Ninety: Gu Zhong's Poisonous Scheme

Did the eldest son of the Gu family bring back a barbarian woman? Hearing Madam Ku say this, Gu Fei could not help laughing rather impolitely. Then she tapped the armrest, and the amusement in her eyes turned cold. He is courting death.

Madam Ku saw that the sky was overcast, so she fetched an outer robe into the ink room and draped it over Gu Fei. “Isn’t that so? Whether the rumors that barbarians eat people are true or not, barbarians are never well regarded in the Great Yinx Empire. And he is the eldest legitimate son of the Gu family, destined to inherit the family business one day. If he is stained with such a disgrace, he will be laughed at wherever he goes.”

Gu Fei held up a newly made ink pellet, one mixed with poisonous ink material. She did not dare smell it, so she had to grind it into ink herself and instruct Madam Ku to catch a live fowl and force it to drink so they could observe the reaction. Glancing at the live chicken in the cage and carefully inspecting the pellet, she replied, “If only it were that simple.”

As she spoke, as if remembering something, she set the pellet down, malice darkening her eyes. “Everyone knows there are ancient pine forests deep in the south of Southern Qi. Many years ago, the ink craftsmen of the capital sent people to the deep south and encountered barbarians as well. According to those who barely made it back, those barbarians were uncivilized. Not only did they eat human flesh, but men held no status at all. A single woman there had at least several husbands. So…”

She smiled again. “Gu Min is now nothing more than that barbarian woman’s plaything.”

Madam Ku was astonished. She had truly never heard of such a foreign tribe; it was the exact opposite of the Great Yinx Empire.

But after a moment’s thought, she felt pleased. “That is best. It saves the First House from coming to make trouble for the young lady.”

Gu Fei shook her head. By then she had seen that the live chicken in the cage was already on the brink of death. She blinked, and the bird lost all signs of life.

She sighed inwardly. The poison was too fierce, too obvious. Another failure.

Casually tossing the pellet aside, Gu Fei took up her brush and considered for a moment. Then she struck out several of the materials in the formula and, after some thought, added others. Rolling up her sleeves, she began making ink again.

Knowing she should not disturb her any further, Madam Ku quietly carried the dead chicken out. Just as she reached the doorway, Gu Fei’s voice came from within. “Be more vigilant for the next few days. No one knows what that barbarian woman might do.”

Gu Fei did not even lift her head, wholly absorbed in her work. Suddenly she thought of You Hu’s peerlessly handsome face. If that barbarian woman saw him, she would most likely either devour him or drag him to her bed and turn him into a plaything.

She gave a self-mocking smile. Why should she worry about him? With You Hu’s mind, it had always been only he who toyed with others at will.

Then she looked up through the wooden window and frowned.

By now, the You brothers were still lingering in her Green Ink Courtyard, doing nothing at all, as though she were feeding two idlers. If it were only that, she would not care. If You Hu refused to leave, she could not drive him away. But now the Gu family had added a barbarian woman, and with the grievances between the First House and her, they would surely drag this disaster toward her. By then, her Green Ink Courtyard would know no peace.

As for Gu Fei’s thoughts, Madam Ku had no way of knowing. After leaving the ink room, she had not gone far when she saw You Hu, as leisurely as ever, reclining in the shade of a tree and idly turning the pages of a book.

She hesitated, but in the end still walked over and stopped several steps away. Her face was hidden in shadow as she said in a tone of uncertain meaning, “Young Master, Gu Min brought back a barbarian woman. According to the young lady, those barbarians not only eat human flesh, but also enjoy abducting men to keep as playthings…”

You Hu’s sharply arched brow lifted. A glimmer of light slipped through the corner of his eye as he carelessly turned a page.

Madam Ku did not receive an answer. She curtly bowed and turned to leave. She had only taken a few steps when—

“I know.” His voice carried no rise or fall at all. You Hu seemed not to care in the slightest.

Madam Ku kept walking. Turning about, she went off to deal with the dead chicken. Such a bird, poisoned to death, Gu Fei had specifically warned, could not be eaten.

