“Mom, what on earth got into Su Qingwan today? Not only has she gone crazy, but she even caused such a scene!”
“She has made our entire family lose face in the village!”
The gentle mask on Su Mingzhu’s face had completely slipped. She gritted her teeth as she stared at Su Qingwan’s departing figure, wishing she could rush over and tear her apart.
Both of Su Mu’s cheeks were swollen badly. She covered her face and secretly glanced at Su Jianguo’s livid expression before complaining.
“Husband, this really isn’t my fault. That wretched girl wouldn’t even let us get close to her. She locked the door at the Gu residence this morning, and who would’ve thought that after disappearing for the whole afternoon, she’d run to our doorstep and cause another scene?”
For once, Su Mingzhu spoke up for her biological mother. Lowering her voice, she analyzed the situation.
“Dad, Mom is right about this. Something is definitely wrong with Su Qingwan.”
“She doesn’t act anything like she used to. She was always timid and submissive before. Could she have been pretending to be foolish all this time, and now that she’s married into the Gu family and feels like she has someone to rely on, her true nature has finally come out? Or did Gu Jinchuan give her some advice before he left?”
Su Jianguo snorted and waved his hand as he walked into the house, his face gloomy.
“Whether she’s really foolish or merely pretending, everyone in the village now knows that we have our eyes on the Gu family’s ancestral home and are trying to take advantage of a family without a male heir. We’ve completely lost face.”
Su Mingzhu’s face went pale.
She and Su Jianguo cared about their reputation more than anything, especially since she was going to the county seat tomorrow for a matchmaking meeting. The man was an educated youth who had returned to the city, and this was a crucial opportunity for her to escape the countryside and build a bright future.
It absolutely could not be ruined!
“Dad, what are we going to do now?”
Su Jianguo noticed the anxiety in her voice. His eyes shifted as he gave a cold laugh.
“She is just a worthless girl. What’s there to be afraid of? If she refuses to behave, I have plenty of ways to deal with her. In the end, she’ll obediently hand everything over.”
“You just relax and wait for your matchmaking meeting in the county tomorrow.”
A hint of delight flashed through Su Mingzhu’s eyes. Her father’s words carried far more weight than her mother’s. Since he had said this, everything would surely be fine.
Su Mu watched the father and daughter reach an understanding, jealousy filling her heart. She could only approach them with her swollen face and put on a flattering smile.
“Husband, when will our son come back? It’s already been three days. Why haven’t we heard anything?”
Three days earlier, Su Yaozu, who had just graduated from high school, had taken Su Jianguo’s letter of recommendation and gone into the city to ask an old classmate to help him find a job. He had also taken the three hundred yuan that was supposedly meant for his engagement gift and used it to give gifts and grease the right palms.
When Su Jianguo heard her ask, he was not worried at all.
His old classmate had recommended a job as an accountant at a state owned steel factory. That was a highly coveted secure job, and the longer it took, the more promising the opportunity seemed.
If Su Yaozu really got the position, his future would be limitless.
So he impatiently snapped at Su Mu, who was pestering him.
“Why are you rushing him? He’ll come back when he should. Worrying won’t help.”
Then Su Jianguo frowned and began calculating.
“If Yaozu really gets into the steel factory, we’ll immediately break off the marriage with the Lin family. It’s only a verbal engagement anyway.”
Although the Lin family was the wealthiest family in the neighboring Lin Village, if his son became an urban worker, what kind of city girl could he not marry? The Lin family’s conditions would suddenly seem rather unimpressive.
Su Mu’s eyes flickered, but she did not dare mention that the Lin family’s daughter was already pregnant. After all, she wanted a daughter in law from the city too, someone who could bring prestige to the family.
“Alright, I understand.”
She kept agreeing aloud, but she had already made up her mind.
She would first have Su Yaozu marry the Lin family’s daughter in the village and keep her in the countryside to take care of the whole family. Later, he could go to the city and marry a woman with a job who could support his career.
Everyone could have the best of both worlds. What could possibly be wrong with that?
The three members of the family each had their own schemes, yet all of them felt that their lives were finally heading in a promising direction. Cheerfully, they returned to their respective rooms.
At the Gu residence at the edge of the village.
