Chapter 616: Crazy
Bai Suihe waited until the carriage had disappeared into the distance. Without so much as a glance at the two women, she turned and walked away.
Liu Yun and Xu Yulan hurried to follow her, but before they could catch up, several guards blocked their path.
“Suihe, we came here to discuss something with you! Constantly avoiding us like this isn’t a solution. At the end of the day, our surname is still Gu! Gu Kaiyuan can’t completely disregard family ties.
“We’re just asking you this one last time. If you help us, we’ll never bother you again!”
Liu Yun shouted from behind. She might say that, but everyone knew that once they sank their claws in, it would be impossible to shake them off.
Bai Suihe didn’t even pause her steps, swiftly vanishing from their sight.
“Liu Yun, your idea didn’t work at all,” Xu Yulan complained. Bai Suihe was already long gone, and the guards were keeping them at bay with drawn swords. Naturally, neither of them dared to test the sharpness of those blades.
“How was I supposed to know she’d be so stubborn?” Liu Yun snapped back. “And why are you blaming me? Why didn’t you help out just now?”
“How could I help? She was already gone! What’s the point of talking about this now?
“Still, so this is the ocean… It actually looks pretty nice.” Xu Yulan’s gaze had been stolen by the sea. They had arrived in such a hurry and bumped into Bai Suihe immediately, so she hadn’t even noticed it until now.
With the sea breeze blowing against her face and the magnificent expanse of water stretching out before her, she felt the trip hadn’t been a complete waste.
“How can you be in the mood for sightseeing?” Liu Yun muttered. “We came all this way; we can’t just go back empty-handed.” Mustering her courage, she took a few steps forward, but the gleaming swords quickly forced her back.
“Liu Yun, we’ve already made the trip and seen her in person,” Xu Yulan said. “But since she’s ignoring us, why don’t we go back and ask Father what to do? Or better yet, let him come here himself.”
“Do you really think that would work?” Liu Yun found a rock by the roadside and sat down. Looking at the situation ahead, she realized it was a small fishing village. Yet, for some reason, there were no outsiders in the entire area, and Bai Suihe had even stationed guards to watch over it.
“Don’t you find this place strange? What did Bai Suihe and the others do to the villagers?
“We caused such a commotion, but not a single villager came out to look. Do you think they violently seized the land?”
“That’s unlikely,” Xu Yulan replied. “They wouldn’t have the guts.”
But giving it more thought, something still felt off. If they were just here for a vacation, where were all the locals? Such a large village couldn’t possibly be abandoned.
“I think there’s something very wrong going on here. Come on, let’s go back and tell Father. We might need to report this to the authorities,” Liu Yun said, pulling Xu Yulan along. She purposely raised her voice, assuming that with this leverage, Bai Suihe wouldn’t dare ignore them anymore.
To her dismay, the guards remained as still as statues, acting as if they hadn’t heard a word. The occasional glances they cast her way were filled with sheer mockery.
She cursed inwardly, convinced there was a dark secret hidden inside. If she reported this to the authorities, she might even get a hefty reward.
“Why do you say it’s not normal?” Xu Yulan asked.
“Didn’t you notice? Other than their people, there are no villagers here. Where did they all go?
“I heard that pirates pillaged a village a while back. Do you think Bai Suihe’s group got mixed up with them? Or maybe they’re in cahoots?”
After dragging Xu Yulan a safe distance away, Liu Yun finally stopped and explained her theory in a hushed voice.
“That’s impossible. Bai Suihe isn’t short on silver, so she wouldn’t do such a thing.” Xu Yulan shook her head in disbelief. The wealth of the Bai Family was obvious to everyone. Why would they commit such a deranged act?
“How can you be so stupid?” Liu Yun scolded, frustrated by her sister-in-law’s thickheadedness. She didn’t even bother looking at Xu Yulan’s twisted expression. “Whether she did it or not, we can make it look like she did.”
“But what good does that do us?” Xu Yulan didn’t understand. If Bai Suihe met with disaster, they would, at best, just get to watch the spectacle.
“Why should we be the ones living so miserably?!” Liu Yun looked completely unhinged. Her husband was a lost cause; after being fired, he spent all day drinking at home.
The daughter she had painstakingly raised had perished in the inner courtyard of the Prince Ning Mansion, and she had nowhere to seek justice.
Even her own son couldn’t compare to his cousin. Now, the old master’s attention was focused entirely on Gu Anwei.
She was currently the head of the household, but what was the point of running a home like this? She had to meticulously budget for every bag of rice and drop of oil. She had to oversee every trivial matter, spinning like a top from dawn to dusk. Her delicate hands, which used to be perfect for embroidery, could no longer even hold a silk handkerchief. The thick calluses on her fingers would snag and ruin the fabric in an instant.
“As long as Bai Suihe suffers, she won’t be able to steal our luck anymore! Why should they be the only ones in the Gu Family living comfortably? It’s not right. We are the ones who should be living that kind of life…”
Xu Yulan felt that Liu Yun had truly lost her mind. How could she be so extreme?
With the backing of the Bai Family, Bai Suihe would never live poorly no matter what happened.
Only Liu Yun knew exactly why she said those things. Lately, she had been having a recurring dream, and the dream always started with the Gu Family’s downfall.
However, the events in her dream were completely different from their current reality. In the dream, Bai Suihe and her worthless daughter had died on the path to exile long ago.
With the silver provided by the Bai Family, the rest of the Gu Family hadn’t suffered much during the journey.
Eventually, their family returned to the capital intact. Her daughter married into the Third Prince Mansion and soon gave birth to the Third Prince’s eldest son, while her father-in-law and husband both advanced in the imperial court…
It was all so wonderful that when she woke up, she could barely tell dreams from reality.
But the stifling misery of her daily life inevitably dragged her back to reality.
If it had only been a single dream, she would have brushed it off as a fantasy. But she had the exact same dream every time she closed her eyes. Deep down, she felt an overwhelming sense of certainty: their perfect lives had been stolen.
And the thieves were none other than Bai Suihe and her daughter. If they had simply died during the exile, everything would have played out just like in her dreams. Therefore, the culprit behind all their suffering was Bai Suihe.
She now firmly believed that as long as Bai Suihe and that worthless brat died, the Gu Family’s fortunes would turn around.
“Yes! As long as they face ruin, our Gu Family will thrive again!” Liu Yun muttered aloud.
Xu Yulan hastily took a step back and asked in a low voice, “Liu Yun, are you okay?
“Do you still know who I am?”
“I’m going to the authorities! Bai Suihe is a demon! They must be doing something heinous and immoral in this little fishing village…”
Xu Yulan stomped her feet in panic, realizing it was all over. If another one of them went crazy, the Gu Family would truly be finished.
Mustering her courage, she reached out and grabbed Liu Yun’s arm. “Liu Yun, let’s go back and talk about this! Even though there’s no one around, what if someone sees us? Do you want to ruin the Gu Family’s reputation entirely?”
If rumors spread that they had a madwoman in the family, who would ever dare associate with them?
Jolted by the pull, a fraction of Liu Yun’s reason returned. She stared blankly at Xu Yulan. “Don’t you think what I said makes sense?”
Not daring to antagonize her in this state, Xu Yulan hastily nodded in perfunctory agreement. “Yes, Liu Yun, you make perfect sense…”