"Father, please calm down. Your daughter is willing to marry you. Please forgive Master Gu for his offensive words!"
The second princess pushed the door open in a hurry.
Unexpectedly, after looking at her, Gu Cong leaned over and kowtowed.
"It is a man's job to protect his country. How can we sacrifice women in the boudoir? If the Liao Kingdom invades, I am willing to take up my sword and fight the enemy. Even if the princess cannot marry me, I will never agree to the princess marrying far away!"
Ning Chen looked at the stubborn boy in front of him and laughed angrily.
"Come here, take this ignorant boy out and give him fifty lashes. See if he will change his mind after these lashes!"
"Father, please forgive him, your daughter is willing to marry!" The second princess' eyes were full of panic.
But this time, Ning Chen seemed to be determined.
He ordered people to take the second princess away and executed her outside the gate of Jiuchen Palace.
Fifty boards fell, and Gu Cong said nothing.
After the execution, a firm and restrained voice of a man was heard outside the door.
"Your Highness, I have not changed my original intention. I do not want the princess to marry far away!"
This time, Ning Chen really laughed after hearing it.
Without saying a word, he ordered someone to send Gu Cong back home.
The next day, the Gu family received an imperial decree from the head of the royal family, allowing the second son, Gu Cong, to marry the second princess.
In fact, Ning Chen had never thought of letting his daughter marry far away; everything was just a test.
If Yuan Jiu had not secretly asked the executioner guards to show mercy, Gu Cong would have been half dead if not dead after the fifty strokes of the board, and there was no way he would have been able to get out of bed the next day to receive the order.
In March of the following year, the emperor married his daughter and the general got married.
Compared to the warmth and reserve between the eldest princess and the prince consort of the Zhou family, the second princess and Gu Cong were much more passionate.
Three days after her wedding, the second princess returned to her parents' home. She did not want to ride in a carriage, so she rode into the palace with Gu Cong.
The two would hold candles and stroll around Jingyue Lake at night, and visit the night market together.
Occasionally, he would change into ordinary clothes, mingle among the common people and watch acrobatics, or go into a theatre to listen to a night of opera.
They were in love with each other. The second princess gave birth to her eldest daughter the year after their marriage, and her second daughter two years later.
After having a child, the second princess's attention became a little distracted. At that time, Gu Cong's career was going well and he was often busy with government affairs, so unknowingly, the two of them gradually became less close than before.
However, Gu Cong had no concubines, so the courtyard was still clean and harmonious.
But because he had no concubines, the second princess tried her best to give birth to a son for him to continue the family line.
It just so happened that the second princess gave birth to her first two children too close together. Two girls in three years hurt her body and she had to recuperate slowly.
With things on his mind, he naturally became depressed. Also, he had to worry about his two daughters, and gradually he lost his love to laugh.
Whenever Gu Cong came to the main courtyard, he would see the Second Princess with a frown on her face and smelling of medicine.
In order to recover her health as soon as possible, the second princess never stopped taking medicine.
Knowing that his wife wanted to give birth to a boy for him, Gu Cong felt distressed but didn't know how to comfort her.
More importantly, the second princess herself was getting a little too stubborn and wouldn't listen to any words of comfort.
In fact, the more Gu Cong persuaded her, the more guilty the second princess felt, and the more eager she was to recuperate and give birth to a boy.
It’s not that they don’t like girls. In fact, the Second Princess and Gu Cong love their two daughters like the apple of their eyes. It’s just that the world is like this. In this era, only boys can inherit the family business.
The second princess didn't want Gu Cong to take a concubine, so she kept forcing herself.
Gradually, Gu Cong no longer wanted to come to the main courtyard.
It’s not that I’m disgusted with him or don’t care about him anymore, it’s just that I don’t know how to face a wife who is completely different from before.
It was at this time that Gu Cong's mother became anxious.
The daughter-in-law is of high status and cannot give birth to a son. She cannot say it openly, and she should not give her a concubine. But she is afraid that her son's family line will be cut off.
