Chapter 126 Lost (Two in One)
It was already dark. Gu Ping'an stood in the west wing corridor and looked towards the gate of the courtyard. It was pitch black. He could vaguely see a few figures, but nothing else.
"Who?"
I asked loudly, but received no response.
Soon, footsteps were heard and several unclear figures kept coming into the yard.
Gu Ping'an was startled and hurried back to the kitchen to light a torch, then held it out to illuminate the yard.
With the dim firelight, I finally saw who the people coming were. It was Gu Qing and his sister from the east wing.
The three siblings were in a miserable state at this time, panting heavily. Each of them carried a bundle of firewood and walked towards the yard with heavy steps and bent over.
Seeing this, Gu Pingan breathed a sigh of relief, but his expression was very ugly: "Since you are back, why didn't you answer me when I asked you questions? I thought it was a thief who sneaked into the yard!"
Ever since they found out that their mother and Zhang had stolen Gu Tang’s money, Gu Qing and his sister could no longer bear to hear the word “thief”!
Regardless of whether it is said to them or not, as long as it falls into their ears, it is a deliberate humiliation to them.
Gu Lian and Gu Tianbao were afraid that Gu Ping'an had Gu Tang's support, so they were ashamed and annoyed and kept silent. They put the firewood under the corridor of the east wing in silence and entered the east wing one after another.
Gu Qing couldn't help it, he put the firewood down vigorously, and said sarcastically: "Do you think others are like your elder brother, stealing every day?"
Gu Pingan's face turned cold.
Just as he was about to speak, Gu Tang in the room opened the door with a creaky sound and started to curse: "My eldest brother is a thief, but your mother is clean? Damn it! It's okay that she stole more than ten taels of silver from me, but the daughter of a thief woman actually dared to call someone else a thief? Bah! Shameless thing! No sense of shame!"
The insult was extremely harsh, leaving Gu Qing no face at all. She was so embarrassed that she ran back to the house immediately, not even taking the firewood at her feet.
Gu Tang snatched the torch from Gu Ping'an's hand and walked towards the east wing holding it.
He shone the light of the three bundles of firewood one by one, and then shone the light of the east wing corridor, but did not see the hatchet.
“Bang, bang, bang!!!”
After knocking on the door of the east wing three times, Gu Tang asked sternly, "Where's the hatchet? Did you take it into the house, or did you leave it in the mountains? You ignored everything I said to you before you left!"
The east wing was dead silent, with only dim lights coming through the cracks in the door and windows.
The three siblings in the room were silent.
"You're hiding in the house? Fine! If I don't see the hatchet tomorrow morning, I'll throw you all into the mountains!"
Gu Tang kicked the door angrily and returned to the west wing in a rage.
After returning the torch to Gu Ping'an, Gu Tang reminded him: "If they dare to cause trouble to you again, just call me."
Gu Pingan nodded: "I understand."
After watching Gu Tang return to the house, he went back to the kitchen to continue washing the pots and dishes.
In the east wing, Gu Qing and her brother looked as if the sky had fallen and were questioning each other.
Gu Qing glared at Gu Lian: "You were the one who chopped the last bundle of firewood! Where's the axe?!"
Gu Lian glared back without showing any weakness: "It was indeed me who chopped the last bundle of firewood! But after I finished chopping, you took the axe away! Now you want to turn the tables and ask me?"
Gu Qingyu was speechless for a moment, then turned his head and pointed at Gu Tianbao: "You were standing next to me at that time! Did you take the hatchet?!"
"You're talking nonsense! Who touched your axe?" Gu Tianbao jumped up and cursed.
"When you took the axe in the mountains, my second sister specifically reminded you that it was getting dark and you should be careful not to put the axe in a mess. If you forgot to take it back or put it in a mess and couldn't find it, you would have no way to report back.
In the end, you didn't appreciate my kindness and scolded my second sister for meddling in other people's business. You didn't allow her to take care of you and you also didn't allow me to get close to the axe! Now that the hatchet is missing, how dare you ask me and my second sister! ”
Gu Qing was furious: "I am your elder sister! You are a scholar! Is this how you are taught to talk to your elder sister?!"
"Don't talk about this! This has nothing to do with the axe! Now I just ask you, you took the axe, where is it now?" Gu Tianbao looked annoyed.
Gu Qing froze, she couldn’t remember anything.
She remembered that the hemp rope was not enough, so she took a hatchet to cut some vines to make a bundle of firewood.
After she cut the vines, she didn't remember whether she had taken the hatchet with her...
Seeing her uncertain look, Gu Tianbao knew what was going on: "Go and talk to Si Ya yourself tomorrow! See if she will forgive you!"
"You!" Gu Qing's expression changed immediately.
At this moment, the door of the east wing was knocked again - bang bang bang!
The three siblings all turned pale, thinking that Gu Tang had come again!
