Chapter 31: The Groom

“Miss, I’ve often heard others speak of such things. Master fears it might taint your ears, so he rarely lets them reach you.”

“Sister, you mean to say—but why would the Qin family? After all, they’re blood relatives!”

“You came to Bianjing late; you don’t know that in the early days, Lady Qin and Lord Qin were not born of the same mother.”

“Back then, the Dongchang Marquis’s household was already showing signs of decline, yet Lady Qin was instantly smitten by Lord Gu.”

“To maintain appearances, the Qin family gave Lady Qin a substantial dowry.”

Bai Shi: “No wonder, at gatherings in the capital, I heard whispers that some in the Qin family were seeking families who wouldn’t demand a dowry.”

“If your eldest brother were gone, given the closeness between Lord Qin and your Marquis, I’d wager half the dowry would be returned to the Qin family.”

“This current Lady of the Dongchang Marquis’s household was famously stingy even in her maiden years. Now that Lord Dongchang has his own daughter, he’s already preparing her dowry.”

Bai Shi’s face darkened; she rose in agitation. “No, I must go home and check.”

Sun Shi glanced at Madam Chang, who nodded, understanding this was Sun Shi’s silent reminder to keep an eye on their young mistress and not let her act rashly.

“Madam Chang, take my letter and invite several of the capital’s most renowned physicians to the Marquis’s household.”

“Sister, I know your father is a man of great ability—go consult him.”

Bai Shi’s eyes lit up.

“That’s right—Father is in the capital. How thoughtless of me.”

“You’re worrying too much.”

“Speaking of my father, yesterday he came to me saying that in a few days, a ship from Yangzhou will arrive. Hearing how close you and I are, he said that once the ship docks, he’d like to invite your brother and sister aboard for a visit.”

“Oh? Please thank him for me.”

“Sister, then I’ll take my leave.”

Leaving Bai’s residence in Bianjing,

Bai Shi sent a servant to the Dongchang Marquis’s household.

As Gu Yan Kai stepped out of the Qin household, his personal steward approached him.

“My Lord, the Lady says she has urgent matters to discuss and asks you to go to Fan Tower.”

In the afternoon, in a quiet courtyard at Fan Tower.

On the courtyard floor lay the medicinal herbs sent by the Qin family, laid out before four physicians of Bianjing.

Bai Shi and Gu Yan Kai watched from behind a semi-transparent screen.

Ningyuan Marquis Gu Yan Kai’s face darkened; he whispered, “What is the meaning of this? You summoned me here to Fan Tower? And those are the precious tonic herbs Uncle Yu just entrusted me to bring back to the Marquis’s household! Why did you open them and have the physicians examine them?”

Bai Shi said nothing.

Watching the silent Bai Shi, Gu Yan Kai murmured, “Fine, fine. Let me see what you’re planning.”

Soon, the four physicians’ expressions began to change.

“Have you all examined them thoroughly?”

Madam Chang, standing outside wearing a wide-brimmed hat, asked.

A younger physician, his face full of confusion, said,

“Madam, forgive me, but may I ask where you obtained this prescription? This… this is indeed correct for symptoms of physical weakness and blood deficiency!”

The other three elderly physicians remained silent, their faces showing no discernible emotion.

Madam Chang cast a single glance and understood.

“Please speak plainly. These tonic herbs were given to our Lady by a concubine; our household is uneasy, so we’ve asked you to examine them. You will not be repaid in vain.”

As she spoke, Madam Chang placed four silk pouches before the four physicians.

The younger physician looked puzzled and hesitated. “I see nothing amiss. I cannot accept this.”

The other three exchanged glances, understanding. The eldest bowed slightly and said,

“Madam, the prescription is well-written—balanced and mild, perfectly suited to the condition of congenital weakness and blood deficiency. But one herb in the mixture has been substituted.”

The old physician paused; another took up the thread.

“It must be that some pharmacy’s apprentice, lacking skill, confused Xue Ku Cao with Sheng Xue Cao.”

“Hiss!”

The young physician’s face cleared with sudden realization; he looked at the other three with admiration.

