The Grand Secretary's Pampered wife

A girl who grew up in the countryside and only knew how to dig crops in the field, why should she be her backer?

With that Jieyuan crippled husband of hers?

Grannie was really getting old.

Meanwhile, Marquis Gu went to see Gu Yan. Gu Yan was already fine, but he still pretended to be dying in front of him.

Marquis Gu was so furious that when he returned to the estate, no matter how Old Madame Gu came to look for him, he resolutely refused to find Gu Changqing and asked him to let Gu Chenglin out!

Old Madame Gu had someone send charcoal to Gu Chenglin.

"Send what charcoal? Just let him freeze to death!"

Gu Chenglin's charcoal was then confiscated by his father.

……

Xiao Liulang also heard a bit of news about the women’s academy at the Imperial Academy.

As a matter of fact, the truth of this matter was slightly different from what was circulated in the social circle. It actually wasn’t advocated by the Crown Princess. Instead, it was Empress Dowager Zhuang who proposed starting a women’s academy as early as more than ten years ago, but it was unanimously opposed by His Majesty and the cabinet ministers.

Then this matter concluded without a conclusion.

Now that this old proposal was brought up again, it was most likely His Majesty's idea.

Grand Preceptor Zhuang led hundreds of officials to plead for the reopening of the Imperial Academy, which made his prestige increased sharply in the eyes of the court and the people. His Majesty, hoping to accumulate fame and prestige for the imperial family, started a women's academy in the name of the Crown Princess.

Since it was run by the imperial court, the quality of education in this women’s academy would not be too bad.

Xiao Liulang talked about the women's academy during dinner.

Little Jing Kong wowed, "Women’s academy? Does that mean JiaoJiao can also attend school?"

The elderly woman vaguely felt that the word "women's academy" sounded familiar. She carefully recalled, but couldn't think of anything, however that didn't stop her from supporting Gu Jiao going to study, "You can go."

Gu Jiao: ...I don't want to go though.

A certain someone, who had experienced a series of brutal examinations such as the college entrance examination in her previous life, expressed that she did not want to open a book again in this life.

The family didn't force her to go to school in the end. After all, being forced to go to school was truly depressing.

Xiao Liulang, Gu Xiaoshun, Gu Yan and Little Jing Kong all had a deep understanding of it!

After dinner, Little Jing Kong suddenly looked at Gu Jiao and said, “JiaoJiao, I want to eat candied hawthorns!"

Gu Jiao patted his little tiger hat and replied, "Okay, I'll buy it for you."

This was the good thing about living on the street. You could buy whatever you wanted at any time. In the countryside, this wasn’t possible.

"I'll go." Xiao Liulang said.

"It's fine, it’s not very far." Gu Jiao responded.

The elderly woman waved her hand, saying, "All right, you two just go together! Don’t waste time squabbling here!"

Thereupon, the two people headed to Chang'an Street together.

When they got out of the courtyard house, snow had yet to fall. But in the middle of their trip, it started to snow profusely.

Gu Jiao looked at the fluttering snow above her head and said with emotion, "The snow really comes early in the capital."

Xiao Liulang said, "It's not too early this year, sometimes it falls at the end of the tenth month."

"Oh." Gu Jiao asked, "Have you lived in the capital for a long time before?"

Both of them seldom asked each other's secrets. It was the first time that such a topic had been brought up so calmly.

"En." Xiao Liulang uttered in agreement.

Gu Jiao didn't ask another question. Some topics could be brought up on a whim, but shouldn't be explored in-depth.

She gazed at the endless streets, saying, "The capital is really a nice place."

"Do you like the capital?" Xiao Liulang looked at her and asked.

"En." Gu Jiao answered, "The capital is full of life."

Actually, she didn’t like lively places very much, but being in an environment bustling with noise and excitement made her feel more clearly that she was still alive.

It was snowing heavily, but the wind had stopped; the snowflakes kept falling quietly.

Xiao Liulang suddenly remembered that one time in town. It was also such a snowy night. They came out to buy osmanthus cakes and sat in front of a stall to eat two bowls of steamed dumpling soup.

Life was still hard those days.

She was even reluctant to buy herself a poached egg and only asked the stall owner to give him one.

Although the truth was that Gu Jiao simply didn’t like poached eggs, Xiao Liulang didn’t know about that, so he had been moved by her action to this day.

"Tsk— How do you walk?"

Gu Jiao bumped into someone. It was a young man who seemed to be in a hurry.

The young man was nearly knocked down and told Gu Jiao, "Look where you’re going ah!"

Gu Jiao: "Oh."

It was indeed her who accidentally ran into the other party.

She was not unreasonable.

She was also a very nice person, occasionally.

Hence she apologized.

The young man, unable to say anything more, left while muttering.

Chang'an Street was crowded with people, you could easily bump into someone if you were not careful.

Xiao Liulang glanced at her, wanting to say something but hesitated.

The snow fell harder and harder, now accompanied by a chilly wind.

"Hm? Why don't I see the candied hawthorn stall ah? I remember it was around here during the day." Gu Jiao's petite hands were already frozen stiff. She raised them and placed them before her mouth, blowing warm breath onto them, and then put them down again.

Xiao Liulang looked at her hand and his fingertips moved.

But he didn't reach out his hand in the end.

Gu Jiao did that a couple more times, feeling terribly cold.

Xiao Liulang finally plucked up some courage and extended his hand to hold hers.

"Ah— Found it— Look!" Gu Jiao’s hand moved away as she pointed to somewhere.

Xiao Liulang's hand grabbed empty air. Gu Jiao, who was pointing to the stall, looked back at him. He quickly and smoothly changed his action, calmly lifting his hand and covering his dashing head.

Gu Jiao walked up to the stall and asked for five sticks of candied hawthorns, "By the way, brother, do you have any candied hawthorns with less sugar?"

The vendor smiled and said, "What a coincidence, girl, there really is! My little nephew, who is only one year old, loves to eat this. But eating too many isn’t good for his teeth, so I made a few that look very red but actually didn't contain much sugar!"

"Then, can I have two sticks of it?" Gu Jiao asked.

"All right!" The vendor took two sticks of less sweetened candied hawthorns for Gu Jiao and said, "There are seventy pieces altogether, I’m giving you an extra small one."

"Thanks a lot." Gu Jiao reached out for the candied hawthorns and grasped them all in one hand. There were so many that she almost couldn't hold them all.

Xiao Liulang saw that she was struggling carrying them and said to her, "I'll do it."

Gu Jiao shook her head, "No! I’ll hold them!"

With that, she turned around and started walking her way back.

Xiao Liulang caught up with his crutch.

As they walked, suddenly a soft little hand reached out and held his empty hand.

Xiao Liulang was stunned.

Gu Jiao tilted her head sideways, blinked her eyes and said, "If you take the candied hawthorns, you can't hold my hand. Didn't you want to hold my hand just now?"

Xiao Liulang's face blushed all of a sudden and he felt some sort of emotion filling his heart.