The teenager in the carriage was so startled by the person who suddenly barged in that he jumped. When he saw clearly who it was, he drew his brows together and glared, staring wordlessly at the intruder for a long ti.
The teenager turned his head away. "I already said, I’m not your Young Master. You’ve got the wrong person!"
The man sighed. "Why must Young Master be so stubborn? We’ve been searching for you for eighteen years—how could we possibly mistake soone else for you? Besides, with that item and the birthmark on your body as proof, it is absolutely impossible we’re wrong."
The teenager pressed his lips together, and only after a long mont did he say, "I don’t want to go with you to do any so-called earth‑shaking great deed. I don’t have that kind of ability. I just want an ordinary life. The days I have now are exactly what I want. Since you’re the ones who say you lost for eighteen years, then just pretend you never found ."
"If it hadn’t been for treacherous villains scheming back then, how would Young Master have been carried off? Now those people are all fighting themselves red‑eyed for that seat, but that position was yours to begin with. How can you just hand it over to others and be willing to stay here doing nial work serving people? You bear the blood of the Da Xing Royal Family! How can you willingly debase yourself?"
The man’s eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the teenager, his gaze filled with disbelief and fury.
"You are the son of the Central Palace. If Her Ladyship hadn’t been persecuted by villains back then, you would have long since beco Crown Prince. Do you really not wish to acknowledge your ancestors and return to your clan? You’d rather live under the na of a commoner? And this place is Da Xing’s enemy nation—Dayan!"
"Why not? I’ve grown up among the common folk of Dayan since I was little. I’m already used to this life. I don’t want to go to that place you’re talking about."
The teenager couldn’t help but roar this out, and the coachman outside the carriage heard the noise.
"Young Master! Do you have any orders?" The coachman turned his head and listened carefully, thinking his master inside had called for him.
The teenager cald his agitation and hastily said, "Nothing. Just keep your eyes on the road!"
"I beg Young Master to think twice! Even if you’re unwilling to return to Da Xing right now, you cannot let Da Xing’s people suffer, nor leave the Imperial Family exposed to danger."
The man lowered his voice and gripped the teenager’s arm tightly.
The teenager could hear the urgency in the man’s tone, and he felt the pressure on his arm. The spot where he was being grabbed hurt a little; it showed just how much force the man was using.
He hesitated for an instant, then finally let out a deep sigh.
"Uncle Yang! I just rembered I still have sothing to do. Let’s go back first. We’ll go to the Gu Mansion later this evening." Gu Wanqian raised his voice and shouted toward Uncle Yang, who was driving the carriage.
"Whoa!" Uncle Yang hurriedly pulled tight on the reins, bringing the carriage to a halt.
"Young Master, we’re not going to the Gu Mansion anymore, so are we heading back now?" Uncle Yang looked at the Gu Mansion just up ahead, a bit puzzled.
His Young Master had been urging him to hurry to the Gu Mansion. How was it that now they’d arrived at the Gu Mansion, the Young Master suddenly wasn’t in a rush anymore?
But this was the master’s order; he just had to follow it. The carriage imdiately turned around and headed back the way they had co.
For so reason, the teenager also couldn’t help but feel a breath of relief in his heart.
"Tonight at the third quarter of the 5 PM hour, we will still wait for Young Master at the usual place!"
Seeing the carriage had already turned around, the man tossed out this sentence and leaped out of the carriage window.
The teenager leaned on the window, wanting to call him back, but the other man had already mounted his horse and galloped off in a cloud of dust.
Sitting back inside the carriage, the teenager closed his eyes to rest. In truth, he didn’t want to go at all, but these people simply wouldn’t give him a chance to refuse.
Thinking of Gu Chengyu, the teenager couldn’t help but feel another weight settle on his heart.
A quarter of an hour later, the carriage turned into another alley and drove straight into a small courtyard.
"Is that Brother Qian back?" An old lady ca out of the house at the sound, just in ti to see her grandson alighting from the carriage.
"Granny! I’m back." The teenager smiled at the old woman.
"Didn’t you say you’d be back late today, that you had sothing to do at your Little Uncle’s place? How co you’re back so early? Isn’t it not yet the hour for your Little Uncle to leave his post?"
With hair half black and half white and a face full of wrinkles that made her look very old, the woman stepped up and seized her grandson’s hand, asking in puzzlent.
"Granny! Little Uncle has business today and might be back late. I’ll go find him tomorrow instead. It’s nothing that urgent anyway."
Supporting the old lady’s arm, the two of them walked toward the house together.
"You must have a sense of propriety when helping your Little Uncle with things. Don’t always decide everything on your own; you should ask your Little Uncle more. Your Little Uncle is capable. If he hadn’t taken you in back then, you and your granny might have starved to death already. How would there be these good days now? Your Little Uncle is a good man! We must not forget our roots..."
The teenager listened carefully to the old woman’s endless nagging, nodding along in agreent beside her. The sound of their footsteps and their voices slowly faded into the distance.
"My health has not been well of late. For so ti I may be unable to attend court to deliberate on governnt affairs. If you have matters, submit a visiting plaque to enter the palace; I will summon you."
The Emperor reclined at an angle against a brocade bolster, and his expression as he looked at Gu Chengyu carried a hint of satisfaction.
This ti’s disaster relief in Jiangnan, Gu Chengyu had done quite well.
There had been no outbreak of riots among the disaster victims, he halted the rise in grain prices, prevented the occurrence of epidemics, and even found a way for the victims to earn Silver.
And all this had not used much of the court’s Silver. The fifty‑thousand taels allocated by the court at the ti were now all being used for the construction of the river embanknt.
Originally only fifty‑thousand taels were allocated for disaster relief—that was far from enough.
But Gu Chengyu had managed to do so many concrete things without the court disbursing disaster relief funds. Even with the Emperor’s picky temperant, this matter was handled most admirably.
"I had my eye on you long ago, which is why I overca all obstacles to promote you three grades in a row. For this, the court was in an uproar. I bore the pressure from all the ministers—truly difficult! But you perford well this ti. My heart is greatly comforted!"
The Emperor nodded repeatedly, expressing his great satisfaction.
Gu Chengyu only felt like laughing dryly. Not spending the court’s Silver—of course the Emperor would be satisfied.
However, even while dragging his sick body, he still summoned him to learn about the court’s situation. It showed that, in fact, the Emperor was not entirely at ease with the Crown Prince either.
Gu Chengyu did not believe that the Crown Prince would make every decision on his own without first seeking the Emperor’s instructions. Even so, the Emperor still felt uneasy and had to plant him at the Crown Prince’s side.
He made up his mind that, unless absolutely necessary, he would never submit a plaque to enter the palace.
"As for the matter of the rchant guild, although officials from the Ministry of Revenue have already been sent down, you must still put in more effort. Those useless fellows are used to living at ease in the Capital. Ask them to do a bit of work and they shirk and drag their feet, scared of wolves in front and tigers behind. You must draft a set of regulations for ."
Hearing this, Gu Chengyu raised his brows. The Emperor really did not miss a single chance to squeeze him dry.
"I have already drafted the detailed rules for establishing the rchant guild, Your Majesty. Today I just had the Crown Prince look them over. This is a copy for you; please review it."
Seeing the look of satisfaction appear on the Emperor’s face, Gu Chengyu knew he had done the right thing.
Fortunately, he had prepared two copies precisely to deal with a situation like this.
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