Chapter 1197: Why Are All the Good Men Snatched Away by Them?

"Young Master." Erqing saluted Gu Jinli.

Gu Jinli nodded. "Not bad, I heard everything."

In fact, Erqing had long heard Gu Jinli’s footsteps; the reason she kept Miss Zhou Er and Miss Lin Si back a while longer was purely to let the Young Master see their true colors.

Xiao Ji was quite angry and said, "Young Master, that Miss Zhou really has no sense of propriety at all. How can you get lost and end up in the back courtyard just by looking for a privy? That was obviously just an excuse. There are latrine rooms in the front courtyard; as long as they say a word, naturally someone will take them there. The toilets in the back courtyard are for the host family."

Gu Jinli laughed. "Xiao Ji, you’ve improved, huh, you even know how to analyze things now."

Xiao Ji, being praised, was very happy and then asked, "Young Master, that Miss Zhou didn’t want to leave from the start, one look and you can tell she has other intentions. How should we deal with her? Should we give her a lesson first so she gets scared?"

Xiao Ji had also been training with Erqing and the others all this time, and now handled matters much more decisively than before. She chopped her hand through the air in a striking motion toward Gu Jinli.

Gu Jinli shook her head. "No need for now. I can see she still has some scruples; she shouldn’t dare do anything too suicidal. Just shut the back courtyard door and don’t let them in."

No matter what scheme Miss Zhou Er was hatching, it would never succeed under her roof.

"Come on, let’s go take a look up front." As she spoke, Gu Jinli led Erqing and Xiao Ji to the front courtyard. When leaving the back courtyard, she locked the back gate and had Zhu Chahua and Tong Dayu guard the doorway so no one could wander in.

Before long, they reached the front courtyard guest hall, but did not go in right away.

Gu Jinli instructed Xiao Ji, "Go call Aunt Da Gui over."

This was exactly the time to summon Mrs. Chen; that woman was invincible when it came to scolding people, daring to say anything. It would be a real waste not to bring her in.

Xiao Ji almost burst out laughing. "Aye, this slave will go right away."

With that she shot off like an arrow toward Gu Dagui’s family.

In the front courtyard guest hall, sobbing was already drifting out; it was Elder Zhou’s voice.

Elder Zhou cried, "Old brother, you don’t know how bitter our days have been. The people from the nearby villages and from town all bully us for being refugees. The land our family opened up, when it came time for harvest, others came and took it first. By the time we went to harvest, we only got a small portion of the sweet potatoes, and could only live by going into the mountains to gather wild greens."

"We wanted to go to town and do odd jobs, but others looked down on us, thinking since we’re refugees our hands must be unclean; no one dared hire us. We could only help the night-soil carriers do filthy work, the stench nearly made us puke, and it was only five copper coins a day."

"There are also local bullies in the village. My eldest granddaughter, such a good girl, was noticed by one of those bullies, taken advantage of, and we could only marry her off without even a single cent of betrothal gift."

"Wuu wuu wuu, old brother, we’re suffering so much!" Elder Zhou was wailing loudly, and Third Grandpa and Third Grandma listened until their eyes turned red.

Third Grandma said, "Old brother, how could you marry off your own eldest granddaughter to a local bully like that? You should’ve reported it to the authorities!"

County Magistrate Xu and County Magistrate Zheng were both good officials, and their families had just moved to the village not long ago. Because Xiao Yu had saved Yuanyuan, they had gotten to know the Shang Family and Jiang Family.

As long as the Zhou Family reported it, they would certainly, for the sake of fellow townspeople, ask County Captain Jiang for help.

Elder Zhou paused, then cried, "Old sister-in-law, it’s not that we didn’t want to report it, it’s just that those bullies are too fierce. They threatened that if we didn’t marry our eldest granddaughter over, they’d ruin all the remaining women in our family... We were scared, could only sacrifice our eldest granddaughter."

