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

Gu Baijiang opened the letter, glanced at it, and narrowed his eyes. Even if he had hidden some silver before, no one else knew about it except him, and Gu Antong had no solid evidence.

But when his eyes swept to the end of the letter, he picked it up and held it up to the candlelight, discovering three shallow fingernail scratches. His expression turned grave. This was the secret signal they had agreed upon when Gu Antong left home. The three scratches were the worst possible sign they had agreed upon, indicating that there was no way to bring her back.

Gu Baijiang slumped in the armchair, his eyes vacant. Was he really going to ruin such an important move?

Perhaps it's because I'm getting older, but at this moment, some beautiful scenes of Gu Antong from childhood to adulthood actually flashed through my mind.

Gu Antong is the eldest granddaughter and the first child of the Gu family. Even though Gu Baijiang is somewhat sexist, he still dotes on this granddaughter.

Even Gu Kaiyuan might not be as important to him as his granddaughter.

From the previous information to this letter, everything indicates that the Gu family's situation is beyond repair this time.

Gu Antong's situation was even worse than he had heard. At this moment, he felt a little regretful. If he had found Gu Antong an ordinary family back then, there would definitely not have been these schemes, or she could have lived a peaceful life.

It's too late to think about all this now. The Prince Ning's Mansion is not one they can afford to offend. They all know this, so Gu Antong didn't mention asking for help in her letter.

The letter expressed her desire for his help to Prince Ning and made various promises, but it made no mention of the changes in her own body. It is clear that she had no choice but to write the letter at the time.

"How wonderful," Gu Baijiang muttered to himself. Rong Ruiyuan had used him and then abandoned them. Now, at this moment, he still wanted to coerce them. How blind he must have been to choose such a person to surrender to.

Rong Ruiyuan doesn't take them seriously now, but he can't make any move yet.

Given the current situation, he had to think about his two grandsons. This was also Gu Antong's idea; otherwise, she wouldn't have left three scratches in the letter.

"Rong Ruiyuan, you've completely fooled the Gu family. Not only have you failed to keep any of your previous promises, but now you're even hoping I'll help you. You've really got a good plan."

It's a pity that someone took the money away; otherwise, Gu Baijiang would have considered taking it with him to find a new master.

Rong Ruiyuan suspected that he was hiding something, and he also knew that everyone in the mansion except for the Gu family were Rong Ruiyuan's spies.

They were living such a hard life, surely Rong Ruiyuan wouldn't still think he was just putting on an act?

If that sum of money hadn't been lost, he wouldn't be considered wronged, but he really had no trump cards left, so he was still somewhat lacking in confidence.

Although Gu Antong sent back a "farewell letter," she also presented him with a difficult problem: how should he respond?
After thinking for a moment, he immediately picked up his pen and wrote a letter to Gu Antong in person. The letter was placed in front of Rong Ruiyuan before it was even left overnight.

Rong Ruiyuan was full of expectations, but when he saw those heartbroken and helpless words, his face turned dark.

He placed all his hopes on the Gu family, and now Gu Baijiang is just going back and forth like this.

He took the letter and prepared to go to the backyard to ask for clarification, but he turned back as soon as he stepped out of the study.

He examined the letter inside and out, and it turned out to be just an ordinary reply. He frowned. He understood Gu Baijiang's plan. He had placed most of his hopes on Gu Antong and couldn't possibly be so indifferent to Gu Antong's request for help, let alone tell Gu Antong to calm down and take good care of him.

He tossed the letter aside, rubbing his temples. If he couldn't extract anything more from Gu Baijiang, then the Gu family should just give them some money and send them away; there was no need to continue supporting them. Rong Ruiyuan then summoned his advisors, and they discussed the matter all night. In the end, they couldn't come up with a good solution. These advisors all knew that the Ning Prince's Mansion was now only outwardly strong but inwardly weak; how could they possibly support so many people with just their meager salaries?

This concerned their own future interests, so these advisors racked their brains and finally turned their attention to the wealthy businessmen.

Rong Ruiyuan hesitated for a moment, but one of his advisors persuaded him, "Your Highness, I know what you are worried about."

His Majesty dislikes your close association with merchants, but I think Gu Baijiang had a good idea before: these wealthy merchants don't lack money, but they also don't lack daughters.”

Rong Ruiyuan immediately rejected the idea, saying, "This will not work. Father Emperor has already summoned us brothers to the Southern Study to reprimand us. Royal family members cannot allow lowly merchant girls to enter the mansion."

Ultimately, it all boils down to fearing that these wealthy businessmen will grow too powerful and use their wealth to win people's hearts.

"Your Highness, we certainly cannot undermine His Majesty's request."

"Your Highness, if you can't marry her, there's still a way to achieve your goal indirectly."

Rong Ruiyuan stared at the white-haired staff in front of him. He thought they would be more composed because of their age, but he didn't expect that they would still have so many cunning schemes even at their advanced age.

As soon as he finished speaking, their eyes lit up.

“Those wealthy businessmen aren’t fools. If the stakes are too low, they won’t do a losing business.”

"We're just changing the name. Whether the wealthy merchant will marry his daughter to us or not is not important. Even if he gives a title to a cleaning maid, as long as the dowry is paid, we will accept it with enthusiasm."

Rong Ruiyuan glanced at them and said, "This method is feasible, but your ages are a problem..."

The staff members froze, then hurriedly waved their hands, "Your Highness, we're not talking about us."

"Oh, not you guys?" Rong Ruiyuan didn't expect to guess wrong. He thought these old guys were having romantic entanglements again and wanted to have a love triangle.

“Of course it’s not us,” several staff members said, their faces turning red. Although they had the same idea, they were powerless to do so, and this matter was not so easy to get involved in.

"Your Highness, you have quite a few guards and stewards around you, and some of them are of similar age."

"As long as the prince is willing to make some promises, many wealthy merchants will still be willing to seek this marriage alliance."

These advisors travel around every day. The wealthy merchants can't get close to the royal princes, but they often invite these advisors, and they receive a lot of benefits in return. They ask for help to make connections, hoping to establish a relationship with these princes.

They accepted the gifts, and it would be unreasonable not to do anything about it, so they took the initiative to offer their advice when they had such a good opportunity.

Actually, they could have brought it up a couple of days ago when Rong Ruiyuan started to struggle, but they still understand strategy; sometimes what is easily obtained is not cherished.

Bringing it up now at the most crucial moment, Rong Ruiyuan couldn't hide the admiration in his eyes. (End of Chapter)