The mistress of the Hou family worked herself to death, and she did not serve after her rebirth

"My Lord, I..."

The words were on the tip of her tongue but she choked. How should she explain that it wasn't intentional and that she was really concerned?

"Pei Jiuniang, who do you think I am? What do you think I'm going to do?! Abuse my own son?"

Gu Tingzhi suppressed his anger, but he still looked a little angry.

He knew Pei Jiuniang was concerned about Brother Yu and was afraid that Brother Yu would be wronged, but he was the father of the child and the child had done nothing wrong, so what was she afraid of? !

Think of him as a bad guy?!

Or an outsider?!

Looking at Pei Jiuniang holding the child tightly in her arms, the child grabbed her clothes and looked at him warily.

He suddenly felt like he was the outsider.

This discovery made him feel a little lost, and he walked out without saying a word.

Pei Jiuniang comforted Brother Yu before chasing him out again. She wanted to explain something, but she didn't know what to say. In the end, she could only watch him walk further and further away.

Afterwards, when she recalled it, she realized that he probably wanted to get close to Brother Yu, but he just scared the child. It would have been better if she had reacted at that time.

But no one can tease children like he does.

Not to mention that the occasion was wrong, even though he and Brother Yu were father and son, it seemed like it was the first time they met, and he grabbed the child out of the blue. It would be strange if the child wasn't scared.

However, it is a good thing that Gu Tingzhi is willing to get close to Brother Yu. She plans to find time to have a good talk with him.

She can take care of Yu Ge's food and drink, and send him to school to let him study and learn, but Yu Ge's physique is indeed much weaker than other children.

She had heard people say that when Gu Tingzhi was young, he didn't seem as tall and strong as he is now. It was because the old marquis taught him martial arts that he became strong.

If Gu Tingzhi didn't return to Beijing, she might have to take the trouble to carefully select a martial arts coach for him. Now that there is a ready-made martial arts coach, she doesn't want to waste it.

Thinking of this, Pei Jiuniang felt better.

Passing by the dowry shop.

She remembered that someone had reported before that her eldest aunt Gu Lanzhi often brought the families of officials in the capital to the shop to take things but never took any money. Whenever anyone mentioned something that was not tolerable, Gu Lanzhi would turn hostile and curse on the spot. In the past, because the shop was registered under the name of the Marquis' Mansion, the owner and his clerks dared not say anything.

But in the past one or two years, Gu Lanzhi has been even more excessive, taking out thousands of taels of goods every month. It was known that for a jewelry store of this size, it would only make 500 taels a month under the best circumstances. In order to settle the accounts, Pei Jiuniang used to pay out of her own pocket.

Now that her dowry has been clearly divided with the Marquis' Mansion, there is no reason for Gu Lanzhi to continue to take advantage of it.

Thinking of this, Pei Jiuniang went straight to the silver shop opposite the shop.

When the shop owner saw Pei Jiuniang, the welcoming smile on his face disappeared instantly. However, because of Pei Jiuniang's status as the wife of the Marquis, he still bowed and saluted, "Why are you in our shop today, Madam Marquis?"

"Shopkeeper Qu, let's be frank. My shop is going to be sold. Please inform your boss. If you want it, come to me..."

Before he finished speaking, a middle-aged man in his forties came out from the back hall. "Why did Madam Hou suddenly come to her senses?"

"To be honest, sir, my shop can make some money because it is under the name of the Marquis' Mansion, but I am not a serious businessman after all. I am also busy with the affairs of the Marquis' Mansion and I am really too busy to do anything else. Of course, the most important thing is that my shop is taken away for free every month, and I can't lose money every time."

"So that's what happened. I thought Madam was generous and wouldn't care."

"Boss, let's talk business. My shop, as well as the craftsmen and men in it, have accumulated several lifetimes of experience. Their level of jewelry making is no worse than yours. Most importantly, if you take over my shop, you will be the biggest one on this street."

"So, how much does Madam Hou plan to take?"

"The price is one hundred thousand taels. If the boss thinks it's acceptable, we can go to the government office today to handle the formalities, and then the shop will be yours today."

"Madam, I'm glad to hear that, but you can't take your account books with you."

Pei Jiuniang thought for a moment, then shook her head and added, "I can give you the account book. I just want an extra one. The one that the eldest lady of the Chu family, Gu Lanzhi, used to take things from the shop in the past five years. I want to keep it."

"can."

"In that case, let's go there now."

Pei Jiuniang took the owner of the silver shop to the government office to handle the relevant paperwork, and the owner gave her a silver note of 100,000 taels.

This shop was the most valuable item in the dowry given by the Pei family. She had originally hoped to make money from this shop, but she had never expected that a larger silver shop would open across the street. Although the owner of the silver shop was a businessman, he was very good at business. Within a year, he had squeezed her shop out of space. In addition, Gu Lanzhi kept asking for too much, so Pei Jiuniang thought again and again and felt that it would be better to sell it all.

One hundred thousand taels of silver would be enough for her and Brother Yu to live on for a long time if they spent them frugally.

She left the Yanghou Mansion with a silver note of 100,000 taels.

Gu Lanzhi and a group of officials and their wives from the capital arrived at the shop in the Chu family's carriage.

These officials' wives all knew that the Gu family owned a jewelry store, and that Gu Lanzhi always liked to act big and save face, so they deliberately said that Gu Lanzhi had been dressing more plainly recently.

Gu Lanzhi is the legitimate mother of the Marquis's Mansion. Unfortunately, when she got married, the old Marquis Gu returned from a battle with a defeat because of his greed for merit and recklessness. The Marquis's Mansion was reprimanded by the Emperor. Although the title was not taken away, the Marquis's Mansion had already declined at that time. She was originally engaged to Erlang from the Zhenguo Mansion, but the Zhenguo Mansion found an excuse to cancel the engagement.

Later, Liu shamelessly went to the Chu family to discuss this marriage. Although the Chu family was a scholarly family, they were all civil officials without real power. The highest-ranking official now was Gu Lanzhi's father-in-law, Chu Liang, who was only a fifth-rank censor. Not to mention that the Chu family originally advocated frugality, and the family had no real property and basically relied on a meager salary to survive.

Gu Lanzhi's dowry was not much. Liu was not good at management, but she liked luxury and liked to support her parents' family. During the years when she was in charge of household chores, the Marquis' Mansion had been almost emptied.

When Gu Lanzhi got married, Liu arranged a grand wedding to save face, but in fact more than half of the boxes were filled with stones.

The stones were heavy in the box, and it was a hot day. The people carrying the dowry became so tired that they fell down and actually knocked over the box. People watched helplessly as the stones rolled out of the box.

Although many years have passed, many people still remember this incident.

Therefore, Gu Lanzhi was particularly afraid of being looked down upon. The more she cared about something, the more she wanted to show off.

She immediately said that she was too busy taking care of the housework and had neglected to mention it, and asked everyone to accompany her to choose some jewelry.

The others hurriedly declined after hearing this.

Gu Lanzhi then asked everyone to go together in an increasingly gloomy tone, and even boasted, "Go ahead, if there's anything you like, I'll give it to you, since it's our own shop after all."

"My own? But I heard that the shop was the Marquis's dowry."

Someone mentioned it deliberately, but his eyes were fixed on Gu Lanzhi's face.

Sure enough, Gu Lanzhi was embarrassed, but she wanted to get everyone to go together. "Her jewelry belongs to the Marquis' Mansion. I am the Marquis's aunt. Taking some broken jewelry is a compliment to them. Let's go and pick more today."

Seeing this, everyone naturally would not refuse. It would be strange if they refused something given to them by a fool.