Chapter 270: Sowing Seeds and Settling Scores
“Now that my grandparents have a great-grandson to dote on, your complexions look beautifully rosy,” Mother Gu remarked with a warm smile. Seeing Grandpa and Grandma Sheng in such high spirits, she knew they were thriving.
“That’s because holding a great-grandchild makes me feel like I can live another twenty years,” Grandma Sheng laughed. She had never dared to dream that she would see four generations living under one roof. Now that the family was brimming with new life, everything felt different. When a person has so much joy to look forward to, they become quite reluctant to step into the coffin.
“Grandpa, Grandma, you must enjoy this family happiness to the absolute fullest,” Mother Gu chimed in smoothly. “You still have to watch your great-grandson go to school and get married in the future. By then, we’ll enjoy five generations under one roof!”
Mother Gu was a master at delighting her elders. Her sweet words had Grandpa and Grandma Sheng laughing so hard they could barely catch their breath.
“I will gladly borrow those wonderful words from my in-law!” Grandma Sheng beamed, her heart swelling at the thought of five generations together. Just imagining the scene brought her immense joy.
Sheng Wanyan quietly snacked on her fruit, thoroughly enjoying the sight of the elders chatting so amiably. Seeing how beautifully her granddaughter got along with Mother Gu, Grandma Sheng felt completely at ease.
After a little more visiting, the elderly couple stood up to head out. They needed to get back to turn the soil in their private garden plots.
“Turning the soil? Is it already time to sow the spring seeds?” Mother Gu asked. She had actually worked in the fields as a child; back then, the outskirts of the Capital were still entirely farmland.
“Yes, it’s the perfect window to grow vegetables,” Grandma Sheng explained. “That way, we can stock up plenty of food before the winter. It gets incredibly cold here, and venturing out in the snow is no easy task.”
Mother Gu listened intently, then made a sudden decision. “Grandpa, Grandma, wait for me! I’ll come along and help turn the soil for our plot too.”
Grandpa Sheng, Grandma Sheng, and Sheng Wanyan all stared at her in utter astonishment. Had they heard her correctly? Mother Gu was going to till the land?
“What? You think I don’t know how?” Mother Gu asked, laughing at their bewildered expressions. She knew exactly why they found it so strange. “Before I got married, the Capital was practically a collection of villages, and every household farmed. I’m actually very familiar with tilling. It’s been so many years that I quite miss it.”
Without waiting for them to argue, Mother Gu marched straight to the woodshed and emerged carrying a heavy iron hoe. Seeing her boundless enthusiasm, Grandpa and Grandma Sheng didn’t have the heart to stop her. If she struggled, they figured they could simply step in and do the heavy lifting for her.
Originally, the elderly couple had planned to quietly turn over the soil for Sheng Wanyan’s yard themselves, knowing they could finish it by working at a slow, steady pace. Now that Mother Gu was taking the initiative, it was a massive help.
“Mom, you should change your clothes first,” Sheng Wanyan reminded her gently, gesturing to her mother-in-law’s elegant long skirt.
Mother Gu looked down and laughed. “Right you are!” She turned to the elders. “Grandpa, Grandma, give me just a moment to change into something sensible, and I’ll meet you at the gate!”
The older couple nodded, heading back across the lane to fetch their own tools. Sheng Wanyan watched as Mother Gu cheerfully walked out the door with her hoe, even turning back to give her a bright wave. Before leaving, Mother Gu explicitly ordered her to rest well at home, promising she would handle the backyard garden plot the moment she returned.
Once she was alone, Sheng Wanyan retreated to her bedroom to focus on her translations. She had just dispatched the ten completed volumes to the post office two days prior; in a month’s time, another massive wave of royalty income would be rolling in.
Down at the community garden plots, Mother Gu’s sudden appearance instantly drew a crowd of curious onlookers. Over the past few months, Grandma Sheng had become well-acquainted with the various aunties and military wives in the compound. After a round of proud introductions, the neighborhood women swarmed around, eagerly peppering Mother Gu with questions about life in the capital.
the Capital felt like a distant, mythical paradise to them, a place they could only dream of through the stories of others. Mother Gu graciously selected a few grand landmarks to describe, painting vivid pictures of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
The women listened with wide, longing eyes. Most of them would never be fortunate enough to visit, let alone live there—just imagine how much money it must cost to survive in the capital!
