TGDS Chapter 87.2

The Good Dad System (Arc 12) Chapter 87.2: (Ancient Times) The People Around My Daughter Have All Been Reborn (11)

But having a second chance in this life, he wasn’t worried. Pei Yuzhuo was still just a little girl; it didn’t matter who married her. Since his Second Prince didn’t want to compete, then he wouldn’t compete; he would do it himself.

“Your Highness, Your Highness!” A young eunuch following the Second Prince stumbled in, his expression panicked and tense. In the distance, the young eunuch following the Third Prince could also be seen running after him.

“Speak.” The Second Prince made his final move, and after confirming the outcome with his younger brother, he began to collect the pieces, arranging them by color (black and white).

The young eunuch knelt down with a thud, making a loud noise: “His Majesty has issued a decree! He… he has deposed the Crown Prince!”

“What?” The Third Prince was the most shocked. He stood up abruptly, the shock leaving him momentarily dizzy.

The chess pieces the Second Prince had just grasped fell one by one, slamming heavily onto the board. To him, who knew nothing of this, the Crown Prince—the flag, the benchmark, the future leader—had fallen with just a single sentence. It was utterly absurd.

“Why…why was the eldest prince deposed?” The experienced third prince immediately changed his tune, pressing for an answer.

“The imperial edict said it was for spying on the emperor’s whereabouts and buying and selling official positions…”

“How could that be?” The second prince was utterly bewildered; he couldn’t believe the crown prince would do such a thing.

“Yes, how could that be?” The third prince feigned agreement, asking the same question, but his expression remained calm. Although the crown prince had been deposed prematurely, he was still in control. In his previous life, the crown prince had committed many offenses since childhood; these were probably just those that hadn’t been discovered. Besides, he had a vague feeling that things weren’t going quite right in this life. For example, the incident recently where Pei Yuzhuo was almost pushed into the pond by Lin Shuniang had kept him awake at night, making him feel like the script in his hands was wrong.

But since the crown prince was still deposed, it was probably just a slight deviation in timing and circumstances. And he was the one orchestrating the game from behind the scenes. The world was now his to rule, the third prince was very confident.

Inside the Gu residence, all was quiet as ever. Gu Yuniang sat obediently in her room, muttering to herself when no one was around. If it weren’t for Lin Shuniang, who, despite being given a second chance, acted like a madwoman, how could she have caused Pei Yuzhuo to end up in Xicheng, robbing her of any chance to continue contacting him! But she understood that fools are always fools. In her past life, Lin Shuniang had also pushed someone into a pond and been sent to a temple, hadn’t she? This time, she’d been upgraded, directly pushing someone at a palace banquet, and the Imperial Uncle had reported a serious illness, locking her in the house.

She was probably having a hard time, so why bother? It would be better to be like her, seeking advantage and avoiding harm early on, and finding a powerful patron to cling to. Just as she was lost in thought, the door was suddenly pushed open, and her father, Prime Minister Gu, entered. His face was extremely pale, and sweat beaded on his forehead. He slammed the door shut.

“Father, what happened?” Gu Yuniang quickly stood up, very cooperative.

Prime Minister Gu, his face grim, sized up Gu Yuniang. “Although it’s different from what you said, the Crown Prince has been deposed.”

“The Crown Prince has been deposed?” Gu Yuniang’s expression tightened. The timing was off. Could it be that Lin Shuniang had done something again? Could she really be so bold as to speak directly to the Imperial Uncle and then have the Empress whisper in her ear? She had no idea. In her previous life, Lin Shuniang was imprisoned in a temple, completely unaware. Later, she married far away and died young, knowing nothing. If she really knew that Pei Yuzhuo would be the future Empress… she would probably still seek revenge and try to replace Pei Yuzhuo as Empress.

“Didn’t you say that?” Prime Minister Gu’s face was grim. He had been bewitched today, recalling what his second daughter had said about the reason the Crown Prince was deposed in his previous life. Under the Emperor’s questioning, he had blurted it out unconsciously. Fortunately, the truth had been uncovered; otherwise, it would have been a crime of deceiving the Emperor. However, being associated with the deposed Crown Prince meant that his family would likely have little chance of advancement in the Emperor’s eyes. “Yu Niang, you’d better pray to Buddha that every word you say comes true, or the entire Gu family will be ruined by you!”

He was a ruthless man. Now that he had boarded the Crown Prince’s ship, he could only stubbornly continue down this path. Gu Yu Niang had said that in his previous life, the Second Prince had ultimately ascended the throne. Fine, he would crawl, even if it meant crawling, to the Second Prince’s side.

If Gu Yu Niang was lying, then he could only accept his misfortune. It was fate!

“You must never tell anyone about these things again, otherwise…” Prime Minister Gu’s eyes were filled with malice. If Yu Niang were to speak nonsense now, the entire Gu family might be doomed. What emperor could tolerate someone spouting words like “deposing the crown prince” or “regicide”?

“I promise!” Gu Yuniang immediately swore an oath, then collapsed onto the bed after her father left. She dared not argue with him anymore. So many things had changed in this life; now she could only desperately pray that everything would be the same as in her previous life.

It would happen, it would happen!

…

In just half a year, the western city had expanded again. More and more border tribes were coming to join them. The six-month observation period was enough to fill the outer city to capacity. The first few batches who passed the observation had already entered the city and were settled in empty houses. Now they traveled to important locations outside the city regularly with the city residents, and spent the rest of their time doing small businesses.

The outer city had also been expanded two or three times, causing the military camp to expand outwards. The original boundary marker had long been moved further and further forward; if the Ning Dynasty people arrived now, they would probably be astonished.

