Chapter 226: Wang Chunmei Was Driven Back to Her Parents’ Home
Mother Gu washed her hands of the matter, but no matter how coldly she spoke, Gu Tinghao remained entirely paralyzed by the situation. Ultimately, it was wiser to let Wang Chunmei carry out a few more of her dramatic, self-destructive tantrums; only then would the fourth brother finally lose heart and see her clearly.
The family had already been officially divided. Whether his life turned out brilliant or disastrous, the fourth brother would simply have to shoulder the burden himself.
“Get out,” Mother Gu commanded coldly.
Leaving him with that final word, she retired to her quarters. Gu Tinghao remained dejectedly on his knees in the middle of the living room, his head hung low, lost in an unreadable abyss of thought.
Father Gu walked past and delivered a swift, powerful kick that knocked him flat onto the floor. “Get lost!”
The patriarch was deeply furious. Gu Tinghao knew his father’s wrath had reached a dangerous peak tonight; if he lingered, the older man might actually beat him within an inch of his life.
“Let me tell you something,” Father Gu hissed, his voice vibrating with rage. “If you fail to extract every single yuan of that capital from her family, don’t you dare cross my threshold again! I have absolutely no use for a son like you!”
An unfilial, broken creature of a son was worse than useless.
Leaving his threat hanging in the air, Father Gu stormed upstairs to comfort his wife. Meanwhile, Sheng Wanyan gently took little Gu Jingjing by the hand and guided her up to the third branch’s suite.
Given the current domestic storm, Gu Jingjing would have endured a nightmare if she returned to her parents’ quarters. Gu Tinghao couldn’t even untangle his own disasters, let alone protect a daughter who would only be left weeping and neglected at home. It was infinitely better for Jingjing to remain under the main villa’s protection to celebrate a peaceful Lunar New Year, leaving the adults to handle the fallout.
Sitting quietly on the plush bed inside Wanyan’s room, Gu Jingjing focused all her attention on a colorful illustrated picture book. She didn’t harbor a single shred of pity for her broken father kneeling downstairs. She vividly remembered how, whenever her father asked to spend even a single yuan to buy her a tiny piece of clothing, her mother would throw a vicious fit over the expense.
Now, the missing sum was over ten thousand yuan. While a four-year-old child couldn’t fully grasp the astronomical scale of ten thousand yuan, she understood perfectly that it was a world away from a single yuan. Even a toddler could measure the hypocrisy, yet her mother—a grown adult—remained entirely blind to it.
Why is Mommy so incredibly cruel and stingy to me, but so endlessly generous to her own parents?
The riddle was far too complex for her small mind to solve, and the sheer effort of thinking about it made her head throb with pain.
“Focus on your pages,” Wanyan said, gently tapping the top of her head.
Gu Jingjing blinked up at her in confusion, before quickly pulling her scattered thoughts back to the book. “Okay, Third Aunt.”
When the household clocks struck bedtime, Mother Gu arrived to escort Gu Jingjing back to her designated room in the main villa. The trajectory of the crisis now hinged entirely on Gu Tinghao’s resolve.
Surprisingly, the fourth brother seemed to have forged a spine of steel this time. He strictly refrained from marching over to the Wang estate to retrieve his wife.
In the past, whenever Wang Chunmei threw a tantrum and retreated to her maiden home, Gu Tinghao would dutifully show up within forty-eight hours to coax her back. She was well aware that her financial betrayal had pushed her husband to the brink, but she was currently carrying a precious male heir for the Gu line; she stubbornly refused to believe he would actually abandon her.
Yet day after day slipped past, stretching into the final week before the Lunar New Year, and there was still not a single sign of Gu Tinghao.
Wang Chunmei finally began to panic. Could it be that Gu Tinghao genuinely intends to leave me here?
But she quickly discarded the terrifying thought, rationalizing that it was an absolute impossibility. It had to be the senior members of the Gu family blocking her husband from coming. Reassured by her own delusion, she resolved to simply wait out their stubbornness a little longer.
The Gu Family Estate:
A beautifully festive, joyful atmosphere settled over the main villa. With everyone officially cleared for their holiday breaks, the household threw itself into New Year preparations.
However, Father Gu and the eldest brother, Gu Tingye, were high-ranking officials wielding immense executive authority, which meant their national responsibilities never truly paused. Even during the holidays, they frequently ran out to handle emergency administrative tasks.
Left to their own devices, the eldest sister-in-law and Mother Gu spent their afternoons executing grand shopping excursions across the city markets. Since Wanyan’s pregnancy made navigating the freezing, crowded streets highly inconvenient, she happily remained home, taking charge of the two children.
One focused intently on her watercolor painting, while the other orchestrated a chaotic, raucous game of military strategy with the neighborhood kids out in the snowy compound lanes.
Young Gu Jinfang flatly refused to play the role of the opposing force, which quickly escalated into a full-blown physical brawl with the other commanders’ sons. Engaging in a fistfight within the high-ranking military compound wasn’t considered a disgrace, but losing the fight certainly was.
Unfortunately, Gu Jinfang lost miserably.
“Just you wait!” the boy roared, wiping his nose. “I’m going to fetch my third uncle, and he’s going to demolish every single one of you!”
Vowing vengeance, Gu Jinfang scrambled back into the house, his face a colorful tapestry of fresh scrapes and bruises.