It didn’t take long for the gossip circle to realize that Gu Tingxiao originally hailed from the Capital. Previously, everyone had simply assumed Captain Gu was a standard city dweller; they had no idea his roots traced back to the capital itself. His family background had to be incredibly prestigious!
The realization left several neighborhood mothers green with envy. They secretly lamented that if they had known sooner, they would have pushed their own daughters to marry Captain Gu. Now, a golden opportunity to rise to prominence had slipped right through their fingers.
In an instant, everyone looked at Grandpa and Grandma Sheng with newfound reverence. The Sheng family’s son had married a well-connected daughter-in-law, and their daughter had married a powerful husband from the capital. This effectively made the Sheng family half-citizens of the Capital themselves! At this rate, the elderly couple would likely move to the capital to enjoy a luxurious retirement in a few years.
Different people really are born with different fates, the women grumbled inwardly. They had all started out as simple village girls working the fields, yet their paths had diverged so drastically. It truly proved that marrying the right daughter-in-law and securing the right son-in-law was the most critical choice a family could make.
Mother Gu turned the soil with surprising rhythm. While her pace was a bit slow, her technique was flawless. Once Grandpa and Grandma Sheng finished tilling their own plot, they immediately hopped over to help her clear the rest of hers. Working together, they finished the labor ahead of schedule.
As the sun climbed higher, Mother Gu wiped her brow, eager to head back. She needed to get into the kitchen to prepare lunch for her pregnant daughter-in-law.
However, the neighborhood women weren’t nearly done listening to her capital stories. Seeing her shoulder her hoe to leave, they quickly rushed forward to hold her back.
“Sister Gu, what’s the rush?”
“Exactly! Doesn’t your daughter-in-law cook for you at home? Stay a bit longer and tell us more about what goes on in the Capital!”
Mother Gu waved her hands dismissively, breaking into a proud grin. “My daughter-in-law is heavily pregnant. I need to hurry back and get her lunch started. You ladies enjoy your chat!”
The aunties gasped, their eyes widening in utter disbelief. A mother-in-law rushing home to cook for a daughter-in-law? It completely defied the traditional social order!
“Hold on… isn’t your daughter-in-law only a little over six months along?” one auntie scoffed. “It’s not like she’s actively in labor! Why can’t she even manage to cook a simple meal?”
“She’s right, Sister Gu. You can’t coddle a daughter-in-law like that. If you spoil her now, she’ll just ride on your coattails and look down on you later!” The older women immediately began lecturing Mother Gu on the “proper” way to assert dominance in a household.
Standing near the edge of the crowd, Captain Wu’s wife, Zhang Zhaodi, listened with a sour expression. Ever since Sheng Wanyan had thoroughly humiliated her in public months ago, leading to a severe scolding from her own husband, Zhang Zhaodi had been trapped in a terrible mood. She had never dared to cross paths with Sheng Wanyan again out of pure terror, but a bitter sense of jealousy still festered deep inside her.
Seeing an opportunity to stir the pot, she loudly chimed in. “They’re absolutely right! Sheng Wanyan is notoriously lazy. She usually makes Captain Gu handle all the cooking and cleaning while she just lounges around enjoying the good life. Now that her mother-in-law has traveled all this way, she still expects to be waited on hand and foot? It’s completely unbecoming of a proper daughter-in-law!”
Mother Gu had navigated the complex social circles of the Capital for decades; she could spot a malicious, jealous instigator from a mile away.
While the older aunties’ comments were born from the traditional, rigid mindsets of their generation, Zhang Zhaodi’s words were laced with pure, petty venom. This bitter young military wife was deliberately trying to sow discord, hoping to humiliate Sheng Wanyan and plant a seed of resentment in her mother-in-law’s mind so that Mother Gu would go back and make her daughter-in-law’s life miserable.
To dare try a pathetic trick like that on me? Mother Gu thought, her lips curling into a cold, dangerous smile. You’ve picked the wrong target!
