291: Trying to Start Relationships

The news of Gu Shouzhuo inviting Wang Ning'an's family of three to dinner at the ancestral house quickly spread to the ears of other Gu family members, leaving them all shocked. The Gu family's ancestral house was built over 40 years ago to Gu Shouzhuo’s specifications. When he inherited the Gu family's property, he immediately built this retro mansion on it to move into. However, he didn’t like inviting guests to the ancestral house, even when it came to his own family. Two situations left an especially deep impression of this on the Gu family.

It was over ten years ago. At the time, Gu Shouzhuo hadn't set this rule yet, so every New Years, Gu Shouzhuo's nephews would bring their families over to the ancestral house to celebrate. One year, the granddaughter of the first family was dissatisfied that a maid accidentally touched her and smashed a corner vase onto the ground. The floor was made of real wood, so that incident left many small indentations which can still be seen to this day.

That was one situation.

The second happened when a few juniors were playing around in a room. They had taken out some pointy stones and left traces on the floor of the room, and even threatened the servants not to tell Gu Shouzhuo. However, Gu Shouzhuo still found out.

Since then, Gu Shouzhuo never let them come to the ancestral house. No matter how young the children were, these incidents could not be shrugged off; not to mention, some of the juniors were not seven or eight-year-old children, they were already in their teens.

At the time, they didn’t take Gu Shouzhuo seriously, and thought that things would pass after a while. However, when they went back to the ancestral house next year, they couldn't even get in the door. So, the location of the New Year's party rotated between the other three houses. Although Gu Shouzhuo also went, he often only stayed for a while before leaving. It took a while for the other family members to realize that those past incidents had violated Gu Shouzhuo's bottom line. Unfortunately, they never had a chance to make up for it.

"Father, is it true what you said earlier, about my third great uncle entertaining guests in the ancestral house?"

As soon as Gu Ping got the news, he rushed home to see his father, Gu Jiaqing. Gu Jiaqing was the son of Gu Shouzhuo's second eldest brother, and he also had two younger sisters. However, the Gu family acted as if they were late on the technology*, and the siblings rarely contacted each other.

[T/N: *originally: the Gu family was backwards]

Gu Jiaqing was just a few years older than Papa Wang. Ever since Gu Shouzhuo's son died, he had been planning on taking over the Gu Group. So, he was paying attention to the ancestral house, afraid that a descendant of Gu Shouzhuo would suddenly appear at the door. Their cautiousness turned out to be in vain. Gu Jiaqing soon received news that a family had entered the door, and immediately called his son to come back home.

Gu Jiaqing had two sons, Gu Ping was the elder one. Compared to his younger brother who had gotten married three years ago, Gu Ping was more business-minded. So, Gu Jiaqing pushed his elder son out into the forefront. However, when he found out about this family’s existence a few months ago, he became worried.

So, in order to give Gu Ping more chips to his advantage, Gu Jiaqing did not hesitate to go out of his way and plead with his sister, who had married into the Shen family. It took three attempts before she finally gave Gu Ping an opportunity. That opportunity was the party Shen Yuan had held last time. It was still rather unfortunate that Gu Ping failed to befriend the juniors of the Zheng family or the Luo family*.

[T/N: *as in Luo Sheng, Zheng Jingen’s friend]

"It's true. I got a call from the maid, this is absolutely true." Gu Jiaqing said, gloomily.

"Does Father know who they are?" Gu Ping asked.

Gu Jiaqing frowned, "Good question. If I’m guessing correctly, they should be members of your third great uncle’s family."

"What?" Gu Jiaqing thought he heard wrong.

"Do you still remember the story your father told you, about how your third great uncle’s fiancée disappeared when she was pregnant? If I’m correct, the people invited to the ancestral house should be your third great uncle’s son's family. He’s already found them."

Gu Ping's expression twisted. "Father, are you sure this is true?"

How could there be such a coincidence? He had just managed to join the Gu Group, persevering through many hardships, when a few of his third great uncle’s family members appeared. Didn’t this mean that he no longer had a chance? All these years, he had worked so hard in the Gu Group so that one day, he might earn his third great uncle’s approval, and then earn the Gu Group. Now that his third great uncle’s family appeared, all his efforts counted as nothing.

"Your father doesn't want it to be true either," Gu Jiaqing was a little irritable. "I’d been trying to stop them from coming back home, but all my attempts failed."

Gu Ping grabbed his arm with wide eyes, "Father, when did you find out about them?"

It was Gu Jiaqing who had been attempting to steal the jade pendant from behind the scenes. Gu Jiaqing only learned about Papa Wang’s identity by chance. In order to prevent them from investigating the Gu family using the jade pendant and recognizing their relationship Gu Shouzhuo, he hired some highly skilled pickpockets to steal the jade pendant.

Unexpectedly, they could not defy fate. After Wang Cheng discovered the peculiarity of the jade pendant, he took it around with him, causing the thieves Gu Jiaqing hired to fail to steal it several times. These several failures made Gu Jiaqing more nervous, because the brothers were more likely to meet the Gu family after arriving in the imperial capital. No one knew whether or not they were investigating the pendant, so Gu Jiaqing made the decision to immediately let someone sneak into Wang Ning'an's apartment and steal the piece of jade. However, they couldn't find it.

