Carrying the little lucky star, leading the villain on the road to exile

Gu Baijiang, "You're just going to walk into the city like this?"

What a stupid fool! There are so many waterways outside the city. Just tidy them up a bit and save yourself some face.

Gu Kaichen looked down at himself. "I am a bit dirty, but there's nothing I can do. We've been eating and sleeping in the open along the way, going hungry for three days and nine meals a day. Look how thin I've gotten. I don't have the energy to do all this stuff."

Gu Kaichen knew that his current image was not good, and he was afraid of running into acquaintances along the way, so he covered his face with his hands. "But don't worry, Father, I came back with my face covered, so no one knows it was me."

Gu Baijiang was almost driven to tears by his son's stupidity. "Then how did you find this place?"

"Of course, you should ask someone for directions..."

"How utterly foolish! Didn't you learn the phrase 'covering one's ears while stealing a bell' from me, sir?"

"Alright, seeing you all like this makes me angry. Go and wash up properly."

"No, please," unlike the other tribespeople who were reserved, Xu Yulan clutched her stomach, "I don't remember eating properly for days, please give us something to eat first."

As she spoke, she turned to look at her dear sister-in-law, Liu Yun, who was standing far away. If it weren't for maintaining her image, she probably would have already covered her nose and left. "Sister-in-law, it's been a while since I've seen you. You seem to have gained some weight. Unlike me, I'm practically skin and bones now."

There must be plenty of delicious food in the manor. Let's prepare some quickly; I think we could eat a whole cow right now.

When Liu Yun saw her second son and his wife, she felt a headache coming on. The family was almost starving, and these people were just adding to the chaos.

However, with his father-in-law watching from the courtyard, he couldn't say much. He could only force a smile and say, "Sister-in-law, it's really unfortunate. We just finished eating, and there's nothing left in the kitchen. But I think you should go wash up first, and I'll arrange for someone to go out and buy some."

"Why do we still need to go out to buy things?" Xu Yulan raised her voice. "In the past, our household kitchen had its own storeroom. Although we didn't have everything we wanted to eat, we could still prepare a meal."

Sister-in-law, you don't mean you don't welcome us back, do you?

Liu Yun secretly resented it, knowing that this couple was troublesome and would try to make things difficult for her as soon as they came back.

She forced a smile and said, "How could that be? It's just that you all know the family's situation isn't good right now. Father and husband haven't been reinstated yet, so the family doesn't have a stable income and we have to cut back on our food and clothing."

"You must be exhausted from just arriving. Go wash up first, I'll go to the kitchen and have them cook some porridge."

"No way? Sister-in-law, you're serving us porridge as soon as we arrive? Does this mean you don't welcome us?" Xu Yulan was determined to take good care of herself, as she had suffered a lot on the journey.

"How is this possible?" Liu Yun, "..." It's such an obvious thing, everyone knows it in their hearts, why ask it out?
She really wanted to shout at Xu Yulan that she wasn't welcome, so what?
But seeing her father-in-law's gloomy eyes, she swallowed her words.

"From what you just said, you must have been hungry for a while. I'd like to ask the kitchen to make you some porridge to soothe your stomachs, and then we can gradually recover later."

Xu Yulan agreed with this, and snorted coldly, "Then where shall we stay?"

She looked around at the servants and said, "Your second young master and I are back, and you don't even come to pay your respects."

Gu Baijiang initially didn't want to pay attention to her, but seeing that she was becoming increasingly unreliable, he scolded her, "What nonsense are you talking about? These are all people sent by His Highness the Third Prince. If you have any problems, just go find your sister-in-law."

These servants usually manage things perfectly, but if their orders are excessive, the servants won't give them any face.

With his clansmen still present, Gu Baijiang didn't want to lose face later, so he decided to speak first.

"Liu, you and Shuanghong go and settle them in. We can talk about it later." Having already lost face along the way, Gu Baijiang didn't want to say anything more. He would stay at home for the next few days and wait for things to calm down before going out again.

When Gu Kaiping returned home, he felt that the atmosphere at home was very strange. The servants looked at him as if they were watching a good show.

On his way back, he vaguely sensed people pointing and whispering about him, but when he looked over, they didn't do anything else.

All these signs indicate that something bad has happened at home.

Where is my father?

The butler immediately replied, "Master Gu is in his study now."

Gu Kaiping glanced at him but didn't ask any more questions. Anyway, they might not tell the truth even if he asked them, so he might as well ask his father directly.

Before he even reached the study, he saw someone he didn't want to see appear before him.

"Hey, big brother's back. Look at you in your plain clothes, what's wrong? Your son-in-law, the prince, hasn't reinstated you yet?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? How could we possibly associate with His Highness the Third Prince?" What an idiot, daring to say anything out loud. The only proper in-laws of the Third Prince are the Third Prince's wife's family.

Gu Kaichen then remembered his father's words and quickly looked around. Seeing that the servants seemed not to have heard him, he breathed a sigh of relief. "I misspoke just now. I just wanted to ask you, elder brother, what do you think of your official position?"

"You don't need to worry about these things. When did you arrive?"

They knew they would come and were mentally prepared, but it took longer than they expected.

"They only arrived this afternoon, but my elder brother is busy, and we don't know where to inform him."

Our family is finally reunited! We must have a good time together today; this is a truly special day.

Gu Kaiping ignored him. He had already guessed why he had received so many strange looks before. Sure enough, nothing good ever came from the place where the second brother appeared.

Instead of staying in Lingnan, they come here to embarrass themselves.

If I had known he was like this, I should have completely separated from them back in Lingnan.

Gu Kaiping ignored him, but Gu Kaichen got excited, "This older brother is different after being in the capital for a while, he doesn't care about anyone anymore."

No matter what, I'm your own brother. Don't you even ask how I've been doing these days, whether I've suffered or endured hardship?

Gu Kaiping looked him up and down with disdain. "You're doing just fine, aren't you? I've heard about your many achievements in Lingnan. Didn't Father question you about them?"

Gu Kaichen's heart tightened. How could he have forgotten about this?

It must be that woman Xu Shuanghong. If they hadn't run away first, he wouldn't be in such a sorry state.

These women even dared to accuse me first; I'll definitely settle this score with them when I get the chance.

"Brother, you jest. You don't need to take what outsiders say seriously." He glanced at the study behind him. "Brother, you're here to see Father, right? Let's go in together." (End of Chapter)