CH 15

Before Gu Zheng took his wife home, no one thought that Gu Zheng would find a wife from the city. Now, this wife is Qin LingLing herself. In the original book, there are many descriptions of the original owner’s deceased husband, and there are also ridiculous reasons for their marriage.

Gu Zheng has a good skin, tall plus he is an active soldier. He made more than 10 taels a month. It is far more than enough to have food and drinks during the New Year and Holiday. For these poor families in old rural areas, having Gu Zheng as their family can be regarded as winning.

His stepmother knew that he could earn money and had the ability to do it, so she kept urging her husband Gu DaShun to take Gu Zheng’s money from his hands.

But Gu Zheng is not stupid, he is very assertive, so no matter how Li DaNi expressed hints to have his money, Gu Zheng simply said: What I earn, how to spend it, I have the final say to it, filial piety to my father, yes, but I’m not a child at home, so I will only act filial to my part.

Therefore, no matter how Li DaNi wants to get money from Gu Zheng, it is even more difficult. This is why she wants to take advantage of the opportunity to introduce a wife in order to extort money from him; whether it’s the right time to marry or not, it’s best to let Gu Zheng marry a wife she can handle. Gu Zheng is, after all, a soldier. He doesn’t live at home all year and has to send money to his family on a regular basis. So, when the daughter-in-law is easy to handle, the money is also easy to take.

However, she had no idea that Gu Zheng, who did not take kindly to the introduction, had brought her a woman back from the city, saying that they had already had their marriage certification and he did not need them to worry about his marriage. Li Dani’s eyes immediately turned wide when she heard this.

In the case of Qin LingLing, the former owner, who was married to Gu Zheng, it was entirely because of her family forced her to marry a crippled man in order to elevate her family to a higher level that Qin LingLing, who had been weak and bullied, rarely hardened up, dead set on not agreeing, ran away from them and met the soldier Gu Zheng on the way back to the farm.

The two had met twice before that, and they just happened to meet each other when they came home. When they talked to each other, they hit it off and agreed in married to each other. The marriage was so sloppy that Qin LingLing became nervous when she stood in front the outer wall of Gu’s house made of mud bricks.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Zheng stood aside, watching her nervously.

Qin LingLing shook her head, “Nothing, nothing, let’s go!”

She has always lived by the principle of ‘dealing with threats as they come’, and she’s been transmigrating for a long time now, so it’s not particularly anxiety-inducing to have a husband; their marriage has been a union to leave their current predicament anyway, there wasn’t anything substantial in the relationship in the first place.

Thinking it this way, Qin LingLing was relieved. But when the two had just opened the small bamboo door in the yard, a sharp shout came from the direction of the house, “Big Brother!”

They noticed Gu Yao wasn’t wearing any shoes and raced over to them, her face lit up with joy and tears, “Brother, is it really you? You’re not dead? You’re really not dead?”

Gu Zheng looked at his unmarried sister who had not yet died in childbirth. He squeezed out a little smile and held his sister’s hands, he squeezed out a smile that was rarely seen, “Not dead, your brother is not dead, my life is still long.”

“Before, someone came to report that you were washed away by the flood and can’t survive. I thought, I thought…” Gu Yao didn’t get to finish her words, and her tears fell straight.

Qin LingLing wanted to make room for the two siblings to chat because they rarely see each other. But it did not occur to her that just after she gave up the place, a pair of mother and daughter came outside, talking and laughing, and it was Gu Zheng’s stepmother, Li DaNi, and his lazy, gluttonous half-sister, Gu ChunHua.

Qin LingLing guessed that the two of them were hanging out and do nothing, waiting for Gu Yao to cook the food and wash their hands to eat. After Li DaNi married Gu DaShun, she gave birth to a son, Gu GuoQiang in the first year and a daughter, Gu ChunHua in the third year. These son and daughter of hers makes her have a strong hold in the Gu Family.

Unlike Gu Zheng, who was the wild boy, picked up from the mountain, the former mother died and even if not many people knew that he was picked up from outside, they couldn’t hold her back.

Li Dani, who has a son, can be regarded as a queen by the Gu DaShun, a gentle-tempered person. She is naturally does not need to work to earn work points on weekdays. Every day, Gu Yao, who was not a son or a man, was forced to work hard to earn money. Then she calculated that she could get money from Gu Zheng.

Gu Zheng’s appearance in the yard, when the sky was already dark, terrified Li Dani, who was still talking and smiling. “Ah! Is this a person or a ghost?!” she screamed, clutching her chest hard as if she had just seen a ghost.

She looked at the three people in front of her carefully, “Is this the ghost of Gu Zheng coming back?”

“You are a ghost!”

“You are a ghost!”

Gu Yao and Qin LingLing cursed in unison.

Qin LingLing didn’t expect Gu Yao to cursed too. She didn’t know that Li DaNi was so disgusting, Gu Zheng was at least a Gu family member, yet she spoke so harshly. Gu Yao too didn’t even expect that the sister-in-law, who basically didn’t talk much after a few days together, would actually open her mouth and scold this stepmother.

Li DaNi who was scolded just now, fight back. “Hey, you two damn girls, how dare you talk to me like that!?”

