The comments from the crowd made Gu Baizhi blush even more. She lowered her head, not daring to look around. Qin Muxue, standing beside her, also noticed Gu Baizhi's expression and found her blushing face incredibly cute. She couldn't resist teasing her.
"Thank you all for your blessings. Xiao Zhi and I will definitely give the royal family an heir as soon as possible, so that the Western Qin Kingdom will be more prosperous and powerful in the future," Qin Muxue said firmly.
Upon hearing Qin Muxue's words, Gu Baizhi felt as if the sky had suddenly darkened. She lowered her head even further and bit her lip tightly.
Qin Muxue suddenly realized that the joke had gone too far, and it seemed that she had really upset her little wife.
"Alright, Mother, I need to go see my fourth brother, so please excuse me."
"Go on, your fourth brother too...sigh..."
"Have we still not found a way to cure Fourth Brother?" Qin Muxue asked anxiously.
"No, this illness is too strange. The cause of its onset has not yet been found. Your fourth brother might be..."
"I understand, Mother... Then I wish Mother a long life, a long life, a long life!"
Having said that, she took Gu Baizhi's hand and left. They rode a dragon to a palace. Just as they stepped off the dragon's back, a woman with a beautiful figure and appearance stepped out.
"This humble woman pays her respects to Princess Qin and Madam Gu."
But Qin Muxue saw that the woman's face was unfriendly and didn't look at her directly. Instead, she took Gu Baizhi's hand and walked into the palace.
"Who is this person?" Gu Baizhi asked.
My sister-in-law—Li Xuanxuan
"This is also your sister-in-law, why are you being so cold to her?"
"She cheated on me while my brother was sick and in a coma."
"Hmm? Who cheated on you? Why didn't you tell your mother about it?" Gu Baizhi asked, somewhat puzzled.
"There's no evidence… I only noticed a hickey on her neck that wasn't completely covered when I came to see my brother. My brother was already seriously ill and bedridden at the time, so the hickey definitely wasn't his. I questioned her about it, but my older brother and sister stopped me. After that, I couldn't find any more clues when I investigated. Enough said, let's go inside."
They entered Qin Yue's bedroom. Qin Yue lay on the bed, still unconscious. Qin Muxue gently walked to Qin Yue's side, while Gu Baizhi watched quietly from a distance. Qin Muxue picked up a damp towel from the bedside and wiped Qin Yue's face. Since his serious illness, Qin Yue had only woken up for a short period each day, so short that it was only enough time for him to eat one meal.
Qin Muxue could tell that Li Xuanxuan was cheating on her brother for another reason: Li Xuanxuan hadn't taken care of him at all. Qin Yue still had rice grains left from the previous meal on his face, and he was starting to smell faintly. If her brother hadn't insisted on not having a maid to look after him, Qin Muxue would never have allowed Li Xuanxuan to take care of him.
Seeing her younger brother, who depended on her for survival, being treated like a useless person by Li Xuanxuan, Qin Muxue felt a surge of anger.
"You, Xuanxuan, come here!" Qin Muxue shouted angrily.
This imposing manner startled Gu Baizhi. She had never seen Qin Muxue like this before.
Hearing Qin Muxue's voice, Li Xuanxuan rushed over. She carried a bowl of medicine into the room. She saw Gu Baizhi standing at the door and stared at her for a long time, clearly stunned by Gu Baizhi's appearance.
Gu Baizhi didn't pay attention to Li Xuanxuan. She just silently looked at the medicine in the bowl. She always felt that there was a faint demonic energy in it, but Gu Baizhi couldn't be sure if it was demonic energy, because she had never felt this kind of unknown aura before.
"Hurry up and come over here, what are you standing there for!" Qin Muxue shouted loudly.
Qin Muxue's words brought Gu Baizhi and Li Xuanxuan back to their senses.
"She's here, Princess Qin is here," Li Xuanxuan said ingratiatingly.
Gu Baizhi didn't think much of it, assuming she was just overthinking it.
"You, as my brother's wife, is this how you take care of him?"
"No, no, Princess Qin, I just had too many things to do and forgot. As you know, ever since Prince Qin fell ill, I've been the one preparing his medicine every day. It takes me a lot of time to prepare the medicine, and every day I also have to..."
Qin Muxue didn't want to listen to Li Xuanxuan's explanation.
"Go find a servant and take good care of my brother. From now on, you don't need to worry about my brother. Get as far away from me as possible."
"Princess Qin, as you know, it's not that I don't want the servants to manage it, it's that Qin Yue…"
"Shut up! I'll talk to him about this. For now, just stay away from my brother! Understand?"
Li Xuanxuan was also so frightened by Qin Muxue's anger that she didn't move.
After a while, Qin Muxue explained her younger brother's situation to the servants, then took Gu Baizhi's hand and left.
"Did you frighten Mrs. Gu inside?" Qin Muxue asked shyly.
Actually, Gu Baizhi was quite surprised to see Qin Muxue's shy appearance. Hearing words of comfort warmed her heart, but those feelings vanished instantly when Qin Muxue called her Madam Gu.
"No!" Gu Baizhi said with a touch of pride.
Qin Muxue was completely absorbed in her own thoughts and began to explain herself.
"My brother and I have relied on each other since we were little. My older brother and sister never treated us like their own siblings. They always framed us. My father liked my clever older brother and sister, but was extremely indifferent to my quiet brother and me. Many times when they framed me and I and I were about to be beaten, my brother would volunteer to take the blame and be punished for me. In short, I really couldn't stand seeing my brother treated like this by fate."
Gu Baizhi felt a deep empathy for Qin Yue's fate, which was just as difficult as her own before she transmigrated—lacking warmth and only having an older sister to rely on. Gu Baizhi wanted to comfort Qin Muxue and ease her sadness, even though she herself had been bullied by her almost daily in the Western Qin Kingdom.
Just as Gu Baizhi was about to step forward to comfort Qin Muxue, Qin Muxue reached out and pulled Gu Baizhi into her arms. Then she gently rested her head on Gu Baizhi's shoulder.
"Look how heartbroken I am! Mrs. Gu, can you come home to me?"
"No way! I was even thinking of comforting you... but you were actually thinking about how to bully me... I was so worried about you for nothing," Gu Baizhi said, blushing.
"Alright, Mrs. Gu, we should..."
"General Qin, an urgent report from the border!" A soldier wearing armor ran over.
"Tell me slowly what's going on on the frontier."
"General Qin, our surveillance team has discovered that the Southern Barbarian Kingdom is secretly moving troops to the border. Please give us your instructions."
Qin Muxue initially didn't believe it. Even though the internal politics of Western Qin were in chaos, the country was extremely united in its external relations. No one dared to provoke Western Qin unless they wanted to be destroyed.