My name is Chang An, your name is Gu Li

Chapter 246: Birthday Gift from My Mother’s Family

After they washed up, they came to the front yard. Because today was still the mid-July period, Chang An didn't have to go to the Imperial College to study, and things at home also needed to be arranged.

Most of the household affairs were handled by Gu Li, and Chang An was just accompanying him. Looking at Gu Li ordering the servants to do things in the front yard, Chang An seemed to be somewhat helpless. Apart from holding a cup of tea for her, there seemed to be nothing he could do to help her.

"Carp!"

"Li'er!"

Gu Li had just stopped talking and hadn't taken the tea from Chang An's hand when they heard a voice coming from the door. The two turned their eyes and found Gu Ke's family of four standing at the door.

"Father (father-in-law)."

The two of them bowed to Gu Ke, the leader, and then Gu Ke and his four companions came in. Gu Ke said with a smile, "Nothing, nothing. Li'er, you've been busy for so long, and you must be thirsty. Have some tea first."

"My dear son-in-law, how can you be such a hands-off manager of such a big house?"

Chang An's hand paused for a moment. Fortunately, the tea was safely delivered to Gu Li's hand. He turned his gaze to Gu Baizhi who said this and said with a smile: "No need to be like this. Just call me what you usually call me now."

"Don't change the subject. You are the head of the family. Why do you leave all the household affairs to Li'er?" Gu Huashuo also chimed in, "Li'er has two people now, and you, as the father, don't even care about them."

"I..." Chang An opened his mouth, feeling a little overwhelmed.

After seeing this, Gu Li quickly spoke up to help Chang An: "Oh, my two brothers, you have wronged Chang Lang. Chang Lang has to go to the Imperial Academy to study, so it is natural that I have to take care of all the affairs at home."

"But you can't do everything by yourself. Isn't Zhen'er still by your side? If you need any instructions, you can ask Zhen'er to pass on the message for you." Gu Su said with concern.

"It's not long now. If it's longer, I can still do everything myself like today."

Chang An scratched his head at this time and said, "My mother-in-law taught me that."

But seeing the family standing in the yard, it was difficult to talk in the sun, so Chang An turned aside, stretched out his hand and led them to the main hall, saying, "Father-in-law, mother-in-law, it's still hot outside, why don't you come in and talk."

"If it gets sunburned, Gu Niang will be mad at me."

Gu Ke nodded, and then asked Chang An to lead the way into the main hall, and then sat down in the hall according to the order of host and guest. At this time, Huaiqin brought a few maids in and served tea to everyone in the hall. Chang An also took this opportunity to ask:

"Today is still the middle of July, and I wonder why my father-in-law came here this time?"

Gu Ke slapped his head and said with a smile: "Oh, I was a little excited when I saw Li'er just now. If you didn't remind me, I would have forgotten it."

Afterwards, Gu Ke made a gesture to the brothers Gu Baizhi and Gu Huashuo, and the two brothers got up and went out, then came back holding something.

After the two brothers came in with something in their arms, they placed it on the table between Chang An and Gu Li. Only then did the couple see clearly what it was -

Three boxes?!

Then Gu Baizhi opened two boxes. In one of the boxes was a book titled "Ding Kang Ce Wen"; in the second box was a very beautiful jade pendant engraved with a carp playing with lotus; and in the last box were pastries.

But Gu Li was not very interested in the second and third gifts. Instead, he picked up the book in the first box and asked, "What book is this? A storybook?"

Chang An looked at the title of the book and felt vaguely that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what it was, so he just picked up the tea and took a sip.

"This is the biography of our Dingkang Marquis Chang Yonghe." Gu Baizhi said with a smirk on his face.

"puff!"

The tea just entered Chang An's mouth and was spat out the next second, and everyone present was attracted by him. Chang An wiped the tea drops from his mouth and looked at Gu Baizhi and Gu Huashuo with an incredible expression.

"What the hell?" Chang An was a little stunned, his eyes widened.

Someone wrote a book about my little shit? Who is it? Who is so ignorant? If I find out who wrote it, I will have Sister Qi and Sister Qi kill you!

Gu Huashuo then added, "This was written by the man who wrote Taibai's Anecdotes. His surname is Li. After hearing about Chang Yonghe's story recently, he worked hard to write this storybook."

"Not only that, but this book was newly available in the bookstore yesterday afternoon. When your eldest brother and I were doing some business, we happened to see the sign that said this. We almost didn't get it."

"Still robbing?!" Chang An was completely upset.

