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Old Marquis didn’t know that Yao shi and her son had returned to the capital. Thinking that the two were still at the Hot Spring Villa, he did not ask anyone to deliver the news to them.
He began to interrogate his son and three grandchildren, "What is up with all the rumors in the capital?"
Without asking, he was ignorant, but as soon as he learned about it, he was startled. During his absence from the capital, so many big things actually happened in the Marquis Ding’an Estate.
The first thing was Gu Jinyu's real background, which was already vexing enough. She was actually a child mistakenly carried back home.
Then there was Concubine Ling.
This also explained why Gu Chenglin had become his current state.
Aunt Ling had been disposed of by Old Madame Gu. Old Marquis didn't ask whether she was dead or alive. He didn't have the spare time to care about a concubine.
As for the real granddaughter's reluctance to go back to the estate, Old Marquis didn't pay it much heed.
First she was just a girl, which was much less important compared to sons, not to mention, she was already married. A married daughter was like spilled water; she was no longer a Marquis Estate’s person.
As for Gu Chenglin bullying Gu Yan, and Gu Chenglin getting beaten up by Gu Jiao as a retaliation, the father and son didn't mention anything about it tacitly.
It was no use talking about it anyways, as they were the ones who would get beaten in the end.
Gu Yan's body was fragile, getting beaten would certainly spell death for him. No matter what mistakes he made, he would never be beaten.
Second was that the Marquis Estate never expected their daughters to carry the Marquis Estate on their shoulder. Since childhood, Old Marquis hadn't touched a finger of Gu Jinyu, whether she got into trouble or not.
So he wouldn’t touch Gu Jiao either.
But even without mentioning this, the Marquis Estate was in a terrible state of disrepute—— one skipped work, the other moved out of the estate, it was truly ‘if the upper beam was not straight, the lower beam would be crooked’. They all must be punished!
Marquis Gu had already been beaten up by him. Then, he could just beat him up again.
Marquis Gu:“…!!!”
Are you still my own father?
Old Marquis looked at Gu Changqing, "As the eldest brother, you failed to discipline your two younger brothers. Should you be punished?"
Gu Changqing lowered his eyes, "Yes."
Old Marquis didn't notice the complexity within his eyes as he said in a heavy voice, "Very well, one hundred military whips."
Gu Chengfeng was also punished with fifty military whips, and so did Gu Chenglin.
Gu Changqing said, "Third brother is still recovering from a serious injury and shouldn’t get whipped at this time. I'll take on his punishment."
Gu Chengfeng hurriedly followed, "I can also share third brother’s punishment!"
"Fine, twenty lashes will be added for each person." Old Marquis concluded with a cold voice, then looked at Gu Chenglin, who had only half a long hair. "There are ten lashes left, you should take it on yourself. If you can't handle even this, I'll just forget having a grandson like you!"
It was still the always ruthless Old Marquis!
When Gu Changqing punished his two younger brothers last time, Old Madame Gu dared to make a fuss, crying and threatening that she was going to commit suicide by hanging herself. This time, when Old Marquis gave the order to whip her son and grandsons, Old Madame Gu didn’t even dare to utter a single word.
Marquis Gu was beaten black and blue.
"All right." Old Marquis said, "I won’t beat you to death, you still have to go to the palace to plead guilty and beg for forgiveness."
Marquis Gu who felt he had nothing to live for, "…"
You really are my father, huh!
Old Marquis took his son into the palace to plead guilty to the Emperor.
Old Marquis knelt down and performed a grand salute, cupping his fist in the other hand, "It's the father’s fault for not raising his children well. That girl has committed a catastrophe, which is all due to the unfilial son of this subject. This subject has now brought this unfilial son here, and his punishment will be all up to His Majesty!"
The Emperor glanced at Marquis Gu, who was currently black and blue, looking truly miserable.
After all this beating, he no longer had a place to hit him.
The Emperor let out a gentle cough and waved his hand, "Forget it, Marquis Gu is not the one in fault in this matter. The little girl is still young and ignorant, she should be disciplined more in the future."
Regarding his real reason for Gu Jinyu's punishment, the official statement was that she damaged the imperial jade seal, and an additional crime of deceiving the monarch.
As for whether she deceived the Emperor about the bellows or glutinous rice mortar, the official report didn’t elaborate.
But the more it was so, the easier it was to achieve the effect of killing two birds with one stone. Now, even if there was no evidence for the bellows, there were many voices accusing Gu Jinyu of falsely claiming credit for the bellows.
Strictly speaking, Gu Jinyu wasn’t responsible for this accident. Although she provided the blueprints for the modification, the final decision whether to use them or not still fell on the Ministry of Works.
The supervisor of the Ministry of Works’ manufacturing department had already discovered that there was a problem with her modification, but instead of stopping it, the normal trial process was skipped, and they even hired a large number of illegal workers to start working illegally.
But Old Marquis couldn’t excuse Gu Jinyu just like that either. He said that all losses would be borne by Marquis Ding'an Estate. In addition, he asked the Emperor to revoke Gu Jinyu's status as the County Princess.
The Emperor sighed, "Alas, Old Marquis, why be like this? Zhen has already withdrawn her status as the Commandery Princess, so just keep this one. "
"Asking Your Majesty to please revoke it!" Old Marquis insisted.
