Chapter 114.1: Provincial Exam
Chapter 114.1: Provincial Exam
The elderly woman made Wu Yang spend the whole day at home, using him as a tool so she could eat more dessert. One moment, she would let Wu Yang say, “Young Miss Gu I’m a bit hungry, can I have some candied fruits”, then the next moment, “Young Miss Gu I feel thirsty, can I have mung bean soup, the super sweet one…”
When he returned to the villa, Wu Yang simply doubted life itself.
When An Junwang met him in the room, he asked, “How did it go? Did you see clearly whether the elderly lady is really the Empress Dowager?”
Wu Yang’s complexion didn’t look good as he answered, “I’ve seen her clearly…”
But was she really the Empress Dowager?
Wu Yang told An Junwang about his miserable experience today.
An Junwang was shocked. He too remembered that when he was in the village yesterday, he seemed to have heard some strange words from the Empress Dowager’s mouth. At first, he was too excited about seeing the Empress Dowager to take it to heart. Later, although he came back to his senses, he only thought that the Empress Dowager was playing the fool to lower the guard of the Gu Family who had her under house arrest.
“This subordinate thinks that isn’t the case at all.” Wu Yang pondered for a moment before speaking again, “When Young Miss Gu went to fetch water, only the Empress Dowager and this subordinate were left in the room. If the Empress Dowager was merely playing the fool, without the presence of outsiders, there shouldn’t be any reason not to be honest with me.”
However, that wasn’t the case. The Empress Dowager was solely preoccupied with eating. Every time he tried to speak with her, the Empress Dowager would raise her hand to interrupt him.
Why didn’t he know that the Empress Dowager was such a glutton before?
According to An Junwang’s impression of Empress Dowager Zhuang, she wasn’t one to ignore business just for a mere food, but it was true that she couldn’t eat too many sweets. The imperial physician advised repeatedly that she should have a light diet since she was getting advanced in age.
An Junwang murmured, “How could that be? Did the Empress Dowager lose her memory? And that leads to a great change in temperament?”
Or perhaps this was the real nature of the Empress Dowager, and the Empress Dowager was faking all those years in the palace?
But what kind of person could pretend for decades? Wearing a ruthless mask for such a long time should inevitably reveal a flaw, no?
An Junwang preferred to believe the former. The Empress Dowager had forgotten some things, so the characteristics brought about by those things also faded away, changing her into a complete stranger.
Wu Yang dared not speculate and only asked, “What is Junwang going to do? Do you still want to take the Empress Dowager back to the capital? “
“I don’t know.” An Junwang let out a sigh.
An Empress Dowager, who only had food in her head all day long, would not be His Majesty’s opponent. Though he was really worried about leaving her here, right under Marquis Ding’an’s watch.
An Junwang thought about it for a while, then told Wu Yang, “I don’t understand a few things.”
“What things?” Wu Yang asked.
An Junwang pushed open the porch window and looked at the yard full of flowers and plants, saying, “How did the Empress Dowager lose her memory? Does this matter have anything to do with the Marquis Ding’an Estate?”
Wu Yang immediately followed up, “Junwang means that they deliberately made the Empress Dowager foolish?”
An Junwang cast him a cold look.
Wu Yang shrank his neck, bowed his head and said, “This subordinate spoke wrongly.”
Though she indeed seemed a bit silly, how could he call the Empress Dowager foolish?
An Junwang asked, “Have you found out the identity of Young Miss Gu?”
Wu Yang answered, “Yes. She is the elder sister of the twins. When the Marchioness gave birth in a temple, she took the wrong child, who was the child of a village woman. Gu Jinyu is the one that should be from that village. However, because of the family’s affection for her after raising her for so many years, even after they found out the truth recently, they didn’t send Gu Jinyu back to her real family. As for the real Young Miss Gu, it is said that she didn’t want to go back to the Marquis Estate. Also, she’s already married. Her husband isn’t from Qingquan Village and arrived there from another place.”
“Who did you ask about this?” Asked An Junwang.
Wu Yang replied, “This subordinate asked the Marchioness directly.”
Yao shi didn’t think it was a secret, so when Wu Yang came to ask, Yao shi openly told him the truth.
