52 Unknown

Seeing that Gu Yanfei did not speak, the maidservant, Qing Shuang, was a little nervous. Afraid that she would not go, she called out again, “Second Lady?”

“Lead the way,” Gu Yanfei said lightly as she gently stroked her sleeve.

She would go and meet the Duchess and see what the Fang family was after.

Qing Shuang heaved a sigh of relief and quickly reached out her hand. “Second Lady, please follow me.”

Gu Yanfei followed casually. The two of them passed through the outer door and walked past a courtyard paved with limestone bricks before arriving at the main hall of the outer courtyard of the Marquis Mansion.

The five doors of the hall were wide open. Several lanterns were lit inside, illuminating the entire hall.

Madam Gu sat at the head of the table as the host. A man and woman sat on the two rosewood chairs on the left.

The female guest at the bottom was about 35 or 36 years old. She was wearing a ginger-yellow pine crane embroidered with silk. Her figure was slightly plump, and her fair face was slender and noble. There was a distant smile on her lips and her eyes were indifferent.

It was the Duchess.

Sitting beside her was a young man in blue who was about 17 years old. He was tall and handsome.

Surprised to see Fang Mingfeng here, Gu Yanfei raised her eyebrows.

The young maidservant guarding the corridor bowed respectfully. “Second Lady.”

These three words made the three people in the hall realize that Gu Yanfei had arrived. They looked at her with different expressions.

When Fang Mingfeng turned around, the other half of his face was revealed.

The wounds on the left side of his face that had been pierced by the flower thorns had already healed and dislocated, but the new skin was different from the surrounding skin color. It was flesh red, dense, and a little terrifying.

No matter how handsome his face was, it could not be considered good-looking under such circumstances.

As soon as he saw Gu Yanfei, Fang Mingfeng couldn’t help but remember what had happened in Prince Jing’s Manor. The killing intent that he had suppressed for several days surged in his heart again. If not for Gu Yanfei, he and Gu Yunrong would have been together long ago!!

His dark eyes revealed strong ruthlessness and killing intent as he glared at Gu Yanfei.

Gu Yanfei did not stop walking. She calmly carried her skirt and crossed the high threshold of the hall.

As soon as she entered the house, she felt that the atmosphere in the hall was a little off. Madam Gu and the Duchess both had cold expressions. The few young maidservants at the side had their heads lowered and looked like they were keeping quiet out of fear.

The Duchess glanced at Gu Yanfei disdainfully and lowered her head to drink her tea. It was obvious that she did not take Gu Yanfei seriously, just like in her previous life.

Gu Yanfei ignored the strange atmosphere and calmly walked up to Madam Gu. She casually bowed. “Madam.”

Madam Gu, who was sitting at the head of the table, remained silent with a cold expression. Gu Yanfei did not mind and sat down after greeting her.

Ever since Gu Yanfei returned to the Marquis Mansion, Madam Gu had never asked her to come to the morning and evening province. She deliberately treated her coldly to let the entire Marquis Mansion know that she disliked Gu Yanfei.

However, Gu Yanfei had been unmoved these days.

Since Madam Gu did not allow her to pay her respects, Gu Yanfei naturally did not go.

Just like now, Gu Yanfei did not care about Madam Gu’s coldness and disregard at all. She sat elegantly and was at ease in this stiff atmosphere.

Whether it was Madam Gu’s indifference, the Duchess’s disdain, or Fang Mingfeng’s resentment, they all seemed to have nothing to do with her.

After taking two sips of tea, the Duchess put down the tea cup in her hand and broke the silence. “Is Madam Gu really going to break the engagement?”

Her tone was controlled, but she could not hide the aggressiveness in it.

“…” Madam Gu pursed her lips.

She naturally did not want to break the engagement. Breaking the engagement meant that the Gu family had completely offended the Fang family. Not only would the decades of friendship between the two families no longer exist, but they would also become enemies. However, she was even more unwilling to marry Gu Yunrong to Fang Mingfeng.

Although Fang Mingfeng was outstanding, he could not be compared to Kang Wang. Moreover, offending Kang Wang was clearly more serious than offending the Fang family.

Originally, Madam Gu could use Gu Yanfei to brush off the Fang family. However, with Empress Dowager Yuan’s golden words, even if Madam Gu insisted on using Gu Yanfei to replace her, it would not do.

As she was thinking, Madam Gu glanced at Gu Yanfei from the corner of her eye with a throbbing forehead.

Gu Yanfei was simply a jinx!

First, she jinxed her biological mother to death the moment she was born. 14 years later, as soon as she returned to the Marquis Mansion, she jinxed the Gu family, causing everything to go wrong for the Gu family and almost ruining Rong’er’s future.

Madam Gu’s eyes were deep as she suddenly tightened her grip on the prayer bead bracelet. The thoughts that had been circling around her for the past few days came to a conclusion at this moment.

If these two girls had not been secretly exchanged back then, the Marquis Mansion might have been ruined by Gu Yanfei for the past 14 years.

Madam Gu suppressed the frustration in her heart and lowered her status. She sighed at the Duchess and said, “Sigh, it’s my granddaughter’s fault for not being blessed…” She wanted to belittle Gu Yanfei, but after taking a look at Gu Yanfei, she felt that it was unlucky to mention her name. She bit the tip of her tongue and let the salty taste spread in her mouth. “Let’s forget about this marriage.”

Madam Gu’s heart was bleeding as she said the last sentence with difficulty.

Usually, unless they wanted to deliberately disgust the other party, even if one of the parties discussing the marriage withdrew halfway, for the sake of the other party’s reputation, the male party would not make a big deal out of it. Most of the time, they would quietly withdraw the marriage and try not to attract the attention of others. In this way, it would be better for both parties.

Now, Madam Gu’s attitude was clearly agreeing to let the man push all the blame to the woman. Implying that it was the woman who was unlucky could be considered to be avenging the man.

“…” The Duchess’s expression was like dark clouds. Her delicate red hands were clenched in her sleeves, and her eyes flickered with a mixture of resentment, embarrassment, and hesitation.

This was simply a great humiliation to the Fang family! The Duchess wished she could just brush her sleeves and leave, but she still restrained herself.

Of course, Gu Yanfei could tell what Madam Gu meant. Catching the righteous anger and hesitation in the eyes of the Duchess, she fell deep in thought.

Gu Yunrong’s background was unknown now. With the status of the Duchess, she would not be unwilling to let go of this daughter-in-law. As for herself, from her experience in her previous life, the Duchess looked down on her.

Therefore, since things had come to this, logically speaking, the Duchess could just cancel the engagement.

So what was she hesitating about?!

In her previous life, she was really blind. She turned a blind eye to these unreasonable places and sealed herself in a small world…