Hearing what Madame Deng said, the other ladies started to look at Gu Chaoyan ironically.
Some of them did not want to share the table with Gu Chaoyan, and some just did not think she was a good suitor for Lord Huai. Although Lord Huai had a bad temper, he was a man with a noble position and those young ladies in the capital would very much want to become a Princess Consort as well. So they felt extremely displeased when the position was taken by someone else.
So when Madame Deng raised the topic, the other ladies had nothing to fear any more.
“Oh yes, we are not that noble, yet we are still wives of those important ministers. We have no intention of eating with a thief. That would just make us look lower in status.” Another lady stressed.
Gu Chaoyan had intended to take the seat, but she was pushed out after a few words.
Gu Xiuying did not care about her situation. Instead, she just sat down to watch the show.
Gu Chaoyan did not expect that Gu Xiuying would help her either, so Gu Chaoyan asked politely, “Are you talking about me, Madame Deng?”
“You are the Elder Miss of the Gu Family, I am not wrong, am I?” Madame Deng said straightforwardly.
Gu Chaoyan nodded. She admitted. “I am.”
Back in the court, she also heard the gossip. So she was aware that those strangers might have been those who dared not offend her earlier, so they hid the gossip behind her back.
The original host did not steal stuff when she was little either, but Mrs. Gu blackened her reputation, so the rumor became that Elder Miss was a thief.
Since someone mentioned that right now, Gu Chaoyan had nothing to fear.
So if Mrs. Gu insisted that she stole stuff, then she could say that she did.
Gu Chaoyan looked far into the distance as if trying to remember something. “I am the Elder Miss, and I stole stuff when I was little.”
Sword One looked worried and reminded her with a small voice. “Miss!”
Gu Chaoyan continued as if she heard nothing. “You may not know what I stole – it was some steamed buns! I was too famished, and the food I received from the servants were all rotten, so I truly wanted to eat some steamed buns, which I had to steal.”
“…”
“My mother passed away before I got a sense of everything around me. Me and my maid Qing have to rely on ourselves. No one taught me not to steal servants’ steamed buns. Qing is a maid, so she did not dare to lecture me.”
“…”
“If my mom had been alive, she would have taught me not to do so.” Gu Chaoyan said as tears dripped down along her cheeks.
“I made those mistakes when I was little. I am not sure why what happened inside the mansion would be spread around to everyone on the street. Some of them have become so exaggerated and they claim that I stole stuff, but it was just a steamed bun.” Gu Chaoyan said with a very saddened tone.
Madame Deng almost felt like crying as she heard what Gu Chaoyan said. She had not expected that the truth was so twisting and winding.
As she thought through the whole thing carefully enough, she realized that it was purposeful that Elder Miss’s thieving behavior got spread around the whole capital, when the family rumors should be kept within.
And also, the Elder Miss was a Miss, how could a Miss end up stealing a steamed bun? That basically meant that her life inside the mansion was full of difficulty.