Ruan Hongmei stood nearby, secretly holding back laughter with great difficulty.
Wang Lihua could not hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
Afraid that his parents would unleash another storm of yelling at his wife, Gu Shiye hurriedly stood up and shielded Li Wenxiu behind him. “Dad, Mom, you’d better calm down a little. The doctor said today that my wife is pregnant, she can’t be overworked, can’t go hungry, and can’t be frightened either.”
Mother Gu had originally intended to harshly scold Li Wenxiu, but when she saw how fiercely Gu Shiye protected his wife, she suddenly burst into aggrieved tears.
“Fine, fine, I never realized I gave birth to such a lovestruck fool. But you two have gone too far. They asked for an eight hundred yuan bride price, yet you only agreed to seventy yuan. How vicious does someone’s mouth have to be to say something so heartless?”
Gu Shiye immediately shot back mercilessly, “Mom, they can ask anyone they want for that eight hundred yuan bride price, but they specifically chose a poor family like ours that has to advance wages just to see a doctor. That’s what’s truly shameful.”
Wang Lihua no longer dared add fuel to the fire, though she secretly gave Gu Shiye a thumbs up.
“You… you unfilial brat! What kind of ingrates have I raised?” Mother Gu pointed at Gu Shiye, nearly driven half mad with anger.
Bang!
Father Gu had finally exploded. He grabbed an empty bowl and slammed it upside down onto the table.
The entire room instantly fell silent, everyone waiting to hear what kind of decision the old man would make this time.
“We’ll give six hundred yuan as the bride price, taken from the family savings. I also won’t ask any of you to contribute toward the forty-eight legs anymore. This matter is settled.”
The first person dissatisfied with the reduced bride price was Gu Shicheng.
Because his future brother-in-law had gone gambling, he estimated there was absolutely no room left for negotiation on his future in-laws’ side.
Inside, anxiety burned through him like ants struggling on a scorching hot pan, but in front of his brothers and sisters-in-law, he could not bring himself to say it aloud.
Gu Shiye glanced at the eldest and second branches of the family beside him. They could not let all the pressure fall solely on him and his wife.
He noticed Wang Lihua secretly urging his eldest brother to speak, yet Gu Shizhu deliberately played dumb and refused to respond.
Meanwhile, his honest and taciturn second brother had finally been pushed into action by Second Sister-in-law.
“Dad, Mom, we disagree.”
Father Gu glared at him. “What exactly do you disagree with?”
Gu Shinian lowered his head and stayed silent for a long while. Just when everyone thought he had completely backed down after being scolded, he unexpectedly spoke with utmost seriousness.
“Dad, Mom, ever since we were young, you treated us brothers differently. We are your sons, so we could tolerate it without complaint. But now we have wives and children. Every day I work desperately to earn work points so my wife and child can eat their fill and stay warm. Before our family even gritted our teeth and considered taking out these hundreds of yuan for a bride price, my Pan’er nearly starved to death. If our family really hands over that much money, I’m terrified my Pan’er might truly starve.”
Li Wenxiu felt that the honest second son of the Gu family had finally awakened.
At last, Gu Shinian took a deep breath and concluded, “Dad, Mom, if we can’t follow the standards Third Sister-in-law proposed for Fourth Brother’s marriage, then let’s split the family. From now on, however you choose to live will no longer concern us.”
The room instantly sank into silence again.
Father Gu clenched his fists tightly. The usually obedient second and third sons were rebelling together now, and he could no longer suppress them.
Mother Gu also panicked. “Old man, hurry and think of a solution! How could seventy yuan possibly be enough for Fourth Brother to get married?”
Father Gu was already frustrated beyond measure. In anger, he grabbed a pair of chopsticks and hurled them directly at Mother Gu’s face.
“They turned out like this because of your favoritism toward this one and that one. Now the sons are heartbroken and drifting away from us!”
The chopsticks clattered onto the ground. Mother Gu raised a hand and touched the bloody scrape left on her face, then exploded in fury and lunged at Old Gu scratching him wildly.
“You damned old man, all you ever do in this life is bully me. Was I the only one playing favorites? Weren’t you the one who said Shizhu was the eldest son and should be treated better? Shinian and Shiye have been healthy since childhood so we didn’t need to worry much about them. Shicheng and Shiyu were the dragon-phoenix twins I nearly died giving birth to while you weren’t home. They have been weak since childhood, how could I not favor them a little more?”
The two old people nearly ended up in a full blown fight. Only Gu Shiyu rushed forward crying as she tried to separate them.
“Dad, Mom, please stop fighting!”
In the end, when the furious Old Gu nearly pinned Mother Gu down to beat her, Gu Shizhu and Gu Shinian finally stepped in to break things apart.
Wang Lihua coldly stared at Gu Shicheng, who stood nearby watching indifferently, and sneered, “Fourth Brother, you’re really something. Mom and Dad are fighting like this just to help you marry a wife, yet when Mom got hit, you stood there like a wooden post watching the show.”
Gu Shicheng clenched his fists in anger, though his tone remained soft.
“Eldest Sister-in-law, there’s no need for you to keep stirring trouble here. My marriage has already become such a mess, I’m more upset than any of you. Comrade Lin Baozhu and I truly love each other, but now we’re practically being torn apart alive by all of you. Yet you’re all my family, what else can I even say?”
Li Wenxiu immediately snapped back, “Fourth Brother, do you really have to live so selfishly and hypocritically? If you only have a pot big enough for a little rice, then cook only that much. Even us country bumpkins understand that principle, yet you and those Lin family people are pretending not to.”
Gu Shicheng cast a cold glance at the two sharp tongued women before turning and walking out.
Mother Gu had genuinely been beaten hard by Old Gu earlier, so she no longer had the energy to care about her precious youngest son.
That very night, Gu Shicheng walked all the way to the Lin family home.
Originally, he had planned to discuss accepting the six hundred yuan bride price Father Gu proposed, but then he remembered his three older brothers had not actually agreed to it yet. He feared that in the end, even six hundred yuan might not be secured.
Just as he arrived at the commune, tangled in anxiety and hesitation, he unexpectedly ran into Lin Baozhu, who had secretly slipped out to find him.
The moment Lin Baozhu saw him, she burst into tears like pear blossoms in the rain.
“Acheng, you finally came. My parents said I must get married as soon as possible, and the bride price must be at least six hundred yuan. Otherwise, they’ll ask my uncle in the county city to find a way to marry me off there instead. You know, they even locked me up tonight. Tomorrow they only plan to send a matchmaker to notify your family. If your family refuses, I’ll be taken to the county city tomorrow.”
The moment Gu Shicheng heard that Lin Baozhu might truly marry someone else, he also felt the force of the plot pushing things forward. Panic seized him completely.
Thinking about how even his father had already compromised down to six hundred yuan, he immediately made his decision.
“Fine, six hundred yuan it is. Baozhu, wait for me. Tomorrow I’ll bring you good news.”
Lin Baozhu knew six hundred yuan was still an enormous amount of money, so she worriedly said, “Acheng, when you go back this time, you absolutely must settle things for certain. Tomorrow you have to bring the six hundred yuan and marry me. Otherwise, the two of us may truly have no fate together anymore, wuwuwu…”