Gu Xiaowen ran frantically down the walk path toward Si Pangfua, with the scales of broken porcelain trailing behind him. He continued his fierce pursuit, hitting another porcelain lantern hanging on the side of the doorway. With his immense internal strength, he sent the resultant broken porcelain pieces flying straight toward Gu Xiaowen's back. The impact made Gu Xiaowen fall forward onto the walk path. He grabbed a sharp piece of broken porcelain from the floor and flew straight toward his brother, aiming the piece right at Gu Xiaowen's throat.
Si Pangfua, having emerged from her quarters, stood directly behind Gu Yingjie. Her voice, strangely calm amidst the chaos, cut through his murderous rage. "Kill him, you never know why your mother died."
Gu Yingjie faltered, the name of his mother halting his deadly momentum. "My mother..."
Si Pangfua spoke with chilling indifference. "If your mother was just an ordinary woman? Why was she killed secretly?" She looked pointedly at Gu Yingjie. "I may be old, but I'm not stupid. I know why you want to stay in Gu Manor. Your goal is to find out who killed your mother. Am I right?"
Gu Yingjie slowly lowered the porcelain shard; his gaze fixed on her. "You know who killed my mother."
Si Pangfua held her ground. "I don't know, but I happen to know your mother's story."
Gu Yingjie demanded, his voice strained with urgency, "Tell me."
Si Pangfua presented her cold, calculated conditions. "I will only tell you if you let him go and step down from being heir to the leader seat. This leadership seat should belong to one of my sons. If it's not Xiaowen, it will be Gouliang, but it's definitely not you."
Gu Yingjie dropped the piece of broken, sharp porcelain from his hand onto the ground, the sound echoing his defeated rage. He conceded the immediate battle. "Tell me."
Si Pangfua immediately acted on the first part of her bargain. "Xiaotao, take the young master back to the room and let the doctor look at the wound."
Xiao Tao helped the injured Gu Xiaowen up, and the two walked away from Gu Yingjie and Si Pangfua.
Si Pangfua looked at Gu Yingjie, a triumphant gleam in her eyes. "Follow me this way."
When they got inside the guest room, Si Pangfua sat at her chair, gracefully holding up her teacup, and Gu Yingjie sat stiffly on her right.
Si Pangfua began her story, her voice distant, recounting the distant past. "I married your father when I was seventeen. I didn't know your father at that time. The big marriage was between the Gu family and the Si family. Your father and I were engaged when we were born." She took a slow sip of her tea. "One year later, I gave birth to Xiaowen. When I was pregnant with Gouliang, your father brought a young woman home to marry her as his second wife. That woman's name was Gu Qianru."
The young Si Pangfua, heartbroken by her husband's infidelity, cried alone in the temple behind the Guanyin statue. She was startled and awakened by the voices of three people talking. Peeking out, she saw the three were Lao Furen, a strange young woman, and her own husband, Gu Tingfang.
Lao Furen was distraught. "Tingfang, are you crazy? You can't marry her."
Gu Tingfang pleaded, "Mother, we love each other. Please allow this marriage to happen."
"Your father will never allow this to happen. How can Gu marry Gu? This is unacceptable," Lao Furen retorted, revealing a shocking issue with the woman's name.
Gu Tingfang defended his choice. "Why not? Anyway, we are not related by blood. Please, Mother, you and Father asked me to marry Pangfua as arranged by the two families. I only ask you to let me marry the woman I love, the woman I choose. Why can't you agree?"
Lao Furen's resolve wavered. "Tingfang, do you really love her so much?"
"Yes," Gu Tingfang affirmed. "If Mother and Father don't let me marry Qianru, then we will run away together."
"You..." Lao Furen sighed, shaking her head in defeat. She turned to the woman. "Qianru, if you love Tingfang as much as he loves you, then you have to change your surname."
Gu Qianru said, "I am willing."
Lao Furen emphasized the gravity of the bargain. "Very good then. This secret will only remain with just the three of us here. The fourth person should never know of this."
