Do You Know?: Rule the World

"I've heard about the Bai family's affairs a long time ago. We are destined to meet. Since you've asked me for help, I'll help you."

Zhao Han said quietly that he helped Gu Tingye out of some selfish motives.

Gu Tingye is a man of extraordinary skills, righteousness and hatred of evil. It would be very beneficial for me to make friends with him.

What's more, he will be the heir to the title and family business of Ningyuan Marquis Mansion in the future.

"Thank you, Brother Zhao! When I take back the Bai family's assets, I will personally host a banquet for you!"

Tingye's eyes were filled with gratitude, and he clasped his hands together and bowed deeply.

After the candidates in the other courtyard dispersed, Zhao Han personally brought him to Lord Zheng and Sheng Hong.

After the reason was explained, the two looked at each other, weighing the pros and cons in their minds.

Sheng Hong was naturally happy to help Gu Tingye. After all, he was about to enter the capital, and it would be a great thing to make the Ningyuan Marquisate owe him a favor.

Seeing that Lord Zheng seemed to have some concerns, Gu Tingye bowed and said, "When I take back the property, I will issue an order to all shops to prevent them from bullying and dominating the market. In addition, I am willing to donate 10,000 taels of silver to repair the river."

"Gu Erlang is very understanding and righteous. Tomorrow I will accompany you to the Bai family!" Lord Zheng stroked his beard and smiled, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Gu Tingye changed a little.

Please give me a monthly ticket~Please give me a monthly ticket~

Chapter 14 Visiting to express thanks

The next morning, Wuyi Lane, Bai's house.

When Old Master Bai was buried, not only did the clan elders gather together, but several officials and wealthy people from Yangzhou also gathered there.

Just as Bai Ting was preparing to break up the tiles and raise the coffin, Gu Tingye, dressed in plain white mourning clothes and a hemp rope tied around his waist, appeared in front of everyone with a solemn expression, led by Zheng Xian and Zhao Han.

"Second brother, you are finally here!"

Bai's personal maid, Nanny Chang, was both delighted and surprised. She couldn't wait to step forward and pull Gu Tingye's sleeve, her voice choked with sobs.

"You...how did you..."

Bai Tingyu widened his eyes, paused, and looked at Gu Tingye who suddenly appeared in disbelief.

He had clearly sent someone to secretly kill Gu Tingye, and his body was now in his private residence.

He had personally examined the body and it was undoubtedly Gu Tingye.

"Bai Tingyu, you are so bold! You actually dared to seize the family property and hire someone to assassinate the eldest son of the Marquisate!"

"I didn't expect that Yangzhou City is really full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers!"

Zheng Xian snorted coldly, and the power accumulated over many years as an official was released at this moment, and the mourning hall was silent.

The elders of the Bai family looked at each other in bewilderment. Although they had accepted the benefits given to them by Bai Ting in advance and unanimously recommended him to inherit the family business, they were unaware of the assassination of Gu Tingye.

Gu Tingye clenched his fists, stared at Bai Tingyu angrily and said, "The corpse now parked in your private residence is my servant, Zhique!"

"If Zhique and I weren't 70% similar, I'm afraid you wouldn't let it go!"

Bai Ting knew in advance what the crime of assassinating the eldest son of the Marquis's family was. His face turned pale and cold sweat kept oozing from his forehead.

"Bai Tingyu, do you plead guilty?" Zheng Xian's voice was neither cold nor indifferent.

Bai Tingyu glanced at the clan elders around him and saw that no one spoke up to defend him. Now that the evidence was irrefutable, he had no choice but to bow his head and say, "I plead guilty. I hired the killer."

As soon as these words were spoken, the accompanying yamen runners stepped forward and firmly grasped his arms.

Bai Tingyu's face was sinister. He looked up at Gu Tingye and said through gritted teeth, "I'm not the only one who wants you dead. If I die, you'll soon come down to accompany me!"

Gu Tingye frowned, but soon calmed down and took out the will that the old man had sent to him before his death.

Everyone just thought that Bai Ting was speaking harshly as he was about to die.

After the announcement, the clan elders looked at each other with different expressions, and were obviously dissatisfied with it.

"This is the livelihood of the Bai family, hundreds of people in the family. They worship at the ancestral tombs and temples all year round, and the family academy and charity hall are all dependent on this. It's not just Uncle's family business!"

"What's the point of handing everything over to someone from another family? I think my uncle is probably sick and confused!"

Bai Tingsong, the heir of the third branch of the Bai family, started to cry out. If all the Bai family's property was handed over to Gu Tingye, everyone in his second branch would be left with nothing.

"Yes, in my opinion, this will was clearly forged by you!"

"How could my uncle hand over the family business to a dissolute person like you!" The people from the second house echoed.

Gu Tingye had a notoriously bad reputation in the city of Bianjing. He was known for sleeping with prostitutes, being extremely naughty, and being absurd. He had all kinds of bad reputations. So his words were quite convincing.

"Since none of you elders are willing to acknowledge this matter, then I will not give you any face."

"In addition to this will, I also have a letter in my hand!"

Gu Tingye's grandfather was the eldest son of the Bai family. He lost his father at a young age and his uncles in the clan tried to seize his inherited land. The mother and son were driven out of the house and their names were not even on the family tree.

Later, when the Bai family saw that Old Master Bai had accumulated a huge fortune, had only one daughter, and was married into the Ningyuan Marquis's Mansion in Bian Jing, they all came to join him.

Old Master Bai repaid their kindness with kindness and took them in.

Gu Tingye slapped the letter in front of everyone, and then said, "You can check the family tree!"

Several elderly elders looked very embarrassed. They really didn't expect that the old man would write down this matter.