“Have we arrived yet, Master Wang?” Pei Yuzhuo asked softly. Along the way, she frequently peeked out from behind the carriage curtain to admire the surrounding scenery, but being her first time traveling, she couldn’t really distinguish the sights.

Although her father and grandmother had already arranged for her to stay in Xicheng for a while, her father had written before her departure, clearly stating that he wanted her to take this opportunity to appreciate the scenery along the way.

How should she put it? In truth, the scenery wasn’t particularly beautiful. After all, in the eyes of the people of the Capital, the most beautiful places were the water towns of Jiangnan; further north, it was all grass and yellow sand, a gray expanse with nothing to see.

But the outside world was truly vast.

The farthest place she had ever been was Hanshan outside the Capital. This was because most people in the Capital had a tradition of Buddhist worship. She had heard her grandmother tell her stories; her grandmother said that the farthest place she had ever been was the ancestral graves not far from the Capital, where she had accompanied her relatives to sweep the tombs.

Later, she heard a lot from her not-so-close friends of the same age. They said that if she married a man who was sent to serve as an official in a distant region, she could follow him to even more distant places. A woman is supposed to follow her husband wherever he goes; there’s no reason for her to run off on her own.

She knew then that someone like her, full of curiosity about everything around her and yearning to guard the frontier, was truly an anomaly. She learned to remain silent and didn’t say anything more, not wanting people to think that girls from the Pei family lacked manners.

But Pei Yuzhu knew that she truly thought differently from many of the girls she knew.

She didn’t understand why traveling merchants could travel far and wide, and scholars could go out to study, while they were confined to this one place, listening to the saying “never leaving the house,” and if they wanted to go out, they had to ask their husbands for permission.

Of course, she understood that one must learn to go with the flow.

Pei Yuzhu had thought that these absurd fantasies she had since childhood would gradually diminish and disappear as she grew older, but she never expected that there would actually be a chance for them to come true.

Although the journey was bumpy and uncomfortable in the carriage, each new place offered the chance to taste different foods, see unheard-of trinkets, and experience various customs.

She might not like everything, but just seeing it was enough to satisfy her.

“We’re almost there.” Wang Bu’er drove with one hand, with another guard beside him, taking turns. He was missing an arm, and in the capital, many people looked at him with suspicion. However, the further west they went, the fewer such glances they received. Some even nodded and asked if he was a retired soldier, offering him extra steamed buns for free. If General Pei hadn’t been worried about him on the battlefield and insisted on sending him back, he would have fought to the death, sacrificing his life for him. But it was good to go back; he could take care of the general’s daughter. The young lady was truly talented; it was just a pity she wasn’t a man. Otherwise, she would surely be a hero on the battlefield.

Hearing the announcement that they were almost there, Pei Yuzhuo immediately moved to the front and pulled back a crack in the carriage curtain. They had already stepped onto the main road. In this era, there was no advanced road-building technology; the road was simply formed by the passage of many people and vehicles. When there were many vehicles and they were traveling at high speeds, yellow dust would fly up, hurting the driver’s eyes.

“There are so many people! Are they all going into the West City?” Pei Yuzhuo had many questions. In fact, she was genuinely curious. What she was facing was a huge military building. At the top, she could see soldiers’ helmets, and below, there were various kinds of wooden and stone defensive weapons. On the only open road, countless vehicles were neatly lined up, waiting to enter the city. However, there weren’t many horse-drawn carriages like theirs carrying people; most were donkey carts carrying goods.

Currently, the border tribes of the Western City have begun artificial animal husbandry. They have fenced off a plot of land, and each household raises a few animals. Every day, a line of new recruits is taken to dig forage, which must be done according to a map. After all, General Pei said that this is called sustainable development, and they cannot dig it all up at once.

After coming to the city to seek refuge, they brought with them a lot of their own wealth. Their skills in weaving and smoking meat are also different from those of most people in the Great Xia Dynasty, which has attracted many interested traveling merchants to come and purchase their goods.

Furthermore, Pei Naochun was incapable of waging war. In addition to training, the soldiers in his army also worked in the fields alongside the residents. The current West City was more of a residential area surrounding it than a true city. The area enclosed by Pei’s military camp was vast, with countless fields. Although the land was somewhat barren, it still yielded a good harvest. Moreover, thanks to his example, almost every household had started home gardening. Simply put, they planted everything that could be grown. Even in General Pei’s camp, there were plenty of scallions, ginger, garlic sprouts, and small chili peppers. Every now and then, the kitchen staff would go to harvest them. It was said that what General Pei grew tasted even better than what others grew.

“It should be.” Wang Bu’er replied quickly. He dismounted, pulled the carriage, and took the “fast track.” In fact, this track was reserved for residents and soldiers. Holding his token, he passed through unimpeded, and amidst the envious glances of many traveling merchants, he led the carriage straight to General Pei’s camp. “Miss, you may dismount now.” If this were in the capital, he might have reminded her to bring a veil or something similar, but in the western city, such things were not fashionable. Women were also laborers; if they were concerned with such things every day, their whole family would be poor and still not have finished their work.

Pei Yuzhu immediately got out of the carriage. Standing in front of the camp, she felt a mix of homesickness and trepidation, and was hesitant to take the first step inside. Although she had exchanged many letters with her father and had seen many versions of his portrait as a suspect—all of which she had carefully organized, she had brought all of them except for two for her grandmother. She had also sent back portraits of herself and her grandmother, fearing that her father might not recognize her when they met in the future. But even with all the preparations, taking the first step inside was still very difficult.