Chapter 280 Gu Tingye sees the clues

Officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty often had days off during holidays.

Seven days before New Year's Eve, most officials have a day off.

Yang Wenyuan is no exception.

Pingyang Houfu.

Although he had the annual leave and was free at home, Yang Wenyuan was now a Hanlin Academy scholar. Apart from making friends with officials and relatives, it was not easy for him to go to restaurants often. So for now, he could only stay at home and accompany Hualan to enjoy the snow scenery.

But he is not idle all day.

After all, there is someone who has more free time than him, Gu Tingye.

His two-in-one mansion was already mostly completed and did not need him to oversee it personally, but he knew the expressions of his family members very well and was therefore reluctant to stay at home.

And because Lord Yu and Old Madam Yu were right beside him, watching his every move, it was even more inconvenient for him to go to the restaurant to have fun. So after much thought, he decided to just visit his relatives and friends to relieve his fatigue.

Although the Sheng family has Gu Tingye's favorite "Bai Lan", he is embarrassed to visit too often because Sheng Hong and Wang Ruofu are watching over him.

But at Pingyang Marquis' Mansion, Gu Tingye had no worries.

Therefore, he would come to Yang Wenyuan from time to time to chat and relieve his boredom.

Yang Wenyuan was also happy to have someone come to his house to "chat". Although she was not a beautiful woman, why couldn't she be a "macho man"?
The water in the lake in the city has formed a thick layer of ice.

On the waterside pavilion in the middle of the lake.

Yang Wenyuan followed the practice of previous years and opened several holes for ice fishing and set up a few low stools.

Yang Wenyuan and Gu Tingye were leaning on low stools, holding fishing rods in their hands. There was a small stove between them, with a teapot bubbling over it, and some ripe fruits and vegetables scattered around.

It is also a rare sight in this icy and snowy environment.

"I have lost a lot of blood for my nephew's celebration gift."

Gu Tingye refused to admit that he was bored and wanted to chat with Yang Wenyuan, so he said as usual:
"Now when I think of this, my heart tightens. I have to eat something from your house to relieve my anger."

Yang Wenyuan turned his head and glanced at Gu Tingye who was speaking confidently. He was a little speechless about his unique "tsundere", but he had no choice but to respond:
"Okay, whenever you miss me, you can come to my house to find me."

"Uh-huh?!"

Gu Tingye just nodded, but immediately felt that there was something wrong with what Yang Wenyuan said.

What do you mean I miss you?

When he thought about the fact that Yang Wenyuan had been holding back for a while, he couldn't help but move his stool to the side.

He said:
"That's not all. You have to send me some more of those fireworks, too."

"what?"

Yang Wenyuan looked surprised and turned around to ask:

"Didn't I send you a lot a long time ago? How come..."

Ok.

Yang Wenyuan immediately realized that Gu Tingye was trying to show his courtesy by taking his things.

But there were only so many things and they had already been sold out, so Yang Wenyuan said:
"It's gone, it's really gone. If you really want it, you have to wait until the weather warms up and then have someone bring a boat from Huangzhou."

After all, Gu Tingye contributed money to the fireworks workshop, and Yang Wenyuan already considered him one of his spiritual shareholders, so this small request could still be met.

"Why do I need this thing after the New Year?" Gu Tingye immediately gave Yang Wenyuan a cold look.

Yang Wenyuan immediately asked back:

"You don't want it when you get married? Forget it, I originally wanted to..."

"No, no!"

Gu Tingye finally reacted and immediately said:
"I want it, I want it!"

As for Yang Wenyuan's teasing look, Gu Tingye smiled and said confidently:
"I spent so much money on you, I can't be so reluctant to give up such a small thing!"

Yang Wenyuan: “…”

Why does this sound a little wrong?

In order to prevent the topic from going off track, Yang Wenyuan prepared to change the subject.

The issue of establishing a crown prince has been intensifying recently, and as one of the original protagonists of this line, Qi Heng, Yang Wenyuan has not heard from him for a long time.

So Yang Wenyuan asked Gu Tingye:
"By the way, how is Yuan Ruo doing recently?"

Yang Wenyuan knew Qi Heng's latest developments. Qi Heng had followed his family's ship all the way out of Bian Jing. After that, when Old Lady Sheng and others were not in Bian Jing, Yang Wenyuan had been guarding Bian Jing all the time, so he knew how big a fuss this incident had been.

At the same time, the name Minglan also entered the ears of the dignitaries in Bianliang.

Especially the Fuchang Marquisate and the Yongwang Mansion, who had ideas about Qi Heng.

Princess Pingning was very angry about this and took Qi Heng directly to the Duke of Qi's mansion, preventing him from going out for several months.

However, in Yang Wenyuan's opinion, Princess Pingning's move was not so much to restrict Qi Heng's freedom as it was to suppress the storm for Qi Heng.

"Yuan Ruo?"

