Resplendent – Chapter 509

Chapter 509 — Grudge

After escorting Lady Jun back to Rong’an Garden from Mingzhu Pavilion, Gu Ye sprawled on the low couch in her mother’s room, refusing to leave. Hugging a soft pillow, she rolled around and cooed, “This is the comfiest spot. It smells just like Mother!”

“If you like it, then stay here. Your side is all chaos with the kitchen renovations and the pharmacy repairs. Don’t let someone careless bump into you. By the way, Meijing mentioned you want to build a glass greenhouse? Do you have enough silver? Wen Sheng, go bring my golden nanmu box over here.”

Lady Jun sat down beside her daughter, lazily leaning against a beauty pillow. After taking the new medicine for more than half a month, her health was steadily improving. She no longer felt fatigued at the slightest exertion. Her claims of tiredness were simply an excuse to send her two nieces away.

Gu Ye peered curiously as Lady Jun received the finely carved wooden box and asked, “What’s inside, Mother? Let me see, what’s so special?”

“Go ahead, look all you want. These were meant for you anyway,” Lady Jun said, unlocking the copper lock and handing the box to her daughter.

Gu Ye glanced through it and couldn’t help but be impressed. She hadn’t expected her mother to be such a wealthy woman. Inside was a thick stack of silver notes worth a thousand taels each. There were also deeds for prime shops and estates, filling the entire box to the brim.

Gu Ye laughed, pushing the box back to her mother. “Mother, aren’t you afraid my brothers will say you’re playing favorites? How could you give all the good things to me? If my brothers can’t come up with proper betrothal gifts, they won’t be able to marry! Don’t you want to hold grandchildren soon?”

“Your brothers’ betrothal gifts will be taken care of by the household. These,” Lady Jun said, flipping through the deeds, “are my dowry and the profits accumulated over these past ten-plus years. You like apples, right? The estate in Yan City, Shandong, has two apple trees with sweet, crisp, and juicy fruit. They should be delivered in the next few days. This estate will be part of your dowry.” She continued showing her daughter several deeds to prosperous shops, explaining each one.

Gu Ye wasn’t thinking about dowries right now. She closed the box, relocked it, and handed the key back to Lady Jun. “Please keep these for now. When I need them, I’ll shamelessly ask for them later.”

“You’ll need them soon if you’re building the glass greenhouse,” Lady Jun remarked. 

She knew the value of glass. When she had been seriously ill, Chu Bufan had gone to Yinzhen Pavilion and purchased a delicate glass tea set, wanting to cheer her up. It was clear and transparent, beautifully shaped, with flowers that seemed naturally formed. 

She loved it and couldn’t put it down. When she asked the price, the set cost several thousand taels of silver.

Building a greenhouse from glass would easily cost tens of thousands of taels. Although her daughter technically owned the pharmaceutical factory, it had been profitable for less than a year. How much savings could she possibly have? And on top of that, these days, her daughter had been scouting sites and preparing to move the factory from Yan City, which was another massive expense…

With that in mind, Lady Jun reopened the box and pulled out the thick stack of silver notes, shoving them all into her daughter’s hands. “Take it! The money for building the greenhouse should come from your mother. If there’s any left over, keep it for your pharmacy.”

Gu Ye thought for a moment, then beamed brightly, no longer refusing. “All right! The rest can be treated as your investment in the pharmacy. When the time comes, you can take a share of the profits.”

Lady Jun patted her daughter’s small bottom and laughed. “What profits, what share? Your mother isn’t going to take advantage of her own child!”

“All right, all right! That was my mistake just now. But this share is still for you. It represents my filial devotion, and you must accept it,” Gu Ye said, wriggling in her mother’s arms and rubbing against her while acting playful.

Her mother’s embrace felt soft, warm, fragrant: it made her reluctant to let go…

“All right, all right! Since it’s my Bao’er’s filial devotion, I will accept it. Our Bao’er is the most dutiful child,” Lady Jun said, holding her daughter’s small, slender body and gently patting her back, like any mother in the world soothing her child to sleep—soft, tender, filled with boundless maternal love.

Gu Ye nestled in her mother’s arms, counting the silver notes in her hands like a little miser. Wow! Mother was so rich: over a hundred thousand taels of silver, handed over without even blinking.

Lady Jun pinched the tip of her little girl’s glowing nose, paused for a moment, and asked, “Is there something wrong with the almonds and the jade-orchid?”

She thought it through quietly in her mind. Her body had worsened ever since she had bought the jade-orchid. She couldn’t help but suspect. 

Sitting up straight, Gu Ye nodded seriously. “The gases released by the jade-orchid contain ningduo enzyme (fictional). Ningduo enzyme itself is harmless, but if combined with almonds, it produces a reaction that prevents the body from absorbing iron, causing iron-deficiency anemia, blood deficiency, and weakened vitality. In severe cases, it could even cause death. I’m grateful I returned to Mother in time. Otherwise…”

Her normally gentle, kind mother… Jun Miao actually knew and didn’t say a word. How dare she!

Lady Jun remained calm, gently holding her daughter and patting her slightly trembling shoulders with a smile. “So you see, our Bao’er is my little lucky star. As soon as you came back, my illness improved more than half!”

Gu Ye tried to control her emotions and grinned foolishly. “That’s because I was brought back. Mother’s worry disappeared all at once. With a happy heart, the illness faded, and the body naturally recovered quickly!”

“Miao’er… forget it. It’s in the past now!” Lady Jun shook her head with a smile. Let’s pretend she knows nothing.

Gu Ye, however, didn’t have such a generous heart. She snorted coldly. “Jun Miao’er definitely knew about this! She’s a black-hearted little traitor. Mother treated her so well, raised her like a young lady—and she turned around to harm you!”

“To say she intended to harm me… well, a girl like her isn’t truly that malicious. She just knew and didn’t tell. I don’t know who planted the idea in her head that since I couldn’t find my daughter, I might adopt someone else to keep at my side. She only wanted to keep me distracted so I wouldn’t have the energy to search for you!”

Lady Jun thought through the situation and sighed with some feeling. So even the deepest affections, in her eyes, couldn’t outweigh the word interest.

“Mother, even if I can’t find concrete evidence, I can’t swallow this injustice!” Gu Ye was fiercely protective and vengeful when wrongs were done. She didn’t see it as a flaw. If she couldn’t protect those she cared about, or if people around her suffered injustice or harm and she did nothing, that would be far too weak!

Lady Jun, however, didn’t want her daughter caught in such a messy web. She soothed her gently, “Forget it. Nothing’s wrong with me! Don’t get involved in this. I’m here to handle it!”