Chapter 187: Pauper
Gu Jiaojiao reviewed the scene Dong Qiming had described. Just thinking about it made her want to laugh.
But seeing Dong Baozhu’s red, swollen eyes, she felt it would be inappropriate to laugh. After all, that was Dong Qiming and his sister’s biological mother.
If she had been there at the time, she would have just laughed. But now that the show was over, it wouldn’t be right for her to laugh.
It was just her luck that she had spent the last two days in the outer courtyard observing the condition of Song Zijie and his sibling.
To think she had missed such juicy gossip. Gu Jiaojiao felt a twinge of regret.
Fortunately, Song Zijie and his sibling were recovering well, which gave her a great sense of accomplishment.
Dong Baozhu saw her cousin looking down without a word, her shoulders shaking, and although she was very sad herself, she still spoke in a hoarse voice.
"Cousin Jiaojiao, my mom got what she deserved. You don’t have to feel sorry for her."
"Cousin Baozhu, I’m just worried that all this crying will be bad for your eyes. Your brother has the college entrance exams in two days. You two need to be strong."
Gu Jiaojiao had nothing against the two siblings, so she offered a few kind words of comfort.
Feeling sorry for Aunt Dong? ’That wasn’t happening.’ Since coming to this world, Gu Jiaojiao had never even met Grandpa Dong.
Nor had she met her eldest maternal aunt, or her second maternal uncle and his wife. She hadn’t even come face to face with the frequently-dramatic step-grandmother.
The four of them were chatting as they walked when they ran into Aunt Sheng at a fork in the road. Naturally, Gu Jiaojiao had no intention of greeting her.
"Qiming, Treasure Bead, your parents got divorced this morning. Your mom is packing her things to go back to the Li family. You should hurry home and check on things."
"Thank you, Aunt Sheng. I’ll take my sister home now." With that, Dong Qiming hopped on his bicycle and rode off with Dong Baozhu.
"Jiaojiao, what’s this? You don’t recognize me? I’m your aunt!" Aunt Sheng said with overly familiar warmth.
She hadn’t known before that the Su family Gu Jiaojiao married into was so well-off, so she had never paid Gu Jiaojiao any mind.
It wasn’t until the day Sheng Yueyue made her father faint from anger—the same time the Dong family’s step-grandmother was fighting her eldest sister-in-law next door, and Dong Yuanyuan saw Su Shuochi and began clamoring to marry him—that everyone realized the Su family had made money selling cold skin noodles from a stall.
Ever since then, she had been hoping to "run into" Gu Jiaojiao on the street, thinking that if she did, Gu Jiaojiao would give her some benefits. Unfortunately, she never had the chance.
"Hello, Aunt Sheng," Gu Jiaojiao said dryly.
"Jiaojiao, why are you being so distant! Calling me Aunt Sheng... I’m your real aunt!"
"My real aunt? I’m surprised you haven’t read the papers. Mr. Sheng took out an ad to disown me a long time ago."
Gu Jiaojiao said calmly. Just from the way this Aunt Sheng had spoken to Dong Qiming and his sister, Gu Jiaojiao already disliked the woman.
You could tell at a glance that she was the type who loved to stir up trouble.
Aunt Sheng was in her forties, but because she hadn’t done manual labor for years, her fair skin made her look like she was in her thirties.
But faint crow’s feet marked the corners of her eyes. Her thick, glossy black hair was cut short and was still just as dark.
Although she had monolids, her eyes were elegant and bright. The small lips under her high-bridged nose showed a spark of vitality.
This was the first time Gu Jiaojiao herself had met this Aunt Sheng, but the memories of her from the original owner of the body were deeply ingrained.
She was not an easy person to get along with. Despite her smiling face, her words were laced with little traps.
One careless misstep and you’d set one off. Even the original owner, a young girl, could see that Aunt Sheng was not at all easy to deal with.
In her memories, before Sheng Yueyue returned to the Sheng Family, this aunt had been gentle and approachable, and had treated her very well.
After Sheng Yueyue returned to the Sheng Family, because she was the true heiress and acted so well-behaved and sensible, Aunt Sheng began to give Gu Jiaojiao the cold shoulder.
