Gu Yongping glared and slammed the wine cup he held onto the table before bellowing,
"I'm hardly being modest, what 'son of the Gu Family'? I am nothing more than a piece of trash raised at home..."
Speaking of this matter was the source of a persistent knot in his heart.
Gu Shi Yi feigned curiosity,
"Brother, your words have truly piqued my curiosity. Since the night is long and we have nothing else to do, why not share your story..."
Gu Yongping, who had been full of troubles with nowhere to vent, encountered Gu Shi Yi, who appeared sincere and behaved in a forthright and generous manner—somehow feeling a strange familiarity with this good brother. Once he started talking, he couldn't stop: starting with his lack of a Spirit Root and unable to enter Gu Mountain, to his hot temper and gullibility, to his unhappy marriage, unable to wed the one he desired and having to marry someone he did not like. Each day he returned home to face cold stares from his wife during the day, and at night they would sleep back to back,
"If it weren't for the desire to carry on the family line and have children, I wouldn't want to touch that woman at all!"
Upon reaching this point, Gu Yongping actually squeezed out a couple of tears, grabbing Gu Shi Yi's hand as he cried,
"Brother, you have no idea, that woman is like a cold stone. Whenever I try to be nice to her, she mocks and sneers at me, saying I'm good-for-nothing, refusing to do anything proper, and that she's blind to have married me... Do you think I don't want to do something meaningful, if only someone would give me the chance! And why do you think I go to the Gambling House every day? It's because I can't stay in that house!"
Gu Shi Yi nodded sympathetically, quietly pouring him another glass of wine,
"I understand your pain, Brother. It's like with me... I too had a wife assigned by the family. Sure, my wife is pretty, but we just don't get along, and that's why I've run away!"
Upon hearing this, Gu Yongping wept even harder, wailing,
"Brother, you're amazing! I just don't have that kind of courage!"
Then he started on about the strict family rules of the Gu Family, how those who ran away on their own would be caught, have their legs broken, and be locked in the back courtyard to starve to death!
Gu Shi Yi, upon hearing this, stealthily steered the conversation towards the topic of his own mother,
"Well... Brother, don't blame me for being nosy, but... didn't a lady from your family run away years ago? She... She came to no harm, right?"
Instead of getting angry, Gu Yongping replied,
"You've heard about that?"
Gu Shi Yi smiled,
"Yes... Traveling from Blue Moon City, I happened to hear someone mention it!"
Gu Yongping said,
"It's alright, the affairs of our family are almost known to the whole Blue Moon City, and one more person knowing doesn't make much difference to us..."
Then with a look of envy he continued,
"Could I compare with my Second Aunt? She ran away with a man from the Barbarian tribe from the north. Back then, our family even sent out cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage to chase after them, but they ended up being badly beaten and crawling back!"
"Oh?"
This was something Gu Shi Yi hadn't heard before. During his time at the Gu Family, ever since his mother ran off, the family had never spoken of the former second lady, and even less so about that wild man!
After pondering for a moment, Gu Shi Yi asked,
"When that lady left, Brother, you must have been quite young. How do you come to know of it?"
Gu Yongping answered,
"It's been many years, and though the elders had issued a gag order at the time, forbidding any discussion in the family, some words still got out..."
Looking around and speaking in a whisper, he said,
"My Second Aunt was a remarkable woman, with keen insight. It's said that that man was a Barbarian King from the north, more or less equal to a Nascent Soul Cultivator around here... I have no idea how she got to know him!"
So, it turned out that his own mother had set her sights on that man, who was not only muscular but also a Barbarian King!
Upon hearing this, Gu Shi Yi felt a complex mixture of emotions, unable to pinpoint the exact taste. Pursuing the topic, he asked,
"And afterwards... did your Second Uncle ever remarry?"
Gu Yongping downed his glass of wine in one gulp,
"Naturally, he remarried and then he had..."
Setting down the cup, he counted on his fingers,
"One, two, three, four, five... seven children total!"
So, he indeed had gained quite a few more siblings?
When the topic shifted to the gossip of the senior house, Gu Yongping forgot his own misfortunes, starting from when Gu Huaimu's wife ran away, to the daughter's disappearance, and speaking about how the Second Uncle had been depressed for a while. However, according to what Gu Yongping understood,
"From what I can tell, my Second Uncle was mostly embarrassed and didn't really care much about my Second Aunt or Shiyi..."
"Yes!"
Gu Shi Yi agreed by nodding, from the time his mother disappeared, and his father looking at him with glaring eyes, once almost slapping him hard enough to end his little life, Gu Shi Yi had realized how much more his father valued himself, with wives and daughters being nothing more than a matter of maintaining face.