How could Gu Qingqing fail to see through Old Madam Gu’s scheme?
She gave her family a reassuring look before quickly catching up.
“Father, I’ll go get the village barefoot doctor. That way, Grandma can be treated as soon as she gets home. We won’t waste any time.”
“All right, all right.”
Gu Changxing nodded. He felt deeply comforted. His daughter really was clever and considerate.
Gu Qingqing had only taken a few steps when she seemed to remember something. She turned around and said to Gu Changfang, “Aunt, the road is dark and slippery. Why don’t you come with me?”
Gu Changfang rolled her eyes.
“Dream on!”
Gu Qingqing let out a regretful sigh.
“Ah, I’m a coward by nature. What if I happen to run into some of the village elders and aunties on the way and get so nervous that I accidentally say the wrong thing? What will I do then?”
Old Madam Gu immediately remembered the crowd that had filled the courtyard earlier that day and felt her scalp prickle.
She hurriedly shot Gu Changfang a meaningful look.
Go. Go with her!
In the blink of an eye, only Wang Tiezhu, carrying a shoulder pole with two baskets, and Gu Jinbao, carrying a woven basket on his back, remained in the courtyard.
Madam Liu stood beneath the eaves with the children, calmly watching them.
“Why don’t you two sit for a while?”
As another person in the old Gu family who had spent years being pushed around and mistreated, Madam Liu couldn’t bring herself to hate them. But neither did she have much affection for them.
In the faint glow of the fire, Wang Tiezhu looked at the modest three-room thatched house. His mind replayed the words Old Master Gu had said over dinner.
“We originally planned to give those three rooms and the plot of land to you and Changfang after Changsheng passed the imperial examination. The place is spacious enough that when Jinbao gets married, you’ll have plenty of room to rebuild and expand. When Laidi gets married, we can have her uncle help choose a suitable family for her. You two won’t have to wait on us old folks either. Just live peacefully as your own household and take care of your own lives. But now…”
“Ah! The eldest son’s family only cares about themselves. They’ve dumped everything on you and Changfang, even though you’ve always treated them so well. And with this family separation, they didn’t even tell you two, did they?”
Wang Tiezhu had spent half his life being timid and submissive.
His greatest wish had always been to separate from the family and live an independent life of his own.
His eyes darkened as he looked at Madam Liu and the children. His grip on the shoulder pole tightened.
Why not take the things now while he had the chance?
“What are you sitting around for? Grandma said this is being saved for me to get married! All of you, get lost!”
Gu Jinbao shouted as he kicked a stone out of his way.
Wang Tiezhu suddenly snapped back to reality. He grabbed his son’s arm and barked,
“Shut up!”
On the village path, Gu Changfang and Gu Qingqing made their way toward the barefoot doctor’s house under the sparse moonlight, stumbling over the uneven road.
Gu Changfang’s eyesight wasn’t very good, and she nearly fell several times. Fortunately, Gu Qingqing caught her each time.
“Aunt, let me hold you.”
“Who needs your fake kindness?”
Gu Changfang cursed her verbally, but she didn’t pull her arm away.
Gu Qingqing lowered her head, a cold smile curling at the corners of her lips. Yet when she spoke, her voice remained warm.
“Aunt, things really don’t have to be this way between us.”
Gu Changfang frowned in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
“Ah…”
Gu Qingqing sighed and gave her a meaningful glance.
“When you get right down to it, your position in Grandpa and Grandma’s hearts isn’t any different from ours.”
“You’re talking nonsense!”
Gu Changfang refused to accept it.
Gu Qingqing smiled faintly.
“How are Sister Zhaodi and Sister Pandi doing lately? You sent Sister Laidi to stay at the Wang family for a few days because you were afraid Grandma couldn’t control me and would turn her attention to Laidi instead, weren’t you?”
Gu Changfang didn’t have time to answer before Gu Qingqing continued.
“Don’t bother making up excuses. I’ve already died once. I’m not the foolish girl I used to be, the one you could twist and mold however you pleased. You can’t fool me, and you can’t push me around anymore.”
The pale moonlight illuminated her clear black-and-white eyes.
For some reason, Gu Changfang suddenly felt a chill run through her.
Gu Qingqing was quite satisfied with the expression on her face.
Good. Be afraid. That’s exactly how it should be.
“Didn’t Grandpa and Grandma tell you that the thatched house and the land were originally meant for you and Jinbao?”
Gu Changfang stared at her in shock.
“How did you know?”
Gu Qingqing only smiled instead of answering.
“Uncle is going to pursue an official career through the imperial examinations. He obviously won’t stay in the village forever. Then why didn’t they simply say that the current house would be given to you and Jinbao? They did it to stir up conflict between you and us. They wanted us to fight each other!”
