Chapter 134.1
Gu Chengfeng wanted to put in a few words of explanation for his younger brother, but his older brother"s aura was completely cold at the moment, frightening him into incoherence.
He found the Yao shi just now really odd. How come she suddenly took off her usual punching bag appearance? Making a fuss like this, unafraid of confronting them about the matter, as though she had changed into somebody else.
"Eldest brother..." Gu Chengfeng spoke.
"You shut up!" Gu Changqing’s icy voice stopped him from speaking. He turned to look at Gu Chenglin and said, "Go to the ancestral hall and kneel down for me! Don"t get up without my permission!"
"Eldest brother!" Gu Chenglin was furious.
It was just the study earlier, but now he directly wanted him to kneel in the ancestral hall?
The ancestral hall was a place where the memorial tablets of the family’s ancestors were enshrined and worshiped. Generally, only those who committed unforgivable mistakes would go there and kneel as punishment.
Gu Chenglin vehemently refused, "I"m not going to the ancestral hall!"
"You’re going there! No matter if you’re unwilling or not, you still have to go!" As soon as Gu Changqing"s voice fell, he grabbed Gu Chenglin"s collar directly.
Gu Chenglin was already badly beaten by Gu Jiao, and now his eldest brother was still dragging him like this; he only felt as though his neck would fall off at any moment!
Gu Changqing threw him into the ancestral hall of the Marquis Estate and left two guards behind to stand guard, ordering, "Don"t give him food or water."
Gu Chengfeng grabbed his eldest brother"s arm and said, "Eldest brother, third brother is badly hurt right now. Punishing him like this... Aren"t you afraid this might chill his heart?"
Gu Changqing coldly replied, "This can also chill his heart? Then what about others?"
Gu Chengfeng argued, "That boy is an outsider after all. Are you really going to punish your own younger brother for an outsider? Have you forgotten that our mother asked you to take care of me and third brother on her deathbed? You promised in front of her that you will never let anyone bully us! But look, what is eldest brother doing right now?"
Gu Changqing cast him a deep look and said, "You also kneel down for me."
Gu Chengfeng was stupefied.
Gu Changqing locked up both his younger brothers in the ancestral hall and then turned back to his own courtyard.
Meanwhile, the servant boys of Gu Chengfeng and Gu Chenglin came to give them food, but they were all blocked outside by the guards at the door.
Unable to do anything, they had to go to the Pine Crane Courtyard to ask for help.
"What did you say? Lin’er and Feng’er have been locked up in the ancestral hall?" Old Madame Gu just had her mo’e headband[1] removed and was about to rest. Hearing the news, she quickly asked her maid to arrange her hair again.
Gu Chenglin"s personal servant boy said with a sad face, "That’s right, Old Madame, the two young masters have been locked up! Third Young Master’s body is still with injuries, if he don"t eat nor drink for a whole night, I"m afraid he might not make it—"
Old Madame Gu was so furious that she hurriedly asked Grannie Cai around her to go to the ancestral hall to bring people out.
After a while, Grannie Cai came back to report, "Old Madame, the two guards said that without shizi’s orders, they can"t release people!"
"Going against the sky!" Old Madame Gu slapped the table and asked Grannie Cai, "Where is shizi? Summon him over for me!"
"Shizi has just gone out and is not in the estate." Grannie Cai answered.
Old Madame Gu felt pain and anger when he thought of his precious youngest grandson. Among his three grandsons, Old Marquis valued the eldest grandson the most while Old Madame Gu doted on the youngest one the most. Gu Chenglin"s antagonistic temper was mostly molded by Old Madame Gu.
"I"ll go there myself!"
The entire Marquis Estate covered a very large area, and it would take one a quarter of an hour to walk from the Pine Crane Courtyard to the ancestral hall. Old Madame Gu couldn’t wait that long to get there by walking, so she directly asked the servants to prepare her sedan chair.
