Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 737 - 735

Chapter 737: Chapter 735

After Shangguan Ruixi left, Fu Ranhui’s maid watched Fu Ranhui and heartbrokenly suggested, "Princess, let’s go home!"

Fu Ranhui gazed emptily at Shangguan Ruixi’s retreating figure for a while before nodding her head, then she lowered the carriage curtain and departed.

"Miss, what should we do about Young Master Gu?" the gatekeeper’s voice trembled with fear.

Du Yijin, also troubled by the sight of Gu Honggen not too far away, was unsure what to do either!

"Go inform the mistress that he’s been injured by the Crown Prince. Have her send someone to bring him back to the Gu Mansion," she decided.

"Yes!" The gatekeeper hurriedly ran off to relay the message.

"Wait, didn’t we explicitly forbid anyone from the Gu family from entering? How was Gu Honggen allowed in?" Du Yijin asked, remembering the earlier order.

Now that Gu Honggen was injured right in front of her door by Prince Rui, the Gu family might stir up another fuss. The thought gave Du Yijin a headache.

"It was the mistress who invited him to come in with her." He couldn’t possibly forbid the mistress from entering, could he?

Upon hearing this, a chilling expression crossed Du Yijin’s face. It seemed that Mrs. Gu was reverting to her old ways!

Just as Du Yijin was about to enter the house, she heard Song Gui’s voice, "Miss Du, please wait a moment."

Du Yijin turned around to see Song Gui panting heavily, a food basket in his hand.

Out of breath, he said, "Miss Du, this is your medicine. Please, you must take it, my master, the Crown Prince, said that if you don’t take it, I shouldn’t bother going back! Miss Du, please don’t make things difficult for me. I have parents to take care of and children to feed, all depending on the money I earn from this job!"

Having said this, Song Gui kneeled before Du Yijin with the food basket raised.

Du Yijin quickly moved away; she held no official title nor rank, she was surely not a person to receive such a grand gesture!

"Get up at once!" she said.

"If Miss Du refuses to take this medicine, I will continue kneeling!"

Du Yijin was annoyed, "Well, you may stay kneeling then!"

A medicine that cost four taels of silver per day, this favor was too big; she couldn’t afford it!

After saying this, Du Yijin entered her house.

Song Gui, "..."

Well, kneeling was better than not being able to return to the Prince’s mansion.

Not long after Du Yijin returned to her room and took a seat, Mrs. Gu came to pay her a visit.

"Du Yijin, what did you do to your cousin? Right now, he can only exhale but can’t inhale! If anything happens to him, how am I supposed to face your maternal grandmother and your uncle?!" Upon seeing Gu Honggen in his current state, Mrs. Gu was so distressed that she couldn’t stop crying, her makeup was all smeared.

Du Yijin glared at the weeping Mrs. Gu before answering coldly, "What could I possibly do to him? If I had the power to do anything, would he still be able to enter the Du family’s house today? It was Prince An who kicked him. If your Gu family wants compensation, remember to seek it from the Crown Prince at Prince An’s Mansion. I have nothing to do with it!"

After hearing this, Mrs. Gu stopped wiping her tears and snapped, "Isn’t it because that Prince An was trying to protect you that he kicked Honggen? If you don’t provide the silver for his medical treatment, how can he survive? How could you be so heartless?"

If she dared to ask Prince An for silver, she would have done so earlier. Could she wait until now!

With Du Yijin now in charge, Mrs. Gu was only given a few hundred coins each month for cosmetics. She ended up giving half of this paltry sum to her maiden family for rice. She truly had no money at all. As the mistress of the house, who could live as humiliating a life as hers? Thinking of this, Mrs. Gu wept even more bitterly.

"I didn’t ask him to kick anyone, this has nothing to do with me, so I will not contribute a single coin. Didn’t my father say not to let anyone from the Gu family set foot in the Du household? You wouldn’t have forgotten, would you, stepmother? If Gu Honggen couldn’t have entered our mansion today, he wouldn’t have been kicked. So Gu Honggen’s current situation is all your fault."

How could Mrs. Gu forget? But while their household had been getting better daily, her family couldn’t afford three square meals. Her heart ached at the sight; her aging mother was washing clothes for others to earn some silver. How could she bear to see this?

Now that Honggen was injured by the royal son, Du Yijin was not willing to give any silver for his treatment. Where was she to find silver for his treatments?

"Du Yijin, that is your maternal family, and Honggen is your cousin! How can you just stand by and watch him die!"

"My maternal family doesn’t carry the name Gu, and I’m not going to save an enemy who betrayed my reputation. Sorry, stepmother, I’m tired and want to sleep." Du Yijin started removing the pearl pins from her hair.

"No way. You give me ten taels of silver first, then you can go and bathe." Seeing Du Yijin’s firm decision not to give out silver, Mrs. Gu became worried.

"I don’t have silver!" Du Yijin refused outright.

At this point, Du Zhongkai came back, "Yijin, there’s a man kneeling outside our front door claiming to be here to see you. Dad has brought him in."

Upon hearing this, Du Yijin frowned. "Hasn’t he left yet? Why would dad let him in!"

Du Zhongkai was speechless. The man claimed he was sent from Prince An’s Mansion, how could he just let him kneel outside?

"Alright, I’ll go see him." Saying this, Du Yijin walked out.

Seeing her husband return, Mrs. Gu sobbed, "My lord, you must save Honggen..."

Then she went on to say a lot of things.

"I don’t have any silver. I gave it all to Yijin! And why should I give silver to save Gu Honggen? He’s not my son." After saying this, Du Zhongkai walked out.

People like Gu Honggen were a menace. It’s better not to save him; if saved, he’d only continue to harm others. Hadn’t he recently ruined another girl’s reputation?

Mrs. Gu: "..."

This was unbearable. Which son-in-law doesn’t take care of his wife’s family? Was she easy to handle as a stepmother?

After all these years of marriage, she had been devotedly looking after the two children the original wife left behind. They were grown up now, but still ungrateful. Not only that, but she also lost her authority as a housekeeper! She might as well have raised two ungrateful wretches. Had she known earlier, she should have taken steps to eliminate them!

Mrs. Gu gritted her teeth in hatred, then helplessly headed back to rummage through their goods, trying to find something that could be pawned.

Du Yijin approached Song Gui, who was still kneeling. Du Yijin sighed, "Get up, give me the medicine! Go back and tell your master that I’ll buy the medicine myself from now on!"

"There’s no need to trouble yourself. My master has already bought a six-month supply of the medicine. Miss Du, you just have to take it." Song Gui carefully opened the food basket to take out the medicine, then held it out to Du Yijin.

Has he gone mad? Does he have too much silver and nowhere to spend it? Du Yijin thought, and then took the medicine, "You can leave now!"

Song Gui looked at Du Yijin with a grin, "My lord ordered me to watch Miss Du take the medicine before I can leave."

Du Yijin: "..."

Du Yijin, resigned to her fate, quickly drank the lukewarm bitter medicine.

Song Gui then offered Du Yijin a bag of sweet dried fruits, "My master says good medicine tastes bitter, so you may not like it. You can eat this after you’ve taken the medicine."

"Your master is really considerate!" Du Yijin said through gritted teeth.

"Hehe... Miss Du, see you tomorrow!"

Du Yijin: "..."