After much thought, he picked a maid with a very good appearance and sent her to serve in Gu Cong's study.
Thinking that she had given birth to a boy, she sent the maid away and gave the child to the second princess to raise.
Naturally, this was done behind the second princess's back, so she was completely unaware of it.
When Gu Cong saw the girl, he knew it was his mother's intention, but it was not easy to chase her away, so he arranged for her to do the cleaning job and not let her get close to him.
But the girl herself was very ambitious. One day, Gu Cong drank a lot of wine during a social event and came back home drunk. She then had evil intentions and went in to serve him with some foot washing water.
Of course, Mother Gu put a lot of thought into choosing this girl. This girl looks 60% similar to the Second Princess when she was young.
So when Gu Cong looked at the woman while drunk, he could vaguely see that she looked like the second princess.
In order to see more clearly, he lowered his head and moved closer.
The girl thought that he was interested in her, so she immediately took off her outer robe and reached out to untie Gu Cong's belt.
At this time, the second princess came with some hangover soup and saw this scene when she pushed the door open.
Gu Congzui's eyes were blurred, and a pretty maid in front of him was shy and timid, with her hands on his waist and her clothes falling to the ground.
After being married for many years, the second princess was angry for the first time.
He threw the sobering soup in his hand and slapped Gu Cong in the face.
Gu Cong didn't understand what was going on and was beaten dizzy.
The second princess ignored him and immediately ordered people to drag the girl into the yard and beat her with a stick in public.
The two daughters rushed over upon hearing the noise. They had never seen their mother like this before and were so frightened that they dared not speak.
That night, the girl was beaten with thirty boards and sent to work in a farm outside the capital overnight. Gu Cong was not much better. The second princess poured a pot of cold tea on him and ordered people to throw him in the yard, and no one was allowed to help him.
Not yet angry enough, the second princess packed up her luggage that night, took her two daughters and left the Gu family, moving into the princess mansion which she had never lived in since her marriage.
The next day, Gu Cong woke up from a cold. He was drunk and had no memory of what happened yesterday.
The servant told the story with a sad face, and he was so frightened that he rode his horse to the princess's mansion to apologize without even having time to change his clothes.
The second princess was angry and sad and did not see him.
Gu Cong waited at the door for six or seven days. Finally, he could not bear it any longer and climbed over the wall into the princess's mansion at night and found his way to the second princess's courtyard.
The second princess never expected him to do this. She was surprised and then she was hugged.
"How could the woman whom I married after being beaten with fifty sticks make Wan'er sad?"
The second princess felt aggrieved and upset. She pounded Gu Cong's shoulders and cried bitterly.
In fact, she has been thinking about a lot of things these days. She knows that she has been dwelling on a very small issue all these years and has weakened their friendship, but she can't save her face.
Gu Cong's move was really a show of subservience.
After this incident, the second princess also figured it out. Having children is a matter of fate and cannot be forced. The most important thing is to live well in the present.
Everyone gradually discovered that the princess and her husband had returned to the sweetness of their wedding day.
Not only did they go to the market hand in hand, but they also occasionally left their two daughters behind to live in a farm outside Beijing for a long time.
After she figured it out, she felt much more relaxed and happy. Finally, in the year when the second princess was 40 years old, she got her wish and had a good name.
The delivery was dangerous and the second princess almost risked her life giving birth to this child.
All the servants in the yard saw the forty-something prince consort squatting at the door of the delivery room, crying like an anxious child.
Fortunately, mother and child are safe and there are no regrets.
The couple lived in harmony and lived a good life.
In her later years, the second princess often thought that if that maid had not caused such a scene, she might never have figured it out, and would have gone further and further astray, ruining her marriage.
Fortunately, Gu Cong has always never thought about anyone else, even though he was so depressed in those years that he seemed like a different person.
This may be love. No matter what you become, love is willing to tolerate you and let you find your former self.