Free Web NovelChapter 57: Chapter 57: A Smooth First Battle
"I agree to that. It’s natural for a child to be better off with her own mother. However, the Gu family is still her family, so I hope you’ll agree to let her come back and stay for a few days every now and then."
Gu Wu nodded without hesitation, but he also had a condition. He was convinced his granddaughter, Gu Nuan Nuan, had a bright future, so he naturally wanted to stay on her good side. ’A ten-year-old is old enough to understand things, and she certainly wants to live with her mother. If our family forces her to stay here, we’ll probably just earn her resentment.’
’So be it. I just hope she can come back to the Gu family for a few days once in a while. As long as she doesn’t completely forget about us in the future, that’s enough.’
"Letting her come back to the Gu family for a couple of days a month is no problem. It’s just that Nuannuan told us those other two Gu children are always bullying her at school. It’s clearly not our Nuannuan’s fault, but her father is completely biased toward them... The old saying is true: a stepmother brings a stepfather. The stepmother isn’t even in the picture yet, and he’s already acting like one..." Wen Xiu said with a pout.
"I can guarantee that won’t happen again."
Gu Wu’s brow furrowed. ’I really have been out of the loop for too long. Just how much is going on in the Gu family that I don’t know about?’
"Since you’ve given us your guarantee, we can rest easy."
Wen Xiu turned to consult with her family for a moment, then readily agreed. "All right, how about this: Nuannuan will come back to stay for two days at the beginning of the month, and another two at the end. As for the New Year holiday, we can alternate each year. How does that sound?"
"Fine. It’s settled then." Gu Wu gave it a moment’s thought and nodded. ’Four days a month is a little short, but it’s better than nothing. Any more than that, and the child probably wouldn’t want to stay anyway.’
"Your Gu family house is big, anyway. Since Nuannuan will be coming back every month, why not set aside a small room just for her? Let her sleep on her own at night, would that be possible?" Wen Xiu asked tentatively, not actually having high hopes.
She was surprised when Gu Wu nodded without the slightest hesitation. "There’s no reason why not."
"They say grandparents dote on their grandchildren the most. You really do care for your granddaughter."
Wen Xiu was overjoyed and pressed her advantage. "From now on, Nuannuan will primarily be living with our Minzhen. But she’s still your family’s child, and her surname is still Gu—that won’t change. So you’ll have to provide some child support, won’t you? We won’t ask for much, you can give whatever you think is fair. But we’d prefer to receive it all in one lump sum, even if it ends up being a little less."
"..." Gu Wu fell silent for a moment, considering how much would be appropriate.
"If a lump sum is difficult, yearly payments are fine too. You’d just need to pay until she finishes high school. After that, even if she gets into a university, we won’t ask you for another cent." Seeing Gu Wu’s silence, Wen Xiu wasn’t sure if he was unwilling or just couldn’t come up with the funds, so she took a step back.
"Let’s do the lump sum. I’ll even include her university funds in advance. The only thing is, I don’t have cash on hand right now, only Gold and silver coins. Would you be willing to accept those? If not, you can wait a bit and I’ll exchange them for cash. It’s all the same." Gu Wu figured a one-time payment would save a lot of trouble. ’I can just imagine,’ he thought, ’if we do this yearly, there’s bound to be a huge fight in the family every single year. It would be far more trouble.’
"We’re willing! Of course, we’re willing! We can just exchange them ourselves when we need the money. It’s all the same."
Wen Xiu’s eyes lit up, and she nodded eagerly without even consulting the others this time. She didn’t know how the Gu family, or Gu Wu specifically, had come to possess such things. For years, the Alliance government had discouraged private ownership of precious metals, constantly urging citizens to take them to the bank and exchange them for cash. But she wasn’t an unworldly woman. Deep down, she had a bone-deep conviction that holding real gold and silver was much more secure than holding pieces of paper.
"That’s good." Gu Wu nodded. ’That makes sense,’ he thought. ’Anyone with half a brain wouldn’t refuse.’ He also made a decision. In a little while, he would also give Zhang Minzhen the share he had been planning to give Gu Nuan Nuan in the future, letting her safeguard it. ’She’s her mother, after all. Not every mother is like my own wife, who only knows how to plot against her own daughter.’
’If I keep those things here and one day I just... kick the bucket... even if I left instructions, they probably would never make it into Nuannuan’s hands.’
"Now, besides the child support, there’s the matter of the house. The year your family built your current home, your wife kept crying poor. In the end, she forced our Minzhen to use the last of her dowry money to buy those two dilapidated houses your family owned in Lihua Village. You must have some memory of that, right?"
Seeing how reasonable Gu Wu was, Wen Xiu’s tone softened considerably. Even when bringing up the past, she wasn’t as fiery as before.
"..."
Gu Wu frowned. ’That sounded exactly like something his wife would do.’ He’d heard so many similar stories that he’d gone from initial shock and anger to a state of numb silence. So, after hearing her out, he simply nodded for Wen Xiu to continue.
Wen Xiu took one look at Gu Wu’s face and knew this was probably another thing he’d been kept in the dark about. Whether he knew or not, she didn’t care, as long as he was willing to take responsibility. "By rights, since our Minzhen contributed to building this house and has been helping pay off the debt for nearly ten years, she should be entitled to a share. But our family discussed it, and we’ve decided not to haggle over the exact figures. Honestly, it would be impossible to calculate clearly anyway and just a waste of everyone’s time. So, we’ll take a small loss. For this house here, you just need to give us some token compensation. Then, just give the two houses in Lihua Village to our Minzhen. After all, she and the child will need a place to live. You can’t expect them to sleep on the street, can you?"
"I won’t let the mother and daughter be treated unfairly."
Gu Wu took a deep breath, but he was still furious. He struggled to control his emotions, but the bulging veins on his clenched fist betrayed his anger.
He tried to calm himself down, but his anger kept flaring up. ’Building the house "incurred debt," and the eldest son helped "repay it." The second son and my daughter probably didn’t escape, either... That wife of mine is really something else. So blinded by greed she’d even swindle her own sons...’
Zhang Dazhuang and Zhang Wei Qiang now felt a genuine "sympathy" for Gu Wu. They both looked at him with pity. To be such a hands-off head of the household, to this degree... there was probably no one else like him. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that if Gu Wu had valuables on hand, the family shouldn’t have been short on cash. And yet...
The father and son exchanged a look and secretly shook their heads but said nothing to expose the truth. A man had to be allowed to keep some of his dignity.
"It’s a relief to be able to speak with someone as reasonable as you. Since you already have an idea of what’s fair, we’ll accept whatever you offer and won’t be picky." ’This is going too smoothly,’ Wen Xiu felt like she was dreaming. She was almost too embarrassed to bring up any other demands. She couldn’t help but glance at her husband, raising a questioning eyebrow.
Zhang Dazhuang knew exactly what his wife was thinking and shook his head.
’Since Gu Wu is being so understanding, it wouldn’t be right to bring up the other compensation they had discussed among themselves. After all, their daughter had secretly taken a large sum of her husband’s hidden money. Even though her husband was in the wrong, he was still laid up in the hospital at this very moment.’
’As long as the housing issue was resolved and the Gu family had agreed to the major expense of child support, it was best to quit while they were ahead.’
"Then let’s leave it at that. There’s nothing else." Seeing her husband shake his head, Wen Xiu readily dropped the other compensation claims she had been about to make and smiled.
’Even when you’re in the right, it’s best not to burn your bridges. Nuannuan would still be coming back here in the future. After all, she was still their flesh and blood.’