After a long while, You Hu closed the book and turned his head toward the ink room. His brows furrowed in rare displeasure, and within those phoenix eyes lay a murky, unreadable darkness. After a moment, he rolled the book into a tube and tapped it against his palm, a flash of unmistakable calculation crossing his exquisitely pale face.

That night, no one in the Gu family’s First House slept. Upon hearing the news, Madam Cui immediately threw herself upon Gu Min and burst into tears, wailing miserably, “My poor son... what are we to do now...”

Gu Zhong was also furious beyond measure. With his hands clasped behind his back, he paced several turns through the main hall, then the fierce look in his dignified, square face flickered and vanished. “Why did she come with you to the Great Yinx Empire?”

Gu Min leaned back in his chair, eyes lowered. The wavering lamplight cast shifting shadows over him, cloaking his features in vagueness. He, Mo Yuhua, and Feng Lizhi were known as one of the three famed young masters of Yizhou, and even in the face of death, Duogula had taken a fancy to him and kept him by her side. Naturally, he was no ordinary beauty.

His handsomeness was unlike Mo Yuhua’s refined elegance and unlike Feng Lizhi’s proud, untamed bearing. It was the handsome face of a man of bronze, carrying the deep steadiness of one who had long dealt in trade, giving others a sense of weight and stability.

He seemed not to hear Gu Zhong’s question, his lips pressed into a straight line, saying nothing.

Madam Cui was frantic. She seized Gu Min’s hand with both of hers, and her sharp nails instantly left bloody marks on the back of his hand. “My son, say something. Why did that beast come back with you? Could it be she means to eat every last one of us in the Gu family?”

By the end, her voice had turned shrill and distorted with excitement.

Gu Min frowned. “She said she wanted to come out and see the world, and she also promised me she would not touch anyone from the Gu family…”

“Then she has no special purpose!” Gu Zhong’s eyes lit up, murderous intent surging from his chest. “Then find a chance and kill her!”

Every word was spoken with fierce killing intent. Madam Cui stared at Gu Zhong without blinking, truly having never imagined that Gu Zhong, who had spent his life calmly conducting business, would one day also think of taking another’s life.

Gu Min’s eyes flickered as well. He had not never thought of such a thing, but then he shook his head, showing his disagreement.

“She is merely an uncivilized barbarian. In the Great Yinx Empire, if she dies, she dies. Who would bother to investigate thoroughly?” Gu Zhong assumed Gu Min was simply afraid and could not help feeling disappointed.

“No,” Gu Min replied, his eyes red, his features contorted with vicious hatred. “I dream day and night of killing her, but she cannot die yet. If she dies, I cannot live either.”

Gu Zhong and Madam Cui were already numb to the point of no longer being surprised.

“When she kept me alive, besides humiliating me, she also planted a highly poisonous toxin in my body, one found only in the deep south of Southern Qi. Once she dies, no one in this world can cure it.”

A venomous snake born of resentment coiled in his heart, gnawing at his chest without ceasing, filling Gu Min with hatred for Duogula to the marrow.

Gu Zhong fell silent. In that instant, it seemed he had aged all at once; beneath the lamplight, his temples showed an unprecedented frost of white. Madam Cui was still weeping bitterly, her eyes swollen red as peaches.

“Perhaps there is one person who can cure it,” Gu Zhong said after a long pause, uncertain.

Gu Min’s expression brightened, but in the next instant that bit of light was swallowed again by the darkness in his eyes. “That is the poison of the deep south of Southern Qi. Who could cure it…”

“A great seven-foot man, living in disgrace beneath a woman, even sharing a wife with others, no different from a plaything... ha ha ha…” Gu Min laughed wildly. His face had gone utterly mad. “If she provokes me, I will perish together with her!”

Madam Cui was horrified. “My son, do not do anything foolish. Who will send your mother off when the time comes?”

