“Bringing three kids? A second marriage?”
Gu Manman wiped her mouth, staring at her second brother in disbelief.
Beside her, Father Gu and Mother Gu were also stunned. Although they wanted grandchildren sooner rather than later, they would absolutely never agree to their son marrying a woman who had been married before. The Gu family couldn’t afford that kind of shame.
“Zhengnan, what exactly is going on here? Is she really a second-time bride?”
Gu Zhengnan shook his head. “No.”
Mother Gu let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good, that’s good…”
Just then, Gu the Third spoke up from the side. “Mom, what’s so good about it? If she’s not a second-time bride but has three kids, doesn’t that mean she got pregnant before marriage?”
Only then did Mother Gu realize—what the Third said made sense.
For a moment, everyone’s gaze converged on Gu Zhengnan. Even the family dog raised its head to look at him.
Gu Zhengnan let out a sigh. “It is indeed a pregnancy before marriage…”
When those words came out, the Gu family felt as if the sky had collapsed.
Li Wenxiu couldn’t believe it, her brows tightly furrowed. “Second son, don’t you dare joke like that. How could you find someone who got pregnant before marriage? Aren’t you just becoming a ready-made father? If you really bring a girl like that home, won’t others laugh our family to death? If the other branches of the family find out, how can I still hold my head up high in front of them!”
Li Wenxiu was frantic. Her son either went years without finding someone, or when he did, it was a woman pregnant before marriage—how could that be acceptable? The Gu family was a respectable household; they absolutely would not allow their son to marry a woman of questionable character.
But they forgot that Gu Zhengnan always liked to drag out his sentences.
Only after Li Wenxiu finished did Gu Zhengnan furrow his brows and correct her.
“Mom, can you let me finish speaking?”
Gu Hongwei slammed the table. “Finish what? I don’t agree with this! If you want to marry a female comrade like that, unless your old man dies one day, don’t even think about stepping foot through the Gu family’s door!”
Gu Manman shrank her neck, unable to resist glancing at her third brother beside her.
Gu Zhengbei squeezed his eyes, not daring to breathe too loudly either.
“Dad, those three children are mine.”
After Gu Zhengnan said this, the entire living room fell into a deathly silence.
Gu Hongwei and Li Wenxiu looked at each other, taking a long while before they registered what their son’s words meant.
“The children are yours? You haven’t even gotten married—where would children come from? Child, are you running a fever today? You’ve started talking nonsense.”
The hand at Gu Zhengnan’s side couldn’t help clenching into a fist. For him, this matter was disgraceful. Even if he had been drunk at the time, he shouldn’t have done that to the female comrade.
Since childhood, he had always been the “good child” in others’ words, yet now he had committed such a grave mistake.
But since it had already happened, he could only steel himself and explain. He briefly recounted the whole story from beginning to end.
After he finished, the Gu family was even more dumbfounded. This was simply too unbelievable.
Especially Li Wenxiu and Gu Hongwei—they had actually become grandparents five years ago?
“Zhengnan, you lost your memory back then—how can you be sure this is real? Could it be that the other party set up a trap specifically for you?”
Li Wenxiu’s mind was still quite quick. She felt this was too much of a coincidence. Maybe that woman had set her sights on the Gu family’s background and was trying to find a loophole.
“No. I’ve already investigated the matter, and it’s most likely true. I came back today to inform everyone—I’ve already decided to hold the wedding.”
At this point, Gu Zhengnan sighed again and briefly explained Jiang Shutang’s current situation.
“In any case, Comrade Jiang’s reputation isn’t great right now, but there’s no helping it. I hope everyone can be kind and not hold prejudices against her because of what happened before.”
Gu Manman felt a wave of disgust upon hearing this.
“Second brother, do you really want to marry a woman like that as your wife? You’re at the height of your career right now, favored by your superiors. If you marry a wife like that, what will others think of you?”
Beside her, Gu Hongwei and the others fell silent. What their daughter said made sense. This female comrade now had a stain on her record. Marrying a woman like that into the family would bring plenty of trouble in the future.
“The one who did wrong is me. As a man, I must shoulder my own responsibility. If I turned a blind eye and did nothing, how would I be any different from an animal?”
Li Wenxiu glanced at Gu Hongwei, then spoke hesitantly. “Son, this matter of yours isn’t easy to handle. Even if those children are yours, we can’t tell anyone about it. In other people’s eyes, you’d just be marrying a woman of loose morals. Can you bear that grievance? How about this—tell the girl that the Gu family will adopt those three children, and give her a sum of money as compensation. That way, it won’t affect you finding a suitable girl from a matching family.”
The Gu family had vast wealth and held stable iron-rice-bowl jobs; raising three children would be no problem at all.
That way, they could raise the children, and their son could still find a well-qualified female comrade—killing two birds with one stone.
Gu Zhengnan hadn’t expected his family to hold such views and strongly disagreed. “Mom, I can’t do that. That woman has suffered so much injustice over the years because of me. Now if I only take the children, how can that be justified?”
Gu Hongwei chimed in from the side, “By the way, Zhengnan, are the three children this woman gave birth to boys or girls?”
Hearing her husband ask about this, Li Wenxiu immediately perked up with interest.
In the Gu family, when it came to the great-grandchildren generation, there wasn’t a single male heir. Old Master Gu had even consulted a fortune teller about it, who said that the Gu family had deep blessings, but they would be exhausted by the great-grandchildren generation, and they might not even be able to preserve a single line of descent.
At first, no one believed it, but then the grandchildren’s wives gave birth one after another—either with difficult labor or to baby girls. Not a single boy was born.
Only then did the Gu family truly believe it.
If this girl had given birth to boys, then no matter how poor her character was, she would still be qualified to enter the Gu family, because the entire family was now desperately hoping for sons. After all, who would manage the family business in the future? Someone had to carry on the family line.
Gu Zhengnan twitched the corner of his mouth. “They’re three boys. Triplets.”
Hearing this, Gu Hongwei slapped the table again and stood up excitedly.
“Really? This isn’t something to joke about. You mean three boys? I have three grandsons?”
With that, Gu Hongwei burst into loud laughter, looking rather pleased with himself.
Gu Zhengnan nodded, feeling inexplicably happy as well. Thinking of those three miniature versions of himself, they did seem rather endearing…
“They really are three boys.”
Li Wenxiu, thinking about becoming a grandmother, rubbed her hands together in delight.
“In that case, talk to the girl tomorrow. Let both sets of parents meet, and have her bring the three children along. We’ll discuss the wedding arrangements.”
Marriage was a major matter and couldn’t be taken lightly. Whether it was the bride price or the three rotations and one sound—the bicycle, sewing machine, wristwatch, and radio—all these conditions had to be negotiated in advance.
Some people might get married for just a few dozen yuan, but the Gu family was not an ordinary household. Giving too little would be too shabby, so it also depended on what conditions the other party proposed.