Chapter 457 - 252: Brother Lu? Uncle Lu?
Lu Yuan rounded the corner and looked up.
’It’s him!’
"Ahaha, Brother Lu, you really are here," Gu Gaoxu shouted excitedly.
Gu Gaoxu hoisted Lu Yuan straight up into the air. He clearly hadn’t been slacking on his training.
"Hey, kid, can you put your uncle down!" Lu Yuan said in the tone of an elder.
The smile on Gu Gaoxu’s face vanished instantly, and he dropped Lu Yuan on the ground.
"Hey! What’s wrong? You look unhappy!" Lu Yuan said teasingly, steadying himself.
Gu Gaoxu said resentfully, "Brother Lu, why are you still trying to take advantage of me?"
’You already married my aunt, who’s younger than me, and now you want to pull one over on your brother?’
Lu Yuan didn’t waste any more words. He turned and pointed toward the rear courtyard, saying, "Why don’t you go ask your aunt, the one lying in bed?"
"You!" Gu Gaoxu was retorted into silence. Lu Yuan was using his Aunt Yue’Er to one-up him.
Lu Yuan smiled and said, "Alright, I’ll stop teasing you. From now on, we’ll keep our relationships separate. In front of Yue’Er, call me Uncle. Behind her back, call me Brother."
Although Gu Gaoxu found this a bit awkward, he had no choice but to nod in agreement.
Lu Yuan changed the subject, asking, "How did you find me here?"
Gu Gaoxu crossed his arms and said smugly, "Brother Lu, you may not know this, but right here on Prince’s Mansion’s Mansion Street, there’s a mansion that His Majesty the Emperor gifted to my old man. After the banquet ended yesterday, before I entered my own mansion, I saw this one decorated with red cloth and figured you must be here."
For once, Gu Gaoxu was being clever. He added, "We’re neighbors. I live just across the street from you."
Lu Yuan squeezed Gu Gaoxu’s bicep and said, "I haven’t seen you for a few days. Been working out?"
"Working out? Nah, I just toss the discus around and practice ’True Martial’ and stuff on a normal day!" Gu Gaoxu said with false modesty.
’The more humble he acts, the more suspicious it is. When something is out of the ordinary, there must be something fishy going on!’
’Is Gu Gaoxu the type of person to possess Martial Arts and not show off?’
Lu Yuan held out his hands and said, "Care for a spar?"
Hearing this, a flicker of excitement, almost imperceptible, flashed in Gu Gaoxu’s eyes.
"In that case, Brother Lu, you’d better be careful!" Gu Gaoxu didn’t hold back at all, accepting immediately.
’Something’s wrong! Definitely something wrong!’
The last few times Lu Yuan had beaten him, Gu Gaoxu had sworn he would never fight him again. This time, however, he seemed eager for a match.
Gu Gaoxu drew a Soft Whip from his waist. The Soft Whip was made of interlocking metal segments that glinted with a golden light, as if forged from gold. It could be hidden within the clothes around his waist, making it extremely difficult to detect.
’If that was really made of gold, who would bother fighting? I’d just snatch the gold!’
’Scraping off five or six grams of gold would be worth a whole month’s income for a commoner.’
Gu Gaoxu cracked the Soft Whip, and it stirred the air with a WHOOSH, as if it were about to peel the very atmosphere apart.
Gu Gaoxu attacked Lu Yuan, striking so fiercely that Lu Yuan was completely unable to parry.
"Not bad, kid, you’ve improved a lot! You’re even using a whip now!" Lu Yuan said, dodging left and right.
In the courtyard, whether it was marble tiles or rubble from the rockeries, anything struck by the Soft Whip in Gu Gaoxu’s hand was instantly blasted to bits.
Lu Yuan didn’t dare to be careless. He feared that the slightest misstep would result in sprains and broken bones.
The sound of their fight soon attracted Lu Yuan’s confidants and the Mansion Guards.
Lu Yuan’s confidants and the Mansion Guards, weapons in hand, completely surrounded the two, thinking someone had come to cause trouble again.
Lu Yuan seized the opportunity to use his Floating Skill. A Treasure Sword flew from the hand of a confidant into Lu Yuan’s grasp.
With a sword in hand, Lu Yuan’s presence grew much stronger. Every time the longsword and the Soft Whip clashed, they sent a shower of sparks flying.
CRACKLE! SIZZLE!
The two were evenly matched, their fight going back and forth. They leaped up and down, one moment on the rooftop, the next on a rockery.
It just goes to show how large the mansion gifted by the Emperor was; otherwise, it would have never been able to contain the two of them.
Su Liyan heard the sounds of fighting from the courtyard and said to Yue’Er, "Is something happening outside? Let’s go take a look."
Gu Ziye heard the noise as well and hurriedly got up to get dressed.
As Gu Ziye got out of bed, she inadvertently took a large step and winced from a sharp, pulling pain.
Su Liyan and her mother arrived in the courtyard. When they saw it was the second son of King Yan, they relaxed.
