Chapter 10.
"You are really a thoughtful and filial child, grandmother really likes your gift." Old Madam Gu said with a very delighted and satisfied expression.
Her voice sounded very pleased by Gu Yanyan's meeting gift.
Just in time, Housekeeper Jing who had after getting old Madam Gu's signal had returned with a small wooden but exquisitive box in her hand.
Looking at the box, Madam Yun's heart clenched so much that it made her almost breathless.
Even Madam Shen's expression was also not something good.
It was a rare red pearl found in deep sea.
It's rareness was that it was unusually bigger than normal pearls, almost as big as a chinese tangerine with smooth and lustrous surface.
If put in the garden under the moonlight, the whole garden will illuminate by it's reflection.
This pearl was found by Xie family in Quzhou nearly four decades ago and was given to Madam Xie when she got married into the Lin Family and Madam Xie gave this pearl to her daughter, Madam Lin when she got married.
When Madam Lin got married into the Gu family, Gu family members really loved her and adored her and Madam Lin also thought of the Gu family as her true family and gave this red pearl to Old Madam Gu at her birthday that year.
After Madam Lin's death and Gu Yanyan's departure from the Gu Residence ten years ago, both madam's in the Gu family thought, this red pearl would surely fall into the hands of one of them and they could prepare a good and impressionable dowry for their daughters but who would have thought...
"Come child... take this as a reward for your hardwork." Old Madam Gu waved her hand in an inviting gesture towards Gu Yanyan while holding the wooden box in her other hand.
Gu Yanyan also delightfully skipped on her steps and moved towards old Madam Gu showing her excitement at getting her first gift from her grandmother.
Seeing her mischievous acts, all present in the hall laughed except a few who had concealed or unconcealed envy, jealousy or fury on their faces.
Gu Yanyan didn't cared about other's emotions and accepted her gift with a bright smile on face and an unconcealed delighted gleam in her eyes.
And successfully fooled everyone present there, as a greedy and vain young lady.
She bowed 90° and thanked old Madam Gu from the bottom of her heart.
She was very serious in her thank you, she was as serious in thanking her as she was when calling Madam Yun as her 'mother'.
Gu Yanyan was much serious about the gifts she had gotten from her 'grandmother' because no matter what was inside, it wouldn't make much difference for her.
It was not until she heard what old Madam Gu said next-
"It was a rare treasure, your mother had brought with her from her maternal home as her dowry."
Gu Yanyan's fingers clenched around the wooden box as if it was her life.
This rare emotion came from the original Yanyan's consciousness, who reacted on 'her' own, after hearing 'her' mother's name.
"Sigh! If not for the disaster ten years ago, I would have given you more of your mother's things from back then but..." Talking about the 'disaster' and Madam Lin's things from back then, old Madam sighed regretfully.
Other members were also visibly upset thinking about all those silvers, golds, jades and other antiques and calligraphy and all these valuable things.
Those were all wealth, passed down by their ancestors and some of them were earned by themselves as rewards from imperial court for serving the court loyaly and diligently.
That's why when the monk suggested to send Gu Yanyan away from Gu Residence to ward off the evil that was hovering over the Gu Residence since she borned.
Monk had said, the reason Madam Lin died was also because of Gu Yanyan's bad luck.
And the reason all warehouse and private vaults got emptied without leaving any trace was also because of Gu Yanyan's bad luck.
He said, it was not any ordinary theft or robbery but... a curse left by the god of wealth for having Gu Yanyan in their household.
So, to get rid of that curse they sent Gu Yanyan away from Residence in hope of getting back their wealth and treasures but... it's been more than ten years, nothing returned.
It was not until the news came from the borders that after Marquis Ning fled from the battlefield with his injured body and three cities had been lost to northern barbarians and to cover these three cities, late Marquis Zhiwu's only grandson led his merely ten thousand elite soldiers' troup directly towards the northern barbarians' commander's camp and beheaded him, winning back the three lost cities in one go and emperor awarded him with immense wealth and a grand promotion of three ranks, directly promoting him from sixth rank general to third rank general that they panicked.
One had to know, no matter who the reason was for Madam Lin's death, it was the fact that Madam Lin died in Gu Residence and they, who should have taken care of her only daughter, discarded her for fear of her being ill-fated.
So they found a more famous monk from a famous temple and asked him for a solution, that famous monk again calculated Gu Yanyan's birth chart and her fate again and said that, whatever ill-fate she had garnered in her previous life, all had been washed away, now she was as pure as a Buddha lotus and if they wanted to welcome her, they could do so without any hesitation.
That's all they had to hear before they sent two housekeepers to bring Gu Yanyan back to Residence so, before that that Lin grandson could return to capital to get his praise from the emperor himself, they could have already won over Yanyan and could manipulate her when the time comes.