Rebirth of the Excellent Daughter of the Marquis Household (REDMH) - Chapter 5

Liang-shi, who was putting away the sword, heard the voice and turned her head. Seeing her daughter standing in the corridor, she did not bother wiping her sweat and handed the sword to her maid, Chun Xing. Then she hugged Gu Yu Qi, “Why aren’t you resting in your room but came here?” She spoke in a somewhat reproachful tone. She touched Gu Yu Qi’s hand and fortunately, it was warm. “This place is not like Jiangnan. It’s freezing cold. You are in good health. Be careful and don’t stay in the wind.”

Gu Yu Qi looked at Liang-shi’s concerned eyes and her heart warmed. She held Liang-shi’s hand in return and smiled, “Mother, I’m all recovered. I missed my mother, so I came here.” Gu Yu Qi was telling the truth. In this life, the people who she missed were Liang-shi and Yan Zhi. Yan Zhi was by her side everyday, but her mother lived in Wan Xin Zhai. She came from Jiangnan and was not accustomed to the soil and water here. In addition, she had to put up with the affair with Concubine Liu. She was sickly and Liang-shi was afraid of passing on the illness to Gu Yu Qi, so she just went to see Gu Yu Qi every day but did not dare to stay for long.

“Come, let’s go and talk.” There was a trace of relief in Liang-shi’s eyes. She took Gu Yu Qi’s hand and led her into the warm pavilion. She asked the old ladies to bring a handkerchief to clean her face and tidy her appearance a little, then she sat down.

Although her husband had failed her, she still had a daughter.

Liang-shi looked at Gu Yu Qi with tenderness in her eyes.

In fact, if she had her temperament from years ago and saw Liu-shi and her twins when she came to the capital, she would have handed Gu Huai Zhong a divorce letter and turned around to leave. However, she endured it for the sake of her daughter. It was not that she did not hate Gu Huai Zhong’s ungratefulness and ignorance, but she had a daughter. If she really divorced her husband and returned to Jiangnan, what would come of her daughter? Now, she was still the madam of the Marquis’ residence and had a high status. In any case, her daughter could marry a nobleman in the capital in the future. If she really divorced Gu Huai Zhong, her daughter would not be able to enter the Liang family tree. In another four to five years, when her daughter reached the eligible age for marriage, there would not be a good family who would come and propose. Then, her daughter would inevitably marry into a lowly family and that was not something Liang-shi was willing to see.

Hence, the proud Liang-shi could only swallow and endure it. She had suffered for ten years in exchange for a fickle husband and first-rate title. Why should she leave the capital and go back to Jiangnan and let that Liu-shi and her two children cheapen the Marquis’ residence?

She knew that the way her husband looked at her had changed. After coming to the capital for so many days, although he had reluctantly came to see her, there were no friendly emotions in his eyes. They were all replaced with evasion and a bit of fear.

It was hilarious. The dignified Ding Yuan Marquis saw his wife like a mouse seeing a cat. There was none of the natural romance from back then. He really should be afraid for himself. Liang-shi smiled coldly in her heart. Marrying a concubine at the border and hiding it for ten years. Even if she tore Liu-shi apart alive, Gu Huai Zhong would not dare to say a word. Gu Huai Zhong was afraid that she could not bear to deal with Liu-shi and her pair of children. The more he was like this, the more uncomfortable Liang-shi felt. As the madam of the house, she could deal with Liu-shi in all manner of ways but she really could not bring herself to do it. In any case, Liang-shi’s illness was caused by suffocating herself and being unable to acclimatise to the region.

Now, the warmth in her daughter’s eyes made Liang-shi’s heart feel bittersweet. She still felt suffocated but it was much better than the previous days.

“Mother, can you teach me martial arts?” Gu Yu Qi had now completely transformed into a little flatterer and was pulling on Liang-shi’s skirt coquettishly.

“As a young miss of the Marquis’ residence, what will you learn martial arts for?” Liang Huai Yu pinched her daughter’s cheeks amusedly. Her daughter was born very well, and in less than two years, she would become lovely enough to cause the fall of a city or a state. How could such a daughter go back to Jiangnan to marry? No matter what, she had to find a good marriage for her daughter in the capital. “Learning martial arts is very hard!” She laughed.