"What else do you have to say? Why don't you return the deeds of the Bai family's various shops to Gu Erlang as soon as possible!" Sheng Hong flicked his long sleeves and shouted loudly.

Since Old Master Bai was removed from the family tree, he is no longer considered a member of the Bai family, and this property naturally has nothing to do with the Bai family.

With the prefect and the magistrate present, everyone had no choice but to follow Sheng Hong's orders reluctantly.

Gu Tingye picked up the earthenware jar in front of Old Master Bai's spirit and threw it heavily to the ground.

-

After finishing the business with the Bai family, Sheng Hong and Wang Ruofu set off for Runzhou with the three siblings Hualan, Changbai and Rulan to bid farewell to the Wang family.

Before leaving, Sheng Hong handed over all the affairs of the mansion to Lin Qinshuang.

Speaking of Zhao’s house, Gu Tingye came here today to thank Zhao Han for the introduction.

In the main hall of the front yard, Zhao Han personally held the pot to pour wine, and the two of them drank and chatted happily, getting along quite well.

When they were chatting enthusiastically, Gu Tingye suddenly put down the wine glass in his hand, let out a heavy sigh, and a layer of gloom hung between his brows.

"Brother Zhao, to be honest, I've had something on my mind for the past few days that's been keeping me awake and unable to eat or sleep."

Zhao Han raised his eyebrows slightly and said in a serious tone, "Zhong Huai, please feel free to speak. Although we have only known each other for a short time, we feel like old friends from the moment we meet. Perhaps I can still help you with some of the questions."

"On the day of my grandfather's funeral, Bai Tingyu said that he wasn't the only one who wanted me dead. At first I thought he was trying to scare me, but when I thought about it more carefully, I felt something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what it was."

"I came to Yangzhou this time, hiding my identity. No one knew my identity except the deceased Zhique. Yet, I was assassinated shortly after arriving in Yangzhou. It's really strange."

After saying that, Gu Tingye raised his hand and frowned.

Zhao Han pondered for a moment, then asked, "Does anyone in Bianjing know about your itinerary?"

"I only left letters at home before I left."

"In my opinion, someone must have rushed to let the Bai family know you were coming to Yangzhou first. I'm afraid that every dock and inn would be filled with their spies during those few days."

"Did you offend someone at home? They're trying so hard to take your life. You better be more careful from now on!"

Gu Tingye's expression froze when he heard this.

"My father definitely can't do that. My third brother is still a child who knows nothing about the world. The only people I can think of are my stepmother and my eldest brother."

Ningyuan Marquis Gu Yankai married three wives in total. The first one was Daqin, the eldest daughter of Dongchang Marquis.

Daqin was weak and sickly, and had been plagued by illness since childhood.

At first glance, it was obvious that she was in danger of losing her life, and the same was true for her eldest son, Gu Tingyu.

At that time, the Ministry of Revenue had a huge deficit. After investigation by the Imperial City Bureau, it was discovered that many powerful and meritorious officials had borrowed money from the Ministry of Revenue.

The emperor was furious and ordered the nobles to be stripped of their titles and exiled if they did not pay off the deficit within six months.

Among them, the Ningyuan Marquisate owed 880,000 taels of silver, which they could not repay even if they sold all their property.

It happened that Da Qin passed away due to illness. In order to keep the title, the Gu family turned their attention to the Bai family in Yangzhou.

The Gu family needs the Bai family's money to fill the deficit, and Old Master Bai hopes that his daughter will marry into a wealthy family to improve the family's status.

After the two families discussed it, Bai came with a dowry of one million taels of silver and became Gu Yankai's second wife.

Unfortunately, just a few years later, when Gu Tingye was still an infant, Bai died of complications during childbirth.

Under everyone's persuasion, Gu Yankai married Da Qin's younger sister Xiao Qin as his wife.

The third brother that Gu Tingye mentioned was the son of Xiao Qin, named Gu Tingwei.

Asking for a monthly ticket~

Chapter 15 Zheng Burke and Duan Yuyan

"How do your stepmother and elder brother treat you on a daily basis?" Zhao Han asked softly.

Gu Tingye knew that Zhao Han was someone he could make close friends with, so he answered without hiding anything: "My eldest brother is distant and cold to me, and sometimes even looks at me as if I were his enemy. However, his old illness has relapsed recently. If the imperial physician had not arrived in time, he would have nearly died. He probably would have killed me."

"My stepmother..." Gu Tingye hesitated for a moment before speaking, "She treats me very well, sometimes even leaving me at a loss."

"I spent a fortune in brothels and even stayed away from home for several days, and she never complained."

"Whenever my father beat or scolded me, she would desperately protect me, even arguing with him until her face turned red. Everyone in Bianjing praised my stepmother for her virtue and love for her stepson."

"If you say she has any intention to harm me, I can't believe it."

Zhao Han tapped lightly on the table with his slender fingertips, at a steady pace.

"Zhong Huai's words remind me of the story of Duke Zheng defeating Duke Duan in Yuyan."

"Duke Zhuang of Zheng condoned his younger brother Gongshu Duan's misdeeds and kept silent about his mother, Lady Wu Jiang's partiality. Everyone praised his generosity and benevolence, but little did they know he had already laid a net, waiting only for Gongshu Duan to commit enough evil so he could legitimately eliminate him."

Gu Tingye's eyebrows suddenly jumped, and an indescribable fear surged in his heart.

He couldn't help but recall that the first time he entered the gambling house was because of the instigation of the servants in Xiao Qin's courtyard.

It was Xiao Qin who helped him keep it a secret when he stayed overnight at Yiyun Tower for the first time.

Even if he committed a terrible crime, Xiao Qin would use his young age as an excuse to defend him.

Every detail is very similar to the methods used by Duke Zhuang of Zheng.