Chapter 223: Wang Chunmei Gave the Money for the Division of the Family to her Parents
The dinner was filled with laughter and lively conversation, but Sheng Wanyan couldn’t shake the feeling that Wang Chunmei was harboring a hidden agenda, just waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Gu Tingxiao caught her eye and gave her a reassuring look. Wanyan smiled back gently, lowered her head, and continued eating.
Once dinner concluded, everyone gathered in the spacious living room to chat. Wanyan took this opportunity to bring out the gifts she had thoughtfully prepared for the family.
For the children, she handed out sets of high-quality sketchbooks and paintbrushes, while the elders received warm winter gloves and hand-knit scarves. When it came to her peers, she presented the eldest sister-in-law, Liang Zhenna, with a stunning, vibrant red woolen scarf. Wang Chunmei’s eyes instantly lit up with greed at the sight of it.
She leaned forward expectantly, waiting to see what luxurious item Wanyan had brought for her. Instead, Wanyan reached into her bag and handed her a simple, standard jar of cold cream.
Wang Chunmei’s face instantly paled with displeasure. How dare she give the eldest sister-in-law such a beautiful, expensive scarf while tossing her nothing but a cheap jar of vanishing cream?
“Third Sister-in-law is truly generous,” Wang Chunmei said, her voice dripping with thin sarcasm. “Eldest Sister-in-law’s scarf is absolutely beautiful.”
Hearing the blatant passive-aggressiveness, Liang Zhenna opened her mouth to intervene, but Wanyan beat her to it. She simply offered a sweet, effortless smile.
“When I got married, Eldest Sister-in-law gifted me a beautiful red dress, which was incredibly precious,” Wanyan explained smoothly. “Naturally, I had to reciprocate her kindness. As for you, Fourth Sister-in-law, I assumed this cold cream would be right up your alley. After all, didn’t you gift me a jar of vanishing cream for my wedding?”
She paused, her smile widening. “You should definitely use it right after your bath tonight. The winter weather is brutal, and your skin will dry out easily if you don’t take care of it.”
Two could play at the sarcasm game, and Wanyan was a woman who kept a very meticulous ledger of past offenses.
Sure enough, the moment the fourth brother, Gu Tinghao, heard that his wife had gifted their new sister-in-law a cheap jar of cream at her wedding, his expression turned incredibly dark.
He whipped his head around to stare at his wife. Didn’t she explicitly tell him at the time that she had purchased a fine pair of leather shoes as their wedding gift? He had personally given her the money to buy them! If Wanyan had only received a jar of cream, then where on earth did the shoe money go?
The temperature in the living room plummeted as Gu Tinghao’s aura turned fiercely cold. Wang Chunmei hadn’t anticipated that Wanyan would air her dirty laundry so casually in front of the entire household.
Panic seized her. She looked around the room, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs as she met the dark, thunderous expressions of her husband, Father Gu, Mother Gu, and the old general himself.
For a daughter-in-law raised in their elite military circles to flout basic family etiquette so egregiously was utterly humiliating. Gifting a cheap jar of cream to a new bride in the family was an insult. If she had been an uneducated outsider who knew nothing of the world, it might be excused as ignorance, but she had grown up surrounded by privilege! She was a daughter-in-law of the prominent Gu family and the granddaughter-in-law of General Gu himself!
Furthermore, this wasn’t an external social obligation; this was a gift for her own family. When she attended weddings outside their circle, she undoubtedly spent lavishly to maintain appearances. Forcing a cheap jar of cream onto Wanyan was a deliberate, public display of disrespect.
The senior members of the Gu family had been entirely in the dark about this petty slight. Mother Gu’s face, in particular, looked as black as a thundercloud.
“You told me you were buying Third Sister-in-law a pair of leather shoes,” Gu Tinghao hissed, staring directly at his wife. “Where is the money if she never received them?”
Wang Chunmei bit her lower lip so hard it lost its color, lowering her head as she trembled. “I… I…”
She stammered, entirely unable to manufacture a coherent lie. Seeing her frantic guilt, Gu Tinghao knew instantly that the funds had been funneled straight back to her maiden home.
“Hand over all the money we keep in our quarters,” he commanded coldly. “Every single yuan.”
“No!” Wang Chunmei shrieked, her defensive instincts flaring instantly.
Gu Tinghao’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Exactly how much money do we have left?”
“The money from the family division… it’s all safe…”
Gu Tinghao no longer believed a single syllable filtering through her lips. Her erratic, terrified expression made it blindingly obvious she was spinning a web of lies. “Fine. I will personally audit our room the moment we go upstairs.”
Wang Chunmei felt a wave of icy despair wash over her. If he checked their room, how on earth was she supposed to conjure up the massive sum she had secretly given away? “That… that really isn’t necessary! The money is perfectly accounted for. Besides, I deposited the entirety of our savings into a secure bank account for safekeeping.”
“Then bring me the passbook tomorrow morning!” Mother Gu barked, cutting into the argument.
