Chapter 50 Mother and Son
The group had lunch at the dean's house before leaving.
It was already late when they arrived in town, so the second landlord had a horse-drawn carriage take Gu Jiao and her brother back to the village.
Madam Li was very pleased with the "Bodhisattva" gift from Gu Xiaoshun. Before leaving, she specially asked the dean to give Gu Xiaoshun the Buddhist beads she had treasured for many years.
Those prayer beads were made of jade and had been blessed in front of a Buddha statue. Their value and significance far surpassed that of ordinary jade.
However, Gu Xiaoshun wasn't interested in this, so he gave the Buddhist beads to Gu Jiao instead.
Gu Jiao certainly wouldn't covet his things, but if he took them back to the Gu family, they would only be embezzled by the Gu family. So she accepted them for now, planning to return them to him when he got married and started his own household in the future.
"Sister, I'm going in," Gu Xiaoshun said.
Gu Xiaoshun entered the Gu family's old house, and Gu Jiao continued walking forward with her basket on her back. Soon after, she entered the house.
Xiao Liulang and the old lady were having dinner in the main room. The old lady didn't look too well, but when she saw Gu Jiao return, she showed an extremely warm expression for the first time: "Jiaojiao is back!"
Having gotten used to the old lady always having a sour face and ignoring her, Gu Jiao was a little unaccustomed to her sudden enthusiasm.
"What's wrong?" Gu Jiao looked at the food on the table. It was almost cold, but neither of them had touched their chopsticks.
The old lady pouted and said with a bitter expression, "Sixth Brother's cooking is terrible!"
He looks decent enough, but his cooking skills are even worse than that idiot Gu Xiaoshun's!
"Ah..." Gu Jiao didn't know how to answer for a moment. She looked at the old lady and then at Xiao Liulang. She had never tasted Xiao Liulang's cooking and didn't know if it was good or bad.
It's understandable that the old lady was disgusted, but why was he being disgusted by himself?
Didn't he always cook for himself before?
Gu Jiao sighed and remade the dishes, also making a few egg pancakes.
The old lady's eyes were practically glowing green!
Xiao Liulang was quite serious, but Gu Jiao felt that perhaps she had seen too many old ladies, so when she looked at Xiao Liulang again, she felt that there seemed to be a little bit of green light in his eyes.
The old lady asked about the visit to the dean: "Did you see the dean?"
"Yes, I met him. He has an elderly mother and a young servant at home. His life is simpler than I imagined." Given the position of the Dean of Tianxiang Academy, Gu Jiao had assumed that his home would be luxurious, perhaps even filled with servants, but it turned out to be nothing like that.
His house was large, yet elegant, quiet, and unpretentious.
Old lady: "Just the two of you?"
Gu Jiao: "Three, plus the servants."
Gu Jiao carried with her mindset from her previous life; even servants were human.
"Don't you have a wife and children?" the old woman asked.
“His wife has passed away.” Xiao Liulang suddenly spoke, paused, and said, “She passed away when he was young, and he never remarried.”
"How pitiful." The old lady didn't say anything more.
After dinner, Gu Jiao took out the gifts the dean had given her: a large box of osmanthus-flavored mille-feuille pastries and two fish that the dean had personally caught.
The old lady loved mille-feuille, but Xiao Liulang disliked the two fish intensely, giving them a strange look of disgust.
Gu Jiao killed and marinated the fish, then boiled water to wash up. As she was taking off her clothes, something suddenly fell out.
She picked it up and saw that it was a white jade thumb ring.
This jade thumb ring is of excellent quality, with a warm and smooth texture, resembling solidified fat; it is by no means an ordinary item.
"Strange, how did I end up with this?" She didn't remember the dean and Madam Li giving her such a treasure.
She held the jade thumb ring to her nose and smelled it; it had a faint medicinal fragrance.
"Could it be his?"
Hot Spring Resort.
After returning to the mountain villa from her daily prayers, Lady Hou was overjoyed to hear that her son had woken up. On the way, she inquired about the details of the incident.
The head maid explained to her in detail: "The young master's condition was not good, but fortunately, the miraculous doctor from Huichuntang took action and successfully revived him."
She dared not say that the young master was truly dead, since she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. She also omitted the story of the young apprentice climbing into bed, only saying that the apprentice was very clever and served the young master exceptionally well.
During their conversation, the two arrived at Gu Yan's courtyard.
After waking up, Gu Yan angrily tore up several antique paintings. He was exhausted after that and lay on the bed panting like a salted fish, looking utterly pathetic.
But the fact that he was awake was a blessing in itself. The lady of the house was so excited that she went up to him, sat on the edge of the bed, and held her son's hand: "Yan'er, you're awake?"
Gu Yan said speechlessly, "I'm not awake, I'm still unconscious."
Lady Hou, instead of getting angry at being rebuked, laughed: "Yan'er even has the strength to talk to his mother now! You were unconscious for so long, do you know how terrified your mother was? Thank goodness the Bodhisattva protected you..."
"What does this have to do with the Bodhisattva?" Gu Yan grumbled.
Lady Hou laughed and said, "Yes, yes, yes! It's all because Yan'er is lucky and has a long life!"
Gu Yan said earnestly, "She cured me. I know it was her. She even left me some medicine."
He didn't wake up when Gu Jiao tried to save him, and he didn't wake up when she left him the medicine, but he had a feeling that she was the one who did all these things.
Lady Hou assumed Gu Yan was referring to "him," the old doctor from Huichuntang, and quickly nodded, saying, "Yan'er is right. It was the doctor from Huichuntang who saved you. Mother will thank them properly. Oh? Yan'er, where did your jade thumb ring go?"
That jade thumb ring was Gu Yan's personal possession. Although no one knew where he got it from, he had carried it with him since he was a child and never allowed anyone to touch it. Once, when he couldn't find it while it was tucked under the covers, he threw a huge tantrum and fainted from anger.
“She took it,” Gu Yan said calmly.
"Who?" This time, Lady Hou didn't guess the old doctor.
Gu Yan didn't answer her question, but said, "She took it by accident."
Although they had only met once, he seemed to understand her very well, and he himself couldn't explain why he had this intuitive connection with her.
(End of this chapter)
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