Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

Chapter Twenty: This palm strike embodies decades of my inner strength.

After being swung several times by Zuo Qiuchi with a jade flute, Chu Mingkong finally calmed down.

However, the big stick couldn't withstand Zuo Qiuchi's sword intent and shattered after being swung, which relieved Chu Mingkong of a worry.

If we throw this away, we'll feel bad about wasting the filial piety we've shown; if we keep it, we won't know who to give it to. Now that Master has broken it, we can finally put it to good use.

The master and apprentice slept comfortably in each other's arms.

Silent all night.

The next morning, Chu Mingkong woke up and stared blankly at the dawn sky outside the window, unwilling to get out of bed.

Zuo Qiuchi knew he was awake, and without even opening his eyes, he asked:

"You're not going to the academy or the Cui family anymore? You used to go there so often."

Chu Mingkong smelled the fragrance of Zuo Qiuchi's hair, and moved his face even closer, pressing against the back of her neck, his lips brushing against her cool and lovely ear.

"I should stay in bed a little longer when I wake up early, so I'll have more energy later. Besides, I'm thinking about something..."

Chu Mingkong remained silent for a while, and when Zuo Qiuchi didn't respond, he felt a little awkward.

"My magnanimous master, why don't you ask me what I'm thinking about?"

"Are you thinking about the Yin Core?" Zuo Qiuchi's tone was unusually cold.

"Yes, my Yin Core seems to have worsened drastically after I slept. My heart is bulging out of my chest cavity, the heartbeat is very weak, and I can barely feel it..."

"Because you touched my 'Yin Core'."

Chu Mingkong applied some force, and it seemed to be true. No wonder my heart felt so good and so big.

"...Oh, I see. That really scared me to death."

"Lie down and don't move!"

Zuo Qiuchi reached for the pillow, intending to pick up the jade stick Chu Mingkong had given her last night to hit him, but found nothing. She then remembered that she had broken his things.

Chu Mingkong, who paid close attention to his master's every move, stepped forward generously and said:

"It's okay if the fake one is gone, I have a real one here!"

Zuo Qiuchi turned around, staring at him expressionlessly, raised her delicate hand, and placed her palm on his body.

"Fire Lotus... Divine Palm!"

"—Rua!"

The control of this palm strike was extremely precise. The fire elemental energy shattered Chu Mingkong's clothes but did not harm a single hair on his head. However, Chu Mingkong was sent flying by the force of the palm strike.

His body flew out horizontally, smashing through the door, and then continued to smash through the main gate of the Prince's Mansion.

But he wanted to see how far this palm strike would send him flying.

Ten meters...

Fifty meters...

One hundred meters...

He was still flying around naked, showing no signs of stopping.

In a daze, I heard chickens flying and dogs barking, and it seemed like I had crashed into a couple's house. In the end, I flew to the Cui residence.

After smashing through Aunt Gu's bedroom wall, passing through Second Sister-in-law Zhong Feihuang's bedroom, and mistakenly entering several maids' rooms, they finally stopped in a guest room.

The force of the palm strike completely dissipated.

Chu Mingkong looked around and smelled a faint, subtle, damp scent from a woman's home.

I glanced at the bed, and there was Cui Lian...?

Chu Mingkong recalled that it was indeed him, the husband of Huang Er's sister-in-law. He was lying in bed with a woman, fast asleep and hadn't woken up yet. He was probably too tired to wake up after a long night.

This woman... he seems to remember her as Cui Lian's father's concubine.

Well, it's best to just pretend you didn't see it.

He took the door down and patched up the holes he had broken along the way. If his element were earth or wood, he wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble; he could have just put the door back up with a wave of his hand.

Aunt Gu, Zhong Feihuang, Feng Keqing, and a group of maids were all awakened by the loud noise early in the morning, and they thought that a lecherous thief had broken into their house.

The sharp-tongued maids were planning to start cursing without saying a word.

Upon seeing Chu Mingkong's handsome yet menacing face, she stopped speaking.

Upon seeing Chu Mingkong's strong, muscular body, bearing eerie and sinister wounds, everyone held their breath.

Finally, my gaze settled on his leg muscles, and I couldn't look away.

It wasn't until Chu Mingkong used the dismantled door handle to block the hole in the wall that the maids started chattering about it.

"Has the young prince really become a ferocious beast?"

“That imposing thing was quite frightening.”

"Yeah, if they get really rough, they'll make the girls suffer terribly... or even to the point of excruciating pain!"

(Note: In ancient times, "势" could refer to a man's sexual prowess, so what does "装腔作势" and "势如破竹" mean...)

Chu Mingkong blocked Zhong Feihuang's way back to her boudoir. Zhong Feihuang was the wife in charge of the family's accounts. He took out a stack of silver notes and placed them on the table as compensation.

But he didn't forget to cough up some blood.

"Second Sister-in-law Huang, I am very sorry. I fell ill this morning and was somewhat delirious. My master slapped me awake and I accidentally ended up here. These silver notes will serve as compensation for repairing the house."