Gu Tingfang knelt in front of Lao Furen, his voice filled with gratitude. "Thank you, Mother."
Just then, the door of the Buddha praying room opened. Gu Jian and Lin Ruchao walked into the room.
Gu Jian questioned them. "It's so late, what are you three doing in the room?"
As soon as Gu Qianru heard Gu Jian's voice, she snapped her head up and saw him. Her eyes went wide in shock, and she slowly got up.
"Father." She looked at Gu Jian. Then, she looked at Lin Ruchao in tears. "Lin Shushu."
Gu Tingfang quickly stood up, utterly bewildered. "Qianru, do you know my father and his guard?"
Gu Qianru pointed an accusing finger at Gu Jian. "Is he your father?"
Gu Tingfang, completely confused, confirmed, "Yes."
Gu Qianru began to cry bitterly, the truth shattering her composure. "He is also my father!" She turned to Gu Jian, her voice thick with betrayal. "For so many years, you lied to my mother and me." She fixed her gaze on Gu Jian. "You are not a fisherman who goes to sea for several months at a time, but the leader of the Gu family?"
Gu Jianstated flatly, "That's correct."
Gu Tingfang looked at his father; his face contorted in disbelief. "No, this is not true." He pleaded with the former Chief. "She is not my sister. How can she be my sister?"
Lao Furen stepped in, her voice cold with finality. "She is your half-sister."
Gu Tingfang refused to accept the reality. "This is not true; we are getting married!"
Lao Furen insisted, "Tingfang, it's true. She is your half-sister."
Lao Furen then turned on her husband, the former Chief. "Karma! This is the result of your being a womanizer!" She grabbed Gu Jian's hand and pointed fiercely at Gu Tingfang and Gu Qianru. "This is the disaster you caused! Take a good look at them. Your son is going to marry your daughter!"
Gu Qianru screamed, a sound of utter despair. She bolted out of the room, ran into the empty courtyard, and desperately scrambled down the stairs.
Gu Tingfang quickly stood up to follow, but Lin Ruchao immediately stopped his arm. Gu Tingfang struggled hard. "Guard Lin, let go of me!"
Lin Ruchao, regret etched on his face, held firm. "I'm sorry, Young Master... that's not going to happen."
Gu Tingfang collapsed onto the ground, begging his father. "Father, please, let me go, I'm going to look for her!"
Gu Jian commanded, "You stay here. Guard Lin will go to look for her."
Gu Tingfang, frantic, revealed the ultimate secret. "No, I'm going to find her! She is pregnant with my child!"
Gu Jian and Lao Furen were stunned. Lao Furen was so shocked by the news of the incestuous pregnancy that she almost fainted.
Gu Jian, his face pale, whispered, "Karma! Guard Lin, go find her now!"
Sitting and listening to Si Pangfua's story, Gu Yingjie's body trembled as he recalled the day his mother was murdered. The memories were faint, and he couldn't see the face of his mother or the murderer clearly, but the actions unfolding he could still vividly remember, even though he was just a small child then.
Knowing that her days were numbered, Gu Qianru stood there and talked with the murderer for a long time, demanding her last request. Gu Yingjie looked out the window and saw that his mother was speaking to a man who covered his face with a black cloth.
Gu Qianru asked the man, her voice desperate yet calm in the face of death, "You want to kill my son too?"
The Masked Man replied, his voice chillingly detached, "No, I was just ordered to kill you."
Gu Qianru knew her time was up. "I'll die anyway. Please tell me who ordered me to be killed. Just in case if Heibai Wuchang ask me, I could answer them correctly."
The Masked Man leaned in close and whispered the name directly into Gu Qianru's left ear. She instantly cried and nodded, accepting the terrifying truth. Then, without hesitation, the Masked Man drew his sword and slit her throat.
