My spirit appeared on the road to exile, and I was treated as an ancestor.

Chapter 162 The Unscrupulous System Raises Prices
Having read novels about palace intrigue before, Gu Xingzhao couldn't help but take a few more glances at Aunt Liang. She had seen Lu Youtiao before, who was extremely beautiful and incomparable to Aunt Liang in front of her. Could it be that Yang Fang was blind and chose a fish eye over a pearl?
She suddenly remembered a comment she had seen online: "A wife is not as good as a concubine, and a concubine is not as good as a stolen affair. Men all love excitement."

At this moment, when Aunt Liang saw the maidservant beside Lu Youtiao begging for mercy, it was as if she were seeing Lu Youtiao bowing and scraping before her, as if this would make her feel good.

Aunt Liang strode up to the two maids, each step feeling like a blow to their hearts, the oppressive aura making the air seem to freeze.

One of the maids couldn't help but shudder, and her hand, which was lying on the ground, was stepped on by Aunt Liang.

The maid begged for mercy in pain, her pitiful cries echoing throughout the courtyard.

Gu Xingzhao felt sorry for her hand when he heard this, and thought to himself, Yang Fang's mistress is quite ruthless.

In the courtyard, the servants who heard the noise felt sympathy, but no one dared to utter a sound.

Aunt Liang coldly looked at the people in the room and sneered, "Take a good look at who the master of this mansion is now!"

The other two maids in the room lowered their heads and avoided eye contact, afraid that their gazes would offend Aunt Liang and lead to the same fate.

Aunt Liang's expression gradually returned to calm. She withdrew her foot, her eyes filled with smugness, showing no trace of her previous anger. She casually pulled a hairpin from her hair and threw it on the ground, as if dismissing a beggar, "Here you go."

The maid whose hand was being stepped on looked pained, her eyes were tightly closed, and tears of struggle seeped from between her eyelashes.

The maid behind Consort Liang shouted, "What are you crying about? You're disturbing our mistress's peace! Get out of here right now!"

Upon hearing this, the maid kneeling beside her hurriedly picked up the hairpin from the ground, helped her companion whose hand had been stepped on and swollen, and quickly fled the room.

Aunt Liang turned her head and glanced at the two servants behind her, "Hurry up and serve me the food!"

She reached out and touched her slightly protruding belly. Yang Fang had been coaxing her all day long, saying in the past that she couldn't offend the Lu family. Now that the Lu family was gone, he said that he was about to be promoted and couldn't give people something to talk about. He still hadn't divorced Lu Youtiao.

She hadn't thought much about it at first, since Yang Fang had only married Lu Youtiao out of necessity for the sake of the Lu family's power and future career.

Back then, Yang Fang had promised her that once his career took off, he would find a way to bring her into his household, make her his second wife, and put her on equal footing with Lu Youtiao.

As a result, two years have passed, and he still hasn't seen that day.

He listened to Yang Fang talk all day about how Lu Youtiao had a bad temper, high expenses, and was difficult to please. He even didn't want to go home. He thought that Lu Youtiao must be extremely unattractive to make Yang Fang so disgusted with her.

She always felt that Yang Fang would eventually bring her into the household, after all, their relationship of so many years was something Lu Youtiao could never match.

It wasn't until she unexpectedly met Lu Youtiao at a clothing store one day that she realized Lu Youtiao was extremely beautiful, and that Yang Fang's words were nothing but lies to deceive her!
Thinking of this, she gritted her teeth in anger. If Yang Fang hadn't known she was pregnant, he probably wouldn't have brought her back at all.

As for Lu Youtiao, Yang Fang locked her in a room without food, and wouldn't let him see her. He wondered if she was still like he had seen her in the clothing store before, perhaps she was starving to death.

Thinking of this, she touched her belly and couldn't help but chuckle twice.

Gu Xingzhao followed the two maids out.

