Rebirth of the Excellent Daughter of the Marquis Household (REDMH) - Chapter 79

Gu Yu Qi stayed motionless for a long time until it was nearly morning. Suddenly, she stood up and lit the lamps in the room, then looked at herself in the mirror.

Her fingers brushed her lips that had been assaulted by Yun Ke. A faint trace of his blood still remained at the corners of her lips. Gu Yu Qi could not help but want to vomit, but she could not throw up. That feeling made her face even paler. Her hair had become very messy from their tussle. Gu Yu Qi subconsciously picked up a comb on the table and combed her knotted long hair for a while.

Scenes from the previous life replayed in her mind. In a trance, she seemed to have returned to the Wuchen Palace. The so-called Wuchen Palace was the cold palace where she had been detained. Apart from the bed, there was almost nothing in the cold palace beyond the little brass mirror she carried with her. The winters were very cold and she and Yan Zhi only had a thin quilt. The batting had already hardened and could not withstand the winter cold at the capital at all. They would wear all the clothes they had and huddle together wrapped in a quilt, but even then it was too cold to sleep.

Unlike her, who had at least learned some martial arts, Yan Zhi was thin and could not stop coughing in the winter. Yet, for fear of alarming her, she had held back. Their daily meals consisted of nothing but cold food and sometimes they did not even have food. At that time, in order to make Yan Zhi’s life a little better, she could hide in the yard by herself and catch a bird. She also stole fish from the pond in the Wuchen Palace. She did not have charcoal, so she could only secretly tear down windows from other palaces and burn them. At that time, she tried every method to make Yan Zhi a bit better so that she would not be lonely. She also tried her best to keep herself as busy as possible so that she could temporarily forget Yun Ke.

Once, she was caught stealing fish by the eunuch in charge who reported it to Zhang Wan Yi. Zhang Wan Yi came and as a highest ranked concubine, she appeared in all her glory. Her face and figure were still beautiful and graceful, but what about her? She was yellowed and thin, and her pitch-black hair had dulled. Zhang Wan Yi wore a long skirt made of high quality silk, embroidered with colourful and luxurious peonies interwoven with gold and silver threads.

She stood before her, just like a goddess of the nine heavens looking down on a humble mortal girl. It suddenly made her want to laugh. Such a dress really did not suit Zhang Wan Yi. The beauty was still there, but with some added pompousness, it had reduced her own original lotus-in-clear-water beauty.

However, she was still the highest ranked concubine, and she was just a talented person who had been punished for her crimes and thrown into the cold palace.

When Zhang Wan Yi punished her according to the palace rules, it was Yan Zhi who stepped forward and angrily reprimanded the servants for neglecting her. This silly girl defended her wholeheartedly, but she did not know that this was all ordered by Zhang Wan Yi.

Zhang Wan Yi wanted to torture her and let a life of misery wear away her beauty and her wit, grinding everything out of her.

Yan Zhi was slapped 20 times for contradicting Zhang Wan Yi. The eunuch in charge of Zhang Wan Yi’s palace really acted cruelly, knocking out two of Yan Zhi’s front teeth. She had blood all over her face and her cheeks had completely deformed.

At that time, she had been furious and while the guards suppressing her were not paying attention, she took a flying kick at Zhan Wan Yi’s stomach, then leapt on her and hammered her Zhang Wan Yi with her fists. She knocked off Zhang Wan Yi’s phoenix hairpin, tore her skirt, and even wanted to scratch her face like a shrew. Just when she was pouring all her anger on Zhang Wan Yi, her hand was gripped firmly by someone.

When she looked back, what she saw was Yun Ke’s ruthless and cold eyes like ice, full of anger.

“It’s all thanks to Wan Yi for pleading to me, saying you’re not doing well here, begging me to come and see you. Is this how you treat someone who sympathises with you? Do you even have a heart?!” Cold words spilled from Yun Ke’s lips one by one. He pushed her hard to the ground.

She had panicked momentarily at that time. Then it dawned on her that she had fallen into Zhang Wan Yi’s trap again.

Zhang Wan Yi had deliberately provoked her. She knew that Yan Zhi was her weakness and she had sent someone to invite Yun Ke over in advance. The scene just now was to provoke her on purpose and drive her crazy. With Zhang Wan Yi’s personality, how could the guards guarding her be so careless? Besides, she had punched Zhang Wan Yi so many times just now and there were so many court ladies, eunuchs, and guards present. How come no one had stopped her?

