Chapter 268: Father and Son (3)
Translator: Iris
What he really wanted was standing by and watching those people die. However, after he had thought carefully and weighed the advantages and the disadvantages of saving them, he finally restrained his anger. That was why he felt deeply wronged right now. He only hated that God had treated him so unfairly since God always forced him to do what he didn’t want to.
He didn’t come back to change his clothes. He just wanted to find someone to talk to because he felt so aggrieved.
In fact, Minglan had also considered this issue for days. The Fourth Family and the Fifth Family had treated Gu Tingye so badly for three reasons: First, they despised the son of the woman from a salt merchant’s family. They felt that Gu Tingye’s mother had brought disgrace to their family. Second, as long as Gu Tingye, the man who had every right to sneer at them, stayed in the family, they wouldn’t feel at ease when using the money given by the Bai’s family. Third, they needed someone to take the blame for their unpromising sons in order to save their own face in front of Old Master Gu. Gu Tingye was the perfect scapegoat.
Because of the reasons above, they disdained and hated Gu Tingye more and more as time went by.
However, although those people were detestable, Gu Tingye wasn’t in a serious conflict with them. The real bloody fight Gu Tingye had was actually with the people of the First family.
“My Fourth Sister... You know about her, right?” After Minglan remained silent for a long while, she suddenly said, “The one who married into Marquis Yongchang’s family.”
Gu Tingye was a bit surprised to hear that and then nodded.
“I never get along with her ever since I was a little girl.” Minglan reached out her little hand to hold his large hand, feeling his skin extremely cold. Then she said slowly, “She doesn’t like me because she thinks I have stolen Grandma’s favor, our tutor’s praise and our father’s care from her. I, I don’t like her either. She... has an evil mind.”
Gu Tingye turned around. Although he didn’t know why Minglan brought that up, he still listened to her carefully.
“Once, I spent half a month making a pair of shoes for my father as his birthday gift. She took the shoes away with the excuse of taking a look at the embroidery and cut them on purpose. I had to stay up late for a few nights in order to make a new pair.”
Minglan told the story calmly with her head lowered while rubbing Gu Tingye’s large hands gently, “I’ve been set up by her too many times since our childhood. She spoke ill of me in front of my father and drove a wedge between Madam Wang and me. I always had to redouble the efforts to save the situation...”
Minglan had never dared to deliver the meal to her father or brothers in order to guard against Molan’s plot.
“Why haven’t you fought back fiercely?”
Gu Tingye asked that with a sullen face while holding Minglan’s little hands. When he touched her soft and warm palm, he felt a slight pain in his heart. ‘Her mother died early. Although she has been protected by her grandmother, no one would put in a good word for her in front of her father. Her legal mother and sister are bad-tempered, her father’s concubine and the other daughter in the family are adept at scheming. I can not imagine how her life has been like over these years.”
“At first I wasn’t capable of fighting back because I could never think of a good idea.” Minglan raised her head and recalled the past with a wry smile. She was telling the truth. “When I got older, I also played tricks on her secretly a few times. However, most of the time I would be defeated.”
With a smile, Gu Tingye tapped her pretty little nose and teased her, “You useless girl.” In his view, the fights between little girls were nothing serious anyway.
“Once she almost cut my face with broken porcelain pieces. That time I really got furious and made up my mind that I would definitely hit her when she was down.” Minglan bit her red lips while giving a naughty smile.
The look on Gu Tingye’s face changed all of a sudden. Before he could say anything, Minglan changed to a flat tone again, “But that’s not what I want to do now.”
She paused and said calmly, “As long as I live a better life than her, she would feel terrible every time she sees me. I know she couldn’t even sleep all night when thinking of my happiness.”
Watching Minglan living a well-off life and Rulan being happy was more miserable for Molan than killing her. Minglan knew that because she knew Molan so well. Molan’s jealousy and regret would bite her heart every night, making her unable to sleep.
