Chapter 393: Informing
Chapter 393: Chapter 393: Informing
Xu Shuanghong still wanted to live a good life in the Gu Family, so naturally, she wouldn’t push things too far. Having revealed her identity today was enough. After politely thanking the onlookers once more, she led her two daughters through the main gate, strutting with her head held high. From today onward, she was the mistress of this courtyard.
"Kai Ping, have you been reinstated to your official post?" They had actually found out long ago, but given Gu Kaiping’s previous actions, he couldn’t blame her for showing him no respect.
Sure enough, she saw Gu Kaiping’s face twist for a split second, and she immediately felt delighted. If they were going to suffer, no one in the Gu Family would have it easy either.
Did they think they could just shake them off? It wasn’t as if they didn’t have legs to follow them.
As soon as the mother and daughters entered, they began looking around. This would be their future home. Seeing the servants bustling in and out, the three of them breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, they wouldn’t have to live a life of hardship anymore. With so many people serving them, their good days had finally arrived.
They didn’t even mind the disdain in the servants’ eyes when looking at them. Once she took charge as the mistress of the house, the lives of these people would rest entirely in her hands.
Gu Baijiang frowned as he looked at them. "Why are you here?"
Xu Shuanghong gestured for her two daughters to sit down before taking the main seat on the right. The stench wafting from the three of them was so overpowering that Gu Baijiang wanted to stand up and leave. Even when they were exiled, they hadn’t been this filthy.
"Why can’t we be here? Or is it that you don’t want us here?" she retorted.
"How could that be? Didn’t we agree that we would send someone to pick you up when the time came?" Thinking of the good days ahead, Gu Baijiang suppressed his disgust and swallowed his anger. "Look at you all. You must have suffered a lot on the road, running over here all on your own."
"Of course we did," Xu Shuanghong said. "But we did it on purpose. After all, as three women traveling alone, we probably wouldn’t have survived the journey if we hadn’t made ourselves look pathetic.
"We wanted to wait for you to pick us up, but you have no idea what happened after you left. If we hadn’t fled on our own, who knows where we’d be right now."
Gu Baijiang looked baffled, thinking she could have at least found a better excuse. "What could possibly happen while staying safely in Tian Village?"
Xu Shuanghong looked at the Gu Family Brothers with a half-smile. "Don’t you feel like something is missing?"
Gu Kaiping realized it. "Right, why did you come by yourselves? Where are Kai Chen and the others?"
"Oh my, Eldest Young Master Gu truly has a deep brotherly bond to think of the main character so quickly," Xu Shuanghong said mockingly. "He’s living quite well right now. He’s addicted to gambling all day long, living a carefree life where as long as he’s fed, he couldn’t care less if the rest of the family starves."
"What nonsense are you sprouting?" Gu Kaiping couldn’t quite believe it. With Kai Chen’s cowardly nature, how would he dare to gamble?
Previously, when he didn’t have a single piece of silver in his pocket, he had also thought about trying his luck. But at the critical moment, he had held himself back. Anyone with a bit of reason and common sense knew that gambling was a ruinous path. They hadn’t left Kai Chen with much silver when they departed. With that meager amount, how many rounds could he possibly gamble?
Gu Baijiang’s expression turned exceedingly grim. "Tell me exactly what’s going on."
Xu Shuanghong yawned and clutched her stomach. "We haven’t eaten or slept well this entire journey. Have someone get us some food first. Where is your courtyard? I need to wash up properly. Once I’m well-rested, I’ll explain everything in detail."
Since Xu Shuanghong and her daughters refused to say another word, the Gu family father and son had no choice but to order the servants to prepare things for them. After eating and drinking their fill, the three women turned around, found a room, shut the door, and went straight to sleep.
The Gu family father and son were burning with anxiety. Since there had already been a scene earlier, they absolutely didn’t dare to cause another commotion. After all, the servants in the estate weren’t entirely loyal to them yet, so they could only forcefully suppress their impatience.
They waited all the way until nightfall before the mother and daughters finally woke up. As soon as they awoke, they demanded more food. Only after they had eaten their fill did they deign to open their mouths again.
"This kind of life is much more comfortable. You have no idea what we went through after you left. If it weren’t for the fact that the weather in Lingnan is relatively warm and wild vegetables had sprouted, we probably wouldn’t have made it out of Tian Village alive."
"Hurry up and tell us. What exactly happened to Kai Chen?" Gu Kaiping wasn’t genuinely concerned about his brother; he was just worried that while they were working hard here, Gu Kaichen would drag them down from behind. If their family wanted to maintain a firm foothold in the capital, their reputation was of utmost importance.
"What’s the rush? Aren’t I getting to it?" Xu Shuanghong was now the rightful mistress of the Gu Family. She couldn’t show the slightest hint of weakness now, or else how would she control this large household in the future? "Speaking of which, the master is to blame for this. It’s fine if you didn’t trust me, but managing the household is a woman’s duty. Rather than giving the silver note to Gu Kaichen, you would have been better off handing it directly to Mrs. Xu."
Gu Baijiang was speechless. No matter how flawed Gu Kaichen was, he was still his biological son. How could he possibly bypass him and give the silver to an outsider?
However, he couldn’t say that out loud; it was enough that everyone understood it implicitly. "Tell us what happened."
Hearing the impatience in Gu Baijiang’s voice, Xu Shuanghong finally explained, "Men always turn bad once they have money. I only heard about it later, but at first, Kai Chen just played a few small rounds with people from neighboring villages, winning some and losing some. Later, who knows who took him to the gambling den in the county town, but things quickly spiraled completely out of control.
"Not only did he lose all the silver you left behind, but the gambling den also came to collect debts several times. Without any silver, he had to use our belongings to pay them off. The grain in the house and all our jewelry were taken. Yet even then, Kai Chen showed no signs of remorse. He even plotted to..."
Xu Shuanghong trailed off and looked at her two daughters, who immediately covered their faces and began to weep.
Unease crept into the hearts of the Gu family father and son. Once someone became entangled in gambling, repenting was no easy feat. Although she hadn’t said it plainly, both father and son knew that a gambler who had lost everything would even sell out his own family. Let alone Xu Shuanghong and her daughters, who had no blood relations to Gu Kaichen. It was no wonder they were willing to endure hardships and overcome all obstacles to reach the capital.
"But with you leaving like this, what about Kai Chen and his wife?" Gu Kaiping was completely exasperated. Since Gu Kaichen had no money to repay the debt, would he sell Mrs. Xu?
If it were the Xu mother and daughters who were sold off, it wouldn’t have much of an impact on their reputation. After all, who in the capital knew that his father had remarried? If Kai Chen had actually managed to sell these three off, he would have essentially solved a massive problem for them. Now look at this mess. That idiot not only dragged himself down, but he also completely ruined the whole family!
"How should I know what to do? We couldn’t just stay there and wait to be sold off, could we?" Xu Shuanghong’s eyes grew red. "No matter what, I am still his stepmother. But after you left, they didn’t care about our survival at all. If I hadn’t had a tiny bit of savings left, the three of us would have starved to death in Tian Village long ago.
"But he couldn’t be so utterly deranged as to try and sell us to pay off his gambling debts! If we hadn’t been able to leave Tian Village, I absolutely would have reported him to the authorities."