ch 39 – Bartering (2)
If she was the one to be adopted, she would become a daughter of an official family, and one in a First Rank Official family. She would be respected and fawned over wherever she went…. But, it was quite obvious that their Aunty favored Jun Li-er more than her. Jun Li-er was the biggest obstacles standing between her becoming Miss Duchess!
“Xiao Mei, what do you think Second Sister meant by what she said? Why did it sound like she wanted me to interrupt Aunty’s plan to locate our little cousin?” Jun Li-er might be straightforward, but she wasn’t stupid. How many stupid people are there within the noble families after all?
Xiao Mei frowned, casted a glance over at “Chunhui Hall” and said, “Miss, don’t listen to her! Never mind whether the Duchess will adopt a girl from the Jun’s, the Duke and Duchess are so eager to find Miss Cousin; if they ever find out you tried to interfere, they would certainly dislike you.”
“I don’t need you to tell me that!” Jun Li-er pursed her lips as she toyed with the knotted pouch on her waist. “She is a commoner girl after all, her mannerism was the same as her mother’s – always plotting and planning. Does she really think I am that stupid to let her use me as a tool? Sure, the title of Miss Duchess is quite attractive, but the title of Miss Prefecture isn’t half bad either! Aunty likes me so much, I will never do anything that would hurt her. Xiao Mei, you and Xiao Zhao pay more attention to the activities within Chunhui Hall. I don’t think Jun Miao-er to do anything stupid that will drag us down with her!”
In the study of a courtyard in the front of the structure, an old man with a head of white hair and a face full of messy beard bid his farewell to the Duke, “Major General, I have been away from my home town for almost 30 years, it was time for me to return and enjoy my peaceful golden years.”
“Uncle Gu, you have been with my father for 30 years. You nearly lost your own life while trying to save my second son during our exile. You are like family to the Chu’s. You don’t have any more family members, why don’t you stay here and just train the youngsters in the House and help with training some guards…” The Duke tried the best he can to convince him to stay.
Old Gu gave an honest smile and said, “I am the only one left of my branch and I can’t let my branch end with me. Before I joined the military the clan leader had made the decision and helped me adopt a boy. I want to return to my home town so I can one, test out the nature of my adopted son. If he’s any good, I will take him to Capital City to help you out. And two, my home town isn’t far from Yan, I can also help with looking for your daughter…”
When the Duke heard that, he stopped pushing him to stay. He had the steward brought over a few bank notes, totally around 1,000 taels and handed them all over to Old Gu and said, “These are for you. I will have Zhang Gui look after your house in the east of the city while you are away.” Zhang Gui is the name of the steward, his family had been serving the Chu’s for generations.
After leaving the Duke’s residence, Old Gu picked up a couple sets of old clothes, hired an old and dilapidated cart and headed North toward a nameless small town North of Yan.
Inside the nameless town, Mrs. Gu gave Gu Qiao a look, and Gu Qiao returned an almost unnoticeable nod. None of the exchanged failed to escape Gu Ye, who had been observing the couple intently this entire time.
Gu Qiao cleared his throat and said to Gu Ming, who had been looking around curiously at all the new things and said, “Ming-er, you must be hungry? You see that corner right there? They have shaobing over there, why don’t you go and buy us a few, hmm?” Having said that, he handed over six wen to Gu Ming.
The cost of shaobing was two wen each. Mrs. Gu’s heart was bleeding when she saw that, “You didn’t need to give him so much. Just get one and we can split it and all have a taste of it. We did bring food with us.”