My Sister Insisted on Swapping Marriages, and I Became a Marchioness Instead

Chapter 324: Chapter 324: A Night Busy Chasing Fireflies

Qin Heng looked wistfully at Gu Baoshu and stuttered, ”A night, a night catching fireflies busy.”

After waiting a while and not hearing the next line, Qin Jijiu puffed his beard and glared, ”What kind of poem is this? Ancient scholars used fireflies to read at night and you, well, a night catching fireflies, busy doing what?”

Qin Heng braced himself and said, ”The next line, Father, you come up with it, let me be busy with whatever you decide.”

Qin Jijiu was so furious that he wanted to hit Qin Heng.

”Busy hitting you little rascal.”

Having anticipated this, Qin Heng hurriedly dashed towards Marquis Gu standing leisurely under the tree, shouting, ”Brother-in-law, save me.”

Gu Jinghui was standing under the tree, staring blankly at Qin Yuan, when unexpectedly his brother-in-law rushed over, and not far behind, his father-in-law chased up, still yelling, ”You useless little rascal.”

In a moment of urgency, Marquis Gu grabbed Qin Heng’s belt and tossed him upwards. Qin Heng let out an ”Aiya” shriek as he was thrown onto the treetop.

After the shriek, Qin Heng erupted into triumphant laughter.

Mr. Songshan chuckled, ”No wonder during storytelling, such cries make the listeners feel as if they are present.”

Qin Siyuan stomped his foot and called out, ”Little brother, be careful, don’t fall and hurt yourself.”

”How could I? Do you think Third Brother is just for show?”

Gu Baoshu rolled her eyes.

Qin Siyuan hurriedly waved his hands in explanation, ”How could I.”

Gu Baoshu sniffed, ”You, weak scholar who can’t even bind a chicken, naturally don’t know how formidable my third brother is; he can shoot an arrow straight through a willow leaf at a hundred paces, lift a cauldron with ease, if Qin Heng is tossed onto the tree, not a single hair of his would be harmed.”

”Oh,” Qin Siyuan said perfunctorily, eyes fixed on the treetop, ”I was just worried about him.”

Qin Yuan suppressed a laugh, hands behind her back, watching the commotion.

Marquis Gu, skilled in martial arts, clearly wouldn’t get into trouble, and the spectacle of silly Qin Heng being tossed onto the treetop was rare to behold.

Shocked, Qin Jijiu ran to the tree, no longer shouting threats, only chasing Gu Jinghui with questions, ”Worthy son-in-law, is this boy alright? Will he fall from the tree?”

Gu Jinghui laughed, ”No, the tree isn’t that high, he’ll come down slowly on his own. I’m here watching, Father-in-law, best go busy yourself with poetry. Whilst you’re here, Brother Heng won’t dare come down.”

Qin Jijiu agreed, sighed, and said, ”That mischievous child, let him be up there drinking wind, son-in-law, don’t bother with him; let him learn a lesson.”

Gu Jinghui nodded repeatedly as he saw off Qin Jijiu.

The father-in-law’s words were only to be listened to; if anything happened to the brother-in-law, he’d likely be labeled a little rascal too.

After lounging on the tree for a while, Qin Heng slowly slid down.

Once on the ground, the poetry was complete, and everyone was safe.

Outside, the drum sounded; it was already the third watch of the night, and the crowd declared it was time to disperse.

Only Mr. Songshan was reluctant, saying he was in the mood for poetry and couldn’t stop; he even said, ”If someone could play the zither, and Marquis Gu wield his sword, I could compose another two hundred poems.”

Qin Yuan didn’t respond, slightly furrowing her brow.

Seeing Qin Yuan showed no intention of continuing, Marquis Gu said, ”Mr. Songshan wants to stay long at the estate, which is easy to arrange.”

Qin Heng said, ”Now that I mention it, I have yet to see Brother-in-law performing with a sword.”

Gu Baoshu yawned and said, ”You all stay in the guest room tonight, and see my third brother practicing martial arts in the morning; there’s everything you could want, sword, saber, spear, staff.”

