The Prime Minister's Darling

Chapter 267: 153 Recognizing Relatives (second update)

Chapter 267: 153 Recognizing Relatives (second update)

“Are you here to play cards?” the old lady asked.

The old man was startled.

Play cards?

The old lady said while cracking melon seeds, “We won’t play the leaf game today, we’ll play Pai Gow, starting at fifty copper plates.”

What was the Empress Dowager talking about? What leaf game? What Pai Gow?

The old man looked at the Empress Dowager intently, slowly standing up from the ground, he realized that the woman was a spitting image of the Empress Dowager, but her attire and demeanor were not so.

“What are you looking at?” the old lady asked impatiently.

“You… don’t recognize me anymore?” the old man asked, pointing to himself.

Upon his saying this, the old lady began to look at him closely.

He was not a bad looking man.

Somewhat familiar, too.

Where had she seen him before?

The old lady no longer remembered things from the past, and occasionally, fragments of memories came to her, but they were all quite disjointed.

But this old man gave her a slightly unusual feeling.

And wasn’t that unusual?

In the past, the old sacrificial wine master had often clashed with the Empress Dowager Zaung when he was in office.

He was a conservative, firmly opposed to the meddling of the imperial harem in politics, especially when women sat behind the curtain to rule the country.

Back in the days of the late emperor, the old sacrificial wine master had submitted several court papers urging the late emperor to dispose of the Empress Dowager, accusing her of being a demon who deceived the harem, allowed her relatives to meddle in politics, and was ruthless and murderous.

The Empress Dowager had once been relegated to the cold palace by the late emperor, thanks to the old sacrificial wine master.

Although she managed to walk out of the cold palace within half a year thanks to her superior palace fighting skills, she had lost half a year’s worth of silver, and had invested a lot of her previous savings.

Cutting off her money, was like killing her parents!

After that, the Empress Dowager considered the old sacrificial wine master a thorn in her flesh.

The old sacrificial wine master’s banishment to the border lands for five years, his suffering, and his aging were all orchestrated by the Empress Dowager.

The two fought fiercely until the late emperor died, the Empress Dowager killed the crown prince and hoisted the son of Imperial Consort Jing onto the throne, becoming the all-powerful Empress Dowager.

Only then was a temporary victory declared between the two.

The reason why it was temporary was that the old sacrificial wine master controlled the Guozijian, where all the most talented young people in the Zhan country were gathered.

Exaggeratively, the old sacrificial wine master controlled the future of the Zhan country.

The Empress Dowager Zaung schemed to take over the power of the Guozijian, at that time, Prince An was about to return to the country, the Empress Dowager Zaung proposed to the Emperor to establish a junior sacrificial wine position in the Guozijian.

The Emperor agreed, but the person who was conferred the title of junior sacrificial wine was not the Empress Dowager’s grandnephew, but the young Master Zhaodu.

This young master was a disciple of the old sacrificial wine master.

The Empress Dowager had an indescribable feeling of disturbance raging in her heart.

The old sacrificial wine master laughed.

It seemed like the old sacrificial wine master had won this round.

However, not long after, on New Year’s Eve, the Guozijian suddenly flooded, and the young Master Zhaodu was burned to death in a large fire.

…

The old man had not reminisced about the past for a long time since retiring from his post. But the sudden sight of the Empress Dowager drew his thoughts back to the bloody and stormy court.

The old lady asked with a puzzled face, “Why don’t you talk? Why do you look at me with such a complicated look? And why do I feel a bit complicated when I see you?”

It’s that indescribable kind of complicated, as if the two were arch-enemies, and she wished she could grab a knife and cut him down!

Wait a moment.

Grab a knife and cut him down?

The old lady looked at the old man suspiciously.

They knew each other, as can be ascertained from his gaze and his words.

He was quite scared of her.

He dared not look her in the eye. He seemed a bit guilty.

And he knelt down as soon as he saw her, how much he must have wronged her?

“I know who you are!” The old lady had a flash of insight and tossed her melon seed onto the table, “Were you the one who abandoned me… and came looking for me again, you heartbreaker?”

The old man: “…!!”

Gu Jiao and Gu Yan returned first, and as they walked through the passageway, they noticed an extra person in the backyard.

Gu Jiao thought he looked quite familiar.

Mostly because his face no longer bore the imprint of a shoe, she failed to recognize him at first.

“Grandmother?” Gu Jiao questioned with a glance.

The old lady gave the trembling unfaithful man a look of dissatisfaction and sighed, “Your grandfather.”

Gu Jiao: “…”

Gu Xiaoshun: “…”

Xiao Liulang, Gu Yan, Xiaojingkong and others arrived post, arms laden with packages, and a carriage full of New Year goodies trailing behind them.

The group, along with the cart driver, began to unload the New Year goods from the carriage.

Xiao Liulang, holding a jug of oil, went in, and like Gu Jiao and Gu Xiaoshun, he stopped in his tracks as soon as he walked through the passageway.

In the courtyard sat the old lady, Gu Jiao, Gu Xiaoshun and an old man who was not trembling as much but still quite pale.