Gu Tang was a shameless and unreasonable person. No matter who lost the hatchet, it was lost when they went into the mountains together.
Gu Tang would definitely not miss this opportunity and would definitely teach them a lesson.
The more the three of them thought about it, the uglier their faces became, and they said nothing.
There were three more knocks on the door, and then there was a pause. A deliberately low voice followed immediately: "Tianbao, open the door! It's Dad..."
The three of them were instantly delighted and hurried forward to open the door: "Dad?"
Gu Liansheng was still leaning on a crutch. He opened the door a crack and quickly squeezed into the house.
When they came in and stood still, the first thing he did was to show off to Gu Qing and Gu Lian: "I asked you sisters to go chop wood, but you didn't come back until such a late hour! What are you coming back for? You might as well starve me to death!
besides! You can't do the wood-chopping job by yourselves, right? Why did you urge your brother to go with you! How could a scholar like him go chop wood? ! ”
Gu Qing lowered his head and curled his lips secretly, with a look of disdain on his face.
Gu Lian was very regretful and looked guilty.
After scolding the two sisters, Gu Liansheng changed the subject and scolded Gu Tianbao again: "Dad asked you to make medicine! But you gave the medicine to the second wife! Do you know that the second wife poisoned Dad's medicine today! She wanted to poison me to death!"
Gu Tianbao was dumbfounded: "How, how could it be?"
"Why not?" Gu Liansheng glared, "The Second Branch has always been dissatisfied with your grandparents for favoring our branch, and they want to oppose me everywhere! They wish I would die sooner! If I die, you three little brats will be kicked out of the house naked within three days!"
The three siblings believed what their father said and all looked terrified.
"Dad, what should we do?" Gu Tianbao was so scared that he couldn't speak clearly.
Gu Liansheng had his back to the oil lamp, and the expression on his face was hard to read. "Qing girl, take your sister to the kitchen to cook. Be patient today. Go and call your aunt and uncle tomorrow morning. Dad has something to discuss with them..."
The two sisters said nothing and walked around the father and son to the kitchen.
Gu Ping'an cleaned up the kitchen. Thinking that his father was going out for a drink and knowing whether he would get drunk, he simply asked Gu Tang for some tea leaves, who was now making tea on the stove.
When he saw the sisters Gu Qing and Gu Lian come in, he just glanced at them without saying a word, completely ignoring the sisters' presence.
The two sisters looked at the empty kitchen and then they remembered, what can they use to cook without food?
The two sisters didn't know that the key to the east wing had fallen into Gu Tang's hands, and thought that the key was still in Feng's hands.
The two sisters looked at each other. They didn't dare to go to the main room to disturb Feng at this moment, so they could only go back to the east wing to get the millet flour that was hidden in the eldest room.
This was something Feng had given them in the past. She said that she was afraid that the father and son of the eldest wife would get hungry while reading at night, so she kept it for the eldest wife to have a sneaky snack at night.
Now is the perfect time to use it for emergency. Let their father go to the main hall to get the key tomorrow.
Now that the two elders are seriously ill, it’s time to have someone else take care of the key to the east wing.
When the millet porridge was cooked, the two sisters scooped the porridge into rice bowls and carried them back to the east wing.
Gu Liansheng had been hungry for a whole day, and had been tempted by the smell of meat during the day. What he wanted to eat most now was meat, not this bland and hard-to-swallow millet porridge!
The same goes for Gu Tianbao. He suffered so much in the mountains, and now he comes back to eat this?
His face was dark, even uglier than Gu Liansheng's.
Gu Qing ignored the gloomy faces of the father and son, and served himself a bowl of rice. If they wanted to eat, they could eat, and if they didn't want to, they could go hungry.
Gu Lian felt sorry for Gu Tianbao, so she told her father about the key to the east ear room.
When Gu Liansheng heard Gu Lian mentioned the east ear room, his mood suddenly turned from gloomy to cheerful. He stopped looking away and picked up the porridge to eat.
Seeing that his father had eaten, Gu Tianbao didn't dare to lose his temper anymore. He suppressed his dissatisfaction and ate three bowls of food to fill his stomach. Then he put down his bowl and chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and left, going back to his room angrily to sleep.
Gu Liansheng was the same. After eating, he would just wipe his mouth and leave.
Instead of going back to his room to sleep, he went to the main room to find Feng to see if he could wake up his mother and ask her for the key to the east wing.
Sisters Gu Qing and Gu Lian were so tired that they could hardly lift their arms and legs.
They didn't wash the dishes on the table or the pots in the kitchen. After finishing their meal, they followed Gu Tianbao's example and went back to their room to sleep.
The two sisters went into the mountains to chop firewood for the first time, and their bones were almost falling apart.
Gu Liansheng had slept for a long time during the day, and now he was neither tired nor sleepy. He stayed in the east room of the main hall, and kept shouting at Feng, shouting more than ten times in a row.
