Chapter 14. In the beginning, Yun Ke was extremely disdainful towards her. In the previous life, he even made Du Xia, who was still a guard at that time, stand-in for him when he married her as a concubine. When Gu Yu Qi married Yun Ke that night, she never even saw his face.

How pitiful!

So Gu Yu Qi had a deep impression of Du Xia. Although he was a stand-in, the person who had performed the rituals of the wedding ceremony with Gu Yu Qi in the previous life was indeed Du Xia. Moreover, there had been several accidents afterwards where Gu Yu Qi had survived thanks to Du Xia’s rescue.

She admired Du Xia very much in her last life, but she had just admired him. Du Xia also knew his identity and kept a distance that a guard should have towards Gu Yu Qi.

It was only after she met the young Du Xia in the servant market just then that she had the idea of marrying Du Xia if she really had to marry someone in this life.

She could not escape the hurdle of getting married. Although the Marquis’ residence was not short of money, they had no reason to raise a daughter for life. Since she had to get married, it was better to marry a man that she knew had good roots.

Du Xia was a legendary good man.

Not only was he born handsome and became a noble minister at a young age, but he also only married one wife by the time Gu Yu Qi died. Yun Ke, who had already ascended the throne, gave him a palace maid to marry. It was rumoured that Du Xia was very kind to that wife and the backyard was as clean as a blank piece of paper. Gu Yu Qi had learned of this when listening to the gossip of the other palace maids in the cold palace. At that time, all of the maids in the entire palace were envious of the person who married Du Xia, saying that she was really lucky.

At the most bitter time, Gu Yu Qi even thought that if she had not liked Yun Ke, but Du Xia, then her fate would have been different.

Gu Yu Qi smiled bitterly and retracted her thoughts.

In the previous life, Du Xia’s wife was a palace maid. Could it be that she would have to infiltrate the palace, and then wait for Yun Ke to give her to him after he ascended the throne? These odds were even smaller than the odds of winning a lottery ticket!

Not to mention that there were a thousand maids in the palace. With her status as the Marquis’ daughter, how could she enter the palace to be a maid? Entering the palace was tantamount to throwing herself into a net. She did not want to be associated with Yun Ke at all for life. Even saying a single sentence to him felt excessive, let alone telling her to enter the palace.

Of course, she had thought about doing the same as her previous life, marrying Yun Ke on the surface but then knocking out Du Xia when he came to stand-in for Yun Ke at the wedding and abducting him. It was quite enjoyable to think about it, but what about after the kidnapping? If a concubine of the palace eloped with a guard, there would definitely be no place for Gu Yu Qi and Du Xia in the Qi Dynasty. For someone like Yun Ke who was cold and unloving, he would definitely hunt them down to the ends of the earth. At that time, what would become of Liang Huai Yu? She would also have ruined Du Xia’s splendid future.

She could not cut off someone’s prospects and put her mother in danger for her own temporary happiness.

How could she get close to Du Xia without being discovered by Yun Ke? She would also have to steal Du Xia’s heart away from under Yun Ke’s eyes.

If Gu Yu Qi remembered correctly, Du Xia was one year older than her. It was just because of long-term malnutrition that he did not grow and was as thin as a child. Seeing him after five years was like looking at a different person.

The best thing to do was to marry Du Xia when he was sent to the military for training. By that time, she would be 15 years old! Not only would she avoid Yun Ke, but she would not delay Du Xia’s future.

It was just that as a dignified daughter of the Marquis, she would have married an unknown secret guard of the palace. No matter how you looked at it, it made no sense.

So troublesome! Gu Yu Qi held her head and sat back down again.

Yan Zhi, who was waiting by her side, was confused as she saw her young miss stand up then sit back down again, her expression sometimes bright and sometimes sad. She was so scared that she reached out to touch her young miss’ forehead for fear that she had caught some evil wind when she went out.

Gu Yu Qi could neither laugh nor cry at Yan Zhi’s actions. She could only say that she was bored from sitting in the room and wanted to go for a walk.

Yan Zhi took a cape and put it on Gu Yu Qi; then she followed behind her out of the Dan Xia courtyard.

The winter garden was desolate. It was still early in the winter season and the plum blossoms in the corner had not budded yet so there was not much to see. However, Gu Yu Qi was distracted and wandered aimlessly.

Unconsciously, she walked to the back door with Yan Zhi, then she halted her footsteps.

Through the flowered window on the low wall of the garden, she caught a glimpse of a man in cyan clothing being let in by a maid through the back door.

She knew the maid belonged to Concubine Liu’s Ming Yue Ju and she was dressed in the light blue clothes of a second class maid.

It was approaching dusk so it was not bright. The cyan-clothed man bowed his head. Gu Yu Qi could not see what the man looked like, but based on his stature, he should be a young man. He held a bag in his hand and seemed to have come from far away as helooked travel-worn.

The little maid looked around alertly and Gu Yu Qi hurriedly pulled Yan Zhi. The two of them lowered their heads behind the low wall. Gu Yu Qi’s heart was suddenly beating a few times faster. The maid had turned around so suddenly that she had been startled.

Yan Zhi was obedient to Gu Yu Qi. Gu Yu Qi had already gestured at her to be silent, so she would not make any sound.

Gu Yu Qi hid for a while and listened carefully, but could only hear light footsteps. Knowing that they had left, she and Yan Zhi stuck their heads out and looked through the flower window again. Sure enough, the maid had not noticed her and Yan Zhi, and led the man into the courtyard.

Gu Yu Qi looked thoughtfully at their backs as they left. She stood by the low wall for a long time. Then she saw the two servants who guarded at the back door hurriedly rush back.

Gu Yu Qi raised her eyebrows. She had been fishy, avoiding people and deliberately opening the back door.

A little maid would not have been capable of doing that, transferring servants of the house then letting a stranger into the Marquis’ residence. There were very few people in this house who could do this.