Chapter Ninety-Three: Why Not?

The meal went fairly well, at least for everyone except Gu Zhiheng.

The others all wore grim faces, because Chu Zhaoan’s appearance had thrown every plan into disarray and even slowed the entire matter down.

If Chu Zhaoan and Jing Shushu were joining forces, then their chances of winning were slim. Unless Gu Zhiheng himself became Ye Zheng, they would have no hope of defeating them.

Yet they did not understand one thing: the Chu family had long since declined, so why did Chu Zhaoan still want the family head’s jade token?

Was there some other matter here that they did not know about?

Chu Xingran had left the Chu family very early and knew nothing of what came later, but Chu Zhaoting was not especially clear on these things either.

How had Gu Zhiheng met Chu Zhaoan? And for what reason had he become the target of that madwoman? What exactly did she want?

“The Chu family’s inherited secret art is what Chu Zhaoan wants. But that thing can only be obtained by the family head.” His tone was cool, and he suddenly became profoundly distant from Chu Zhaoting.

Even the way he looked at Chu Zhaoting had turned unfriendly; if Chu Zhaoting made even one improper move now, Gu Zhiheng looked ready to strike at the next second.

Everyone could see that something was off about Gu Zhiheng, but no one understood why.

Even Chu Zhaoting himself was utterly bewildered. What was this supposed to be? Sitting at home and disaster falling from the sky?

“Director Chu, do you know why I had the jade token delivered to you?” Though the Chu family’s ancestral precepts stated that whoever obtained the token obtained the Chu family, everyone had forgotten that the Chu family was a place of conflict, and the Chu family members were not easy to deal with.

Just look at Chu Xingran in front of him, then at Chu Zhaoting, and then at that madwoman Chu Zhaoan. Which one of them looked kind?

“What do you mean by that? You weren’t doing it on purpose? Did you know in advance that my sister would come looking for trouble?” Chu Zhaoting’s temper flared at once. This brat, Gu Zhiheng, was making a fool of him.

“So what if I did? Don’t forget why my sister and Ye Zheng separated in the first place, and don’t forget what position the Chu family held in that whole affair!” Hah. Threatening him?

He, Gu Zhiheng, was no dim-witted fool fresh out of the ancestral shrine. After all this time, could he truly know nothing about those events?

Since the Chu family had dared to do such a thing back then, they should have expected there would come a day when they would pay the price.

Even the Gu family had not escaped punishment. Did the Chu family think they could remain unscathed?

How ridiculous. The Gu family had suffered because Ye Zheng had struck ruthlessly, which led to all that followed.

But the Chu family would not be the lucky exception, because they would fall into Gu Zhiheng’s hands, and he would see to them properly.

“What, have you forgotten what happened all those years ago? Shall I help you remember and show you what disgusting things the Chu family did in the middle of it all?”

Gu Zhiheng’s expression was solemn, with not the slightest trace of a joke. Everyone could tell he was speaking of this matter with complete seriousness.

“The reason the Gu family rose in rebellion was largely because of your Chu family, especially your elder sister, Chu Zhaoan.”

“Your father and mother were no better. They offered plenty of ideas in that affair, and the Red-Tailed Fox clan was practically your best free pack of enforcers, wasn’t it?”

“Back then, wasn’t the Silver Wolf clan also brought in by your family? And the Ye family and the Liu family too. Do I need to spell out all the connections in the middle of this?”

“The Chu family patriarch’s jade token was never truly the Chu family’s. Something that belongs to the Gu family—do you really think people of the Chu family can hold onto it?”

With that long string of words, Chu Zhaoting was left speechless.

Indeed, everything Gu Zhiheng said was true, not a single lie among it. If anything, he had put it too mildly.

The others were equally stunned. They had no idea about any of this. When had Gu Zhiheng found out? Who had told him?

Could it have been Liu E?

Impossible. At that time, Liu E was being suppressed harshly because of the matter of pleading for mercy, and he simply had no mind to concern himself with these affairs.

Besides, back then Liu E was only a moth who had very recently attained sentience; he did not yet possess such great ability, and the Liu family was not even in his hands.

Who, then, could have told Gu Zhiheng all this? It could not have been anyone from the Gu family; no one in the Gu family could have mentioned those matters.

Aside from those things, there were no taboos within the Gu family, but Chu Xingran knew everything that had happened in the Gu family.

“Don’t look at me as if I’ve wronged you. Don’t forget what the Chu family was at the beginning, and what attitude it ought to have now.” The savage light in Gu Zhiheng’s eyes had an almost hypnotic effect. Chu Zhaoting stared at him for a long while and, in the end, felt his mind go blank.

“All right, I’ve made myself very clear. What you do next is up to you.” He rose with easy grace and walked out past everyone.

The reason he said all this today was simply to make his stance clear. The choice from here on out was theirs.

They and the Gu family stood on opposite sides. Apart from Mo Han, everyone else was the same.

“Brother, what is going on? Were you the ones who did this to me and Ye Zheng?” Chu Xingran could hardly believe it. They were her family, after all.

Why? What had she and Ye Zheng done to stand in their way? Why had they wanted to drive Ye Zheng to extinction?

“A-Ran, I’m not clear on all of this either. At that time, the whole family simply disapproved of your relationship.” Chu Zhaoting was not lying. The Chu family truly had objected to Chu Xingran being with Ye Zheng.

He did not know the exact reason. At that time, he had been busy with other matters and seldom returned to the Chu family.

However, there was one thing he did know, and that was the matter involving the Gu family.

One day his parents took his elder sister to the Gu family to meet the Gu family head, Gu Mojiang. When they came back that day, only his parents returned; from then on, his elder sister lived in the Gu family.

The Gu family’s rebellion against Ye Zheng did indeed have the Chu family behind it, and it was indeed because of Chu Zhaoan.

How should one put it? Rather than saying the Gu family rebelled, it was more accurate to say they had been used by the Chu family in a borrowed-knife killing.

At that time, the Gu family was already powerful enough to contend with Ye Zheng. What the Chu family coveted was not only the Gu family’s position, but also Ye Zheng’s.

After all, everyone had ambition. Everyone wanted to become the one who stood above all others. The Chu family had merely done what everyone else did not dare.

“The jade token is in my hands. Since this belongs to the Gu family, then it should be returned to Gu Zhiheng.” Chu Zhaoting felt his head ache. When matters from five hundred years ago were dragged back up, he truly did not know where to begin.

But now that Gu Zhiheng had suddenly brought all this up again and wanted to settle everything anew, what reason did he have to stop him?

Yes, Gu Zhiheng was the most capable person the Gu family had ever produced. If he wanted to do this, what was there to forbid?

He was a Gu family man. He was Gu Zhiheng. He was also that man, Ye Zheng.

So why, exactly, should he not be able to take control of these things? From the beginning, everything ought to have been like this, ought to have been in his hands.