What Elder Zhou said was half true and half false. He was indeed afraid of the village bullies, but he had never considered reporting to the authorities; he only thought of sacrificing his granddaughter to preserve his family’s status in the village so they would no longer be bullied.

And he had indeed gotten what he wanted.

After the Zhou Family sent their eldest granddaughter to the bully, the Zhou Family was never again troubled by bullies or local hoodlums.

However, the Zhou Family’s eldest granddaughter had not been married to the bully, but taken in and made into a woman without a name or status for him.

That bully surnamed Li was already over forty, with a wife and children.

But Elder Zhou did not dare tell the truth, afraid that if the Gu Family knew, they would look down on them.

Old Lin listened on the side, frowning, not saying a word.

Gu Dashan saw that he kept silent and thought they were just exhausted from traveling all night. He raised his voice and shouted toward outside, "Ah Jiang, is breakfast not here yet? Hurry and bring something for Elder Zhou and Elder Lin to eat."

"Coming, coming." Before long, Ah Jiang and Da Tuan came carrying two poles of food. One load was set down in the guest hall for the men, the other was carried into the side room next to the guest hall for the women of the two families.

The Gu Family had prepared quite a nice spread: greasy, fragrant egg pancakes and soybean milk. When the people of the Zhou and Lin families saw it, men and women alike, their eyes lit up and they seized the pancakes to eat.

Miss Zhou Er had originally wanted to eat more daintily, but the egg pancakes were too fragrant, and she normally never got to eat such things at home. She no longer cared about her image and grabbed one directly.

She ate too fast and choked.

"Ugh—ugh—ugh!" Miss Zhou Er pounded her chest, her eyes rolling back, feeling utterly miserable.

Mrs. Cui hurriedly grabbed some soybean milk and poured it into her. "Zhou girl, hurry and drink the soybean milk, swallow the pancake down with it!"

After quite a bit of fuss, Miss Zhou Er finally swallowed down the pancake, then burst into a fit of coughing. "Cough, cough, cough!" She even coughed up some crumbs.

Miss Zhou Er’s mother paid her no mind. Once she saw her daughter wasn’t choking to death, she went right back to eating her egg pancake.

Miss Lin Si, however, stopped and handed her own soybean milk to Miss Zhou Er.

Miss Zhou Er felt uncomfortable inside, but did not refuse; she took the soybean milk and drank.

Gu Jinli watched the commotion for a bit, then entered the room, gave the women of the Zhou and Lin families a proper greeting, and said, "Junior pays respects to Aunt Zhou and Aunt Lin."

Miss Zhou Er’s mother, hearing this, looked over at Gu Jinli and her eyes lit up. "Aiyo, this must be Miss Gu, you’ve gotten prettier again. Back when we were fleeing, Auntie thought you were a pretty one already, and after these few years of raising, you’ve gotten even more beautiful."

She added, "I heard your mother say you’re engaged, to a lad from the Luo Family. Speaking of him, that Luo boy has really made something of himself; in the blink of an eye he’s become Lord squad leader, now that’s truly impressive."

Miss Zhou Er’s mother was very envious. Had she known Luo Wu would turn out so capable, she would’ve let her daughter mingle more with him back then. If they’d nurtured some feelings at that time, her girl might now be a squad leader’s wife too.

Gu Jinli smiled. "Aunt Zhou, you’ve misunderstood. I’m the second Gu girl, not my eldest sister. I am indeed engaged, but not to the Luo Family—it’s to Qin Family’s third son."

"Qin Family’s third son! You’re engaged to Qin Family’s third son! Then you’ll be the Company Commanders’ Wife?" Miss Zhou Er exclaimed in shock. She had only just found out that Qin Family’s third son had become Lord Company Commander.

She had even daydreamed about him for a bit, but now, hearing he was engaged to Gu Jinli, she felt sour.

What kind of fate did the Gu sisters have, that all the good men ended up snatched by them?