Chapter 91.1: Relatives
Chapter 91.1: Relatives
Marquis Gu waited outside the door for a long time. By the time he almost fell asleep, Yao shi finally came out.
Yao shi’s face was full of tears, her eyes were red and swollen, and she seemed to have cried a lot.
Marquis Gu stepped forward and held her shoulder, “Wife!”
Yao shi nodded as she held back her tears, turned her head to the elderly woman in the backyard, and bowed to her, saying, “Elderly lady, I’ll be taking my leave. Please take care of JiaoJiao for me.”
Yao shi had never been to the palace, and of course, she had never met the elderly woman either, but before she came here, she already knew that Xiao Liulang’s grandaunt was also living here, and this Grandaunt was very nice to JiaoJiao.
The elderly woman gave her a strange look and didn’t respond to her.
Yao shi asked Marquis Gu to bring out the snacks kept in the carriage and then handed it to the elderly woman. She said, “I made these snacks myself. I don’t know if it will suit your taste.”
With that, the elderly woman’s expression looked better.
As soon as Yao shi was about to turn around, the elderly woman suddenly let out a sound of response.
“……” Yao shi was confused for a moment before she realized that elderly woman was responding to what she had just said.
Was it because of the snack that she was suddenly willing to talk to her?
But then again, it wasn’t much of a conversation, just a sound of response.
Yao shi made snacks for everyone in Gu Jiao’s family, so Little Jing Kong also received a share.
After that, Yao shi and Marquis Gu got on the carriage and headed back for the villa.
Marquis Gu couldn’t wait to know what the mother and daughter talked about. He asked, “What did the girl say?”
“What did she say…” Yao shi recalled the scene after she told Gu Jiao the whole truth.
Gu Jiao’s reaction was calm, at least calmer than Yao shi had imagined, as if what she heard was not about her own life, but someone else’s.
Then she mumbled something in disbelief, and her eyes flashed a trace of confusion.
She was clearly in front of Yao shi, but at that moment Yao shi felt that her daughter was far away.
From beginning to end, Gu Jiao only said one thing that only puzzled Yao shi: “If only you had come earlier, at least half a year earlier.”
Yao shi didn’t understand at all.
The husband and wife of the Gu Family’s third branch had died nine years ago.
Their daughter got married and separated from the Gu Family a year ago.
What did she mean by they should have come at least half a year earlier?
Did anything happen six months ago that they didn’t know?
Did she suffer any harm?
Yao shi headed back home in this sort of mood.
Meanwhile, Xiao Liulang asked the academy for a half-day leave, went to the Rejuvenation Hall to buy some medicinal herbs, and rode his way back to the village by Second Uncle Luo’s oxcart, which happened to pass by Marquis Gu’s carriage.
The curtain of the carriage was blown open by the wind. When Marquis Gu glanced outside at random, he saw Xiao Liulang on the oxcart.
He was so shocked that he staggered again, hitting his head against the carriage wall, so that the big bump that had finally disappeared was once again bulging!
He rubbed his eyes and wanted to take a look one more time, but the oxcart had already gone away.
He stuck his head out of the carriage window and slowly looked back.
“What are you looking at?” Yao shi asked.
Marquis Gu withdrew his head and said, “Ah, it’s nothing.”
What was up with today? Did he forget to flip over the divination guide book before he went out?
First, he met a village elderly lady who looked like the Empress Dowager, and then he ran into a poor scholar who looked like the Little Marquis of Zhao.
The Empress Dowager was in the palace recuperating from her illness, while the Little Marquis of Zhao had already passed away. How could they be here?
Marquis Gu secretly muttered, “Seems like I’ve seen a ghost.”
Xiao Liulang actually saw Marquis Gu’s carriage, but he didn’t look into the window, so he didn’t know who was sitting inside.
But he saw and noticed the horseshoe of the horses.
That wasn’t an ordinary horseshoe. It was specifically used by the Marquises of the capital.
The carriage seemed to be coming back from the village, and Xiao Liulang’s first thought was that they came from his house, especially when the man popped his head out to look at him when their vehicles going in opposite directions had passed each other.
Xiao Liulang didn’t look back. His expression was cold as he said to Second Uncle Luo, “Second Uncle Luo, please hurry up, Lady Jiao is ill.”
“All right!” Second Uncle Luo answered.
After Yao shi and Marquis Gu left, Gu Jiao stayed in her room for a while.
She remembered the nonsensical dream she had, which actually turned out to be true. She really was the flesh and blood of the Marquis Ding’an Estate.
“Well, then, I misunderstood him that day.”
Marquis Gu said he was her old man, which meant literally. She thought he was looking for trouble or something.
But that wasn’t the point. That man was simply annoying anyway, beating him up was just beating him up. The important thing was that dream.
In the dream, the one who recognized her wasn’t Yao shi, but Marquis Gu himself.
Yao shi and Gu Yan never appeared in her dream. Based on the relationship between Yao shi and Marquis Gu, it was unlikely that Yao shi was abandoned by him. Combined with Yao shi’s condition and Gu Yan’s illness, Gu Jiao speculated that Gu Yan and Yao shi died before they could return to the Marquis Estate in the capital.
Gu Yan died of heart disease, while Yao shi probably couldn’t stand the blow of his son’s death and either died of illness or took her own life.
Without the protection of her mother and brother, the version of her in the dream was like a rootless duckweed, only bearing the title of Marquis Estate’s young miss, but living like an outsider.
“JiaoJiao!”
Little Jing Kong walked in while holding up his injured little finger.
Gu Jiao recovered her senses, turned her head and looked at Little Jing Kong, “What’s the matter?”
Little Jing Kong walked up to Gu Jiao and showed him his bleeding index finger, “I’m hurt.”
Gu Jiao pulled his tiny index finger and looked at it, saying, “How did you get hurt?”
“I was smashing the walnuts.” Little Jing Kong said with grievance.
The walnuts were the ones Gu Jiao brought back from the market. Some people traded vegetables for her mountain products, while others traded eggs. She usually didn’t care about what people used to trade for her goods, and sometimes she would just end up surprised by the contents of her back basket.
“Be careful next time.” Gu Jiao didn’t forbid him from smashing walnuts again. It was inevitable that children would get wounded at times. She wasn’t a parent who would refrain her child from eating for fear of the child getting choked.
Gu Jiao took an iodophor and cotton swabs out of her medicine chest to disinfect Little Jing Kong’s wound. She said, “It’s fine, it’s not serious, don’t wipe the medicine.”
“I want a blow on it.” Little Jing Kong said while blinking his big eyes.
Gu Jiao blew his wound for him.