Old Master Gu glided past, offering the battered boy a brief glance before completely ignoring him. It certainly wasn’t the child’s first tactical defeat; a soldier simply needed to stand right back up after being knocked down.
Grandma Gu, however, gasped at the sight of his swollen cheek. Verifying that the injuries were merely superficial, she hurried into the kitchen to hard-boil a fresh egg to roll against the swelling.
“Defeated again?” she teased.
“No,” Gu Jinfang huffed, his chin jutting out. He would rather die than admit to his grandparents that he had just suffered his third consecutive defeat this week.
“Brother, your face is completely red,” little Gu Jingjing piped up, trotting over to curiously poke his bruised cheek.
Gu Jinfang let out a sharp gasp, recoiling instantly. “Ow, ow, ow! That hurts!”
Staring down at her small fingers, Gu Jingjing’s eyes sparkled as if she had just stumbled upon a fascinating scientific anomaly. In the past, she had been far too terrified to interact with Gu Jinfang so boldly. But after spending a few days entirely insulated from Wang Chunmei’s suffocating presence, her personality was blossoming, and she was growing significantly braver.
So this is what it feels like to actively prod someone else’s wound?
“I’m sorry, Brother,” Jingjing said quickly, leaning close to his cheek. “Let me blow on it to make the pain go away.”
She exhaled a soft breath against his bruise. Gu Jinfang brushed off the minor discomfort, swelling his chest proudly. He was a future soldier of the republic; he felt absolutely zero pain! “It doesn’t hurt at all!”
“Wow. Brother, you are truly magnificent,” Jingjing gasped, her eyes filled with absolute, unadulterated adoration.
Whenever her mother subjected her to a beating at home, the agony was entirely suffocating. Yet her older brother didn’t even flinch at a black eye. He was incredibly strong!
Watching Gu Jinfang’s absurdly proud expression from her seat, Sheng Wanyan couldn’t suppress a burst of laughter. This little nephew of hers possessed an immense amount of theatrical pride.
“Third Aunt, please don’t mock me,” Gu Jinfang muttered, his cheeks burning with instant embarrassment.
“I’m not mocking you, sweetheart,” Wanyan chuckled, gesturing toward the low table. “There are fresh apple slices over here. Come and have some.”
Hearing the invitation, Gu Jinfang jogged over. Instead of feeding himself first, he carefully selected two choice slices, scurried across the room, and respectfully presented them to Old Master Gu and Grandma Gu.
The two elders smiled so warmly their eyes crinkled into pure lines of joy. “Good boy. Look how thoughtful our Jinfang is.”
Seeing his success, little Gu Jingjing immediately mirrored his actions, clutching a slice of apple in each of her tiny hands as she trotted over to the grandparents.
Grandma Gu’s heart melted completely. She accepted the fruit and affectionately ruffled both children’s hair. “Eat up, my darlings. Eat as much as you want.”
Though Grandpa and Grandma Gu had ascended to the absolute pinnacle of military luxury, they had forged their youth through decades of brutal wartime scarcity. Whenever premium delicacies materialized before them, their instinct was always to pass them directly to the children. They rarely indulged themselves, but when the grandchildren presented the treats with such pure, loving hearts, they happily accepted.
After painting for a little over an hour, a sudden wave of pregnancy drowsiness hit Wanyan. Noting her heavy eyelids, Grandma Gu immediately ushered her toward the staircase. “Wanyan is tired. Head upstairs and catch a deep nap, child.”
Wanyan let out a small yawn, smiled gratefully, and retired to her suite. By the time Gu Tingxiao returned from his shift, she was already fast asleep beneath the heavy quilts.
Over the past few days, Gu Tingxiao had been spending his afternoons slipping away with the eldest brother, Gu Tingye. The two brothers were operating with immense, tight-lipped secrecy, leaving the rest of the household entirely in the dark regarding their objectives. Naturally, no one in the family pressed them for details; the brothers were grown military men who understood the strict parameters of professional discretion.
However, when the family assembled around the grand dining table that evening, Wanyan’s eyes widened slightly. Did the fourth brother’s injuries actively worsen since this morning?
She assumed her long nap had left her vision blurry, but after blinking several times to clear her sight, she confirmed that Gu Tinghao’s face was freshly scored with deep bruises and unmistakable split skin.
Wanyan subtly cut her eyes toward the eldest brother and then toward Gu Tingxiao. Both men maintained completely impassive, clinical expressions, consuming their rice as if the battered man opposite them were entirely invisible.
“Honey, ensure you eat your protein,” Gu Tingxiao murmured smoothly, using his clean chopsticks to deposit a prime cut of braised meat onto her plate.
Wanyan immediately withdrew her inquisitive gaze, lowering her head to focus on her food.
Father and Mother Gu observed the fresh destruction decorating Gu Tinghao’s face and remained entirely silent. As his parents, how could they possibly remain blind to the source of the discipline? Clearly, the eldest brother and the third boy had taken their younger sibling out to the training grounds to deliver a severe, physical awakening. Gu Tinghao desperately deserved a harsh lesson to shatter his passivity.
The fact that Gu Tinghao still hadn’t broken down to fetch Wang Chunmei from her maiden home brought an immense sense of satisfaction to Mother Gu. At the very least, this fourth son of hers still possessed a salvageable shred of integrity; he wasn’t so thoroughly broken as to be completely beyond redemption.
