Chapter 112: The Gu Family Visits — Part 2
Sheng Wanyan’s heart was pounding against her ribs. She was finally about to face the ultimate milestone: meeting her future parents-in-law. Taking a slow, deep breath to steady her nerves, she stood up alongside Grandpa and Grandma Sheng, waiting for the door to open.
“Please come in, in-laws!”
Mother Sheng ushered Mother Gu through the threshold first. The moment Mother Gu stepped into the room, her eyes locked onto Sheng Wanyan. No matter the setting, the girl’s striking looks and refined bearing made her the most captivating presence in any crowd.
My goodness! Mother Gu thought, her heart leaping. This breathtaking girl is actually going to be my daughter-in-law? Smoke must really be rising from our ancestral graves! With a literal fairy for a partner, no wonder my third son was in such a desperate rush. If I were him, I’d be anxious too!
Despite her immense excitement, Mother Gu’s high breeding took over. She immediately greeted the two elders with deep respect. “Hello, Grandfather Sheng, Grandmother Sheng. I apologize for intruding on your household today.”
“Oh, what are you talking about?” Grandma Sheng replied, instantly charmed by her humility. She stepped forward, took Mother Gu’s hand, and warmly pulled her into conversation. “The old couple is absolutely delighted by your visit.”
Observing the size of the gathering, Wanyan quietly slipped into the kitchen to prepare ten cups of sweet sugar water. Seeing her head inside, Gu Tingxiao quickly followed to help, terrified the heavy tray would be too much for her to carry alone.
Father Gu, Mother Gu, and their three companions were enthusigling ushered to their seats by the Sheng family. Throughout the introductions, Mother Gu’s gaze never wandered far from Wanyan. This future third daughter-in-law carried herself with an elegance that easily eclipsed that of the pampered, wealthy heiresses back in the Capital.
When Wanyan emerged to serve the refreshments, Mother Gu took a grateful sip of the warm sugar water, feeling the sweetness settle straight into her heart.
The Sheng family was even better than she had imagined. Although her sister-in-law, Gu Tong, had praised them extensively, seeing was truly believing. The household possessed an exceptional family tradition; though they were ordinary working-class folk, the words and deeds of both the girl and the elders proved the entire clan lived in absolute harmony.
“Is this our third son’s girlfriend? She truly is magnificent,” Mother Gu said, rising from her chair. She took Wanyan’s hands in hers, looking her up and down as if she couldn’t admire her enough. “Come, let Auntie get a proper look at you.”
“Hello, Uncle, Auntie,” Wanyan murmured, a faint blush creeping up her cheeks. “I am Sheng Wanyan… Tingxiao’s girlfriend.”
Hearing her openly claim him as her partner in front of his parents, the corners of Gu Tingxiao’s mouth tilted upward into a private, triumphant smile.
Father Gu forced a smile onto his face—one he mistakenly believed looked gentle and non-threatening—and boomed, “Hello!”
His thunderous voice vibrated through the small room. Wanyan was momentarily startled by the sheer volume, but she quickly recovered her composure and offered a polite nod.
Mother Gu instantly shot her husband a lethal glare. What had she explicitly ordered him to do before they set foot in this building? She had strictly commanded him to lower his voice and stop treating civilian households like a battalion of frontline soldiers! The man had promised her up and down that he would behave, yet the second he opened his mouth, her words were entirely forgotten.
What if his shouting scared off their precious future daughter-in-law? It had taken a minor miracle for their stubborn third son to finally secure a partner. If his father managed to ruin the match with his terrible manners, Mother Gu was entirely prepared to banish him to the guest room for the foreseeable future.
“This child really is a vision,” Mother Gu turned back to Mother Sheng, her tone melting into pure warmth. “My dear future in-law, you have raised her beautifully. Look how lovely and sensible she is. No wonder my bachelor of a third son suddenly grew a brain; he is truly marrying far above his station.”
Mother Sheng’s heart fluttered with nerves at the high praise. In her mind, it was the Shengs who were marrying up. “In-law, you flatter us. The girl simply grew up well on her own. If you ask me, your Tingxiao is the one who deserves credit. Whenever he handles a leave, he rushes over to keep our two elders company. We’re usually tied to our factory shifts, so we’re incredibly grateful for his thoughtfulness.”
Hearing this, Mother Gu was genuinely astonished. Her stoic third son had actively volunteered to sit and chat with the Sheng elders? Back in the Capital, whenever she asked him to help her select a basic outfit, the boy would manufacture a dozen military excuses just to escape the house.