"Don't worry. We bought two books. We read a lot of one of them overnight yesterday. This one is newly opened and has Mr. Li's autograph, so I'm giving it to you, Li'er, as a birthday gift."

Gu Li blinked his eyes and looked at the Dingkang Cewen, as if thinking about something. Then he asked, "What is written in this book? Do you two brothers know?"

"What else can I write about? Of course, it's about Chang Yonghe's previous events. Not only are there stories about him writing poems and essays, but there are also many romantic things in it." Gu Baizhi held his chin and thought.

"For example, Nansu from Pingkangfang: Madam Su Meng, and Madam Zhang Aiyu from Zhongzhang, both seem to have stories with Chang Yonghe. But we haven't taken a closer look yet, so we don't know what happened next."

"But don't worry. Mr. Li said that this book will continue to be published, and there will probably be three or four more volumes."

Gu Li listened to what her two brothers said, and after she heard it, all she could hear were things like "romantic love" and "Southern Jiangsu and Central Zhang". Then she narrowed her beautiful eyes and looked at Chang An who was sitting beside her, which made his hair stand on end.

"Chang Lang, is this all true?"

Chang An swallowed his saliva and quickly began to search the original owner's memory for information about Zhang Aiyu.

"It seems that not only were you and my sister your confidante, but also Zhang Aiyu from Zhongqu was your confidante? How come I didn't know?"

It was over, the name had been changed, Chang An quickly said: "Of course not! No!"

"These are all storybooks, how can they be true?! Although they are written based on real events, they must have gone through a lot of artistic processing. This has been rewritten... Bah, it's just nonsense, don't take it seriously, Gu Niang!"

But Gu Li did not respond, his eyes narrowed more and more, Chang An became even more panicked: "I dare not say anything else, as far as we know now, there is nothing wrong between me and Madam Zhang Aiyu, we haven't even met each other."

"This is all made up, Madam Gu, you have to believe me."

"If anything happened between me and that lady Zhang Aiyu, wouldn't Su Meng definitely tell Gu Niang? You can't just listen to random things...read random things, and believe random things."

Chang An's eyes inadvertently looked at Gu Li's hand holding the book. His originally slender hand was now clutching the book, and he wanted to crumple the book into a ball. Chang An was really nervous now. There was really nothing going on between him and Zhang Aiyu!

Gu Li just looked at her husband quietly. This momentum even made the two brothers of the Gu family standing beside them a little nervous. Then they both looked at Chang An and gave him an expression that said "May you be lucky".

But soon, Gu Li breathed a sigh of relief, smiled playfully, and said, "Of course I know it's gone, why is Chang Lang so nervous?"

Then she put the book on the table again. There was not a single wrinkle on it. It was obvious that the tense and "angry" hand just now was also fake.

"Don't tell me that I don't trust Chang Lang in his heart?" When Gu Li said this, he pouted unhappily.

"It's good that it's fake. Of course, we also know it's fake." Gu Ke came out to calm his son-in-law down and said, "I bought a storybook because I saw that you were going to school."

"Whether it's true or not, we all know it. Li'er trusts you, so why do you still doubt yourself?"

Chang An smiled reluctantly at this time, nodded and said: "Yes...my father-in-law said..."

Gu Su also smiled and said, "Alright, alright, Bai Zhi, Hua Shuo, are you still making trouble? I haven't told Li Er about the remaining gifts yet."

"Um...ok, ok."

"Li'er, this second gift is a jade pendant made by our own craftsmen. The carp symbolizes blessing children, which is perfect for you." He was about to say.

"Besides, this is for you to wear. It can also bring you good luck on weekdays."

Then, Gu Huashuo pointed to the last box of cakes and said, "This is red bean osmanthus cake. It is made from the last batch of osmanthus flowers before autumn. I just bought it today, so it is fresh."

Gu Li smiled and said, "Thank you, my two brothers, and thank you, father and mother, for the gifts you prepared for me."

Gu Ke smiled and said, "Li'er, yesterday was the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. Before you got married, your birthday was postponed for two days. But yesterday we heard that my son-in-law was not afraid of being contradicted and held a birthday party for you."

"Well, I'm afraid you've missed the prize, so I hurried over to give you the gift today."

"Finally, I wish you a happy birthday, Li'er, and may you have a happy birthday every year."

"Thank you father."

Chang An also calmed down at this time, and said: "Since my father-in-law and mother-in-law are here today, why not stay for lunch before leaving? I guess there should be nothing to do today, right?"

"Well, it's been a while since I've had dinner with Li'er, so I'm sorry to bother you today."