Zhong Feihuang was stunned. She was usually decisive, but she had never seen such a scene before. She nodded blankly, not knowing where to look.

I felt ashamed and unfit to be a woman after watching it, but I also felt it was a pity not to watch it.

"N-nothing, Mingkong, you can just put it there..." It took her a while to reply.

Gu Jungui was also startled awake by the noise. He thought a thief had broken into his house, but when he peeked out, he saw it was his beloved child from Xiling.

Seeing that he had some burns on his body (actually from the smoke from his burning clothes) and was standing in Zhong Feihuang's room next door coughing up blood, she didn't care that she was only wearing a bellyband. She ran over barefoot, her two plump mounds almost jutting out from the side.

Gu Jun Gui pulled Chu Ming Kong back to his room from the "cave," and apologized to Zhong Fei Huang next door:

"Feihuang, you can continue sleeping."

......

After Chu Mingkong put on his clothes, Gu Jungui changed his clothes as well.

I asked about his injuries several times, and Chu Mingkong replied several times that "it's nothing serious," but I was still worried.

"It's nothing, Aunt Gu, don't worry, she's tough!"

"Don't worry, you've caused quite a stir these past few days while you were gone! First, you played the hero on Qing'an Street, protecting Princess Jinyu, then you kept quiet in the Prince's mansion for a few days, and then you even killed the Crown Prince! I was so worried about you!"

The pretty and graceful woman spoke while trying to poke at his heart, to make him take it to heart and remember it, but every time she thought of his injury, her finger hovered in mid-air, unwilling to poke him.

"Look at me, I'm perfectly fine now. I took a palm strike from my master and I'm unharmed. Apart from flying a bit far, I'm perfectly fine."

"That's because your master showed mercy. Otherwise, how come your clothes were burned but you didn't have a single scratch? He even forced your master to hit you awake, and you coughed up blood, yet you still say the injury is nothing. What are we going to do now...!"

She was heartbroken.

Chu Mingkong couldn't explain that coughing up blood was fake.

"Didn't your master say he was framed by the Crown Prince?" Gu Jun Gui suddenly remembered this.

"Oh, after I killed the prince, my master came back. Why didn't he come back sooner? It made me impulsively chop the prince up. Sigh!"

Gu Jungui: ......

A knock sounded at the door, and a maid's voice came from outside:

"Your Highness, Young Master Rong from next door invites you to come and sit down."

Chapter Twenty-One: Terrifying!

"What does he want from me? I don't know this person well, do I?" Chu Mingkong had two deepest impressions of Cui Rong.

He has a beautiful wife, Feng Keqing, and recently he spoke ill of Aunt Gu behind her back. The end result was that he was arrested for having an affair with a young man, which became a scandal.

They've been lying low for so long before finally venturing out again.

This second point alone means that Chu Mingkong's impression and attitude towards this person will never change. It's understandable for young masters from aristocratic families to fool around, but isn't it a bit problematic for you to talk badly about your own widowed sister-in-law behind her back?

With Aunt Gu's personality, who could possibly be in their way?

Gu Jungui said, "Didn't you hear what the maid said? You should at least respond. If you don't speak, the young girl will be nervous as a messenger, and she might get punished by her master."

Chu Mingkong obediently listened to his elders and raised his voice: "Let Cui Rong wait, I don't have time right now."

Gu Jungui laughed and scolded, "Are you making fun of me? This is how you respond when I tell you to respond. Tell me, what are you busy with right now?"

"I'm busy spending time with Aunt Gu. As long as I'm at the Cui family's house, that's the most important thing to me!"

The beautiful woman was moved.

She left home thousands of miles away to marry into the Cui family. There were no relatives to chat with or confide in. Her husband didn't even have time to spend his love and attention on her during their wedding night. She was gone right after the ceremony.

This wealthy family may seem lively, with many people in the mansion, but there is a distance between them, separated by a door. They may appear close, but they are not really that close. Once the door is closed, they are part of another family.

Once a woman marries, she relies on her husband for support in her husband's family. She doesn't even have the means to support the Cui family physically, which means the Cui family has been supporting her for nothing.

The elders in the clan value offspring the most. If you are not pregnant, they will not even want to look at you, as they will feel that you are a sign of the family's decline.

Bad luck—that was the only meaning the old man meant in her eyes.

In their view, the only ways a married woman can be truly filial are to give birth to a son for the clan or to die with her husband.

The most unfilial act is the opposite, and Gu Jungui embodies both.

Every day, Gu Jun Gui would open his eyes and look out the window. He would sit idly for half a day, then go out and exchange a few pleasantries with Zhong Feihuang and the others, then chat with the maids. The whole day would pass by, and he would go to bed and close his eyes at night.

The next day, she continued living the same life. Over the years, her life became as bland as still water, devoid of even the warmth of communicating with her relatives. After marrying out, she could not freely return to Xiling to visit her family.

Looking at the light by the window in the early morning, Gu Jungui felt that as the days went by, there was only day and night, and the colors gradually became only black and white. Then one day, he couldn't open his eyes anymore, which meant lying in a coffin and never waking up again.