He bowed to the three elders, who said nothing; the young physician continued:

“Replacing Sheng Xue Cao with Xue Ku Cao, when combined with this prescription, only weakens the body further and drains qi. After the medicinal properties shift, it damages the lungs and causes chronic coughing. Over years, it harms fertility—it’s lethal!”

Bowing deeply, the young physician said, “Thank you, esteemed seniors, for your guidance.”

“You’ve seen enough cases to know this—no need for such formality.”

Behind the screen, Gu Yan Kai’s face darkened at this definitive judgment.

“My Lord, you know Lady Qin and the Dongchang Marquis were not born of the same womb. In the Qin household, physicians declared Lady Qin barren.”

The rest Bai Shi left unsaid.

Had you not risked your life on the northern battlefield, effectively threatening the old Ningyuan Marquis and his wife with your own death,

how could the elder generation have allowed you to marry Lady Qin?

Marrying such a sickly woman, whether you’d have heirs was uncertain.

The entire Ningyuan Marquis line might have ended!

True, the old Marquis had four or five other sons—but all of them were useless.

How, then, did Lady Qin give birth to Gu Ting Yu after ten years in your household?

Gu Yan Kai refused to believe that Lord Qin, his close friend, could be so cruel.

His face grim, he waited until the four physicians were escorted out by Madam Chang, then without waiting for Bai Shi, he slipped into the crowd at Fan Tower and walked straight back to the Marquis’s household.

The four physicians stayed only a short while at Fan Tower,

examined the herbs, and earned substantial payment.

Physicians in Bianjing,

they knew well: sometimes the method of harm isn’t clever—it’s the mastermind who can’t be named.

If you’re a physician and lack backing, and stubbornly expose the schemes of a Marquis, a Prince, or a household lord—do you think you’d even get to speak? Or would they silence you?

If you’re a servant, and you spot something wrong in the prescription, how do you know if the power-bearer didn’t intend it?

Ningyuan Marquis’s household, ancestral hall.

The spirit tablet of the deceased Lady Qin still stood in the Gu family ancestral hall.

Though Lady Qin and Gu Yan Kai had divorced, she bore the family’s firstborn son; after death, she was naturally enshrined in the Gu ancestral hall.

On his way, Gu Yan Kai’s anger slowly faded.

Entering the ancestral hall and seeing Lady Qin’s tablet, he collapsed inwardly, as if his bones had been pulled out.

No trace remained of his earlier confidence.

Lady Qin was his heart’s white moonlight,

the only true love of his life.

He walked to the tablet, gently lifting it into his hands.

“Qing’er, in the Dongchang Marquis’s household, was it truly as you said? Was your frailty truly inherited from your mother’s womb?”

Aside from matters of the battlefield, Gu Yan Kai paid little attention to much within the Marquis’s household.

One couldn’t remain tense at home without going mad.

Now he thought carefully—he realized Lady Qin had never spoken in detail about her life in the Dongchang household.

No praise. No complaints.

When he first met Lady Qin, what had she been like?

Her white robes seemed worn.

No hairpins, only a single green silk ribbon.

Holding a book, her gentle bowing head resembled a lotus trembling under cool wind.

Her appearance differed from the gaudy, jeweled noblewomen of Bianjing—like a slender willow swaying in the breeze.

Her unusual attire, combined with her exquisite beauty, had stunned him instantly, lodging deep in his heart.

Yet after marriage, every time he gifted her jewelry, she was overjoyed.

She never grew weary of gold, silver, pearls, or hairpins.

“Qing’er, you didn’t love that attire—you simply had no jewelry or fine clothes, did you?”

And when Lord Qin befriended him back then—was it because he was his brother-in-law, or because Gu Yan Kai was the future Marquis?

The wooden tablet in his hands offered no answer.

“Could Bai Shi be sowing discord?”

For a moment, Gu Yan Kai doubted.

He placed the tablet back, lit three incense sticks, and inserted them into the ancestral hall’s censer.

Thin smoke curled upward.

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(End of chapter)