ch 117 – Money Over Face (2)

“Then why are you here? I don’t welcome anyone who goes back on their words!” Gu Xiao looked at him full of contempt. He seemed to be an honest boy before. Whatever have happened? Was it the way that he was raised or this was his nature all along?

Gu Qiao could no longer hold the smile on him. Gu Xiao had to take off in a rush back then and wasn’t able to complete the adoption procedure. It was his fault trying to back out of the deal, so now he didn’t have a leg to stand on no matter what he said.

Gu Qiao forced a fake smile and stuttered, “I… I miss my kids. I am here to visit them.”

“Oh really? If you have them in your mind, you wouldn’t let your wife almost staved them to death. I have fed them white rice and white flour for a month or so and they had finally gained back a little weight and now you want to come and talk about loving them? Oh, Gu Qiao, can you really call yourself a dad in front of these two kids?” Gu Xiao was not tiptoeing around the subject at all. He could tell the purpose of their visit from the greedy beaming in Mrs. Gu’s eyes. The contempt for them thickened.

“Fifth Uncle, you can’t say that. No matter what, they are his flesh and blood. You think it was easy for my husband to have raised them to this age?” Seeing that her husband was struggling for words, Mrs. Gu quickly stepped up.

“Grandpa, I am home!” Gu Ye was sent by her grandpa to deliver some pork to the Patriarch, head of the village, Third Grandma, and Ninth Uncle. Young Master Ding had given them quite a bit of pork, some 25-30 kilogram. This was deep autumn and still wasn’t too cold at night so the pork wouldn’t keep. Gu Xiao figured he might as well share them with those close to him as favors.

Gu Ye had made several trips to have them all delivered. She didn’t think she’d run into those two the minutes she went home. Her smile disappeared right away and her little brows furrowed.

When Mrs. Gu heard her voice, she whipped around and looked at her as passionate as if she was taels of silver on two feet. Faking a smile, Mrs. Gu put on a tender look and said in the gentlest voice, “Oh, Ye-er, where have you been? Fifth Uncle, I can’t believe you were enjoying yourself inside the house and let the two kids doing chores and running errands all day long. Were you adopting grandkids or looking for someone to wait on you hand over foot?”

“This auntie, can you please stop with that fake smile of yours? It’s terrifying me.” Gu Ye walked around her and stood next to her grandpa before she said, “You remind me of a big bad wolf.”

Anyone else would have been fairly offended by now. Unfortunately, Mrs. Gu’s shame knew no limit, “Oh, you child, what are you talking about? Aye, that’s what happens when you are in a household that doesn’t have a woman. How could an unmarried girl talk like that? If words got out, you won’t be able to find yourself a husband no matter how much dowry you have.”

“You don’t need to worry about that for me. Even you were able to get married, and twice. What do I need to worry about then?” Gu Ye looked her up and down and making a “tsk tsk” sound as she did that. Gu Ming was trying very hard to not bust out laughing on one side, so he quickly looked back down and refocused on chopping his firewood.

Mrs. Gu gritted her teeth subtly and the corners of her mouth twitched. She stopped smiling, squeezed her eyes shut a few times, fished out a handkerchief that was so dirty that one couldn’t even tell its original color, dabbed her eyes and play the pity card, “I know, you are made that I never gave you enough food to eat, but we were poor. You can go and ask around the village. How many of the households have enough food to eat? In our family, we had to put your father and your younger brother first whenever we have food. Your dad is the primary bread winner and your little brother was so young. You are his older sister; you wouldn’t fight him over food….”