C7

What Gu Xiaoran had told Mei Qing about the rumors was only the tip of the iceberg.

She believed that Gu Langyue would be of great use in this matter. She knew Gu Langyue's hatred toward her even better than she did herself. In her previous life, even she could not believe that there was someone in the world who hated her so much that even peeling off their skin and cramping their tendons could not quell it.

With her past life's experience, Gu Xiaoran was sure that Gu Langyue had the chance to discredit her. It wasn't hard to understand why everyone had looked at him on the day of the Spring Festival Gala. Some people revealed doubtful expressions, just because they didn't match the rumours.

Most importantly, she knew that there were many aristocratic young ladies who had a good relationship with Gu Langyue. The matter of Shu Jinghan showing goodwill to her on the day of the Spring Festival was definitely known by Gu Langyue. It couldn't be said that the girls' thoughts were too bad and their scheming too deep. It was most likely out of a sense of dissatisfaction and envy.

Gu Xiaoran could imagine their feelings. Why? Prince Han was attracted to her the first time he saw her? They have seen Prince Han quite a few times, why didn't they see Prince Han treat them a little special?

This thought reminded Gu Xiaoran of her previous life. What Shu Jinghan did was much more decisive than now. After meeting her beauty at a banquet, he decisively decided to marry her as his concubine.

At that time, she was also insolent and unbridled, so she was naturally wild with joy. What he didn't know was that Shu Jinghan had taken a lot of fancy to women, and not a single one of them wasn't the daughter of an important official.

He was just a chess piece on his way to the throne.

All the vague thoughts that he had had for a long time were now clearly formed in this moment. Gu Xiaoran had been thinking about what method to take revenge on Shu Jinghan. Now, no matter what, it couldn't compare to destroying his lifelong dream! As for the other physical or psychological shocks, they were trivial.

Gu Xiaoran's eyebrows relaxed. She finally dared to confirm her goal. That is, she definitely can't let Shu Jinghan become the emperor!

The reason why she hadn't thought about it before was because the difficulty was too great. However, the situation was getting worse, so it didn't matter if the world was in a mess.

In addition, it was time to raise his guard against Second Wife's group. On that day, Second Wife was acting weird. Who knows what she was planning? After all, it wasn't a good thing. Now that there was such a rumor, Gu Xiaoran didn't believe Second Wife and Gu Langyue could sit still.

However, at this time, another unexpected event happened.

Not long after that day on the street, when Gu Xiaoran was reading as usual, an unknown manservant came knocking at her door.

Gu Xiaoran was puzzled. She, Mei Qing, and a few crude maidservants had been living in this small courtyard all year round. Since when had there been a guest before?

Looking at the servant again, although he was dressed like a servant, he stood up straight. It was clear that he was different from the servants of ordinary families. When this person arrived at the entrance of Gu Xiaoran's courtyard, he also revealed a slightly puzzled expression. However, in the blink of an eye, he disappeared and passed the item in his hand to Mei Qing, telling her, "This is a gift from Prince Han to Miss Gu. I hope Miss likes it."

Mei Qing looked at the item in her hand and felt her hands burning. Actually, she was very happy that Miss Prince Han liked her. However, after she went out with Gu Xiaoran the other day, she found out that it sounded so bad. Moreover, the Miss had a calm expression the whole time. It seemed that she didn't really like Prince Han, so this gift …

In the end, Mei Qing nodded her head and thanked him for his hard work. That person took his leave tactfully.

Gu Xiaoran placed the item that Mei Qing brought back to the side. She didn't even open it, but her eyes darkened slightly. She was thinking, if the day of the Spring Festival wasn't obvious enough, then Shu Jinghan's actions right now, does it mean something?

Mei Qing urged, "Open it, Miss." Right now, she still felt that Shu Jinghan was unreachable, so she felt flattered that he was giving something to the little miss.

Gu Xiaoran also wanted to see what kind of tricks Shu Jinghan had up his sleeve, so she opened the kraft paper and saw nothing special about it. Shu Jinghan had given her this item, which was the flower god's image in the Tianxiang Dynasty legends.

Shu Jinghan was very considerate. He intentionally wrote a letter to Gu Xiaoran as he was afraid that the things he sent would be unknown. However, to Gu Xiaoran, these were all unnecessary. The letter was not long, and its meaning was simple. Basically, he had heard that because of him, there were recently rumors in the capital that were detrimental to her. Because of the influence it had on her reputation, he felt very sorry and intentionally sent her a gift to express his apology. As for the severity of the price, it was secondary.

Gu Xiaoran took a closer look at the Flower God statue in her hands and was speechless. How could the item given by Shu Jinghan be a second-rate item? She estimated that this statue was at least worth a thousand taels of silver with its craftsmanship and materials.

Tsk tsk, such a small gift already cost so much. Shu Jinghan is really generous. In addition, the reason he wanted to express his goodwill was quite good. It was so logical that no one would be able to find anything wrong with it.

However, the most basic question was, as a prince, why should he care about the reputation of a minister's daughter? It had nothing to do with him.

Gu Xiaoran raised her eyebrows. She understood Shu Jinghan, he was just interested in her recently. If she ignored him, he would gradually forget about it. After all, there were a lot of girls who wanted to marry him.

Gu Xiaoran casually handed the items over to Mei Qing and instructed, "Put them away as you please. Don't worry about him."

Mei Qing took it, but guessed that this "Ignore him" was referring to the statue or Prince Han? However, looking at Gu Xiaoran's attitude these days, she did not care about Prince Han and could be considered to be different from the masses.

This matter was insignificant and was quickly forgotten by Gu Xiaoran. Most of the time, she was still thinking about her future plans. She was well aware of her current situation. It seemed like she was at ease, but in reality, it was just like a surging undercurrent. If she didn't prepare beforehand, the matter of revenge would be like a big dream.

Right now, her biggest problem was that she was too weak.

As a woman who had yet to leave the pavilion, how could she have known any powerful figures? Besides, the people who could compete with Shu Jinghan or had an impact on him were people that Gu Xiaoran could not get close to.

However, Zhan Chuyan was an exception.

Gu Xiaoran couldn't help but sigh when she thought of this person. Even today, she still couldn't see through Zhan Chuyan completely. In her previous life, she was the same as countless superficial people. She thought that Zhan Chuyan was just a bastard son that was unfavored by the wealthiest family. Apart from that, no one knew how powerful he was. He had helped his father take back the power of his family from his uncle.

She didn't know what happened after that. In her past life, after she helped Shu Jinghan obtain the throne, Zhan Chuyan and the others naturally didn't end up well. However, Gu Xiaoran tasted the bitter fruit of their suffering before them …