Chapter 494: Chapter 494: No Corner That Can’t Be Dug Out
Eldest Brother Gu took the thirty cents in change from the vendor with one hand, holding a paper bag of sunflower seeds in the other.
The late autumn wind brushed against his face. He couldn’t tell if the wind itself was bitter, but his heart was filled with a bitter sorrow.
When he looked up again, Sheng Yueyue and Second Brother Sheng were nowhere to be seen. They must have already bought their tickets and gone inside.
Eldest Brother Gu walked to the ticket booth and asked about the movie. It was a new release, and a ticket cost sixteen cents.
He flinched at the price, reluctant to buy a ticket. But then he looked at the sunflower seeds he was already holding. ’I might as well grit my teeth and buy it,’ he thought.
He recalled Sheng Yueyue’s sweet smile as she linked arms with her brother. ’So she isn’t just some arrogant girl who doesn’t know how to win people over.’
It was just that the person she wanted to win over wasn’t him.
Eldest Brother Gu couldn’t quite put a name to the feeling in his heart, only that it was a deep, bitter sorrow.
’If she can put so much effort into pleasing someone, why can’t that person be me?’
For her, he had given up a good job in the Imperial City and traveled a thousand miles to Qing City.
He had given up a position of power to save her, willingly becoming a mere prison guard. He had even worn his work uniform all over town for her sake.
"Comrade, are you buying a ticket or not? If you’re not, please step aside. Everyone in line is waiting for you!"
The girl selling tickets wrinkled her nose as she spoke, a flash of disdain and disgust in her eyes.
At first, she had thought the man was quite handsome. He was even holding a bag of sunflower seeds, and he didn’t seem to have a date with him.
’Who would have thought he’d hesitate so long over sixteen cents? What a waste of a handsome face. All polish on the outside, but miserably poor underneath.’
’And to think my heart had even skipped a beat when I first saw him.’
"Hey, comrade up front, please move aside. Miss, I’d like to buy five seats in a row. Are there any available?"
"Yes, we have them!" the ticket girl said. Then, glaring sideways at Eldest Brother Gu, she added dismissively, "You, go stand over there and think about it."
She didn’t deign to give the poor sap another direct look. If it weren’t for the long line behind him, she would have shouted at him.
"One ticket for a front-row seat, please. Thank you," Eldest Brother Gu said at once, his tone polite.
His face was a little pale, but he maintained a gentle smile.
This smile, however, only made the ticket seller more contemptuous. The girl assumed Eldest Brother Gu was trying to curry favor with her.
’Hmph!’ The girl snorted inwardly. ’A pauper like him trying to sweet-talk me!’
"There are no more front-row tickets," she said. ’Even if there were, I wouldn’t sell them to you.’
"Then any seat is fine," Eldest Brother Gu said, quickly handing her twenty cents.
He knew he couldn’t be picky anymore, or he wouldn’t get a ticket at all. Eldest Brother Gu might be stubborn, but he wasn’t a fool.
The ticket girl wanted to tell him they were sold out, but there was still a long line of people waiting to buy tickets.
"Here’s your ticket, and here’s your four cents," she grumbled. "Honestly, buying a ticket without bringing exact change."
The ticket girl muttered and cursed under her breath, rolling her eyes so far back they nearly reached the heavens.
She slammed the movie ticket and the change onto the counter. Thankfully, paper bills were more common than coins in those days, otherwise the money would have scattered across the floor.
Eldest Brother Gu snatched the ticket and the four cents, then walked away from the ticket booth in disgrace, heading for the entrance.
All he had left to his name was fourteen cents. He carefully smoothed out the bills, folded them neatly, and tucked them into his pocket.
"What are you doing, Comrade?" a woman’s sharp voice snapped, followed by the snide remark, "Even a dog knows not to block the path."
Eldest Brother Gu turned his head. His eyes widened with shock and confusion as he looked at the woman. "Auntie?"
"Who are you? Don’t call me Auntie. I don’t know you. Coming to a movie in your work uniform... Are you afraid people *won’t* know you guard prisoners?
"What’s so great about guarding prisoners? And you have the nerve to claim we’re related? What rotten luck."
As Dong Yuanyuan spoke, she waved her hand in front of her face as if shooing away a bad smell. Her disgust was plain to see.
As her husband walked past Eldest Brother Gu, he shot him a fierce, warning glare.
’I’m so useless,’ he thought suddenly. ’Ever since I left Grandpa and my parents, no one has ever cared for me or treated me with kindness.’
Back when his family was raising pigs on the farm, they would often laugh with joy.
When his mom laughed, his dad would laugh with her, and then he and his siblings would join in.
Back then, life was bitter and exhausting, but they weren’t afraid, because their family was whole and together.
’When did I become such a worthless loser that everyone despises?’
’If I hadn’t chosen to come to Qing City, I wouldn’t be running around in this uniform, and my own aunt wouldn’t be refusing to acknowledge me.’
’I certainly wouldn’t be worrying about buying an autumn shirt!’
In truth, he didn’t ask for much. He just wanted his family to be whole and together. That’s why he’d come to Qing City without a second thought.
He had wanted to do everything in his power to reform his adopted sister and bring her to the Imperial City. Then, their family would be even more perfect.
It was only now that he understood. His grandfather had been right. His adopted sister was an ungrateful wolf that could never be tamed.
’She doesn’t see us as family anymore. No amount of money will ever change her.’
’Since I can’t change her, is there any reason for me to keep rushing to give her my entire salary?’
As Eldest Brother Gu mulled over these thoughts, his eyes gradually turned crimson, and his body began to tremble with uncontrollable rage.
His hands clenched into tight fists, veins bulging on their backs.
He seethed with hatred.
Such bitter hatred.
He entered the theater with a storm of emotions raging inside him. Just as he’d expected, his seat was in a remote corner with a terrible view of the screen. ’These people are going too far! They’re just bullying me!’
He had always been at the top of his class. The pigs he raised were the fattest on the farm. When he grew up and went to the battlefield, he was always the one charging bravely at the very front.
’Who would have thought I’d end up in a state like this!’
In the vast, fleeting world, people rush about in a chaotic chase, their years slipping by.
His grandfather is still a top professor at Imperial University. His father is an excellent professor of Chinese literature. And he... he was a disgrace to them all!
He glanced around the theater. And what a sight. Sheng Yueyue was staring straight at his aunt’s husband!
Sheng Yueyue was, in fact, trying to seduce He Aiguo. He was her older brother-in-law in her past life, a man who had cherished his wife as his own life.
Even when his wife couldn’t give him a son, he had always doted on Dong Yuanyuan, holding her in the palm of his hand.
But to her, he had been the cruelest of all. Not only did he steal her son, but he also convinced her husband to divorce her.
If she hadn’t seen them in the theater, Sheng Yueyue would have almost forgotten they existed.
The man truly doted on his wife.
In her past life, she’d often seen him coddling his wife and daughter. But this was the first time she had ever seen him so attentively coaxing his wife to eat sunflower seeds.
In that instant, Sheng Yueyue’s heart filled with a boiling rage and uncontrollable jealousy.
’If I had a knife in my hand right now, I would charge over and plunge it deep into Dong Yuanyuan’s heart.’
’But I was almost sent to a labor camp for hitting that wicked mother-in-law last time.’
’I can’t be so impulsive. I have to steal this man. I will make Dong Yuanyuan suffer for the rest of her life.’
’Previously, I was planning to wait until after I married He Aijun to start tormenting Dong Yuanyuan.’
Sheng Yueyue firmly believed that as long as one swung their shovel well enough, no man was truly off-limits.
