The Prime Minister's Darling

Chapter 51: 51 Surprises

In the next few days, Gu Jiao did not go out, instead, she stayed home to learn calligraphy with Xiao Liulang, and to assist with his rehabilitation.

Xiao Liulang did not seem to care much about whether he would stand again, a fact Gu Jiao noticed before his surgery. She didn’t know what he had gone through, but his heart was as gray as ash, utterly devoid of a passion for life.

Fen Lin was worried about the risks of surgery, but Xiao Liulang agreed without any hesitation. This wasn’t fearlessness but a casual indifference to life or death.

But Gu Jiao would not let him die, or let him be disabled.

“It’s time for your exercise,” Gu Jiao announced, after tidying up the house and entering Xiao Liulang’s room.

She had grown increasingly unconcerned about acting like an outsider. She even entered without knocking.

Xiao Liulang’s face immediately turned sour.

Not because she came in without knocking, but because he didn’t want to exercise.

Gu Jiao anticipated his resistance, deprived him of any chance to decline. She approached him, pulled him off the chair. Quite a change, from a guest to a pest who not only went into his room at will but also caught and pulled him around.

Xiao Liulang frowned, unable to resist due to his disability, he was nonetheless dragged out of the room.

“The crutch,” Xiao Liulang said.

Gu Jiao raised an eyebrow, “From today onwards, no more crutch.”

Xiao Liulang glanced at her and said plainly, “Without the crutch, I can’t walk.”

Gu Jiao crossed her arms over her chest, her demeanor flirtatious, “If you can’t walk, I’ll support you. I will be your crutch!”

She did not miss how unenthusiastic his rehabilitation was every time he leaned on the crutch, placing all his weight on it, neglecting to exercise his right leg.

Xiao Liulang’s eyebrows furrowed.

Gu Jiao grinned, “If you want the crutch, walk back to the room and get it.”

But with a weakened right leg, how could he go back? He could only hop back.

The thought of himself hopping frustratingly made Xiao Liulang decisively give up!

This was how Gu Jiao squashed Xiao Liulang’s attempts of sloth with the crutch.

He could comfortably use the crutch, but he couldn’t do the same with Gu Jiao’s slender figure because—

“My lord, you’re not supposed to entirely depend on me, you need to exert your strength.”

“Yes, that’s it!”

“Could you exert more strength?! I’ll be crushed by you.”

“How can you expect a woman to do all the work on her own?!”

Xiao Liulang gritted his teeth, “…Just, just helping…!”

Stop blabbering nonsense and shut up?!

Thus, Xiao Liulang was forced to take his walking seriously. Previously, going back and forth a dozen times wouldn’t tire him out. But now, just a single round was enough to exhaust him. Moreover, Gu Jiao insisted that he had to make a minimum of a hundred steps every day.

By the end of a hundred steps, Xiao Liulang was dripping in sweat.

Gu Jiao handed him a handkerchief to wipe the perspiration, “My lord, does your body ache? Feels like you’ve been run over by a carriage, too tired to move even a finger and legs trembling non-stop…”

Xiao Liulang: “…”

With the completion of that day’s torment, the time had come for him to have a go at Gu Jiao.

“Did you practice your writing today?” he asked seriously.

A second ago, Gu Jiao was gloating, but suddenly she froze.

Xiao Liulang felt a moment of satisfaction and payback, narrowing his eyes, “You make me walk so much, and yet you don’t practice writing a single character. You have a hundred characters left from yesterday to write.”

Gu Jiao frustratingly scratched her head!

She hated writing with a brush! Especially the characters in Zhan Country that had so many strokes!

Xiao Liulang laughed, stating, “If you don’t write it today, it will be doubled tomorrow. Then, you’ll have to write two hundred characters.”

Gu Jiao slammed the writing brush down, “Then tomorrow, you will walk two hundred steps!”

Xiao Liulang: “I’m not walking.”

Gu Jiao: “Then, I’m not writing!”

Xiao Liulang: “Suit yourself.”

Gu Jiao: “…”

Whether she practices writing or not didn’t matter, but he had to continue his recovery, or else he’ll limp all his life.

Xiao Liulang did not care if he was crippled or not. He gave Gu Jiao a glance, returned to his room with an expression of victory.

Xiao Liulang had noticed that Gu Jiao didn’t like writing, perhaps her interest in the characters on the medicine formula was just a fleeting curiosity. After experiencing the boredom of writing, she backed out.

He was certain Gu Jiao wouldn’t write.

Who knew that the next day, as soon as he woke up, he saw a small figure sitting cross-legged on his bed, arms folded, pouting angrily. She looked like a small, irate cat and had heavy dark circles under her eyes. She was giving him a terrible death stare.

“What are you doing?” Xiao Liulang stared at her in shock, he didn’t know how long she had been there, was she watching him sleep?

Gu Jiao let out a cold humph, retrieved a thick stack of practice papers from behind her. She flipped them at him commandingly. “A man! Here are the characters you asked for!”

Xiao Liulang looked at those characters, then her dark circles, his eyebrows crinkled, “You couldn’t have been up all night writing these, could you?”

How many could that be? Wasn’t she crazy?!

Gu Jiao, like an animal revealing its fangs, “One thousand characters! Today, you walk one thousand steps!”

Xiao Liulang: “…”

—

From that day, life at the Gu family became bustling and lively. Apart from cracking seeds, eating sweets, and teasing Xue Ningxiang’s son, the old lady also had another amusement—watching the two of them torment each other.

“Jiaojiao, Liulang is one step short!” The old lady loved the drama.

Upon hearing this, Gu Jiao stormed out of the kitchen with a cleaver in hand.

Seeing Gu Jiao, who held a cleaver capable of slaughtering a cow, Xiao Liulang looked devastated!

The shy little girl he had seen in the snow, waiting for him to help her with her cape, was not what she seemed…

Before they knew it, the fifteenth day of the first month passed, and Tianxiang Academy reopened.

Xiao Liulang got up early, packed up his things.

After all this time, the dormitory at the academy should have been repaired. Once he moved into the dormitory, he wouldn’t have to be pushed into walking anymore.

While he was packing, Gu Jiao didn’t say a word.

As usual, Gu Jiao saw him onto Uncle Luo’s carriage and handed him his crutch. When she left, she seemed to remember something, smiled at him and said, “Oh, I’ve been so busy lately I almost forgot to tell you something. Since it might be inconvenient for you to practice walking at the academy, the last time I visited the dean, I talked to him about it. For the next few months… you don’t have to stay at the academy… until you’ve fully recovered.”

Xiao Liulang: Thunderstruck!!

Not long after Gu Jiao left, Gu Xiaoshun arrived.

Gu Xiaoshun sat beside Xiao Liulang, “Brother-in-law, why did you bring luggage?” He brought only a book bag.

Xiao Liulang couldn’t say that he had been tricked by his sister, so he counter-asked, “You’re not staying at the academy?”

Gu Xiaoshun said, “You’re not staying, Brother-in-law, so of course I won’t either! I’ll accompany you! Just in case something happens along the way.”

As the first village chief in a radius of ten miles, he was completely qualified to protect his brother-in-law!

Xiao Liulang held back his anger, “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Sis said not to tell you. She wanted to surprise you!” Gu Xiaoshun shrugged and said cheerfully, “How is it, Brother-in-law? Are you surprised? Astonished?”

Xiao Liulang’s teeth clenched hard, Gu, Jiao!