Chapter 388: Suspicion
Chapter 388: Chapter 388: Suspicion
The couple finished their wild vegetable soup without tasting a thing, completely oblivious to its inherent bitterness.
Xu Yulan set her bowl and chopsticks aside as soon as she finished eating. "Out with it. What’s the story behind all your injuries? Didn’t you promise me before? No more gambling."
"These injuries are all because of Kai Yuan," Gu Kaichen replied.
"Gu Kaiyuan? He laid a hand on you?" The fact that he hadn’t been beaten over gambling, but rather by Gu Kaiyuan, was unacceptable to Xu Yulan. What right did Gu Kaiyuan have to hit her husband?
"Are you stupid? You just stood there and let him hit you? Didn’t you know to fight back?" At that moment, Xu Yulan had clearly forgotten that Gu Kaiyuan knew martial arts. If it had been a real fight, there was no way Gu Kaichen would still be standing there.
"He didn’t hit me. He had that lapdog servant of Ms. Bai’s rile up the bystanders, and they pelted me with stones."
Now that he had eaten something and knew they could leave for the capital tomorrow, he had finally relaxed—only to realize that his entire body ached. He didn’t even know where to clutch; there wasn’t a single spot on him that didn’t hurt.
"That’s outrageous! Tell me exactly what happened." Xu Yulan gritted her teeth. "When we return to the capital, we’ll tell father. The way Gu Kaiyuan and his wife have behaved lately is utterly treasonous! He needs to send someone to teach them a harsh lesson. Better yet, have the two of them tied up and dragged back to the capital so they can watch us live the good life."
She had been suppressing her grievances for so long that she could barely hold on anymore. Meanwhile, Gu Kaiyuan and his wife were living comfortably, turning a blind eye to her suffering. Setting aside the fact that she was married to Kai Chen, she was also Kai Yuan’s older cousin. With those two layers of relations, he still refused to look out for her. It was clear how cold and heartless he was.
Her words reminded Gu Kaichen that he still owed a gambling debt at the casino. If he didn’t return the silver today, the debt collectors would likely be blocking their door first thing tomorrow morning.
He immediately jumped to his feet in panic. "No, we can’t leave tomorrow. We have to leave tonight."
Xu Yulan jumped in fright. "Why are you acting so skittish? Didn’t we agree to leave tomorrow? They haven’t even gathered enough money yet, and we still need to prepare rations. How can we leave now?"
Realizing he couldn’t hide it any longer, Gu Kaichen confessed that he had racked up another gambling debt at the casino.
The memory of the debt collectors’ previous visits drained the color from Xu Yulan’s face. She opened her mouth to scold him, but knowing it would be useless right now, she silently went back into the room. She gathered their two bundles, shoved them into his arms, and said, "Let’s go. We have to leave right now."
Meanwhile, Gu Baimu was busy discussing matters with the others. Everyone was willing to go to the capital, but when it came to forking over silver, no one stepped forward.
"Clan Leader, we’ve had nothing but expenses and no income since we got here. Everyone knows exactly how much silver the old Clan Leader distributed to us. It was just that little bit, and after buying necessities these past few days, it’s mostly gone. How could we possibly take out any more silver?"
"That’s right! My family only has a few copper coins left. We can’t find any work in the county town, so where would we get the silver for travel expenses?"
"Well, my family doesn’t have a single copper coin to our name. But I can offer some of our grain to use as rations for the journey."
"We can provide rations too..."
After all, they wanted their families to go to the capital as well. They couldn’t exactly travel on empty stomachs, so bringing their own rations made perfect sense.
"Are you planning to walk there?" Gu Baimu wanted his own son to join them, but traveling on foot would mean suffering terrible hardships. Not to mention anything else, just the heavy baggage alone would likely cause people to collapse after only a few days of walking.
As for the ox carts they used to have, they had been sold off early on due to conflicts over how to distribute them among the clansmen, with the money divided among the households. Trying to get these people to cough up that silver now was harder than scaling the heavens.
Everyone chattered endlessly, but no one could come up with a mutually beneficial solution. The consensus was clear: they had no money, only worthless lives that could be tossed around as they saw fit.
Gu Baimu didn’t have a good solution either. He could only listen quietly to their discussions. If he spoke up now, he feared all their frustrations would be directed at him.
Sure enough, his fears became reality. After discussing it back and forth, everyone’s gaze ultimately landed on him. Someone in the crowd muttered under their breath, "If the old Clan Leader were here, he definitely would have thought of a way by now."
Only then did everyone remember Gu Li’s merits. Although the old Clan Leader was a bit dictatorial, he would make swift decisions whenever matters were discussed. Here they were, wasting half the day talking until their mouths were dry, yet they still hadn’t found a solution. And judging by the new Clan Leader’s expression, he didn’t have a way to fix it either.
Gu Baimu felt a suffocating anger building in his chest, not knowing who to vent it on. Afraid that Gu Li’s constant presence would undermine his authority, he had deliberately bypassed Gu Li’s branch of the family for this meeting. Yet, these people were still thinking about Gu Li! So what exactly had he been busy with all these days?
"Let’s not talk about anything else right now. Today, every household needs to raise one tael of silver. If you don’t have enough silver, go borrow it or sell your things. Don’t tell me you really want to stay in this impoverished backwater forever?"
Before the crowd could react, Gu Kaichen and his wife rushed into the room, their bundles slung over their backs. "We must leave tonight," Gu Kaichen announced.
"We haven’t even raised the silver yet. What’s the rush?"
Gu Kaichen’s eyes darted around evasively. Xu Yulan knew that if they didn’t explain the situation clearly, these people wouldn’t cooperate. "If we don’t leave now, the debt collectors will be knocking on our door..."
Once Xu Yulan finished speaking, all the members of the Gu Family stared at Gu Kaichen in absolute disbelief. Some even began to suspect that Gu Kaichen was simply trying to flee but lacked the travel funds to do so.
Naturally, they voiced their suspicions out loud. Now, everyone glared at Gu Kaichen with hostile eyes. He was trying to use them as scapegoats!
"Gu Kaichen, give it to me straight. Is the news about your father actually true?" Gu Baimu never imagined that the very first major event he faced as Clan Leader might be a scam. How could he not be furious?
He glared at Gu Kaichen’s swollen, beaten face. How could he have been foolish enough to believe him earlier?
Sensing the dangerous shift in the atmosphere, Gu Kaichen’s survival instincts kicked in, and he immediately explained, "Clan Leader, I truly didn’t lie to you.
"I did lose at gambling and owe some silver. I originally wanted to find Kai Yuan to help me pay off my debt, but he was completely heartless. He even had his servant rile up the bystanders to attack me—that’s how I got these injuries.
"I wanted to report it to the authorities, but the County Magistrate wasn’t around. So, I headed back to the village first. On my way, I overheard some people talking about my father, and that’s when I learned that he and the others are already living a good life in the capital.
"I suppose I could just wait for my father to come pick me up. The casino thugs wouldn’t dare take my life, anyway.
"My thought was to travel to the capital overnight, simply because I didn’t want my personal matters to delay everyone else’s time.
"If the casino prevents me from leaving, I won’t be able to lead you all back to the capital.
"Last time, my father was escorted away by guards. I’m just afraid that he might send people back to do the exact same thing..."