Time Travel: The Best Doctor in Ancient Times

Chapter 386: Chapter 257: The Ostentatious Vixen Chapter 386: Chapter 257: The Ostentatious Vixen The father and daughter spoke for a while longer before each going their separate ways.

Gu Changsheng stood in the courtyard, gazing at the star-studded, boundless night sky, and couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

Her days were truly full of ups and downs, incessant troubles surged one after another, and just as things had settled down for a few days, unexpected turmoil arose again…

This time, Zhou Mu, that evildoer, insisted that she stay out of it!

Helpless about this, Gu Changsheng could only accept it.

She was someone very aware of her limitations; now, with not only eight hundred of her men but also two maidens at Baili Mountain, she was alone and unsupported in Liuzhou City…

Gu Changsheng gazed at the night sky, her eyes filled with determination.

Give her one year! Just one year! She would no longer need to cowardly hide under Zhou Mu’s wings, letting him painstakingly protect and shelter her!

Gu Changsheng, who always believed in self-reliance, preferred to stand by her own capabilities!

Gu Changsheng stood alone in the courtyard for a while, thinking of her runaway son, her lips curling into a bittersweet smile.

This Little Meat Bun, what should she do with him?

Being a mother is tough! Gu Changsheng sighed and walked toward her Cool Breeze Tower.

Gu Changsheng, being carefree, wasn’t troubled by these matters to the point of losing sleep, so she went upstairs, hugged her blanket, and slept soundly without any care for appearances.

After a good night’s sleep, Gu Changsheng woke up early the next day. Today, without her Little Meat Bun son to accompany her, she exercised alone at the martial arts training ground, feeling like something was missing.

“Madam, are we really not going to bring the Young Master back?” Dong Lei asked as he packed things up.

“Ah…” Gu Changsheng sighed. She finally understood why she felt this anxiety; her Little Meat Bun was still fostered at the Cool Breeze Bright Moon Tower…

“Let’s not. If we don’t let him learn his lesson, he’ll skip out again!” Gu Changsheng said resolutely.

This Little Meat Bun had a history of running away; she couldn’t let him develop this bad habit.

She must correct him this time to deter him from doing it again!

“Alright…” Dong Lei reluctantly nodded and bowed before leaving.

Having Si Xi around to attend to Madam, she finally had time to tend to her own matters.

Thus, Dong Lei, carrying a vegetable basket, ran to the market, thinking as she ran that Yuan Bao had delivered plenty of storable vegetables yesterday, so today she would just buy some seasonal ones.

The market was not as deserted as the day before; Dong Lei breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this.

It was fortunate that there were people.

Even if there were still no vendors selling vegetables today, the house wouldn’t run out of vegetables to cook; however, her Madam was quite particular, and if there were no seasonal vegetables, she would definitely be unhappy!

However, as soon as Dong Lei entered the market, she noticed something amiss.

Despite the busy trade, where it was usually a husband and wife both tending the stall, today, it was all women selling vegetables…

Seeing each of these vegetable-selling madams with a resigned expression, Dong Lei’s curiosity deepened, and she approached a familiar stall to pick vegetables while seemingly casually asking, “Sister-in-law, what’s going on? Why are you the only one tending the stall today, is Big Brother Loh busy with something?”

Dong Lei hadn’t even finished asking when the Loh family daughter-in-law’s expression worsened, she sighed darkly and said, “Ah Miss Dong, you shouldn’t have asked this, you asking just adds to my irritation!”

The market was mostly frequented by women, including housewives from ordinary families and maids from affluent households, and familiar faces inevitably exchanged a few words.

Where there were women, there was gossip; the speed at which news spread was unimaginably fast.

Upon hearing this, Dong Lei quickly asked, “What happened exactly, you look so upset, sister-in-law!”

“It’s my good-for-nothing husband, ignoring his business to chase after pretty girls!” The Loh family daughter-in-law said angrily as she threw a handful of vegetables onto the stall.

Her voice carried to the neighboring stalls, and soon, several other women buying vegetables gathered around, sharing a united front of indignation.

“It’s not just your husband who’s good for nothing! Didn’t mine run off too?”

“Exactly, just because she’s a bit prettier, does she need to parade around like a Fox Spirit?”

“If you ask me, she’s definitely a Fox Spirit. Look around the market, do you see any men? They’ve all gone to gawk at her! She really knows how to ensnare men, that Vixen!”

“You can’t be careless with your words. Didn’t you see yesterday? Miss Huo is said to be a person who brings the omen of ‘Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix’!”

As soon as Dong Lei heard about Miss Huo, her eyes instantly widened, and she perked up her ears in fear of missing anything.

Miss Huo, who attracted the auspicious sign of “Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix”, wasn’t she the Miss Huo from Prince Mu’s Mansion! That was her lady’s rival in love!

Her lady had said, knowing the enemy as well as oneself ensures victory in every battle! So, gathering information about the enemy was crucial!