Her conversations were full of traps, causing the original owner to make a fool of herself many times.
Analyzing it as an outsider, Gu Jiaojiao concluded that Aunt Sheng was simply jealous of how much the four men of the Sheng family doted on Gu Jiaojiao.
Meanwhile, she also had a daughter but didn’t receive the same level of affection from Mr. Sheng, which was why she resented Gu Jiaojiao.
At that time, the two Sheng brothers had already split their households, and Mr. Sheng lived with the elder brother’s family, so Aunt Sheng couldn’t voice her complaints openly.
Later, when she found out Gu Jiaojiao was just an adopted daughter, Aunt Sheng started kicking her while she was down, secretly bad-mouthing Gu Jiaojiao.
Gu Jiaojiao remembered that the rumor going around the compound about the original owner being infertile was started by this very Aunt Sheng, who heard it from Sheng Yueyue and then spread it everywhere.
There was no need to be pleasant to someone like that.
Seeing Gu Jiaojiao’s lukewarm attitude, Aunt Sheng found it boring, said a quick goodbye, and left.
She didn’t think Gu Jiaojiao had changed; she just concluded that the rumors were unreliable and the Su family were just a bunch of paupers after all.
In the home of the Su family, whom Aunt Sheng had just dismissed as paupers, the table was already laden with a grand feast.
There was a large basin of pork rib and winter melon soup, a big plate of caramelized sweet potatoes, and a bowl of corn and pork meatballs. The meatballs didn’t have much meat, but the addition of corn kernels made them refreshingly crisp.
There was also a bowl of steamed eggs, a plate of home-style tofu, a dish of green beans and eggplant, and a side of cold-tossed cucumber.
Gu Jiaojiao wheeled Su Shuochi home and saw the table full of food. "Wow, Su Mama, all the dishes you made today are so light and refreshing!"
"The weather is getting hotter and hotter, so it’s good to eat a little lighter," Grandpa Gu said cheerfully.
His good friends from the Imperial City had all left, and Grandpa Gu was feeling a bit sad about their departure.
Now, the Su and Gu families fit perfectly around one table. Grandpa Gu, who had been feeling a bit wistful, was soon captivated by the delicious food.
The corn in the meatballs added a touch of sweetness, and the caramelized sweet potatoes were fragrant and crisp without being greasy at all.
The eggs were so tender you could swallow your tongue, the home-style tofu was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and even the simple cold-tossed cucumber was delicious.
Gu Jiaojiao deliberately livened up the atmosphere, and everyone ate and chatted in harmony.
At the Sheng Family home, the last two days had also been relatively peaceful. Sheng Yueyue had stopped causing trouble.
After seeing off the big shots from the Imperial City, Mr. Sheng had time to come home for lunch today.
Sheng Yueyue had been infuriated by Gu Jiaojiao at school and came home wanting to cry to her mother about it.
But seeing her mother was in a bad mood, she asked and found out that her mother was blaming herself for the divorce of the second couple of the Dong Family.
Although Sheng Yueyue looked down on her mother for feeling this way, she didn’t dare tell her about being bullied by Gu Jiaojiao.
She didn’t realize at all that Aunt Dong had divorced because of her instigation.
Or perhaps Sheng Yueyue knew but simply didn’t care about others. During the meal, she even acted especially well-behaved and put a piece of food on her mother’s plate with her chopsticks.
Although it wasn’t a dish Mrs. Sheng particularly liked, the gesture still made her feel very gratified.
Mrs. Sheng had originally planned to give her daughter a stern lecture after the meal.
But seeing her daughter being so sensible and well-behaved, Mrs. Sheng, just as she always did, decided not to dwell on her daughter’s thoughtless actions.
She could only console herself. ’I’ll let it go, seeing as she’s trying to turn over a new leaf.’
’No matter what, Yueyue is my own flesh and blood. I’ll have to tell Old Sheng not to be so hard on her later.’
Mr. Sheng and Sheng Shiwen also noticed Sheng Yueyue’s behavior and were somewhat surprised by her actions.
After all, during previous meals, she would just focus on gobbling down her food, never giving a thought to her mother.