Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 529 - 528

Chapter 529: 528

"How will Chun’an and Chunkang be able to get married with an old maid in the house?"

"If a woman can’t even accept my sister, then such a wife isn’t worth taking!" Du Chun’an retorted coldly.

"Even if you don’t marry, Chunkang needs to!" Chunkang was her only son, the child she had yearned for day and night after marrying into Du mansion, and whom she finally gave birth to five years later. He was her treasure; how could she accept him not getting married!

That Du Chunkang was her heart and liver, was only Mrs. Gu’s own belief. In fact, everyone felt that the Gu family was her heart, her liver, and even her spleen, lung, and stomach!

"Enough, shut up! It hasn’t reached that stage yet. Only a few of us know about this, and if no one talks about it, who will know! Let’s treat today’s incident as if it never happened. The servants are all just speculating, nobody saw anything with their own eyes. Those who gossip about it will be sent away!"

"How can we pretend that something that clearly happened didn’t?" Mrs. Gu exclaimed in disbelief.

If they acted as though nothing happened, how could her nephew get married? And how could she explain this to her family!

"What, you want everyone to know about this? What kind of a mother are you!" Mr. Du was furious.

"Not... I didn’t! I just thought that Yijin marrying Honggen wasn’t a bad idea, we could establish kinship!" Where did she want everyone to know about this, she just wanted him to agree to marry Yijin to her nephew. Mrs. Gu defended herself, feeling wronged.

Who would dare to establish kinship with the Gu family! His own house was almost in ruins!

Mr. Du slammed a teacup in front of Mrs. Gu: "This is absolutely impossible! Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve done! If I hear a single bad word about Yijin, you can go back to your mother’s house!"

Mrs. Gu was shocked. Du Zhongkai had never been this angry with her before, even when he found out that she had paid off her family’s gambling debts with their own family wealth, he hadn’t asked her to go back to her mother’s house.

He harbored some guilt towards her. Don’t think she didn’t know why it took five years after their marriage to have a child!

Wasn’t it because he was worried that having his own children would affect his two young children from his former wife?

That’s why it took her five years to have her own child!

Only when the children left by the original wife were eleven and nine years old, grown up and sensible, was she able to give birth to her Kang’er!

Over the years, she had also harbored resentment! If she had been able to have children earlier, maybe in a few more years she could have married her daughter to her nephew, there wouldn’t be any need for Du Yijin!

Mr. Du ignored how Mrs. Du felt, and continued: "Gu Honggen is forbiden from setting foot in Du Mansion again!"

"My lord!" When Mrs. Gu heard this, she screamed. She was still half the owner of Du Mansion, how dare he prevent her nephew from entering the Du family.

"This is it, if you don’t agree, first fill up all the silver that you took from the Du family to pay off the gambling debts of the Gu family, only then can you talk to me!" Du Zhongkai knew this was Mrs. Gu’s most vulnerable spot, to prevent her from causing more trouble, he went straight for her Achilles’ heel.

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Gu indeed, was silenced.

Where would she find the silver to fill up, she was still hoping to continue using Du Mansion’s silver to support her mother in the future.

Without her support, how would her mother and brother survive.

Gu Hongxia had been silent all this while. After hearing this, she also began to harbor resentment. It was just some silver from his family, was there a need to be so calculating!

Once she married a good husband, she would definitely slap these people in the face with silver banknotes one by one!

Upon hearing the need to bring back the silver, Gu Honggen also immediately became silent.

Gu Hongxia and Gu Honggen returned home in defeat. When Mrs. Gu found out that things hadn’t worked out, she started cursing at the Du Mansion.

Soon, everyone in Gu Mansion knew about Du Yijin being violated by Gu Honggen.

The next day, the news spread across the Imperial City at a shockingly fast pace.

In the afternoon, when Gu Honggen went out to play with his friends, someone asked if the incident was true. The heavily drunk Gu Honggen, who had long forgotten Mr. Du’s words, said that he had seen that Du Yijin’s dudou (a traditional Chinese undergarment) was yellow and embroidered with peonies.

Once this was said, all the men were shocked.

Before nightfall, the entire Imperial City knew that Du Yijin’s dudou was yellow and embroidered with peonies.

In the afternoon, Du Yijin went out for a short while, and even a familiar old woman stopped her and asked quietly if she had a yellow dudou with embroidered peonies?

"Who told you this?" Du Yijin immediately sensed something was wrong.

"The whole Imperial City is talking about it."

Du Yijin turned pale upon hearing this and rushed back to Du Mansion.

When Mr. Du came back from the yamen (government office), he too looked furious.

He asked the gatekeeper, "Did the young lady go out today?"

The gatekeeper, seeing the lord’s face full of anger, replied softly, "The young lady went out for a while, but she has returned to the mansion."

Hearing this, Du Zhongkai quickly headed towards the inner courtyard.

Upon reaching the inner courtyard, he saw a maid and asked, "Where is the young lady?"

"The young lady has just returned to her room."

Du Zhongkai quickly walked to his daughter’s room, knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside.

Unable to contain his worry, he knocked harder on the door, shouting, "Yijin, it’s father, open the door."

Du Chun’an also arrived home by then. He had heard about the rumours outside, and concerned for his sister, he rushed home.

"Yijin, open the door!"

Seeing Mr. Du anxiously knocking on the door and receiving no response from his sister, Du Chun’an made a quick decision and said, "Father, step aside, I’ll break the door down."

After several hard knocks, Du Chun’an managed to break down the door. The sight that met their eyes inside almost brought them to their knees.

"Yijin!" Du Chun’an rushed forward, grabbing Du Yijin who was attempting to hang herself and brought her down.

After Du Yijin was rescued, her hand instinctively moved towards her throat, and she coughed a few times.

The father and son let out a sigh of relief.

"Go quickly and fetch a doctor!" Du Chun’an shouted at the terrified maid standing at the door.

"Stupid girl, this isn’t your fault. How could you have such thoughts! If anything were to happen to you, how would your father live? How would your father face your mother in the future!" Du Zhongkai was in tears.

Du Yijin slowly regained consciousness, heard Mr. Du’s words, and couldn’t help but start crying loudly, "Father, I can’t live with this disgrace!"

"Silly girl, it’s alright, father will handle everything. My daughter is so good, how can she live without any dignity! Those who should lose face are those utterly conscienceless people!" Mr. Du pat his daughter’s back, comforting her while he was filled with rage and heartache.

"Yijin, don’t scare your big brother. Gossip only affects those who believe it. This matter will soon pass. If you don’t like staying in Imperial City, your brother will accompany you to the villa, or we can go to another county."

Seeing how traumatized her father and brother were, Du Yijin felt guilty. She had thought the world was falling apart in that moment, she felt too ashamed to face anyone and didn’t want to drag down her family as well, that’s why she attempted suicide. Now, if given the chance to do it all over, she didn’t think she would have the courage.