The mistress has no feelings, why do you provoke her?

Now that things have come to this, it's difficult for Gu Huaizhou to deny it even if he wants to.

Jiang Miaoyin personally accused him, and his trusted confidant Laifu was also caught red-handed. He's finished.

Gu Huaizhou closed his eyes, knelt on the ground and kowtowed, saying, "Son, I know I was wrong."

He said he knew he was wrong, but he was full of resentment in his heart.

Even though he had already inherited the title, the old Marquis was holding onto the Marquis's treasury and refused to hand it over.

He had many wives and concubines, including a large number of illegitimate children.

He's clearly in the wrong, so why should I have to bear the consequences?

Gu Huai'an would not miss this excellent opportunity, and said, "Father, you must not be soft-hearted. Second brother has already inherited the title, which represents the face of the Marquis's Mansion. There are no secrets in the world. If this matter gets out, where will our Marquis's Mansion's face be?"

The old Marquis was also worried about this matter. He nodded and said, "You're right. That's what I was thinking about too."

"If my second sister-in-law finds out, she'll probably cause quite a scene," Gu Huai'an warned.

The old Marquis frowned even more deeply. This matter must not be known to Song Wenjun. If she finds out, it will surely cause chaos and unrest in the Marquis's mansion.

But something this big can't be kept secret forever.

For a moment, the old Marquis was caught in a dilemma.

Gu Huai'an seized the opportunity to suggest, "Father, why not give my elder brother a small punishment as a warning and send him to the army for training? If he makes a name for himself in battle, he will be respected by the people and his position will be secure. If he doesn't make a name for himself in battle, Father, you can consider other plans."

The old Marquis glanced at Gu Huai'an indifferently. This son of his had grown up by his side since childhood, and his temperament was most like his own.

His desire to inherit the title wasn't something that happened overnight, and his ambition was quite obvious.

This is also what the old Marquis appreciated most.

If they are sent to the army, they will inevitably have to go to the battlefield, where life and death are unpredictable.

After all, he was his own son, so the old marquis hesitated.

Gu Huaizhou's eyes were blazing with anger; Gu Huai'an's thoughts were truly wicked.

He actually sent himself to the battlefield to die.

"Father, I know I was wrong. I was just confused for a moment and that's why I did this. Please forgive me this time." Gu Huaizhou knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly until his forehead bled.

Then he added, "Even if a father doesn't think about his son, he should think about his grandson. Yan Yan is still so young, can you bear to let him never see his father?"

Military life is exposed to wind and sun, and life and death are unpredictable.

Gu Huaizhou could never endure such hardship.

The old Marquis was still hesitant, but after hearing his words, he immediately made up his mind: "Precisely because it is for your son, you should go to the army to gain experience. As a father, you should shoulder this responsibility. The family business of my Marquis's family was earned with blood and sweat. If our ancestors could do it, why can't you? There's no need to say any more. My mind is made up. If your mother hadn't pleaded for me to find you a sinecure in the capital, you wouldn't have caused so much trouble."

The old Marquis was furious whenever the Zhou family was mentioned.

The saying "a doting mother spoils her son" is absolutely true.

"Guards, beat this unfilial son! Beat him hard!"

At the old Marquis's command, his attendants gagged Gu Huaizhou and dragged him onto a bench.

They also used ropes to restrain his hands, feet, and waist to prevent him from moving around in pain and injuring his lumbar spine.

Gu Huaizhou knew he was doomed and gritted his teeth.

But when the first lash came down, his vision went black, and he almost fainted from the pain.

The old marquis's whip was specially made of cow tendon; when it struck someone, it would tear their skin and leave them covered in blood and gore.

When the eleventh lash was struck, a shrill scream came from outside: "Stop! Stop it, all of you!"

It turned out that Zhou had heard the news and rushed over.

She threw herself on Gu Huaizhou without hesitation, taking the whip for him.

Zhou screamed in pain and fell to the ground. The old Marquis was furious when he saw her and waved for his servants to stop.

"What are you here for?"

His second wife was originally just a concubine. If she hadn't been blinded by lust and made a wrong judgment, the Marquis's mansion wouldn't have been ruined in her hands.

Zhou harmed so many illegitimate children, and even his son was taught by her to be unable to distinguish right from wrong and to have no sense of responsibility.

She is not worthy of being the First Lady.

"My lord, please have mercy." Zhou dragged her aching body and crawled step by step toward the old marquis, reaching out to grab the hem of his robe.

The old Marquis took a half step back, kicked her away, and said angrily, "You still have the nerve to plead for mercy? Is this how you raised your child? You taught him to disregard human ethics, poison his own father, and mistreat his wife. After all this, you still have the nerve to plead for mercy?"

Zhou cried her heart out: "Even so, he is still your child. What child doesn't make mistakes? Isn't it enough that he knows his mistakes and corrects them?"

"The child?" the old Marquis said with heartache, "He's a father now and has inherited the title, and you still treat him like a child? How long are you going to spoil him?"

“Huaizhou is the legitimate son, the legitimate son! When the old lady was alive, she doted on him. What’s wrong with me, as his mother, spoiling my own child? All the mistakes are mine. If you want to hit someone, hit me.” Zhou Shi still didn’t know where Gu Huaizhou had gone wrong. Even though he had made such a huge mistake, in her eyes, it was just a trivial matter.

The old Marquis was so angry that he didn't want to talk to her anymore, but Madam Zhou was relentless and her words were full of threats: "Huaizhou is the Marquis, the only legitimate son in the mansion. If anything happens to him, the future of the Marquis's mansion will be ruined in the hands of the old Marquis. How will you face the ancestors of the Gu family when you are in the afterlife?"

"Since the matter has already occurred, and the old Marquis spared Jiang Miaoyin's life, why not grant them their wish and take Jiang as a concubine, saying to outsiders that she is someone else's daughter? As long as the Marquis's mansion keeps a tight rein on things, no one will know what really happened."

The old Marquis laughed in anger: "You've thought things through quite thoroughly. I want to ask you how you're going to explain this to Song Wenjun. Others can deceive her, but she is the Lady of the Marquis's Mansion."

“She’s just a small merchant’s daughter, she doesn’t have the guts to go out and spread rumors. If she dares to say even a single word against it, Huai Zhou will divorce her, and she can forget about taking her dowry with her.”

Upon hearing Zhou's words, the old Marquis's eyes widened suddenly.

He finally understood why Gu Huaizhou had become like this; with a mother like that, even the best child would be spoiled.

The old Marquis closed his eyes, his gaze towards Zhou Shi filled with death: "I was wrong. I was too soft-hearted to let you live until today. I should have beaten you to death when you committed such a wrong act. Otherwise, the Marquis's mansion would not have fallen to this state."

He suddenly looked coldly at Zhou Shi, raised his hand and slapped her hard across the face, saying in a cold voice, "Guards, drag this vixen away and beat her to death with sticks."