After running out, Gu Yihan hid. She first secretly drank a cup of milk and ate a steamed bun. Once she was full, she set out.
She didn’t find Grandma Gu in the private plot. After a moment’s thought, she started running along the village’s dirt roads. From a distance, she saw the brigade leader, Gu Baoqing.
Gu Yihan asked anxiously, “Uncle Brigade Leader, do you know which field my family is working in?”
Seeing Gu Yihan’s urgency, the brigade leader pointed her in the right direction.
Gu Yihan followed the brigade leader’s directions and, standing at the edge of the field, quickly spotted Grandma Gu.
Gu Yihan immediately put on a wronged expression and cried out, “Grandma…”
Hearing her, Grandma Gu looked up and saw her little granddaughter’s aggrieved face. She hurried over to Gu Yihan. “What’s wrong? Were you bullied?”
“Maternal Grandma came to our house. She scolded me, and she scolded you too! Mom was about to hit me, so I ran out on my own,” Gu Yihan said, clinging to Grandma Gu and fanning the flames.
“Aiyowei! That old witch dares to come to our house and bully people? See if I don’t tear her mouth to shreds!” With that, she prepared to drag Gu Yihan home.
Gu Yihan pretended to be cautious and held Grandma Gu back. “We can’t. When I came out, I saw Mom’s brother hiding next to our courtyard. We won’t be able to win if we go back.”
Grandma Gu slapped her thigh. “This is bad! They must have come to our house to borrow grain.”
Grandma Gu turned and shouted to a spot not far away, “Lao Da, Lao Er, stop working! Hurry home!”
Hearing their mother’s call, Gu Lao Da and Gu Lao Er both walked toward Grandma Gu.
Gu Lao Da’s simple, honest voice rang out, “Mom, why are we going home at this hour? We still need to water the fields.”
Gu Lao Er echoed his sentiment.
Grandma Gu grabbed Gu Lao Er and started hitting him. “Your wife’s mother is here! If we don’t go home now, the whole house will be stolen from under us. I told you not to marry that Zhang Cuihua, but you wouldn’t listen. She’s nothing but a troublemaker.”
When Grandma Gu and the others returned home.
“Zhang Cuihua! Zhang Cuihua, come out!” Grandma Gu shouted for a while, but no one came out.
Gu Aidang went into the room and saw it was empty. “Mom, Cuihua isn’t home.”
Grandma Gu went to the kitchen to check and found that all the grain was gone.
“We have a thief in the family! We can’t keep a daughter-in-law like this. Oh no, I still have grain in my room!”
Grandma Gu opened her door and saw that all three sacks of grain were gone. She collapsed onto the floor and started crying, “Oh, heavens! Send a bolt of lightning to strike that ungrateful wretch dead!”
Gu Lao Da said, “Mom, let’s report it to the Public Security Bureau. This is our life-saving grain.”
Hearing the mention of the Public Security Bureau, Gu Lao Er, afraid of the disgrace, quickly said, “Mom, Cuihua isn’t home. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding?”
Grandma Gu let out a wail and pointed at Gu Lao Er. “Bullshit! Who else could it be but her? I’m telling you, Gu Aidang, you must divorce that heartless, ungrateful Zhang Cuihua!”
Gu Aidang coaxed gently, “Look, Mom, why are you cursing yourself? Don’t worry, your son won’t let her get away with this.”
Just then, Zhang Cuihua returned, pretending nothing had happened. “Mom, you’re all home?”
Grandma Gu said, “Zhang Cuihua, stop putting on an act. If you don’t return those sacks of grain, our Gu family can’t afford to keep you.”
Zhang Cuihua said with an innocent look, “Mom, are you mistaken? It’s true my mother came, but she couldn’t have carried away several sacks of grain!”
Then, with an expression that suggested Grandma Gu was making trouble for no reason, she added, “Did a thief break into the house? This really has nothing to do with my family.”
Zhang Cuihua then turned and scolded Gu Yihan, “Was it you, you little wretch? I told you to watch the house, but you ran off to play instead.”
Gu Yihan was speechless. What did this have to do with her?
“Maternal Grandma didn’t come alone. She came with Eldest Uncle. I saw him hiding behind our house,” Gu Yihan said, hiding behind Grandma Gu.
When Grandma Gu saw her second daughter-in-law storming over to hit her little granddaughter after hearing her words, her vision went black with rage. “Lao Er, stop her!”
Gu Aidang grabbed Zhang Cuihua. “Have you caused enough trouble? Don’t think everyone else is a fool.”
Gu Aiguo, distressed about the grain, said, “Mom, we should still report it to the Public Security Bureau.”
Grandma Gu, worried about her two granddaughters, said, “We won’t report it. Lao Er, you send her back to her parents’ home and get the brigade leader to write a divorce certificate.”
Hearing she was to be divorced, Zhang Cuihua completely lost her temper. “Mom, you’re making Aidang divorce me for this half-breed? I knew it, this little bitch, she’s my curse!”
Zhang Cuihua refused to leave, but Gu Aidang paid her no mind, simply dragging her away.
“Gu Aidang, you heartless bastard! I bore you children, and you’ll come to a bad end!” Zhang Cuihua shrieked, lying on the ground and staring at Gu Aidang with eyes that seemed to be laced with poison.
Zhang Cuihua’s screams attracted the villagers.
Sister-in-law Zhang, the wife of the village secretary Gu Guodong, asked, “Aidang, what’s going on?”
Gu Aidang didn’t hide anything and said with a sigh, “She gave all our family’s grain to her parents. This is our life-saving grain. I’m going to ask Uncle Brigade Leader to write a divorce certificate.”
Hearing this, the villagers gasped one after another.
The times were tough, and this year’s harvest was looking poor. This was a matter of life and death.
Laizi, the ne’er-do-well son of the Jiawang family in the village, said lazily, “If that were my wife, I’d beat her to death.”
Zhang Cuihua cried and screamed, “Gu Aidang, you’re full of shit! It’s because I can’t give you a son that you want to marry Widow Zhao! None of you will come to a good end!”
An older aunt said, “Could Gu Aidang really be having an affair with Widow Zhao?”
Another middle-aged woman said, “It’s hard to say. That vixen Widow Zhao sways her hips so much they could reach the sky. Isn’t she afraid of breaking her back?”
Hearing this, the crowd burst into laughter.
Gu Aidang ignored them and dragged Zhang Cuihua to the brigade leader’s house.
“Uncle Gu, are you home?” Gu Aidang called.
The brigade leader came out of the main room and saw Zhang Cuihua’s disheveled state. “Aidang, what’s happened?”
Gu Aidang explained the situation at his home to the brigade leader. “Uncle Gu, we never got a marriage certificate. Please issue a divorce certificate for me.”
The brigade leader knew that even an honest official can’t settle family disputes. He said, “Alright.”
He turned and led the two of them to the brigade office, where he wrote out two divorce certificates and handed them to Gu Aidang. “Here you go. It’s done.”
Gu Aidang shoved one of the divorce certificates at Zhang Cuihua, then hauled her directly to the village entrance, turned around, and walked away.
Zhang Cuihua looked at the divorce certificate, laughing and crying at the same time. Her lifeless eyes stared in the direction Gu Aidang had left. She would make them regret this.
Liu Zhaodi witnessed the entire ordeal with Zhang Cuihua. She was now immensely grateful that she had traded that money-losing daughter for a big, chubby son back then. Otherwise, she, Liu Zhaodi, would have been the one getting divorced.