Chapter 227: Gu Tinghao’s Reflection
After dinner, the family gathered in the living room to chat, while Sheng Wanyan headed to the backyard with the two children to build a snowman.
When the eldest sister-in-law, Liang Zhenna, saw this, she bundled up and joined them. As an intellectual, she was wonderful with children and knew exactly how to keep them engaged.
Inside the living room, Mother Gu watched the scene through the window. “The Lunar New Year is in two days,” she said, shifting her gaze to her fourth son. “Why don’t you take Jingjing back to your quarters to stay for a couple of days?”
Gu Tinghao looked up, but before he could speak, Mother Gu glanced out at the backyard, where Gu Jingjing and Gu Jinfang were happily rolling snowballs.
“She is your own flesh and blood,” Mother Gu continued, her tone heavy with disappointment. “You’ve been an incredibly failing father. The mother blatantly favors sons over daughters, the father refuses to stand tall, and in the end, a helpless four-year-old child is left to suffer the consequences. Gu Tinghao, check your conscience. Are you truly worthy of your daughter?”
Gu Tinghao’s face flushed with deep embarrassment. He knew the truth of his mother’s words, but like many who fell short, he had simply lacked the courage to face his own incompetence.
“Take a good look at her,” Mother Gu pressed, her voice softening slightly. “It has been an incredibly long time since your daughter has smiled like that.”
Gu Tinghao turned his eyes toward the yard. Through the glass, his daughter’s childish, unburdened laughter filtered into the warm room.
“Hahaha! Brother, your snowman is falling over!” Gu Jingjing giggled, pointing a small gloved hand at Gu Jinfang’s clumsy creation, which sported a head significantly larger than its torso.
“Hey, I call this an alternative form of art,” Jinfang huffed defensively, scrambling over to prop it up. “What do you know?”
He tried to reshape the melting mound. Watching her son’s struggle, Liang Zhenna let out a helpless smile and walked over to guide his hands, helping him structure a proper base.
Once finished, Gu Jinfang clapped his hands in absolute satisfaction, pointing proudly at the figure. “Look! This is the magnificent snowman my mom and I built together!”
Gu Jingjing watched them, a distinct flicker of envy crossing her small face as she listened to his proud declaration.
Children’s emotions are transparent to perceptive adults. Noting the look, Liang Zhenna and Sheng Wanyan immediately shifted their attention to her.
“Jingjing, come over here,” Liang Zhenna called out warmly. “The three of us will build a new snowman together, and we’ll make it twice as big as your brother’s!”
Gu Jingjing’s eyes blazed with instant excitement, and she ran over to join her aunts. “Okay!”
Watching the scene from the window, a sudden, sharp wave of sorrow hit Gu Tinghao’s chest, and his eyes grew heavily bloodshot.
Seeing the crack in his composure, Mother Gu took immediate advantage of Wang Chunmei’s absence to drive the lesson home. “Our family is far from destitute, and we’ve never expected you to pull a grand, unequal share of the household assets. Everything ultimately hinges on your choices as parents. Yet your wife is an absolute failure—she grants the child neither financial security nor maternal affection. And you are just as irresponsible. If the girl is entirely deprived of maternal love, does she not even deserve paternal devotion? Gu Tinghao, did your father and I treat you with this kind of neglect when you were a child?”
Gu Tinghao buried his face in his calloused hands, lowering his head as his shoulders began to tremble with muffled, heavy sobs.
Mother Gu showed zero inclination to coddle his guilt, ruthlessly rubbing salt into the open wound. “I understand the traditional preference for sons, but you should never have permitted the adults’ biases to crush Jingjing. If you continue to treat her like a secondary citizen, what happens when Wang Chunmei eventually delivers a son? Do you honestly believe the two siblings won’t harbor deep, lifelong grudges against each other? When they grow up, how are they supposed to support one another as family? Can you guarantee your future son will possess greater capability or a better heart than your daughter? Given Wang Chunmei’s toxic personality, if the boy is spoiled rotten under her care, who do you think you will rely on when your bones grow old?”
Mother Gu reached out, her finger poking firmly against his chest. “Are you truly certain your current path will yield the security you want?”
With that final strike, Gu Tinghao’s emotional defense collapsed entirely. He was a grown military man, yet he sat there weeping openly from the sheer weight of his regret.
Mother Gu maintained a cold, unyielding expression, offering zero sympathy for his breakdown. What right did he have to be broken? Her precious granddaughter hadn’t uttered a single complaint through years of neglect.
“Don’t waste your tears in front of me,” she instructed strictly. “If you want to weep, march out there, hold your daughter tight, and apologize to her.”
