"Have we crossed the clear path?"
Hua Zhi's smiling words broke the silence in the carriage. She narrowed her eyes slightly, with the corners of her mouth raised, and a sense of ease appeared in her embarrassment.
"Azhi..."
"I'm ready to be beheaded." Hua Zhi propped herself up and Gu Yanxi hurried forward to help her. She leaned into the man's arms. There was no other place that made her feel as safe as this place.
“It turned out much better than I expected.”
Gu Yanxi lowered her head, straightened her slightly messy hair, and said in a hoarse voice: "But now is definitely not a good time to build the canal. If it is built, it will be the emperor who will be remembered for eternity, and you will bear the bad reputation. If it is not built well, he will really send all the Hua family members into exile. Ah Zhi, he can do it."
"I know it's difficult, but I survived. Everything is possible if I'm alive. There will be a way."
Gu Yanxi's lips were pursed into a straight line. He was angry, but more than that he was sad. He had done so much, and all he wanted was Hua Zhi. The Emperor's uncle knew it clearly, but he did not show mercy.
"He mentioned the canal opening once before and never mentioned it again. I thought he had let it go, but I didn't expect him to be so obsessed. I should have been on guard earlier."
Hua Zhi shook her head gently, "It's useless. You can't persuade an emperor who is willing to bear the reputation of a tyrant just to leave his name for eternity. Yan Xi, don't force yourself into a dead end. As long as I'm alive, I can turn the situation around. You know, I'm good at making money."
"But this is not something that can be solved by making money, Azhi. The problems you mentioned in the imperial study are not exaggerated at all. Now is not a good time to overhaul the water conservancy project, and the money needed to dig a river is definitely not something that one person can afford." Gu Yanxi was anxious and his tone was getting faster. It's not that he didn't believe in Azhi, nor was he unaware of Azhi's ability to make money, but if something that should have been done by the whole country was placed on one person, that person would be crushed.
"Yan Xi, trust me." Hua Zhi sat up and met the man's gaze, "Trust me."
Hua Zhi's calmness infected Gu Yanxi. He closed his eyes, hugged her again, rubbed her head and nodded, "I believe you."
The two stopped talking. Hua Zhi was really tired and drowsy. Gu Yanxi was reluctant to disturb her. His mind was racing, thinking about what he could do in this matter and where to start, until the carriage stopped.
Shaoyao lifted the curtain and looked at Brother Yan angrily. When she saw Huahua who had fallen asleep, she snorted, put the curtain aside, jumped off the carriage first, and knocked on the corner door.
The door opened as soon as she knocked. It was Baoxia who was waiting there. Her eyes were red and swollen. When she saw Shaoyao, she thought she was here to see the young lady. She held back her tears and was about to say that the young lady was not there, when she saw Mr. Lu walking quickly towards her with the young lady in his arms. She widened her eyes in disbelief and wanted to scream and cry. In the end, she just covered her mouth tightly, opened the door as wide as it could, and trotted after him, tears silently streaming down her face.
At this time, the clan school has been dismissed and the security training has also ended. The front yard is even quieter. In the main hall, several maids and the fourth lady are sitting. They all have red and swollen eyes and no one speaks. They are waiting.
Wait for the older girl to come back, or wait for the worst outcome.
"It's getting dark." Mrs. Wu said hoarsely, looking at the light outside the door.
"The young lady said that if she doesn't come back today, she would send someone to look for the Sixth Young Master. There is still a long time today." Yingchun's tears started to flow as she spoke. She felt panicky and sad whenever she thought about the young lady being treated in a place they didn't know about.
She couldn't understand why there were so many bad people in the world who could live well, but why such a good lady had to end up like this.
Nian Qiu suddenly asked, "Is there any sound?"
"No... No, there's a sound, coming this way." Several people looked at each other, jumped up and ran outside, and then saw Mr. Lu carrying the young lady towards them.
Her heart, which had been tense for the whole afternoon, finally settled down. Yingchun wiped her tears and quickly ran to the room where the young lady was resting. When Gu Yanxi entered the room carrying someone, the bed had already been made.
He put the person gently on the bed, but no matter how gentle the movement was, Hua Zhi, who had not slept well to begin with, still woke up. She grabbed Yan Xi's hand and looked at him with her dark eyes.
Gu Yanxi knelt beside the bed, held her hand and kissed it, "I have to go back."
Hua Zhi originally wanted to persuade Yan Xi not to confront the emperor when he returned, but she gave up on the second thought. It was better to make a fuss, so that the emperor would not bully him to death. After all, there was no one more useful than Yan Xi around him, and he would not take his life.
She took her hand back, "Do what you can."
"Okay." Gu Yanxi leaned over to her ear and whispered, "My life is yours, no one can take it away."
Hua Zhi smiled so well that her eyebrows curved.
Gu Yanxi couldn't help but kiss her forehead, "Drink some soup before going to sleep, I'll come over when I'm done."
"good."
Fu Dong went to the kitchen without saying a word. Soup was always available in the small kitchen, and it was now warming on the stove.
Gu Yanxi didn't want to leave at all, but he knew he had to go back. He stood up, looked at Azhi again, and walked straight to Shaoyao, "You stay and take care of Azhi, you don't have to go back."
Shaoyao lost all her temper immediately, her eyes lit up, but she still knew the rules, pulled Brother Yan out of the door and whispered, "In the palace..."
"Nothing will happen to him until his reputation is settled." Gu Yanxi glanced at the room, "I'll go back and deal with it. Ah Zhi will probably sleep uneasily after being frightened, so you stay by her side."
"Don't worry, I'll stay with you all the time." Shaoyao suddenly raised her hand and grabbed Gu Yanxi's sleeve, "Brother Yan, you... have to be careful."
When Gu Yanxi looked at this face, all new and old grudges came to her mind. It would be better not to have the surname Gu.
After watching Brother Yan leave Shaoyao and go into the house, he came to the bed and sat down with the medicine box in his arms. He pursed his lips and simply took off his shoes and got on the bed, then leaned over to Huahua and stayed close to her.
Hua Zhi was in a bad mood, but he indulged her in this way and even reached out to grab her hand and squeezed it to comfort her.
Shaoyao's tears rolled down without warning. She was really scared. Listening to Huahua saying those words to the emperor, she thought Huahua would definitely die. She couldn't count how many times Huahua had been in danger. Why did her Huahua have so many disasters? Huahua should be a little bad. Bad people can live a long life.
"The soup is here." Some maidservant shouted and several others quickly made way. Yingchun wanted to go forward and help the young lady up, but seeing Miss Shaoyao's condition, she had no idea how to start.
It was Shaoyao who sat up consciously, wiped her face with her sleeve, and then helped Huahua sit up on her. Seeing this, Fudong hurried forward and fed the cooled soup into the young lady's mouth one spoonful at a time.
Hua Zhi didn't feel hungry, and stopped drinking after drinking half a cup. Shaoyao immediately and skillfully treated her wound, but before she was done, she fell asleep in a daze.
Shaoyao drove everyone out and sat at the head of the bed with her hands on her knees, watching.