They had all conspired in advance, waiting for Yun Ke to see this scene.

In her anxiety, Gu Yu Qi knelt and crawled over to hug Yun Ke’s leg, “Your Majesty, it’s not what it seems…” Unfortunately, she had yet to finish her sentence when Yun Ke kicked her away and she fell to the ground. She had watched in amazement as he helped Zhang Wan Yi up as though he was protecting a treasure, personally tidying her hair and skirt and gently asking her where she was hurt…

At that time, Gu Yu Qi felt that she was really stupid.

It was also at that time that Gu Yu Qi had completely given up on Yun Ke.

Why had he never listened to her explanations… why? Could it be that everything Zhang Wan Yi did was right? And she was wrong? She was truly an idiot, thinking that travelling through time was exactly like having the golden touch of King Miidas. She had thought that having beauty and possessing the advantage of time travel, she would be able to completely ensnare that man’s heart. It turned out that sincerity could not beat that woman’s underhanded schemes.

She gave him her whole heart, but it could not match that woman’s slight frown or soft cry of pain.

The comb tugged at her hair and there was a sharp pain, instantly pulling Gu Yu Qi’s thoughts back to the present. She looked blankly at the bronze mirror. The person in the mirror was already in tears.

Gu Yu Qi hurriedly wiped away her tears and took a deep breath. Facing herself in the mirror, she curled the corners of her mouth, wanting to squeeze out a smile, but found that smiling could actually be uglier than crying.

Her eyes and lips were swollen and her face was frighteningly pale. She could not face anyone for the day with her current appearance. If she went out like this and was seen by her mother, she would definitely guess things and worry, and would ask questions. She did not want Liang Huai Yu to know what happened between her and Yun Ke.

Since it had come to this, Gu Yu Qi took advantage of the fact that the sun had not risen yet and slipped out of the room. She picked up a bucket of water and gritting her teeth, poured it over herself from head to toe. Then she walked back and forth barefoot several times until she felt cold inside out. While there was no one around, she slipped back into her room.

She quickly changed out of her wet clothes, dried her long hair with a cloth, then lay down in bed.

Gu Yu Qi thought that with her current physique, it would be difficult to get sick. After all, it had been four years since she had been ten years old and she had been so healthy that she had not gotten sick once.

Fortunately, she was so restless that when the sky became slightly bright, she felt sick with chills from within her bones. Her temperature constantly rose. She had tossed and turned until she had a fever.

When Yan Zhi came in the morning, she saw Gu Yu Qi shivering wrapped in a quilt.

She was startled and hurriedly called Liang Huai Yu. Gu Yu Qi’s pitiful appearance scared Liang Huai Yu to death. There was a plague raging outside and seeing Gu Yu Qi like this… She dared not even think about it. Although Gu Yu Qi promised her that there was a prescription that could cure the plague, wounds on other people did not hurt oneself. When it was her daughter’s turn to fall ill, what mother would not worry?

Gu Yu Qi’s various comforting explanations made Liang Huai Yu believe that she just had a cold and fever. Liang Huai Yu was comforted on the surface but scared to death in the bottom of her heart.

Liang Huai Yu was still worried so she called Chun Xing through the door and told her to call over a physician. However, the doctors in the city were already so busy that they were kicking up their heels. It took a long time to call over a physician and once they saw that it was the quarantined area, the physician refused to go in. The physician was also afraid of death.

They fussed like this for a long time, then the physician looked at Gu Yu Qi through the door. Only then was it confirmed that Gu Yu Qi was just suffering from a cold. Liang Huai Yu was completely relieved now.

Gu Yu Qi fell asleep after taking the medicine. She was sick so naturally, she did not need to wait on Yun Ke. It was good this way. Originally, Gu Yu Qi did not know how to face Yun Ke again. In such an embarrassing time, it was better to not meet.

Hearing that Gu Yu Qi was ill, Yun Ke frowned. She was still alive and kicking last night so could she fall sick at the drop of the hat? He wanted to go and see, but due to his identity, he held back. He guessed that that woman was pretending to be sick to get rid of him and this realisation displeased him.