An Junwang mused, “So, Young Miss Gu wasn’t deliberately arranged to live in the village by Marquis Gu?”
Wu Yang shook his head, saying, “Probably not. This subordinate speculated that the Empress Dowager might have been taken in by Young Miss Gu after losing her memory. But… How did she become the grandaunt of Young Miss Gu’s husband?”
“Leprosy.” An Junwang squinted his eyes and said.
“What?” Wu Yang was taken aback.
An Junwang raised his hand and touched the potted begonia on the windowsill. “Didn’t you just say that Young Miss Gu’s husband is not from that village?”
Wu Yang, still confused, responded, “Yes, but what does it have to do with them taking in the Empress Dowager? Could Young Miss Gu’s husband be a relative of the Empress Dowager?”
Impossible. With such an honorable and noble identity, how could the Empress Dowager be related to a poor boy from the countryside?
An Junwang said thoughtfully, “The Empress Dowager, who had leprosy, fainted in front of Young Miss Gu’s house, and Young Miss Gu unknowingly touched her, what would you do if you were in her shoes?”
Wu Yang’s eyes widened at once. “That’s not good, yes? Leprosy is a very contagious disease. Even just a brief contact with someone who has it and you will also be sent to the Leprosy Mountain! Could it be… “
An Junwang faintly raised the corner of his lips as he said, “That’s right. In order not to be sent to the Leprosy Mountain, they had to take in the Empress Dowager and also cure the Empress Dowager of her disease. In order not to arouse suspicion, they lied that she was the grandaunt of Young Miss Gu’s husband who came to seek shelter with them.”
Wu Yang suddenly realized, “Right, Young Miss Gu’s husband is not from that village, and of course, her husband’s grandaunt is also an outsider. Indeed, no one will doubt them at all!”
An Junwang fiddled with the beautiful begonia flower in front of him. “What I’m curious about is, how did Young Miss Gu cure the Empress Dowager’s leprosy?”
Marquis Gu said she was just a medicine girl. It seemed that he didn’t know his own daughter at all.
Wu Yang suddenly looked straight into An Junwang’s eye and said, “Junwang, if she can cure leprosy, then…”
An Junwang raised his hand and stopped what he was going to say next. “This prince still doesn’t trust her.”
Wu Yang sighed with a complicated look as he replied, “Understood. Then… What is Junwang planning to do… on Empress Dowager’s side?”
An Junwang pondered for a moment before speaking, “The Empress Dowager has lost her memory. She won’t leave with this prince even if I come to meet her in person, rather, I might expose her identity instead. This isn’t a wise move. Find some people to steal the Empress Dowager in the middle of the night!”
Wu Yang: “Steal, we’re going to steal people away?”
Why did he feel this statement sounded a bit weird?
Wu Yang acted quickly. At night, he took seven martial arts experts to Qingquan Village to steal… Er, no, to take people back.
When they arrived at Young Miss Gu’s home, he found two dark guards lurking nearby.
They should be the dark guards from Marquis Ding’an Estate that were tasked to secretly protect the twins. Wu Yang thought it would be best to distract them first, otherwise things would get troublesome if the Empress Dowager was awakened by the noise.
However, dark guards were different from ordinary guards, they were unlikely to leave their masters at the same time. Just as Wu Yang was wondering how to carry out the plan to distract the both of them away, the two dark guards walked out of the house by themselves and ran into the mountains for some reason.
Wu Yang：“…”
Hey, was it really okay for you two to just leave like that?
Whatever, time was precious, they must take action quickly!
Wu Yang gestured to the seven black-clad men to make their move. They soared into the air and landed into the backyard.
Wu Yang also planned to sneak into the backyard, but just as he got into the position to jump up, he heard a loud bang, followed by a black-clad man flying out like a sandbag.
Wu Yang was a little stupefied.
Did they enter the wrong way?
Wu Yang quickly leapt onto the wall.
At that moment, a second black-clad man flitted past him in a graceful arc and landed heavily on the open space outside the house.
Wu Yang was completely dumbfounded at this moment.
Didn’t the dark guards just leave? They were back so soon?