After getting off work, Gu Mingyue rode her bicycle home.
As soon as she entered, she saw her stepfather, Gu Laoda, squatting by the courtyard well, silently smoking a pipe, and her mother’s cursing voice coming from the kitchen.
“Dad, Mom, I’m back,” Gu Mingyue called out.
Gu Laoda raised his eyes to look over and gave a muffled response.
Gu Mingyue was already used to her stepfather’s taciturn nature. From the time she came with her mother after her mother remarried into the Gu family, her stepfather had always been this gloomy sort of person, and there was very rarely any sound from him in the house.
In the past, Gu Mingyue had always thought this stepfather was cowardly and useless, that he only knew how to keep his head down and work, like an old ox, year after year, silently, not even calling out when he was tired.
All the big and small matters in the family were decided by her mother, and many people felt that Yu Xiaolan’s second marriage was to the right person.
Her mother’s personality was shrewd and strong, and she very rarely suffered losses.
Until the year her stepbrother Gu Mingcheng sent money back and had people help build a house for his wife, children, and biological younger sister to live in, her mother went to the brigade to make a scene, and her stepfather flew into a rage for the first time in his life, forcefully dragging her mother back.
At that time, her mother did not even dare to make a sound.
From that time on, Gu Mingyue understood that as long as the stepfather’s bottom line was not touched, no matter how much her mother made trouble, he would not care.
But once his bottom line was touched, even her mother did not dare to make a sound.
And Gu Mingcheng and his younger sister were the stepfather’s bottom line.
Gu Mingyue actually did not quite understand why, if that was the case, it had still ended up causing such a fuss back then?
Over the years, her stepfather had rarely gone to the house over by her stepbrother’s place, silently staying here in the old house. For those who did not know the situation, they would have thought that this father was heartless, and after splitting the siblings off, he simply did not care about them, only caring about the wife he married later and the children that wife gave birth to.
Yu Xiaolan heard her daughter’s voice and ran out of the kitchen, unable to help feeling a little delighted.
“Mingyue, why did you come back today?”
Ever since her daughter went to work in the city, most of the time she lived at her maternal aunt’s house in the city, only coming back on rest days. Today was not a rest day for her daughter.
Gu Mingyue said, “I came back to see you all. I’m off tomorrow.”
“Off tomorrow?”
“I switched shifts with another worker.”
Yu Xiaolan gave an oh and did not doubt it. She was just happy that her daughter had come back, and did not notice the unnatural look on her daughter’s face.
At dinner, Yu Xiaolan cut up a small piece of cured meat from home and stewed it in one pot with cowpeas, potatoes, and so on.
When Gu Minghui came back and saw the dishes on the table, he asked happily, “Mom, what’s the special occasion today? Why did you make meat?”
Yu Xiaolan said, “Your sister came back, so I made her something tasty.”
Hearing this, Gu Minghui curled his lip, knowing in his heart that in his mother’s eyes, his sister, whom his aunt valued, was the most important.
Gu Mingyue sat at the table.
Her mother, Yu Xiaolan, chattered on and on, telling her to find a boyfriend in the city, then cursing the stepfather, who ate silently, saying he was useless, that he had made her worry for a lifetime, and that she had been blind to marry him back then, as well as Gu Minghui, who did not care about anything and, with his sleeves rolled up, picked meat from the vegetable basin…
This was her family.
The next day, Gu Mingyue brought a bag of cookies to Chen Aifang’s house.
Baohua opened the door for her. The little girl tilted her face up and asked crisply, “Auntie, are you here to see Little Auntie? You haven’t come to see Little Auntie for a long time.”
Every time Auntie came to the house, she was looking for Little Auntie and would not look for anyone else, so she was used to it.
Gu Mingyue gave a response, a gentle smile appearing on her face, and handed the cookies to her as she said, “The factory’s been busy lately, so I haven’t had time to come over.”
Baohua gave an oh and did not say whether she believed it or not.
