After the Cold and Aloof Husband's Mask Falls - Chapter 6

In the capital city of Xijing, a single brick tossed at random would likely strike a Grade Seven official. Consequently, serving as the Prefect of Xijing was an notoriously difficult task.

Zhao Tianfeng had no desire to meddle in the internal affairs of this household. However, considering Gu Qingyun was something of a “fair-weather friend,” and seeing that Gu Wanlan—though the legitimate daughter of the Protector Duke—belonged to a fading power now that the Duke was on his deathbed, he thought he might lend a hand. After all, his friend was standing there with a face full of bruises.

Yet, the moment he entered the manor and saw the white funeral banners hanging everywhere, he sensed trouble. When he heard Gu Qingyun mention the “desecration of a corpse,” Zhao Tianfeng wanted nothing more than to grease his soles and vanish.

Good heavens, he thought. This is that all-too-familiar drama of family members fighting over an inheritance. I want no part of this.

The Prefect immediately cupped his hands toward the Old Matron in a gesture of apology.

“Old Madam, I did not realize the Duke had already passed. Even if there are grievances within the family, we must not disturb the Duke’s peace. I shall return another day to pay my respects.”

“Since you are already here, My Lord, do you not intend to ask about the case?”

A cool, ethereal voice drifted from behind him. This, he presumed, was the “rebellious” daughter Gu Qingyun had complained about. The Prefect usually had no patience for sharp-tongued, uncouth women; he assumed a stern air and turned around to scold her.

“How dare you interrupt when your elders are—”

His words died in his throat. As he caught sight of the jade pendant Gu Wanlan was idling playing with, his scalp went numb and a cold sweat broke out over his body.

Was that not the personal token of Xiao Chen, the Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guards?! Did this woman have a connection to Xiao Chen? Or was she perhaps one of his elite spies?

“My Lord, you should ask,” Gu Wanlan said, a faint smirk playing on her lips as she dangled the jade. “It might be a matter of life and death. If the Emperor finds out a case was ignored, it might be difficult for you to give an account.”

“You… you are right. This official is certainly not an incompetent man,” the Prefect stammered, wiping sweat from his forehead. He quickly nodded and ushered Gu Wanlan aside to speak, ignoring Gu Qingyun entirely.

Gu Qingyun was stunned. He never expected the help he painstakingly brought home would treat that “vile woman” with such courtesy. Just as he was about to cause a scene, his ear was violently yanked by the Second Madam.

“Gu Qingyun, tell me the truth,” she hissed, her voice low and urgent since the Prefect was still nearby. “Did you go to the Duke’s courtyard before he died?”

“I did. What of it?” Gu Qingyun was utterly bewildered.

The Second Madam didn’t bother explaining. She clutched the Old Matron’s sleeve, her face a mask of pure terror.

“Mother! Listen! He admitted it!”

“Mother, do you know whose jade pendant she is holding? It belongs to the leader of the Embroidered Uniform Guards who came today! I saw it on his belt with my own eyes!”

“I told you! I told you not to provoke her! None of you listened! You all laughed at me! What do we do now? Mother! Weiye is still young—someone must carry on the family line! Those guards are ruthless… what do we do?!”

The Second Madam’s voice grew higher and shriller, drawing a glance from Gu Wanlan, though the girl did not stop her conversation with the Prefect.

“The Duke was struck at a vital pressure point, which induced a state of suspended animation,” Gu Wanlan’s voice carried clearly. “I happen to have a friend in the Embroidered Uniform Guards. He told me his men were nearby on official business and saw—”

“Mother! She’s looking at us! Save Weiye! Save the Gu family!”

Under the barrage of the Second Madam’s frantic words, the Old Matron felt as though a hemp rope were tightening around her neck. Her head throbbed, and she felt she could no longer breathe. She wanted to cut through this chaos once and for all.

However, when she finally “broke free” of the pressure, she realized everyone was staring at her in shock. Her most beloved son looked at her with a face full of disbelief.

“Mother? What on earth are you saying?”

As her senses returned, the Old Matron realized she had just—in an act of self-preservation for the family—denounced Gu Qingyun.

Looking at Gu Qingyun’s deathly pale face, she opened her mouth to explain, but instead, a spray of fresh blood erupted from her lips. She collapsed into a dead faint.

The next day, at the Green Bamboo Pavilion within the Duke’s Manor.

Gu Changfeng had regained consciousness. Though still weak, he sat propped up against the bed, staring blankly at a plum blossom branch peeking through the window. Years of illness had erased the image of the fierce general who once commanded the battlefield; he looked more like a frail scholar now.

Gu Wanlan entered, lifting the curtain while carrying a bowl of medicinal soup. “Gu Lehuan said you were looking for me?”

She sat by the bedside and handed him the bowl. “Drink it. Your wife brewed it herself.”

Gu Changfeng took the medicine, but before he could speak, he broke into a low cough. Gu Wanlan frowned and stood up to shut the window. “Still admiring flowers while sick? What a stubborn habit.”

“Ahem… it seems you are getting along well with them.”

Gu Wanlan leaned against the table and let out a short laugh. “I’m not some monster that bites everyone I see. Though, you can’t blame me for your mother coughing up blood and fainting. This was all your idea, Duke; I merely lent a hand out of boredom.”

The young woman seemed unaccustomed to such idle time. She toyed with two sword-shaped paperweights on the table.

Gu Changfeng recalled the morning he first met her.