“That is exactly as it should be,” Mother Gu smiled warmly. “We are going to be one family from now on, so respecting the elders is his natural duty.”
The two mothers continued to trade enthusiastic compliments, completely lost in their mutual praise. The flattery only ceased when Grandpa Sheng gently cleared his throat, interrupting the loop to guide everyone toward the table. “In-laws, please take your seats. The dishes are hot and ready.”
Mother Sheng had prepared a magnificent spread, comfortably budgeting enough portions to feed their personal guards as well.
When the Gu parents surveyed the lavish dining table, their estimation of the Sheng family rose even higher. To be perfectly blunt, in this traditional era that heavily favored sons over daughters, an ordinary household hosting a future son-in-law’s family was considered exceptionally generous if they managed to scrape together one or two meat dishes. Yet, the Sheng family had presented a feast composed entirely of premium, heavy delicacies.
This layout sent a clear, powerful message: their daughter was the ultimate treasure of the household, and her parents would remain an ironclad support system for her throughout her life. Even if she married far away to the capital, she would never be an unprotected orphan; her clan would always stand firmly behind her. Furthermore, it demonstrated the deep level of respect and importance they attached to the Gu lineage.
Having spent decades navigating government departments, how could Mother Gu fail to read these subtle cultural codes? It was precisely because she understood their intentions that her respect for the Sheng family deepened. A household that treasured its daughters with this much pride was bound to possess excellent character.
To look at it through a more practical lens: when the third son eventually had children, maternal grandparents this sensible would lay a flawless foundation for the grandchildren’s early education. As a grandmother, she wouldn’t have to worry about the future generation being corrupted by toxic domestic habits; at the very least, the probability was remarkably slim. As the old adage went: No matter how severely a child is misled by outsiders, it is never as fatal as a single toxic word whispered by family.
Her mind briefly drifted to her youngest son’s in-laws, a household entirely consumed by bitter greed and malicious calculations. If Mother Gu hadn’t kept a vigilant, heavy guard over that branch, her youngest granddaughter would have already been thoroughly ruined by their backward influence.
A wave of frustration tightened her chest the moment she thought of her youngest son’s domestic situation. She had been fiercely opposed to that union from the very beginning; the literal day she visited their compound to propose the marriage, she had seen right through the daughter-in-law’s toxic family dynamics. But her youngest son had been so blindly infatuated and determined to wed that she couldn’t break the couple apart without causing him to harbor a lifelong resentment toward his own mother. Since he insisted on leaping into the fire, she had stepped back to let him experience the consequences firsthand. Even if he ultimately regretted the choice, he couldn’t lay the blame at her door.
Sure enough, within just a few years of the wedding and the birth of their daughter, the younger daughter-in-law’s true nature had become increasingly hideous. The woman covertly beat and verbally abused the little granddaughter on a daily basis, constantly screaming that she had given birth to a useless, money-losing commodity. If Mother Gu hadn’t uncovered the abuse and severely disciplined the couple, the household would likely be in absolute chaos by now.
Fortunately, her youngest son had remained clear-headed after the intervention, refusing to show favoritism against his firstborn just because she was a girl. However, because his military duties kept him at the office all day, the younger daughter-in-law simply adapted; while she no longer dared to strike the child for fear of the elders, she maliciously dumped the entirety of the heavy household chores onto the four-year-old girl’s shoulders.
Witnessing the mother’s cruelty, Mother Gu had desperately wanted to take the granddaughter to live by her side in the Capital. But her own schedule as a finance executive was infinitely more demanding than her son’s, and the child’s biological parents were alive, wealthy, and still bound by a complex web of affection. No matter how much she intervened as a grandmother, she couldn’t rewrite the legal reality of their custody. Worse, the little granddaughter herself—conditioned by her mother—seemed resistant to staying with her grandmother, and since she couldn’t read the child’s locked thoughts, she couldn’t force the issue.
At the very least, the daughter-in-law no longer dared to raise a hand or act rashly under the heavy shadow of the Gu elders. But Mother Gu had already finalized her internal strategy: the exact moment her third son, Tingxiao, finalized his marriage, she would officially execute a formal division of the family estate!
She refused to allow that toxic younger daughter-in-law to drag their eldest and third sons’ households into future financial or reputational ruin. Who knew what kind of treacherous schemes that woman would try to cook up down the line?
