Chapter 243: Gu Tingxiao Is Afraid Of Divorce
Sheng Wanyan stood up, her face completely cold as she stared at the woman desperately babbling in front of her.
“Third Sister-in-law, you wouldn’t want to see Third Brother’s own family struggle, right? You’re my sister-in-law, after all,” Wang Chunmei kept pressing. She saw Wanyan’s icy expression but completely misread it, assuming her sister-in-law was just a pushover she could easily bully.
“Wang Chunmei, that’s enough!” Even Gu Tinghao couldn’t take it anymore. Did his wife look down on him that much? Was he such a failure that he couldn’t even raise his own flesh and blood? Taking a deep, sharp breath, he stepped forward and yanked her back behind him.
“Third Brother, Third Sister-in-law, it’s my fault for failing to manage my own household. I apologize on her behalf. I’m truly sorry.”
Gu Tingxiao remained entirely silent, his posture making it clear he had no intention of accepting the apology. Gu Tinghao’s heart sank; he knew his third brother was genuinely furious with him this time.
Wanyan stepped forward to face the couple. Gu Tinghao had always handled Wang Chunmei with kid gloves, as if a simple “I’m sorry” could magically erase years of toxicity.
“You want to pawn Jingjing off on me?” she asked bluntly.
Gu Tinghao shook his head violently—he had never harbored such a thought—while Wang Chunmei nodded frantically behind his back. “Third Sister-in-law, if you agree, we can sign the formal adoption papers this exact second!”
Wang Chunmei looked at her with naked impatience, prompting Wanyan to let out a sharp, mocking sneer.
“Let me make one thing perfectly clear to you: the only children I will ever raise will come directly out of my own belly! Forget about a niece—even if Gu Tingxiao screws up in the future and brings home some illegitimate child, my only response will be an immediate divorce! I, Sheng Wanyan, will never raise another woman’s child. If Gu Tingxiao ever dares to agree to a stunt like this, I will file the divorce papers first thing tomorrow morning!”
Wanyan’s declaration detonated in the living room like a bomb, plunging the entire Gu family into a stunned, absolute silence.
The second the word “divorce” left her lips, Gu Tingxiao felt a surge of pure panic. He instantly lunged forward, frantically grabbing her hands. “Honey, I would never do anything to betray you! Please, don’t ever talk about divorce. I only want to have children with you. I wouldn’t touch anyone else’s child with a ten-foot pole!”
Once the concept of divorce was spoken aloud, it felt like a ticking time bomb that could destroy their marriage at any second, and he refused to let it take root.
Mother Gu stared blankly at Wanyan, subconsciously swallowing hard. My goodness, the girl wanted to terrify Wang Chunmei, which is fine, but why on earth did she have to bring up divorce… Looking at how frantic and anxious her third son had become, she half-expected him to march over and burn the fourth branch’s apartment to the ground. A spectacular daughter-in-law like Wanyan could not be lost over a creature like Wang Chunmei. Mother Gu found herself genuinely terrified that Wanyan might actually carry out the threat.
Wang Chunmei stared at Wanyan, her mind completely blank. In fact, even a fiercely independent woman like the eldest sister-in-law, Liang Zhenna, wouldn’t have possessed the raw audacity to casually declare a divorce in front of the entire clan elders. In this era, if a man strayed or caused a massive domestic disaster, the woman at home would typically deliver a beating, swallow her pride, and endure it. Even Liang Zhenna knew that if the eldest brother ever crossed that line, she couldn’t just walk away. That kind of unyielding courage was incredibly rare.
It was blindingly obvious that in Gu Tingxiao and Sheng Wanyan’s marriage, the man was the one desperately holding on. Wanyan wasn’t afraid of the societal stigma of this era, nor did she care about traditional constraints.
Wang Chunmei never expected such a brutal, uncompromising refusal, let alone a threat of divorce. A divorce? Isn’t she terrified of becoming damaged goods? How could a divorced woman ever hope to survive in society?
When she finally gathered her thoughts, she still couldn’t bring herself to believe Wanyan would actually pull the trigger. Who in their right mind would willingly throw away a marriage into the prominent Gu family? Wanyan was just a provincial city girl who had finally secured a luxury life in the Capital; would she truly be willing to reduce herself to a divorcée?
