Chapter 9: I Am Just This Malicious

“Early the next morning, I was cooking in the kitchen when an uncle from a neighboring house hurried over. He whispered something to my grandparents and left immediately. Sensing something was wrong, I hurriedly followed him.

“Then I saw it: outside our Gu family ancestral hall, there were crowds and crowds of people, packed three layers deep inside and out.

“My grandparents were called inside. Soon, screams and curses erupted from within, followed by heart-wrenching, agonizing wails.

“I squeezed through the crowd, passed through door after door, and then, I saw a white wall.

“The blood on the wall had already dried. It was scrawled with phrases like ‘Illegitimate child enters the genealogy, the men of the Gu family will never get ahead,’ and ‘The mistress takes the throne, may the descendants die out.’ Every sentence was the most vicious curse imaginable. Anyone who cared about the clan would have felt their blood boil and would have had to pinch their philtrum to keep from fainting.

“At the entrance of the main hall where the ancestral tablets were kept, blood pooled on the ground. Swarms of flies buzzed, flying onto the wall, making the words look even darker, then flying down to the floor, layer upon layer...

“The woman who was as thin as a bamboo pole, the one who had patted my head and coaxed me to sleep just last night, was lying on the threshold. Her thick, black hair was matted with blood, sliding down from the back of her head like a thick, greasy piece of kelp, piling up on the ground...”

Someone hugged her, and soft, fragrant hands covered her eyes, yet she didn't even dare to cry out loud.

Her mother had beautiful hair—black, shiny, and thick—which she had always cherished.

Whenever they returned to their hometown, on afternoons when the sun was just right, she loved to wash her hair in the courtyard.

She would place a large basin on a stool, fill it with hot water, and use the floral-scented shampoo she brought back from Jiangnan. She would gently work it into a dense lather, then use a ladle to scoop water and rinse it clean.

The hot water, carrying white foam, would flow along the sun-bleached terrace into the gutter, filling the courtyard with a faint fragrance.

Whenever this happened, her grandmother would slam the ladle in the kitchen, cursing under her breath as she did so.

It was mostly talk about "hens that couldn't lay eggs."

She would always frown, squatting under the eaves, watching blankly.

Even at that young age, she didn't believe that not being able to give birth to a son was a woman's fault, nor did she agree that wanting to be beautiful was wrong.

But her grandmother was wrong, yet she never said a word.

Because she was still young, and she was living under her grandparents' roof.

She regretted being so cowardly back then, but if she had to do it all over again, she would likely do the same.

People probably all have a selfish side. When she was struggling just to survive, she didn't have much warmth left, even for her closest kin.

To make her conscience feel better, she would even try hard to pick out the other person's faults in her heart.

*See? She was the one who treated me badly first, that’s why I’m not good to her...*

Something appeared in her palm. She looked down and saw a peppermint candy.

Lu Nanting was kneeling on his seat. Taking advantage of her looking at the candy, he quickly reached out and gently patted her head.

“Life is bitter sometimes. I’ll remember to bring you a little more sweetness in the future.”

When you’re an artist, you have to maintain your figure year-round, often dieting, and sometimes you’re so busy you forget to eat.

Keeping a candy on you can be a lifesaver in a pinch.

She hadn't expected that Lu Nanting, who was as sturdy as an ox, would carry these too.

Gu Lanxi took it, held it in her palm, and stared at it for a long time, but didn't eat it.

She wasn't a weak person.

And she didn't want to diminish herself to gain others' sympathy.

The only bit of warmth she had was consumed by that woman who died so miserably.

Although she never said it out loud, she had always deeply hated her grandparents and her scumbag father.

Therefore, as she continued, she didn't feel sad; instead, there was a hint of schadenfreude

“My grandmother always had high blood pressure. Seeing that scene, she collapsed on the spot. She was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead within an hour—a cerebral infarction.

“That same night, my grandfather passed away too. After the coroner examined him, they said it was a heart attack.

“The elders said my father was rushing back as soon as he heard the news. I can imagine who everyone will blame for all of this.

“She told me she had cancer and wouldn't live long, but that was just so I wouldn't be so heartbroken. Since she was going to die anyway, it wasn't a pity to die now, and she could vent her anger—she felt it was worth it.

“I have no way to verify the truth of those words. But, because of that tiny bit of maternal love—which I might have imagined—I really couldn't turn a blind eye to her reputation after death.

“So, I wrote on a piece of cardboard overnight, grabbed a butcher’s knife, and stood at the entrance of the ancestral hall for an entire day.

“The sound of the funeral rites inside the hall was deafening; the elders had paid a lot of money to hire a master. The wall had its plaster scraped off and was quickly covered with tiles. They even brought in water trucks to the courtyard, washing it over and over again, truckload after truckload.

“My mother was cleaned up and placed in a coffin. Someone came to tell me to go watch over her, but I acted like I didn't hear them and just kept standing there, being stared at by everyone.