“I’m not afraid. If I learn martial arts, I won’t be thrown into the water unwittingly!” Gu Yu Qi raised her face and said softly.

“What did you say?” Liang-shi’s eyes hardened and she held her daughter’s shoulder, “You fell into the water because you were thrown into it?”

Feeling the strength of her mother’s grip on her shoulders, Gu Yu Qi twisted her body a little uncomfortably, “Mother, listen to me.” She told Liang-shi what she was thinking, and Liang-shi furrowed her brows.

Yes, it was alright if her daughter did not say anything, but now that she mentioned it, it was really suspicious. First of all, how could a little white dog appear randomly in the Marquis’ residence, and secondly, the fence reached Gu Yu Qi’s chest so how could she have fallen in?

Due to her illness, Liang-shi had not had enough strength to think about it before. Moreover, her daughter had been on the verge of drowning. She had been focused on how to heal her daughter and had no time to tend to others. Listening to her daughter speak now, she felt a coldness at the bottom of her heart.

She was born in an aristocratic family, but because she was an only daughter, General Zhen Guo had taken good care of his wife and daughter. When would she have experienced struggles? However, her mother had told her a thing or two when she was still alive. Later, when she married Gu Huai Zhong, she thought that Gu Huai Zhong would keep her as his top priority for life, so she had not thought about messy affairs. Even when she came to the capital and learned of Liu-shi’s existence, she was angry but she did not think about other aspects.

Just because she did not think about it did not mean others would not think about it.

Thinking of this, Liang-shi’s eyes flashed with a hint of coldness. She was ill and did not want to bother with Liu-shi, but that did not mean her daughter could be handled by others.

“Chun Xing,” she said to the maid next to her, “Go and find out where the white dog came from. No need to hide it, just say I ordered you to go! I want all the evil people in this residence to watch out. Consider it their luck if they don’t give themself away. If I catch any clues, I’ll skin them alive!”

“Yes.” Chun Xing was shocked, then she curtseyed and went to carry out the order.

Gu Yu Qi watched her mother’s aura rise suddenly and she could not help but bite her tongue inwardly. As expected of a daughter of a general, she had such a powerful aura.

About the matter of learning martial arts, Gu Yu Qi continued to press her mother. Liang-shi pondered for a moment and then nodded in agreement.

She did not know what would happen at the capital after this so it would be good to know some martial arts. Before, she had not wanted her daughter to learn martial arts because firstly, learning martial arts was difficult and she could not bear it, and secondly, she did not want her daughter to become wild because of martial arts as she had become when she was young. It was not easy to look back on it. However, thinking about it now, who cared? Did she not have a very happy life back then with martial arts, travelling a lot in Jiangnan and experiencing a lot of scenery that other ladies from aristocratic families could not have experienced?

It was just that she had been blind and mistakenly thought that Gu Huai Zhong would be the sweetheart of her life back then, so she had put herself into the current situation. This was not the fault of martial arts, she had just been too stupid back then.

With her mother’s permission, Gu Yu Qi jumped up and down in joy. She had studied martial arts in her previous life but she had not learned it from Liang-shi. In that lifetime, Liang-shi had always been ill so how could she have taught her? She had invited an expert in horsemanship and archery to come and teach her to ride horses and archery. At that time, she had been focused on how to stand out from the other noble ladies in the capital, so how would she have considered Liang-shi’s thoughts and health.

Since she had studied martial arts before, she knew good quality when she saw it. So when she saw Liang-shi’s swordsmanship just now, her eyes lit up. She had really been stupid in her previous life, paying such a huge price to hire someone to teach her horseriding and archery when her mother was such an expert!

Another purpose of her pestering Liang-shi to teach her martial arts was to find something for Liang-shi to do so that she would not continue to be depressed and go back to the old path of the previous life and would not fall sick.

Gu Yu Qi felt that she had worked hard in this life to change her mother’s fate.