Thirty-Four Auspicious Omens

  The winter in Shengjing is as cold as ever, the snowflakes on the trees fall rustling to the ground and instantly cover the icy hard bricks with a thick layer of white blanket.

  At the first watch, a faint white light appeared on the horizon, and the servants of Qingjiangyuan began to bustle about. A servant carried in a basin of water and green salt into the main house, and the three-layered curtains were lifted. Wangshi helped Mengyu get dressed, then turned back to attend to Gu Boqi's toilette.

  He adjusted his hat and tied his belt, then took the handkerchief handed over by Yue Tong on the side to wipe his hands. He turned back to Wang Shi and said: "I'll be back a bit later today, my colleagues at the department have arranged to welcome me."

  Wang's hand movements stopped and didn't stop, obediently responded, and asked him: "Which little servant to bring?"

  "It doesn't need many people to follow, just Wang Saner and Xue Li will do!" Gu Boqi furrowed his brow, turned around and took the jade plate from the servant girl, then asked Wang Shi: "Have the servants who are going with us to the imperial court today been settled?"

  Wang was taken aback, then suddenly remembered that Gao Qi had gotten drunk the night before and told him to find a suitable servant to replace Cui Ying's attendant who hadn't returned from the southern government. She thought for a moment, then turned back to ask Meng Yu: "Has someone come to report from the outer court?"

  Meng Yu hastily replied: "It's all arranged. The one who will be taking his place is the little servant Fa Zi from the gatehouse, and he should already be waiting outside with the sedan chair."

  Gu Boqi thought for a moment, feeling that it didn't matter, and responded vaguely. Before leaving the door, he turned his head back to look at Wang Shi: "It's cold now, and it's still early, you can go rest some more, I'll just have the maid serve me breakfast."

  From the wedding to now, it seems that she has never enjoyed such treatment. Wang was a little surprised and responded, her eyes suddenly welling up with tears. She quickly turned to Meng Yu and said: "Prepare a cloak and a warm stove for your father, and tell the servants to take good care of him."

  Gu Boqi furrowed his brow for a moment, wanting to say something, but ultimately shook his head and left on his own.

  Wang opened a window, and the cold air that rushed in made her shiver. Outside, Gu Boqi's figure was getting farther and farther away, gradually shrinking into a dot until it could no longer be seen. Only then did she withdraw her gaze and lie down on the bed, lost in thought.

  Meng Yu came in from outside to help her pull down the curtains, and saw that she was staring blankly with her eyes open, not knowing what she was looking at. She was a maid who had accompanied Wang Shi when she got married, and had been close to Wang Shi since childhood. Seeing her like this, Meng Yu hastily asked: "Madam, what's wrong? It's cold outside, why aren't you covering yourself with a quilt?"

  It wasn't until then that Wang realized he had been dazed for more than half a watch, and when he got up again, his head was dizzy and he couldn't muster up the energy.

  Meng Yu reached out and felt her forehead, then exclaimed: "She has a bit of a fever, we should invite a imperial physician to take a look?"

  Wang shook her head and beckoned to her: "Get someone to go to the old lady's room and see if she can get up, then come back and tell me. Today, my brother-in-law is going to report to the Ministry of Rites, and I still need to prepare things for him to send him out."

  Meng Yu saw that she was a bit down, but still seemed happy in their conversation, so he hesitated and agreed.

  Who would have thought that at the second watch of the fourth hour, before Meng Yu had even replied, Gu Man arrived first? She was wearing a large red feather-trimmed cloak, with a hood covering more than half her face. As she lifted the curtain, she asked the little maid who was about to help her: "Don't bother you, do you know why your mother is ill?"

  That little girl didn't know what was going on in the house, and she hastily shook her head. After saying that, she hesitated for a moment before adding: "Perhaps it's because Master got up early today and Madame opened the window, catching a chill."

  Gu Man nodded and looked at her again before turning into the house to see Wang Shi.

  The candle in the room had long been extinguished, and the fragrance of lily spread throughout the house. Wang lay on the couch, her eyebrows still furrowed.

  She slowly helped Wang Shi pull up the quilt, and as soon as she moved, Wang Shi woke up with a start. Without looking to see who it was, he asked: "Have you found out? How come you've been gone for so long? Have someone go take a look at whether or not Master and Mistress have gotten up yet."

  Gu Man sat down on the footstool in front of the window and said softly, "Mother, Meng Yu hasn't come back yet. Uncle and Auntie haven't paid their respects to Grandma either." She looked at Wang Shi's dark eye circles with some heartache and some anger, knowing why Wang Shi was like this.

  It was as if Wang had been inseparable from Gu Boqi for her entire life, and this realization made her feel suffocated, as if there was a huge boulder weighing on her heart, making it hard for her to breathe.

  If she knew all about the past and also knew the ending of everyone around her now, but couldn't change it, then what's the point of her rebirth? But she just can't change Wang Shi, in Wang Shi's heart, her husband is everything to her, even if Gu Man knows how selfish and unkind Gu Bo Qi is, it won't change this fact.

  She unconsciously leaned towards Wang's side, tightly grasping her clothes, and asked: "Why don't you rest even when you're sick? This house isn't managed by just one person, can't the fourth aunt and fifth aunt do these things?"

  "Ah, you." Wang's intimate voice pinched her nose and said softly: "How can you be so stubborn again? Now that I'm in charge of the household chores, how can I leave everything to others, let alone your grandmother trusted me and handed things over to me?"

  She seemed to be coaxing a child, but unfortunately Gu Man was no longer the ignorant eight-year-old, Gu Man knew that bringing up these things again would serve no purpose, Gu Bo Qi was practically a stranger to himself, having never fulfilled his paternal duties since childhood, and in his past life had even ignored his own death, such a person, someone who could be so apathetic towards their own flesh and blood, it's hard to imagine that Wang's death in her past life had nothing to do with him.

  But Gu Boqi's importance to Wang Shi is different, he is Wang Shi's husband, also Wang Shi's lover, and even the father of Wang Shi's children, in all the rules of ancient times, it is difficult for Wang Shi not to regard him as heaven.

  She smoothed out the loose hair on Wang's forehead, took off her shoes and climbed onto the bed to lean against her side, wrapping her arms around Wang's waist. Her eight-year-old body was just the right size to hug Wang without being a burden.

  Wang's face was smiling, but he hurriedly urged her: "Go down quickly, how can you be good if you catch a cold."

  Gu Man hid in her arms, and after a long time, or perhaps not that long, she let out a deep sigh, lifted her face and begged Wang Shi: "Mother, can you please not be ill?"

  The little girl said something that made Wang smile and nod her head to coax her: "Alright, Mommy won't get sick, not even for the rest of her life."

  Gu Man nodded and then very seriously and pitifully told her: "You have to keep your promise, you can't get sick. If you're seriously ill, you'll die... Mother is dead, Father will marry a new wife, the new wife is not our real mother, she will beat and scold me and my sister, my sister and I won't have good days anymore."

  Wang was shocked and hastily asked her: "Who told you these things?"

  Gu Man seemed a bit afraid, his eyes flickering uncertainly, blinking away the wet eyelashes before hesitantly saying: "It's the green lotus in Auntie's room."

  The Wang family finally settled down quietly for a long time.

  It can be confirmed that a new emperor will appear in this life, but of course, he absolutely won't have the opportunity to sit on that dragon throne again.

  Uh, and there are relatives who really dislike the Wang family. Actually, I want to say that it's really for a reason. If you don't mind, please take a look slowly, okay? I'll give a reasonable explanation...