lcionline Chapter 105: Standing out
Chapter 105: Standing out
As Sikong was carrying the unconscious Gu Changyi on his back and was about to step through the threshold, he was stopped by Yaoqin, who rushed up to greet him.
"Miss Gu has arrived. The maids couldn't stop her. She's in the flower hall right now."
Sikong's face darkened. He lifted the person on his back a little higher, and without replying, he walked quickly past Yaoqin into the room.
Jinse took the raincoat from Gu Changyi and noticed the bloodstains on his back that had soaked through his plain undergarment. She exclaimed in surprise, "Second Young Master's wound has reopened! This servant will go and fetch the ginseng pills that the Young Master has stored away!"
"No need! Quickly, take the second young master to the west wing!" Shen Jingshu's voice came from behind. She had no time to pay attention to the words "Miss Gu is here," and she lifted her skirt and ran towards the west wing.
Inside the west wing, incense burned with calming fragrance. Shen Jingshu took the handkerchief handed to her by Sikong and pressed it against the whip marks. Her fingertips touched the burning heat, and her heart trembled involuntarily.
Sikong had just applied the medicine powder to his wound when, with a "bang," a bamboo umbrella slammed against the doorframe, startling him so much that he nearly knocked over the medicine bottle.
"Second brother!"
Gu Shiyi stood by the door, wearing a flamboyant apricot-red oilcloth, with swaying silver tassels at her temples, making the corners of her eyes appear even more scarlet.
She strode forward, snatched the porcelain bottle from Sikong's hand, and smashed it to the ground. The medicine powder scattered into the cracks between the floor tiles. "You can't even protect your own people. Go kneel in the courtyard!"
Shen Jingshu sighed, "If you've come here to demand an explanation, you might want to take a look at this first."
She took off the purse from her waist, took out a triangular amulet, and stuffed it into Gu Changyi's palm: "Changyi is delirious with fever, but she still remembers this amulet. The carriage had already gone a long way, but Sikong braved the rain to go back to Shanyuan Temple to retrieve it."
Gu Shiyi kicked away the broken porcelain at her feet, her earring jingling as it hit the ground. She angrily said, "You believe in these things, these vague and unfounded things! If there really are gods and Buddhas, why didn't Second Brother show any mercy when he knelt down the threshold of the palace?"
Her nail-painted fingers poked Shen Jingshu's forehead: "Wang Shi was right, you really are a jinx! Xie Wanqing's poison didn't kill you, but our Duke's Mansion will have to collect your corpse first!"
Sikong stepped forward, blocking Shen Jingzhu's path. "Young Miss, please watch your words! The Second Young Master is acting on behalf of Miss Wen; this matter has nothing to do with the Commandant's wife!"
"Whose servant are you anyway!" Gu Shiyi interrupted sharply, kicking over the copper basin on the ground. Blood splattered onto Shen Jingshu's skirt, spreading a dark red stain. "When Father was disciplining his son, why didn't you rush to protect him like this? Perhaps someone was deliberately stopping him, hoping my second brother would die from his injuries!"
Gu Changyi, who was on the couch, suddenly curled up and gripped the corner of the amulet tightly with her burning fingers.
She stared at Gu Changyi's clenched fist, her eyes suddenly reddening, and she sneered, "Making such a fuss over someone wanting to become a monk, when did Second Brother become so infatuated..."
Before she could finish speaking, Gu Changyi let out a soft sob, the rest of her words stuck in her throat, her knuckles turning white as she twisted the handkerchief.
Gu Shiyi stared blankly at the white welts on his back, feeling as if her heart was being torn apart. She suddenly turned around, grabbed Sikong's collar, and questioned him sharply, "When Father disciplined Second Brother, did you just stand by and watch? Isn't Jiang Jin'an very popular with the Emperor? How come he couldn't even get a royal physician to come?"