Because the Emperor couldn’t not give him face when he was being this insistent, Gu Jinyu's status as the County Princess was also taken back in the end.
Gu Jinyu finally got out of the Ministry of Justice, but she was not happy at all.
More than half a month ago, she was still a second rank Commandery Princess sitting from high above, but now she was nothing.
Tripping over while walking on ground didn’t hurt, but falling from a high place sure did.
Gu Jinyu went back to the Marquis Estate. She quickly headed to her courtyard to take a comfortable hot bath, changed into clean clothes and tidied up her appearance before going to the reception pavilion to meet Old Marquis Gu.
She felt so wronged as she choked with sobs, and her eyes were slightly red, "Grandfather, Jinyu knew she was wrong. Jinyu was willing to go to the ancestral temple to kneel."
"No need." Old Marquis said.
Gu Jinyu's heart was delighted. Her grandfather was reluctant to make her kneel, sure enough, he still loved her!
But the next second, she heard Old Marquis say coldly, "You are not a member of our Gu Family, you’re not qualified to bow down to our Gu Family's ancestors. Also, don't call me grandfather in the future."
Gu Jinyu froze directly in place.
Old Marquis had always been a strict and harsh head of the house, and he showed no mercy when beating up his children and grandchildren, with the exception of Gu Yan and Gu Jinyu.
All this time, Gu Jinyu thought that it was because her grandfather loved them very much, but now, she somehow felt that her grandfather probably didn't care about them, the pair of brother and sister, at all.
Gu Jinyu staggered.
Saying that Old Marquis didn’t care about the pair of brother and sister was wrong, because it was her alone that he didn’t care about.
Old Marquis really loved Gu Yan, otherwise he wouldn't have assigned two dark guards around Gu Yan. Obviously, not even Gu Chengfeng and Gu Chenglin received such treatment.
Old Marquis was a typical example of someone who valued sons more than daughters. He wasn’t affectionate even to his own granddaughter, so what more to someone who wasn’t his own.
After taking care of the family affairs, Old Marquis entered the palace again.
The news of Old Marquis's return quickly swept the whole capital. Almost everyone knew that the once all-powerful old general had come back, but so what if he did? His military power was handed over a long time ago, and the Gu Family army was also brought under the command of others.
Gu Jiao always turned a deaf ear to things outside her window. She didn’t know that Old Marquis was back, and was simply busy counting the jinchuang medicine sent over from the factory.
This was the second batch of jinchuang medicine ordered by the military camp.
She immediately checked a few bottles, and the quality was completely fine.
"I have nothing to do today. I might as well deliver these." And conveniently send something to Zhou Erzhuang, Xue Ningxiang’s brother-in-law.
Because of the delivery of medicine, Gu Jiao was able to enter the military camp.
The soldiers had just finished their training and were sitting on the open ground to rest. The air was filled with the smell of sweat and weapons.
It was a familiar smell from her previous life.
Gu Jiao didn't look much, but took a carriage to the camp of the medical officers.
She was received by a medical officer surnamed Lu.
Gu Changqing already exchanged greetings with him a few days ago, so Medic Lu was very polite to Gu Jiao, but he also said nervously and cautiously, "Don't run around for a while. Wait for me to finish testing the medicine, then you can leave directly."
This morning, they received a message that an important person was coming to the military camp.
It was a person of great status that even Marquis Xuanping, who hadn't appeared for half a year, was also called to the military camp.
Marquis Xuanping got out of bed in a huff. After sitting in the carriage all the way, his temper had yet to go down and he refused to get off, "Surnamed Ran, I actually feel annoyed looking at you.”
General Ran stood by the carriage, gave a respectful salute, and said with a smile, "Lord Marquis has wrongly blamed this official. How dare this official disturb Lord Marquis's dream? This..."
He paused in the middle of his speech and looked around, then he stepped forward, leaned close to the carriage window and whispered, "People of the palace are coming. The great general is afraid that he can’t hold up the situation till the end, so he asked this official to invite Lord Marquis anyway. Half of the Gu Family army is here, and an average person can't suppress them; it really needs Lord Marquis to step forth personally!"
Marquis Xuanping said quietly, "Why do I have to come forward?"
General Ran opened the carriage curtain shamelessly, "Lord Marquis should get off the carriage first. It's very stuffy inside the carriage. This official has prepared good wine and dishes for you, and will bring them to you later."
It was indeed stuffy in the carriage.
Marquis Xuanping got off the carriage with a cold face.
Although his expression was very cold, it couldn’t mask his good-looks and elegance.
General Ran added, "It's nothing big either. What the great general means is... for Lord Marquis to take the soldiers for some training, line up the soldiers into formations, or set up an array or something; the more imposing the better! Alright then, I'll call everyone out!"
"What’s the point of doing such a big fanfare? His Majesty doesn't understand it anyway." Marquis Xuanping rolled up his cuffs and said carelessly, "Just a casual training will do."
The Emperor and Old Marquis had just got off the carriage when they heard such an outrageous remark.
Old Marquis:“…”
Emperor: "..."
Raz P.'s Thoughts
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