As a gesture of goodwill, Gu Changfang reminded Gu Qingqing,
“Your grandma isn’t really injured. She only did it to separate your father from you and the rest of the family!”
Of course Gu Qingqing already knew that.
But she still put on a shocked expression.
“Oh no! What if Father sells us off?”
She immediately turned as if she were going to run back to the old Gu household, but Gu Changfang quickly grabbed her.
“Everything is in your hands. What are you afraid of? Let’s take our time getting there. You can help your aunt think of a way while we’re on the road…”
In the end, Gu Qingqing and Gu Changfang naturally never found the village’s barefoot doctor.
As for Old Madam Gu’s leg, it miraculously recovered without any medicine after Gu Changxing devotedly massaged it.
After leaving the old Gu household, Gu Qingqing didn’t ask a single question. She simply kept her head down and hurried home.
By the time they returned to the thatched house, Wang Tiezhu and Gu Jinbao had already left.
She urged everyone to go to bed early, and naturally, no one objected.
Gu Changxing watched as nobody asked about his mother’s condition or what she had said to him.
At first, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Then anxiety slowly crept into his heart.
Did everyone really care this little about him now?
Thinking about Madam Liu’s earlier talk of separating from him, could it be that everyone had already decided to drive him out of the family?
Had they truly stopped seeing him as one of them?
That night, Gu Changxing tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
As soon as dawn finally came, he immediately woke everyone and took the initiative to tell them what his mother had said.
“Your grandma said that whether I steal them or trick you, I have to get the house deed and land deeds back and give them to her. She also told me to take the rice, grain, and household supplies over there whenever you aren’t around or when you’re out working in the fields. She said I could just take them once you’re gone.”
Nobody said a word.
They simply looked at Gu Qingqing approvingly.
Whether it was Old Madam Gu’s demands or their father’s reaction, everything had gone exactly according to her expectations.
Seeing that no one was responding, Gu Changxing awkwardly continued,
“I didn’t want to agree, but your grandma kept crying, and your grandpa was staring at me. I… I really didn’t know what else to do.”
Still, nobody spoke.
Panic began to rise in his chest.
“Th-then… if I hadn’t agreed, they wouldn’t have let me come back. Don’t ignore me, all right? The things are still in our hands, aren’t they? What do we do? You decide. Is that okay?”
“You’ve got that wrong,” Gu Qingqing said calmly. “Those things aren’t in our hands anymore.”
She pulled out a coarse cloth money pouch and took out the contents.
“This is thirty taels in cash and the loan agreement from the moneylender. Right now, the deeds to our dry fields, wasteland, and even the land beneath this thatched house are all being held by the moneylender as collateral.”
“What?”
Gu Changxing practically jumped to his feet.
“You, you, you… Why did you borrow so much money? Since you had already borrowed these thirty taels, why did you mortgage your grandparents’ farmland to borrow another hundred taels? Why didn’t you simply give the thirty taels to your uncle?”
Gu Qingqing looked at him coldly.
“Because I needed to guard against Grandpa and Grandma coming to snatch our house and land deeds. Because I want everyone here to have enough food and warm clothes. Because I don’t want Mother and you working yourselves to exhaustion. And because I want to send my little brother to school!”
The enormous amount of information left everyone speechless.
After a long moment, Gu Xia’an cautiously spoke.
“Big Sister, are you really going to send me to school?”
His little fists were clenched tightly.
His large eyes were filled with nervousness, but there was also a light in them that had never been there before.
Gu Qingqing looked at him and nodded solemnly.
“I know you like studying, and I know how badly you want to go to school.”
“But that costs a lot of money… and we’d have to keep spending money…”
There had been so many people in the family before, and even supporting one uncle’s education had already been a huge burden.
Now that they had separated from the family, they had very little money and poor-quality land.
Could they really afford it?
“Yes!”
Gu Qingqing’s answer was firm and decisive.
She turned toward Gu Changxing.
“Father, do you still want me to give the silver to Uncle?”
He did want to.
But looking at the hopeful faces of his wife and children, Gu Changxing knew he couldn’t say it.
Even so, he couldn’t suppress the worry in his heart.
“This is thirty taels of silver. Do we really need to borrow that much? What if we can’t repay it? We could end up without even a place to live.”
