A Drop of Water Creates a Ripple Effect

  Gu Yuqiu quickly ran to the warm pavilion and found her mother playing cards with the princess, a smile on her face as she chatted with the princess.

  She could only quietly retreat. Her mother was accompanying the princess to play cards, and she couldn't forcibly drag her away from the card table. She just found it a bit strange why the princess would take an interest in Liang Huaiyu at their first meeting. But after thinking about it for a moment, she suddenly realized that it must be because of the seating arrangement at the banquet earlier. The people in the Princess's residence didn't know the rules, but the princess did. In order to appease her mother, she naturally had to show some respect to the legitimate wife of the Marquis of Hou. This was one aspect, and another aspect that Gu Yuqiu hadn't thought of was that the princess also took an interest in her, which is why she was being so friendly towards Liang Huaiyu.

  Liáng's family had lived in Jiangnan for a long time, and her speech, manners, and behavior were quite different from those of the noblewomen in the capital. The princess had originally wanted to help Liáng save face and also ask about Gù Yǔkuí, but she hadn't expected that after chatting with Liáng, she would find her broad-mindedness and conversation so fresh and interesting that she actually started thinking of befriending her.

  Gu Yuqiu saw that her own mother couldn't get away for a while, so she could only reluctantly return to the yard and wait.

  Zhang Wan-yi saw Gu Yu-qie walking alone on the Jiǔ Qū Bridge by the lake, and gave a signal to the two noblewomen beside her. The two noblewomen slightly nodded their heads, and the three of them walked over with a smile, hand in hand.

  Gu Yuqiu didn't know that she was already famous outside, and it just so happened that she had provoked someone's jealousy. Just now, she and Yun Ke walked out of the secluded courtyard one after another, and they were seen by the second daughter of the Minister of Revenue's household, Zhao Zhixian. Zhao Zhixian had long had a crush on Yun Ke, and upon seeing this, she was naturally furious, her face twisted in anger as if she wanted to tear apart the handkerchief in her hand. She stormed back to Zhang Wanxi's side, and when Zhang Wanxi saw that her expression wasn't right, she asked what was wrong and found out that Yun Ke and Gu Yuqiu had slipped away to another courtyard for a secret meeting. A cold smile spread across her face as she hatched a plan. She pulled Zhao Zhixian and the third daughter of the Minister of Revenue's household, Zhao Zhiyue, aside and whispered a few words in their ears. When they saw Gu Yuqiu come out of the warm pavilion again, they went to intercept her.

  Gu Yuqiu walked to the Jiǔ Qū Bridge to avoid others, most people were admiring plum blossoms on the Mei Lin side. This Jiǔ Qū Bridge was spanning over an artificial lake in Bié Yuàn, now it's winter, a thin layer of ice had formed on the lake surface, very desolate and uninviting, those noble ladies and princes wouldn't come here naturally.

  Looking from afar at Zhang Wan-yi bringing two noble ladies of similar age, Gu Yu-qie's heart had already surged with two words: not good. She subconsciously wanted to turn her head and leave, but unfortunately Zhang Wan-yi spoke up early, "Why does little sister want to leave as soon as she sees big sister?"

  Damn! Today is really unlucky, must be because I didn't check the almanac before going out. Just sent away Yun Ke and now Zhang Wanji is here, they're quite a pair, did they plan this together? Taking turns to come!

  Gu Yuqie let out a long sigh in her heart, and could only stop in her tracks, turn around, and force out a smile. "Sister isn't admiring the plum blossoms over there, why did you run over here?" She felt that her smiling mouth was not as good as not smiling at all. She swept a glance at the two young women following behind Zhang Huanyi, who were about 14 years old, with similar figures to Zhang Huanyi, and were all dressed in luxurious clothes, afraid that others wouldn't know they had money. When they walked closer, Gu Yuqie suddenly remembered who they were - the two young ladies of the Zhao family, who had always followed Zhang Huanyi in her previous life, even after they got married, relying on their relationship with the imperial concubine to be arrogant and domineering. Many of the ideas to deal with Gu Yuqie's bad points came from these two sisters.

  They are in cahoots with each other, a pair of accomplices.

  Gu Yuqie had suffered at their hands before and was naturally wary of them, having an extra guard against their unprovoked harassment.

  Zhao Zhixian was not very good at hiding her feelings, and on top of that, she was jealous of Yun Ke's private meeting with Gu Yuqie. Looking at Gu Yuqie's eyes, which had a hint of ferocity in the corners, Gu Yuqie's internal alarm sounded loudly. She took a glance around and found herself standing in the center of the Jiǔ Qū Bridge, where the railing only reached the height of an average person's calf due to the summer scenery. At this moment, Gu Yuqie had an idea.

  These three aren't going to push themselves into the water, are they?

  Gu Yuqiu sneered inwardly, thinking that she had been avoiding them just to live a quiet life, was this wish too extravagant? They were all acting strangely, as if they had taken the wrong medicine or gotten into a fight, and kept coming after her. Fine, since they wanted to play tricks, Gu Yuqiu wasn't one to back down, and would accompany them to the end. In her past life, she was foolish, but this lifetime, she wanted to avoid trouble, yet things didn't go as she wished, and since she couldn't avoid it, she no longer needed to hide.

  Thinking of this, Gu Yuqie calmed down and smiled at Zhang Wanji. However, the lingering light in her eyes was actually paying attention to the two sisters of the Zhao family. She even deliberately stood by the railing of the bridge, if these three people didn't have any evil intentions, then that's it, but if they really were as she had suspected...