“Third Sister-in-law, do you honestly have the heart to watch Jingjing grow up without a mother or father?” Wang Chunmei cried, trying to weaponize her daughter one last time. Since Wanyan and Gu Tingxiao were deploying tomorrow, she needed to force a resolution immediately.
“Are you genuinely lecturing me about heart?” Wanyan countered coldly. “Her own biological parents are actively trying to discard her like trash. I don’t think a viler, more heartless creature exists on this earth!”
Wang Chunmei was completely silenced, entirely blocked by Wanyan’s refusal to play by traditional rules.
“Third Sister-in-law, when you take such a rigid stance, have you even considered the brotherhood between Third Brother and Tinghao?” she whimpered.
“If this is what his household brings, it’s better we don’t have this brotherhood at all!” Gu Tingxiao barked.
The declaration caused Gu Tinghao’s pupils to contract in absolute horror. Did his third brother genuinely intend to cut him off? Although Gu Tinghao naturally feared Tingxiao, he fiercely cherished their fraternal bond above all else. During their childhood, because the older siblings were entrenched in school and the elders were swamped with military duties, it was Gu Tingxiao who had raised him, carrying him around and playing with him day after day. Hearing his third brother format an absolute break left a taste in his mouth more bitter than poison.
“Third Brother!” Gu Tinghao choked out, but Gu Tingxiao completely ignored him.
Gu Tinghao whirled around, glaring at Wang Chunmei with raw, murderous fury. Wang Chunmei trembled; she had never anticipated that Gu Tingxiao would be willing to dissolve his own family ties over this. But Tingxiao was a notoriously stubborn, unyielding officer—if he spoke an ultimatum, he would execute it flawlessly.
At this point, not only was Gu Tinghao terrified, but even the senior elders felt a wave of anxiety that the third boy might permanently fracture the family.
“So don’t you dare attempt to weaponize our relationship to pressure my wife,” Gu Tingxiao concluded, his voice like iron. “Since your wife wants to use our brotherhood as a hostage, we might as well consider it dead!”
At that exact moment, Gu Tinghao genuinely wanted to strangle Wang Chunmei, and his resolve to secure a divorce solidified completely.
Old Master Gu sat in his armchair, remaining entirely silent as he watched his grandsons’ relationship fracture. He knew his third grandson was a brilliant strategist; furthermore, Gu Tinghao desperately required a brutal, agonizing shock to finally force him to stand tall as a man.
Sheng Wanyan subtly rubbed her nose. She honestly hadn’t expected Gu Tingxiao to publicly announce a formal break with his own brother on the spot. It made her look like some manipulative imperial consort seducing the emperor into executing his kin…
Since the supreme patriarch of the house chose not to intervene, the other family elders could only suppress their anxiety and remain silent. Gu Tinghao was frozen with fear as he realized not a single elder was moving to salvage the situation. This can’t be real, can it?
Unfortunately for him, it was absolute. In the years that followed, Gu Tingxiao systematically treated Gu Tinghao like an absolute stranger, and not a single elder in the clan ever stepped in to smooth over the ice between them.
With the crisis escalating to this absolute dead-end, Wang Chunmei was entirely out of moves. She could only fix a bitter, resentful glare on Sheng Wanyan. But Wanyan completely ignored her presence, refusing to grant her a single glance. It was a textbook display of burning a bridge with an in-law.
Ultimately, Gu Tinghao grabbed his wife by the arm and ruthlessly dragged her out of the villa. If it weren’t for the fragile nature of her pregnancy, he would have marched her straight to the civil registry office to finalize their divorce that very night.
Once the chaotic fourth branch had vanished from the estate, Mother Gu immediately rushed to Wanyan’s side to offer comfort.
“Wanyan, my sweet girl, Wang Chunmei is nothing but a rotten apple poisoning our barrel. You absolutely cannot consider a divorce over a creature like her! Just treat her like invisible air from now on, but please, do not let her vile antics stress your pregnancy. If she ever dares to cross your path again, you come straight to me, and your mother will personally teach her a lesson!”
Mother Gu was genuinely terrified that Wanyan might carry out her threat; after all, her third daughter-in-law had made her boundaries crystal clear. She finally recognized that while Wanyan was sweet, she was absolutely not a woman who could be pushed around.
