As she sat on the bus heading back to town, Lin Qingyue patted her cheeks. What are you daydreaming about?
The old lady must have been confused in her mind to mistake her for someone else. Fu Xingzhou’s identity was clearly not simple—how could he possibly have any thoughts about her, a pregnant woman with a big belly?
Even if he was injured and had difficulty having children, that still wouldn’t make sense.
Injured? Juesi?
Lin Qingyue’s body stiffened, and she gently stroked her belly.
She knew the Gu family were all worthless people, and there was absolutely no way she would spend her whole life with that scumbag.
The two of them would definitely separate, but the child in her belly…
If it were twenty years later, no one would care about a divorced woman with a child, but in this era of the 1980s, there would be no shortage of gossip and rumors—spit could drown a person.
Men couldn’t be relied upon, and she didn’t want to get involved in another relationship, but for the sake of her child, she still needed to find a convenient father for the baby.
Fu Xingzhou’s grandmother liked her. If he didn’t mind, maybe they could make do with each other?
No need to register a marriage certificate—just let the people around them know that Fu Xingzhou was the child’s father!
Once this idea came to her, Lin Qingyue’s heart raced with excitement.
They could sign an agreement first—the two of them would only be partners, a fake marriage.
But with Fu Xingzhou’s conditions being so good, he probably wouldn’t agree to help her, would he?
After Lin Qingyue left, the old lady had already sighed who knows how many times. Fu Xingzhou helplessly rubbed his forehead!
“Grandson, you’re just going to let your wife leave like that?”
“Grandma, she’s not my wife!” Fu Xingzhou corrected helplessly.
“You still say that? I told you long ago to get married, but you kept putting it off and refused to find someone. Now look what’s happened—you’re injured and can’t anymore. Sigh, tell me, what girl would still marry you now?”
“Grandma just wants to find you a girl with a good temperament and a kind heart. That girl Yue is so wonderful, you silly boy, and you don’t even know how to seize the opportunity.”
“Besides, she’s already carrying one in her belly. Once the child is born, it’ll be yours. Then I’d like to see who still dares to say my grandson is incapable!”
“Our Fu family has been single-son for five generations, and now it’s going to end with you… wuwuwu, I have no face to go see the ancestors.”
The veins on Fu Xingzhou’s forehead were jumping. At first, he really thought his grandmother had fallen ill, but only this morning did he realize the old lady was faking it.
Grandma was getting better and better at pretending.
And look at what Grandma had just said?
Bringing along a child—the child wasn’t even his!
As for his body, the military doctor had only said that he probably wouldn’t be able to have children in the future—there was almost no hope.
Lin Qingyue was pregnant, but what did that child have to do with him? Become a convenient father for the child?
Fu Xingzhou shook his head. For now, he had no such plans.
After stepping outside, he happened to run into Babyface.
“Er Wazhi, how did the investigation on that matter go?”
Babyface’s name was Wu Xiangjun, with the nickname Er Wazhi.
“Commander, there’s still no news yet.”
“That shop has already changed hands. I’ve sent people to investigate several times, but they don’t remember anything.”
“That place had extremely reasonable prices. The people who went there to eat and drink weren’t just from this town—people from the neighboring town also went there. The foot traffic was simply too heavy.”
Fu Xingzhou’s expression turned even colder, his fists clenched tightly inside his sleeves.
“Commander, should we continue the investigation?”
“Investigate! We must find out!”
In the end, he owed that girl!
The authorities had been cracking down hard on relationships between men and women lately. He wondered if that girl…
Fu Xingzhou rubbed his brow. Even now, he still couldn’t recall what that woman looked like.
“Lin Qingyue, you cheap slut, how dare you show your face back here?”
The moment Lin Qingyue returned to the village entrance, Gu Yunyun caught her red-handed.
After taking a bus to town, she’d hitched a ride on an ox cart from a neighboring village, then walked another four li on foot. She was exhausted. All she wanted now was to get home and lie down.
