Chapter 199: A Villain to the Bone
It wasn’t Mrs. Gu’s first time in a car, but it was the first time she was in one driven by her daughter.
She rested her hands on the window, watching the trees recede along the roadside.
Her heart was fluttering with a mix of excitement and anxiety.
Eldest Brother Gu didn’t know how to drive. He sat in the middle of the back seat, watching his biological sister drive with practiced ease.
She wore a blue floral dress and a pair of oversized sunglasses, her long hair draped over her shoulders. She looked effortlessly cool.
She would occasionally glance over at her husband, and he would watch her with a faint smile, his eyes full of deep affection.
Eldest Brother Gu asked enviously, "Jiaojiao, when did you learn to drive?"
"A little over a year ago. The eldest brother of the Sheng Family taught me. I mastered the skills long ago, I just never had a car to practice with."
Gu Jiaojiao sat in the driver’s seat, skillfully handling the steering wheel as she spoke to Eldest Brother Gu behind her.
She was just looking for an excuse to make her mom and brother trust her, but Eldest Brother Gu read too much into it.
’So Jiaojiao’s adoptive older brother treated her this well? He doted on her so much, even teaching her to drive at such a young age.’
’No wonder Sheng Yueyue refuses to acknowledge us. For the past ten years, we couldn’t even get enough to eat, let alone provide a high-quality life.’
’If our family hadn’t fallen on such hard times, would Sheng Yueyue still have refused to acknowledge us?’
’We can only blame our family’s bad luck for making Sheng Yueyue suffer so much!’
Gu Jiaojiao could only see that her mom and brother were anxious, so she drove very smoothly.
What she didn’t realize was that her brother was once again blaming himself. If she had known about his self-reproach,
’She would have slammed the accelerator to the floor and shaken him up so badly he’d feel sick, just to snap him out of it.’
However, there were few cars on the road in those days, and the newly paved surface was very smooth, so the ride wouldn’t have been bumpy no matter how fast she went.
"Jiaojiao, you’re a very good driver. It’s not bumpy at all," Mrs. Gu said sincerely.
"Jiaojiao is being considerate since it’s the first time you two are riding in a car she’s driving, so she’s going a bit slower."
Mr. Gu said with a broad smile, remembering the time his daughter had raced against Sheng Shijing.
"Jiaojiao, don’t worry about us. Mom isn’t scared. You can drive as fast as you like."
Mrs. Gu said gratefully. Her own mother had passed away when she was still a young girl. As the eldest daughter of the Dong Family, she not only had to rely on herself but also had to take care of her two younger brothers.
After getting married, she became pregnant with her eldest son. Since her mother-in-law had also passed away young, she had to work while taking care of her child.
Fortunately, the Gu Family was very well-off and had hired a nanny to cook and care for the children, so her life wasn’t too hard.
She had always felt very lucky, because her husband was very good to her and the children.
Later, when she was giving birth to her third child, her stepmother, wanting to put on a good show for her father, insisted on coming to the hospital to care for her.
She had been quite touched at the time. Who would have known that venomous woman was harboring malicious intentions and would swap her biological daughter?
Her wicked stepmother knew just how well their family was living back when her daughter was born.
Ever since she learned her daughter had been swapped, Mrs. Gu, who was normally very good-tempered, almost fainted from rage.
She was a gentle person, but that didn’t mean she could accept the fact that her daughter had been taken from her.
So, the moment she heard the news, Mrs. Gu’s heart clenched in anguish.
Especially when her own brother told her that her daughter was always being unreasonable and incorrigible, Mrs. Gu felt a towering rage that made her want to destroy the world.
Thankfully, her father-in-law had acted decisively and rushed here overnight, just to determine the truth of the matter.
She never would have dreamed that her adopted daughter would disown them, and that her stepmother would also drive her away.
Meanwhile, her biological daughter had been forced to marry at such a young age, and to a disabled man at that.
She hated that she had been on the verge of death at the time, her heart filled with guilt and anguish, yet utterly powerless.
She couldn’t do anything to anyone and had to burden her daughter and son-in-law. Her whole family of invalids was living in her son-in-law’s home.
This disabled son-in-law had become the Gu Family’s only support. In the time she had spent with her daughter,
she found that her own daughter was not only well-mannered and knowledgeable but also incredibly capable. How could she possibly be the unreasonable person others described!
Her daughter was meant to be just like her husband—radiant, beautiful, and noble.
Seeing her daughter so outstanding, her heart swelled with gratification and gratitude, but her conscience was clear.
Because their family had never mistreated their adopted daughter, scenes of the girl acting cute and spoiled by their side often flashed through Mrs. Gu’s mind.
’How wonderful it would have been if those had been moments with my biological daughter.’ Every time she thought of it, her heart ached unbearably.
But she couldn’t stop those images from lingering in her mind. Even though their family was now feeding pigs on a farm,
they had truly never mistreated Sheng Yueyue. Whenever they had even the slightest bit of good food, they gave it all to her.
They even gave the only opportunity for an education to their adopted daughter. Her own son, Jingtai, didn’t live half as well as Sheng Yueyue had.
But she never could have imagined that the adopted daughter she once doted on the most would turn out to be an unscrupulous, vicious, and sinister villain.
"Mom, why are you crying?" Gu Jiaojiao asked, seeing her mother’s tear-streaked face in the rearview mirror.
Her daughter’s words shattered Mrs. Gu’s train of thought. She looked at her daughter, her eyes red.
"Mom is just so moved, I couldn’t help crying. Jiaojiao, you and Shuo Ci must be happy forever."
Gu Jiaojiao said with a grin, "Of course we will. We’ll definitely be happy. Dad, Mom, you two have to be happy too."
Mrs. Gu wiped the tears from her eyes. "Don’t worry, Jiaojiao. Your dad, mom, and the whole family are benefiting from your and Shuo Ci’s good fortune. How could we not be happy?"
"I used to think that in this life, you can’t rely on anyone. But we have to admit one fact.
Ultimately, people do need to rely on others a little. For example, Jiaojiao and Shuo Ci are our support. Without you, we might have..."
"Dad, you’re overthinking things. Even if you hadn’t met us, you still have the Organization and your work unit. You wouldn’t have had it too bad."
Su Shuochi spoke up to comfort them, worried that his in-laws’ emotions would affect his wife’s driving.
"Without Jiaojiao’s medical skills, the grass on Jinghua’s and your grandfather’s graves would be waist-high by now. Money would have been useless! Jiaojiao, your father is truly grateful to you."
’Mr. Gu is so clear-headed,’ Gu Jiaojiao mused. That was indeed the truth, but she still said humbly,
"Dad, Mom, this is our fate. Heaven destined us to be family, and family members don’t need to stand on ceremony with each other.
Just relax. Don’t be so formal with your daughter and son-in-law. It’s perfectly normal to rely on your daughter and son-in-law’s help sometimes.
Leveraging our assistance—your son-in-law’s insights, experience, wisdom, and so on—can help you get through these difficult times.
The reason the ancients said you can’t rely on others is that some people think only of blindly depending on others."
"Jiaojiao makes a lot of sense. She’s even more impressive than your grandfather and your father.
That ungrateful wolf Sheng Yueyue received over a decade of education from your grandfather and father, and in the end, she’s still a villain. She’s rotten to the core."
Mrs. Gu said matter-of-factly.