Chapter 99: Planting Thorns
After carefully reviewing the settlement agreement one more time and finding no issues, Lin Kangshun folded it, put it away, and finally allowed a hint of a smile to show. He said to Gu Wu, "Since you’re being so straightforward, my friend, I don’t mind giving you one more big gift. Seeing as my daughter-in-law has already secretly borne your eldest son a grandson and a granddaughter, I’ll be generous and let her divorce my son. Then she can bring the children and marry right into your family. It’ll be a good chance for the children to acknowledge their ancestors and become proper, legitimate descendants of the Gu Family."
"Like we need you to be generous? Isn’t that the logical next step anyway?" Chen Suxiang, who hadn’t received any money, was extremely resentful and couldn’t help but interject. Even Gu Lihui, standing beside her, didn’t think his mother had said anything wrong. A smug smile appeared on his face, but since it was covered with gauze bandages, others could only see the self-satisfaction in his eyes.
The sight was an absolute eyesore to Lin Kangshun and Yu Xiuying, making them want to shatter his smugness.
"The logical next step?" Yu Xiuying shot a contemptuous look at Gu Lihui’s self-satisfied eyes. If she could, she would have loved to take a real knife and flay him alive.
But even if she couldn’t do that, she could still stab a few bloodless knives into his heart and plant a few thorns to make his future unbearable. She pointed at Gu Lihui and sneered, "You people really have no self-awareness at all. If we weren’t pressuring her from behind and having her family keep a tight watch on her, do you really think my ’dear daughter-in-law,’ who only likes pretty boys, would still give him a second look with that monstrous face of his? It’s more likely she would have already run off with some better-looking boy toy by now. HA HA, don’t blame me for not reminding you, but you’d better keep a close eye on a fickle woman like that in the future. Otherwise, who knows? Maybe one day after she marries into your family, her belly will start to swell again, and it’ll be hard to say if the child inside is even from your Gu family’s bloodline."
The self-satisfaction in Gu Lihui’s eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by a thick mixture of hatred, fear, inferiority, and worry... Hearing her words, his first instinct was to lash out at Yu Xiuying, maybe even physically. Ever since he had laid hands on his sister and his mother, he had grown to like the feeling—that rush of instantly venting all his negative emotions, a high that made him, for a moment, forget all the misfortune that had befallen him...
Unfortunately, he couldn’t just hit anyone he wanted. For instance, he didn’t dare lay a hand on Jia Ren’s mother-in-law standing before him. Not to mention, Lin Kangshun, standing beside her, looked like someone not to be trifled with. As long as she held a trump card against him, he wouldn’t have the guts to raise a hand.
Despicable--
The two words this foul hag used—"monstrous face"—stirred the deep-seated inferiority in his bones. Back home, he had secretly taken off his bandages to look in the mirror. At the time, he had been so frightened he’d smashed the mirror on the spot. The thought that his face could now only be described by those two words made him gnash his teeth.
He had no choice but to believe what the hag said about Tao Jianren no longer wanting to marry him. If Tao Jianren wasn’t so "fickle," how could she have thrown herself into his arms the moment he made a move on her, even daring to secretly have two children with him? And in the future--
Gu Lihui’s eyes narrowed. He deeply agreed with the idea that he would have to keep a close watch on Tao Jianren in the future. Zhang Minzhen was definitely going to leave him now. If Tao Jianren also refused to marry him, what would he do? No wife, no children—was he supposed to end up all alone?
’With the way I look now, and with my money having mysteriously disappeared, who would be willing to marry me and take care of me in the future?’ Thinking of money, Gu Lihui then remembered that no one from the newspaper’s union had organized a visit to see him yet, and a sense of foreboding flashed through his mind.
"Isn’t it your son’s fault that my son is like this?" Chen Suxiang jumped in indignantly.
"He brought it on himself. My only regret is that my son didn’t bring enough acid. Since he was going to throw it anyway, it would have been so much better if he’d gotten the other half of his face too. Then at least it would be symmetrical." Yu Xiuying sneered, completely dismissing Chen Suxiang.
"You, you..." Chen Suxiang’s face flushed and her neck swelled with rage, but there was nothing she could do about Yu Xiuying. So, she redirected her intense resentment toward Tao Jianren, who had yet to even marry into their family. ’If it weren’t for that woman, why would my eldest son have had to suffer this humiliation today?’
’Yes, it’s all that woman’s fault. It was clearly she who seduced my son in the first place. Then, when the affair was exposed, her husband actually took his anger out on my precious son, bringing this unmitigated disaster upon him...’
The more Chen Suxiang thought about it, the more right she felt. After the Lin family had left, she couldn’t resist pulling Gu Lihui aside and muttering, "Li Hui, think about it. If Tao Jianren hadn’t said it herself, how could that Lin fellow have possibly known you were the real father of Jia Bao and Jia Yi? If he hadn’t known, he never would have come looking for you and left you in this state, neither human nor ghost. That’s why I think that woman, Tao Jianren, is the truly vicious one here. She brought this trouble right to your doorstep."
The more she spoke, the more worked up Chen Suxiang became. "Now, we have no choice but to let her marry in for the sake of those two children, but that woman from the Lin family was right. You have to be careful with her from now on and keep her on a tight leash. How humiliating would it be if she cuckolds you in the future, making you raise a child for her that isn’t even yours?"
"No, if you ask me, after you two get married, you shouldn’t let her go out to work anymore. It’s better to have her stay home, help me with the housework, and learn how to properly serve you. That’s what really matters. Your mother may love money, but I still think that no matter what, we’d be a hundred times better off without her salary than we would be unknowingly raising someone else’s child."
"Stop talking."
Chen Suxiang’s words had pushed Gu Lihui to the peak of his humiliation, and he roared at her, startling her into silence. Gu Wu shot a thoughtful glance at the mother and son, then walked away, deciding it was better not to watch.
Gu Lihui’s face was grim, and he remained silent for a long time. Just as Chen Suxiang was about to think he disagreed with what she’d said, she saw him give a heavy nod.
"It’s good that you agree." Chen Suxiang was completely delighted, and she began to fantasize about the good days ahead when she would once again have a daughter-in-law to order around.
’Her children didn’t know that she was no longer in charge of the household. So naturally, they also didn’t know that she no longer had any right to touch her daughter-in-law’s salary. To her, it was far more practical to have an extra pair of hands to help with chores than to let that old bastard Gu Wu get his hands on the wages.’
’Her eldest son was now clearly on his guard against Tao Jianren,’ she thought to herself. ’This is very good. In the future, I’ll have to keep ’enlightening’ him from time to time, to prevent Tao Jianren from using her good looks to win his heart over again. My second son is already completely devoted to his wife. If my eldest becomes like that too, what hope will I have left in life?’
Having made up her mind, Chen Suxiang began to rack her brains, brainwashing Gu Lihui at every opportunity. As it turned out, repeating the same thing over and over was incredibly effective. The thorns that Yu Xiuying had planted had already made Gu Lihui suspicious of Tao Jianren, and he was beginning to feel all sorts of unease toward her. Now, he was no match for Chen Suxiang’s relentless brainwashing, and gradually, what had started as mere suspicion began to solidify in his mind as the so-called truth.
This directly led to Gu Lihui losing all sense of anticipation for a future with Tao Jianren. He only felt that their union was like another shackle, binding him tightly—a restraint that was even more intolerable than his time with Zhang Minzhen had been.
Of course, that is all a story for later.