"That Aunt Liang is getting worse and worse! She actually stepped on your hand like this!" the maid complained indignantly. The maid, who had been crying and wailing in pain just moments before, didn't seem to care about her injury at all. "I'm fine. That hairpin looks valuable. We can sell it and get a lot of medicine for the young lady."

It's just a little physical suffering. Life was better before, but I was penniless and couldn't see any girls.

It wasn't until Concubine Liang entered the mansion and became arrogant that everyone in the mansion doted on this pregnant concubine. Only then did they have the opportunity to sneak a peek at the madam from time to time and bring her some food.

This Aunt Liang has a very strange temper. She always beats and scolds people. Perhaps she is afraid of losing people's hearts. Afterwards, she will give them some money or something. If it weren't for this money, they wouldn't be able to sneak out to get medicine for the girl.

It was because they discovered this way of making money that they took the initiative to take on the job of delivering food, and deliberately went to Aunt Liang to make things difficult for her.

However, the medicine prescribed earlier did not improve the young lady's condition, and they could not invite a doctor to the mansion. They could only watch as the young lady grew weaker day by day.

They only wished they could tear Yang Fang, that ungrateful wretch, to pieces, and could only watch helplessly as their daughter suffered.

Gu Xingzhao was stunned. These two little maids were really loyal.

The maid didn't even wipe away her tears before taking the steamed bun from her bosom and stuffing it into the hands of the indignant man. "Go and give the young lady some food. I'll distract the guards at the gate."

She was supposed to deliver it, but her hand was injured, and she felt it would only worry the girl if she went herself.

Gu Xingzhao followed the two into a dark courtyard. One of them took some silver and gave it to the two guards at the gate, while the other quietly went inside.

Entering the house from the courtyard, it was pitch black. Gu Xingzhao followed behind the maid, who was already prepared. She took out a tinderbox from her bosom and groped to light the candle on the table, which brought a faint light to the room.

The maidservant hurriedly went to check on her mistress lying on the bed, "Miss?"

The person on the bed didn't react at all, and she cried out in a trembling voice, "Girl!"

After being nudged twice, Lu Youtiao finally managed to open her eyes and see the person in front of her clearly. "Qiuyue, why are you here again?"

Hearing the weak voice, Gu Xingzhao also walked to the bed. By the dim candlelight, he could see Lu Youtiao on the bed. Her face was pale and she was so thin that it was heartbreaking.

She vaguely remembered that when she first met Lu Youtiao, she was caught by Lu Qing for taking her younger siblings to climb trees to pick fruit. She was scolded but still smiled and acted coquettishly, which made the old man both angry and amused.

Such a lively person, once the eldest granddaughter of a Grand Secretary of the court, was so pampered in the Lu family, yet here in the Yang mansion, she has been tortured into this near-death state.

Because he loved Yang Fang so much that he extended his affection to Yang Fang's family, Gu Xingzhao held a grudge against him at this moment!
Qiu Yue held back her tears, helped Lu Youtiao sit up, took out a white steamed bun wrapped in paper from her bosom, tore off a small piece, and fed it to Lu Youtiao's mouth, "Miss, please have some."

Lu Youtiao opened her mouth and chewed a few times with difficulty, trying to swallow the steamed bun, but it was too dry and made her choke.
Seeing this, Qiuyue got up and quickly walked to the table, picked up the teapot, but there wasn't a drop of water. She cried in distress.

Gu Xingzhao didn't have time to go back to the modern world to fetch water, and he wasn't familiar with the Yang residence, so he didn't know where to get water. He quickly called out to the system, "System, quickly give me a bottle of water!"

A product pop-up appeared, and the system's voice sounded: "[Waaaa Pure Water, 596mL, Price: 799. Host, are you sure you want it?]"

Gu Xingzhao was so angry he laughed. A bottle of water that costs two yuan, and you have the nerve to sell it to me for seven hundred and ninety-nine?!
This is the second update. Time for bed.