She opened her eyes at dawn in the morning, feeling exhausted. When Xiuyue and Xiuyu came in to change her clothes, they both looked worried, "Girl, why don't you go today? Anyway, the store is a day or two late." There’s no need to delay anything.”
Gu Mingmou sat in front of the dressing table, looking at herself in the bronze mirror and lowering her eyes, "It doesn't matter." Then he raised his head and said to Xiuyu: "You can go to your mother's place and tell her later, and I will have dinner with her tonight."
"My slave understands." Xiuyu nodded calmly in agreement.
This morning, Gu Mingmou took Xiuyue to several shops to check the accounts. She became more and more comfortable doing these things without spending too much time. At noon, she was supposed to go back home, but she did not go back. Instead, she asked Xiuyue to send the coachman back and took the people to Tonghua Hutong, West Street.
Most of the houses in this alley were built by foreign merchants. Although they were not big, they had different styles from north to south and were very distinctive. Later, most of them were used by dignitaries in Beijing to house their outer rooms.
Gu Mingmou has been walking around West Street for a long time, so he has naturally heard about it. The address Prince Heng left in the note is in Tonghua Alley. If she wants to get "evidence", she must compromise.
Although Xiuyue didn't know much about Tonghua Hutong, she couldn't help but feel a little worried when her girl arrived here, "Girl, let's go back home first. You haven't eaten yet..."
Gu Mingmou ignored her and stopped in front of a green leather door. Before he knocked on the knocker, he saw the door being pushed open with a creak from the inside.
Two tall, expressionless men in brocade jackets stepped aside to welcome her in. Xiuyue wanted to follow, but before she could take a step, she was blocked by a solid wall of flesh.
When Xiuyue raised her head, she saw the man blocking her way lowering his head. His square face had no emotion at all, and his eyes looked at her with a hint of contempt.
"Who are you? Get out of the way." She never showed timidity in front of outsiders. Even though the man's aura was a bit scary, she still tried her best to confront him with wide eyes, at least not to lose the face of their girl.
The man didn't reply at all, but took her collar and put it aside like a chicken.
Xiuyue's face turned red because of his move, and she stood on tiptoe.
He looked in with his feet and shouted hurriedly: "Girl, girl."
Only then did Gu Mingmou realize that no one was following him. He paused and frowned, "You two strong men, can you let my maid in?"
The two of them cupped their hands, and their tone was still respectful, but their attitude was tough, "Miss Gu, please forgive me, the master only invites the girl in."
Gu Mingmou could also tell that these two people were not ordinary guards, and did not argue with them. He gave Xiuyue a reassuring look, turned around and walked inside.
The courtyard was surrounded by lush trees. Gu Ming's eyes were not squinting. As soon as he entered the main courtyard, he saw a man stretching out on a lounge chair under the tree.
Perhaps it was because no one else was present, but this man's aura was less aggressive and more carefree and casual. The moon-white brocade robe made him look a bit like a romantic young man.
"Here? Sit down." Shen Guiye didn't even open his eyes and casually nodded on the small wooden stool next to the low table.
Gu Mingmou twitched the corner of his mouth, walked aside obediently and sat down, clasping his hands and placing them on his knees.
"open to take a look."
Gu Mingmou's eyes fell on the three boxes placed on the low table. After hesitating for a moment, he stretched out his hand to open the boxes one by one. He found a pair of shiny mutton-fat white jade bracelets, a small lotus horn emerald hairpin, and a pair of red water droplets. Jewelry earrings.
"What do you mean by this, Your Majesty?" Gu Mingmou had also received many pieces of jewelry, but none of them could compare to these three pieces of crystal clear, shiny and meticulously crafted jewelry. Naturally, he knew that these items were worth a lot of money.
"Try it on." Prince Heng did not answer her question, pointing to the mutton-fat white jade bracelet.
Gu Ming looked at him intently for a while, took out the bracelet and gestured, then raised his hand, and the bracelet drew a beautiful arc in the air...
"Oops, my hand slipped." Seeing the priceless white jade bracelet broken into two halves on the bluestone slab, the guards hiding in the dark couldn't help but gasp.
After throwing away the bracelet, Gu Mingmou's mood improved. He raised his mouth and smiled crookedly, making people unable to bear to criticize him.
Shen Guiye turned to look at her and curled his lips, "Don't you like it?"
"How could you not like what the prince gave you?"
Shen Guiye smiled, sat up, picked up the hairpin in the second box, and raised his hand to tie it in her hair.
The bright eyes did not refuse this review, and followed his movements, finally stroking her hair and smiling brightly at him.
"Very beautiful." Shen Guiye rubbed her cheek twice with his fingers, with an indescribable ambiguity.
Gu Mingmou raised her head and looked at him, deliberately misinterpreting his meaning, "The gift from the prince is naturally beautiful."
"Haha..." Shen Guiye chuckled, not angry because she deliberately screwed him. It's just that the movements of his hands became more and more presumptuous. He pinched her chin and scratched the soft flesh of her chin with his index finger, as if he noticed the stiffness of her body before he spoke, "You are so presumptuous in front of Qi Lang, huh?"
Gu Ming lowered his eyes and said indifferently, "Brother Qi and my childhood sweetheart are naturally different from the prince."
"Of course it's different. At least I won't use my fiancée's maid behind her back."
The smile at the corner of Gu Mingmou's mouth instantly faded, and her clear, light-colored eyes stared straight at him, "So what, it's just a toy. I believe that Brother Qi only has me in his heart."
Shen Guiye sneered, "You are very passionate about him." There was unspeakable sarcasm in his tone.
Gu Mingmou was silent, seeming to acquiesce to his words.
"In that case, why are you coming here today?"
"Didn't the prince force me?" Gu Mingmou asked back, his tone was so confident that Shen Guiye, who felt he had discovered the truth, was a little unsure.
"You don't have to come."
Gu Mingmou shook her head and suddenly said: "In my heart, Brother Qi is more important than the prince, but my mother is more important than everyone else. The prince can help me, so I came here."
"You dare to say that you are not afraid of my anger?" The man's voice became softer, with a creepy chill.
"I'm just telling the truth. From now on, I will say whatever the prince wants to hear." Gu Mingmou's voice was soft, with the tenderness unique to a girl, but the words he said made people don't know whether to be angry or laugh.
He knew that what she said was not true, but at this moment, Shen Guiye was unwilling to pursue it. I just looked at the little girl sitting neatly on the wooden bench in front of me, her skin exuding a gleaming halo in the sun, as if she were a beautiful porcelain doll, and I wished I could immediately hold her in my arms and pamper her. .
(End of chapter)