“Uncles and aunties, thank you for helping me carry everything back.”
Su Qingwan welcomed everyone inside. She grabbed a large handful of candies and sunflower seeds from the table and stuffed them into their hands before wiping at her reddened eyes guiltily.
“I made everyone witness such an embarrassing scene today. I thought Mom and Dad genuinely liked those things, so I gave them to them.”
“On the day I got married, Mom and the others kept praising these things and saying how much they liked them. I thought they really wanted them. It seems I misunderstood.”
The villagers’ hands stopped in the middle of cracking sunflower seeds, and their eyes filled with contempt.
This wasn’t a misunderstanding at all. The Su family really wanted those things. They simply had not expected them to be so shameless as to covet them while Gu Jinchuan was still alive and well.
One after another, they began advising her.
“Sister Su, once a daughter marries, she belongs to her husband’s family.
Don’t keep taking everything back to your mother’s family. Are you and Jinchuan not planning to live together?”
“How can you blame Sister Su? Don’t you know what kind of life she had before? The Su family must have forced her. If she didn’t take things back, they’d probably threaten to kill themselves or her.”
“Exactly. Huang Cuilan was blocking the Gu family’s door every day. If we hadn’t come over, who knows how badly Sister Su would have been bullied.”
Seeing that the atmosphere was right, Su Qingwan wiped away her tears and gently urged them.
“Aunts and uncles, please don’t say things like that. It wouldn’t be good if word got around. My younger brother just got a job as an accountant at a state owned steel factory, and my sister’s matchmaking partner is the son of a workshop director at a textile factory in the city. It wouldn’t be good if those families heard these things.”
The moment she said this, everyone exploded with excitement, their eyes widening.
Good heavens, a secure state job!
Even people from the city would fight tooth and nail to get into such a place, yet Su Yaozu, a twenty year old rural youth who had only just graduated from high school, had actually gotten in?
And Su Mingzhu’s match was the son of a city director?
What kind of luck had the Su family stumbled upon?
They grabbed Su Qingwan’s hands and eagerly asked.
“Really? You can’t be joking about something like this!”
Seeing that everyone’s reaction was exactly what she wanted, the corners of Su Qingwan’s lips curled slightly.
Of course, she would never tell them that Su Yaozu, that local hoodlum, would soon be dismissed from his job for beating someone, nor that Su Mingzhu had stolen her matchmaking partner.
Let the Su family enjoy their triumph for now. The harder they fell later, the more painful it would be.
Still, she deliberately hesitated before adding.
“I don’t really know the details either. You should ask Mom. Oh, right, she’s been busy arranging a match between my younger brother and the daughter of the Lin family from the neighboring village lately. I wonder how that’s going.”
Everyone was startled once again.
So Su Yaozu was supposed to marry the Lin family’s daughter.
Several sharp tongued women immediately whispered among themselves.
“I heard the Lin family’s daughter often sneaks into the woods with Su Yaozu. Even the way she walks has changed. Could she be pregnant?”
“No wonder the Su family is rushing to arrange the marriage. They got ahead of themselves and are trying to fix things afterward.”
“Hey, stop talking. Sister Su is still here.”
Realizing that the person they were discussing was standing right in front of them, they hurriedly shut their mouths and laughed awkwardly, though the mischievous looks they exchanged made it clear they were thoroughly enjoying the gossip.
Su Qingwan pretended not to hear anything. She simply sighed with a worried expression.
“I wonder what my sister’s matchmaking partner is really like. Ah, if only we could ask her good friend Sister Zhang Lan. Come to think of it, wasn’t Sister Zhang Lan’s return to the city already settled? Why was she suddenly told she couldn’t go back?”
The moment she said this, everyone’s expressions became meaningful.
Zhang Lan, the educated youth in the village, had originally been guaranteed a quota to return to the city. Yet it had suddenly been delayed for a year. It was said that her city boyfriend was extremely unhappy about it and that the two of them were on the verge of breaking up.
Meanwhile, Su Mingzhu, who was still far away in the countryside, had suddenly obtained a quota to find work in the city and had even managed to marry into a better family.
Anyone with a sharp eye could tell that something was wrong!
“Curious about it? Why not just ask Comrade Zhang yourself? She still lives in the village anyway.”