Chapter 818 - 821: Indulgence

Chapter 818: Chapter 821: Indulgence

Even with his fiery temper, Gu Yuanhuo had always turned a blind eye to the trouble Gu Yuanfeng had caused in the past.

But this time was different. A life had been lost, and it was the life of their own father.

"It’s all because you were too lenient with that wretched girl!" Gu Yuanhuo said, his anger mounting. "If you had listened to me back then and kicked her out of the family like Old Seventh did, we wouldn’t be facing this disaster today."

The more he spoke, the angrier he became. Gu Dashi might have been a bit unreliable in the past, but he was still the father who had raised them. It was bad enough that Gu Yuanfeng never helped care for him, but she had actually been the one to deliver his Death Sentence.

"That’s enough. Keep your voice down. If Mother hears you when she comes over, it will only upset her further," Gu Yuanmu turned and scolded. "This is a mourning hall, not a place to cause a scene."

"Second Brother, how am I causing a scene?" Gu Yuanhuo tried to stand up aggressively, but Gu Yuanshui held him down tightly.

"Old Fourth, let go of me! I’d like to ask how exactly I’m causing a scene. I just want to seek justice for our father.

"Don’t you think Father died an unjust death?"

Gu Yuanmu said, "And what can you do about it now? Drag her here? Beat her to a pulp? Will that bring Father back to life?

"Besides, this matter isn’t up to us to decide. The clan elders are probably already discussing it. Our duty now is to properly keep vigil; that is how we show filial piety to Father."

Gu Yuanshui chimed in, "Third Brother, Second Brother is right. Gu Yuanfeng’s punishment definitely won’t be light. We just need to wait and see what they decide."

Gritting his teeth, Gu Yuanhuo stopped struggling to stand. "I hope so..."

In the back hall, Jin Qianqian and the other women were busy making arrangements for the coming days. Since Gu Wenheng was currently at home, there would undoubtedly be a large number of people coming to offer their condolences. They needed to prepare certain things in advance.

Jin Qianqian was familiar with the customs of their hometown. Having consulted the elders about past traditions and drawing on her own experience attending such occasions, she made the necessary adjustments. It wasn’t until the moon hung high in the sky that she finally finalized the general plan.

"Let’s take a break and have some water!" Xie Ruyi said. Knowing that despite being the eldest sister-in-law, she was truly incapable of handling these complex arrangements, she had voluntarily retreated to the backyard to manage the chores. "I had the kitchen cook some rice porridge. Everyone, please make do with this for now."

Jin Qianqian touched her stomach. "If you hadn’t mentioned it, Eldest Sister-in-law, I wouldn’t have noticed. I do feel quite hungry."

From the moment the old man passed away until now, they hadn’t had a single drop of water.

"Sigh," Liu Liu said as she picked up a bowl and took a sip of the rice porridge. "We have a lot to do in the coming days. If we don’t take care of our bodies, we might not be able to hold up."

Fortunately, it was the first night, so the brothers were keeping vigil in the mourning hall.

By the next day, when people arrived to pay their respects, the women would also have to be present. In fact, they would be responsible for arranging most things, likely making them even busier than the sons themselves.

As they each ate their bowl of porridge, they gathered around and inevitably brought up Gu Yuanfeng.

"She has run off without a trace. If she thinks she can escape this disaster just by hiding, she’s far too naive," Hong Daya said, rubbing her forehead to fend off waves of drowsiness.

"You absolutely cannot mention this in front of the old lady," Liu Liu said, curling her lips. "I, for one, refuse to be the bad guy."

Hong Daya replied, "At a time like this, it’s impossible for Mother to still favor her. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t.

"I’ve never seen anything so absurd. All just to show off how capable and virtuous she is! If Father could have eaten those things, would we have ever deprived him of them?"

"Not only did she doom Father, but now she has severely dragged down Old Seventh and our entire family," Wang Caiyue said, looking at Jin Qianqian with faux sympathy. "Old Seventh returning this time was practically a guaranteed promotion, right?

