After seeing off Wang Dachong, Gu Bailu was still upset and felt that there was a knot in her heart.
The man who had always been nice to her suddenly threw her away. She had every reason to be upset.
Gu Bailu wondered why it had taken her so long to feel this way.
She read books for a while but didn’t really absorb anything. She cultivated for a couple of hours and made little progress.
Unable to fall asleep, she decided to wander outside since the moon was still bright, and see if she could catch a few ghosts.
Gu Bailu roamed the wilderness and returned after she caught the lingering souls of a few animals.
When she lifted her head, she saw that she had gone back to Prince Zi’s house instead of the Gu house.
The gate to Prince Zi’s house was wide open, and even though it was late at night, there weren’t any guards around.
Gu Bailu frowned and was about to go, when she heard someone say, “Hurry up! His lordship needs water! The prince and the princess are in a good mood tonight. We must serve them well.”
Gu Bailu lost her strength and fell to the ground.
She was so familiar with the scenario. Many a night had she heard the same person knocking on the door. “Prince and princess, the hot water is here.”
Feng Qingtian would then help clean her up when she was too exhausted to do it herself.
When they were in the mood, they could even do it a couple of times in the bathroom.
Now, she was outside Prince Zi’s house, and everything in the house was just like before, except that the woman in his bed had changed.
It was now a different person whom he treated gently.
Thinking that, Gu Bailu was nauseated and started to gag.
She trembled uncomfortably when she pictured how the man who had been so intimate with her was now at the side of another woman.
The street was completely empty except for the cold moonlight.
The breeze in early winter was truly freezing.
Gu Bailu came back to herself. She looked at the light in Prince Zi’s study and all the servants who were working dutifully there.
She then turned to her pink cottage, which was utterly dark and lifeless.
Gu Bailu stood up. What could she hope for at a moment like this?
Maybe she had wished that he had truly fallen in love with her before his former lover showed up, and that he would remember her in a day or two.
But she completely abandoned the thought.
Those two were really together now. She wasn’t indispensable for Feng Qingtian. The person he truly loved was his former lover.
She was just a replacement.
Gu Bailu walked the cold streets in her long dress for a long time, and gradually heard the sounds of guards on patrol and of the peddlers who got up early.
She heard stores throwing their doors open, children crying, and women yelling.
Everybody was busy making a living.
As people who lived on the bottom rung of society, they barely had any spiritual power, and got up very early every day in order to earn a few more coppers so that their family could live a better life.
Life wasn’t easy for anyone, and Gu Bailu’s frustration wasn’t a big deal at all.