"Since the Duke of Dingguo has allowed you to come to the Jiang residence, I suppose the young master knelt properly in the ancestral hall?" Shen Jingshu wiped the cold sweat from Gu Changyi's forehead with a hot towel and gestured for Yaoqin to bring another basin of water.
"Don't try to intimidate me with Father!" Gu Shiyi suddenly choked up. "My eldest brother has been kneeling in the ancestral hall for three days, Father has been sighing all day long while staring at those boxes of broken wood that I don't know where they came from, and Mother's eyes are almost blind from crying! And you all, one by one, just let him be bullied like this by those people from the Prince Jing's Mansion..."
The rest of her words were swallowed by the sound of rain outside the window. She turned her back, but the pearl-embroidered tassel in her hair unexpectedly tangled around the jade pendant hanging on the screen beside her.
When Jinse came in carrying the medicine bowl, she stumbled upon this absurd scene.
With tears welling up in her eyes, Miss Gu was struggling with the jade pendant. Sikong held up a pair of scissors, looking like he wanted to cut but didn't dare to, which made Shen Jingshu's actions of wiping her wounds seem even more calm and composed.
Frustrated, Gu Shiyi simply ripped off the tassels wrapped around the screen. Pearls tumbled and rolled all over the floor. She stumbled and stepped on the round beads, about to fall into the medicine bowl, when a hand suddenly reached out from the side, grabbed the back of Gu Shiyi's jacket, and pulled her back forcefully.
Looking back, Shen Jingshu was already standing behind her, holding her with one hand like a frizzy cat. "Be careful, don't burn yourself."
"You, you let me go!" Gu Shiyi was caught off guard, her face flushed red. She had just struggled to stand up when she suddenly heard a groan of pain from the bed.
Upon hearing the sound, Shen Jingshu quickly let go of his hand and walked back to the bedside. Gu Changyi kept his eyes tightly closed and curled up like a shrimp.
"Sister Wenyin is practicing Buddhism at Shanyuan Temple with her hair still intact, and she has been praying for you." Shen Jingshu leaned down and whispered in Gu Changyi's ear, "The abbess also said that the phoenix flowers in the temple have not yet withered, which means that your worldly ties have not been severed."
Sikong stood to the side, his eyes also reddening. "In the past, whenever Miss Wen came to see the young master, he always tried to avoid her. Once, through the bamboo curtain, the young master said... that he was a withered branch rotting in the mud, unworthy of her delicate flower..."
Gu Shiyi sniffed, staring at her brother's knuckles, which were clenched so tightly they were white, and grabbed the silver scissors from the table: "I'm going to Shanyuan Temple right now to cut off her cassock!"
Shen Jingshu said helplessly, "If you are practicing with your hair still intact, then what kind of robe do you have?"
Gu Shiyi suddenly burst into tears, dropped the silver scissors, rushed to the bedside and tightly grasped Gu Changyi's hand, "Shen Jingshu, do you think our Gu family... is doomed?"
Gu Shiyi's cries mingled with the sound of rain, each sound striking Shen Jingshu's heart.
She raised her hand to smooth Gu Changyi's furrowed brows and said, "If you really care, why don't you think about how to get the Duke's Mansion clean off from Prince Jing?"
“Look,” Shen Jingshu pointed to an account book on the table, with an official seal clearly printed on the cover, “those boxes of official silver are no joke.”
As the rain subsided, Gu Shiyi sat blankly by the window, clutching the account book, her expression dazed.
Jinse quietly pushed a plate of rose pastries toward her, but Shen Jingshu suddenly jumped up, pointed at her, and angrily said, "Shen Jingshu! You knew this all along, didn't you? You deliberately provoked me to be the one to stick my neck out!"
Shen Jingshu was pouring the medicine that Gu Changyi couldn't drink into the potted plant when she heard this. Without turning her head, she said, "Miss Gu is intelligent. I'm sure she can persuade the Duke. After all, it's not too late to turn back now. Making a coffin for the living is more dignified than apologizing to the dead."