Gu Tingye can't go to the restaurant now, so Madam Wu's polo club is a rare place for him to have fun, so he almost never misses a game.

As a place where nobles of Bian Jing often gathered, a lot of gossip was naturally heard at the polo match.

Gu Tingye did have a rough idea about this matter.

So Gu Tingye looked slightly startled and said to Yang Wenyuan:

"He's had a hard time recently. I heard he couldn't even eat."

"For my sixth sister?" Although Yang Wenyuan knew the reason, he still asked back.

Gu Tingye nodded and replied:
"Qi Heng chased after her right after she recognized her sister in the Sheng family. This really made the princess laugh. The incident was so big that the princess was even more unhappy. So when Qi Heng returned to Bianjing, she locked him up in the house."

"Qi Heng rarely argued with his mother, so he started a quarrel and even beat to death a maid in Yuan Ruo's room."

"Kill the maid?"

"Yeah~!"

Gu Tingye had a look of excitement on his face at this moment. He came closer and whispered to Yang Wenyuan:
"I heard that the woman looked a bit like the sixth sister of the Sheng family. Only she could persuade Yuan Ruo to eat. At that time, the mother and son were at their worst. Given the princess' temper, she was immediately furious..."

After saying this, Gu Tingye's face showed a bit of boredom, he sat up straight again and said:

"If you ask me, I would have made a decisive decision and fought hard. If he had the courage to invite me, his second uncle, to come and snatch Minglan away, I would have respected him as a man."

"Now that such a big fuss has been made, gossip has spread all over the city. If it doesn't work out in the end..."

Gu Tingye glanced back at Yang Wenyuan:
"It will be difficult to marry your wife's sister to someone else in the future."

Yang Wenyuan naturally understood the connection, but since neither Old Lady Sheng nor Wang Ruofu showed up, how could he, as a brother-in-law, step forward?

This doesn't make sense.

Yang Wenyuan could only roll his eyes at Gu Tingye and said:

"That sounds nice, but if Qi Heng came to your house and asked you to go to the Sheng family, would you dare?"

Gu Tingye rubbed his hands and said with an embarrassed look:
"Things are different now. If you miss this village, there will be no such temple anymore."

Gu Tingye used to be carefree and had no worries, so he could naturally help Qi Heng with his passion. But now Gu Tingye has a wife waiting to be married, so he can only keep his passion inside and use it on his wife, so he can't do anything to help Qi Heng.

And maybe I will have to change my stance in the future.

After all, Gu Tingye knew very well that his future wife, Yu Yanran, had a very close relationship with Minglan.

From now on, when the pillow talk blows, Gu Tingye doesn't know which side he should stand on. "If you can't bear it, just say you can't bear it. What nonsense is this." Yang Wenyuan glanced at Gu Tingye and gave him a disdainful look, letting him experience it himself.

"What about you? Do you dare to help again?"

Gu Tingye felt offended, so he immediately said to Yang Wenyuan:
"If you dare to lend a helping hand, the first person to give you the cold shoulder will be your sister-in-law."

"I can't say for sure. In the end, you even kicked the end of the bed off." Gu Tingye joked.

Yang Wenyuan's expression remained unchanged, and he glanced at Gu Tingye:
"When did I say I was going to help Yuan Ruo? You're the only one bragging about yourself."

Gu Tingye was suddenly speechless.

Well, he thought about it carefully in his mind, Yang Wenyuan did not say anything about helping Qi Heng, most of the time he just echoed along.

Thinking of this, Gu Tingye looked at Yang Wenyuan with an increasingly unfriendly look.

You are such a sinister villain!
He is used to instigating others from behind!

Gu Tingye couldn't help but start to speculate in his mind.

When I was cheering for Qi Heng in the beginning, wasn't it out of my own will, but was it because Yang Wenyuan secretly instigated me to do so?

Yang Wenyuan: You have a weird imagination!
At this time, Cai Zan walked into the water pavilion. She held a kettle in her hand and began to add water, and also added a lot of fruits. Her movements were graceful and delicate, and she was extremely graceful.

Soon, after everything was ready, Caizhan bowed and left.

"Well, it seems like you have a lot going on at home too."

As soon as Caizhan left, Gu Tingye began to joke with Yang Wenyuan in high spirits.

"what?"

Yang Wenyuan didn't understand what Gu Tingye meant.

"The little maid from your house."

Gu Tingye looked back at Hui Lu and then turned to look at Yang Wenyuan, saying jokingly:
"Don't tell me you didn't see that."

"what?"

Yang Wenyuan's expression became even more confused now.

Caizhan didn’t understand how Gu Tingye could have noticed something wrong when she was just pouring tea.

Hualan has two personal maids, Cuichan and Caizhan.

Cuichan usually stays by Hualan's side all the time, serving her attentively, and will also take care of Yang Wenyuan when there is something.

As for Cai Zan, she was mostly left by Hua Lan to be taken care of by Mother Li, so that she could supervise the servants in the mansion on her behalf.