“Sisters-in-law, I’m all confused by what you’re saying, what exactly happened?” Dong Lei pretended to be puzzled and scratched her head, asking curiously.

“Oh! Miss Dong, you don’t know, early this morning, that Miss Huo just left Prince Mu’s Mansion.”

“Yes, she went to Delicacies Square to buy some pastries, supposedly to serve Prince Mu as a breakfast treat!”

“And what’s the issue with that?” Dong Lei quietly noted this to herself and asked aloud.

“What’s the issue with that? Miss Dong, you’re still too young, you should know that the pastries from Delicacies Square are famous far and wide, they only make a hundred servings a day, and people queuing up at the door could fill half a street!”

“So that day, Miss Huo, the number one beauty of the city, went to queue up ostentatiously, and along the way, all the men in town hearing the news were lured there!”

“She is absolutely a vixen, you should have seen how she bewitched those men, as if they’d lost their souls.”

“Don’t say that, she is a noble person decreed by Heaven, what if our words offend her and we invite Heavenly Punishment?” a timid Madam fearfully interjected.

“All the men have been lured away, seeing that businesses are not running, life can’t go on; who cares about what kind of Heavenly Punishment?” another bold Madam immediately retorted.

“Exactly, if you ask me, whatever auspicious omens they talk about, she’s nothing but a reincarnated Fox Spirit!”

“Seriously, what’s so great about being beautiful? Using her looks to seduce other people’s men? She’s nothing but a Fox Spirit!”

“It’s also because our men are no good, all of them lost and mesmerized!” finally, a smart woman chimed in.

Dong Lei quickly nodded; her lady had said that all crows under the heavens are black, not a single man is up to any good!

Looking at it that way, she wasn’t wrong!

While a few stall-owning sisters continued to curse in righteous indignation, Dong Lei nimbly picked some vegetables, paid the silver, and hurried back to the mansion.

This was big news indeed; she must tell her lady.

No sooner had she entered the mansion than she rushed straight to where Gu Changsheng was and started shouting while running, “My lady, terrible news, my lady, terrible news…”

While organizing herbs in the Medicine Tower, Gu Changsheng was startled and looked blankly at Si Xi by her side, speaking wordlessly, “See, I told you, I am just a disaster-prone Monk Tang!”

Look, just a morning outing to buy groceries, and this girl brings back bad news.

Gu Changsheng felt her heart had been trained strong enough to take any shock.

“Bring it on! Let the storm rage fiercer; I’m really fed up!” Fuming, she threw down the Angelica Dahurica in her hand and shouted, heading downstairs.

Damn it, was this her stepping up to meet difficulties?

All day it’s this trouble or that issue, making her feel almost at her wits’ end! Why can’t there ever be any good news?

“My lady…” Dong Lei, out of breath, vegetables in her basket a complete mess, saw her lady coming out to meet her and hurriedly called out.

“Stop!” Gu Changsheng swiftly raised a hand and stopped her, looking at Dong Lei with resignation, “Xiao Leizi, I don’t know if you are tired of being alarmed every day; at any rate, it’s tiring for your lady here. Hold your tongue, and let me finish.”

“There’s a verse that goes like this: ‘Unperturbed by favor or disgrace, leisurely watching the flowers bloom and fall; indifferent to coming or going, casually following the clouds rolling and relaxing in the sky.’ Xiao Leizi, even if you can’t reach such a state, at the very least, you should learn to shut the door and live your own leisurely life. We can’t keep fretting over every little gossip and say this is bad or that is bad, you get it?”

Dong Lei blankly nodded, then shook her head again.

What did her lady mean? What she said had nothing to do with the news she was about to report, right? Dong Lei pondered slowly to herself.

With a headache, Gu Changsheng rubbed her forehead and compromised, “Alright, since you don’t get this, let’s switch to something you can understand–shut the door and mind our own lives, let others go to hell! As long as they don’t come knocking on our door, why bother shouting about everything every day?”

“Uh…” Dong Lei truly understood this time…

“So, Xiao Leizi, don’t be overly anxious; we haven’t reached the point of being besieged on all sides. Living our days in peace is still possible…” as Gu Changsheng spoke, she pointed at Dong Lei’s basket of vegetables and winked, saying, “But if you go out like this and only come back with a few bunches of spinach, our peaceful days really can’t continue…”

Dong Lei, following the direction of Gu Changsheng’s pointing, looked towards her basket and indeed, apart from a few clumped-up bunches of spinach, there was nothing else.

“Ah! I was all focused on coming back to report to my lady, I actually forgot to buy some other vegetables…” Dong Lei exclaimed guiltily, shocked at having neglected her duty as a kitchen maid.

Woe! Her lady was certainly going to despise her now…

Watching her little Xiao Leizi’s eyes begin to mist, Gu Changsheng felt a pang of sympathy and quickly stepped forward, bending down to look directly into Dong Lei’s eyes, nervously saying, “Damn it, Xiao Leizi, you better not cry now! I didn’t scold you! Come on, you just said there was terrible news, what is it, spit it out…”