Chapter 3
Chapter 3
One thing led to another.
We had gone from a young married couple to two people who could hardly stand the sight of each other.
By day, Gu Jinyan busied himself with affairs at court. At night, even when he returned to the estate, he made sure to satisfy his two concubines first.
As for me, with nothing better to do, I somehow ended up accomplishing two major things.
The first was managing my dowry.
In just a few short years, I turned the ten shops that had come with my dowry into one hundred and twenty.
The second was raising that baby girl of unknown origins.
Though I was cold toward the two concubines, I could never bring myself to be cruel to that poor child. I had always put my heart into raising her.
Other girls learned embroidery. She learned riding and archery.
Other girls studied Lessons for Women. She studied martial arts.
And somehow, I raised her into an overbearing, rough-mannered girl who insisted on taking the imperial martial examination.
I did not have the heart to tell her that in this era, there was no path for a woman to become a martial degree holder.
A woman’s only path was marriage.
But hearing her call me Mother again and again, I still could not harden my heart and refuse her. So I had no choice but to ask around everywhere, spending a fortune to hire back a Valiant Cavalry General who had once passed the martial examination.
That day, when I returned from offering prayers at the temple, I saw a young man in white standing in the courtyard.
He held a long spear in his hand, his figure as elegant as a jade mountain. His white robes snapped in the wind, yet he did not have the coarse air of a martial man at all. Instead, he was as handsome and upright as a tall stalk of green bamboo.
The breeze stirred gently. We looked at each other for a long while.
Then he gave a slight nod. “My surname is Xue, given name Rongyu. I am Eldest Miss Gu’s instructor.”
With one hand resting on my maid’s arm, I answered as if possessed, “Oh.”
“I am Eldest Miss Gu’s older cousin.”
As expected, no matter how many years had passed,
I still had a weakness for young men in white.
This Young General Xue also held an official post at court.
Not only had he earned a martial degree at such a young age, he also possessed a set of fine, graceful skills that were truly pleasing to the eye.
The weather in June was hot enough to leave a person drenched in sweat.
Yet look at my wild-at-heart daughter, Gu Chengyue. Holding a pair of twin sabers, she faced Xue Rongyu, who stood a head taller than her, without the slightest fear.
Under the blazing sun, the two of them sparred in the courtyard with fierce, whistling force.
They practiced in the estate for an entire afternoon. I personally delivered tea once, then fruit, then bowls of chilled milk custard.
The young general was not overly reserved.
He set down his spear, lifted the teapot, and drank with his head tipped back. A clear bead of sweat slid down from his temple, making his fair skin look all the more bright and translucent.
Seeing me staring without blinking, Chengyue grew rather curious.
“Mother, what are you looking at?”
Unlike the delicate, scholarly young ladies in the capital, she was obsessed with martial training. Her body was strong as a little calf, and standing beside me, she only made me look even more petite.
I smacked my lips. “A man who has practiced martial arts really is different.”
Chengyue glanced at Young General Xue and giggled. “I thought Mother admired refined gentlemen like Father more!”
I shook my head. “Ah, don’t mention it! I was young back then. I didn’t yet understand the benefits of a sturdy man…”
“Yue’er, you mustn’t learn from me.”
“Oh.”
Chengyue answered in a daze.
I nodded in satisfaction. The moment I turned around, I saw Gu Jinyan’s darkened face.
He was standing silently behind me.