After graduating from high school, with her maternal aunt’s help, Gu Mingyue became a temporary worker at the textile factory, and she had done it for several years. She rarely returned to the commune, and even when she did come back, she was very busy. She did not really know the fighting strength of Baohua, her five-year-old niece, and only treated her as a normal child.
After entering, she did not see Gu Yijia’s figure in the main room, so Gu Mingyue went straight to the workroom.
Sure enough, as she got closer, she heard the sound of a sewing machine being stepped on.
Gu Mingyue walked in and saw Gu Yijia sitting in front of the sewing machine, making clothes.
The sewing machine was placed by the window. The window was open, the light was bright, and Gu Yijia, bathed in the bright summer light, was like an ancient painting of a lady, quiet and lovely.
Gu Mingyue’s gaze darkened.
Every time she saw this stepsister, she felt envious in her heart.
If she also had Gu Yijia’s good looks, would Jiang Jinwang choose her? She would also not need to be so careful to curry favor with her aunt and with the people around her, to the point that no matter how hard she tried, she still could not become a regular worker at the textile factory, and after several years, she was still a temporary worker.
She had once heard villagers muttering in secret that Heaven had granted Gu Yijia such rare beauty, so it had to take away her health.
That made some sense too.
Every time Gu Mingyue thought about it, if she could have such beauty, she would actually be willing to be a sickly person.
She understood too well how important looks were to a woman.
Once, by chance, she had heard the educated youth over at the educated youth compound sighing that Gu Yijia was the sickly beauty described in books, a Lin Daiyu. Although she was plagued by a chronic illness, it in no way diminished her beauty, and even her sickly appearance was so beautiful, so pitiable.
Gu Mingyue stood at the doorway for a while. Seeing Gu Yijia seriously stepping the sewing machine and not noticing her arrival at all, she had no choice but to speak up.
“Jiajia.”
Gu Yijia stopped and turned to look at her.
Just in time, she was also tired, so she slowly supported herself on the sewing machine and stood up, her movements like those of a slow old person.
There was nothing she could do about it. Once before, she had forgotten that this lousy body was not the same as the one she had before, and when she stood up too abruptly, everything went black, her ears roared, and she just collapsed. She lay in bed for most of the day before recovering, almost scaring Chen Aifang and her three children to death.
From that time on, she learned her lesson and no longer dared to be impatient when doing things.
It was just that occasionally, she would still forget.
Gu Yijia walked over and sat down to the side, picked up the enamel cup on the table and took a sip of water, only to find that the water had already gone cold, so she put it back down.
This body was really too fragile. The water had to be warm; even a little cool was not allowed.
She looked at Gu Mingyue and asked, “Why are you here?”
Gu Mingyue was left hanging for a while, and she felt somewhat uncomfortable inside, clearly able to sense her distance.
She also sat down and said, “I’m off today, so I came to see you. Our sisters haven’t talked for a long time, and I wanted to chat with you.”
Gu Yijia: “…”
Gu Yijia looked at her in surprise, not expecting the female lead to be this kind of female lead.
Perhaps because she had a birth mother like Yu Xiaolan, Gu Mingyue, as her daughter, seemed especially rare by contrast, not so annoying. Although she was a burden brought to the Gu family by Yu Xiaolan, there were not many people in the Gu family who disliked her.
Even the original host had treated her like a good sister.
However, if one looked closely, some problems would still be found.
For example, Gu Mingyue was not so sincere in how she treated the original host, and might even have had a vague sense of superiority in front of her because the original host was in poor health, while also secretly envying the original host’s looks.
In short, she also had the mentality of an ordinary person, with both strengths and weaknesses.
When reading that period novel, Gu Yijia had actually not looked at it very carefully. She had only read the original host’s death ending and the final ending in the book, and she did not know many of the details.
However, she had the original host’s memories, and could still learn about some of Gu Mingyue’s actions from those memories, and then analyze her personality.
No need to think about it to know that Gu Mingyue was here today for a reason.
Gu Mingyue did not bring up anything else, but first asked about her health and her life, and also asked when she would next go to the county, so that she could also make time to accompany her around the county and go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some things girls needed.