Gu Yu Qi was intermittently sick over six days and she became thinner. It was not that the doctor’s medicine was useless but Gu Yu Qi did not want to get better so quickly.

The situation outside was unfolding just like it had in the previous life. In six days, many people died in Jiangxia City and the refugees started rioting. They smashed up shops, and looted food and medicinal materials. Yun Qing led an army to fill the streets of Jiangxia City, catching those who were sick and rioting refugees. The normally prosperous Jiangxia City had not been thrown into chaos. There were many refugees who had fled from other places and the gates had to be closed again. Even Yun Qing felt a little overwhelmed.

The situation at the capital was not much better. The nobles who were usually extravagant and arrogant were now starting to panic all day long. Food prices soared and there were many shops that held onto their stocks, refusing to sell more, waiting for the price to go up a bit more so they could earn more profit. Compared to their greed, the two stores and medicine shop under Gu Yu Qi’s name were very prominent. Although they raised their prices, they were still much cheaper than other shops and their supplies were plentiful. As long as someone wanted to buy, they absolutely would not hold onto their stocks, so their reputation grew day by day.

Due to the actions of Gu Yu Qi’s stores stabilising the prices in the capital to a certain extent, they also attracted the imperial court’s attention. After all, in the face of adversity, those who could do this were considered conscientious merchants.

Prince Yun Xuan had already been criticised by Emperor Jing because of the plague and floods everywhere. Some aristocratic families in the capital already could not bear the soaring prices. Logically speaking, they all had fields but this year the plague and floods have run rampant. The city gates were closed and their farm produce could not be transported. Firstly, they were afraid of being robbed and secondly, they could not even enter the capital when they arrived. So some of them had already taken out money to buy food, but those damn merchants still hoarded goods in short supply, waiting for the price to rise, which gave rise to cries of discontent everywhere. They even complained about His Highness the Crown Prince, blaming him for poor supervision. In order to salvage a little of his reputation, Yun Xuan had no choice but to condescend and summon several major rice merchants to the capital, letting them open their storehouses to sell grain. Rather than saying letting, it was more like begging.

The rice merchants saw the opportunity and took advantage of it, making various requests. Yun Xuan could only listen to them one by one with a dark expression. Compared to these profiteers, those shopkeepers who did not request anything of His Highness the Crown Prince and instead promised to fully support him were appreciated by the crown prince. Those shopkeepers all belonged to Gu Yu Qi’s stores, which meant that Gu Yu Qi’s stores successfully caught the crown prince’s attention.

Seeing that Yun Xuan was in a state of desperation, Yun Yi was very happy. He was not idle either and was trying hard to find a prescription because he knew that at times like this, coming up with the prescription to cure the plague would be a miraculous achievement. He invited all the big names to his palace and had them research day and night.

The news that Yun Ke was infected with the plague spread back to the capital. Yun Yi could only look up at the sky and let out a long sigh. It was likely that this person would not survive. What a pity, he had cultivated Yun Ke for so many years and he could not be considered to have entered the military department. He was just waiting for him to make contributions in disaster relief, then Yun Yi would ask the Virtuous Consort to give Emperor Jing another push and mention his position.

The Virtuous Consort was a person of integrity so naturally she could not fight for her son in front of Emperor Jing. However, fighting for Yun Ke was different. Yun Ke’s mother was dead and she had raised him. In the eyes of the outsiders, she treated Yun Ke better than her own son and even Emperor Jing praised her for such a move.

So, once Yun Ke’s disaster relief mission was successfully completed, the Virtuous Consort had an excuse to mention Yun Ke in front of Emperor Jing again.

It was a pity that Yun Ke was trapped in Jiangxia City right now. Having so much bad luck, the Virtuous Consort felt very unlucky. Managing things for so many years, she had put so much effort into Yun Ke but it looked like it was going to be in vain. So, she had already set her sights on Zhang Wan Yi.

Zhang Wan Yi was the prime minister’s daughter. Prime Minister Zhang’s power was self-evident and could stand up to His Highness the Crown Prince. If the option to use Yun Ke was broken, then if Yun Yi could marry Zhang Wan Yi, it would be tantamount to capturing Prime Minister Zhang.

All kinds of things in the capital were going on silently like they did in the previous life, but it was just that Gu Yu Qi was missing. However, the general trend of things was advancing as usual despite missing something.

