Chapter 200 Admittion (First Update)
"aunt!"
On the way back to Yongshou Palace, Zhuang Yuexi couldn't help but call out to Consort Zhuang.
Consort Zhuang glanced at her sideways: "What's wrong?"
Zhuang Yuexi is a noblewoman of the Zhuang family, dignified and gentle. Her calling her "aunt" just now was really a bit out of line.
Zhuang Yuexi realized her mistake, handed the flower basket to a maid beside her, lifted her skirt and caught up with Consort Zhuang, whispering, "Yue'er has lost her composure, please punish her, Aunt."
Consort Zhuang, though not angry, spoke with an air of authority: "You've been acting strangely ever since you met Princess Hui. Tell me, what grudge do you hold against her?"
“There is no enmity,” Zhuang Yuexi said softly.
Does Consort Zhuang not know her own niece well? From a young age, she has been the most noble young lady in the capital, exceptionally intelligent, beautiful and talented, and has never met her match.
Gu Jinyu was not as famous as Zhuang Yuexi in her early years, but she was first conferred the title of county princess, and later shone brightly in the girls' school, gradually becoming as famous as Zhuang Yuexi.
Gu Jinyu is not yet considered to have surpassed Zhuang Yuexi, but for Zhuang Yuexi, who is so noble, to be on par with someone is already a failure.
Consort Zhuang continued walking forward, saying as she went, "Is it because of these things that you dislike Princess Hui? Your aunt has told you that you are a daughter of the Zhuang family, so you should have a high standard and a broad perspective."
Zhuang Yuexi's problem wasn't because of that.
Zhuang Yuexi lowered her eyes and said, "Auntie's reprimand was very stern." She paused, then added, "But why is Auntie suddenly concerned about Princess Hui's marriage? Does Auntie want to act as matchmaker for her?"
Consort Zhuang smiled faintly: "I would like to, but she has to agree first."
Zhuang Yuexi had only intended to test her aunt, but she hadn't expected to receive this answer: "Aunt...who does she want to marry her off to? My eldest cousin? Or—"
Consort Zhuang smiled but remained silent.
Zhuang Yuexi's heart skipped a beat: "Aunt, you don't mean to marry her off to my brother and make her my sister-in-law, do you?"
The Zhuang family has several legitimate sons, but only Prince An is unmarried.
Consort Zhuang neither admitted nor denied it.
Zhuang Yuexi's eyes widened in panic: "Aunt, she's not good enough for my brother! She's not a real daughter of a marquis, just a peasant girl from the countryside. Even if His Majesty bestows upon her the title of county princess, it's just a nice name. She doesn't even have a fief. What kind of county princess is she!"
Consort Zhuang stopped walking, and the palace maids also stopped. Consort Zhuang stroked a osmanthus flower in the basket: "The county princess is indeed unworthy, but what if... she becomes a county princess?"
Zhuang Yuexi was stunned.
On the other side, Lord Gu was once again summoned to the main hall where Minister Zhao handled official business.
Lord Gu has been severely criticized lately, and he thinks to himself that he can't escape another round of scolding.
However, to Lord Gu's surprise, Minister Zhao's expression was unusually gentle, and he did not look like he was about to scold him at all!
Lord Gu: Hmm?
When Minister Zhao saw Marquis Gu, he showed his first bright smile in months: "Minister Gu, how was your day?"
Lord Gu was bewildered by his superior's attitude and tone, which seemed to be concerned about whether the food was good, the clothing was warm enough, the transportation was convenient, and whether the children had any difficulties in their studies.
He had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Minister Zhao personally took Lord Gu's wrist and invited him to sit down in a chair.
Lord Gu looked at the hand that was holding his and wanted to tell him that men should not touch each other!
Minister Zhao said with a smile, "Really, you have such a promising daughter, why didn't you say so sooner?"
Lord Gu was completely out of the loop.
Minister Zhao's smile vanished, and he sighed, "You've kept this from me for so long! What's there to hide about something so important?"
"What...what have I been hiding from you?" Lord Gu was completely bewildered.
Minister Zhao said, "The people from the Ministry of War came by just now. They asked me if the bellows was invented by your daughter?"
Lord Gu pointed to himself: "My daughter?"
Minister Zhao frowned: "Don't you know?"
Lord Gu shook his head like a rattle-drum.
