Free Web NovelChapter 51: Chapter 51: Locking Horns
"How is this a disgrace for us? If anyone should be disgraced, it’s the Zhang family for raising such an ungrateful daughter..." Chen Suxiang, infuriated by Gu Wu’s remark about "making a spectacle of themselves," jumped to her feet. She stammered, wanting to lash out but holding back out of fear.
"What ’kindness’ have you shown them?" Gu Wu found it almost laughable.
"What do you mean, ’what kindness’? Zhang Minzhen couldn’t even give us a son, could she? That’s right. She’s in the wrong for not having a son. My eldest and I haven’t divorced her over it all these years. You call that not a kindness?"
As if she’d found some irrefutable reason that could convince both Gu Wu and herself, Chen Suxiang’s voice grew shriller. "My son can’t let his family line end with her, can he? A good-for-nothing like her who can’t have a son would have been guilty of one of the ’Seven Outs’ in the old days. Her husband’s family could have divorced her on the spot, and she wouldn’t have been able to take back a single piece of clothing or jewelry, let alone her dowry... The other day, she took advantage of our absence to clear out the house and run back to her family. It’s generous of me not to demand compensation from them today. Why on earth should I agree to whatever conditions they come up with?
"In any case, I don’t care. I won’t agree to any of their demands. They even have to leave that brat Nuannuan behind. Even if she’s a girl, she belongs to the Gu family. On what grounds can the Zhang Family take her away?"
The more Chen Suxiang spoke, the more certain she became. "She can’t have a son herself, but my son was capable enough to have one with another woman. What’s there for her to be picky about? So petty, running home to her family to stir up trouble. Such crude, unpresentable behavior. I’m telling you, even after a divorce, she’ll never escape the gossip behind her back. Hmph, she thinks she’s so special? Just you wait. Once she leaves our family, she’ll have plenty of days to cry..."
Gu Wu shot her a pitying look, as if gazing at an idiot. ’Marrying the wrong woman truly curses three generations.’ He couldn’t be bothered to argue with her any longer. His face filled with impatience. "You’re noisy. Get lost."
"Erk—"
Chen Suxiang’s voice died abruptly, as if a hand had suddenly clamped around her throat. She fell silent, looking abashed, and only dared to start muttering under her breath once she was a safe distance away from Gu Wu.
Gu Wu remained where he was, smoking. Amidst the swirling smoke, his usual expressionless mask fell back into place, making it impossible for anyone to discern his thoughts.
"Mom, what did Dad say?"
From a distance, Gu Jinhua looked nervously at Chen Suxiang. A flash of anger crossed Chen Suxiang’s face. "What else could he say? Sometimes I wonder who his real child is. He’s siding with outsiders, saying we should agree to the Zhang Family’s demands as long as they’re not too outrageous."
"How can we do that? Didn’t you try to persuade him...?" Gu Jinhua grew anxious.
"He’s right over there. If you want to persuade him, go do it yourself." Chen Suxiang shot her a glare.
’Persuade him? How? I’d have better luck just walking over and letting him beat me up.’
’You old bastard. Sooner or later, there will come a day when you’re bedridden and helpless, and I’ll make you suffer.’ Chen Suxiang cursed viciously in her heart.
Gu Jinhua flinched, gave an awkward laugh, and lowered her head, not daring to respond. After a moment, she looked up, still unwilling to give up. "So, are we just going to let the Zhang Family off so easy?"
"Then what do you suggest we do?" Chen Suxiang was just as helpless. "We’ll just have to see what happens when the time comes."
She was afraid that even if she refused, it would be useless if the "old bastard" agreed.
Gu Jinhua also considered this possibility. She dared to argue a little with her mother, but she’d never been close to her father. It was no exaggeration to say she didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly in his presence. The mother and daughter stared at each other, feeling utterly thwarted, like masters of unparalleled martial arts with nowhere to display their skills.
Just as the two of them were at a loss, a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK came from the door.
"Well, look who’s right on time. Showing up at this hour, you’re not planning to shamelessly stick around for a free meal, are you?"
Pulling open the door, Chen Suxiang, who was already stewing with pent-up frustration, spoke caustically the moment she saw the Zhang family delegation. Gu Jinhua, standing beside her, added with a sneer, "Even if you wanted a free meal, you’re out of luck. We’d rather feed our leftovers to the pigs than to you."
"Is that so? You feed your leftovers to the pigs? Would the pigs even eat it?"
Wen Xiu scoffed. "When it comes to being shameless, we Zhang Family members wouldn’t dare compete with you from the Gu family. Speaking of which, when this house of yours was built, how much free labor did my husband and two sons provide? Putting aside everything else, which piece of furniture in your home wasn’t made by my husband and our two sons?
"Doing free labor for you was one thing, but then you had the nerve to badmouth them behind their backs, complaining that my husband and sons ate too much and that their work wasted lumber. Why don’t you talk about how much money my husband and sons saved you on carpentry? Even if you hired a carpenter, wouldn’t you have to feed them? If you’d really hired a professional, would you have dared to serve them salt-drenched radishes and greens with not a drop of oil for every single meal?"
The more Wen Xiu spoke, the angrier she became. At the time, her husband hadn’t said a word when he came home, but her two sons weren’t as tight-lipped, complaining endlessly. If she and her husband hadn’t kept their sons in check, and if she hadn’t packed steamed buns for the three of them every day... She had even specifically told them not to eat the buns there, so the Gu family wouldn’t lose face, but to eat them on the way home to tide them over.
For over a month, the father and his two sons worked themselves to exhaustion all day, only getting a proper, satisfying meal after returning to their own home. That was the only reason the two younger boys reluctantly finished the work for the Gu Family. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been willing to go back to the Gu Family’s place to do free labor and not even get a full meal...
For over a month, while her men helped out, their own family’s food expenses shot up, and they got no gratitude for it. Afterward, Chen Suxiang actually had the gall to go around telling everyone that their family had been trying to mooch food and drinks, insisting on taking the work, but that their craftsmanship was poor. She claimed they deliberately dragged out the work and wasted the Gu Family’s lumber.
When those nasty rumors reached her ears, she nearly spat blood from rage. If her husband hadn’t held her back for dear life, she would have stormed over to their house to confront them.
So, some time later, when Chen Suxiang came looking for them again, claiming the previous job wasn’t finished and that she needed a wardrobe, a clothing chest, and a cupboard built, Wen Xiu refused her outright. But she had underestimated Chen Suxiang’s thick skin. Despite the refusal, Chen Suxiang relentlessly sought out her husband at the market, time and time again. Out of consideration for their daughter, her husband finally had to agree. This time, however, he wouldn’t work at the Gu Family’s house; he told them to deliver the lumber to their home, where they would build the furniture and then deliver it.
As it turned out, Chen Suxiang had her own scheme. She told the Zhang Family to go ahead and buy the lumber in their own village, paying for it upfront, and she would reimburse them afterward.
A likely story. It’s been years since the furniture was finished, and Chen Suxiang never mentioned the money for the lumber again, as if she’d completely forgotten about it... Wen Xiu had wanted to bring it up, but in the end, her husband told her to just let it go. "Don’t worry about it," he’d said. "Some of that lumber was ours to begin with, anyway..."
But even if that lumber was theirs, it was what they had been saving to build furniture for their younger son’s wedding! And what about the fact that they later had to spend their own money to buy more lumber from someone else? Does that not count?
