Chapter 811 My cousin is reborn and wants to snatch my marriage (20)
"Are you falling for some unreliable man again?" Zhou was shocked when she heard this and asked hurriedly, thinking that Gu Shiyao had been deceived by a man with bad intentions again.
"No, no! Mother, don't worry, the man I like is a talented scholar who will be taking part in the imperial examination next year. He will definitely be on the list then." Gu Shiyao said confidently. For the future prime minister, wouldn't it be a piece of cake for him to pass the imperial examination?
However, Zhou couldn't believe her words. After all, no student could be sure that he would pass the exam. Anyone who dared to say so was either someone who stole the test questions and tried to cheat, or a liar who wanted to deceive others.
Zhou ruled out the first possibility. After all, cheating in the imperial examinations today would be courting death, so she was more inclined to believe that her daughter was deceived by a sly liar.
Therefore, she said to Gu Shiyao in a frustrated manner: "Yao'er, when did you get acquainted with someone of questionable character again? Haven't you learned your lesson from the previous scandal? Even the direct disciples of the Grand Secretary or the Grand Tutor of the current dynasty cannot guarantee that they will definitely be on the list of the Spring Examination. So, Yao'er, any student who dares to guarantee you this must be a liar."
"Impossible! He is not that kind of person. He is really talented. Mother, I am very sure that I have not been deceived." Gu Shiyao assured with a serious face, "That person did not promise me that he would pass the exam. It was because I saw that he was talented, knowledgeable, and had an extraordinary demeanor that I knew he would have a bright future."
However, Zhou didn't believe her judgment at all, but Gu Shiyao said that she had fallen in love with that scholar. Zhou couldn't persuade her and had to ask who that man was.
Gu Shiyao said shyly: "That man is called Tang Buqing, a student from Jiangnan. He has no one at home except an old mother. Although his family is a little poor, he is very motivated and capable. He will definitely be able to ennoble his wife and children in the future..."
Gu Shiyao praised Tang Buqing like a flower. Thinking of the glory of Tang Buqing and Gu Shichu in their previous life, she couldn't wait to make this rich son-in-law her own.
When Zhou saw her expression when she talked about Tang Buqing, her heart skipped a beat, knowing that her daughter really fell in love with that man. She couldn't hide the joy and longing on her face.
"Okay, mother knows about this. Don't mention it to your father for now. I will ask someone to investigate him first to confirm whether he is really as noble and talented as you said. If he is, then mother will list him as a candidate for your husband." Zhou did not reject Gu Shiyao at the first time, but planned to find something to hold against Tang Buqing and expose his true face in front of her daughter.
Yes, Zhou didn’t believe at all that Tang Buqing was really as good as Gu Shiyao said. She had already formed a preconceived notion that Tang Buqing was a scum who only knew how to deceive innocent girls.
Gu Shiyao didn't know that Zhou was thinking this way. In order to increase her lover's favorability, she also told him about the time she saved Tang Buqing:
"Mother, I have saved Tang Buqing before. Last time, when my third sister and I went to the Wanfo Temple to burn incense, we met him unconscious on the road. I saved him and sent him back to the Wanfo Temple to take good care of him. So I have a debt of gratitude to him. If I really marry him in the future, he will treat me well even if it is to repay my kindness. Don't worry, mother. He is a man who knows how to repay his gratitude..."
However, her words not only failed to dispel Zhou's suspicion of Tang Buqing, but made her more suspicious of Tang Buqing. What did he mean by fainting on the road? Wasn't he deliberately fainting in front of his daughter's carriage so that he could get to know the daughter of noble status, win her heart, climb into our Duke's Mansion, and then rise to prominence with the help of his father-in-law?
This is what the students who come from poor families and claim to be talented but have no family background like to do the most. By hooking up with a lady from a wealthy family, they can work less for 20 or 30 years. Even thousands of years later, this kind of thing is still a very popular way for Phoenix men to jump class through marriage.
After Zhou sent her mentally ill daughter away, she hurriedly ordered people to investigate Tang Buqing, who had "ill intentions".
Poor Tang Buqing was really in a situation where he had something wrong with him. He had no intention of getting close to the eldest daughter of the Duke's mansion. Even the bag of silver that Gu Shiyao insisted on leaving for him, he did not use it at all for the sake of his pride and good reputation, but directly gave it to the Wanfo Temple as incense money.
As the wife of Duke Anguo, Zhou had many capable people at her disposal, and Tang Buqing was just a student from a very simple family who was going to Beijing to take the imperial examinations. There were traces of his life of just over twenty years. Therefore, it didn't take long for the people Zhou sent to find out everything about Tang Buqing's ancestors for three generations, and even found out that his grandfather had an affair with a neighbor widow when he was young.
Zhou read the investigation information about Tang Buqing again and again and found that he was indeed a student who only cared about studying and didn't care about anything else. His life trajectory was simple to the point of being boring. He either studied at home or in school, or went to a familiar bookstore to copy books and sell paintings to make money. He would occasionally attend gatherings with his classmates, but there was nothing else he did.
Zhou was unable to see any signs of Tang Buqing's bad character from this information. Instead, he saw that he was a very pure student.
"Could it be that Yao'er's vision has really improved this time?" Zhou was half-believing and half-doubting, but she did believe in the abilities of her subordinates, so she asked Gu Shiyao again whether she really liked Tang Buqing. After getting her affirmative answer, Zhou went to find her husband, Duke Anguo.
"Master, Mr. Tang is indeed an ambitious scholar. Although his family is poor, as long as he passes the imperial examination next year, and with your help, his future will not be too bad. So why don't you ask Mr. Tang to come to your house to test him? If he is really a promising talent, why not help your daughter."
Gu Taoxing looked at the information Zhou handed him about Tang Buqing, and saw that he only had a widowed mother at home, so he frowned and said, "Will a son raised by a widow be foolishly filial? What if he only cares about being filial to his mother and wrongs his wife? Can Yao'er, who has always been willful and spoiled, tolerate this?"
"She's just a widow, how domineering can she be? Besides, our family is a duke's mansion. Even for the sake of her son's future, she dare not give our daughter a hard time. Master, it's good enough to have only one mother-in-law in the family, and we can keep her under control, so she can't make any waves. But if Yao'er marries into a large family with a complex population, she will have to bear the brunt of both a mother-in-law and a great-grandmother-in-law. That would be very uncomfortable." Zhou said with lingering fear. She had suffered such a punishment before.
Gu Taoxing apparently also recalled the days when he was caught between his mother, grandmother and wife and was bullied by all three sides, and he suddenly fell silent.
(End of this chapter)
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