“When you wanted to give the money to Uncle and Grandma, why didn’t you think about that?”
Gu Qingqing couldn’t help mocking him.
Gu Changxing was instantly silenced.
A moment later, he looked hurt.
“Qingqing, I’m your father. How did you become like this?”
“I’ll tell you one last time. The weak daughter you used to have already died in that coffin because of all of you!”
Gu Qingqing’s voice was cold and unwavering.
“From the moment I opened my eyes again, anyone who tries to make my life miserable will get ten times, a hundred times worse in return. That includes Grandpa and Grandma, and it includes you!”
Gu Qingqing couldn’t be bothered to look at Gu Changxing’s shocked and wounded expression any longer.
She turned to the others and began assigning tasks.
“Mother, you’re coming with me to the county town later. We need to buy some things for the household.”
“Big Brother, Xia’an, and Chunqi, stay home and keep an eye on the house. Keep an eye on Father too. Don’t let him take anything from our house to Grandpa and Grandma’s place.”
Madam Liu naturally had no objection, but she glanced at Gu Changxing worriedly.
“What if your grandma comes over again with your aunt and the others to cause trouble?”
Last night, Wang Tiezhu and Gu Jinbao had stood in the courtyard for quite a while before finally leaving.
“Don’t worry. They won’t have time to come today.”
Gu Qingqing curled her lips into a knowing smile and glanced meaningfully at her foolish father.
“As long as certain people don’t go running straight into their trap themselves.”
In a side room of the old Gu family home, Gu Changfang and Wang Tiezhu had spent the entire night discussing matters, both of them sporting dark bruises around their eyes.
At last, they had made their decision.
Compared with the three thatched rooms and worthless dry fields and wasteland allocated to the eldest branch, that hundred taels of silver was obviously far more tempting!
That’s right.
Not seventy taels.
A full hundred taels!
With a hundred taels in their hands, what couldn’t they do?
Of course, getting their hands on the money wouldn’t be easy.
Old Madam Gu thought she had already arranged everything with Gu Changxing. The next step would undoubtedly be to discuss with Gu Changsheng what to do with the hundred taels.
Whether they used it to repay the moneylender or handed it over to Gu Changsheng, there would certainly be nothing left for their branch.
And based on what she knew about Gu Changsheng, there was no way he would return the money to the moneylender right now.
So they had to get their hands on the silver before Gu Changsheng returned!
As for whether Gu Changsheng would receive any money to travel to the prefectural city for the examination, that would depend on how he performed.
The mere thought of having the silver in her hands, of finally being able to turn her fortunes around and take control of her own life, filled Gu Changfang with energy.
The moment Old Master Gu and Old Madam Gu’s door opened, she immediately rushed over with Wang Tiezhu.
At the same time, Gu Qingqing forcibly pulled Madam Liu onto the ox cart heading to the county town.
Madam Liu shifted awkwardly in her seat and muttered quietly,
“You could have gone by yourself. Why waste money on a seat for me? I can walk.”
Gu Qingqing slipped her arm through her mother’s and smiled.
“Would you rather spend the next two or three hours walking, or spend those same two or three hours earning two or three taels of silver?”
“Of course I’d rather earn the money!”
Madam Liu answered without hesitation.
“But how could earning silver possibly be that easy?”
Forget two or three taels, she couldn’t even earn two or three copper coins.
If she could, the family wouldn’t have struggled so badly all these years.
Gu Qingqing winked at her.
“Don’t worry. Starting today, our family will have more silver than we know what to do with.”
Madam Liu didn’t believe her.
But when she thought about how much her daughter had changed over the past few days, she couldn’t help feeling intrigued.
“What kind of method could possibly be that amazing?”
Gu Qingqing glanced at the other passengers on the cart and merely smiled without answering.
Madam Liu understood immediately and lowered her voice even further.
“Your mother believes you. When the time comes, I’ll work hard. I’ll make sure all of you have enough food and warm clothes, and I’ll send Xia’an to school too.”
She paused, then looked lovingly at her daughter.
“If you want to marry someday, then we’ll find you a good husband. If you don’t want to marry, your mother will support you for the rest of your life!”
Gu Qingqing’s lips curved into a smile.
Warmth filled her heart.
The family heaven had chosen for her was truly wonderful.