Chapter 332: Chapter 332: Unknown Origin
"I was just saying, I hear a dog barking outside my dad’s house," Gu Jiaojiao said, raising an eyebrow at Auntie Gu.
’Since this auntie dares to mock my husband, why should I be polite to her?’
"You... you dare to curse me out in the middle of the street?" Auntie Gu shrieked, her finger trembling as she pointed at Gu Jiaojiao.
Before, she wasn’t sure if this niece from the countryside was insulting her, but now she had heard it loud and clear.
She couldn’t believe this country girl was so bold as to curse her out indirectly.
She was so angry she wanted to rush over and hit her. How could she tolerate a country girl being so insolent in front of her!
"Ma’am, I didn’t name any names. Are you that eager to jump up and admit you’re the dog?"
"I’ll beat you to death, you country brat! Do you have any idea who I am?" Auntie Gu rolled up her sleeves and charged at Gu Jiaojiao.
Before she could even get close, Gu Jiaojiao swept her legs out from under her, sending the plump Auntie Gu to the ground.
"OWWW, IT HURTS! EVERYONE, COME LOOK! A NIECE IS TRYING TO BEAT HER AUNT TO DEATH! IS THERE NO JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD?"
Auntie Gu writhed on the ground, crying her eyes out. It genuinely hurt; she wasn’t faking it.
Gu Jiaojiao took a step forward, stood over Auntie Gu, and scoffed in disdain.
"All we wanted to do was go inside, but you ran over to harass us for no reason, calling us ’country folk’ over and over."
"And now you’re lying on the ground trying to extort us country folk? What, when God was handing out decency, did he happen to be holding an umbrella just for you, leaving you completely shameless?"
The onlookers: ...
Just then, Second Uncle Gu came out after hearing the commotion. "What is all this nonsense? Get inside."
The warning from his older brother and sister-in-law last night was still fresh in his mind. More importantly, he had seen her enter that military compound today.
Second Uncle Gu was now even more afraid to offend his niece. He was just realizing that his father and older brother weren’t the ones to be feared.
It was the young man in the wheelchair who was the formidable one. Rumor had it he held a high position at a young age.
He tried to pull his wife up from the ground and head inside. "Qiuyue, you’re an elder. Why are you bickering with the younger generation? Let’s just go home and eat."
"Chengmin, are you crazy? Do you hear yourself? Look at the ’fine’ daughter your older brother raised."
"Are you going to keep indulging her? After she treated your family like this, you’re still going to spoil her?"
Second Uncle Gu grabbed Auntie Gu’s wrist. "Shut your mouth and let’s go home."
"Why should I shut my mouth? I was just telling the truth! A country bumpkin with no manners. As her aunt, don’t I have the right to say something about it?"
Auntie Gu was about to explode. She tried to wrench her hand free from her husband’s grasp to go hit Gu Jiaojiao.
He desperately held her back and turned to Gu Jiaojiao with an appeasing look. "Jiaojiao, your uncle apologizes. Please don’t stoop to your aunt’s level."
Second Uncle Gu was getting a headache. His wife had been spoiled rotten by her brothers in the Lin Family.
She had been arrogant and domineering since she was a child, never willing to be on the losing end of anything. This time, she probably wanted to bully her niece from the countryside again.
But this niece wasn’t so easy to bully. ’If it had been anyone else, I would have gone up and slapped them a few times myself!’
"I just glanced at her from the doorway and she started cursing me out. Country folk really have no manners. Was I wrong to kindly try and teach her some?"
As Auntie Gu spoke, her eyes reddened and she looked quite wronged, but she wasn’t being as insolent as before.
She knew her husband well. If that cripple didn’t have some hidden, powerful background, he would never have tried to smooth things over.
Gu Jiaojiao saw that this so-called uncle of hers knew how to read the room. She was secretly delighted to see the shrew who had been so arrogant just a moment ago instantly turn into a docile wife.
But on the surface, she put on the face of a victim. "Second Uncle, you’d better hurry up and drag this shrew back inside."
With that, she turned and continued pushing the wheelchair toward the main gate. The setting sun stretched their shadows long behind them.
Watching Gu Jiaojiao’s departing figure, Second Uncle Gu sighed. "Qiuyue, you’ve really suffered by marrying me!"
His wife had always been stubborn and willful, doted on by Lin Jiao her whole life. She had never known hardship.
Hearing her husband say this, Auntie Gu was so stunned she froze in place. She stomped her foot and went inside the house.
The onlookers hadn’t even figured out what was going on before the parties involved dispersed. They could only shake their heads and leave.
The moment Auntie Gu got inside, she demanded fiercely, "Chengmin, why are you so afraid of a little girl from the countryside?"
"You think I don’t want to beat her? Her disabled husband is no simple character. I even saw her go into that compound today."
After returning to their room, Second Uncle Gu’s face immediately turned sinister. He slammed his hand on the table and said through gritted teeth.
"What? That disabled man has such a powerful background? How did that country girl get so lucky?"
Auntie Gu joined in with a vicious curse. ’That explains it,’ she thought, ’why my husband suddenly stopped taking my side.’
"Qiuyue, don’t be angry. It’s bad for your health. Let’s investigate a little more clearly first. We shouldn’t rush into offending them."
"Dad, Mom, what’s wrong?" Gu Hehua asked as she came in from outside, seeing her parents’ worried expressions.
"It’s nothing major. It’s just that the disabled son-in-law from your uncle’s family might have a powerful background." Auntie Gu doted on her children, granting their every wish.
Her maiden family was the Lin Family. While not top-tier among the Imperial City’s elite, they were still much stronger than the Gu Family.
"Didn’t Dad already say so? With how poor and old-fashioned my uncle is, there’s no way he could afford to buy our Gu Family’s old house. It must be because of his son-in-law."
Gu Hehua said dismissively. She had previously schemed that when her cousin’s husband came to her uncle’s house, she would find a way to steal him for herself.
Who would have thought her cousin’s husband would turn out to be a cripple in a wheelchair? She was so disappointed, which was why she had joined her mother in provoking them that day.
"Right, right, our darling daughter is so sensible. Not like that country girl who has no manners at all. I’ll go back to my family’s home tomorrow and have a word with my brothers."
Auntie Gu was the type to run to her brothers whenever she had a problem, but when things were fine, her husband Chengmin was the greatest man in the world.
"Alright, Xiao Wang, hurry up and serve the food. My wife and daughter are hungry."
Second Uncle Gu shed his malevolent aura and once again transformed into a doting husband, smiling as he ordered the young maid to serve dinner.
As soon as Gu Jiaojiao pushed Su Shuochi into the house, Mr. Gu came out to greet them. "Shuo Ci, Jiaojiao, you were gone all day! You didn’t even come back for lunch."
"Grandpa, we went to look at a house. We’ve already bought it and the transfer paperwork is done. We can move in tomorrow."
Su Shuochi quickly jumped in to say. He wished they could move in today.
"Shuo Ci, why the rush? Are you not comfortable staying here?" Mr. Gu asked, completely surprised.
"Dad, you’re overthinking it. The house was picked out a long time ago. We already said we would be living separately,"
Gu Jiaojiao said with a smile. The house had indeed been chosen for them by Geng Haoyi a while ago.
"Jiaojiao, you must be hungry. Let’s eat first," Mrs. Gu said, carrying out the last dish.