Wanyan watched the domestic drama unfold in silence, thoroughly surprised by the twist. While a quality pair of leather shoes wasn’t an exorbitant luxury—the premium pairs maxed out at around eight yuan—Wang Chunmei had actively chosen to pocket the money, and now the tracking of their entire household wealth was called into question.
No self-respecting man could tolerate a wife who, after marriage, continuously stripped her own household resources to enrich her maiden family.
Looking at Wang Chunmei’s frantic, evasive posture, the rest of the Gu family immediately deduced the grim reality. They feared that the staggering ten thousand yuan she had received during the recent family division had already been funneled completely into the Wang family’s coffers!
Mother Gu’s chest heaved with suppressed fury as she locked her eyes onto her fourth son. “Tinghao, I expect to see that ten thousand yuan passbook on this table tomorrow morning!”
She turned a lethal look onto Wang Chunmei. “If you have dared to smuggle the hard-earned wealth of my household to your parents’ home, I will personally ensure my son divorces you and casts you out tomorrow!”
The eldest brother and sister-in-law exchanged a shocked look, entirely stunned by Wang Chunmei’s sheer audacity. That was a grand total of ten thousand yuan—a massive fortune allocated during the division of the family estate.
That capital represented the blood, sweat, and tears accumulated by Father Gu, Mother Gu, the eldest brother, Gu Tingxiao, and Gu Tinghao over years of dedicated service! The men of the Gu line had earned their allocations by deploying into live combat zones, stepping onto active battlefields at the risk of their own lives. Giving a daughter-in-law her fair share to build a life with her husband was one thing, but allowing an outsider to plunder those life-earned funds for an entirely different family was a betrayal no one would tolerate.
Old Master Gu’s face darkened significantly as he sat at the head of the room. “Tinghao, execute your mother’s orders.”
The old general had spoken. Although Gu Tinghao had fought fiercely against his family’s wishes to marry Wang Chunmei in the past, he didn’t dare utter a single syllable of protest before the absolute patriarch of the clan.
Wang Chunmei was entirely gripped by blind panic now. With the old general backing the command, there was no escaping the audit; Gu Tinghao would tear their rooms apart tonight to find the passbook.
“Tinghao… my stomach hurts!” she suddenly wailed, clutching her abdomen as she bent forward, biting her lip tightly to simulate intense physical agony.
No matter how deeply furious Mother Gu felt, the sight of her daughter-in-law doubling over in pain triggered an involuntary wave of anxiety. After all, the child Wang Chunmei was carrying belonged to the Gu line, and they refused to jeopardize the baby’s safety.
“Take her to the military hospital immediately,” Mother Gu instructed her son, her voice tense. “Have the physicians run a comprehensive assessment to ensure there are no complications.”
Realizing that a trip to the hospital would immediately expose her fraudulent symptoms to the medical staff, Wang Chunmei quickly shifted her tactics, forcing herself to straighten up. “I… I think the sharp pain is passing. I’ll be perfectly fine if I just sit quietly and take it easy for a moment.”
Mother Gu watched the clumsy performance, her eyes cold. She had seen through the theatrical display instantly, and she had zero intention of letting the financial betrayal slide.
“Since you are well enough to decline a doctor, Tinghao, take her back to your quarters right now and verify the accounts,” Mother Gu commanded ruthlessly. “If she has plundered our family assets, I refuse to let the Wang family trample over the honor and reputation of the Gu line!”
A distinct, fierce glint of steel flashed in Mother Gu’s eyes. Both families operated within the exact same elite military compound. For the Wangs to permit their daughter to systematically drain the Gu family’s wealth was a direct, calculated insult to their standing. The ancestral blood and honor of the Gu line, forged through generations of military sacrifice, would never be subjected to such humiliation.
Without another word, Gu Tinghao gripped Wang Chunmei by the arm and marched her out of the main villa, determined to unearth the passbook.
Watching the chaotic farce draw to a close, the second sister, Gu Tingting, and her husband, Lin Junhu, turned toward the old general with deep concern.
“This is truly outrageous,” Gu Tingting muttered, her temper flaring. “She treats our family like absolute fools.”
The second sister possessed a remarkably straightforward, vibrant personality; she never resorted to hollow flattery, even when speaking to her own mother. But Wang Chunmei’s behavior tonight had crossed a line that no one in the clan could tolerate.
When it came to family dynamics, the siblings generally maintained an excellent, harmonious rapport. They respected each other’s boundaries and strictly refrained from meddling in the internal affairs of the other brothers’ households. But the family division funds were a collective legacy, representing the pooled hardships of the entire clan over the decades.
“Calm down, sweetheart,” Lin Junhu soothed, gently rubbing his wife’s back.
Sensing their mother’s distress, their young son and daughter immediately rushed over, wrapping their small arms tightly around Gu Tingting’s legs.
“Mom, please don’t be angry,” her little daughter, Lin Xiayu, whimpered. At only three years old, she was incredibly attached to her mother and could instantly sense whenever Gu Tingting’s mood turned volatile.
