Zhao Chengyan couldn't be bothered with the two women's bickering. He stepped forward again and grabbed Gu Wanxing's shoulders, demanding, "Tell me the truth—did you see it or not?"
He was still clinging to a sliver of hope. Maybe this woman in front of him had deliberately hidden it.
If that were the case, at least it would still be somewhere, wouldn't it?
Gu Wanxing's shoulders ached from his grip. She struggled desperately to shake him off, but she was weak from the fever, and her meager strength did nothing to loosen the nearly frantic man's hold.
"Let go! Zhao Chengyan, you're hurting me!"
Her struggling made him ease his grip slightly.
But he refused to let the matter drop.
"Did you take it or not? Do you have any idea that's our family's entire savings?"
"Ridiculous! I didn't even know we had money in this house. Bravo, Zhao Chengyan—the only time you let me know we have money is when you're lending it to an outsider! If I hadn't been home today, would you have ever told me we had any savings at all?"
"Nonsense! Yuerou isn't an outsider."
Zhao Chengyan's eyes were blazing with fury as he continued ransacking drawers and cabinets, searching for his bankbook.
That was everything he owned. If it was gone, he'd have nothing left—not a single cent.
Years of wages, plus the money he'd risked his neck flipping steel on the side. If that money disappeared, he couldn't even report it to the police. How could he not be frantic?
"Ha… Gu Yuerou isn't an outsider, but I am? So that's what it was. I wondered how the two of you ever ended up together—two people with no connection whatsoever. So you two are having an affair?"
Gu Wanxing let out a bitter, mocking laugh. She didn't know whether she was laughing at Zhao Chengyan, this hopping-mad scumbag, or at herself from her past life, who had given everything for this family.
"People I know come to borrow money from my husband without going through me. My husband has money and would rather lend it to another woman than let me know about it. What a joke."
Gu Wanxing deliberately muttered these grievances in a dazed, heartbroken manner, trying to make herself look genuinely crushed by her husband's betrayal.
"That's not it, Wanxing. I just happened to run into A-Yan and mentioned it in passing."
"Mommy. Didn't you go looking for Uncle Zhao? You didn't just run into him."
Qian Xudong watched the somewhat out-of-control scene, confused. He was only a five-year-old kid, too young to grasp the deeper implications, but he also wasn't very good at lying.
The truth slipped out unintentionally.
Gu Yuerou hurriedly covered her son's mouth, but the words were already out. Her reaction only made it look like burying her head in the sand.
"Zhao Chengyan, you heard that, didn't you? The two of you make me sick."
Out of the corner of her eye, Gu Wanxing caught sight of the window and saw Liu Xifeng and Zhao Chengfang carrying Zhao Chao into the courtyard. She pretended to run out in distress.
Make a scene. This had to become a big scene.
Zhao Chengyan was so focused on finding his money that he had no attention to spare for Gu Wanxing, and Gu Yuerou at the door didn't stop her either.
"Wanxing, listen to me—it's not what you think!"
Gu Yuerou chased after her, only to see Zhao Chengyan's mother and sister standing in the courtyard. She froze mid-step, a timid expression on her face.
She forced an awkward smile. "Auntie, you're back?"
When Liu Xifeng saw Gu Yuerou, the words she'd been about to hurl at Gu Wanxing immediately changed course:
"What's going on? Why is she at our house?"
Though she didn't like her daughter-in-law, she disliked Gu Yuerou—the woman who had abandoned her son—even more. That woman was trash, always eyeing the food on other people's plates while eating her own, seducing her son until he was completely bewitched.
"Mom, Chengyan said he was going to lend her money! Oh my god, I didn't even know we had money in this family!"
Gu Wanxing looked as if she'd found her savior. She ducked behind Liu Xifeng and Zhao Chengfang, covering her face and sobbing.
Zhao Chengfang's brows knitted tightly. Was her brother out of his mind? Bringing that woman back to the house and wanting to lend her money?
At the thought of lending money, she guiltily lowered her eyes. Gu Wanxing had asked her for a loan and she'd refused—but the money for Zhao Chao's injection earlier had been taken from Gu Wanxing's pocket. It was money Wanxing had borrowed. After the injection, there were two yuan left over, and she and her mother had used it to buy meat buns.
"No, Auntie, please listen to me." Gu Yuerou tried to explain.
"I don't want to hear it. Get the hell out of here right now! Don't you dare try to seduce my son again, or I'll tear you apart!"
Liu Xifeng's voice carried, and with Gu Wanxing crying loudly on purpose, neighbors from all around soon gathered at the Zhao family's doorstep.
It was the time of day when villagers had nothing to do. Old Zhao's family had already provided entertainment that morning when the kid fell in the water and nearly drowned—and now, just a few hours later, they were at it again. Who would pass up a good show?
At first, no one understood what was happening.
But Gu Wanxing didn't leave them confused for long.
"Mom, Chengyan doesn't want to be with me anymore! When did the two of them get together? Chengyan says she's not an outsider, but I am. Wuwuwu… Mom, you tell me—since I married into this family, haven't I used all my wages to support the household? For five years, Chengyan hasn't given me a single cent. I thought his salary was being saved up as emergency money for the family."
"Who would have thought? So it turns out he was saving up for another woman. This morning I ran around borrowing money for Zhao Chao, and Mom, you wouldn't even give me ten yuan, and Zhao Chengyan wouldn't give me any either. I had to borrow from Aunt Meihua! Isn't that ridiculous? When I was borrowing money, my husband had promised to lend another woman a big… sum of money, and I didn't even know about it. Isn't that just bullying me?"
Gu Wanxing's sobs rose and fell with a mocking cadence, her tone dripping with sarcasm, yet her words were startlingly clear. Though her voice wasn't loud, everyone at the doorway heard every word.
Liu Xifeng felt there was something wrong with Gu Wanxing's words and wanted to refute them, but she couldn't pinpoint the flaw. She opened her mouth but had nothing to say.
Gu Wanxing intended to make a big scene today. Once word got out, everything would be much easier to handle.
Five years of marriage, and she'd been fighting on the assembly line even while pregnant with Zhao Chao. How could she face this calmly?
Even if she'd died and been reborn, she still couldn't get past this hurdle in her heart. The grievance was real, so some of those tears were genuine.
Sure enough, the moment her words landed, a commotion erupted at the doorway.
"Damn, Chengyan's having an affair with Old Gu's daughter?"
"No idea. Tsk tsk, you really do live long enough to see everything."
"I thought when I saw her leading the kid over that she'd come to see Wanxing."
"Yeah, Wanxing saved the kid this morning and got water in her lungs. We all figured she was just visiting her friend. Tsk!"
"You can't judge a book by its cover. She's just like her mother—flighty and unfaithful. How else would she have married into the city?"
Gujia Village bordered Zhaowang Village, close enough that news of any significance in one village quickly spread to the other, and everyone knew each other.
Back when Gu Yuerou married into the city, there was no shortage of gossip about her. Every family with daughters was jealous, all hoping their own girls could marry into the city.
So at the time, there was a chorus of criticism, mainly because Gu Yuerou's mother had once been caught sneaking into a cornfield with some man.
Gu Yuerou heard the voices at the doorway, her face darkening by the second. But even if she left now, people would still laugh at her just the same. She might as well get the money first.
From start to finish, she believed Zhao Chengyan had made up that lie just to avoid lending her money.
What "gone missing"? All excuses. Money kept at home couldn't possibly just disappear.
But she had her own ways of making Zhao Chengyan cough it up.