He had been bedridden for a long time, knowing his days were numbered. He worried that his wife, Qi Rong, and daughter, Gu Lehuan, would be bullied by the rest of the family once he passed. He had wanted to divide the family estate for a long time, but he lacked both the stamina to arrange it and a solid reason to force the issue.

He hadn’t expected that this daughter—whom he hadn’t seen in eighteen years—would listen to his fragmented explanation and simply say: “Then why don’t you just ‘die’ for a bit?”

Everything followed naturally after that.

Gu Changfeng had summoned Gu Qingyun, provoked physical contact, and then secretly struck his own pressure points to induce a death-like trance. He had planned to wait for Gu Qingyun’s true nature to be exposed before Gu Wanlan “revived” him, allowing him to use the incident as leverage to split the household.

However, Gu Wanlan was more formidable than he imagined. She had attacked their hearts directly, making everyone believe Gu Qingyun had truly murdered him. She used the threat of the Embroidered Uniform Guards so effectively that the Old Matron had sacrificed her own son to save the rest of the clan. Currently, Gu Qingyun was languishing in prison.

No one would have guessed she was bold enough to use the name of the Emperor’s secret police to tell a lie. Then again, she was Ji Lin, the young general who dared to enter enemy camps alone.

“I know my own body; I won’t last much longer,” Gu Changfeng whispered. “The rest will depend on you.”

“A small matter,” she replied. “Since I am staying here for now, protecting this place is the least I can do.”

She made no mention of their biological bond.

Gu Changfeng followed her lead, not daring to ask how she had survived those years on the grasslands or how she had escaped.

“In the third drawer on the right side of the table, there is a hidden compartment. Tap it.”

“What? Your secret stash of silver?” Gu Wanlan’s interest piqued. She dropped the paperweights and tinkered with the drawer until a soft click echoed.

It wasn’t land deeds or banknotes inside. It was a Tiger Tally—the authority to command an army.

Gu Wanlan stared at it, pressed her lips together, and slammed the drawer shut. “What is the meaning of this?”

Gu Changfeng smiled at the angry girl. “Eighteen years ago, my thirty thousand soldiers of the Gu Army fought alongside me to reclaim the cities of Xizhou, Liangzhou, and Mengzhou from the Rouran invaders. Do you truly not even want to look at it?”

“I can raise my own army! You were much older than I am when you achieved that!” Gu Wanlan snapped, her pride flaring.

“Is that so? And how many soldiers does ‘General Ji’ currently command?”

Gu Wanlan bit her lip and remained silent. She had no personal troops; the soldiers at Changping Pass answered to the Duke of Xun. Her movements were indeed restricted.

“The military nobility is in decline,” Gu Changfeng continued. “Most power is held by the descendants of the founding families. This Gu Army was inherited from my grandfather.”

“It is a tempting offer,” Gu Wanlan said with a touch of irony. “But as you know, I cannot inherit your title or your military command.” She smirked. “You were in a coffin, so you didn’t see it, but Gu Qingyun was desperate to have his son adopted by you just to take this rank.”

Gu Changfeng shook his head.

“No. With your ability, you can choose a husband who is easily managed to marry into this family. You will hold the power in the name of your future heirs. When the Emperor eventually needs Ji Lin to lead troops again, you can publicly ‘surrender’ the Gu Army’s power to yourself…”

“You’ve even calculated that? Aren’t you afraid that once this power is in Ji Lin’s hands, it will never return to the Gu family?”

Gu Wanlan was beginning to see her “cheap father” in a new light.

“The moment I learned from His Majesty that you were Ji Lin, this was my plan. Perhaps it is because you and I share the same lifelong wish. Now, I am like General Lian Po—old and gray…”

“But you… you can still do it.”

Meeting his gaze, Gu Wanlan felt a jolt in her heart. She straightened her posture, reached into the drawer, and gripped the Tiger Tally firmly. She thrust her fist toward Gu Changfeng with a defiant, wild grin.

“Of course! My only wish in this life is to reclaim our lost lands!”

“I share that wish.”

Gu Changfeng reached out, and they pressed their fists together.

For a moment, tears threatened to fall from his eyes. He knew he had missed his chance to be a father to her; he had abandoned her once, and now he was out of time. To be able to stand with her now as fellow officials and comrades-in-arms was the greatest blessing he could ask for.

As Gu Wanlan turned to leave, Gu Changfeng couldn’t help himself. He clutched his blanket and called out to her back.

“Wanlan! Do you… do you hate the name I gave you? I placed my own burdens on your name, yet I neglected you…”

“Why would I? I like it very much.”

Seeing how much it meant to him, she repeated it with a smile. “To pull back the raging tide (Wan Kuang Lan) as it collapses; to support the great mansion as it tilts. I like this name.”

She paused, looking down at the tally. “Perhaps I hated it once. But I no longer blame you for the choice you made back then. The slaves on the grasslands suffer terribly. If it weren’t for you, even more people would have become ‘two-legged sheep’ for the slaughter. So, Duke, rest well. Don’t let the past weigh on your heart.”

She gave him a deep, respectful bow and exited. Gu Changfeng finally let the tears stream down his face. His child had grown up so well without him.

Outside the courtyard, Gu Wanlan ran into a familiar-looking servant. Without changing her expression, she followed him into the shadows. Once they were alone, the “servant”—who was actually her subordinate Tianshu in disguise—spoke excitedly.

“General! You won’t believe who that man is! The Cui family claims to be a prestigious clan of scholars, but they have so much filth hidden away. That man is actually Cui Qiong’s half-brother! It’s the long-lost eldest son of the Cui family—Cui Jue!”