Chapter 822 — Gu Mengyao's Identity
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"So I'm just supposed to swallow my pride and say nothing? I've barely set foot in this villa district and I'm already being bullied! What are people going to think of me?" Gou Huli had no intention of waiting. She was about to explode with rage, and she itched to teach Wei Zhao and his lot a lesson right this instant!
"Then what do you propose to do?" Xiao Ji said, somewhat helplessly.
"I won't stand for it. Do you know anyone in Songshan City? If not, hire some thugs or ruffians to take them down a peg!" Gou Huli said.
"And you want to 'take them down' without even knowing who they are?" Xiao Ji frowned.
"What connections could they possibly have? They're just a bunch of kids!" Gou Huli said with a dismissive sniff. "Even if their families have some standing, could they hold a candle to the Xiao family? We are a great house of Yanjing — who in a backwater like this would dare slight us?"
"Let's not talk that way. We're doing business in the provinces, and we'll need the goodwill of the local gentry. If we offend everyone, then even though the Xiao family is a great house, we're strangers here — if they refuse to show us face, what then?" Xiao Ji said gravely.
"Hmph! They wouldn't dare! Let Uncle Pi wipe them out! Our Xiao family has a Mystic-rank retainer at our back — why should we fear these provincial upstarts?" Gou Huli sneered, her tone haughty.
"You also know Uncle Pi is our family's retainer. If Father were still here, there'd be no problem having Uncle Pi act. But now the two of us and Xiao Ben are one degree further removed from him. With Father gone, his feelings for our household have cooled somewhat — he's here purely on the strength of Father's standing. Otherwise, do you really think that pittance each month could hire a Mystic-rank expert? You're dreaming!" Xiao Ji said.
"Then... then what am I supposed to do? Just bear it? Your wife's about to turn into a ninja turtle of endurance! Sooner or later people will be saying the Xiao family fell to pieces the moment the old master died — we can't even best some little provincial upstart!" Gou Huli was relentless.
"Enough! First look into their background — find out exactly who they are before anything else! In any case, I'm not doing anything until I've paid my respects to the old master of the Kang family!" Xiao Ji said with a hint of impatience. "You know the state of our Xiao family as well as I do. To outsiders we're one of the Four Great Houses and Five Lesser Houses, shining bright — but today we can't even match the Kang family! Look at our holdings in Yanjing: after selling them off this time, how much money is left? You might say our venture into the provinces is the Xiao family starting over from nothing! We're in a very hard position now. Without the Kang family's support, we could face an even greater crisis! Do you understand, you spendthrift woman?"
"I..." Gou Huli fell silent under Xiao Ji's words. It wasn't that she didn't know these things — she simply didn't want to accept them! Barely two years had passed since she became the Xiao family's daughter-in-law; she had only just begun to relish the thrill of marrying into wealth and living as a lady of means, and then the Xiao family had tumbled from grace, a turn she could not take in all at once. So the more it happened, the more she wanted to make a show of the Xiao family's prestige, borrowing the lingering name she still had to win herself some face and put on airs — otherwise she truly could not bear the fall.
Before Gou Huli could finish, Xiao Ji hung up.