The Prime Minister's Darling novel Chapter 875

Chapter 875: 404 Princess Xinyang (Second Update)

"Long Yi!"

It wasn’t until someone called out to him that the Dragon Shadow Guard finally let go of Gu Jiao.

Gu Jiao didn’t dare stay a moment longer and scurried away like a startled rabbit!

By the time Gu Jiao returned to Bishui Alley, Xiao Liulang had also come home from his duty at the Hanlin Academy, washing his writing brush in a basin of water by the well.

Gu Jiao approached slowly.

Heaven knows she was terrified that the Dragon Shadow Guard would catch up to her, unleashing the survival instincts she’d honed in her previous life fleeing after stealing military supplies. She plonked down on the small stool opposite Xiao Liulang, gasping for air.

Xiao Liulang gave her a puzzled look and asked, "What happened? Did something happen?"

"...Nothing," Gu Jiao replied listlessly, "just played with... charcoal pencils all afternoon."

Xiao Liulang wasn’t surprised by her cross-dressing; she often went out wearing Gu Yan’s clothes, and the Yao Family had even tailored several sets specifically for her.

His gaze fell upon Gu Jiao’s soot-covered hands, assuming she had just been playing with little Jing Kong, not suspecting anything. However, his expression became distant for a moment, as if recalling something from long ago.

Gu Jiao noticed Xiao Liulang’s daydreaming, leaned forward, and asked, "Husband, what’s wrong?"

Xiao Liulang snapped back to reality and fetched another basin of water for her to wash her hands.

"Nothing," he said, looking down, "I used to play with them too when I was young."

But I wasn’t really playing, I was being captured and tormented!

Gu Jiao silently vowed that her little burlap sack would come in handy one day!

Yikes—

My hands are so sore.

The next day, after the family finished breakfast, those who had school went to school, and those who had duties went their ways. Gu Jiao happened to have a house call that morning for a patient whose wound she had sutured a few days before; she was going to remove the stitches, and it was on the way to the Hanlin Academy.

The two of them took Liao Quan’s carriage close to the Hanlin Academy.

At this time, the street was crowded with Hanlin officials and scholars on their way to work, so congested that the carriage couldn’t get through.

Xiao Liulang got out of the carriage.

"I’ll walk you there," said Gu Jiao as she also stepped out of the carriage.

Xiao Liulang did not refuse.

All the way, Xiao Liulang was silent.

"Husband, are you unhappy?" Gu Jiao asked.

"What?" Xiao Liulang was slightly taken aback.

"You’ve seemed unhappy recently," Gu Jiao paused, correcting her own wording, "Not exactly unhappy, just...as if you have something on your mind."

Ever since they rescued auntie, Xiao Liulang had been like this. Gu Jiao thought back carefully and realized nothing significant had happened that night, except, perhaps, that he had his face pinched by a member of the Dragon Shadow Guard.

Ugh.

She was angry too.

Only she was allowed to pinch her husband’s face.

"Not at all," Xiao Liulang’s eyes flickered as he denied, "I’m not unhappy."

As they talked, the voices of several Hanlin officials discussing something drifted from up ahead.

"Hey, have you heard? Princess Xinyang has returned to the Capital!"

"Are you serious? Princess Xinyang has really come back?"

"I heard it with my own ears, how could it be false!"

"But why would she return? Didn’t she say she would never come back in this lifetime?"

"Indeed, isn’t she afraid of being heartbroken again, reminded of the young lord who died in the big fire?"

...

These people walked into the Hanlin Academy, unaware that Xiao Liulang and Gu Jiao were just behind them.

There was no significant change in Xiao Liulang’s expression, but if one were attentive, they could detect a slight stiffness in his posture.

Seeing that he acted as if nothing were the matter, Gu Jiao repressed the urge to ask him about it.

After escorting Xiao Liulang to the entrance of the Hanlin Academy and personally watching him go inside, Gu Jiao turned back and got into Liao Quan’s carriage: "Uncle Liao, I need to go to Vermilion Bird Avenue."

"Alrighty!"

Liao Quan drove the carriage towards Vermilion Bird Avenue.

This was one of the streets closest to the Imperial Palace, purportedly inhabited by either long-time locals or the most wealthy and powerful people of the Capital.

The household Gu Jiao was visiting for her medical call was located at the east end of Vermilion Bird Avenue. Due to recent roadworks, the carriage also couldn’t proceed.

"I’ll wait here," Liao Quan said.

"Thank you, Uncle Liao," Gu Jiao replied, exiting the carriage. She carried her small backpack and walked towards the patient’s home.

The patient was a thirty-year-old scholar who had accidentally injured his right hand, used for writing—from the back of his hand to his palm, almost making a full circle. Gu Jiao had to stitch more than a dozen sutures.

Gu Jiao stepped over the threshold. _{freēwēbηovel.c૦m}