After hearing this, Gu Sanshen could not help but grow a little anxious.
What if she was not familiar with him?
When men and women get married these days, isn’t it just like this? You meet once or twice, feel that you are suitable for each other, and the conditions are also fine, then you just get married. Whether to register first or hold the banquet first can still be discussed later. Anyway, first settle it and then talk.
How good were Jiang Jinwang’s conditions? His father was the director of the steel factory, his mother was the director of the Women’s Federation, his older sister married a government cadre, and he himself was still the director of the steel factory’s Revolutionary Committee…
Of course, Jiang Jinwang being willing to marry Gu Yijia was the most gratifying thing of all.
Gu Yijia’s sickly body was right there. As long as one asked around a little, one would know, and it absolutely could not fool anyone. Although quite a few men liked Gu Yijia’s face, unfortunately, when a countryman married a wife, what he wanted was not a face, he also had to consider whether she could work, bear children, and take care of the family’s young and old as well as the man…
Gu Yijia looked like someone who would die young, and she could not even have children. Taking her home might even mean the man would have to look after her. Who would dare marry such a girl?
But Jiang Jinwang did not care. He was even willing to spend a lot of money to marry her. If it were her, she would have agreed in a heartbeat.
Originally, Jiang Jinwang had wanted to have a matchmaker come directly to the door, thinking that with his conditions, there was definitely no one so stupid as to refuse, especially those rural families.
Didn’t rural women all want to marry into the city and eat commodity grain? Now there was an opportunity, and even an idiot would not refuse.
It was only after he heard that Gu Yijia had a formidable sister-in-law that he realized that over the years, the sister-in-law had driven away many men who dared covet Gu Yijia, protecting her tightly.
Ever since Gu Yijia graduated from high school last year, people had tentatively asked matchmakers to come to the Gu family to propose marriage.
Although Gu Yijia’s health was not good, there were still men who wanted her for her face, as well as because her brother Gu Mingcheng was willing to marry her.
In the end, Chen Aifang drove all those matchmakers away, and even said that they were looking for a man for Gu Yijia who did not mind her health condition and had to be good to her, otherwise she would rather not marry her off.
Among those who came to propose, there really were some with good conditions, and there were even people from the city.
However, Chen Aifang still did not agree to any of them, and angrily drove the matchmakers away.
Gu Mingcheng was not at home, so as the sister-in-law, Chen Aifang could make the decision entirely on behalf of her younger sister-in-law’s marriage.
Although Gu Laoda was Gu Yijia’s biological father, these years it was obvious that he did not care about Gu Mingcheng and his younger sister at all, and he had never asked about their marriage either. He was not in a position to make decisions for the siblings.
Jiang Jinwang felt that his conditions were good, but after hearing about Chen Aifang’s way of doing things, he was also not sure whether Chen Aifang would agree to marry Gu Yijia to him.
If Chen Aifang was too picky and looked down on even him, then had the matchmaker he invited been driven out, how humiliating would that be?
Jiang Jinwang really liked Gu Yijia, and he truly wanted to marry her. Knowing how troublesome Chen Aifang was, he also did not want to lose face himself.
After considering it, he decided to directly skip over Chen Aifang, and first have the Gu family do work on Gu Yijia. If Gu Yijia herself was willing to marry, then surely her sister-in-law could not stop her younger sister-in-law from pursuing a future, right?
As for Gu Yijia’s older brother, he was far away in the army, thousands of miles off, and would not come back even once in a whole year. There was simply no need to care about him.
Once Gu Yijia married over, the wood would be already cut and the boat would have been made. Even if her older brother objected, it would be useless.
In order to marry Gu Yijia, Jiang Jinwang had really put in a lot of effort.
He found a formidable matchmaker, gave her a sum of money, and had her come forward to negotiate with the Gu family.
That matchmaker was also a shrewd one. After inquiring clearly into Gu Yijia and the Gu family’s situation, her eyes rolled, and she immediately had an idea.
Gu Sanshen was the person the matchmaker approached. The matchmaker valued how well-spoken she was, and also that she was Gu Yijia’s aunt, so she asked her to first go do the work on Gu Yijia. She would give her ten yuan first, and after the matter was done, she would give her another twenty yuan.
As for why they did not look for Gu Yijia’s biological father and stepmother, one only had to think to know that finding them would be useless. It was better to look for the uncle and aunt from another branch.
For the sake of those thirty yuan, Gu Sanshen was very willing, not to mention that if Gu Yijia could marry into the city, it would also be good for the old Gu family.
Gu Sanshen said anxiously, “If you meet a few more times, then you’ll become familiar. As long as you are willing…”
“Third Auntie, who are you trying to introduce to little aunt?”
Before Gu Yijia could speak, Baohua had already asked warily, her pair of big eyes, similar to Chen Aifang’s, looking her up and down, like a little wolf cub.
