Chapter 186: Second Uncle Dong’s Divorce
Su Shuochi held Gu Jiaojiao’s hand and quietly told her that Gao Xiangming had called.
They were driving to Qing City and would arrive tonight. They had not only bought a lot of precious medicinal herbs, but also a lot of river snails and loaches.
These were all things Gu Jiaojiao loved, so she smiled happily.
This drew envious looks from her classmates, who thought Gu Jiaojiao and her husband were a perfect match.
In reality, there are no two people in the world who are a perfect fit from birth. There are only two hearts that grow ever more steadfast and in sync through constant adjustment and compromise.
Although Gu Jiaojiao and Su Shuochi had married first and fallen in love later, their core values were aligned.
Their ways of thinking were on the same wavelength. It was easy for two people like that to create sparks of love while living together.
Gu Jiaojiao smiled happily while Su Shuochi watched her dotingly. Su Shuochi would never laugh out loud in a crowded place.
Before either of them could say anything, they heard an urgent voice.
"Gu Jiaojiao, wait up~"
A first-year female student walked up to her and said, "Gu Jiaojiao, your cousin has been crying all day!"
The girl’s voice was filled with deep concern. This was the same student who had argued with Dong Baozhu the other day.
"Thank you. We’ll wait here for her to come out," Gu Jiaojiao said with a smile.
"Okay then!" the female student said softly before walking away, looking back every few steps.
Actually, she was also very curious about why Dong Baozhu was crying, but she was afraid of the man beside Gu Jiaojiao.
So she could only leave, full of curiosity and reluctance. Other students who didn’t know any better might have thought she couldn’t bear to leave Gu Jiaojiao.
Before long, Dong Qiming came out, giving Dong Baozhu a ride on his bike. "Cousin Jiaojiao~ Why are you guys standing by the road instead of leaving?"
"I was waiting for you two. I heard from one of Dong Baozhu’s classmates that she was crying all day." Noticing Dong Baozhu’s red eyes, Gu Jiaojiao teased, "You seem perfectly fine to me, though!"
"It’s nothing major, really. It’s just that my dad and mom went through the divorce procedures today."
Dong Qiming said calmly. He knew his parents would divorce sooner or later, so he could genuinely accept it with composure.
"What did you say? Your parents really got divorced?" Gu Jiaojiao was stunned.
Although Second Uncle Dong came from a more distinguished background than Li Dahua, Li Dahua was very pretty. Standing together, the two actually looked quite well-matched.
They had been married for nearly twenty years, and the only other time she’d heard talk of divorce was when Li Dahua’s mother had first brought it up.
"Yeah, it’s true. Yesterday, they didn’t even argue. My dad just said my mom was a jinx, so they went to get divorced first thing this morning."
Dong Baozhu recalled the cold expression on her father’s face and felt incredibly sad, which was why she had been crying all day.
Seeing his sister’s heartbroken expression, Dong Qiming couldn’t help but shed tears as well.
He wiped the tears from his face and said to Gu Jiaojiao, "Cousin Jiaojiao, don’t worry. My parents were going to divorce sooner or later. It’s better this way."
Gu Jiaojiao was at a loss for words.
’She wasn’t actually worried. She just wondered, with Dong Qiming right in the middle of his college entrance exams, why couldn’t Second Uncle Dong have waited a little longer?’
"Yesterday after work, my mom went to the Sheng family’s house to settle scores with Sheng Yueyue. Mrs. Sheng blocked the door and got into a huge argument with my mom. After my mom lost the argument, she went home and got our step-grandmother..."
From Dong Qiming’s account, Gu Jiaojiao learned that Ren Xiaofang had used the opportunity to have another huge fight with Mrs. Sheng, and had even hit her.
The incident alarmed the old master of the Dong Family. However, he didn’t blame his young wife. Instead, he gave his second son a harsh scolding.
He even resorted to family punishment. Second Uncle Dong had recently been disciplined at work, and now he was being beaten by his own father at home because of his wife’s willfulness.
Seething with rage, he hit his wife for the first time. Li Dahua was filled with a bitter resentment she couldn’t vent.
She took a bottle of pesticide to the Sheng family’s gate to intimidate them; she didn’t actually intend to kill herself.
Instead, she wanted to threaten Mr. Sheng into getting her mother released, and preferably her brother as well.
But her plan was wishful thinking, and reality did not play out as she had hoped...
Mr. Sheng had also been filled with rage lately because of his daughter, and he was looking for someone to take it out on.
He didn’t care whether Aunt Dong had actually drunk the pesticide or not; he just ordered his assistant to douse her with a ladleful of manure.
He clasped his hands across his chest and yelled to the neighboring Dong house: "Second Son Dong, get over here and drag your wife back home."
"Your wife is trying to kill herself with pesticide. Forcing them to ingest manure is the most effective cure for that."
"I saw this method cure plenty of people back when I was in the countryside. Just take her home and wash her off."
"Next time she tries to kill herself with pesticide, use this method. Jianping, you’d better keep a close eye on her from now on!"
When Second Uncle Dong heard the shouting from next door, he realized his wife had done something stupid again. He was so angry he wanted to give her another beating.
He quickly scrambled over. Seeing the large crowd of onlookers, he endured the foul stench and helped up his reeking wife.
He hissed in a low voice, "You troublesome thing! It’s the middle of summer, are you trying to make everyone die from the smell?"
When Li Dahua saw that her husband was finally willing to hold her, tears immediately started streaming down her face.
"Old Dong, you have to demand an explanation from the Sheng family today! I hadn’t even drunk the pesticide yet, and they..."
As soon as Second Uncle Dong heard this, his expression darkened. He knew his wife’s character better than anyone.
Whenever something happened, she would start crying and throwing a tantrum to try and gain some advantage. She was utterly humiliating him.
Second Uncle Dong had been driven to his wits’ end by the trouble from his wife’s side of the family, so he cut her off without a shred of mercy.
"Shut up! Stop causing trouble for me! If you pull another stunt, we’re going to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get a divorce tomorrow morning."
"Hey! Old Dong, how can you talk like that? Your own wife has been bullied, and not only do you not stick up for me, you side with them to bully me too! I don’t want to live anymore..."
"Then go die. If you don’t die, we’re getting a divorce." Second Uncle Dong dropped his stinking wife and ran back home to take a shower.
He left a stunned Aunt Dong standing disheveled in the summer night’s breeze, watching the surrounding crowd point and whisper.
Lacking any backbone, Aunt Dong also scurried back to the Dong house. She paused in a daze for a moment, then slowed her pace.
By the time she got back to the Dong house, Second Uncle Dong had already finished his shower and was sitting in the living room talking to his older brother.
Uncle Dong had also been criticized because of his younger brother’s affairs. If it weren’t for Jiaojiao, he might have even been demoted.
But when he saw his stinking sister-in-law, he didn’t say a word, simply pinching his nose as he walked toward his room on the second floor.
Uncle Dong’s action provoked Second Uncle Dong, especially since Li Dahua had made their entire living room stink.
At the end of his rope, he yelled that they would definitely get a divorce tomorrow morning. After Aunt Dong washed herself clean, she went to her children to cry and complain.
Dong Qiming, seeing that his mother had gone too far and knowing the situation was irreversible, told her with a sour face that she had brought it on herself.
Dong Baozhu, being a girl after all, saw her mother’s pitiful appearance and tried to persuade her father.
But she was cut off by her father’s cold and heartless words. And so, whenever Dong Baozhu thought of her father’s indifferent expression, she wanted to cry...