Chapter 25: Same bed

Gu Lian was a light sleeper, and this was also a habit of the JiangHu people. Hence, she woke up as soon as Qiao MingYu came in.

But being a young lady of a noble family for a long time, she often does things neither quickly nor slowly and this was the same for her body rhythm. Gu Lian did not react instantly as she waited for a while in a daze. When she was about to open her eyes and asked Qiao MingYu, she realized that Qiao MingYu had already laid down beside her.

In that instant, Gu Lian was dumbfounded. In her gaming world, there were as many homosexuals as dogs. But girls rarely sleep with one another on the same bed, so she could not help but misunderstands it.

But Gu Lian also knew that Qiao MingYu was a princess that had never heard of lily before, so it should be……that there was no other bed, right?

How could that be possible! There were so many rooms in the princess palace hall!

Gu Lian tried her best to comfort herself. Thinking that Qiao MingYu simply recognised the bed a little and then successfully fooled herself.

On the other side, Qiao MingYu was also extremely nervous. This was the first time she was sleeping with someone else and when she was young, her empress mother had never done this before. Since young, she does not have many friends and was also unequal in terms of status. Only Gu Lian who seemed to respect her but treated her equally.

Of course, Qiao MingYu does not know that the people in Tang Dynasty’s JiangHu has the habit of despising the imperial power and Gu Lian was also the one who had murdered the crown prince.

Regardless, Gu Lian was a novel to Qiao MingYu.

She does not know why she had a fleeting rashness and decided to lie on the bed. She had originally decided to look at Gu Lian then go to the next door to rest. But seeing the familiar Gu Lian who was sleeping, she could not help but wants to get closer.

Qiao MingYu reached out her hand to touched Gu Lian’s scattered hair quietly. It felt as good as she thought.

Then she touched Gu Lian’s hand quietly, which was also incredibly soft.

Gu Lian was feeling more troubled now, wondering if she should open her eyes? If she opens her eyes, it seems too embarrassing.

Before she could think about it, Qiao MingYu had moved closer quietly, hugged Gu Lian’s arm and then stopped moving.

Gu Lian open her eyes abruptly and realized that Qiao MingYu had fallen asleep. Seems like she was really tired.

She tried to pull out her arm but to no avail. Gu Lian could only sigh and let her be. What was all this about?

Judging from today’s behaviour, Qiao MingYu seems to like her a little bit. But Gu Lian does not know what to do as this was not the Tang Dynasty with open social customs. This was a conservative ancient time, and it was an era without lily.

Gu Lian furrowed her brows slightly. Looking at Qiao MingYu who was sleeping soundly. She thought for a while and ignore it, deciding to let nature takes it course.

She could not stay away from Qiao MingYu just because of such a small issue as this was the stupidest thing to do. She would continue with her original plan and as for her relationship with Qiao MingYu, it all depends on nature. If it was possible, she would put in the effort, if not, then forget it.

Anyway, the worst result was nothing more than just wandering around the world. She had already thought of the consequences at the beginning so naturally, she was not afraid of it now. Besides, there was someone behind supporting her, after all, the future ‘empress’ was her best friend. But she does not know if the lover or the younger sister was more important in the 3rd prince’s heart.

After a good night’s sleep, when Gu Lian opened her eyes, Qiao MingYu was already up.

Like being in the estate, she got up early in the morning to move her muscles, pulling Qiu He to practice with her.

After a round of the fight, Qiu He smiled and greeted Gu Lian: “Miss Gu.”

“Commander Qiu, it has been a long time.” Gu Lian bowed courteously.

Qiao MingYu walked over and subconsciously held Gu Lian’s hand: “Let’s have breakfast first.”

As she said that, she pulled her away. Qiu He could only touch her nose and followed behind with awareness. 

The breakfast in the palace was more sumptuous as compared to the estate, so, Gu Lian was full without eating much. She held the teacup and drank it slowly. This gave Qiu He who was sitting on the opposite, a great deal of pressure as she felt that she ate a lot and looked unrefined when eating. Making her felt embarrassed.

Qiu He rubbed her stomach quietly, wondering if she would have gotten indigestion.

Qiao MingYu ignored her as she talks to Gu Lian: “Although the movement yesterday was not small, it was fortunate that the child was fine, but Emperor Father had a shock.”

The emperor’s health was already not good, but after bouts of nervousness, his body that was already slightly better had worsened again. Able to come out during Mid-autumn festival to host the palace but the annual banquet might be suspended.

Qiao MingYu furrowed her brows slightly: “Emperor Father’s health is getting worse…”

This means that it was uncertain whether he could make it past New year.