Si Pangfua took her teacup and drank slowly, savoring the moment. She sighed; her eyes coldly fixed on him. "You are a bastard child, and everyone knew of it. Everyone knows that you are the product of shame. The more your father and grandfather love you, the more disgusted I became."
She leaned forward, delivering the final, devastating blow. "You want to know who your mother's murderer is. Have you ever thought, maybe the murderer you have been looking for is your grandfather, grandmother or father."
She looked straight at Gu Yingjie, issuing her ultimate ultimatum. "Gu Yingjie, if you don't step down, this secret will spread throughout the martial arts world. The Gu family will perish forever. Also, your beloved guard will die, but if you step down, this secret will follow me to my grave."
The door suddenly swung opened with a crash, and twenty internal guards marched into the room, followed by Gu Tingfang, Gu Tianjian, and Gu Xunsu.
Gu Xunsu immediately commanded, her voice sharp and final, "Gu Yingjie, at this rate, there is no place for you to hide anymore. Surrender."
Gu Yingjie's heart was shattered into a million pieces. After listening to his mother's tragic story, he was terrified of discovering the murderer's true identity. He knew the killer had to be someone his mother knew personally; otherwise, she wouldn't have given in so willingly.
His despair was complete. Inside his heart, made peace with himself to accept any punishment they give him. He coaxed himself: If I die, then I no longer need to endure pain. He rationalized that Zhu Mingyang would live happily with his new lover, and everything in the Gu family would remain unchanged. I am just an extra. An unwanted extra, that was handed away from one person to the next, now I will only be handed to death, this is nothing special about the circumstance. He replied, his voice flat with surrender, "Gugu, I accept my punishment."
Gu Xunsu took his submission as an end to the matter. "Take him to the cell, and the punishment will begin in two days."
Gu Tingfang immediately countered her order, asserting his paternal authority. "No, take him to the ancestral hall. No matter who he is, he is my heir."
Gu Xunsu frowned, incensed by the continued favoritism. "Are you still protecting him?"
Gu Tingfang roared, his fury finally boiling over. "Are you the chief or am I the chief?"
Gu Xunsu replied, her voice taut with barely controlled rage, "You are the chief."
In Li Village, Zhu Mingyang and Yan Zhanjin strolled around the open market. After they finished selling their medicine, it was already noon. They decided to have lunch before heading home, so they found a small street stall, sat down, and ordered two bowls of noodle soup.
Yan Zhanjin noted his friend's distraction. "Mingyang, you don't look well."
"I'm worried about Yingjie," Zhu Mingyang admitted.
"By the look of it, Chief Gu was pretty lenient to Gu Yingjie," Yan Zhanjin pointed out, trying to offer reassurance.
A nearby martial artist stood beside a bun seller. The martial artist said, "Boss, give me twenty steamed buns."
The vendor owner, trying to drum up more business, offered, "My noodles are delicious, sit down and have a bowl."
The martial artist replied, his tone urgent, "I can't. I want to hurry up to the Gu residence."
The martial artist replied, his voice buzzing with excitement, "I don't want to miss this opportunity. Chief Gu will announce a new heir, and the former heir will be punished. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. There are many groups of people who have gone there, including the six sects and four clans."
Zhu Mingyang immediately stood up, his face set. Yan Zhanjin quickly grabbed his hand, trying to restrain him. He said decisively, "Mingyang, what are you going to do?"
Zhu Mingyang replied, "I will save Yingjie."
"You heard that martial artist," Yan Zhanjin countered, referencing the danger.
Zhu Mingyang spoke with chilling certainty. "Zhanjin, it is impossible for a person like Yingjie to survive this cruel, inhuman punishment. He will die."
"You will die if you go there," Yan Zhanjin pleaded.
Zhu Mingyang pulled his hand away, delivering his final, passionate vow. "If Yingjie's heaven is fallen, I will be his pillars and hold his heaven from crumbling down on him. Even if I know that by doing so, I will not survive. I will still be going to do it because he would do the same for me." He ran toward the Gu Manor's direction.