Feng was awakened for a while by the noise, but her head was still dizzy. She groaned twice and fell asleep again in the blink of an eye.
Gu Liansheng had no choice but to search Feng's body quietly by himself.
Unfortunately, he searched Feng's house several times but found nothing!
He was so angry that he stamped his feet, thinking that Feng didn't leave the key with her.
He wanted to search Feng's house, but after calculating the time, he was afraid that Gu Lianshan might come back suddenly.
If he were to run into him, at best he would be asked to keep watch all night, and at worst he would be afraid that Gu Lianshan would continue to poison him!
After thinking about it, Gu Liansheng had to endure it for the time being and go back to the house, waiting to ask about the key when the old lady woke up tomorrow.
…
Because he had something on his mind, Gu Liansheng slept very poorly and any noise could wake him up.
He heard clearly when Gu Lianshan came back at night and when he went to the main hall to keep watch.
When the rooster crowed for the first time, he got dressed, sat on the bed, closed his eyes, and waited for dawn.
When a hint of white appeared in the sky, he woke up the sisters Gu Qing and Gu Lian and asked them to go to Wangzhai Village and invite their aunt and uncle over.
The two sisters got up shivering and put on their thickest clothes, but they were still shivering from the cold.
When I left the house, I found that it was windy outside. If I went out to another village at this time, I would probably freeze to death on the road!
But this was their father's personal order, so they had to go no matter how cold it was.
The two sisters walked out of the yard stiffly and headed towards Wangzhai Village in the cold.
Because they left early, no one except Gu Liansheng knew where the two sisters went.
After the two sisters left, Gu Liansheng closed the door tightly to prevent his vicious and ruthless second brother from breaking in.
In fact, he was completely overthinking it, as Gu Lianshan had no intention of causing trouble for him at all.
Not long after the Gu Qing sisters left, the two elders of the Gu family in the main room also woke up.
The first thing I do when I wake up is to feel hungry.
Strictly speaking, the old couple had been hungry for a day and a half. If they didn't complain about being hungry now, they would be crazy!
Hearing the two elders crying out for food, Gu Lianshan did not say that he would not give them food. He asked them to wait and said that he would go to the kitchen to cook porridge for them.
Mrs. Feng didn't want to eat porridge. She just wanted to eat meat, saying that only by eating meat could she recover from her illness.
Gu Lianshan didn't know where she heard this nonsense from, and he didn't indulge her. He reached out to her and asked for money.
"Your doctor said before that you need to take medicine every day, and it has to be good medicine. Our family can't afford just that. Now you want to eat meat, but my son can't afford it. If you want to eat meat, you have to pay for it!"
Let Feng pay the money?
Don’t even think about it!
She stared at her son fiercely: "I raised you to this age, and now you refuse to eat meat!"
"How could my son refuse? You said you wanted to eat meat, OK! As long as you give me the money, I will give you meat every day!"
"There is ready-made meat at home, why do you want me to pay for it?!" Feng had a resentful look on her face.
"Where is the ready-made meat? Why didn't my son see it?" Could the old lady be referring to the meat and chicken in the vat in the east ear room?
Sorry, the second room ate it all yesterday!
"Where are the chickens and ducks you bought? Kill one for me every day from now on!" Feng's mouth was full of demands.
Gu Lianshan turned around and left!
"I'll call my daughter in! If you have the guts, tell her what I'm saying again! If you kill her chickens and ducks, she'll send you to heaven! If you don't believe me, just try it!"
He should have left as soon as his mother opened her mouth for the first time!
He must have had his head caught by the door, and he actually heard me talking nonsense!
Gu Lianshan's words made Feng angry and panicked.
I’m angry that my son is so cold-blooded. What if Gu Tang really comes in? !
The old man Gu lying beside him had a gloomy expression on his face: "It has come to this, and you still don't learn your lesson? Have you really had enough of living?"
Feng paused, and growled in an unwilling tone: "I will be paralyzed in bed from now on. As a mother, I ask my son to kill a chicken and duck for me every day. It's not like he can't afford it! How can I not eat it?!"
Upon hearing this, Mr. Gu knew that his wife was getting into a dead end and was determined to take control of the second son's family.
"If you are not afraid of death, then go ahead and make trouble. Now our whole family has fallen into the hands of the second child. You clearly know that those chickens and ducks belong to Si Ya, but you still force your son to kill one every day. Just wait and see, Si Ya will definitely send you to death!"
Feng's breath got stuck in her heart, and her chest hurt. She gasped for air, and then she started crying.
"What sin have I committed! I have a son who wants to collect debts and a granddaughter who wants to kill me... wuwuwuwu..."
Old Master Gu stared straight at the curtain above the bed, saying nothing and ignoring Feng's sadness.
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