The Gusu Mistake - Chapter 46

“Is this Cockroach City?” Yuan Ruo asked Jiang Yilan while standing outside the city gates.

“Can’t you read those big characters?” Jiang Yilan laughed at Yuan Ruo’s obvious question. “Let’s go, don’t dawdle. After all this time roughing it, we should go and eat a good meal!”

As she followed along, Yuan Ruo said, “The first thing you want to do when you get back is eat?”

“What else?” Jiang Yilan countered, “Don’t you want to eat?”

Yuan Ruo nodded, “I do!”

“Then stop with the nonsense!” Jiang Yilan pointed to a restaurant ahead with one hand and dragged Yuan Ruo with the other. “The fish at that place is amazing, I’ll take you to try it!”

They entered the restaurant, ordered, and began to eat. Jiang Yilan was stunned.

“You…” Jiang Yilan pondered for a moment before deciding to describe Yuan Ruo’s current state with the simplest words. “Are you a starving ghost reincarnated?”

The way Yuan Ruo was eating with such gusto was completely different from what Jiang Yilan was used to. At this moment, she had no manners to speak of, and her muffled speech was even more comical: “I’m hungry…”

“Even if you’re hungry, you don’t have to be like this!” Jiang Yilan, though speechless, still helped serve Yuan Ruo some food. After she slowed down, she offered her some water. “Have a drink, don’t choke!”

Yuan Ruo took the water, drank it, and let out a long sigh of satisfaction. “The food here is good!”

“The food is good!” Jiang Yilan said meaningfully. “But I’ve just realized I misjudged you!”

Yuan Ruo wiped her mouth without a care. “What? My eating scared you?”

“It wasn’t scary!” Jiang Yilan made an exaggerated gesture. “It’s just really hard to imagine you, the refined and elegant person I’ve been with day and night, eating like this!”

“To be honest,” Yuan Ruo said, “I was like this every day when I was at the Jade Tusk Palace!”

Yuan Ruo was smiling as she said this, but it sounded different in Jiang Yilan’s ears. “Your brother’s death must have hit you hard.”

Yuan Ruo nodded twice. “I was so excited to come home. Even though I left when I was four, I remember he was always so good to me—warm and elegant.”

Jiang Yilan was silent for a moment. “Have you been consciously imitating the person you remember him to be these past few days?”

“Unconsciously, I suppose,” Yuan Ruo’s smile held a hint of bitterness. “I once thought I could enjoy a few days of family reunion.”

This kind of sorrow couldn’t be comforted with a few words. Jiang Yilan had nothing to say, she just gently held Yuan Ruo’s hand. “At least you still have your parents.”

“Alright, let’s not talk about it anymore!” Yuan Ruo took Jiang Yilan’s chopsticks and served her some food. “You were so busy watching me, you didn’t even eat?”

“I was so engrossed watching you eat so well, I forgot!” Only then did Jiang Yilan pick up her chopsticks to eat. When she was nearly finished, she spoke. “The meal is done, so…?”

“How about we go and take a look at the Jiang family first?” Yuan Ruo finished her sentence.

“Look?” Jiang Yilan was confused. “What’s there to see?”

“Once we leave, it’s hard to say what position your father and brother will take in the future,” Yuan Ruo said, pausing. “Let’s go and see them.”

Jiang Yilan fell silent, and after a while, she spoke again. “What if Jiang Yuan is at the Jiang family’s house?”

“Then that’s perfect, isn’t it?” Yuan Ruo chuckled. “If he’s not there, who will we perform our little play for?”

“That’s true!” Jiang Yilan nodded in agreement. “Then let’s go. We can see my father and my eldest brother, and also check on the two of them, Jiang Ting and his grandson.”

“Let’s go then!”

“Mm.”

Having decided to go and being well-fed, they left.

Jiang Yilan led the way, taking Yuan Ruo towards the Jiang family estate. On the way, they heard a man carrying a pole with baskets on either end muttering to himself. “This Jiang family is so big, yet they don’t even have someone to pay for the groceries. It’s a wonder, I don’t know what their own people are bickering about!”

“The Jiang family?” Jiang Yilan subconsciously turned back and called out to the man. “Sir, a moment please!”

The man turned back. “Are you talking to me, miss?”

“Yes!” Jiang Yilan asked, “What did you just say? Something about the Jiang family not having anyone to pay for groceries?”

“That’s right!” the man said. “I’ve been delivering vegetables to the Jiang family for a few years, and it’s always been fine. But these past few days, it’s been strange. Every time the vegetables arrive, it takes half the day to settle the bill!”

Jiang Yilan’s eyes flickered. “You said they were bickering? What are they bickering about?”

“Sigh, I’m not entirely sure about the specifics, but I heard their servants say that the Jiang family recently got a new head of the house, so it’s all in chaos!” The man said, and suddenly remembered to ask, “Are you from the Jiang family, miss?”

“I am not!” Jiang Yilan denied it quickly. “I just heard the Jiang family is a big local family that raises Gu, so I was a little curious!”

“I don’t know anything about Gu,” the man gave a hearty laugh. “But the Jiang family is indeed a big family, very powerful. You see, after this alley, the rest of the land is all theirs!”

“That’s certainly big!” Jiang Yilan said perfunctorily. The man left on his own accord, leaving Yuan Ruo to ask:

“Do you also think something has happened to the Jiang family?”

“I can’t say for sure,” Jiang Yilan said. “But since it’s affecting the kitchen, something must have happened to the Jiang family.”

Yuan Ruo said, “Could it be Jiang Ting?”

“I don’t know,” Jiang Yilan looked at Yuan Ruo. “We should…”

“Let’s go and find out,” Yuan Ruo finished her sentence.

“Mm.”

Jiang Yilan led the way, taking Yuan Ruo to the Jiang family estate through a more discreet route. First, they carefully observed the main entrance. The guards didn’t seem out of the ordinary, but there were more of them.

“Are there always this many guards at the Jiang family’s gate?” Yuan Ruo asked Jiang Yilan.

“Not this many.”

“Where are you going?” Yuan Ruo pulled back Jiang Yilan, who was about to go out.

“Inside, of course!” Jiang Yilan said.

Yuan Ruo raised an eyebrow. “Just walk in so brazenly?”

Jiang Yilan felt it was a strange question. “No matter what, that’s my home. If I don’t just walk in, what else can I do?”

Yuan Ruo asked in return, “What if something really did happen?”

Jiang Yilan thought for a moment, then beckoned to Yuan Ruo. “Follow me!”

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