Chapter 153 Reunion (Second Update)
"Are you here to play cards?" the old lady asked.
The old man was taken aback.
Playing cards?
The old lady cracked melon seeds and said, "Today we're not playing cards, we're playing Pai Gow, starting at fifty copper coins."
What is the Empress Dowager saying? What leaf tiles? What dominoes?
The old man stared at the Empress Dowager, then slowly stood up from the ground. He realized that although the person in front of him looked very much like the Empress Dowager, her clothes and demeanor were not like hers.
"What are you looking at?" the old lady asked impatiently.
"Don't you...recognize me?" the old man asked, pointing to himself.
After he said that, the old lady actually started to look him over more closely.
He looks presentable.
It looks somewhat familiar.
Have I seen this somewhere before?
The old lady doesn't remember anything from the past. She occasionally recalls some things, but they are all very fragmented pieces.
However, she had a slightly unusual feeling about this old man.
Isn't that extraordinary?
When the former Grand Master of Ceremonies was an official in the court, he often clashed with Empress Dowager Zhuang.
He was a conservative who firmly opposed the interference of the empress dowager in politics, especially the idea of women ruling from behind the curtain.
As early as when the late emperor was alive, the old chief priest had submitted many memorials urging the late emperor to depose the empress. In his memorials, he called the virtuous empress a bewitching empress who had bewitched the harem, interfered in politics with her relatives, and was ruthless and cruel.
Empress Xiande was once banished to the cold palace by the late emperor, which was due to the old chief priest.
Although she escaped the Cold Palace in less than half a year thanks to her excellent palace intrigue skills, she lost half a year's worth of money and also lost a lot of her previous savings.
Cutting off her financial support is like killing her parents!
After that, Empress Xiande regarded the old chief priest as a thorn in her side.
The old chief priest was exiled to the frontier for five years, enduring immense hardship. He was dried into a dried-up human form and aged more than ten years. This was the work of the virtuous empress.
The two fought each other until the late emperor died. Empress Xiande killed the crown prince and supported Consort Jing's son to ascend the throne, becoming the powerful empress dowager.
The battle between the two was finally temporarily decided.
The reason it's only temporary is that the old Grand Master of Ceremonies controls the Imperial Academy, which gathers the most talented young people in the entire Zhao Kingdom.
To exaggerate a bit, the old chief priest controls the future of the Zhao Kingdom.
Empress Dowager Zhuang was plotting to seize control of the Imperial Academy. At that time, Prince An was about to return to his country, and Empress Dowager Zhuang proposed to His Majesty that a position of Junior Chancellor could be added to the Imperial Academy.
His Majesty has agreed, but the one who will be appointed as the Junior Chancellor is not Empress Dowager Zhuang's grand-nephew, but the young Marquis of Zhaodu.
This young marquis is the old chief priest's apprentice.
A thousand indescribable horses galloped through Empress Dowager Zhuang's mind.
The old chief priest laughed so hard he almost fell over.
It seems the old chief priest has won this round.
Not long after, on New Year's Eve, the Imperial Academy suddenly caught fire, and the young Marquis of Zhaodu was burned alive.
...
Since resigning from his official post, the old man had not reminisced about his past for a long time. But now, upon seeing the Empress Dowager, his thoughts were involuntarily drawn back to that bloody and turbulent court.
The old lady looked puzzled and said, "Why aren't you saying anything? Why are you looking at me with such a complicated expression? And seeing you has made my feelings a bit complicated too!"
It was an indescribable complexity, like they were mortal enemies, and she wanted nothing more than to grab a knife and chop him up!
etc.
Should I cut him with a knife?
The old woman looked at the old man suspiciously.
They knew each other; this was evident from both his eyes and his words.
He was very afraid of her.
He didn't dare look her in the eye, as if he felt a little guilty.
He even knelt down when he saw her. How much did he have to wrong her?
"I know who you are!" A sudden thought flashed through the old woman's mind, and she threw the melon seeds on the table. "Aren't you the heartless man who abandoned me all those years ago... and then came back to me?"
Old man: "...!!"
Gu Jiao and Gu Xiaoshun returned first, and as they walked through the passageway, they discovered that there was an extra person in the backyard.
Gu Jiao thought he looked familiar.
The main problem was that the large shoe print on her face was gone, so she didn't recognize her at first.
"Aunt?" Gu Jiao asked, her eyes questioning.
