In a daze, she felt as if someone was tearing her apart, her internal organs being pulled, and a certain place ached beyond words. The noise around her was as loud as thunder.
“I say, Cuiniang, let’s just forget it. This girl is already ruined, there’s no saving her. Are you planning to keep this bastard child?” A plump woman around fifty or sixty years old said with a look of disgust, her tone treating life as if it were worthless, chilling to the bone.
“Erniang, she is still your grandniece. If we can save her, let’s try. The rest is up to her fate.” Standing by the bed, a woman in a floral dress with delicate features wiped away tears that weren’t really there.
Though she also felt ashamed, the child was still flesh and blood from her own body. Who knew, the father of the child in her belly might be someone important! Even though she knew it was impossible, she still held a faint hope.
The plump woman, Du Erniang, rolled her eyes at her and waved her hand impatiently. “Fine, then you go out. I’ll try.”
“Thank you, Erniang.” Cuiniang bowed to Du Erniang and retreated.
Du Erniang looked at the girl on the bed, who was breathing out more than she was breathing in, with disgust in her eyes, but still said, “Nuan girl, if you don’t make it through, don’t blame me. It’s not my fault you’re in this state. If you want to blame someone, blame the bastard man who did this to you.”
Gu Nuan, half-conscious, listened vaguely. Suddenly, she felt someone pressing on her belly, as if trying to squeeze something out. The pain grew worse, until finally, she felt something flow out of her body, and she gradually lost consciousness.
When Gu Nuan woke up again, night had fallen, and all sorts of voices were still mixed together in her ears.
“Cuiniang, just sell her. Keeping her will only invite gossip. Selling her will bring in money, and Nuan girl will still have a chance to remarry.” Though the voice sounded gentle, the words were full of malice.
“Exactly, Cuiniang, don’t be reluctant. If you keep this child, our family won’t have a moment of peace. The gossip in Wutong Town is already more than we can handle. If you keep her, we won’t even be able to leave the house in the future.” Several people chimed in, making the small room even noisier.
Cuiniang looked at the baby beside her daughter, whose features, though red and wrinkled, were already delicate, and thought to herself, ‘The child is so refined, the father must not be bad either. Could it really be, as I thought, that some nobleman did this?’
Gu Nuan slowly absorbed the chaotic memories in her mind, ignoring their arguing. She just carefully sorted through the memories, and after a while, she managed to glean a bit of information: she had transmigrated, and into the body of a girl who had been violated and gotten pregnant!
Before Gu Nuan could fully sort out her memories, she heard a slightly hoarse voice say, “Just sell her. Send her to the countryside, and we’ll talk about the rest once the dust settles. As for her original marriage arrangement, let Gui girl take her place.”
The moment the silver-haired old woman seated at the head spoke, the room fell silent instantly.
‘Sell the child!’ Gu Nuan thought she must have misheard. Struggling, she opened her eyes and saw a pale green canopy overhead. Turning her head, she saw a room full of women.
There were about five or six women gathered in the room. Sitting in the seat of honor was the original host’s grandmother. Standing at the lower left were the eldest aunt and third aunt, while the right side was occupied by the first aunt and second aunt.
“Yes, we should just sell it. It happens that the Wang family in the neighboring town has no son. We can sell it to him—he definitely won’t mistreat this bastard.” The one sitting second from the bottom was none other than Du Erniang, the midwife who had delivered Gu Nuan.
At the time, everyone thought the girl couldn’t be saved, but unexpectedly, she later gave birth smoothly and survived. She was truly blessed with a strong fate.
Cuiniang was just about to say something when she saw Gu Nuan had woken up. Her gaze flickered as she said, “You’re awake. You heard what your grandmother said just now. Grandmother has decided to sell this child. Do you have anything to say?”
A woman sitting to the right of the old lady spoke up: “What could she say? A cheap girl who let some wild man defile her and got herself pregnant with a bastard—what right does she have to speak?”
“Her third aunt, let her tell us who the child’s father is. Maybe he’ll come back?” Cuiniang gently wiped the corner of her eye, but her peripheral vision was fixed on her daughter lying on the bed, hoping to see something in her eyes.
Yet the truth disappointed her—there was nothing in Gu Nuan’s eyes but confusion.
Third Aunt Gu Yuyin glanced at Gu Nuan with disgust, rolling her eyes as if looking at something filthy. “Hah, if he could come back, he would have come back during the ten months of pregnancy. You think he’ll come back in the next few days?”
“And if she knew whose bastard this is, why didn’t she say so during all that questioning before? You think she’ll talk now?”
“I figure she probably doesn’t even know herself. Stop wasting time and just listen to Mother’s arrangements.”
Since she didn’t have the fortune to become the town mayor’s concubine, then let her own daughter go instead, Gu Yuyin thought, her eyes gleaming.
Gu Yuyin didn’t notice the scheming in Cuiniang’s eyes, but Eldest Aunt Gu Yujin did. She asked softly, “Nuan girl, you should still tell us what you know. Otherwise, you’ll really be sent to the countryside, and life there is not as comfortable as in town.”
Gu Nuan knew from the voice that this was the one who had first proposed selling the child. After a moment, she spoke: “Eldest Aunt, I really don’t know. When I woke up, I was already home. I don’t know who it is either.”
“See, I told you. Just sell this bastard. Selling him to the Wang family—they definitely won’t mistreat him.” Gu Yuyin’s eyes lit up again when she heard Gu Nuan say she didn’t know.
The old lady in the seat of honor glared at Gu Yuyin, then without even looking at Gu Nuan, said, “Sell it. Keeping it is just a disaster. Sell it to the neighboring town—out of sight, out of mind.”
“No selling. I won’t sell the child.” Gu Nuan sat up abruptly, clutching her stomach in pain as cold sweat broke out.
Gu Nuan had also sorted out some of her memories and knew that not a single person in this family was normal—they were all cold and heartless. The only one who had been good to Gu Nuan, her second brother Gu Cheng, had gone out to work and wouldn’t be back for several years, she heard.
Now, not a single person in this room treated the original host as a human being—not even the original host’s own mother!
Gu Yuyin glared angrily: “You have no right to speak here. Mother already said to sell it. What right does a cheap girl like you have to speak?”
“I gave birth to this child. Why can’t I speak?” Gu Nuan held the child to her chest. She hadn’t felt much before, but once the child was in her arms, she felt a warmth in her heart.
The child, though no one knew where it came from or how it was conceived, was still born through her own desperate efforts, and looking at it filled her with affection.
Gu Yuyin shot to his feet in fury. “You shameless wench, daring to talk back to your elders! I’d say you’ve grown tired of living.”
“Enough.” The old lady rose to her feet.
Turning to Gu Nuan, she said, “Either you sell that child, and I’ll have someone send you back to the ancestral village where you won’t want for food or clothing, or you face Clan Expulsion. Choose one.”
Gu Nuan looked at the shrewd glint hidden in the old lady’s murky eyes and answered without a moment’s hesitation, “I choose the second.”
Everyone present drew in a sharp breath. No one had expected Gu Nuan to make such a choice.
Clan Expulsion was a severe punishment in this day and age—to be expelled from the clan meant that even after death, you would have no roots.