To her surprise, Gu Tinghao did exactly that. He wiped his face, strode straight out into the freezing backyard, and threw his arms around little Gu Jingjing, his tears flowing anew.
Sheng Wanyan exchanged a quiet look with Liang Zhenna. Sensing the need for family privacy, the two women gently ushered young Gu Jinfang back into the warmth of the living room.
The moment they stepped through the threshold, Gu Tingxiao met Wanyan, pressing a fresh glass of hot water into her hands to thaw her skin. “Are your hands frozen, honey?”
“Not at all. We weren’t out there very long.” Wanyan smiled, wrapped in her blanket. Truthfully, she was a bit disappointed; if it hadn’t been for the fourth brother’s sudden emotional display, she could have happily played in the snow for another two hours.
Out in the snow-covered yard, Gu Jingjing stared at her weeping father in complete bewilderment.
“Daddy, please don’t cry,” she murmured softly, her small fingers reaching up to wipe the tears from his cheeks. “See? I’m not even crying.”
Watching her sweet, attentive care, Gu Tinghao was seized by an overwhelming wave of profound remorse. How could he have selectively blinded himself to such a precious, loving daughter for all these years? What kind of man was he, if he couldn’t even shield his own child from emotional starvation?
“Jingjing… Daddy is so sorry… I’m so sorry…” he choked out.
At over four years old, Gu Jingjing was mature enough to process the weight of his words. Her parents’ prolonged neglect had forced her to become hyper-aware and precocious far ahead of her time. In truth, she had spent her entire childhood waiting—waiting for her parents to finally turn their gaze toward her and notice her existence. She was fully prepared to be a flawless, dutiful daughter; and even if she fell short, she would labor twice as hard to satisfy their standards. She was still so young… she just needed them to wait for her to grow.
But in the past, her mother and father had refused to grant her that time.
Now, finally, her father was kneeling in the snow, willing to wait for her.
Gu Jingjing threw her small arms around Gu Tinghao’s neck and burst into deep, agonizing sobs, as if unleashing every ounce of suppressed trauma and childhood grief she had accumulated over the past two years. She finally had a father to lean on.
“Daddy… why does Mommy despise Jingjing so much?” she wailed, her voice cracking with hiccups. “Is Jingjing… is Jingjing not a good child? I swear I’ll work hard to be perfect, Daddy. I’ll even grow up to be a boy if that’s what Mommy wants!”
She was too young to comprehend the biological impossibility of her vow; she simply wanted to transform into whatever entity would guarantee her parents’ love. Her mother worshipped boys, so she was entirely willing to sacrifice her own identity to purchase that affection.
Hearing her desperate, innocent plea, the very last of Gu Tinghao’s internal defenses shattered. Every single day at home, his wife would venomously complain about the burden of raising Jingjing, loudly branding the girl a useless, money-losing liability. And his daughter had been forced to absorb that toxic rejection day after day.
If his wife was a criminal for her cruelty, how was he any less guilty? He had continuously neutralized his own conscience by rationalizing that his wife was simply overwhelmed, telling himself he just needed to exercise patience while quietly compensating for the lack. But in reality, his passive tolerance had directly fueled and validated his wife’s endless abuse of their daughter.
I am the primary culprit behind this disaster, he realized bitterly.
That evening, Gu Jingjing happily clutched Gu Tinghao’s hand as they walked back to their own quarters. For the very first time in her memory, she felt a fierce, desperate eagerness to return to her home.
Watching the profound joy radiating from the little girl’s face as they took their leave, Mother Gu couldn’t suppress a sudden tear. Her ultimate desire had always been for her children’s lives to stabilize and flourish.
Wang Chunmei’s pregnancy currently restricted them from executing direct corporate discipline against her person, but that didn’t mean Mother Gu lacked the leverage to arrange the pieces. She would secure her granddaughter’s sanctuary first, restructure her son’s path second, and finally, she would handle Wang Chunmei.
From that exact milestone forward, Mother Gu completely stripped Wang Chunmei of her status as a daughter-in-law of the house. The moment the woman plundered their family division capital to enrich the Wang estate, her position within the clan had been permanently revoked. Since Wang Chunmei’s heart belonged entirely to her maiden home, she was more than welcome to remain there indefinitely. At worst, the Gu family would simply arrange to have her formal household registration transferred back to the Wang archives.
The more Mother Gu turned the thoughts over, the fiercer her indignation grew. But turning around to find her other two daughters-in-law interacting with such beautiful, fluid harmony, a wave of comfort washed through her chest.
Since the branches had already officially separated, each household would simply steer their own course. Only a deeply short-sighted woman like Wang Chunmei would spend her days obsessing over treacherous, manipulative calculations.
