Chapter 509 - 510: Fury

Chapter 509: Chapter 510: Fury

The two Imperial Physicians made their routine rounds, muttered a few seemingly useless remarks as if merely completing a task, and left immediately.

Left behind in the room, Gu Antong could only seethe in impotent rage.

After venting her anger, she felt a wave of panic and unbearable hunger pangs. She snapped at Cai Hua, "Today’s breakfast hasn’t even been delivered yet! What are you good for? Can’t you even handle such a simple thing?"

Cai Hua looked troubled. "My Lady, His Highness has ordered that you are only to be given one meal a day. If you consume it now, then for the rest of today..."

"I’ve only been eating a tiny bit every day lately, yet it’s all the same—I haven’t lost a single pound! If this continues, my body won’t be able to hold out." Gu Antong felt completely drained of energy. It made sense; having eaten barely anything all day while supporting such a massive frame, how could anyone endure it?

"But these are His Highness’s orders," Cai Hua replied with a bitter expression. She could fetch the food now, but in just a few hours, Gu Antong would undoubtedly complain of hunger again. Gu Antong refused to step outside and face reality, pushing all the burdens onto her instead. Yet, Cai Hua was merely a maid.

Gu Antong was genuinely suppressed by this tactic. After all, Rong Ruiyuan was the one who called the shots in the Prince Mansion. She wasn’t even sure if she would ever return to normal, so she didn’t dare to act too outrageously.

After a moment of thought, she dug out a handful of copper coins from her chest. "Go outside and buy something for me."

Cai Hua didn’t reach out to take them. "My Lady, I can’t leave the premises."

"Then bribe the gatekeeper." Gu Antong pondered for a second before taking out two pieces of broken Silver. "Buy some extra pastries to keep in reserve."

"My Lady, aren’t you afraid of gaining more weight?" Cai Hua knew that refusing again would only invite another barrage of insults, so she braced herself and accepted the Silver. As for whether she could actually pull it off? She would have to see how things went later.

She definitely wanted to leave the premises if she could. It would be best to make a trip back to the Gu Family—perhaps the Gu Family would have some other solution. Otherwise, with so many problems piling onto a lowly maid like her, she simply couldn’t bear the weight.

"Things are already this bad, and I don’t want to become a starved ghost on top of it." No matter how grand Gu Antong’s ambitions had been before, at this moment, she only wanted to keep herself alive.

After sending the maid away, Gu Antong slowly dragged herself to the vanity mirror. She stared at the grotesque, massive face reflected in the glass. Tears welled up in her eyes, but due to the heavy rolls of fat on her cheeks, they almost pooled backwards. She hurriedly wiped them away with the corner of her sleeve. A moment later, a flash of pure malice darted through her eyes.

They had better hope she never found out who had orchestrated this vicious scheme against her, or she would repay them a thousand times over. But as soon as she remembered her current predicament, she slumped in defeat. She had no Silver, no allies, and she looked like an absolute monster. How was she supposed to compete with the other women in the inner courtyard? It was infuriating. The Third Prince had finally been willing to pay her more attention, and now it was all ruined.

Meanwhile, Liu Yun had no idea about Gu Antong’s current situation. Aside from a few trivial chores, she had far too much free time on her hands in the estate.

"You wrote a letter to Ms. Bai previously. Has she replied yet?" Xu Yulan wandered into Liu Yun’s courtyard, having nothing better to do. Ever since Liu Yun’s husband had gone to take up his official post, Liu Yun’s days had become even more leisurely, and she was more willing to chat. Thus, Xu Yulan liked to stroll over whenever she had free time.

Writing to Bai Suihe had been Xu Yulan’s idea in the first place. When they could barely survive day to day, what use was so-called dignity?

"No. I think that letter has disappeared without a trace," Liu Yun replied. She had only held a sliver of hope to begin with, but as soon as the letter was sent, she felt she had done something incredibly foolish. Hiring someone to deliver a letter cost Silver. Had she known better, she would have used that delivery money to buy a few chickens and nourish themselves properly.

"Don’t you still keep in touch with your maiden family?" Liu Yun asked. "In the past, our family always took good care of the Xu family. Now that we are going through our most difficult times, do you want to go back and ask if they can offer us some help? Don’t worry, we will remember their kindness in the future.

"After all, your niece is currently in the Prince Mansion, and she is a legitimate maternal granddaughter of the Xu family."

Although the Xu family was a bit impoverished, they had asked for plenty of handouts from the Gu Family in the past, so they could surely be relied upon for a little emergency relief now.

"Liu Yun, please don’t joke around," Xu Yulan said. "What kind of relationship do the Xu family and our family have? You see it even more clearly than I do.

"When we were sent into exile, they didn’t even come to see us off. After that huge fuss we had earlier, everyone knows where we stand. Why would they possibly help us?

"I think it would be better to write more letters to Bai Suihe. If she softens her heart one day and lets even a tiny bit slip through her fingers, it would be enough to sustain us endlessly."

Liu Yun sighed. When she had gone out previously, she heard the news that the Bai Family had completely relocated to Lingnan. They had sent massive amounts of supplies and wealth to Bai Suihe. Rumor had it that they were now thriving in Lingnan and had already purchased numerous properties.

She had mentioned this to their father-in-law. The old man’s face had darkened, and he had worn a scowl for several days. She knew he was blaming them for how things turned out, but what did it really have to do with her? Back then, it was clearly their mother-in-law who had taken the lead in ostracizing Bai Suihe. If their mother-in-law hadn’t acted so excessively while she was alive, the daughters-in-law wouldn’t have dared to bully her like that, no matter how bold they were. That old hag had it easy—she died and left everything behind, leaving them to take the blame.

"I’m afraid it won’t be that easy. Those two are as stubborn as mules," Liu Yun finally said. "I’ve already exhausted all my pleasantries in the letter. If they still refuse to help, I won’t bow my head to them ever again."

"Liu Yun, you speak so freely now," Xu Yulan countered. "But without Silver, what is this entire family going to live on?

"Back then, you shouldn’t have let our father-in-law allow An Tong to take so much Silver with her. Otherwise, we could have lived comfortably as wealthy ladies of leisure."

"Don’t say that to me," Liu Yun snapped in annoyance. "Our father-in-law hasn’t left the estate today; he’s been in the study this whole time. Why don’t you go tell him that right now?"

Xu Yulan immediately fell silent. The second branch of the family had been on their best behavior lately, yet the old man still didn’t give them a single good look. If she went out of her way to stir up trouble now, she feared they might get kicked out of the house altogether.

Liu Yun shot her a disdainful glance. The woman wanted to use her as a cat’s paw, but she didn’t even consider if she was worthy.

"So, can we still maintain the household expenses?" Xu Yulan asked.

"Well, we won’t starve to death, at least. The Third Prince always sends some grain over," Liu Yun replied. "But I see that Kai Chen has almost fully recovered now. He has studied for so many years—why doesn’t he go find a job somewhere?"

"How could he do that?" Xu Yulan instantly jumped to her feet. "Liu Yun, we are all family here! How could you even entertain such a thought?

"Asking my husband to go out and do manual labor—do you want the Gu Family to lose all face?"

"What face does our Gu Family even have left? We’re just an ordinary household now!" Liu Yun said angrily. "We can barely survive as it is. If we aren’t a bit more diligent, what else are we supposed to do?"