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Chapter 258: Gu Tingye, Your Big Brother Calls You for Negotiation (2)

Translator: Iris

Minglan then looked at the women’s faces and said in an eased tone, “I am a young woman who hasn’t raised a kid before, so I’ve never thought too much about Rong’s education. However, a few days ago when I went to Marquis Zhongqin’s mansion, I found my five-year-old niece already able to write smoothly and speak fluently!”

As Minglan thought of Zhuang, the delicate little girl who was already able to talk eloquently in a graceful manner and answer questions in a neither humble nor haughty way at such a young age, and then thought of Rong who was about to reach nine years old, she felt a headache right away.

According to Hualan’s rearing plan, the lady of a big family should be given formative education before five years old and able to do well in needlework, talk, posture and learning before ten years old. When the lady reached fifteen, she should already be engaged.

When Minglan heard Hualan’s words, she felt quite guilty to Rong and criticized herself for not having a long-term vision for Rong’s future because this girl wasn’t her biological daughter. In Minglan’s previous view, Rong was merely a kid in second grade, so it didn’t matter if this kid wanted to enjoy a leisurely life for a few years. Now Minglan finally realized how severe the situation was.

Minglan sighed and said earnestly, “I don’t expect her to be a talented scholar, but you can not ignore her study like this. If a lady from a family like ours was unable to read Women’s Commandments and Girls’ Principle, we will be taunted by others for sure!”

Having paused for a short while, Minglan said with emphasis, “Since Old Madam entrusted Rong to you, you should pay more attention to this girl! Now Rong’s study is so poor, but you still have spare time to care about other things, is that a right thing to do?!”

Actually, after Gu’s family had been accused, Qiuniang behaved quite tamely and didn’t do anything(Perhaps the disappointment in love made her lose the interest in everything). However, Hongxiao had been busy running about for the people of the Gu family. Now it was just the right time to warn this woman.

With Gong Hongxiao’s face turning all pale and her forehead breaking into a cold sweat, she couldn’t even utter a word. The only thing she did was kneeling down and admitting that it was her fault that Rong’s study had been neglected.

Minglan felt that she had vented a bit of her grievance over the past few days by saying those words, which was so comfortable. Then after she gave a few more instructions, she went back to her own yard. When she walked to the gate of the House of the Cardamon Fragrance, she saw Mama Hua and Rong standing there with their hands holding together.

Rong raised her little face to look at Minglan and bit her lips. Minglan waited for her to speak, but the girl still didn’t say a word at last and ran away instead. Mama Hua looked at the back of Rong and sighed. Then she gave her obeisance to Minglan and said,

“Madam, don’t take it personally. Young Lady Rong...” She didn’t know how to organize her words, “When she had just arrived in Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion, I was there witnessing it. For all these years... Alas, that’s a poor kid. But she’s not a fool, she knows that you really treat her well.”

Minglan gave a wry smile-- Actually she didn’t treat that girl so well and she was only afraid of taking the responsibilities. That was why she had given the right of teaching Rong to others and only fulfilled her obligation of supervising Rong’s teachers. Sometimes Minglan even felt lucky that Rong had been keeping a distance from her, because Minglan wouldn’t know how to treat Rong if the latter wanted to be close to her.

The kids in the ancient times were very mature. A girl around nine years old should be able to understand everything. What was more, Rong’s mother was still alive. If Minglan was keen on showing her love to Rong, the girl might assume that she had an intention to replace her mother.

Minglan exhaled helplessly.

Her love for kids was never too much and had already been given to Hualan and Hailan’s children. Those chubby and adorable kids called her aunt sweetly, put their arms around her neck and ran toward her to kiss on her cheeks. As Minglan thought of those kids, she felt her heart getting softened at once because she really loved those kids. As for the rebellious girl, Rong, Minglan didn’t know how to deal with this girl. Nor did she want to seek trouble for herself since her life had already been full of challenges. The only thing Minglan wanted to do was taking care of Rong for her conscience’s sake.

She couldn’t do anything about the fact that she didn’t like Rong. Affection was not like the tap water, which was so easy to have.

Well, maybe she was a selfish person.

After Minglan had reflected on herself, reproached the concubines and checked the status of her husband’s illegal daughter, she realized that her life still had to continue. Although the people from the Gu’s family didn’t come to bother her now, the situation was actually turning more serious.

The officials in charge of the interrogation came to Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion more frequently and their attitudes were getting ruder and ruder. At the end of May, the officials in the Dali Temple escorted the men of the Gu’s family to the Yamen for interrogation. After Gu Tingyang and Gu Tingdi had been sent back after being interrogated, their faces remained deadly pale for a long time.

On the second day of June, Liu Zhengjie led a group of imperial bodyguards to take away Fourth Old Master and his son, Gu Tingbing. Fourth Old Madam, First Madam Xuan and Second Madam Bing all went to ask the brothers of Fifth Family what they had confessed in the Yamen and whether they had shifted the blame on the men of the Fourth Family. The more those women talked, the more emotional they became and they even started to curse. At last, the quarrel intensified into a fight, which made a huge stir.

It was said that Gu Tingyang’s face had been scratched by someone’s fingernail and kept bleeding. As a result, he could only stay at home for a long while in order to heal his wound. Also, half of Fifth Old Master’s beard was pulled off.

Hearing that news, Gu Tingye only gave a sarcastic smile with his lips curled and said nothing.

After two days, Gu Tingwei was also taken away.

The next day, someone from Marquis Ningyuan’s mansion came to invite Gu Tingye and Minglan over. The one who came was a Mama who served Madam Shao.