Everyone agreed to gather in the morning to watch Marquis Gu practice martial arts.

Marquis Gu: ”...”

These people always disrupt his plans.

After finishing her ablutions, Qin Yuan was too tired to move a finger, allowing Marquis Gu to carry her to bed, holding her in his arms.

Marquis Gu even asked her, ”I propose publishing a poetry collection. Do you think that’s good?”

Luckily, the evening air had cooled down; Qin Yuan didn’t feel too hot in his embrace and answered ambiguously, ”Good, even without you saying, I was thinking of proposing the same idea. In the future, let Mr. Songshan, my father, and Young Master Nantang earn money for us...”

Before she finished speaking, Qin Yuan fell asleep.

In recent days, preparations for the feast and dealing with guests have truly been exhausting; the moment her head hit the pillow, she drifted into slumber.

Marquis Gu tapped her nose with affection and frustration, ”Little heartless one, only loves money.”

The next morning, Marquis Gu rose early for morning exercise, but not a single person came to watch him practice martial arts.

After finishing practicing various martial arts, Marquis Gu wiped his sweat and muttered, ”Scholars... scholars... No matter how learned, they are all unreliable.”

Returning indoors, he saw his young wife hadn’t woken up yet. Marquis Gu, having freshened up, didn’t know what else to do, nor did he want to do anything, so he went back to bed, cuddled his young wife, and took a nap.

When Qin Yuan rose, she was surprised to find Marquis Gu still in bed.

”Husband, why are you still in bed today?”

Gu Jinghui drowsily opened his eyes and said, ”I’ve already practiced martial arts and returned, still a bit fatigued, so decided to nap a bit.”

Qin Yuan urged him, ”Let’s invite Father and the others for breakfast and then see them off.”

Gu Jinghui asked, ”Why not let them stay for a few more days?”

Qin Yuan said, ”It’s just a few streets away; if husband wishes to visit, you can ride over. Unless husband wants Father to stay and quiz him on lessons?”

”That won’t do, I’ve got free time these two days, I should quickly listen to more of Mr. Songshan’s lectures.”

Gu Jinghui immediately remembered the lengthy reading list from Qin Jijiu last night, and his drowsiness vanished.

The two of them got up and waited in the front hall for the Qins to join them for breakfast. As they sat, they saw Sixth Master Gu enter with dark circles under his eyes.

Qin Yuan, surprised, asked, ”Sixth Brother, did you stay awake all night?”

Sixth Master Gu replied lackadaisically, ”Yes.”

”What were you doing? Your dark circles have dropped to your cheekbones!” Marquis Gu decided to show some elder’s care, keeping his tone as gentle as possible: ”Usually, it’s one thing, but now with guests at home, you are still this weary, how does this look? Plus, you’ve always had a weak constitution, you should pay more attention, even the healthiest body can’t take such strain.”

Terrified, Sixth Master Gu hesitated to speak but eventually muttered, ”Last night I was focused on poetry, seeing how well all the poetry was done. Then I thought about how to match illustrations, and couldn’t sleep, so I got up and painted for a while, until sunrise.”

Qin Yuan said, ”Sixth Brother burning the candle at both ends is worrying. If Xiao Dong knew, wouldn’t he be upset? Studies are endless endeavors, not achieved in a single day.”

Sixth Master Gu nodded, ”Third Sister-in-law is right, it won’t happen again.”

Marquis Gu thought to himself, why doesn’t he say I’m right, only listens to his third sister-in-law.

Truly strange.

As he muttered, the Qins all entered, and Mr. Songshan also came uninvited; several people appraised yesterday’s poetry collection, unanimously praising Mr. Songshan’s work as the most magnificent, Qin Yuan’s poetic style as vibrant and gracious yet grand, Qin Siyuan’s poems as vigorous, Qin Jijiu’s verses as profound, while Sixth Master Gu’s poetry remained bottom-tier, appreciated for its simplicity and clarity.

Speaking of publishing the poetry collection and related matters, Mr. Songshan asked, ”How well did the last poetry collection sell? Can these poems sell? Should they be refined further? And should any new good poems from the next couple of days be included directly?”