Gu Qingyuan breathed a sigh of relief, half-laughing and half-sighing.
No matter how much she tries to please Mrs. Cheng'en, she can't change anything. It's just hypocrisy.
Since Pei Jinting reminded her like that before leaving, she couldn't live up to it.
Shuangzhi stood aside, his face looked a little strange, as if he was happy or worried.
Before leaving, the young master specifically asked her to go aside and pay attention to what was going on in the house.
On that day, she sent a letter to the young master that Mrs. Chengen asked the young lady to choose a concubine.
She also saw how the young lady tossed and turned in the past few days.
She thought that the young lady would not be able to withstand the pressure, but she never thought that the development of things was beyond her expectation.
Gu Qingyuan came out of Mrs. Chengen's yard. At this moment, Lu Wenze came over.
She didn't expect to meet Lu Wenze in the inner courtyard of the Pei Mansion.
As soon as Lu Wenze saw Gu Qingyuan's face as sinking as water, he knew that she was overthinking.
"Ayuan, I was entrusted by someone to come to see Madam..."
Gu Qingyuan looked at Lu Wenze. Under the sun, Lu Wenze was dressed in a green shirt, surrounded by orchids and jade trees, looking like a humble gentleman.
However, these are all appearances.
She bowed slightly towards Lu Wenze and said, "Master Lu, my mother-in-law is in the house..."
After that, he turned sideways and left the road open for Lu Wenze.
Lu Wenze turned his head to look at her, his eyes dark.
"A-Yuan, can't we just treat it as getting to know each other again?"
Get to know each other again?
Gu Qingyuan's lips curved into a sneer, and she subconsciously touched the incomplete wound on her lips.
Lu Wenze's eyes paused.
It’s not that he doesn’t understand things between men and women. Where did the injury on Gu Qingyuan’s lip come from?
Lu Wenze seemed to have thought of something, his face turned pale, and he felt his heart throbbing suddenly.
Once, he thought he could make Gu Qingyuan change his mind no matter what.
No matter how far she goes with Pei Jinting, he won't mind.
He deserves all this.
But one thing after another these days, Lu Wenze no longer has the same confidence as before.
He stretched out his hand and only saved a handful of wind.
Lu Wenze thought about many reasons, but he didn't want to think about it. Maybe Pei Jinting was better to Gu Qingyuan than she was.
He firmly believed that Pei Jinting deliberately deceived Gu Qingyuan in order to retaliate against him.
All of Pei Jinting's actions imply deception.
He believed that once Gu Qingyuan saw Pei Jinting's true face clearly, she would return to him.
"Ayuan, do you know why I came to see my wife?"
Lu Wenze seemed calm and collected, but his words were erratic.
Gu Qingyuan clasped her hands in front of her, stood upright, and looked at Lu Wenze with a half-smile.
"Master Lu, if you have something to say, say it quickly. There is no need to hesitate, otherwise it will only make people think that you are a particularly hateful person."
Her cruel tone made Lu Wenze tighten his jaw and look at her intently.
"Did you know that someone came to the Yamen yesterday and said that the third son of the Pei family was always rebellious and eventually abandoned, forcing a good woman to be raped... Not only that, the third son of the Pei family liked the new and disliked the old, and abandoned the good girl..."
"The daughter of a good family unexpectedly became pregnant. For fear of knowing about her family and neighbors, she committed suicide, killing one and two, and left a letter before she died."
"It involves human lives, violates morals, and affects the reputation of court officials."
The Jingzhao Mansion held an arrest warrant, but now that Pei Jinting was not in the capital, the government had no choice but to come to the house to notify him.
Lu Wenze laughed bitterly,
"Ayuan. What do you still miss about such a person? If you want to reconcile, I can ask His Majesty to issue an edict..."
Gu Qingyuan remained silent for a while.
Lu Wenze looked at the gentle woman in front of him, but what flashed in his mind was that she had meekly followed him, his eyes full of admiration for her.
Gu Qingyuan stared at Lu Wenze's face, feeling deeply silent.
His eyes were calm, as if looking at a stranger,
"If my husband is really related to that murder case, there is no harm in the government sending a message to investigate..."
"It's just that everything is not based on evidence. Mr. Lu, I am afraid that just one letter may not be enough evidence. What if the other party is setting up a trap?"
Lu Wenze took out a letter from his sleeve pocket.
Gu Qingyuan opened it and found that it was not a complete letter, but several fragments that had been damaged by fire.
However, Gu Qingyuan frowned and saw the one with the most characters. She read it from beginning to end, and her fingertips trembled.
She spelled out all the papers with writing on them and read them carefully, her mind becoming confused.
If this letter is true, then this letter was written by Pei Jinting to the daughter of a good family.
He said that he would give her an identity and would marry her in the future. As long as she safely gave birth to the child in her belly, she would be the descendant of the Pei family.
In this letter that was burned but not completely burned, the name of the person who gave the promise appeared on the edge of the burned-yellow piece of paper.
Pei Jingheng.
The yard was quiet. Gu Qingyuan's back was straight. She looked at the fragment of the letter in her hand without moving, but her heart was beating faster.
This letter is incomplete. If she thinks this letter is fake, the dark red seal marks on the two scraps of paper will tell her.
These may be true.
The red seal traces were pieced together, and there were three words, Pei Jingheng.
Gu Qingyuan had seen the seal before. It was Pei Jinting's private seal.
Gu Qingyuan didn't know if this letter was true.
It just happened that Pei Jinting was not in Beijing at this time and was sued to the government.
Today, Lu Wenze feels that Gu Qingyuan should understand Pei Jinting's true face.
At this moment, he still said to Gu Qingyuan,
"You know, I have always only wanted to marry you. I broke up with Yun Niang a long time ago."
"Ayuan. In the past, I always weighed interests, so I hurt you, but now I won't."
Gu Qingyuan's ears were dazed, and waves of dizziness accumulated in her head.
Lu Wenze, "What's wrong with you? A-Yuan, A-Yuan..."
"What are you doing?"
"Do not touch me……"
Gu Qingyuan's voice sounded together with a voice coming from inside the house.
Mrs. Cheng'en stood on the steps of the corridor eaves, staring angrily at the two people in the courtyard.
Lu Wenze is taller than Gu Qingyuan. Looking from behind, the two seem to be hugging each other.
Mrs. Chengen's eyes darkened.
The way Gu Qingyuan contradicted her before was still vivid in her mind.
She herself has been a daughter-in-law for many years and has become a mother-in-law.
Back then, she also experienced pressure from her mother-in-law to take concubines for Duke Chengen.
At that time, how could she dare to push the matter to her husband like Gu Qingyuan?
It's not just about choosing people obediently, preparing concubines and concubines, and educating concubines.
But now, Gu Qingyuan dared to show her shame.
Mrs. Chengen took a deep breath and stood there. Is it possible that Gu Qingyuan contradicted her like this because she felt that she had a way out?
The more Mrs. Chengen thought about it, the more angry she became. Gu Qingyuan was not afraid of her face as dark as water.
She laughed self-deprecatingly and looked pointedly at Lu Wenze, who was staring at her closely.
"Do you know what I hate most about you men? It's arrogance and cowardice. One is a coward in heart, and the other is a coward in action."