Just as Gu Jiaqing was about to go out of his way and confront Wang Ning'an, he received the frightening news that Gu Shouzhuo had invited the family to the ancestral house.

"What, Father, you actually did..."

"Hey, why didn't you tell me about all this? Can’t you tell that you’re beating the grass to startle the snake*? If they learn that someone is trying to steal the jade pendant, they will definitely investigate it." Gu Ping didn't expect his father to hide such a big secret and deal with it himself.

[T/N: *doing something that causes the other party to be more suspicious and alert]

Gu Jiaqing also had some regrets. "Didn’t your father do this all for you? If they recognize their relationship with your third great uncle, you will never receive your share of the Gu Group in the future.”

Gu Ping's expression was gloomy. "It's useless to say these things now. I suspect that my third great uncle knows about what Father did. The reason he invited them to the ancestral house is probably to warn Father. My third great uncle now knows of his long-lost son, so if you attack them again, he’ll definitely be unhappy, and it will also ruin his impression of me.”

"Then what do we do now?"

"Right now, it's best to keep your troops on hold and pretend that we don't know anything." Gu Ping's eyes revealed a hint of calculation, "Also, let those in the eldest and fourth families know about this situation and see how they react. It would be better if they made a scene.”

Gu Jiaqing nodded, his son was right.

The next day, the Gu’s eldest and fourth families were in disbelief when they heard that the third great uncle had found his son, whom he had not seen for over fifty years. Why did he only find his son now? Some suspected that the news might be fake, and waited for the moment Gu Shouzhuo officially announced it, while others began actively investigating this matter.

As soon as Wang Ziyu returned to the dorms after school, she received a call from her elder brother, Wang Ning’an. He told her that a car would be picking her up from school, so she could accept the ride without worry. Wang Ziyu was unprepared for this and asked a couple follow-up questions. However, Wang Ning'an didn't tell her the reason, only that she would find out when she arrived.

"Ziyu, was that your second brother on the phone?"

Qian Baobao walked in the room and immediately asked this question, because she’d heard the word ‘brother’. It had been a long time since she’d seen Ziyu's second brother; recently, she’d only been able to see him in the newspapers.

"No, that was my eldest brother."

Qian Baobao immediately put on a pitiful expression. "Your second brother hasn't come to visit you at school in a while. Is he busy?"

Pang Chunjuan walked in with a few steamed buns, and only heard the last bit of the conversation. "Ziyu, don't pay attention to her. Your second brother is all she’ll talk about every day recently. Ever since your second brother became popular on the Internet, she keeps telling everyone that she has a photo with your second brother. It’s like she wants everyone at school to know about him."

"That’s not true. Isn’t this because everyone already knows about Ziyu’s second brother? Some female classmates came up to me to ask about him. I was happy and told them I had a photo - but I didn't show them the photo," Qian Baobao hurriedly denied the accusation. "But Ziyu's second brother is really powerful. I didn't expect him to be the young master of the Zhou Group."

In the past, everyone only knew that Wang Cheng was the second brother of the school flower Wang Ziyu. However, now that Wang Cheng took over Yazhi and revived the business, he personally appeared in the newspaper several times. Everyone now knew about his background and success, and many people regretted not taking the opportunity they had to befriend him.

When Wang Ziyu saw Qian Baobao’s nervous expression, she couldn't help but smile: "Okay, okay, I know, I’ve also encountered a lot of people asking after my second brother. Some even come to ask after and court me!"

Qian Baobao breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately grabbed Pang Chunjuan’s buns, in high spirits. Pang Chunjuan tried to protect her food, but one was snatched away. She grew quite angry, and hurriedly stored the other buns away.

At this time, Mi Li, who was sitting on the top bunk, suddenly said, "Ziyu, I have something to tell you."

Wang Ziyu looked up. "What's the matter?"

Mi Li motioned for Qian Baobao to close the door. She waited until the door was completely closed before opening her mouth: "It’s like this: I have a cousin who is studying at a nearby university nearby, and she has a friend who asked her to invite you to dinner."

"Ziyu doesn't know them, why should she go eat dinner with them‽" Qian Baobao immediately exclaimed.

Wang Ziyu frowned. "Why are they inviting me to dinner?"

Mi Li said: "You shouldn’t feel obligated to agree. It’s just that my cousin's friend is the school flower of their university. I have met her before, she is an arrogant girl with eyes on the top of her head*. I reckon she’s just aiming to contact your second brother through you. Her goal is either to get with your second brother, or become a celebrity for Yazhi."

[T/N: *snobbish]

Qian Baobao rolled her eyes, "Didn’t I say so? Mi Li, your cousin and that school girl are too arrogant. How can they ask you for help? They haven’t met each Xiao Yu, let alone have any sort of relationship with her. They better not think that after buying her dinner, Xiao Yu will promise to help them."

Mi Li shrugged, "Then there's no need to agree to go, I just promised to help pass on her message."

Wang Ziyu said: "Then can you help me turn her down? Also, my eldest brother sent someone to pick me up later, so I won’t be eating dinner with you guys tonight."

***

Back    ToC    Next