“Aunt, Father has always said that Grandma loves you the most. She raised you until you were eighteen and couldn’t bear to marry you off, so she even brought a husband into the family for you. But I don’t think Grandma loves you at all.”
Gu Changfang’s expression stiffened.
“If you married out, who would stay home and work like a beast of burden for her? And would the money you and Uncle-in-law earned still go to her? If you and Uncle-in-law lived on your own, wouldn’t the betrothal gifts for Sister Zhaodi and Sister Pandi belong to you instead?”
Gu Qingqing’s voice remained gentle, but every word struck at Gu Changfang’s deepest fears.
“Besides, we’ve already separated from Grandpa and Grandma. No matter how far they stretch their hands, they can’t meddle with my siblings and me anymore. But you two are different. You managed to protect Laidi this time, but what about next time? And the time after that?”
“What if Grandpa and Grandma find a way to send you and Uncle-in-law away, just like they did with my parents? Do you really think Jinbao would come running to warn you?”
Gu Changfang followed Gu Qingqing’s line of thought and slowly considered every possibility.
The more she thought about it, the colder she became.
Her hands and feet gradually turned icy.
Gu Qingqing took one look at her pale expression and knew the timing was right.
She lightly tapped her forehead.
“Oh, look at me. My memory is terrible. I must be overthinking things. Grandma has a hundred taels of silver now. How could she possibly sell Laidi off? Even if Uncle spends thirty or twenty taels going to the prefectural city for the examination, he’ll be able to repay it once the results are announced.”
She smiled brightly.
“And when the family builds a new house and finds Uncle a wife, you two will benefit from it too. You’ll all be living a good life.”
Gu Changfang clenched her back teeth.
Once upon a time, she had loved her younger brother more than anyone.
Even when their mother had married off Zhaodi and Pandi to get the money needed for Changsheng’s studies, she hadn’t complained at all. Girls had to marry eventually, after all. If their marriages could help the family, she had considered it a good thing.
But whenever her two daughters came home with worried faces and bruises covering their swollen features, her heart ached.
They were her own flesh and blood.
Over the years, the money the family had poured into Gu Changsheng had flowed away like water. Even if it wasn’t several hundred taels, it had certainly amounted to more than a hundred.
He was nothing but a bottomless pit!
Those ten mu of prime irrigated farmland had been the family’s last bit of wealth and their last hope.
And now even that had been turned into silver.
If all that money fell into Gu Changsheng’s hands, would they ever see it again?
What would happen after the two old people were left at home with no farmland and no property?
What would they eat? What would they drink?
And what about her Jinbao?
The more Gu Changfang thought about it, the angrier she became.
She shot Gu Qingqing a vicious glare.
“Your grandma was right. You’re nothing but a family wrecker! If you hadn’t mortgaged all the farmland to the moneylender, how could things have ended up like this?”
Gu Qingqing chuckled softly.
“Aunt, it’s only been one night. The interest won’t even amount to a hundred copper coins. If you can persuade Grandma to return the silver, I’ll pay the interest for you.”
She paused.
“But I don’t think that’s the best solution for you.”
Gu Changfang was about to celebrate when she suddenly froze.
“What do you mean?”
“Guess why I had the moneylender give us thirty taels in cash and seventy taels in a banknote?”
“How would I know?”
Gu Changfang glared at her irritably.
“It’s not as though that banknote was prepared for me!”
Gu Qingqing said nothing.
She simply looked at her with a smile.
Gu Changfang’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“It really was prepared for me?”
“I told you, things don’t have to be this way between us. Grandpa and Grandma only have eyes for Uncle. The rest of us are nothing more than unfortunate people struggling to survive under their control.”
Those words struck directly at Gu Changfang’s heart.
Her eyes reddened, and her attitude toward Gu Qingqing softened.
“Qingqing, your aunt knows you’re capable now. Tell me, how can I get those seventy taels from your grandma?”
The fish had taken the bait.
Gu Qingqing spread her hands and put on an innocent expression.
“Aunt, you’re giving me far too much credit. We haven’t even finished sorting out this tiny bit of money we had to trick Grandma into giving us during the family separation. And you’re talking about seventy taels!”
She gestured toward their three-room thatched house.
“With seventy taels, you could probably build five rooms like the blue-brick house owned by Village Head Gu Changfu over there.”
Her gaze landed precisely on the five neat blue-brick houses belonging to Village Head Gu Changfu.
“Once you have a house like that, it won’t just be enough for Jinbao to get married. Even after Sisters Zhaodi and Pandi marry, they’ll have their own rooms to return to whenever they visit their parents. They won’t have to bow their heads and endure humiliation in their husbands’ families either.”
Gu Changfang followed Gu Qingqing’s gaze.
The moment she saw those five imposing blue-brick rooms, the picture in her mind suddenly became vivid.
Her heart began racing.
Seventy taels.
She had to get those seventy taels!