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"Don't meet Xu Weibei head-on. If you run into trouble, have Er Ya come back and find me."

"All right."

"I'm actually somewhat relieved that you haven't become entangled in romantic feelings." Gu Anqi sighed. "The world is too hard on women, and giving too much of your heart can hurt you to the bone."

Gu Wanning was a little surprised. She hadn't expected him to say such a thing.

But Gu Anqi offered no further explanation. He only said, "This is for the best too. Wait for my good news."

Gu Wanning rose to see him out, only to notice how thin he had become. Even his clothes hung loosely on him.

Although he was only twenty-eight this year, Gu Anqi already had a few white hairs at his temples.

"Please take care of yourself, brother."

Gu Wanning might have resented the Gu family for how they had handled the matter of her predecessor, but she could not look coldly upon a pillar of the state who devoted himself wholeheartedly to reform and was loyal to his sovereign and devoted to the people.

"Mm, you don't need to see me out. Let Er Ya do it."

Gu Wanning knew he probably had something he wanted to tell Er Ya, so she nodded and didn't insist.

After Er Ya returned, she said to Gu Wanning, "The sleeves of the eldest master's underrobe were showing, and they were covered in patches. The soles of his shoes were worn thin too. I have time on my hands, so I'll make him two pairs of shoes."

She would use the Marquis's Residence's cloth and thread. Hmph!

Gu Wanning said, "Aren't you afraid your sister-in-law will get the wrong idea?"

"I'm not making him an underrobe. Besides, if the eldest madam doesn't know the eldest master, wouldn't she know me? Even if the eldest master's eyes were on the soles of his feet, he wouldn't take a fancy to me!"

"I thought you were going to say you didn't like my brother."

"Who wouldn't like a man like the eldest master? But I only admire the eldest young master. I haven't entertained the slightest improper thought about him. I'm going to find a man who farms someday."

"Then keep your eyes peeled and find a good one." Gu Wanning teased her on purpose.

Er Ya continued to chatter. "The master puts his whole heart into court affairs, and the old madam isn't much help. The third master is a reckless scoundrel, and as for the second master, I always feel his heart isn't in the residence... Everything in the residence, big and small, falls on the eldest master and eldest madam. They're both such good people, and they've raised their sons and daughters well too. Of everyone, I admire the two of them most."

Gu Anqi's first wife, He Shi, was of humble birth, but she could read and write and had a kind, honest nature. The couple were deeply devoted to each other.

They had three sons. Their eldest, He Ge, was already twelve and stood head and shoulders above his peers.

Their second son, Zhi Nu, had been carried off when he was a few months old. He should have been eight this year, and his loss was a lasting pain for the Gu family.

Their third son, Ling Ge, was six this year and had already begun his early education.

Thinking back on it now, Gu Wanning recalled that when Zhi Nu was carried off, Gu Yuanshi had been an imperial commissioner, ordered to investigate examination fraud thoroughly. He had executed more than a hundred people.

Zhi Nu's disappearance might well have been those people's revenge.

Since ancient times, being an upright official had always been fraught with danger.

She didn't want to become another victim in the future...

No matter how much she worried, she still had to live her days well.

When Xu Weibei returned to sleep that night, he felt that something was off about Gu Wanning.

Before, they had treated each other like air, but today, Gu Wanning was clearly treating him like—

A foul smell?

As though she couldn't wait to let him out.

But Xu Weibei wasn't the sort to take a slight lying down.

Gu Wanning bent over to spread the cooling mat on the daybed, when a large hand suddenly reached in from the side and pressed down on it, preventing her from moving it.

"What are you doing?" Gu Wanning glared at him.

"Gu Anqi came by once, and now you think you have someone to back you up, so you dare pull a face at me?"

She had been indulged until she was climbing all over him.

Xu Weibei couldn't stand the way Gu Wanning treated him now.

Gu Wanning wondered if she had been that obvious.

But she did look down on him for it.

For men here, keeping concubines wasn't a question of character, but keeping a mistress outside certainly was.

To have a child and still refuse to take responsibility struck a nerve with Gu Wanning.

It had much to do with what she had experienced in her previous life. She wasn't meddling; she simply couldn't help empathizing.

If women didn't succeed as easily as men, it certainly had a great deal to do with their being naturally more prone to empathy and unable to harden their hearts.

"How would I dare pull a face at you, Marquis?" Gu Wanning said. "You even dared to hit my eldest brother. What would I dare say?"

"Cut the snide remarks," Xu Weibei said. "A grown man like him came here to sow discord. What a fine gentleman."

He had gone too easy on him.

"Don't play the thief crying 'stop thief,' Marquis. Who's making snide remarks?" Seeing that he still wouldn't let go, Gu Wanning simply sat down on the daybed and looked at him. "If there's something you want me to do, Marquis, just say it. Why pick bones out of an egg and accuse me of pulling a face? Even if I did, would you care?"

Clearly, he couldn't tolerate Gu Anqi, so he was using this as a pretext to make trouble.

Xu Weibei was at a loss for words.

He didn't know how to explain it, but today, he really had been angered by Gu Wanning's obvious change in behavior.

"Let's go to bed early. If we don't lie down, Nanny Chu will keep watch outside. She's so old, and she watched you grow up, Marquis. Have some consideration for her."

Xu Weibei said, "..."

He was probably somewhat angry from embarrassment. After all, he felt that Gu Wanning ought to be the one routed before him, not him being led around by the nose by her as he was now.

So, out of nowhere, he said, "I want to separate."

"I know." Gu Wanning's tone was like that of someone coaxing a child. "Let's go to bed early."

How funny.

He made it sound as though she didn't want to.

But the problem was, didn't they all need to make an effort now?

Xu Weibei grew even angrier.

He had little experience dealing with women, and he was increasingly convinced that he had been right to keep his distance from them before.

With an infuriating creature like Gu Wanning around, how much energy would he waste?

Gu Wanning, meanwhile, thought that Xu Weibei was clearly surrounded by so many women and was about to have a second child, so how was he still like some twisted sufferer of chuunibyou?

Could it be that every woman in the world had to revolve around him?