Gu Youyou took another sip of porridge and said indifferently, "My mother was exceptionally intelligent, so I suppose I take after her."
"But I watched your mother grow up, and she had no such issue," the Lin Family Madam said.
Gu Youyou said, "But she also learned to read without being taught, and knew many unfathomable things without instruction."
Madam Lin felt a pang in her heart and upon reflection, she realized that her eldest daughter was indeed like that.
Yet, over the years, she had grown accustomed to her daughter’s differences and had seen nothing wrong with them.
What did it matter if she had given birth to a pair of unparalleled children?
"Grandmother, if you believe my mother was born with exceptional intelligence, why can’t you believe in Youyou for once? If you truly don’t believe, you can ask around. Youyou entered that room when she was seven and has never left for ten years. Everyone in the Gu Family knows this; a simple inquiry will reveal the truth!"
Madam Lin’s head buzzed with noise.
Thinking about it, all the extraordinary intelligent traits her daughter displayed came rushing back to her. Once she started thinking, she couldn’t stop.
No one taught her, yet she could read, and she even taught Xingyi to read from a young age. When speaking to others, she claimed that she learned by watching Xingyi practice writing.
She could do accounts, conduct business, and make strange pastries unseen by the world. Since her death, Madam Lin had never again tasted those pastries. Desperately wanting them, Xingyi had people search throughout Jiangnan but never found a chef who could make them.
Madam Lin looked up at Gu Youyou, her voice trembling as she asked, "What exactly are you... why?"
She couldn’t even voice what they were.
Gu Youyou said, "Grandmother, since my mother never told you, she must have had her reasons. Today, Youyou cannot tell you either. Can you trust me, trust my mother?"
"Trust..." Of course, she trusted.
They were no ordinary mother and daughter.
Tears streamed from Madam Lin’s aged eyes, and she couldn’t hold them back. She wept alone at the side of the table for a long, long time!
Her eldest daughter had toiled her whole life for that family. It was she who took the family from poverty to riches, and that’s how the Lin Family had achieved its current splendor.
It was a pity that Heaven was blind and took her away at such a young age.
Gu Youyou sat across from her, unmoving, knowing that the old lady needed time to accept all this.
After returning from Jinxiu City, the second young master Xie found himself uneasy and returned to Jinxiu City within a couple of days, where he had now stayed for five days. He held a nominal position at the Ministry of Works—a job although nominal, required daily attendance. Absent for five days, the Ministry began to express its dissatisfaction, and the Minister of Public Works asked Master Xie upon leaving the court, "Master Xie, your son has not been seen for many days. Is there an issue at home?"
Every mention of his son annoyed Master Xie, and he retorted gruffly, "Didn’t I say he was on leave?"
Rank and position dominate in bureaucracy, and Master Xie was two whole ranks higher than the Minister of Public Works. Thus, the minister had no choice but to respond with an apologetic smile, "What has happened to the second young master? May I ask how long he plans to take off?"
A leave, he had assumed, meant a day or two at most. It was normal for a young man to want to play for a couple of days occasionally.
But with the second young master Xie absent from the Ministry for five days, the Minister of Public Works, naturally, had to inquire.
Master Xie snorted coldly, "He’s ill. Who knows how long he will need? You might as well consider him dead out there for all I care."
The minister was sweating profusely!
It was rumored that Master Xie and his second son were at such odds that they were on the verge of severing their father-son relationship, and it seemed to be true.