Gu Tingye squinted his eyes lightly. He was clever enough to understand Minglan’s words.
Old Master Gu had taken the people of the Fourth and the Fifth family under his wing for so long that they already didn’t know how to deal with the crisis. What was more, their descendants were all unpromising. Gu Tingwei, the legal son of the First family, had studied for so long and was still a Lin Sheng(T/N: scholars who live on government grants).
Considering Gu Tingye’s career, it was clear to see that the gap between him and the people of the Gu’s family would only get wider and wider in the future.
“Don’t get angry, don’t be aggrieved. We’ll surely live a better life than they do in the future.” Minglan looked at Gu Tingye with a serious look on her face while saying in a soft but firm tone, “As long as they see how great our life is, you can vent all your anger.”
“You really think I did the right thing?” Gu Tingye said that gently with a dazed look on his face. He looked at Minglan with a bit hesitant look in his eyes as if he was waiting for a promise eagerly, “I didn’t bring justice to my dead mother for my own interests...”
“You were right. Also, you will eventually get justice for your dead mother.” Minglan nodded decidedly, saying, “You can ask His Majesty to confer a title upon her and built a temple for her. You can invite the highly respected elders in your family to rewrite the family tree for her to let all the descendants of the Gu family know what Bai shi has done for the Gu family. You can decide everything in the Gu family from now on.”
The history was written by the victors. Tons of the stories of the losers had fallen into oblivion.
From now on, Gu Tingye could sing the praises of Bai shi as he wanted. To put it bluntly, those bastards would definitely beg Gu Tingye for other things. By then, Gu Tingye could order them to kneel and kowtow in front of Bai shi grave in a group to confess what they had done to her.
“You are so right.”
Gu Tingye said. After he had pondered for a while with his head lowered, the confused look on his face gradually disappeared. Then he gave a confident smile on his face and said, “I’ll do whatever I should. I won’t make a detour for the ones who don’t deserve my attention.”
Minglan knew that he had got over it, so she applauded him to show how appreciative she was of his wise choice.
In the meantime, this man who had star-like pretty eyes and beautiful eyebrows only stared at her quietly while touching her tender face softly.
Minglan blushed and looked outside the window right away.
He didn’t sense the shyness of her and gave a smile, saying in a low voice, “You are so great.”
Minglan’s face turned even redder.
At that, Gu Tingye suddenly waved his long sleeves. Before Minglan had time to react, she was already dragged into his arms tightly. She smelled the familiar scent of the man which was mixed with the light smell of Lignum Aquilarlae Resinatum. The brown golden silk threads which had been embroidered on his sleeves looked like branches wreathed with vines.
Then, the man’s voice which was as heavy as the Jie Drum came through, “I will give whatever I have and try everything I can do to make all things in this mansion or out of this mansion go as you wish.”
Minglan was covered by the large sleeves of his robe and couldn’t see anything. Although she said to herself secretly that she should never trust a man’s sweet words, her heart still couldn’t help but beat fast.
...
After he had changed his clothes and left, Minglan still lay on the bed while staring at the seedlings of the kaffir lily on the window sill in a trance.
He was clever and sensitive with lots of experience. There was nothing he couldn’t understand, and there were no interests relations he couldn’t sort out. However, no matter how clearly he saw through things, he still needed to get over his own grievance first.
Gu Tingyu was a capable guy after all.
While she was thinking about that, she took out a letter from her sleeves, which had dropped from his clothes this morning.
“... It is the father's fault not to teach the son well... He’s a straightforward and sincere boy. It’s all my fault that he has become so disobedient today... I don’t know where he is right now, I miss him very much... Brother, please take care of him. Do not let him suffer hardships or get in danger... I would appreciate your help so much. I implores you...”
The paper had already turned yellow and crispy. It seemed that someone had scrunched the paper and flattened it. There were some round water stains on the words, which shaded the handwriting of the old man.
She suddenly felt a dull pain in her heart.
Actually, he was a really great man.
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