The Grand Secretary's Pampered wife

He looked into the backyard, but where was the shadow of the dark guards? Clearly, the perpetrator was Young Miss Gu who slapped both Gu Jinyu and Zhuang Mengdie before!

On that day, he also thought that Young Miss Gu had gone too far for hitting even weak women who had no power to truss chickens. But now, it seemed that she still showed them mercy!

Otherwise, with the power of her fist that could knock away a martial arts expert, if she had gotten serious back then, wouldn’t Gu Jinyu and Zhuang Mengdie’s brains have flown off their skulls?

The people brought by Wu Yang were not first-class experts; even so, they were much stronger than ordinary experts, and yet they were easily beaten by Young Miss Gu without even the strength to fight back.

Wu Yang wanted to cry.

He finally understood why the two Dark Guards of the Marquis Ding'an Estate suddenly darted into the woods. They were worried, afraid that if they stayed here, they wouldn’t be able to help themselves but rush in to help, but if they did so, it would ruin their young miss’s momentum ah.

Wu Yang quickly estimated in his mind that he was no match for Young Miss Gu.

"Pardon for the offense, Young Miss Gu."

Wu Yang took out the crossbow from behind him and mounted a short arrow on it. Then, he pointed it at Gu Jiao's shoulder and was about to pull the trigger.

But at that exact moment, the room to the elderly woman's door suddenly opened, and she came out with a yawn, "What's with all the noise?"

Wu Yang's hand shook in surprise and the arrow deviated from its original target!

And it so happened that it flew in the direction of the elderly woman. Wu Yang's heart shuddered!

The arrow from a crossbow was several times faster than that of an ordinary bow. It was simply too late for him to retrieve the arrow!

At the critical juncture, Gu Jiao flashed in front of the elderly woman and dragged the elderly woman to one side. The arrow brushed against the back of her hand and nailed to the wall behind them.

The back of Gu Jiao's hand was scraped and her hand was now covered with blood.

She walked over to the wall, pulled out the arrow with her other hand and threw it violently in the direction where Wu Yang was hiding!

The speed of the arrow was unbelievably fast that even an expert like Wu Yang wasn’t able to dodge it.

He was shot in the right shoulder, and with a muffled groan, he said to the black-clad men who were lying on the ground, "Retreat!"

After the group left, the whole village fell back into silence.

Seeing the blood on the back of Gu Jiao's hand, the elderly woman exclaimed, "JiaoJiao, you're hurt!"

Gu Jiao didn’t pay it any mind, "It’s all right, it’s just a scratch."

The elderly woman lambasted at once, "Now that life at home is good, these petty thieves can’t stop thinking about us!"

Thieves?

Those thieves that visited a few times ago didn't have such skills and equipment.

Gu Jiao looked at the boundless night and felt that the group this time were not after money or valuables. They went straight to the little east room, which was Grandaunt's room.

……

Wu Yang returned to the mountain villa after being injured. He didn’t bother to tend to his wound and went straight to meet An Junwang in the study.

An Junwang looked at him questioningly, "What's the matter?"

He knelt down on one knee and said with shame, "This subordinate failed to bring the Empress Dowager back... and... almost hurt the Empress Dowager..."

He dared not hide anything and told An Junwang exactly what had happened.

A trace of surprise flashed through An Junwang's eyes, "I didn't expect..."

Wu Yang thought deeply for a moment before saying, "Yes, neither this subordinate did expect that Young Miss Gu, who grew up in the countryside, would have such skills!"

An Junwang hooked up the corner of his lips and said, "No, what this prince didn't expect is that she would risk her life to save an elderly woman who simply had nothing to do with her."

It was obviously for self-protection at the beginning. But after the elderly woman had recovered from her disease, she could have sent her away, or at least she didn’t have to risk her life to save the other party.

According to Wu Yang, if she had failed to dodge even the slightest bit, she could have been shot through the heart by the arrow on the spot.

His understanding of this Young Miss Gu became more and more vague.

He looked at the bright moon in the night sky and whispered to himself, "Young Miss Gu, this prince is now really curious, how much more are you hiding?"

Wu Yang said in a request, "Junwang, this subordinate will go again tomorrow night..."