At the northern outskirts of Jiangxia City, bodies of those who died from the plague were being burned daily. Every evening, the smell of burning corpses would blow into Jiangxia City with the night wind and envelop the city in an atmosphere of death.

Zhang Wan Yi really failed to come up with a prescription in this life.

After a few days, Yun Ke stood at the window looking at the thick smoke rising from the north of the city. His heart was surging and rolling like the Heng River water outside. In the previous life, it really was Gu Yu Qi who had been looking for the prescription tirelessly to save his life! The secret guard followed what Gu Yu Qi said and found the ancient book. The contents recorded in it were exactly as Gu Yu Qi said.

She really had not lied to him but in the previous life, he was self-willed and was already biased towards Gu Yu Qi so he took all her words as unreasonable trouble.

His hand suddenly gripped the edge of the window, fingers clasping the wood of the window frame so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

He really was wrong. For so many years, what he had always believed in had completely collapsed.

It turned out that in the previous life, Gu Yu Qi not only said she loved him but also acted on it. It was just that he was blinded by too many things and had not realised that the person who really cared about him and loved him was by his side.

He could not help but feel pain in his heart. Her resolute and tragic gaze before her death appeared in front of his eyes. How much resentment, hate, unwillingness did such a gaze contain? So in this life, she avoided him, was afraid of him, and even wanted to leave him…

The bottom of his heart felt like it was being scratched with a dull knife bit by bit. That pain was not sharp but it was draining his blood.

It turned out that he cared about her too, it was just that he did not know… After she died, he missed her smile, her words, even her arrogance was still in his heart. His memory of her was so deep that he thought he hated her instead of caring about her… He had missed her for decades, not even willing to let her go when he died. It was not hate, but love.

The love he did not realise…

Yun Ke’s figure swayed a bit. He could barely stand still from the pain in his heart. He raised a hand to cover his chest in a daze. Through the thin shirt, he could feel his heart beating under his skin, steady and powerful but with a trace of disorderliness. Full and rising, it seemed to have been filled with that woman’s name, Gu Yu Qi.

He really wanted to see her immediately. Thinking of this, he turned around abruptly. He opened the door and walked out quickly.

The doors of her room were closed. Only Yan Zhi was at the door doing needlework on a small stool. Since the sky was not dark yet, she wanted to embroider the handkerchief in her hand as soon as possible.

Hearing footsteps, Yan Zhi looked up. Seeing that the person who came was Yun Ke, she stood up hastily and curtseyed, “This servant greets Your Highness.”

Yun Ke waved his hand impatiently, wanting to bypass Yan Zhi and open the door to go in. Yan Zhi ran over and held the door tightly, “Your Highness, our Young Miss is sleeping, it’s not proper for you to break in like this.”

Yun Ke originally wanted to slap this impervious person away, but after raising his hand, he put it down again.

This girl was someone Gu Yu Qi cherished. If he touched her, he was afraid Gu Yu Qi would be even more angry and hateful towards himself. No, he could not make things worse now.

“This prince has to see your Young Miss for something. You go in and inform her.” Yun Ke suppressed his temper and spoke slowly.

Only then did Yan Zhi loosen her tense hand. It was not that she was not afraid of the man in front of her. The cold aura emanating from her made her tremble with fear. Last time at Huguo Temple, he even pushed her away and she had been unconscious for a long time.

However, for Gu Yu Qi’s sake, she had to stop Yun Ke. Yan Zhi was a little naive, but she was not stupid. She had followed Gu Yu Qi for so many years and she could see that Gu Yu Qi hated and feared this man. So no matter what happened, she would stand in front of Gu Yu Qi first.

Yun Ke saw that Yan Zhi was a loyal servant and also for Gu Yu Qi’s sake, he did not argue with Yan Zhi.

“Please wait Your Highness.” Yan Zhi opened the door and went in to tell Gu Yu Qi what happened just now.

“Help me up.” Gu Yu Qi frowned and sighed silently after listening. She had been hiding for so many days and what was meant to come would always come. She could not be sick for a lifetime, right? Besides, she had recovered from her illness in the past two days. It was her who still hid in the room refusing to go out.

She would have to see him eventually. Gu Yu Qi knew that she could not escape.