Minister Zhao then asked, "Then let me ask you, do you have a daughter?"
Lord Gu nodded: "Yes."
Minister Zhao continued, "Last summer, weren't you and your daughter in Qingquan Town, Youzhou?"
Lord Gu nodded again: "Yes."
Minister Zhao then asked, "Isn't your daughter exceptionally intelligent?"
Lord Gu nodded emphatically: "Yes!"
His Jinyu must be intelligent! Intelligent from a young age! If women weren't forbidden from taking the imperial examinations, his Jinyu would at least have passed with flying colors and become a Jinshi!
Minister Zhao slapped his right hand onto his left palm: "Isn't that settled? Besides your daughter, was there any other noblewoman surnamed Gu who appeared in that town last year?"
Upon hearing this, Lord Gu understood what was going on; it turned out that the imperial court had found clues about the little girl.
But... I've never heard Jin Yu mention it!
Lord Gu wasn't so eager to claim credit for himself; he decided to go back to his residence first to ask Gu Jinyu about the situation.
The matter escalated much faster than Gu Jinyu had imagined. She was so focused on her studies that she was oblivious to what was happening outside and had no idea what the invention of the blower technology meant for the Zhao Kingdom.
His Majesty appeared calm, but in reality, he almost laughed himself silly.
Those damned bastards from Liang Kingdom used a bunch of inferior water-cooling technology to take away the mines from Zhao Kingdom. Although the two countries did not go to war, this insult was even more unbearable than a defeat.
Now I can finally hold my head high!
All six ministries were captivated by this technology. It could not only be used to smelt iron, but also to improve the quality of metallurgy. What did Zhao Kingdom have abundantly? Gold mines!
However, among the six kingdoms, Zhao had the lowest level of productivity, so even though it had many mines, it was still a poor country.
The fact that the common people seemed to be living relatively well was because these two emperors were somewhat conscientious, not excessively exploiting the people and even reducing taxes considerably. In reality, the national treasury was dirt poor; otherwise, would they have sold the Imperial Academy degrees to Lin Chengye?
Half of the building donated by the Lin family to the Imperial Academy was confiscated by His Majesty and put into the national treasury.
However, even though Gu Jinyu was unaware of the movements of the imperial court and the Six Ministries, she personally felt the changes in how the people around her treated her.
When she returned from the palace, her personal maid told her that the school official had come to visit and asked how her health was improving and when she would return to class.
Gu Jinyu has been recuperating at home for so long. The female official never comes to visit earlier or later, but she does at this particular time. Who can say that she wasn't acting on the Crown Princess's orders?
Could it be that the Crown Princess has also heard about the bellows?
It's not surprising, considering that Consort Shu and Consort Zhuang had both heard about it, how could the Crown Princess not have heard about it?
Afterwards, several young ladies who had been on good terms with her but had distanced themselves from her because of her background returned. They came to visit her at her residence, chatting and laughing as if the previous unpleasantness had never happened.
Why is that?
Their fathers, who were officials in the court, must have sent them to her to find out the truth.
If she truly is the inventor of the bellows, then no matter how lowly her birth, no one can look down on her. She has done a good deed that benefits the country and its people, and even His Majesty would honor her.
But what if the real inventor reappears one day?
Gu Jinyu was caught in a dilemma.
When Lord Gu returned to the manor, Gu Jinyu was packing his large trunk.
The box was full of her drawings and handmade trinkets; Yao didn't throw them away, she kept them all.
She moved back to her own yard and took out all her manuscript papers, wanting to see if she had ever truly had the inspiration for the bellows.
"Jinyu, what are you doing?" Lord Gu entered the room, looked at the manuscript papers scattered on the floor, and asked in a puzzled manner.
Gu Jinyu raised her slightly disheveled face and said, "I'm looking for something."
"What are you looking for?" Lord Gu walked in. "I'll help you find it."
“A sketch,” Gu Jinyu said. “A sketch similar to the bellows.”
"You mean this?" Lord Gu bent down and picked up a piece of drawing tucked between the pages of a book. The drawing depicted a crooked box in a very childish style, with something that looked like a handle or a lever. There were two or three layers at the bottom, and at first glance, it did resemble the shape of a bellows.
Gu Jinyu herself didn't even know what she had drawn.
But it's definitely not a bellows.