Gu Yijia listened quietly, holding the enamel cup with both hands and not speaking.
Although Gu Mingyue could sense her coldness, she did not know why it was so, and thought it was only because she had not come back to see her for a long time, so the bond between them had grown unfamiliar.
It was quite awkward to sing a solo act by herself.
Gu Mingyue felt that awkwardness and gradually stopped talking, staring absentmindedly at Gu Yijia’s face.
Her complexion was pale, carrying a sickly look, and there was a kind of weariness between her brows that came from not yet recovering from a serious illness, yet it did not diminish her beauty. She was flawless, like clean snow.
The closer one got to her, the more one could feel that beauty that struck straight at the heart.
After restraining herself for a while, Gu Mingyue still could not restrain the envy and jealousy that suddenly surged in her heart.
She had always told herself not to be jealous so easily. After all, no matter how good-looking Gu Yijia was, she was dragging around a weak, sick body, and no one knew how long she could live.
Whereas she was healthy, with an endless future, something Gu Yijia would never be able to have.
Gu Yijia lifted her eyes and asked, “Do you have anything else?”
The implied meaning was, if there was nothing else, then hurry up and leave.
She was not the original host, and did not want to have sisterly affection with Gu Mingyue, and even less did she want to get involved in the matters between the male lead and female lead. She only hoped that the male lead and female lead would stay far away from her, and even if one day she died early, she should not die from being dragged down by them.
Gu Mingyue came back to her senses, the tip of her tongue pressing against the roof of her mouth. After hesitating for a moment, she said softly, “Jiajia, what do you think of Director Jiang?”
Gu Yijia’s face immediately turned cold. “If you came here to ask that, you can leave.”
“Jiajia!” Gu Mingyue looked at her in shock. This was the first time Gu Yijia had spoken to her in such a heavy tone. “How could you…”
Gu Yijia could not help but look at her with a strange expression.
“I find it strange,” she said slowly. “Actually, you have a good impression of Jiang Jinwang. You want to marry him, right?”
Gu Mingyue’s pupils shrank, and she looked utterly embarrassed.
Even if it was the truth, when it was said by the person she envied and was jealous of, it was still extremely hard to bear.
Gu Yijia asked bluntly, “Since that’s the case, why are you still here trying to persuade me? Shouldn’t you be the one making an effort yourself and trying to marry Jiang Jinwang? If I marry Jiang Jinwang, what good would that do for you?”
She felt it was utterly baffling and did not really understand the female lead’s thought process.
Even if Jiang Jinwang looked down on her, there was no need to be so enthusiastic about helping him line things up, right? Could it be…
Gu Yijia narrowed her eyes, a little aggressively. “Could it be that you think I won’t live long, and once I die, you can take over Jiang Jinwang?”
With Jiang Jinwang’s conditions, even if he was a man with a second marriage, there would still be many women willing to marry him.
However, second marriage was after all not as good as first marriage, so some women would still mind, right?
Gu Mingyue said awkwardly, “I didn’t… Jiajia, what’s wrong with you? How could you say something like that?”
She was so embarrassed she wanted to cry, her eyes turning red.
Gu Yijia looked at her speechlessly. She could not even take this? Looks like this female lead’s psychological tolerance was not great.
She was a little thirsty, and also did not want to keep wrangling with her. She picked up the enamel cup and was about to go out to get some hot water to drink, but forgot that she had been sitting for too long. As soon as she stood up suddenly, her vision blacked out again and her ears roared.
Gu Yijia’s body swayed, and the enamel cup in her hand fell to the ground with a sharp clatter.
Baohua, who had been tracing red outlines outside, heard the noise and rushed in like a little cannonball, just in time to see Gu Yijia looking as if she was about to faint.
She let out a scream. “Little Auntie!”
Gu Yijia was already feeling unwell, and the sharp child’s voice poured into her ears, making her head hurt even more, and she just fell down like that.
Gu Mingyue subconsciously reached out and caught her.
However, at this moment, they heard Baohua howl and scream, “Big Auntie scared Little Auntie unconscious!”
Gu Mingyue: ???