Seeing Gu Yunyun raise her arm to strike, Lin Qingyue flinched, ready to dodge.
“You… Auntie Liu, have you got nothing better to do?”
Gu Yunyun hadn’t expected anyone to stop her. Her wrist was seized—right on the same spot Yao Hongyan had grabbed yesterday.
It was still bruised purple, and the pain nearly brought tears to her eyes.
“Heh, Gu Yunyun, you really are a shrew. This is your sister-in-law!”
Auntie Liu, worried that Gu Yunyun might not let it go, was afraid Lin Qingyue, heavily pregnant as she was, would come to harm.
“Hmph, I don’t have a sister-in-law with such a vicious heart.”
“Lin Qingyue, you knew Hongyan-jie was about to give birth, so you deliberately took the ox cart away, didn’t you?”
Gu Yunyun glared, eyes practically spitting fire. Anyone watching would think Lin Qingyue had dug up her family’s ancestral grave.
“Yunyun, how can you wrong me like this?”
With Auntie Liu shielding her, Lin Qingyue’s eyes reddened, and tears of grievance nearly spilled over:
“Yesterday, wasn’t it you and Mother who nearly knocked me over? That’s what made my pregnancy unsettled. My stomach hurt so badly, I really had no choice but to go to town.”
“I did it for the sake of the Gu family’s flesh and blood. How can you think so ill of me?”
“And your Hongyan-jie… isn’t your big brother there with her for the birth?”
Gu Yunyun was left speechless, her eyes shooting daggers at Lin Qingyue.
Lin Qingyue shrank back, timidly hiding behind Auntie Liu:
“Auntie Liu, Yunyun’s glare is so scary. I wonder what her relationship with Hongyan really is? It’s one thing that her brother runs over to Hongyan’s place all day, but Yunyun does the same. Anyone would think Hongyan is her sister-in-law instead of me.”
“You… you…”
Gu Yunyun wouldn’t dare admit it. Yesterday, the news of her brother carrying Yao Hongyan out had already spread like wildfire through the village. She didn’t dare stir up more trouble.
“What nonsense are you talking? If my brother hadn’t considered how close you and Hongyan-jie are, why would he go help at all?” Gu Yunyun argued, twisting the facts.
Even as she spoke, she shot Lin Qingyue another vicious glare.
The old Lin Qingyue never talked back to her sister-in-law. She’d always go along with whatever Gu Yunyun said and never embarrass her.
Otherwise, when Gu Yunyun went home to complain to her parents and brother, Lin Qingyue would be the one apologizing and eating humble pie.
“But I’ve already fallen out with the Young Widow.”
Lin Qingyue’s expression turned even more innocent:
“Back when we were at the educated youth station, she and I did get along well. But later, she kept gravitating toward my man, deliberately or not, luring him to run over to her place all the time. That’s when I broke things off with her.”
“Yunyun, have you lost your memory?”
“Or do you think I’m a fool? That I’d stay best friends with a widow who seduces my husband?”
“You… Lin Qingyue, that’s not what you said before.” Gu Yunyun was nearly furious to death.
“Enough. I’m tired. Gu Yunyun, remember this—I am your sister-in-law.”
“Yao Hongyan, she’s nothing but a widow. If you want her to be your sister-in-law, why don’t you discuss it with your big brother first? Or better yet, have him get a divorce first?”
“You… you…”
Gu Yunyun watched Lin Qingyue leave and hurriedly chased after her.
Auntie Liu, feeling uneasy, stayed by Lin Qingyue’s side. Her mouth opened several times as if to speak, but in the end, she said nothing.
Lin Qingyue noticed this and wondered to herself. Could it be that during the one day she was away, the Gu family had done something else earth-shattering?
Gu Niancheng had already given almost everything in the house to The Young Widow—what more could he possibly do?
However, what Lin Qingyue hadn’t anticipated was that some people were far more shameless than she could ever imagine!
In her own home, on the kang where she used to sleep, there was now someone else lying in her place!