Chapter 1054: First Sister: Gu Caiyi

Sitting in the seat of the Patriarch, unconsciously exuding regal majesty that birthed awe in everyone present’s minds, he stared down at the kneeling Liu Shuang and ordered, "Speak."

Liu Shuang kept her head bowed and began speaking, "Patriarch Gu, as you may already know, for the past four or five years, I have been posted in the Middle City, managing my family’s garment shop there. Around one and half years ago, I saw your First Sister, Gu Caiyi, in the market. She was dressed shabbily and was carrying her son, and looked very distraught.

I recognised her and asked what was wrong. At first she had difficulty recognising me, then she clutched my hands and... began crying, saying her son was suffering from a severe fever. The normal fever medicine wasn’t working on him and she didn’t have enough money for better medicine. Since my garment shop doesn’t have many customers, I didn’t have enough funds on me but after we added the little money she had, we managed to buy the medicine."

Pausing for a bit, she subtly raised her head and glanced at Max to gauze his expression. Seeing he was frowning, her heart clenched as she thought he wasn’t believing her, but then she saw him silently glance at her. Understanding he wanted her to continue, she relaxed a little and resumed speaking:

"After we bought the medicine, instead of returning to her family, she asked if she could go to my shop. I was aware my family had started to target the Gu family but as I said, it was all because of Patriarch and Liu Bashui, I never got involved. In fact, I detested it as the Gu family had been our close friends.

So, maybe to feel better about myself, I took her to my shop, helped her feed the medicine to her son, and seeing she seemed starved, I bought her some food. Then I asked what was wrong with her. Why did she lack money despite being the daughter-in-law of the Ding family? Why was she roaming the market alone and in that disheveled state?"

Max, Zhao Ziyan, and others’ gazes focused as this was the important part. As for her mention of how she detested the Liu family targeting the Gu Family, they completely ignored her, though her saying she helped her not because she was kind or all that but to feel better about herself improved her impression in everyone’s heart, even if by just a tiny bit.

"Miss Gu Caiyi didn’t want to tell me at first but after she rested a bit and calmed down, she told me that..." As Liu Shuang explained, they found out why Gu Caiyi had fallen into such a destitute state.

The Ding family was a Middle-Tier cultivation family with a Middle-stage Bone Tempering realm cultivator at the helm. And it turned out that they had their eyes on a Minor Cultivator family which was a bit stronger than the peak Gu Family. That other family had shown signs of submitting to them but they wanted someone from the main line of the Ding Family to marry their Patriarch’s daughter.

However, every male of the Ding family’s main line was married to some cultivation family or the other. In the end, they chose Ding Zhao, Gu Caiyi’s husband, for no reason other than that she was from the weakest family they had ties with.

But the decision to remarry Ding Zhao wasn’t finalized because they were hesitant about it because not only would this was going to worsen their relationship with the Gu family, their image was also going to be tainted and the other families they had marital ties with, especially those Minor Cultivation families, would become uneasy. After all, since they could do this to the Gu family the first time, they could do this to one of their families the second.

Then the beast tide suddenly erupted and Patriarch Gu died and the Gu family lost their value as allies. The Ding family hesitated no longer and married Ding Zhao to the young lady of that other family.

Instantly, Gu Caiyi was sidelined and gradually her treatment worsened. Still, it was still manageable but then Ding Zhao’s new wife got pregnant. Worried that Gu Caiyi’s son would compete with her offspring, she had Ding Zhao completely cut off their monetary support. From then on, she had been living on her savings and the money she took from the Gu family as her dowry.

"HOW DARE THEY?!!" Zhao Ziyan couldn’t hold back her rage upon hearing all this, her face dark with rage.

Even though Gu Caiyi had been married away, she was still her daughter, her own flesh and blood. How could she stay calm knowing how her daughter had been suffering all this time? She even felt a deep sense of guilt because in the past two years, she had bred some resentment towards her for not coming to visit the family.

She turned to Max and said, "Patriarch—No, Chen’er. We need to get justice for Caiyi and punish the Ding family. How dare they treat her like this!"

Max’s expression was cold as he slowly nodded and stood up, "Forget about inviting them. We’ll go visit them ourselves."

Zhao Ziyan nodded heavily, satisfied by his decisiveness.

"Let’s go. I’ll go with you." She said, Gu Lan and Gu Yinyin were also enraged and wanted to go along but before they could say anything, they saw Gu Ruolan shake her head toward them, silently telling them to not act up.

The Elders in their seats looked a bit hesitant because they didn’t think it was right for them to be so overbearing and make more enemies.

Max noticed this and his expression turned colder.

Right then...

The Second Elder stood up and swept his gaze across them, "Have you all forgotten Patriarch is a Marrow Cleansing realm cultivator? Our family’s status is a lot higher than the Ding Family. More importantly, don’t you remember what Patriarch said yesterday when he assumed the Family head’s post."

The Elders’ eyes flickered and their heartbeats increased. Some even began to feel a bit uneasy.

The Second Elder continued, "We are a Sovereign Family." The Second Elder repeated Max’s words, then added, "What does being a sovereign family entail? I don’t claim to know it but I know it definitely doesn’t include feigning ignorance when we are wronged just because we don’t want people to talk about us."

"Also, what if it was your own daughters’ in Miss Caiyi’s place? Would you have still hesitated like this, huh?" His voice gradually rose as he continued.

The Elder couldn’t sit still after hearing this and because the uneasy feeling in their heart had increased several folds. They hurriedly stood up and bowed toward Max, "Forgive us for being cowardly, Patriarch. The Second Elder is right. We can’t let this grievance go unanswered. The Ding Family must be punished!"

Saying this, they began to step forward to show their resolve that they were willing to go with him.

Max cast an indifferent glance at them, "It’s alright. Just my mother and I are enough. You all stay here."

With that, he ignored them and walked out of the hall. Zhao Ziyan followed him.