Chapter 224: Walking a Tightrope
Gu Qinghuan was almost flattened by the bombshell the system had just dropped on her. Fortunately, the Wei family had already left, so even though her expression kept shifting unpredictably, they wouldn’t see it.
Jiang Chuchu, however, saw everything clearly. “What’s wrong with you? Stomachache?”
Gu Qinghuan felt a deep sense of exhaustion in her heart. Rather than a stomachache, it was more like her gut was churning—this piece of gossip had practically stuffed her to bursting.
But this wasn’t something she could tell Jiang Chuchu right now, so she could only answer vaguely, “A little. I want to go to the restroom.”
“I’ll go with you,” Jiang Chuchu said, already about to stand up.
“No need,” Gu Qinghuan quickly replied. “I saw the restroom sign when we came in. I’ll go by myself—it won’t take long.”
With that, she got up and hurried out of the venue, heading to the restroom to process the gossip alone.
The restroom was empty. She entered a stall, locked the door, and finally clutched her head as she shouted at the system: [How could Wei Xiao not be Wei Yan’s son?!]
Since Wei Yan had specifically found Xu Zhishu to bear him a son—and even initially planned to “keep the child, discard the mother”—there was no way he wouldn’t have paid close attention to whether the child was his. There was no way he hadn’t done a paternity test, right?
The system replied: [He did. Xu Zhishu did give birth to Wei Yan’s biological son.]
Gu Qinghuan: [You said “did give birth”… does that mean… his biological son…]
System: [Yes. He passed away. Xu Zhishu replaced him with her other child.]
Gu Qinghuan’s mind was hit by a whirlwind: [Wait—what other child?!]
But even as she asked, she already began to piece things together. Based on Wei Xiao’s appearance, he clearly had a blood relationship with Xu Zhishu.
Wei Yan had done a paternity test—the child Xu Zhishu bore was his.
Although the child didn’t resemble him, he strongly resembled Xu Zhishu—so Wei Xiao was indeed Xu Zhishu’s child.
These two conclusions reinforced each other, dispelling Wei Yan’s suspicions.
Who could have imagined that Xu Zhishu had two children?
The system continued: [Before meeting Wei Yan, Xu Zhishu was moderately obese. Because of this, the changes in her body during pregnancy weren’t obvious—almost no one knew she had been pregnant.]
[After giving birth, she handed the child to the biological father, then lost weight. Once she slimmed down to a standard figure, she began her relationship with Wei Yan.]
Gu Qinghuan calculated mentally: [Even if she lost weight quickly and the pregnancy and delivery went smoothly, that would still take at least over a year. Wouldn’t people notice if the children were a year apart in age?]
System: [Wei Xiao was an extremely premature baby—born at 30 weeks.]
Gu Qinghuan didn’t have a clear sense of what that meant, so the system added: [He weighed only about three jin (around 1.5 kg) at birth.]
Gu Qinghuan instinctively gestured—it was barely the weight of one and a half bottles of iced tea.
In that case, even with a one-year age gap, Wei Xiao’s size could indeed pass as Wei Yan’s son.
Rubbing her temples, she asked: [And the biological father agreed to this?]
System: [When Xu Zhishu met him, he was alone. By the time she approached him, he was terminally ill and close to death. He sold Wei Xiao to Xu Zhishu, used the money to enjoy the remainder of his life, and passed away years ago.]
After running through Xu Zhishu’s entire life story in her mind, Gu Qinghuan couldn’t help sighing: [This is basically walking a tightrope.]
Trafficking people for money, bearing a child, losing weight to approach Wei Yan, Wei Yan’s son dying, then using the wealth she gained from marrying into a powerful family to buy back her own child and deceive everyone.
One misstep, and everything would collapse, plunging her into an irreversible abyss.
After thinking further, Gu Qinghuan wondered—if Xu Zhishu really had that much ambition, was it possible she had known all along that Wei Yan wanted a son?
