Free Web NovelChapter 42: Chapter 42: The Fierce Fear the Fearless
Chen Suxiang saw the terror on her second son’s face and knew he was truly frightened. Her heart ached for him, trembling as if for her own flesh and blood. She threw her arms around him, cooing as if to a small child, "It’s okay, it’s okay. We don’t have to be afraid anymore."
"WAAAH... Mom... My sister is too vicious... She didn’t care if I lived or died! We can’t listen to her anymore. It’s all her fault! All these bad ideas were hers, so why should I be the one to take the fall for her?" Gu Lihuang felt so wronged. It was a miracle he hadn’t wet his pants in fear. The more he spoke, the more resentful he became. All his strength suddenly returned, and he violently broke free from Chen Suxiang’s embrace, stood up, and swung a slap at Gu Jinhua.
"Lihuang, what are you hitting me for?"
Gu Jinhua was stunned by the blow, then stared at Gu Lihuang in disbelief and shrieked like a madwoman.
"I’m hitting you, you bitch!" Gu Lihuang felt a sense of relief wash over his entire body as his palm connected. Even the terror he’d felt while being held up by Zhang Wei Qiang vanished without a trace. A crazed excitement flashed in his eyes as he raised his hand and began slapping Gu Jinhua from left to right, raining down more than a dozen heavy blows until he finally felt satisfied and at ease.
Gu Jinhua’s cheeks were red and swollen, puffed up high from the slaps. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and when she opened it, she spat out two teeth coated in bloody foam.
"You’re insane..."
She took a few steps back, staring at Gu Lihuang in terror, afraid he would come over and keep hitting her.
"If it wasn’t for you, you bitch, insisting on twisting black and white and framing our sister-in-law, why would her older brother have taught me a lesson? You saw I was about to die, and not only were you not in a hurry to save me, you seemed afraid I wouldn’t die fast enough! What kind of sinister, vicious thoughts are you hiding? Are you hoping all of us in the Gu family die off so you can come back and take all the family fortune? Huh? Is that it? Is it? I knew it! You vicious woman, you just want us all to die so you can snatch all the Gu Family’s wealth for yourself..."
"I didn’t..." Gu Jinhua refused to take the blame for this, but with two teeth missing, her words were slurred. Her rushed, two-word denial, "I didn’t," came out sounding like "I... did."
"Mom! Mom! You hear that? She admitted it herself!" Gu Lihuang turned and tugged on Chen Suxiang, completely ignoring Gu Jinhua’s attempt to defend herself.
"I didn’t! How could I ever think something like that?" Gu Jinhua was so frantic she broke out in a sweat.
"Jinhua, you can’t be that ambitious. You’re a daughter married off, like water splashed out of the house. Even if the Gu Family had no one left and had to adopt a son or grandson from a stranger, it still wouldn’t be your turn to inherit the family estate." Chen Suxiang’s expression instantly darkened.
"Mom, I really don’t think that way." She said this aloud, but inwardly, she scoffed at her mother’s words. ’What does she mean, ’Even if the Gu Family had no one left and had to adopt a son or grandson from a stranger, it still wouldn’t be your turn to inherit the family estate’? I’m still of the Gu family’s blood, after all. If the family really had no one left, would I truly be less qualified to inherit than some random cat or dog from the street?’
An expression of resentment and unwillingness uncontrollably appeared on her face. When Chen Suxiang saw this, she immediately felt uneasy. In her heart, she was now truly convinced that her daughter had designs on the family’s assets...
"Brother, look..." Zhang Minzhen stared, dumbfounded, as the scene suddenly shifted and the Gu family members began to tear into each other.
"Just dogs biting dogs," Zhang Wei Qiang sneered dismissively. He looked around and noticed many people pointing and whispering about the Gu family. Although he couldn’t hear clearly, he could get the gist of it from their expressions and by reading their lips.
He chuckled to himself. ’It’s a shame Nuannuan isn’t here. Otherwise, we’d know exactly what they were saying without any effort.’ After that thought, he checked the time and said to Zhang Minzhen, "Let’s go. We’ll go inside first and request your leave."
With someone as intimidating-looking as Zhang Wei Qiang accompanying her, Zhang Minzhen’s leave request went unusually smoothly. The cadre in the supply and marketing cooperative in charge of personnel, who was usually frustratingly slow, didn’t even ask a single question when he heard she was requesting personal leave. He immediately got her the form, filled it out, signed it, and stamped it. It all went so smoothly that Zhang Minzhen still had a look of disbelief on her face even after she’d walked out of the office door.
"Brother, it must be your charming personality. You have no idea, that guy is usually the biggest windbag. Nothing gets past his desk without him lecturing you for at least half an hour. I’ve never seen him be so efficient except for when he’s dealing with his superiors."
"You didn’t notice when that man passed by the entrance just now," Zhang Wei Qiang said with a smile.
"When was that? It was so chaotic just now, I really didn’t see him go in."
"It was when I was holding Gu Lihuang up."
"Ah..." Zhang Minzhen’s entire expression froze. ’No wonder—’
Zhang Wei Qiang laughed, pleased. He unexpectedly recalled something Mr. Mu had said years ago, a phrase that had stuck with him ever since: In the face of absolute power, all schemes and plots are useless.
He thought of Mr. Mu’s regretful expression back when he had finally made the decision to stay in town for his parents’ sake. A slight pang of pain went through his heart.
Everyone thought that he had saved Mr. Mu and taken care of him for many years, but few knew how much Mr. Mu had taken care of *him*, how much benefit he had gained from the things he was taught, how much it had broadened his horizons and his world.
’Unfortunately, because of the choice I made, the dream I once yearned for might never have a chance to be realized—’
Zhang Wei Qiang’s mood suddenly plummeted.
Walking back to the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative, Zhang Wei Qiang stood before Chen Suxiang and Gu Jinhua, the contempt on his face completely unconcealed. "From now on, if anyone comes looking for trouble with my little sister, I don’t care if it’s the two of you personally or someone you sent. The point is, if my little sister suffers, I’ll put the entire blame on you Gu family members."
As he spoke, he glanced at Gu Lihuang with a smirk. "I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to hit women. They’re not durable enough. Men, on the other hand, are thick-skinned and tough. It’s much more satisfying to beat them up."
"Y-you, don’t come any closer," Gu Lihuang stammered, taking a terrified step back, on the verge of bursting into tears. "This has nothing to do with me! I won’t get involved ever again, okay?"
"What do you think? All I know is that for every time my little sister is wronged, I’ll get it back from you Gu family members tenfold." Zhang Wei Qiang looked at him with pity. "Who asked your older brother to still be in the hospital? For now, I’m afraid you’ll just have to be the one to suffer."
"Mom, hurry up and tell him you definitely won’t go looking for trouble with Sister-in-law..." Gu Lihuang desperately grabbed Chen Suxiang’s hand, demanding she make a promise.
To his face, he didn’t even dare to refer to Zhang Minzhen as "that woman" anymore. Having just walked back from the brink of death, he felt a fear for Zhang Wei Qiang that came from the very bottom of his heart. He didn’t doubt his words in the slightest.
"You can’t do this! Zhang Minzhen has always been a pushover. We just won’t provoke her anymore, but how are we supposed to control what other people do?" Gu Jinhua said to Zhang Wei Qiang, enduring her fear with a face swollen like a pig’s head.