In ancient times, healthcare was not so developed and have the highest mortality rate during winter. A lot of elderly and people with poor health would die during this time. And once they have survived this winter, it would not be too hard to make it through next year and might be able to survive till next winter.

Gu Lian does not know what to say to console Qiao MingYu, she could only reach out quietly to hold the hand she had placed under the table.

Qiao MingYu felt warmth in her heart as she backhanded and held her hand.

Qiu He had no idea about all these things at all as she tried to control herself not to think about Gu Lian at the table and continued devouring the food. When she had finally finished eating, the dishes and wine cups had cluttered up on the table

Gu Lian looked at Qiao MingYu and then at Qiu He. These 2 have huge appetites. No wonder Qiao MingYu always have such extravagant meal every time because they can finish it.

At the beginning, Gu Lian was also a big eater, cough cough. Now, she eats like a chicken pecking at rice. Bit by bit, and unable to eat much.

“The palace is investigating thoroughly about yesterday’s matter.” Qiao MingYu let go of Gu Lian’s hand and with a face full of worry, “Ah Lian, you should go back to the estate. The palace is not going to be peaceful for a while, I’m afraid I can’t take care of you.”

Gu Lian does not have any opinion about this as the princess estate was much more comfortable and does not have many rules as compared to the palace.

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Hence, after breakfast, Su Dan accompanied Gu Lian back to the princess estate.

“Miss.” The servants had gotten the news earlier and seeing that Gu Lian had alighted the carriage, they hurried forward and greeted her.

Zhu Xiang pulled Gu Lian’s hand quietly, signalling to her that she has something to say. 

Gu Lian thanked Su Dan and took the servants back to her room.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Lian sat on the chaise longue and asked in a low voice.

Zhu Xiang took a deep breath: “The news about Grandaunt’s pregnancy has been leaked out. But……the person placed by 3rd young lady was flogged to death.”

“What?” Gu Lian was surprised, “Why was she flogged to death?”

“It was said that she did not take good care of the pregnant lady.” Zhu Xiang quickly finished the rest, “The servants besides Grandaunt has been punished, saying that they did not find out earlier that Grandaunt was pregnant. You also knew that Grandaunt’s health was not good and after pregnant, she became weaker. She did not mention about her severe morning sickness and often have stomach pain that resulted in miscarriage-like symptoms. The madam complained that grandaunt did not mention about this earlier but does not want to throw her tantrum at a pregnant lady, so she could only vent her anger on the servants besides her. And it just happened that, yesterday, Grandaunt had miscarriage-like symptoms again and it became an excuse for her to punish her servants.

“How did she punished those servants?”

“Kneeling and flogged 5 times. They were beaten so harshly that some servants could not even get up till now. The servants serving grandaunt now were newly appointed by the madam. 

Gu Lian acutely felt that something was wrong as Gu Zhi Dai’s mother-in-law was too much as she had reacted more like taking the opportunity to suppressed Gu Zhi Dai. But this was also normal as Gu Zhi Dai’s family background could not be compared to her in-laws and it was normal for them to look down on her. Moreover, the relationship between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law has always been a problem and so, it was normal for her mother-in-law to have a bad relationship with her.

“After that?” How did the one sent by Gu Yi, died?”

Zhu Xiang sighed: “That girl was frail and can’t stand it. In the middle of last night, she had a high fever and could not make it today.”

Gu Yi was probably furious as she had finally pressed a nail in, but in the end, before she could use it, the person had died. Gu Lian sighed in her heart. One should not have the heart to hurt another person, was this not retribution? The servant was originally left by Gu Yi to kill Gu Zhi Dai when she was giving birth.

Hearing this, the rest of the servants could not help but to sigh and Lan Xiang was even more worried: “There are no people around Grandaunt who she can use, and the people around her belongs to the wife. In case….”

Lan Xiang, this girl had made great improvement because in the past, she had never thought of these, but was able to raise this question today. Which made Zhu Xiang impressed.

Gu Lian touched the teacup beside her: “Gu Family would not sit back and watch and would definitely find an excuse to send someone to little aunt.”

Although this would make her in-laws lose dignities. But Madam Gu and Gu Zhi Mo doted on Gu Zhi Dai and so even if the other party were not happy, they would not compromise. Moreover, so what if Gu Zhi Dai’s husband has hung onto the 3rd prince? Their Gu Family’s eldest daughter has already moved into the princess estate! Everyone knew that the 3rd prince and the emperor doted on the princess the most and so Gu Lian’s relationship was more worthy of flaunting as compared to the Gu Zhi Dai’s husband family.

There were so many subordinates under the 3rd prince, but there was only Gu Lian as the princess’s study companion. Although Gu Lian does not know when she had become a study companion when she was simply residing in the princess estate.

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