Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan 知否知否 应是绿肥红瘦

C161. Faces in Marquis Ningyuan's Mansion (5)

Gu Tingye sat there calmly and replied him, being neither humble nor pushy, "I haven't dealt with the military affairs yet and His Majesty has ordered me to do something for him. I need to go back to Commander's Mansion after lunch. As for the dinner... let's wait for another time."

With Fourth Old Master's beard fluttering due to his fury, he shouted while thumping on the table, "Don't use your assignments as your excuse! You think I'm an old man who knows about nothing? You father has been ten times busier than you, but he never refused any requests from his own brothers! Now your uncle has asked you something, and you just turned me down?!" On these words, he assumed a posture to pounce on Gu Tingye. It seemed like he even wanted to kick his nephew. Gu Tingxuan who was sitting beside Fourth Old Master tried his best to hold his father back while whispering to Fourth Old Master. Then Fourth Old Master realized that Gu Tingye was not his own son after all and couldn't be kicked or rebuked by him randomly. So Fourth Old Master could only sit back to his seat in a huff.

"Tingye is not as powerful as my father. So I cannot do two things at one time. Fourth Uncle, please forgive me." Gu Tingye said that while glancing at Fourth Old Master coldly. The expression in Gu Tingye's eyes turned fierce all of a sudden, then changed back to normal immediately. Seeing that Gu Tingye was covered with murderous intention with a sullen face, Fourth Old Master even got a bit scared. Then he, not daring to act rashly, turned away and refused to talk anymore.

Seeing what had happened, Fifth Old Master was quite unsatisfied. Then he stroked his beard and said with his eyebrows knitted, "It's fine that you can't leave your work for the dinner. But why do you have to live in another mansion? What's so bad living in our own mansion? Don't you want those rumors about our family to stop?"

Minglan's heart missed a beat when hearing their conversation. She remembered Gu Tingye had told her last night that Old Madam Qin had already agreed to let them live in another mansion. Why would Fifth Old Master bring that up again? As Minglan thought about that, she stole a glance at Old Madam Qin. The latter was putting on a reluctant look on her face and standing up to say to the men at the outside in anxiety, "Fifth uncle, drop it, just drop it! Please stop saying that! Tingye must have his own reason by making that decision!"

Fourth Old Madam pulled Old Madam Qin to let her sit back while saying gently, "What possible reason could he have? His mother is still alive and he refuses to fulfil his duty as a son. Is that reasonable? No matter how highly Tingye is regarded at the outside, being unfilial is actually a felony." As she said that, she also darted a look at Minglan.

Minglan was still lowering her head and thought, "Save it! You think you can frighten me?! I know that disobeying parents is a capital felony. Any officials who are accused of that will be fiercely punished. But that law only applied to one and his biological parents or his legal mother! Old Madam Qin is Gu Tingye's stepmother! Thus her case is outside the protection of the law! The imperial court never care about the conflicts between the legal sons and their stepmothers.'

Sheng Hong had been Zhizhou in Deng Prefecture, he had settled two cases when the mothers had committed adultery and killed the son's father. In the first case, the illegal son had killed his legal mother, so he had been sentenced to decapitation. Afterwards he had been sent into exile for penal servitude. However, in the second case, the legal son had killed his stepmother, thus he had been sent into exile at a place only hundreds of miles away from his home for a few years. After he had served his sentence, he would be able to come back home. Because of these two cases, Sheng Hong had been praised by the local gentlemen and received a board which had the script 'An Honest Official' on it.

——However, what Minglan had thought in her mind couldn't speak out frankly. 'Purr, Second Uncle, you are so pitiful.' Minglan said to herself inwardly.