Chapter 377 - 330: A Preordained Arrangement
Chapter 377: Chapter 330: A Preordained Arrangement
When Fang Qinglan learned that Lin Aizhen and her daughter had swiped pickled vegetables, dried fish, and dried mushrooms from her kitchen, she was both furious and heartbroken. ’Those were all good things! The special health supplements my granddaughter said could make people younger, with a delicious taste and amazing restorative effects. They were incredibly rare. She went to so much trouble to bring them back and told us grandparents to eat them often. We wouldn’t even use them casually for guests, yet Wu Xiaowen took advantage of an opportunity to steal them!’
Her eldest daughter-in-law was still too naive; she had underestimated the shamelessness of the Wu Family.
But her daughter-in-law’s reasoning wasn’t wrong. If she had caused a commotion over stolen food and Hao Hao found out, it would have been quite embarrassing.
’It’s my fault. I was too careless and negligent! I shouldn’t have left such rare things lying around!’
Fang Qinglan first said a few words to soothe Ai Wenli, then immediately sprang into action. She and her eldest daughter-in-law went through the kitchen cupboards, gathered up all the food that Manman had brought back and instructed them to eat regularly, and took it all directly to her own room on the second floor, locking it in a storage cabinet!
From now on, she would only take out as much as they needed to eat.
Her mother-in-law’s actions made Ai Wenli feel even more ashamed and uneasy. It was a profound lesson for her, and she swore that from now on, she would be on her guard against Wu Xiaowen as if she were an enemy. She absolutely could not make the same mistake again!
At twelve o’clock sharp, Tang Renqian came downstairs. He, Fang Qinglan, their eldest daughter-in-law, and Hao Hao then took a car to the Gu Mansion.
Xiao Man, however, was already at the Gu Mansion. She had spent over two hours shopping with Pang Xiaoji and a few others, bought a few things, and then they all went their separate ways. Following Grandma Tang’s instructions, she took a bus directly to the Gu Mansion. Granny Gu and Zhou Hui Lan were overjoyed to see her. They had barely exchanged a few words with her when Grandpa Gu sent a staff member over to bring her to the study. This infuriated Granny Gu, who cursed, "Who’s the blabbermouth? I haven’t seen Manman in ages either! She just got here and I haven’t even had a good look at her, and that old coot already got wind of it and snatched her away!"
Zhou Hui Lan smiled, pressing her lips together. She adored Manman too but didn’t dare complain to her father-in-law. Instead, she had made some snacks for Manman, bought her new clothes, shoes, and socks, and had even hand-sewn several sets of underwear. She had also prepared handkerchiefs, hair ties, tissues, and more, packing them all into a full travel bag for Manman to take back to school that evening.
On this point, Gu Qiming felt the same as his wife. He now tried to time his trips home to coincide with Manman’s visits. This was because Tang Qingshan had once said that his constantly stern face would scare Manman. He needed to change his image and let Manman know that he was actually very kind and approachable, so she wouldn’t have to be afraid of him.
Another reason was that brat, Shaojun. Before going abroad, he had demanded that they look after and protect Xiao Man for him, threatening that if Xiao Man was "stolen away" by someone else or if even a single hair on her head was harmed, they could forget about ever seeing their normal eldest son and grandson again!
His own son had dared to threaten him! Gu Qiming was furious, but he couldn’t bring himself to lash out!
Xiao Man spent over an hour talking with Grandpa Gu and Gu Qiming in the study. Afterward, they all walked out and went directly to the backyard. Shaozheng, Shao Jin, and Shaoyu, who were sitting in a small hall opposite, saw this and quickly followed. When they saw Grandpa Gu and Gu Qiming actually taking Xiao Man to the edge of the turtle pond, pointing and teaching her how to watch the turtle, they were speechless. ’Are you two really that bored? Couldn’t you have just sent Shaoyu to handle something so trivial? Was it really necessary to bother the head and second-in-command of the family?’