Gu Zhong shook his head and looked at Gu Min with stern severity. “A man of ambition must know when to yield and when to stand firm. King Goujian of Yue could still sleep on brushwood and taste gall. To endure humiliation and shoulder heavy burdens is no shame. Now you think yourself a plaything; why not first regard her as one? Sharing a wife with others, a jade arm slept upon by a thousand men, what is that different from a woman of the streets? Would you really destroy your future for such a base person?”

“Future?” Gu Min’s laughter faded, and a dazed look came over his face.

“Yes. There may be one person who can cure the poison in your body, but it depends on how to make him take action.” Gu Zhong continued, hope now plainly rising in his eyes.

Even Madam Cui became thoughtful. Suddenly she thought of someone. “Could it be that person?”

Gu Zhong nodded, and at last some ease appeared on his face. “The strange physician, Mister Nine.”

At those words, Gu Min abruptly came to himself. Like a drowning man in darkness who suddenly seized a strand of light, he surged forward desperately, wanting only a sliver of survival. “If it is him, then perhaps it truly can be done. But where can one find the strange physician, Mister Nine? And how can we make him act?”

As soon as the question was raised, Madam Cui frowned. Clearly she too was stumped. Before, when Gu Wanting’s body had become abnormal, Strange Physician Mister Nine had once taken action at the Starlit Pavilion, and that was only because of the Pavilion’s face. Moreover, rumor said he had already left Yizhou, and his whereabouts were unknown.

But Gu Zhong stroked his black beard and smiled. “We cannot, but the people of the Starlit Pavilion surely can find Strange Physician Mister Nine. And for the Starlit Pavilion to intervene, one person will certainly be able to do it!”

Madam Cui’s face brightened. Light like stars shone in her eyes. “That wretched girl!”

Gu Min was bewildered. He went through everyone in the household in his mind, wondering who this wretched girl could be. Could it be Gu Rou?

Madam Cui pulled Gu Min to sit and told him everything about Gu Fei, of course not forgetting to vilify and curse her at every turn.

With a sharp bang, after hearing it all, Gu Min struck the table and sprang to his feet in anger. “What a vile little bitch! She even dares to lay hands on Father’s authority. Does she think the Gu family fortune is so easy to seize?”

“Mother, rest assured. Now that I have returned home, I will certainly take the family business back in due course!” Gu Min could do nothing against Duogula, but toward Gu Fei he harbored not the slightest regard. Moreover, the dark venom in his heart had become unbearable, and he was desperate for somewhere to vent it.

Gu Zhong shook his head. “For now, we cannot move against her.”

“Yes, my son, listen to your father,” Madam Cui hurriedly interjected, afraid Gu Min would suffer a loss in his anger. “That vile girl has a very good relationship with the Starlit Pavilion. If we want the Starlit Pavilion to find Strange Physician Mister Nine, we must still go and beg her.”

“Beg?” Gu Zhong gave a profound smile and shook his head. Beneath his black beard, his mouth curved upward with the ruthless cunning of a seasoned schemer. “Why should we beg? The matter has already turned hostile. If we go to her, she will not agree. That wretched girl is a total ingrate, so…”

“Why not have that barbarian beast poison the wretched girl? Once she is poisoned, she will naturally go looking for the people of the Starlit Pavilion. The Starlit Pavilion will then certainly seek out Strange Physician Mister Nine. By then, since she is eating and living in the residence, would we still need to fear her refusing to let Mister Nine first cure Min’er?”

Gu Zhong’s every sentence was a venomous stratagem, yet he still wore a smile on his face, making one truly shudder.

Madam Cui understood at once. Thinking it over, it was indeed just so. She clapped her hands and praised the plan. “Yes, let the beast and the bitch bite each other like dogs.”

Gu Zhong continued, “Doesn’t that barbarian beast like to toy with men? Not long ago, a pair of brothers came to Green Ink Courtyard, and one of them struck me as rather well formed. Find a chance and let the barbarian see him. Min’er, these next few days you must also fan the flames before that barbarian. There is no need to fear her looking down on him. Once a conflict breaks out between them, that will be our moment to profit!”