In the ninth year of Yongqing, General Gu Fu died in Qi Huai. The current emperor posthumously honored him as Marquis Zhongshun.
In the twelfth month of the same year, the second Miss Gu, who had accompanied her grandmother to the mountains to perform Buddhist rites for five years, returned home. The first thing she faced upon arrival was punishment—kneeling in the ancestral hall.
In the ancestral hall, the elder of the Gu family scolded her, telling her not to act recklessly in the future and to obediently wait for the elders to arrange a marriage for her. However, she responded with a single sentence that made him storm off in anger.
An unaware aunt and younger sister came to visit, seemingly out of concern, but they were actually mocking her. She calmly countered their remarks.
Finally, her elder brother arrived. The scholarly eldest son of the Gu family paced back and forth in front of her, eventually blurting out, “The military camp is full of men! Do you know that if word of your disgraceful behavior spreads, it will bring shame to the family’s daughters?”
Gu Fu finally shed her carefree demeanor and replied seriously, “Defending the country is not a disgrace.”
Upon hearing that the Gu family wanted to marry off the second Miss Gu, the current emperor immediately sought out the empress, earnestly saying, “I regard the second Miss Gu as my own daughter. I can’t let her marry just anyone. If empress has time, perhaps you could help me by looking for suitable candidates for her in the capital.”
The empress: “…” Understood, Matchmaking 101 it is.
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