When she arrived at the door of the ancestral hall, the two guards standing watch saluted her, "Old Madame."
Old Madame Gu‘s one hand held Grannie Cai"s arm as she used the other to point to the noses of the two guards, saying, "So you still know who I am? Here I thought it’s your turn to be in charge of the Marquis Estate! Why are you still not releasing the second and third young masters!"
The two guards remained motionless.
Old Madame Gu"s eyes were like torches as she said, "What? Are my words really useless now?"
One of the guards spoke, "This is shizi’s command and this subordinate dare not disobey it."
"I"m his grandmother!" Old Madame Gu stumbled back in anger and asked the servant girl beside her, "Where"s the Marquis?"
The servant girl answered, "Lord Marquis is not in the estate either."
Marquis Gu had been away from court for such a long time, and his official business had already piled up. These days, he had been busy with official work.
Old Madame Gu felt her liver ache with anger, "Then, let me go in and see them!?"
Shizi only said that no one was allowed to send food and drink inside, but he did not say that no one was allowed to visit.
The two guards made way for Old Madame Gu.
Old Madame Gu entered the ancestral hall in a hurry.
Gu Chengfeng was honestly kneeling on the mat at this moment. Gu Chenglin, on the other hand, was so badly hurt that he couldn’t even get up on his knees, and was just half-lying on the ground. It was precisely the description of miserable.
Old Madame Gu"s heart ached upon seeing this. She rushed over, knelt on the mat and held her precious grandson in her arms, saying, "Lin’er, what"s wrong with you? Who hurt you like this?"
When Gu Chenglin saw Old Madame Gu, tears welled up in his eyes. He said, "Grandma— You have to make the decision for this grandson—"
Gu Chenglin told Old Madame Gu about his painful experience. He knew that his grandmother was partial to him and she would believe everything he said, thus he simply said whatever came to his mind without proper consideration nor the slightest bit of logic.
"I never touch him. I never touch him at all. He recognized that I was his third brother. He hated that I bullied him when we were children, so he asked his sister to beat me up!"
"That girl grew up in the countryside, feeding pigs and doing farm work all day. Her body is naturally filled with brute strength, and she doesn’t care about how heavy handed she was when she dealt with me!"
"Considering that she is also my younger sister, I thought it’s not good to retaliate... Wu... Grandma..."
"After that, eldest brother still punished me..."
"Eldest brother doesn’t believe me..."
"Grandma... Wu—"
Gu Chenglin cried miserably with snot and tears all over his face.
Old Madame Gu"s heart ached terribly!
She said to the guards outside, "If you don"t let me take them out today, I will die here!"
The guards were put in a tough spot too.
They couldn’t disobey shizi’s command, but they couldn’t allow Old Madame Gu to have an accident here either.
Fortunately, Gu Changqing just went out for a bit to deal with a small matter and soon returned to the estate.
After hearing the news, he went to the ancestral hall.
In fact, Old Madame Gu highly valued this eldest grandson. However, the relationship between people sometimes needed to be maintained a little bit as well. Gu Changqing trained with the Old Marquis all year round and was not often around Old Madame Gu.
He didn’t act like a spoiled child like his two younger brothers, so his relationship with Old Madame wasn’t as close as that between his two younger brothers and the Old Madame.
When Old Madame Gu thought that he, as the big brother, was so cruel to his own younger brother, she was so indignant that he couldn"t wait to use the family"s punishment rod to beat him. She said, "Open your eyes and see what you have done to your younger brother!"
Gu Changqing said in a firm tone, "Grandmother, the ancestral hall is cold. You should better go back to the Pine Crane Courtyard, be careful of catching a cold."
1. ↑ — Mo’e Headband: a kind of Chinese traditional clothing accessory, was popular in the Ming Dynasty. It is tied on the forehead and usually decorated with embroidery or pearl jade. Worn mostly for decorative purposes and can be worn by both men and women.