  Zhang Wan-yi saw Gu Yu-qie standing alone on the bridge, almost at the railing, and with just a little effort, she could push her into the water. Since they had no defense against her, she was secretly delighted. On the surface, she wanted to win over Gu Yu-qie, so it definitely wouldn't be her who made the first move. Therefore, when she was still at some distance from Gu Yu-qie, she stopped in her tracks. She just needed to wait for Gu Yu-qie to fall into the water and then play the role of peacemaker.

  The Zhao sisters exchanged a glance, and the two of them quickly approached Gu Yuqie. One of them stepped on Gu Yuqie's cloak, while the other used her elbow to strike Gu Yuqie with force. If Gu Yuqie were just an ordinary ten-year-old girl, she would have been knocked into the lake by the Zhao sisters' pincer movement, given their greater height and strength.

  It's not Keiko Kusakabe.

  She had long been on guard against the two sisters, and when they made their move, Gu Yuqie quickly pulled the tie of her cloak, which was trampled by Zhao Zhimeng and slid off Gu Yuqie's shoulders. Just as Zhao Zhiyan raised her elbow to bump into Gu Yuqie, Gu Yuqie lowered her head and took advantage of her small stature to pass under her arm, then swung her hand and struck a heavy blow on her waist. This move seemed ordinary, but it was actually the "one-hit knockout" technique taught by Professor Gu Huai, which Gu Yuqie had learned diligently and executed swiftly and ruthlessly, without any hesitation. Zhao Zhiyan only felt a numbness in her waist and suddenly fell forward, using all her strength to bump into Gu Yuqie with her elbow, fearing that she couldn't push Gu Yuqie into the water. Her blow missed its mark, and due to the inertia and pain in her waist, Zhao Zhiyan didn't even have time to cry out before she plunged headfirst into the lake, breaking through the thin layer of ice on the surface and creating a hole.

  Zhao Zhīyuè saw her sister fall into the water, and in a fit of rage, she reached out to grab Gu Yuqiu. Gu Yuqiu took advantage of the momentum and slid past Zhao's side, her toes tapping on the icy bridge surface as she sprang up lightly. This was one move from the Liang family spear technique passed down by the Liangs, called "Turning Back to Gaze at the Moon". She used her fingers in place of the spear tip and pressed heavily against Zhao Zhīyuè's throat, forcing her head back. With this movement, Gu Yuqiu hooked her toes under Zhao's heels, sending her tumbling backwards into the lake with a huge splash.

  Gu Yuqiu pretended to slip and stand unsteadily, taking two steps to the side of Zhang Wanxi, grasping the wrist of the already stunned Zhang Wanxi, grinning at her, "Zhang family sister save me. I'm going to fall!" As soon as she finished speaking, she pushed with one hand, using the power of her rotating body to squeeze Zhang Wanxi into the water as well.

  Three people all fell into the water, Gu Yuqie held back her laughter and squatted at the edge of the bridge, pretending to cry loudly. "Someone come! Save me!" She shouted with a hoarse voice. "Someone has fallen into the water!"

  Gu Yuqiu's cry for help, combined with the three people who had fallen into the water struggling to stay afloat, startled the people on the shore who were admiring the plum blossoms.

  Gu Yuqie saw that the three people in the lake were really bad at swimming, struggling and splashing around in the water, swallowing a lot of icy cold lake water, just like three live fish being thrown into a pot of boiling oil. Logically speaking, these three people had caused her no end of trouble in their past lives, now that they had fallen into the water, teetering between life and death, she should be happy, but instead she felt a faint sense of sorrow.

  "Grab my cloak." This bridge was indeed a bit far from the Plum Blossom Forest, and by the time those lifesaving guards and eunuchs arrived, something might really happen. Gu Yuqiu only looked for a moment before tossing one corner of her cloak to Zhang Huanyi, who bent down and tightly grasped the other corner of the cloak.

  Zhang Wan-yi couldn't swim, she flailed her arms and legs about, in the panic she couldn't hear what Gu Yu-qie was saying, but anyone who falls into water has an instinct to grab onto anything they can, so when her hand touched the belt of the cloak she grasped it tightly and didn't let go.

  Gu Yuqiu pulled hard on the other end of the cloak, while Zhang Wan'er desperately grabbed onto it to lift her head out of the water. She managed to grab hold of the cloak, and Zhao Zhiyan and Zhao Zhimeng also tightly grasped her. For a moment, Zhang Wan'er felt a force pulling herself upwards, but an even greater force was dragging her down into the water. Instinctively, she kicked her legs to shake off the two sisters, trying to escape the predicament of being pulled underwater. The more she kicked, the tighter the two sisters grasped, which made things difficult for Gu Yuqiu on the bridge who was using all her strength to pull them up. At just over ten years old, how could she possibly have the strength to withstand the struggles of these three people on the brink of death?

  "Stop it, all of you!" Gu Yuqie shouted angrily, "If you keep tearing at each other like this, I'll let go!"

  The three people struggling in the water didn't listen to Gu Yuqie, each wanting to grab the cloak's strap and climb up first, afraid of being left behind.

  Gu Yuqie's fingers were deeply embedded in the palm of her hand, hurting so much that she gritted her teeth, but still didn't let go.

  "Someone has fallen into the water!"

  "Quickly call the guards!" The people on the shore came over one after another, and Gu Yuqie's heart finally relaxed. Those three people were really too much to handle. Gu Yuqie's cloak was finally unable to withstand the weight and ripped apart with a tearing sound.

  Gu Yuqie only felt the sudden release of strength in her hands, but they were scorching hot with pain. The cloak in her hand had been torn into two halves, and the three people in the water lost their grip on them, sinking down together.