From Hoarding to Time-Travel: My Supplies Saved Him

Chapter 322: Chapter 323: Old Gu the Second

Waiting was always torture. It took the father and his two sons to hold Wang Caiyue back, just to stop her from running over first thing in the morning.

For the sake of this one meeting, they had even taken the day off from all their jobs. They washed up, put on clean clothes, and quietly waited for the appointed time.

Their neighbor, Granny Li, saw the whole family sitting in a neat row by their front door. Leaning on her cane, she asked curiously, "None of you are going to work today?"

The old woman had lived on this street for decades and walked down it every day, so she was very familiar with everyone’s circumstances.

This family were all refugees from a famine. If they missed even a single day of work, they might go hungry, so this was highly unusual.

Wang Caiyue puffed out her chest. "Granny Li, we’ll be going home soon. We probably won’t be coming back to this place ever again."

Gu Yuanmu quickly pulled his wife behind him. "Granny Li, please don’t mind her. She’s got some strange ideas in her head. Are you on your way to the market?"

Granny Li squinted, studying them for a moment. "If she’s sick, you should get her checked out. I’ve heard those kinds of delusions can make people violent. If that’s true, I’ll have to tell the Wu family to stop renting to you. After all, there are a lot of children in this alley."

Gu Yuanmu wanted to slap himself. He could only force an awkward smile. "I was just kidding. It’s my wife’s fault, she loves to spout nonsense. I’ll be sure to teach her a good lesson when we get back."

Granny Li waved her hand dismissively. "See that you do. Still, on a fine day like this, you young folk should be out earning more copper coins. Shangjing is no easy place to make a living."

Watching the old woman’s back recede into the distance, Wang Caiyue shook off her two sons’ hands. "Just you wait, we’ll live a much better life than her. She’s destined to be poor here for the rest of her days."

Though Gu Yuanmu was a simple man, he had a mind of his own. Seeing his wife already lumping them in with Seventh’s family, anger flared within him. "You’d better keep that mouth of yours shut. When we get to Seventh’s house, if you dare spout any more nonsense, I’ll have Seventh write a letter of divorce for me. Then you can go wherever you damn well please."

"You heartless bastard! Now that you see your little brother has made it big, you’re starting to look down on me?

"Let me tell you, all I have is this worthless life of mine, so I’ll just drag this out with you. Your little scheme is never going to work."

Gu Lehuan and Gu Lexi exchanged a look and silently retreated to a corner. Since taking either side would be a mistake, it was better to just wait for the argument to blow over. Soon enough, things would be calm again.

And just as they expected, the couple’s argument somehow turned into a discussion about whether they should bring a gift for their first visit.

The two brothers were speechless. "..."

＆

Today’s court session was destined to be anything but subdued like yesterday’s. The Emperor’s thunderous rage made the civil and military officials dare not provoke the young sovereign as they had before.

From yesterday to today, it was rumored that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had already executed dozens of people, and several ministers were conspicuously absent from court this morning.

Hua Shunming sat on the throne, his face cold. "I never imagined that the late Emperor and I had been feeding so many fat rats all these years.

"Where is the Minister of Revenue?"

Zhou Shicong stepped forward, trembling with fear. "Your servant is here."

"Go back and calculate for me how many silver taels the Ministry of Internal Affairs has drawn from the Ministry of Revenue, from the time of the late Emperor to the present day. Furthermore, the entire Ministry of Revenue is to conduct an internal investigation. Even retired officials, if they are implicated, will be held accountable."

"Minister of the Ministry of History..."

"..."

No one had expected the young Emperor to take such drastic measures. As one Holy Decree after another was issued, no one dared to stand up and object.

Watching the heads of the other ministries receive their decrees, Mao Bingyan, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, quietly patted his chest in relief. ’Thank goodness. Even though my ministry is the least regarded, at least we rarely get mixed up in this kind of trouble.’

The unluckiest of all was the former Prime Minister, Kuang Yujun. He had previously been demoted over the disaster relief incident and sent to the Tai Le Bureau to compile texts.

Over the past two years, he had finally managed to slowly improve the Emperor’s opinion of him, only to be directly implicated in this new scandal.

This time, Hua Shunming showed absolutely no mercy, demoting him directly to a post as a guard at the city gate.

This set a new precedent. To go from a grand Prime Minister to a common city gate guard was a fall to the absolute bottom.

For a time, every official in the court feared for their own position, and the voices of dissent grew even quieter.

Once again, Ancient Wen Heng endured the astonished stares of the court as he followed Master Gong into the Upper Study Room.

"We’ll have to trouble Mr. Gu to calculate these again." Le San had his men bring in a huge stack of ledgers and place them directly on the desk.

The atmosphere in the inner palace had been so oppressive these past two days that he didn’t dare say or ask too much.

But he had the vague feeling that the Emperor was now unwilling to trust anyone. These ledgers had already been audited twice, yet here he was, ordering Editor Gu to calculate them all over again.

Le San glanced up at Ancient Wen Heng. This whole massive scandal had been exposed by Mr. Gu, yet for the past two days, the man had looked completely calm and unconcerned, as if the matter had nothing to do with him.

Ancient Wen Heng was silent. ’...’ ’It really doesn’t have anything to do with me,’ he thought. ’If you had to force a connection, I suppose I’m the one who rendered a great service, but that’s a credit I have no desire to claim.’

After two straight days of calculations, Ancient Wen Heng felt like he had turned into a human abacus, his mind filled with nothing but numbers.

＆

Over at her residence, Jin Qianqian had just finished getting ready early in the morning for a one-month-old baby’s celebration banquet when the gatekeeper received a gift of apology. The message said that the host family had an urgent matter to attend to, and the banquet was canceled.

Jin Qianqian understood at once. It must have been because of the recent turmoil at court; no one dared to indulge in lavish celebrations at a time like this.

"Perfect," Jin Qianqian said, relaxing. She immediately slumped onto the daybed without a care for her posture. "Help me take off all these hair ornaments and get me into my everyday clothes. Li Qiu, go bring Young Master Luo and his brother over. This is a perfect chance to play with them today."

’The children are growing up so fast,’ she thought. ’These next few years are their only time to just play. Once they begin their formal studies, life won’t be so easy anymore.’

Her senior maids sprang into action, each to her own task, and soon had everything in order.

Jin Qianqian held Cancan in one arm and stroked Luo Luo’s head with her other hand. Seeing the smiles on her two children’s faces, she felt a pang of guilt.

"Mama, you’re not going out again today, are you?" Gu Benluo asked, looking up at her curiously. Though he had heard his nanny say so, he wanted to hear it from Jin Qianqian herself.

Jin Qianqian pulled him into her arms as well. "That’s right. What does Luo Luo want to do?"

Gu Benluo pointed toward the front gate. "Mama, let’s go play outside."

In her arms, a still-oblivious Gu Ben Can flailed his limbs as if on cue, letting out little gurgles of "Aah! Aah!"

"Little brother wants to go out too, right?" Gu Benluo reached out and poked Gu Ben Can’s chubby little face until two small dimples appeared. Only then did he pull his hand back, satisfied.

"Alright, then," Jin Qianqian said. "Mama will take you out for a walk. But you have to promise to stay close to me, understand?"