"If an official has to observe Ding You for a few years, his situation will be completely different by the time he returns.

"Back in Shangjing, I heard that many people lose their ties to the officialdom entirely after observing Ding You. Don’t you think this is ruining people’s lives?"

Everyone had heard about the rules of Ding You, but no one was as clueless as Wang Caiyue to brazenly bring it up in the open.

Jin Qianqian remained expressionless. "The men will handle this matter themselves. Besides, fulfilling our filial duties to Father is what we should do as children. Second Sister-in-law, you shouldn’t say such things to outsiders in the future."

How could Jin Qianqian not see the gloating intent in Wang Caiyue’s eyes? Did she really think that just because Old Seventh might be out of officialdom after this incident, she could take the opportunity to kick him while he was down?

Nothing definitive had even happened yet, but someone was already unable to sit still.

Noticing the mocking gazes of her sisters-in-law, Wang Caiyue muttered, "...I was just giving you a reminder. Do you really think I like worrying about this..."

"That’s enough," Xie Ruyi interrupted her. "Since we’ve eaten and drank our fill, let’s continue discussing who is responsible for what Ming Tian. If things fall into chaos and we become a laughingstock to outsiders, that will truly be a disgrace to the Gu family.

"None of us have ever managed something like this before, and we don’t know as much as Old Seventh’s wife does. Everyone just needs to quietly follow her instructions.

"Naturally, that applies to me as well. Old Seventh’s wife, just speak your mind. If anyone refuses to obey, we’ll gladly reason with them."

Xie Ruyi stared pointedly at Wang Caiyue as she finished speaking. This woman had only been well-behaved for a few years before she started acting up again; it was about time to knock some sense into her.

Facing five against one, Wang Caiyue naturally knew she had no advantage. She sat to the side with a dark expression.

The memorial, expedited by fast horses to Shangjing, arrived at the imperial court the very next day.

Hua Shunming held the memorial in his hand. Had he not known Gu Wenheng so well, he would have thought this incident was a little too coincidental.

He understood that Gu Wenheng strongly detested being dragged into all this, but he also knew the man wouldn’t be utterly heartless enough to do something like this on purpose.

Placing the Ding You memorial on the side of his desk, he led a group of eunuchs to the imperial court for the morning assembly.

After handling the affairs of the court, he clasped his hands behind his back and made his way to the Central Palace.

"What brings the Holy Emperor here today?" Empress Zhou came outside personally to welcome him. Ever since the Emperor’s health had begun to decline, his temper had become exceptionally erratic. Empress Zhou did not dare to neglect him, paying meticulous attention to her every word and action.

"I was feeling a bit restless, so I decided to take a walk over to the Empress’s residence." Hua Shunming didn’t enter the palace hall, instead sitting down in the outdoor pavilion.

"It’s a bit windy out here. Your Majesty should sit inside the palace hall!" Empress Zhou stood in the direction of the wind to block some of the breeze for him.

However, this considerate gesture was clearly overlooked. Hua Shunming stared into the distance. "I wonder how my brother-in-law’s recent search for physicians and medicine is going."

Empress Zhou knew this was a probe. She smiled bitterly and said, "As my brother gets older, he becomes increasingly unreliable. A few days ago, I received a letter from him saying he had run off to Fu County.

"He and Mr. Gu haven’t seen each other in so many years. Mr. Gu had just returned to the Capital before hurriedly heading back home to visit his family. Even if my brother had waited in the Capital for a few days, it wouldn’t have delayed things by much. But he just had to rush over there in such a hurry.

"I’m not worried about anything else, but I do fear his old bones won’t be able to handle it."

Hua Shunming had already ordered an Imperial Physician to carefully check Zhou Shixiong’s pulse. He did have some hidden ailments, but they were nowhere near as serious as the Empress claimed.

He understood that Zhou Shixiong was doing this to avoid arousing suspicion and to prevent the Emperor from becoming wary of him.

When it came to imperial relatives by marriage like him, Hua Shunming had a clear measure of them in his mind. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have indulged him for so many years.