Empress Su’s eyes lit up. She looked up at Ye, smiled at her, and said quietly, “Madam, you’re so considerate. I remember it.”
Ye smiled and said, “This is what we should be as an official family. Your Highness, if something else needs to be done, we will do it together. It is related to the masses. Gu Family will take the lead.”
Empress Su nodded and said, “Great. Great. By the way, I heard that Gu Family has a lady called Gu Qiang. Is she here?”
They only know Gu Qiang. Ye felt angry at first. But then she realized that Gu Qiang came here with nothing, so she turned around instantly and pointed at Gu Qiang. All eyes were on her.
Gu Qiang came to her senses and saw Ye waving at her and signaling her to go over.
Gu Qiang had no choice but to walk slowly to Empress and give a salute.
“Is this Miss Gu? Very pretty.” Empress said and then looked at Gu Qiang with sparkling eyes.
It was only a poli
The fifteen-year-old Gu Qiang sat in the yard of the Gu Family and looked at Ye and Gu Zhihua cleaning their houses, which were close together. Ye told her to come here on purpose. She didn’t know why in the beginning, but now she did.Ye asked servants to carry out an emerald screen. It was very heavy and featured by a design of a beauty playing the zither. So beautiful.The design was engraved so well that one couldn’t take his or her eyes away from it. Besides, the screen looked familiar to Gu Qiang.It looked familiar of course. Gu Qiang recalled immediately where she saw it before. It was left behind by her deceased mother and used to be placed in her mother’s room. Why did Ye carry it out?Gu Qiang stood up instantly, rushed to Ye, pointed at the screen, and said, “Why is it here?”Ye was stunned. The screen was given to Gu Qiang’s mother by Prime Minister Gu. It was said that he was obsessed with her mother and
Gu Qiang sat before the desk at dusk, took out her diary, and recorded the disaster seriously.“Her Highness required donations. Ye wanted to donate the screen left behind by my mother, but I didn’t agree.”After Gu Qiang knew the other one was herself, she talked in a different way. She talked casually and tried to make herself clear so that the other one could understand her meaning.Soon some words appeared in the diary: Tomorrow, officials working on disaster relief will be investigated. Some of them will be searched and their property will be confiscated.It seemed that just because of this, she could communicate with Empress Gu Qiang. It was a big deal. But it was not extremely important. She only hoped that the Gu Family wouldn’t get involved.“I need a chance to stand out in the disaster.” Gu Qiang wrote briefly. Because she was facing herself, she might as well talk frankly. No one else understood her better t
Since Gu Qiang came round last time, she seemed to be different completely. She often went out. Her life was quite different, too. It seemed that she was scheming something important. It was her privacy, but Ting Feng was worried about her.“Stay here. Ye and Gu Zhihua may come here to find faults with us anytime. If you are here, I will be not worried.” Gu Qiang said slowly.Ting Feng was much more mature than Chui Xue, so Gu Qiang trusted more in her.Gu Qiang went out and walked on the street. There were many pedestrians. But different from before, they looked listless, walked in a hurry, and looked around with cold eyes.Because disaster victims had flooded into the capital, many people here were refugees. Perhaps some of them even suffered from the plague.Empress Dowager wasn’t spared in the heavily guarded palace. Civilians in the capital were not protected at all. How could they not be jittery?Gu
When the man rushed to Gu Qiang, Shen Qianshan emerged and dragged her behind him. And Shen Qianshan was greeted with a faint fragrance of pear blossom, which was the same as that of Gu Qiang.Seeing Shen Qianshan come to help her, those men knew this woman couldn’t be offended and thus returned to the alley immediately. Gu Qiang felt relieved.Gu Qiang didn’t care why Shen Qianshan appeared. Anyway, he would appear to save her whenever she was in danger. Sometimes, she was afraid that she would be attached to him and thus took what he did for granted.Shen Qianshan turned around, looked up and down at her, and asked, “Are you hurt?”Gu Qiang shook her head and answered, “No.”Then Shen Qianshan held Gu Qiang’s hand and walked forward. She felt uncomfortable. Were they so close? Why did he hold her hand?“I just heard you came here to help refugees, right? Do you have a solution?” Shen Qianshan said coldly
Then servants rushed to the main hall and carried Liu Shichu away. Shen Qianshan squinted and knew Liu Shichu was feigning illness. Liu Shichu didn’t know how to deal with Shen Qianshan’s threat, so he pretended to be ill to avoid being interrogated.Gu Qiang stood still. It was beyond her expectation. But if Liu Shichu left, it had to be put off and nothing could be changed.Shen Qianshan sighed heavily and leaned against the chair with a complicated expression. It seemed that he could do nothing about Liu Shichu’s trick.Gu Qiang put her cup on the table, stood up, and said to Shen Qianshan, “Your Highness, shall we go now?”Shen Qianshan never thought Gu Qiang didn’t care about what was going on at all. Now that nothing could be done to turn the tables, they had to accept it.Then Gu Qiang rose and walked out. Though Shen Qianshan was reluctant, he had no choice but to walk out with her.It was noon. Wh
Gu Qiang pressed her lips and smiled. Then she stood up slowly and told Prime Minister Gu, “Father, you are back and need a good rest. After a long journey, you must be fatigued. I’ll leave you alone now.”Then she walked out. Before Prime Minister Gu understood her meaning, she had gone far.In fact, Gu Qiang was clear that Prime Minister Gu stood by Ye though he rebuked her.Now that they were partners, why would she look at their affected manners?Gu Qiang was used to it and didn’t feel uncomfortable when she was young. She even treated Ye as her mother. However, it was different now. She was not the stupid girl any longer and wouldn’t listen to her father’s fallacies.She must listen to and believe them before. But now she had more choices, such as leaving right away when she didn’t want to listen.Immediately after she went out of the main hall, she saw Gu Zhihua and Ye standing there and looking at h
It was pitch-dark around. Walking past a lotus pond, Gu Qiang hid in the grass, hoping that she could have a chance. She believed she could deal with any situation.At this time, someone began to shout curses, and a strong wind blew past. Before everyone realized what was going on, they heard a loud splash and a woman’s scream, and followed by the sounds of beating the water and calling for help.It was in a mess near the lotus pond. Gu Qiang stuck her head out secretly and saw a woman standing by the lotus pond arrogantly and cursing the woman in the water. The dirty words were intolerable to the ear. It seemed that she was cursing that woman for seducing her husband.But if that woman in the water was not rescued, she would die.Gu Qiang thought she couldn’t look at the woman drown without doing anything, forgotting that she had sneaked in.After thinking carefully, Gu Qiang rushed over, dived into the water, and swa
Liu Shichu was deaf to Gu Qiang’s gratitude. He turned around and said to the tender woman in his arms, “Ru, stay here overnight. You are completely wet.” But Madam Ru shook her head firmly, got out of Liu Shichu’s arms, and said, “You know I can’t stay here. We must be cautious so that fewer people will have something on you. Besides, your wife is hostile to me. If I stay here overnight, I don’t know what will happen. I will leave with the girl.”Then Ru took Gu Qiang’s hand. Ru’s hand was icy cold and wet. It was uncomfortable to hold it, but Gu Qiang didn’t loosen her grip. Instead, she held Ru’s hand tightly.Liu Shichu was worried, but he didn’t say anything. Then Ru walked towards the back gate with two servant girls and Gu Qiang.It was pitch-dark now, but they were barely able to see the road. After walking two steps, Ru turned around to look at Gu Qiang and asked quietly, “Why did you take such a risk to enter here?”