empress Dowager Zhuang proposed establishing the girls' school, His Majesty didn't side with her. Now, feeling it wouldn't look good to say such things, he simply borrowed the Crown Princess's name.
Do I have to invoke His Majesty's name to scare this little girl?
The man said, "The price is negotiable."
Gu Jiao said, "There's no use in discussing it further. If we don't want to rent, we don't want to rent."
The man's smile turned cold: "You also rented this place from someone else, right? You just want to open a clinic, don't you? You can sublet this shop to me, and I'll find you a better one."
Gu Jiao gave him a look as if he were an idiot: "Since you have better shops, why don't you use them yourselves?"
The man choked quite badly.
The second boss knew that the other party had a powerful background and did not want to make enemies. However, he also understood Gu Jiao's temper and could only try to appease her. Did he think that yelling at her would make him right?
Seeing that he couldn't reason with Gu Jiao, the man turned to the second landlord and laughed, "Why are you making such a scene? Once I find the landlord and make him stop renting the shop to you, you'll have to move out anyway, won't you?"
The second boss shrugged: "That's not necessarily true."
The man frowned. How come this one has become so stubborn?
"you……"
He was interrupted by a cold voice before he could finish speaking.
"What do you mean, 'you all'? Didn't you hear she rejected you? What? You think you can use the Crown Princess's name to bully the people? As far as I know, the Crown Princess didn't give you the right to bully others!"
It was that young scholar again, dressed in blue today, looking fresh and dashing.
The man's expression changed: "Du... Du..."
The young scholar tapped his forehead with his fan: "What do you mean by 'Du'? If you dare to use the Crown Princess's name to oppress the people again, I'll report you to His Majesty!"
"Yes, yes, yes!" The man didn't dare to utter a sound and ran away in a sorry state.
The second boss gave Gu Jiao a wink.
Who is it?
Gu Jiao: I don't know her.
Second boss: "..."
The young scholar approached Gu Jiao, patted his palm with his folding fan, and said with a smile, "Miss, we meet again! Don't worry, I've already taught him a lesson! He won't dare to bother you again!"
Gu Jiao: "Oh, thank you."
The young scholar was practically clinging to Gu Jiao, following her around in circles: "Don't listen to him! He wasn't sent by the Crown Princess to do something. The Crown Princess wouldn't have such a rude servant!"
Gu Jiao understood; the young girl was still fixated on her indifference towards the Crown Princess.
It's enough that she likes it herself. Why does everyone in the world have to like the Crown Princess?
Isn't that strange?
The young scholar said smugly, "You've seen it yourself, I'm very capable! As long as you also like the Crown Princess, we can be friends! I'll protect you!"
As the Crown Princess's number one supporter, her goal is to spread the Crown Princess's virtuous reputation and let more people know and like her!
Gu Jiao stopped arguing with her and carried a box of tools upstairs. The young scholar was about to follow when the repairmen arrived.
The young scholar was separated from the craftsmen, and by the time the craftsmen had all left, Gu Jiao was nowhere to be seen.
The young scholar was not discouraged. She put her hands on her hips and said firmly, "I, Du Xiaoyun, will definitely influence you!"
Yao hasn't come for several days.
Gu Jiao calculated the days; her antidepressants were almost finished, and it was time to come and get new ones.
Gu Jiao was wondering what was going on when she got home and saw Granny Fang waiting hesitantly in the main room.
The old lady went to sleep.
When Granny Fang saw Gu Jiao, she quickly bowed and greeted her: "Young Miss."
Gu Jiao glanced behind her: "Where's Madam? Didn't she come with you?"
“It was I who came to find the eldest young lady. Madam…” Granny Fang hesitated for a moment, but finally said, “Madam hasn’t been feeling well lately. She doesn’t want the eldest young lady and young master to worry, so she hasn’t been able to come over.”
Gu Jiao nodded knowingly: "I'll go to the Marquis's residence with you."
(End of this chapter)
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