But... if you force it, it does indeed resemble the prototype of a bellows.
"Jinyu, did you really invent the bellows?" Lord Gu asked.
Gu Jinyu didn't rush to answer Lord Gu's question, but instead asked, "Father, what did the people from the Six Ministries say? What clues did they find?"
Lord Gu said, "Just say she's a girl surnamed Gu, related to the Marquis of Ding'an's mansion, and should be the daughter of the Marquis. Oh, right, she's fourteen or fifteen years old."
Indeed, the Ministry of War had been to the front lines, and among the clues he gathered was an extremely useful one: age.
This basically aligns with Gu Jinyu.
Gu Jinyu had a bold guess in her heart, but she didn't dare to say it. She went to Yao's courtyard.
Yao was making clothes for Gu Jiao.
"Mother." Gu Jinyu walked over, her excitement making her ignore the clothes in Yao's hands. She squatted down, grabbed Yao's hand eagerly, and asked, "Has Sister come by recently?"
"What's wrong? Do you need to see her?" Yao asked.
Gu Jinyu shook her head: "No, I haven't been to the girls' school for several days and haven't seen my sister. I wanted to ask her how she's doing."
The girls' school was right next to the clinic. Gu Jinyu would occasionally run into Gu Jiao when she went to school, but the two of them barely interacted. Apart from the Zhuang sisters, no one in the clinic knew that she and a young apprentice at the clinic were sisters.
When her daughter was mentioned, Yao's brows were full of affection: "Your sister is doing well, it's just that your brother-in-law just finished the spring imperial examination, so she's been quite busy."
Gu Jinyu didn't take it seriously. What good academic achievements could a poor country boy possibly attain? Unlike Prince An, who was guaranteed to be number one.
When Prince An comes in first place in the exam, he will give her the hairpin.
"Are you feeling better? I heard you went to the palace today," said Madam Yao.
"I'm fine now. I should have come to pay my respects to Mother first, but Granny Qi urged me, so I had to go see Aunt first. Mother, please don't be angry with me."
“No,” Yao said.
"By the way, Mother, you haven't thrown away my old manuscripts, have you?" Gu Jinyu took out a few sheets of paper from her purse that she had used to doodle on as a child. "They're the same as these."
Yao asked, "Didn't you take them all?"
Gu Jinyu said, "I meant those in the villa."
Yao explained, "These were brought from the mountain villa."
Gu Jinyu lowered her eyes: "Then... has sister seen these things?"
Yao shook her head: "I didn't show it to her."
Gu Jinyu looked up at Yao Shi: "Did she look through it herself?"
Yao asked curiously, "Why is she going through your things?"
They're not little kids anymore.
Even a child wouldn't do that; Gu Yan never rummaged through Gu Jinyu's things when he was a child.
Gu Jinyu smiled and said, "That's not what I meant. She's my older sister. She may seem cold on the outside, but she's warm on the inside. I know she actually cares about me."
Yao said, "She wouldn't rummage through your things if she cared about you." Jiaojiao is a polite and well-mannered child.
Gu Jinyu stopped arguing with her mother and changed the subject to talk about other things. Before long, Yao Shi became sleepy.
Yao has been feeling sleepy lately.
Gu Jinyu told her mother to get some rest.
After stepping out of the courtyard, Gu Jinyu suddenly murmured, "Whoever it was must have gotten the inspiration from peeking at my drawings!"
Maidservant: "Miss, what are you saying?"
Gu Jinyu ignored her, completely convinced of her conclusion and no longer worried about being exposed.
That's right, she is the genius girl of Zhao Kingdom, and others have only stolen her inspiration!
She is the true owner!
The next day, Gu Jinyu went to school.
As expected, all the young ladies who had distanced themselves from her came rushing to curry favor with her once again.
"Miss Gu, I heard that you invented the bellows for the imperial court. Is that true?"
"Yes, yes, is it true?"
"Say something!"
At the entrance of the girls' school, Gu Jinyu was surrounded by young ladies. Although they spoke in an inquiring tone, their eyes already held a high degree of certainty.
Otherwise, why would Gu Jinyu pretend to be sick at home for so long and suddenly come to school? Isn't that because he turned the tables?
Gu Jinyu smiled modestly and said, "His Majesty has not announced it to the public yet, so please don't spread it around."
(End of this chapter)
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