After all, Jiang Chuchu had said that Wei Yan had complained about this at drinking tables. If Xu Zhishu had learned about it back then—and was already pregnant with Wei Xiao—
Then could it be that she deliberately entered trafficking to make money for her transformation, even intentionally induced Wei Xiao’s premature birth, leaving him as a backup with his biological father?
That way, even if she gave birth to a girl later, she could swap in Wei Xiao.
No… that would be too calculated, wouldn’t it? How could she guarantee a premature baby would survive? That would be an insane gamble.
Gu Qinghuan rubbed her arms, hoping she was overthinking.
This revelation left her thoroughly shaken, but it also gave her a breakthrough.
Since Wei Xiao wasn’t Wei Yan’s son, it would be much easier to turn Wei Yan against Xu Zhishu—have him expose her true identity and then bring her to justice.
Her spirits lifted as she began to plan. Leaving the restroom, she returned to table 27.
Seeing that her complexion had improved, Jiang Chuchu assumed her discomfort had passed and felt relieved. Still, she had someone bring Gu Qinghuan a hot drink.
“Is the auction about to start?” Gu Qinghuan asked.
“Mm, it’s time,” Jiang Chuchu replied. As she spoke, the auctioneer stepped onto the stage and began explaining the rules.
“What’s that bidding increment she mentioned?” Gu Qinghuan asked curiously.
“This auction uses the 2-5-8 rule,” Jiang Chuchu explained. “For example, if the starting price is 1,000 yuan, raising your paddle once brings it to 1,200. The next bid would be 1,500, then 1,800, then 2,000, and so on.”
Gu Qinghuan nodded in realization. “I was wondering how we’d bid with just number plates. Shouting prices out loud didn’t seem to fit the setting.”
Jiang Chuchu laughed softly. “There are exceptions, though. For example, if the current bid is 550,000, and the next increment to 580,000 feels too high, you can verbally offer 560,000.”
“And since this is a charity auction, there’ll probably be more verbal bids. No rush—people take their time. Unlike professional auctions, where prices can skyrocket in just minutes.”
As they chatted, the first item had already begun bidding. Just as Jiang Chuchu said, the pace was leisurely. Some bidders even chatted casually while raising their paddles, and the overall atmosphere was quite friendly.
Staff moved between tables delivering messages. Gu Qinghuan was enjoying the lively scene when a staff member stopped beside their table.
“Hello,” the staff member said with a polite smile. “The guest at table 1 would like to ask if there’s any item you’re interested in. They would like to bid on it and gift it to you.”
Zhu Qinglan was just about to respond in surprise when another staff member hurried over. “Hello, the guest at table 11 would like to ask the same—they wish to gift you an item.”
“Who are they asking about?” Jiang Chuchu asked directly.
Both staff members turned to look at Gu Qinghuan.
Gu Qinghuan: ?
Jiang Chuchu’s lips twitched. “Can you at least tell us their surnames?”
“Xia.” “Han.” the two staff members answered.
Jiang Chuchu looked at Gu Qinghuan, who immediately pulled out her phone and started typing.
Gu Qinghuan：[I’m just here to join the fun—I don’t need any auction items.](sent to Xia He)
Gu Qinghuan：[Aunt Han, thank you for your kindness. Compared to auction items, I actually have something else I’d like to discuss with you. After the auction, would you be available to sit down somewhere together?](sent to Han Yun)
Xia He：[What a pity.]
Han Yun：[Alright.]
Gu Qinghuan put her phone away and let out a long breath. The staff quickly received the updated responses and left.
Jiang Chuchu teased, “You’re quite popular.”
Gu Qinghuan pulled a bitter face. “Why send people over to ask directly? Wouldn’t messaging be enough?”
“Because it has to be done openly so my family knows,” Jiang Chuchu shrugged. “You’re our guest. If they approached you without informing us, it would be disrespectful to my family.”
“I see.” Gu Qinghuan immediately understood.
Otherwise, it would look like they were trying to poach a guest from the host.
The problem was—she could feel the Wei family’s gaze sweeping over her, making her extremely uncomfortable.
