Chapter 443: Chapter 443: Facing Off

Gu Baijiang cursed Gu Antong countless times in his head, wondering why her momentary jealousy had to bring such massive trouble to the family.

He regretted cleaning up her mess back then. It was just a torn skirt; could dealing with that have been harder than being stuck in this impossible dilemma?

Now, to protect her, he had to grit his teeth and take the hit for this terrible debt.

The Third Prince was also very cold-hearted. Gu Baijiang had done so much for him, even risking his entire family, yet the prince wouldn’t even help settle a mere few thousand taels of silver.

He knew clearly that the prince was suspecting him, but he couldn’t voice his grievances.

If he hadn’t lost that sum of silver, he wouldn’t be forced to live such a miserable and suffocating life.

Instead, the Third Prince would have had to butter him up, this old man, for that silver.

Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth in hatred for whoever had stealthily cleaned out his family’s fortune. They’d better pray he never found out who it was, or he would surely skin them alive.

"Mr. Gu, stop making excuses. You don’t have it? But your granddaughter definitely does. When she got married, she brought so many chests with her. I heard it took several people working together just to move a single one. Who knows how much you contributed to that?

"I’ve seen people dote on their granddaughters, but no one compares to you, Mr. Gu.

"Giving away so much dowry without a second thought, leaving the Gu Family to struggle—that’s quite unfilial."

Zhou Gang paused here and shifted his gaze to Rong Ruiyuan, who sat in the seat of honor. "Your Highness, don’t you think what I said makes sense?

"Our Emperor rules the world with filial piety. Why don’t we invite the concubine out to explain things clearly? After all, these are her biological grandfather and parents. Back then, this debt..."

No matter how foolish Rong Ruiyuan was, he knew this matter was inseparable from Gu Antong. He didn’t know exactly what had happened, but he knew it couldn’t be exposed. He interrupted him and said, "You make a good point. I’ll have someone inform Gu Shufei right away. I still have a lot of things to do, so you all can resolve this yourselves."

After speaking, Rong Ruiyuan flicked his sleeves and left. This was his territory. If he wanted to know something, he would find out naturally; there was no need to argue with them here.

Four thousand taels of silver wasn’t a lot to him now, and he could easily help settle it. But who knew if this would be like opening a floodgate, where the rushing water would only widen the breach?

Although Zhou Gang was dissatisfied, he didn’t dare to stop him. After all, he was just a commoner now. His lowly life was nothing more than a matter of a single word to someone like the prince.

As soon as Rong Ruiyuan left, Zhou Gang immediately stood up from the ground, no longer kneeling. "Since His Highness has already spoken, hurry up and invite the concubine out.

"You gave her hundreds of thousands of taels of silver as a dowry. This trivial matter of mine is nothing to her."

Zhou Gang used to be quite annoyed with Gu Antong, thinking this woman was vicious and had nearly ruined his daughter’s reputation.

He had also hoped his daughter could enter the First Prince’s mansion and support their entire family in the future. He didn’t expect the First Prince to avoid them entirely now, let alone honor his past promises.

Now that this path was a dead end, his daughter’s reputation wasn’t as important anymore. Even if he found a good family to marry her off to right now, the other party wouldn’t be able to afford such a hefty bride price.

To easily get four thousand taels of silver just for a torn skirt—this deal was still quite worth it.

When Gu Antong heard the servant’s report, she was reluctant, but she still tidied herself up briefly before bringing two maids to the reception room.

"Grandfather, Father, Mother, why are you here?" Gu Antong initially wanted to bow in greeting, but realizing her current status was much higher than theirs, she bypassed them and sat directly in the seat of honor.

Seeing this behavior, no matter how dissatisfied Gu Baijiang was, he could only swallow his anger. After all, they still needed Gu Antong’s help to resolve this matter.

"The concubine is truly a noble person who forgets things easily. Are your eyes looking so high up into the sky that you didn’t even notice there’s another living, breathing person here besides your Gu Family?" Zhou Gang’s mouth was truly vile. Even at this stage, he still couldn’t change his ways.

But it made sense. Someone who used to criticize even the Emperor and the princes wouldn’t fear a lowly concubine.

He just forgot that with his current status, he wasn’t even fit to appear in front of her. Who would take him seriously?

"Oh, so it’s Mr. Zhou," Gu Antong said casually, a trace of ruthlessness flashing in her eyes. She hadn’t even sought him out to settle the score for how he had humiliated her that day, yet he had delivered himself to her doorstep.

"Why do you look so wretched? I heard your Zhou Family has some influence in the capital. A few days ago, I even heard that Mrs. Zhou took a whole group of female family members to pick out jewelry. Did she not help you pick out some nice clothes?"

After she finished speaking, Gu Antong covered her mouth and chuckled softly. "Look at my memory. You guys actually separated your household a long time ago. I heard you’re not even of the same clan anymore. I imagine you, Mr. Zhou, have now established your own sect. You will be the founding ancestor of your branch from now on. I haven’t even offered my congratulations yet."

The Gu Family looked at Gu Antong in astonishment. When did she become so articulate?

Was it because she had hidden it well, or did the inner courts really hone a person’s skills?

Liu Yun had always known her daughter wasn’t someone to be trifled with. Seeing her today, she realized her daughter had improved a lot.

This actually reassured her a little. With this kind of temperament and eloquence, she shouldn’t suffer too much in the inner courts.

"The concubine resides in the inner court, yet you are quite well-informed about the news outside.

"As the old saying goes, a woman should be chaste and quiet..."

"Zhou Gang, did you come to the Prince Mansion to teach me, a concubine, about rules?" Gu Antong sneered. "What exactly is the matter that you insisted on calling me out?"

"Stop playing dumb with us," Zhou Gang retorted bluntly. Since they were no longer saving face, he wouldn’t bother either. "Seeing me here, can’t you guess?

"Back then, because of you, the elders in your family wrote an IOU to cover up your scandal. You were there when it happened.

"After all this time, since you didn’t take the initiative to repay the debt, I had no choice but to come to your door and demand it.

"I imagine the pampered concubine wouldn’t want her reputation ruined next, letting everyone outside know..."

Gu Antong couldn’t let him continue. Who knew how many spies were nearby?

"Grandfather, Father, is this the reason you brought him here?"

Questioned like this, the Gu father and son were very displeased inwardly. Was this her attitude toward her elders?

Gu Kaiping ultimately still wanted to rely on his daughter. Suppressing his discomfort, he explained, "We didn’t bring him here. He came straight to the Third Prince Mansion.

"The family truly cannot scrape together that much silver for him. How about you pay off the debt first?"

Gu Kaiping knew his family’s situation. Even if they sold everything they owned, they couldn’t come up with that much silver. He felt a pang of regret—why did they double it back then? If it had just been two thousand taels of silver, they could have saved half.

Gu Antong’s eyes widened when she heard this. "Father, what did you just say? Did I hear that wrong?"

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