Chapter 240 - 93: Jing Si, Your Wife Is Too Vicious (Part 2)
Mrs. Xie smiled but said nothing. Mr. Xie chuckled and said, "Sons and daughters are all the same."
"That’s wonderful of you. That’s exactly how you should think. As long as they’re your own children, it doesn’t matter if they’re a boy or a girl." The neighborhood committee director gave the couple a thumbs-up, then turned to the onlooking neighbors. "They are your role models! You should all learn from them. The Great Leader himself said that women hold up half the sky. How can you still cling to such backward, feudal ideas of favoring boys over girls? This is a terrible habit. This kind of attitude will erode your better nature and disrupt family harmony. You have to change."
"Yes, yes, yes. We’ll change, we’ll change," the crowd chimed in, humoring the director with half-hearted agreement.
Qin Mei watched the scene, speechless. ’They were so obviously just placating her,’ she thought, ’yet the neighborhood committee director looked so pleased with herself.’
Granny Guo grabbed Second Auntie and spoke urgently. "Second Sister, since Ning is here too, tell everyone! Did the Fourth Wife of Jing tell you that my daughter-in-law was carrying a grandson?"
"Guo Xiaofang," the neighborhood committee director said, her face darkening. Sister Guo was completely undermining her. She had just delivered a rousing speech, and everyone had played along, but now Sister Guo was making her lose face.
Second Auntie glanced at Qin Mei from the corner of her eye before saying to Granny Guo, "Sister Guo, the Fourth Wife of Jing never told me anything. I can’t deny that I asked her, but her lips were sealed. She wouldn’t breathe a word. I guessed on my own. And as it turns out, my guess was right."
"That’s not what you said at all! You swore up and down, you guaranteed me it was a grandson! And you said the Fourth Wife of Jing was the one who told you!" Granny Guo’s grip on Second Auntie’s wrist tightened.
Second Auntie tried to pull her hand away, but Granny Guo only held on tighter. Finally, Second Auntie gave up, sighed, and said, "I lied to you."
"You lied to me." Granny Guo’s face went deathly pale, and the fury in her eyes blazed. She looked ready to strangle the other woman. "Yu Ergui, you knew how much I was hoping for a grandson! You knew my daughter-in-law was carrying a girl, yet you deliberately lied and said it was a boy! What were you trying to do?"
"I did it with good intentions! Out of kindness, Guo Xiaofang! Hero’s wife was more than seven months pregnant. Knowing you, if I had told you the truth, you would have dragged her to the hospital to force an abortion. That would have been a terrible sin! If Hero and his wife were like you, only wanting a grandson, I wouldn’t have interfered. But clearly, they aren’t. Thank goodness for that, or imagine what a horrible sin would have been committed!" Second Auntie said.
"You... you... you’ve gone too far!" Granny Guo raised her hand to strike Second Auntie.
"Guo Xiaofang, are you going to strike someone right in front of me?" the neighborhood committee director shouted.
Granny Guo didn’t dare follow through. If she hit Second Auntie in public, she would lose any moral high ground she had. But with no other outlet for her fury, she ended up slapping herself hard across the face.
SMACK! The sound of the slap was so loud, it was clear how much force Granny Guo had used.
Everyone was dumbstruck. Qin Mei was stunned, too. ’She didn’t dare hit someone else, so she hit herself instead.’
Seeing Granny Guo raise her hand to slap herself again, the neighborhood committee director quickly intervened. She and Second Auntie worked together to restrain her.
"I mean, Sister Guo, why are you doing this to yourself!" the director said, her tone softening.
"Sister Guo, it’s not such a big deal. So it’s a granddaughter. You didn’t get your wish this time, so just have Hero and his wife try again. Maybe you’ll get your wish with the next one," Second Auntie coaxed.
"That’s right! Sister Guo, Hero and his wife are still young and healthy. Forget the next baby—they can have the one after that, and the one after that! They can give you a whole string of grandsons. When that day comes, don’t you dare complain to us that you’re tired of looking after them all!" With the director present, the other neighbors began to chime in and console Granny Guo.
Li Axiu opened her mouth a few times as if to say something, but always stopped herself. In the end, she gave up on watching the drama unfold and turned to leave.
Seeing Li Axiu leave, some of the other neighbors began to drift away as well, until the crowd outside the courtyard had completely dispersed.
In the courtyard, only the Jie Family, Second Auntie, Granny Guo, and the neighborhood committee director remained.
Granny Guo wept sorrowfully as Second Auntie and the director tried to comfort her. The members of the Jie Family simply watched on, detached.
"Second Sister, let’s help Sister Guo back to her house," the director said to Second Auntie. ’Wailing like this in the Jie family’s courtyard,’ she thought, ’what a mess.’
"Alright," Second Auntie readily agreed. Together, she and the director helped the sobbing Granny Guo out of the Jie Family’s courtyard.
With the drama over, the members of the Jie Family dispersed as well.
Jie Jingwei took his son back to their room, and Jie Jinghun returned to his as well. Xu Chunyan followed Aunt Zhang to the main room to help her clear the table.