Gu ChunHua helped her mother, “That’s right, my mother is an elder, sister-in-law, elder sister, is it appropriate for you to scold the elder?”

“Who let her say that about big brother, big brother is clearly standing here, not a ghost at all, okay?”

“Didn’t they say he were dead before? Someone came to report the news, are they wrong?”

When Li Dani was talking, she didn’t dare to get close to Gu Zheng. Even if Gu Zheng stood in front of her alive and was staring at her, she was in panic, not to mention that she didn’t know whether he was a ghost or a human being.

Instead, Gu Zheng turned to look at her and exclaimed, “Aunt DaNi, look at me. Do I really look like I’m dead?”

Being stared at by Gu Zheng’s eyes, his faint voice came to her ears, making Li DaNi took two steps back, “You are really alive? Why are you alive, didn’t they say…”

“I thought I was going to die, but luckily, I didn’t. Why, aren’t you happy?” Gu Zheng’s voice made a little ridicule, but his eyes were so cold that it was almost frightening Li DaNi to death.

Li Dani trembled, tugging at the corners of her stiff mouth, and smiled, “Happy, of course happy, you are not dead, your dad must be happy, don’t you know, someone came the other day and told us that you were missing and afraid that you won’t be able to survive. Your father and I have been worried for several days. We can’t eat and sleep. Now that you are back, we are happy too.”

Looking at the smiling Li DaNi, Gu Zheng’s eyes gradually cool down.

Before the accident, he was just Gu Zheng, who had lived for 25 years, and might still treat this stepmother of his as a mother, but after seeing the dirty things done by Li Dani in the next ten years, he really cannot have a half respect for this person. He ignored Li DaNi’s words and asked his sister, “Are you cooking?”

“Yes, yes, I was just plating the dishes, the lid was still covered, and I was waiting for dad to get home from work, but I didn’t expect you to come back, so I didn’t make enough.” Gu Yao felt ashamed. The tanned face has turned bright crimson.

“Brother, you must be hungry, why don’t you and sister-in-law eat first, I will make some more later.” Gu Yao said.

Gu Zheng nodded in response, turning toward Qin LingLing and said, “Let’s go!”

But when Li DaNi heard this, and saw that Gu Zheng did not treat her with half respect, said unhappily, “Even if you are hungry, you have to wait for your father to come back, right?”

Gu Yao quickly retorted: “My brother hurried back so far away, what’s wrong with eating first? I made this meal so I’ll let my brother eat it first, and I will make my dad’s portion later.”

In addition to Gu Zheng and his newly married wife, there are five people in the Gu family: his father, his stepmother, Gu Yao, and two children born from his stepmother.

Among these five people, only his father and Gu Yao worked in the field to earn work points. Li DaNi basically did not do anything. Occasionally, she asked Gu ChunHua to mow some hogweed and collect some firewood. As for herself, she basically went around the house to talk about right and wrong, and then when it was almost dark, she went to the field to call Gu Yao back to cook, and waited for the meal to be served, living a smoother life than anyone else. If it were not for this family, Gu Yao would never want to cook this meal.

When Li DaNi heard this, her big eyes glared up, “DaYa, how can you speak to me like that, I am your mother, did you talk to your mother like this too?”

“My mother is dead.” With her brother at home, Gu Yao retorted stiffly.

Li Danie wanted to say, ‘You damn girl, do you have to curse me like that?’ But just as she opened her mouth, Gu Zheng swept over with a pair of dark, gloomy eyes, “YaoYao and I have just one mother, if you want us to recognize you as our mother, we don’t mind to offer an extra incense stick every year at Qingming [1] .”

[1] Qingming, literally meaning “clear and bright”, is one of the 24 dates that divide the solar year on the traditional Chinese calendar. The most important tradition of Qingming is to honor ancestors and commemorate deceased family members and relatives, usually at their grave sites. Thus, Qingming is also translated into Tomb-Sweeping Day in English.

Li DaNi was frightened by his momentum, opened her mouth, but unable to say a word. When those three people entered the house, Li DaNi, immediately spit in disgust, “A wild seeds, really takes themselves seriously!”

Gu ChunHua on the side stepped forward and asked, “Mom, that means that my big brother is not dead?”

“Look at his angry face, does he look like he’s dead? I would rather he died and came back as a ghost. I’m so angry, what the hell!”

Gu ChunHua looked at the direction of the door, “Mom, the thing that I told you and Dad before, can GuoQiang still get the room…”

Li Dani was furious, and as soon as she heard it, she slapped Gu ChunHua’s head, “You’re always thinking about yourself, a useless thing!”

Gu ChunHua was in pain, hurriedly clutched her head, watching her mother angrily kicking something on the side of the road into the house, feeling aggrieved.

Before this, they had discussed that since the eldest brother is dead, and the useless sister-in-law will not come back again. Therefore, their elder brother’s room is available. GuoQiang had always wanted Gu Zheng’s room, so when he was not at home, GuoQiang often slept in his room. But when their big brother came back, he moved back to his own room.

That’s why when they heard that Gu Zheng is dead, GuoQiang immediately decided to take his room, and Gu ChunHua will get GuaQiangs’s room because she no longer wants to be jammed into the filthiest, smelliest room with Gu Yao.