Gu Sanshen felt uncomfortable under her gaze, and inwardly muttered that a little girl so shrewd and forceful would definitely not be able to marry in the future. Not everyone was like Gu Mingcheng, that fool, who back then could take a liking to Chen Aifang when her conditions were so poor, and still marry her home.
She said reluctantly, “Nothing, children should not talk too much.”
Baohua said with a grin, “That won’t do. My mom told me to look after little aunt. Little aunt just got out of the hospital, and her health is not good. She can’t go outside and catch the wind. If little aunt faints again, can Third Auntie take responsibility?”
Her little mouth kept chattering, and how could Gu Sanshen withstand that? On top of that, what happened yesterday, when Gu Yijia fainted in her own house, really did frighten her, so she did not dare say anything more.
She felt regretful in her heart. It looked like today was not a good day to come to the house. She would have to wait until this little girl was not around before coming to find Gu Yijia.
In the end, Gu Sanshen left helplessly.
Baohua went to close the door, then turned back to look at the beautiful little aunt. She handed her a piece of White Rabbit milk candy, and stuffed one into her own mouth. Puffing up her cheeks, she said, “Little aunt, is Third Auntie trying to introduce a little uncle to you?”
Gu Yijia: “…”
Gu Yijia also did not treat the little girl like a child. A five-year-old child in the countryside was already able to help her parents with work.
“I guess so.” She said absentmindedly.
Baohua frowned, looking a little unhappy. She glanced at Gu Yijia’s pale, weary face and said nothing.
By evening, when Chen Aifang and her son came back, Baohua ran over to whisper with her mother.
“Third Auntie came today. She wanted to find a little uncle for little aunt. Mom, what should we do? Should we tell Dad? Dad said little aunt’s health is not good, and any man who takes a fancy to her definitely is not truly good to her, he’s just after her face…”
Saying this, the little girl held up her baby-fat little round face. “Little aunt is really pretty ah, you never get tired of looking at her every day, there must be a lot of men who want to marry little aunt home! Dad is right, we have to guard against it, and we can’t let those stinky men easily get close to little aunt.”
Chen Aifang looked helplessly at her little daughter and slapped her butt once. “What nonsense are you spouting?”
“I’m not spouting nonsense, this is what Dad said!” Baohua pouted.
Chen Aifang immediately felt like hitting someone, and the person she wanted to hit was her husband, who was thousands of miles away.
He clearly usually looked towering and upright, a reliable and steady man, but sometimes he would also talk nonsense. When he married her back then, he was not like this. How had he become less steady after having children?
Chen Aifang was actually also somewhat puzzled. She still had not figured out how her younger sister-in-law had fainted yesterday, or why she would faint in Gu Sanshen’s house. What was her younger sister-in-law doing going to Gu Sanshen’s house for no reason?
The Gu family had a total of three branches. Gu Mingcheng and Gu Yijia were the children of the eldest branch, and because their father Gu Songbai was the oldest son, everyone habitually called him Gu Laoda.
Because the older generation of the Gu family had passed away early, the Gu family had divided the household early as well. The feelings among the three branches were neither particularly good nor particularly bad, but over these years, because Gu Mingcheng had gradually begun to stand out in the army, the three brothers instead became closer.
To put it bluntly, it was still because the other two branches of the Gu family saw that Gu Mingcheng had prospects and came over to curry favor.
Unfortunately, Gu Mingcheng was a man with his own ideas. Even his own biological father could not control him, let alone the uncle and aunt from another branch. He had never let them take advantage of him.
Over the years, while the Gu family’s branches feared Gu Mingcheng, they also coveted him.
Gu Sanshen privately muttered a lot about Gu Mingcheng not being willing to support his cousins and the like. A few years ago, Gu Sanshen’s younger son wanted to join the army and asked Gu Mingcheng to help get him a recommendation slot, but Gu Mingcheng refused on the grounds that this was not his duty and that he could not overstep.
Because of this matter, Gu Sanshen complained quite a lot about Gu Mingcheng, and when she looked at Chen Aifang and Gu Yijia, her eyes were not eyes and her nose was not a nose. In private, she often muttered to her sister-in-law Yu Xiaolan about what was wrong with Gu Mingcheng and his younger sister.
As for Gu Sanshen, it was not that she was very bad, exactly, she just liked taking advantage. She wanted to get a piece of every good thing, and if she failed to get it, then she would resent the person who would not let her benefit.
That was why Chen Aifang did not really like Gu Sanshen. Usually, she just treated her like an unfriendly relative. If she wanted to come over and take advantage, that was impossible.
Actually, it was not only toward Gu Sanshen. As for these people in the Gu family, there was not a single branch that Chen Aifang liked.
Do not think she did not know that, although these people in the Gu family did not dare bully them because of her man Gu Mingcheng, they had not done a little bit less behind her back to talk about them. Especially her younger sister-in-law, who had been cursed at in secret as a short-lived ghost and sickly invalid, with them bluntly saying she would not live long.
