Gu Shicheng returned to the Gu family home weighed down with worries.
At this hour, the courtyard of the Gu family was deathly quiet, everyone seemingly already asleep.
He walked over and knocked on Father Gu and Mother Gu’s door.
Inside the space, Gu Shiye had planted all the grain and vegetable seeds they bought today and even watered them with spiritual spring water. Hearing movement in the courtyard outside, he immediately went out to eavesdrop.
Li Wenxiu had been admiring the newly planted fruit trees. The moment she saw Gu Shiye heading outside, she quickly followed after him.
The husband and wife pressed their ears against the door together to listen.
Gu Shiye reached out and gently touched his wife’s still flat stomach. “Can you hear them?”
Li Wenxiu replied, “I drank the spiritual spring water just like you did. Since your hearing and eyesight improved, of course mine did too.”
Gu Shiye pulled her into his arms and lowered his head to whisper beside her ear, “Your skin is slowly getting fairer.”
Li Wenxiu lightly pinched his waist. “So now you’re saying you disliked me before?”
Gu Shiye immediately acted obedient and pitiful. “Wife, be gentler. I’ll raise you back into being fair and tender again.”
Just like in every transmigration novel setting, the two of them possessed exactly the same appearances as the original owners of these bodies. The Li Wenxiu from the modern era had originally been a fair and delicate beauty, but the current Li Wenxiu had become dry, skinny, and sallow from years of farm work and malnutrition.
Compared to her, Gu Shiye merely had slightly darker wheat-colored skin from years of labor, though the muscles on his body felt even better than before.
Li Wenxiu slipped her fingers beneath the hem of his shirt and touched the clearly defined abs on his stomach. “You’re not allowed to get fat in the future either. Keep it exactly like this.”
Gu Shiye looked at her with an unreadable gaze. “Alright, I promise to listen to my wife.”
He might not have been able to conquer the world before, but now he could certainly maintain what he already had.
Li Wenxiu grew embarrassed under his gaze and quickly covered his eyes with her hand. “The baby’s only a little over a month old right now. We still have to wait at least another two months.”
Chuckling softly, Gu Shiye pulled her into his embrace and whispered, “Listen, they’ve started arguing.”
In truth, the other two branches of the Gu family, including Gu Shiyu, were also secretly eavesdropping.
When they heard that Gu Shicheng had actually proposed splitting the family just so he could marry smoothly, Father Gu was furious.
“You unfilial brat! I worked so hard to raise you, and now you want me to split the family just so you can get married?”
If the family split now, not only would they lose face in the village, but more importantly, the earnings and work points of the sons would no longer be gathered into the hands of the old couple.
To them, that was no different from losing power.
Although Mother Gu also did not want to split the family, seeing Father Gu yelling at her precious youngest son made her heart ache.
“That’s enough, stop scolding him.”
After stopping the old man, she grabbed her youngest son’s hand and patiently tried to persuade him.
“Fourth Brother, you’re the most promising son in our family. Anyone else can bring up splitting the family, but you absolutely cannot.”
If outsiders found out, it would not only slap the old couple in the face, but after the split, the three older brothers would no longer have any obligation to support him.
Gu Shicheng did not dare admit that he simply felt he absolutely had to marry Lin Baozhu now, because saying that aloud would make him appear too emotional.
So instead, he used the afternoon rumors as an excuse.
“Dad, Mom, you don’t want me to lose my respectable teaching job either, right? This afternoon people already started deliberately spreading rumors about Baozhu and me. If I can’t marry Baozhu smoothly, then the next step for those people will probably be reporting me and getting me fired.”
“If I lose my job, then all the years of effort you spent raising me will have been wasted. And I’ll never again meet an educated city wife as outstanding as Baozhu who can bring honor to both of you.”
Seeing the pained look on her precious youngest son’s face, Mother Gu felt as though her own heart were bleeding.
“Old man, just listen to our youngest son. Anyway, those three unfilial brats have already become distant from us. Then split them off and stop letting those eyesores interfere with our youngest son’s marriage. In the future, they can forget about benefiting from us too.”
Father Gu took several puffs from his pipe before saying, “Then should we split off the eldest son too?”
The eldest son supporting his parents in old age was a custom that had existed here since ancient times.
Mother Gu replied, “Then split off the second and third branches, but keep the eldest branch to support us in old age.”
The moment Wang Lihua heard this, she could no longer endure it and stormed out first.
“Dad, Mom, don’t be so biased. You clearly want us to support you in old age while secretly continuing to favor and support your youngest son. Our eldest branch absolutely won’t suffer such injustice.”
Mother Gu stepped out to confront her. “Fine then. If you’re unwilling to support us, we’ll split your branch off too. But the money the family spent helping the eldest son buy his job will also be deducted first.”
Wang Lihua instantly fell silent.
If the money for buying the job was deducted during the split, their branch would probably end up miserably poor afterward.
Old Gu stepped outside and shouted into the courtyard, “All of you, come out here!”
Gu Shiyu could already imagine what life after the split would be like. She shook her head desperately.
“Dad, Mom, our family can’t split apart.”
Gu Shicheng directly snapped at her, “Shut up. This isn’t your place to speak.”
Li Wenxiu and Gu Shiye exchanged a glance, both filled with contempt toward Gu Shicheng.
The male lead had exposed his selfish and hypocritical fangs far earlier than expected. In the short drama, when his three older brothers and sisters-in-law had always cleaned up every mess for him, he had never once shown such an ugly and vicious side.
So where in this world was there any such thing as a blessed koi life? It was only because someone else had been carrying the burden for them all along.
Father Gu coldly declared, “I know that after getting married, every one of you has become distant from us. Fine, I’ll grant your wish. Tonight, we’ll split the family.”
The entire family returned to the main hall and sat around the table once again.
Father Gu still intended to follow ancestral tradition by having the eldest branch support the old couple in retirement. Fourth Brother and Gu Shiyu would also temporarily remain with them, while the division of the household would be calculated according to the number of people.
By splitting things this way, the old couple’s side would have the most people, practically making out like bandits.
Yet when Wang Lihua looked up and saw Gu Shicheng and Gu Shiyu sitting there, she still felt deeply irritated and could not help speaking at first.
“Dad, Mom, the eldest branch and I are naturally willing to be filial and support you in your old age. But after the family splits, can you guarantee you’ll only favor our eldest branch from then on?”
Rarely, the old couple actually gave her face. They raised their heads and looked at her, signaling for her to continue.
Wang Lihua bluntly continued, “First of all, I think Little Sister should stop studying. She’s already nineteen years old. Instead of continuing school and wasting the family’s money, she should hurry up and get married. Also, this time you can take six hundred yuan from our eldest branch’s account to advance Fourth Brother’s bride price, but after they get married, they’ll have to slowly repay that money. Once they finish repaying it, if they want to split off and live separately, that’s fine too.”