The old lady glared at the trembling, unfaithful man with a look of utter disappointment and sighed, "Your great-uncle."
Gu Jiao: "..."
Gu Xiaoshun: "..."
Xiao Liulang, Gu Yan, and Xiao Jingkong entered the house later, carrying large and small bags, followed by a horse-drawn carriage loaded with New Year's goods.
The group, together with the coachman, unloaded the New Year's goods from the carriage.
Xiao Liulang carried a pot of sesame oil inside, and like Gu Jiao and Gu Xiaoshun, he froze as he passed through the passageway.
Sitting in the courtyard were the old lady, Gu Jiao, Gu Xiaoshun, and an elderly man who wasn't trembling as much but still had a pale face.
There was nothing he could do; he had been "cuckolded" by the late emperor, and he was filled with dread!
“Uncle-in-law,” Gu Jiao introduced.
Xiao Liulang: "..."
You've brought home another great-uncle in just a short while?
Gu Jiao is wronged: This time I didn't pick it up.
Xiao Liulang glanced at the old man with a complicated expression.
The old man's mind went blank at this moment. He couldn't even remember that he had come to recognize Xiao Liulang. He could only frantically apologize to the late emperor in his heart—"Your humble servant and the Empress Dowager have a purely platonic relationship!"
The old lady had calmed down and asked indifferently, "Alright, let's be frank, do we have children?"
The old man slipped off the chair and nearly fell to the ground.
He helped himself to a chair and sat up, his face pale, and said, "No, no."
The old lady nodded: "I think so too, otherwise I wouldn't have traveled so far to seek refuge with Liu Lang."
Xiao Liulang looked at the old man, who was wiping away cold sweat.
Having spent his entire life battling Empress Dowager Zhuang, this was the round he was most unable to withstand; he was utterly powerless to fight back!
The old woman said casually, "You abandoned me when I was young, and now that you're old, you want to come and have my grand-nephew take care of you? No way! Get out!"
The old man felt a great weight lifted off his shoulders, and for the first time, he found the word "get lost" to be so pleasant to hear!
Even after leaving the courtyard, the old man still felt a sense of unreality.
He wanted to find out what was going on, so he didn't leave but waited by the door.
Xiao Liulang did not disappoint him; he indeed came out shortly afterward.
Neither of them was surprised to see each other, as if they had already anticipated that one of them would not leave and the other would not fail to come out.
Xiao Liulang was no longer as panicked as he had been at the alley entrance last time.
The old man was filled with mixed emotions: "Is that the Empress Dowager inside? How could you be with the Empress Dowager? You may not admit that you are Aheng, but you cannot deny that she is the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager is not dead."
Xiao Liulang remained silent.
The old man asked sadly, "How could this happen? What exactly happened between you and the Empress Dowager? The Empress Dowager has amnesia, but you haven't. Tell me!"
Xiao Liulang remained silent.
The old man closed his eyes painfully: "Fine, if you don't want to talk about it, I won't force you. I'll come see you another day. As for what happened today... I'll keep it a secret for you."
Xiao Liulang bowed slightly and turned to enter the courtyard.
“Your leg…” The old man’s worried gaze fell on his right leg.
Xiao Liulang paused, then said, "It's alright."
That was the only thing he ever said to himself.
The old man felt that perhaps the man who chased after him was just to say those three words to him.
He didn't want to worry about him.
The old man felt a pang of sorrow.
Xiao Liulang entered the courtyard, and the old man returned to the carriage.
In fact, today's "gain" was not only meeting the Empress Dowager, but also meeting his little benefactor.
He never expected that she and Ah Heng... no, now she should be called Liu Lang.
She and Liu Lang were actually husband and wife.
What kind of fate is this?
In the courtyard, the whole family stared at the old lady.
"Grandma, Grandpa is really gone. Aren't you sad?" Xiao Jingkong asked.
In this family, only Gu Jiao, Xiao Liulang, and Gu Xiaoshun knew that the old lady was a leper who had been picked up. None of the three told any of them, including Yao Shi and Gu Yan.
Xiao Jingkong was naturally unaware of this.
He then assumed that his great-aunt was real, and his great-uncle was real too.
The old lady cracked open a sunflower seed: "Why would I be sad? It's only peaceful when he's not around!"
Who wants to spend the rest of their life with a lousy old man?