The two people originally had equal status, one was in charge of the interior and the other was in charge of the outside.

Now, Cuichan has married Changqing, a close follower of Yang Wenyuan, and her status in the backyard has become even higher, second only to Hualan and Li Mama, the mother-in-law who manages the backyard.

Yang Wenyuan was also happy to give Changqing some "surprises" and would give Cuichan a holiday from time to time.

So gradually, the job of pouring tea and water for Yang Wenyuan was replaced by Cai Zan.

What Yang Wenyuan didn't know was that Caizan had taken the initiative to ask Cuichan for this task, otherwise this job would most likely have been taken by the second-class maid in Hualan's room instead of Caizan, the half-manager maid.

Gu Tingye saw that Yang Wenyuan had a confused expression, and he must have been unable to tell. He also thought that he did not have as much "experience" as himself, so he had no choice but to speak directly:

"Didn't you notice that the maid just now had a nice figure? She was also pretty?"

In front of Gu Tingye, Yang Wenyuan didn't like to pretend. He immediately recalled Cai Zan's actions just now, and nodded slowly:

"She has a good figure and looks much better than before."

"Isn't that right?"

Gu Tingye glanced at Yang Wenyuan unhappily and said:
"It's so cold, but she didn't wear the bulky winter clothes of the servants. Instead, she wore thin clothes that showed off her figure, and she also put on delicate makeup..."

"If I didn't know your temper, Yang Wenyuan, I would have thought that you secretly kept this in your house."

The rules of Ningyuan Marquis Mansion are different from those of Pingyang Marquis Mansion.

When Yang Wenyuan was young and surrounded by a group of old maids, Gu Tingye had already enjoyed the life of aristocratic sons with many beautiful women as concubines, so he was most familiar with the seductive style of these female servants.

Just now he just glanced at Cai Zan, and then looked at her movements that deliberately revealed her feminine beauty. Although these actions seemed childish in Gu Tingye's eyes, he could clearly see what she was thinking.

"what?"

Yang Wenyuan was a little slow to react for a moment. After all, Caizan was Hualan's personal maid, comparable to Changqing to himself, and was the most intimate servant. Therefore, he never thought that Caizan could secretly poach Hualan behind her master's back.

If he really wanted to seduce me, he must have done it behind Hualan's back, otherwise Yang Wenyuan would not have gotten any news from Hualan.

"What's so surprising? There are so many things you haven't seen yet!"

What Gu Tingye experienced in Ningyuan Marquis Mansion was much more bizarre than what happened here with Yang Wenyuan.

For example, he just went out for a meal and drank some wine and came home, but when he woke up the next morning, his elders stuffed a crying maid into his room, insisting that he had raped her the night before while drunk.

When asked about the maid, she just cried and said that it was dark and she couldn't see the person clearly.

Regardless of whether this is true or not, let’s just talk about Gu Tingye himself.

How could Gu Tingye not know whether he had done it or not?
My pants are dry!

But there were so many people in the family, and no one was on his side. They just kept blaming him for the crime and forced him to bow his head, making it impossible for him to defend himself.

So, compared with myself, Yang Wenyuan looks so beautiful and natural!
At least, you should know whether your pants are dry or not...

"Interesting, my sister-in-law has just become pregnant, and the maid in the mansion has such thoughts."

Gu Tingye immediately winked at Yang Wenyuan and said:

"Dong Huan, is it because you have evil intentions that people are suspicious of you?"

"What do you think?" Yang Wenyuan glared at Gu Tingye unhappily.

Is this the time to make sarcastic remarks?

Gu Tingye: Yes, that’s right!

"That's because my sister-in-law is too gentle."

Gu Tingye turned around and analyzed again, and continued:
"But that's true. After all, I come from a small family..."

As he spoke, Gu Tingye glanced at Yang Wenyuan:
"I'm not mocking my sister-in-law's background."

Yang Wenyuan naturally understood what Gu Tingye meant, so he just nodded and let him continue.

Gu Tingye then continued:

"So I have not been in the mansion for long, and my foundation is not deep, so it is difficult to clean up the original servants of the mansion. Now this incident happened, it is not unexpected."

"..."

Yang Wenyuan thought Gu Tingye could come up with some reasonable ideas, but he didn't expect it to be such nonsense.

You have to know that when Hualan first married into the Marquis' Mansion, she had already subdued the former manager of the rear house of the Marquis' Mansion. He had long been the one who had the final say in the rear house, and no one dared to disobey him.

It's not what Gu Tingye said, "petty".

But Yang Wenyuan couldn't say this either.

after all……

After all, Caizhan is Hualan's personal maid!
This is equivalent to being betrayed by someone close to you. It is Hualan’s “family shame” and it is not good to let Gu Tingye know about it.

Although he knew the hope was slim, Yang Wenyuan could only hope that the hairpin was not what Gu Tingye said.

(End of this chapter)