Chen Aifang decided that after class tomorrow, she would go ask Gu Sanshen about it. If she had not been up to any other schemes, that would be fine. If she dared to have schemes…
She let out a cold laugh.
The next day, before Chen Aifang had gone to find Gu Sanshen, an uninvited guest had already come to the house.
Gu Yijia was sitting in the main room drinking water, while Baohua was picking vegetables, removing some yellowed leaves.
Hearing a knock at the door outside, Baohua thought that someone had come to see little aunt again. These past two days, there had been quite a few people who specially came over to visit, so she trotted over on her two short legs to open the door.
When she opened it, she saw a middle-aged woman with a drooping face. Although her features were old, black, and thin, one could still tell that her facial features looked very much like Gu Mingyue’s. It was Gu Mingyue’s mother, Yu Xiaolan.
Baohua’s eyes rolled around as she asked in a babyish voice, “Grandma, why did you come?”
Yu Xiaolan glanced at her and said with a false smile, “I heard that Jiajia just came back from the hospital yesterday, so I came over to take a look.”
Baohua did not really want to let her in, but out of politeness, she still opened the door and let her come in.
Yu Xiaohua walked into the courtyard, her shrewd eyes looking around, and a bit of jealousy appeared on her face.
That white-eyed wolf, Gu Mingcheng, his own biological father was still living in an old, shabby house, yet he would not bear to spend money to build a house for his biological father. Instead, he built a brick-and-tile house for his wife and sister to live in. How grand and imposing that blue-brick house was.
Back then, she had made quite a fuss over this house, even going all the way to the commune secretary about it.
There was no reason for a son to build a big house and not let his elderly biological father live in it, forcing his father to live in a dilapidated mud-and-tile house. Gu Mingcheng was truly unfilial.
Unfortunately, the secretary was a snob and sided with Gu Mingcheng, and Gu Laoda was also useless. He actually got angry and took her away, not allowing her to make a fuss anymore.
Over the years, every time she passed by the house where the stepchildren lived, she could not help but feel jealous.
How good would it be if this house were for them to live in?
Actually, back then, she had also wanted to take a step back. At worst, everyone could move in and live together. Clearly they were one family. As the eldest brother, Gu Mingcheng taking care of the old father and the younger siblings below, was that not what he should do?
Who would have known that Gu Mingcheng would actually refuse, insisting that the household had already been divided, and that he would not live together with them, and stating plainly that as the older brother, he had no obligation to support his younger brothers.
Yu Xiaolan thought of this and hated it so much that she ground her teeth.
Gu Mingyue was one thing, after all she was not of the Gu family’s bloodline, but Gu Minghui and Gu Mingcheng were the same biological father’s real younger brothers, so why not let his younger brother live there?
Gu Mingcheng was clearly looking down on her, this stepmother, and also did not care about Gu Minghui, whom she had given birth to.
Yu Xiaolan came to the main hall and saw Gu Yijia sitting there weakly, drinking water, and she immediately got angry.
This sickly invalid should hurry up and die if she was going to die, so she would not drag people down by living.
If it were not for her, Gu Mingcheng would not need to spend so much money every month on her medical treatment, medicine, and nutritional supplements. If this money were given to them, their family would not only have built a large blue-brick house, they could also eat meat every now and then.
Gu Yijia lifted her eyes and looked over indifferently.
Yu Xiaolan said with a false smile, “Jiajia, how is your health?”
“Not very good.” Gu Yijia said expressionlessly, “Dizzy, nauseous, always wanting to faint, but I just can’t die.”
Yu Xiaolan was choked for a moment, and looked at her in surprise. When had this dead girl’s mouth become so sharp?
She then looked at Gu Yijia’s complexion, which seemed about the same as usual, and felt very disappointed.
A few days ago, her maternal nephew got married, and she and her husband Gu Laoda took their younger son back to her maternal family to help out, so she did not know that Gu Yijia had been admitted to the hospital for heatstroke.
It was only when they came back last night that she heard about it.
When she heard from a neighbor next door that this stepdaughter had looked like she was about to stop breathing at the time, frightening everyone into quickly borrowing a car from the secretary to send her to the hospital, Yu Xiaolan had nearly laughed herself to death.
If this sickly invalid died, then everyone would be happy.
Unfortunately, this sickly invalid was extremely tenacious and seemed like she could still continue living.
She felt disappointed in her heart, and it showed somewhat on her face.
If it were not for Gu Laoda, her biological father, telling her to come and take a look, she simply would not want to come at all. Seeing the stepdaughter’s sickly appearance made her feel unlucky.
After Yu Xiaolan looked at her and confirmed that she had not died, she could not be bothered to stay.
She waved her hand and left. “Fine, if nothing’s wrong, I’m leaving.”
Just as she was about to walk out the door, she saw Chen Aifang and her son pushing a bicycle in, and the sharp eyes of the mother and son instantly turned toward her.
Yu Xiaolan’s heart could not help but give a slight jump.