Lu Yuan used his Floating Skill again. Rubble from the surroundings floated into the air and then shot toward Gu Gaoxu.
Gu Gaoxu easily deflected it all, drawing waves of cheers from the onlookers!
The sounds of fighting and cheering drew all the Maids and Courtyard Guards in the mansion to gather around.
For the Prince Consort to get into a fight in his own courtyard on his second day in the Prince’s Mansion after his wedding—he was definitely the first to do so!
These Maids and Courtyard Guards also wondered, just what kind of person was this Prince Consort they served?
Gu Ziye was the last to arrive. She immediately stepped in to stop them, "Stop! Don’t fight anymore!"
Hearing Gu Ziye’s voice, Lu Yuan and Gu Gaoxu finally stopped.
Gu Ziye approached with mincing steps, biting her lower lip. She went up to Gu Gaoxu and demanded, "Why were you fighting?"
Gu Gaoxu retracted the Soft Whip, wrapping it two and a half times around his waist. He said casually, "It was nothing. My skills were getting rusty, so I asked Uncle Lu for a friendly match."
Seeing her nephew’s unruly behavior, Gu Ziye said sternly, "Ninth Nephew, if you cause trouble again, I’ll tell Fourth Brother and have him deal with you personally."
’Being one generation higher really is a crushing advantage!’
Lu Yuan quickly took Yue’Er’s hand and said, "It was really nothing. We were just sparring."
"Alright then!" In just one night, Gu Ziye seemed to have grown up a lot, knowing to protect her man.
Gu Ziye didn’t have Su Liyan’s incredible skills, but she had the backing of the Court.
Relying on the exclusive favor of her father the Emperor and mother the Empress, a single coquettish plea from Gu Ziye was more effective than an army of a million soldiers.
Gu Gaoxu was a little disappointed that he hadn’t been able to determine a winner with Lu Yuan. He hadn’t even had a chance to use his newly learned signature move.
Lu Yuan held Yue’Er’s hand with his left—this wife of his—and said to Gu Gaoxu, "Come on, let’s go get breakfast!"
Su Liyan’s mother smiled and shook her head from behind them. ’If I had married a man like the young master back then, wouldn’t my life have turned out much better?’
For the next two days, Lu Yuan kept a low profile, staying within the mansion and busying himself with his own affairs when he had free time.
Occasionally, he would seek out his other wife or Gu Ziye to "cleanse his palate." Gu Ziye’s tolerance was not high enough, so she couldn’t be "used" frequently.
The various Crown Princes of the Vassal States began to gradually return to their fathers’ fiefdoms.
Now that he had successfully married Gu Ziye, why hadn’t he returned to Taiping City yet?
It was because on the third day, Gu Ziye had to make her customary visit back to her family home.
The bride’s homecoming visit was a popular tradition among the common folk, and it was popular in the palace as well.
Early on the third day, Lu Yuan began directing his confidants to load a carriage with the gifts for the homecoming visit.
Gu Ziye had woken up early and was being attended to by several Maids in her room, getting her hair and makeup done.
Lu Yuan lifted the carriage curtain and looked at the items inside.
Only then did he remember that the gifts from the Empress on the day he married Yue’Er had been left in the carriage this whole time.
Lu Yuan opened a box. Inside were four fruits. He had seen an illustration of them in the "Alchemy" manual; they were one of the ingredients for refining a certain Earth Level Elixir: Jade Moistening Fruit.
Jade Moistening Fruit never rots or decays, perpetually maintaining its moisture. Its skin is firm, with excellent water-retention properties.
The other boxes also contained various precious medicinal herbs.
What caught Lu Yuan’s eye the most were two items placed in a corner: two Celestial Soul Grass plants with their roots intact, and a section of Fire Phoenix Bamboo.
"What an extravagant gift. Where did this Empress Ma get such treasures?" Lu Yuan muttered to himself.
’Is this the same Empress Ma I remember?’
’These herbs are priceless. Doesn’t this count as accumulating wealth illicitly?’
Little did he know, these were Empress Ma’s entire personal savings, gifts presented to the Empress over the last few years by the various Princes who came to the Imperial Capital from their fiefs.
When Empress Ma was critically ill, the various Princes searched the world for precious medicinal herbs. Regardless of whether they were useful, they were all delivered into Empress Ma’s hands.
Now that was filial piety!
Empress Ma had no use for these herbs herself, and the Imperial Hospital certainly didn’t dare to accept them.
Since Lu Yuan was the one who had cured Empress Ma’s illness, she figured these herbs might be put to greater use in his hands.
It was truly a great stroke of luck that these herbs hadn’t been lost after sitting in the carriage for two days.
Lu Yuan quickly ordered his confidants to move the precious medicinal herbs from the carriage into the mansion.
"Young Nephew-Master, which room should we move them to?" a confidant asked.
"Move them to... move them to my room!" Lu Yuan said after a pause.
The confidant hefted a box and said, "You got it!"