But how could they have known? Xiao Man wasn’t following Grandpa Gu and Uncle Gu to the backyard to look at a turtle because they were bored. They were in the middle of a discussion, preparing to repair and maintain the Guardian Array that had protected the old Gu Mansion for hundreds of years.
When Gu Qiming saw Shaozheng and the others following, he frowned. With a wave of his hand, he summoned a guard and motioned for him to block them from getting any closer. The three brothers were shooed away, feeling a bit wronged. ’What’s the big deal? If you’re going to watch over one of us, you might as well watch over all of us. Since you have time to spend with a kid, wouldn’t it be better if we all joined in? Compared to you two serious old fossils, Xiao Man would definitely prefer to hang out with her older brothers!’
But those were just thoughts; they only dared to grumble inwardly and didn’t voice their complaints. Under Gu Qiming’s cold stare and the guard’s obstruction, the three brothers sullenly retreated from the backyard.
The guard disappeared, and Gu Qiming walked back to the edge of the turtle pond. While listening to Grandpa Gu and Xiao Man talk, his eyes darted around vigilantly, checking to see if any other idlers were loitering in the backyard.
The elders of both families had agreed that Xiao Man’s secrets should be concealed as much as possible; even other family members didn’t need to know. So far, besides Gu Shaojun, the only ones of the parental generation who could discuss these matters with the two elders were Tang Qingshan and Gu Qiming.
Xiao Man stood on a large rock, looking down at the turtle pond below. It was actually more like a deep well. Grandpa Gu said the water was about twenty meters deep, with fresh water bubbling up from the bottom. They hadn’t found any connection to an underground river, though a channel might have existed and been sealed off during construction. Otherwise, wouldn’t the turtle have escaped long ago?
When the well water reached a certain level, it would flow through crevices in the rock into a two-mu lotus pond below.
Lotuses and water chestnuts grew in the pond, which was also home to some fish. According to Grandpa Gu, ever since his grandfather’s generation, the turtle in the well had spent most of its time quietly submerged, only occasionally surfacing to sunbathe and breathe. Some people didn’t even know that a turtle lived in the well in the Gu family’s backyard.
Not even Grandpa Gu knew exactly how old the turtle was. The knowledge was simply passed down from one generation to the next: treat it well, do not disturb it. As long as it remained peacefully in the well, guarding the residence, the Gu family would enjoy prosperity and fortune for generations. But if it ever grew to dislike the place and tried to leave, it would mean the old Gu Mansion was no longer habitable, and the Gu family would face being scattered to the four winds.
This "scattering" didn’t just refer to family members moving out to establish their own households in the usual sense; it was an omen of the clan’s decline and fall!
Starting three years ago, the turtle began to appear frequently, day and night. It would even stay out of the water for days at a time, just lying listlessly on the blue-green rock or hiding in a stone cave. It ignored any food thrown to it and would periodically try to climb the smooth, steep rock walls, seeming to long for the lotus pond outside. But if it were allowed to swim into the lotus pond, it would surely disappear for good.
Grandpa Gu was extremely anxious and worried, but he couldn’t speak of it freely. He could only vent his concerns to Grandpa Tang and Gu Qiming, but they could only listen. They had tried many methods to change the turtle’s behavior, all to no avail.
Xiao Man’s appearance was both a shock and a joy to Grandpa Gu. Waking him from a deep coma could be attributed to superb medical skill. But when the little girl used True Qi, channeled through silver needles, to clear the meridians and acupoints in his body, seal several of his vital points, and forcibly suppress decades of his Ancient Martial Arts power, he knew she was no ordinary person!
If the Tang family hadn’t claimed her as their granddaughter, he would have been tempted to bring her into the Gu family himself, no matter the trouble. He never would have expected that the little girl was, in fact, the Tang family’s direct-line granddaughter!
It was clear that fate had its own designs. The marriage alliance between the Gu and Tang Families had failed to come to fruition for several generations, only to finally fall upon Shaojun and Manman. ’The ancestors must have arranged this long ago!’