Isn't playing cards every day great?
Xiao Jingkong: "Oh."
While Gu Jiao was cooking in the kitchen, Xiao Jingkong shuffled in, tugged at Gu Jiao's clothes, and said, "Jiaojiao, I have something to tell you."
"What is it?" Gu Jiao asked.
Xiao Jingkong tilted his head and looked at her: "Brother-in-law has a nickname, Aheng, which means tyrannical and domineering."
Although my brother-in-law doesn’t admit it, he’s already convinced of it in his heart – that’s the kind of domineering and tyrannical person he is!
Gu Jiao looked at him amusedly: "Really? How did you know?"
Xiao Jingkong said, "I heard my great-uncle call out to me. I saw my great-uncle that day."
Gu Jiao: "Oh?"
Xiao Jingkong sighed, "My brother-in-law and I were walking home from school when, at the alley entrance, my great-uncle called out to my brother-in-law, 'Ah Heng!' My brother-in-law ignored him and grabbed me, running off. When I questioned him, he argued that my great-uncle had mistaken me for someone else. My brother-in-law is so unfilial! Even if he didn't want to acknowledge my great-uncle, he shouldn't treat him like that. Master Jiang taught us to respect the elderly and care for the young..."
Xiao Jingkong felt something was off that day, and his great-uncle's visit today only solidified his suspicions.
My brother-in-law was definitely up to something that day!
My brother-in-law is a bad son and daughter-in-law.
He can't do that again.
After filing his complaint, Xiao Jingkong deeply felt the heavy responsibility on his shoulders.
He went to his study and picked up some foreign language books that he had previously disliked.
My brother-in-law is unreliable and I'm exhausted.
Starting today, he will work twice as hard so that he can support his family in the future.
Inside the kitchen, Gu Jiao pondered Xiao Jingkong's words.
Have you seen it?
Did they even call me by my nickname?
So, that person knows Xiao Liulang.
Judging from Xiao Liulang's reaction, it is highly likely that Xiao Liulang also knows the other party.
According to Gu Jiao's observation of that person, he clearly knew the old lady, but whether they were actually a couple was still hard to say.
The old lady may have a confused memory and mistaken someone for someone else.
That's not the point.
The key point is that the man knew Xiao Liulang and the old lady, and Xiao Liulang also knew him. So, did Xiao Liulang also know the old lady?
The reason he saved the old lady and took her in without complaint was not because he suddenly had a kind heart, but because they were old acquaintances.
Prince An also knew the old lady...
Gu Jiao wrote several names on the ashes with firewood branches.
The old lady, Prince An, Xiao Liulang, the Xuanping Marquis's Mansion, and Aheng.
...
The old man fell into deep thought after returning to the carriage.
Empress Dowager Zhuang was at odds with the Xuanping Marquis's household and with herself as well, while Xiao Liulang was both a member of the Xuanping Marquis's household and her student.
The old man was uneasy about leaving Xiao Liulang by the side of that wicked empress who brought ruin to the country.
"No, I have to keep an eye on her!"
The old man's return to the capital was actually to see a critically ill close friend one last time, after which he planned to continue his seclusion in the mountains.
Now, he has changed his mind.
He quietly used his long-dormant connections to rent a small house in Bishui Hutong, which, coincidentally, was right next to Xiao Liulang and Gu Jiao's place.
The old man quickly moved in.
He had few servants, only Liu Quan and a temporarily hired coachman.
On the first day he moved in, he set up a ladder and stood on the wall to secretly observe the movements of the wicked empress who brought ruin to the country.
The old lady had already noticed him.
This persistent old man, he didn't want her when he was young, but now that he's old, he wants to win her back.
Keep dreaming!
The old woman resisted the urge to kill the man with a knife and went back to her room to sleep.
But she lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, feeling more and more resentful!
She went to the kitchen, grabbed a cleaver, and stormed off to the next room.
The old man stared at it for a while, then got sleepy and went back to his room to sleep.
The difference is, he fell asleep.
He woke up suddenly when he felt a chill on his neck in the middle of the night. He opened his eyes and saw the old lady pointing a kitchen knife at him.
He was startled: "What are you doing?"
The old woman held a kitchen knife to his neck and said in a domineering manner, "Hand over your secret stash of money!"
The old priest, who was inexplicably robbed, exclaimed: "...!!"
(End of this chapter)
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