An Junwang interrupted him lightly, "No need. Since she is so protective of the Empress Dowager, just let the Empress Dowager stay with her."

Wu Yang was shocked, "Junwang!"

An Junwang looked into the distance and said, "Now is indeed not the best time to take the Empress Dowager back to the capital. When I go back, I will tell my grandfather about this, then I will make all the arrangements to bring her back safely. Young Miss Gu, we will meet again soon."

The next day, An Junwang bid farewell to Marquis Gu and Yao shi, "The provincial exam is near at hand, I can't stay here any longer. I must get back to the capital as soon as possible. I would like to extend my thanks to the Marquis and Marchioness for your care these past few days. This junior is very grateful."

For the first time, the word "junior" came out of his mouth, scaring Marquis Gu so much that he became tongue-tied!

An Junwang's gentle eyes rested on Yao shi's face. He said, "Marchioness, you have an excellent daughter. In my opinion, she’s better than the countless young misses in the capital. If there is an opportunity, I’d like to invite the Marchioness to take your daughter to our residence and have a chat with Mengdie."

Yao shi bowed down to express her thanks.

Gu Jinyu, who was behind them, couldn't help blushing.

Was An Junwang complimenting her?

Zhuang Mengdie also thought that his brother was praising Gu Jinyu and pursed her lips. She now knew that there was no such thing as Gu Family triplets. Gu Jinyu was a child that the Gu Family had mistakenly held at birth, and that girl before was the real daughter!

Neither of them was a good thing. She didn’t like either of them!

The pair of brother and sister embarked on the road back to the capital.

The carriage had already gone far but Gu Jinyu still hadn’t recovered from An Junwang's compliment.

An Junwang was a favored son of heaven. There was not a single girl that wouldn’t like a young man like him, it was just that for the absolute majority, it was a mere wishful thinking.

But... Has An Junwang shown any interest in any woman before?

As far as she knew, there wasn’t any talk about An Junwang’s marriage yet. What he said just now... could it have been a hint to her parents?

Gu Jinyu secretly glanced at Marquis Gu and Yao shi. They looked calm and apparently didn't catch anything at all.

She could not help worrying.

Dad was a fool in this respect, and it was impossible to count on him. As for her Mom, now she only had her own biological daughter in her heart and didn’t care for her at all.

What if... What if Mom knew that An Junwang had set his eyes on the young miss of the Marquis Estate? Would she let Gu Jiao marry him instead?

It was only an instant but so much imagination had flashed through Gu Jinyu’s head.

She was upset. On the one hand, An Junwang's praise aroused her unrealistic fantasies. On the other hand, she was eager to return to the capital and seek advice from Imperial Concubine Shu.

……

Gu Jiao finally got the farm tools from the iron shop. She couldn’t carry them all by herself so some were picked up by the staff of the Rejuvenation Hall.

After she left, the old blacksmith stopped one of the Rejuvenation Hall people, "Little brother, what's your young miss’s last name?"

The staff: "You mean Gu girl? She’s not my young miss."

The old blacksmith was stunned, "Ah? Then she is... "

The staff knew nothing about Gu Jiao's medical activities. He replied, "She’s a friend of our boss."

The old blacksmith asked again, "Could you please tell me where she lives, so that I can come to her door and extend my gratitude?"

The staff said, "Gu girl has explained that your agreement was that if she succeeded, she would be exempted from paying for the farm tools, that’s all."

Old blacksmith: "But..."

The staff didn’t wait for his response as he left with a carriage filled with farm tools.

The old blacksmith looked at the departing back of the carriage and couldn't come back to his senses for a long time.

Meanwhile, the clearing halfway up the hillside remained untouched for the time being. Gu Jiao hired nearby villagers to cultivate a large medicinal field on the mountain, dig a fish pond and a ditch, and channel water into the fish pond from under the waterfall.

Gu Yan's dark guards had simply become the coolie that cut into the mountain. Every day, they were sent to dig ditches and cultivate land. After a month, the gigolo-worthy white faces of the two men turned a little tanned.

[T/N: Coolie are unskilled Chinese laborers in colonial times.]