“Everyone who came to watch the spectacle could see what I had written, but no one dared to stop me because they were all afraid I would do something impulsive. By the time that scumbag returned, nothing could be changed.”

Gu Lanxi calmly raised her head, her eyes clear as she looked at him: “I wrote it in red paint; it smelled terrible. ‘Gu Weihao drove his original wife to her death, angered his parents to death, was unfaithful to his marriage, and unfilial to his parents. He is truly the shame of the Gu family. I am severing all ties with him!’”

The incident caused a huge stir, once causing a sensation throughout the city of Guangzhou, and even Hong Kong was abuzz for a while.

The Gu family held a clan meeting as quickly as possible. Even the branches from Southeast Asia sent high-ranking elders overnight, arriving by private jet.

They were afraid she would do something irreversible and further tarnish the Gu family’s reputation.

After the clan elders gathered, the first thing they did was expel Gu Weihao from the clan.

And they did it while he wasn't even there.

It’s funny to think about: almost the entire family had died, and the great-uncle from Malaysia had arrived, but the scumbag father from Jiangnan was still on his way.

Since his own daughter had struck such a heavy blow and despised such a father, others naturally disdained to associate with him.

There was no way this pot of fine soup that was the Gu family could contain such a piece of rat dung—unfaithful, unfilial, and unkind. They naturally wanted to fish him out and throw him away the moment he surfaced.

Even if there was still a lot left at the bottom of the pot, who cared?

The second thing was to add Gu Lanxi to the genealogy.

In handling this matter, she showed the visionary elders in the clan that she was even more intelligent and decisive than any man.

What was most rare was that she didn't have any "womanly benevolence."

With things having turned out this way, someone had to take the blame.

The scumbag father’s private conduct was beyond repair, while the tragic death of the original wife at least earned her some sympathy points.

The best part was that the dead could no longer make things worse, and as for the living, no one knew what kind of trouble he would stir up next.

Therefore, compared to being Gu Weihao’s daughter, being tied to the unfortunate original wife actually made her more pitiable.

The Gu family was wealthy; even if many people were annoyed by her, they couldn't just watch her starve to death.

Going with the scumbag father, trying to survive under the mistress, and living under the same roof as the illegitimate siblings her own mother had made miserable—that would be the real nightmare.

Especially since, after choosing this path, she executed it with a will as firm as diamond.

Such a child must not be allowed to drift away from the family.

Between the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Jiangnan Gu family migrated south to escape the chaos of war and developed in the Pearl River Delta. Excluding the missing period in the genealogy, just counting from that great-grandfather in Zhuji Lane, Nanhiong, it had been over seven hundred years.

The clan had produced many talented people throughout the dynasties. Those who stayed in the old mansion were now more like wealthy landlords, living off rent and getting rich from demolition compensation. But those outside, especially the Southeast Asian branches, were all major merchants in their respective regions. They had branched off from the main line many years ago, and their vision was naturally extraordinary.

Once someone proposed this, others quickly agreed.

From then on, Gu Lanxi became the only bloodline of their branch. Even if the mistress gave birth to a hundred sons, they would only have the surname Gu; they would not be recognized by the ancestors and could only wander outside.

Although Gu Lanxi didn't care much about these things, as long as it made her father and the mistress’s family vomit blood in anger every night, she would feel satisfied from head to toe.

It was unimaginable how much more cheerful she would become because of it.

The third thing: since the various branches of the Gu family were rarely gathered together and such an incident had occurred, they urgently needed to do something to change their image, so they decided to keep up with the times and revise the clan rules.

From then on, the women of the Gu family were qualified to be added to the genealogy.

Previously, daughters of the various Gu branches did not have inheritance rights and could not enter the family company to become decision-makers. From then on, all the impossibilities slowly became possibilities.

Because of this, Gu Lanxi had a good relationship with most of the sisters in the clan. Especially those aunts and great-aunts who only had daughters and no sons had always treated her well, and as she became more successful, they treated her like their own daughter.

“See? I am such a vicious person.”

So, if you want to marry her, a simple wish is fine, but if you want to talk about feelings, you must be extremely cautious.

She laid out her most unbearable past for him to see, only because, in her eyes now, Lu Nanting’s feelings were even harder for her to bear.

After struggling for so many years to finally live a peaceful life, she didn't want to see it all destroyed by a relationship between them that could very likely turn sour.

His love was like a highly toxic honey—she wanted to eat it, but she was terrified, so she could only keep waving her hands, saying, *take it away, take it away, take it away...*

All my descriptions of the clan are fictional. There is no such Gu family in Guangzhou; please do not project this onto reality.

Sigh, today was really unlucky.

A word of advice to all male readers: when your wife is taking a shower, especially when her head is full of foam and she hasn't rinsed it off yet, don't insist on showering with her. You are really asking for a scolding!

Especially when you're halfway through and the showerhead breaks—the look that says "I could kill you" is impossible to hide.

The joint between the hose and the showerhead was broken, and no matter what, it wouldn't plug back in. I was so angry I blew up, and the "King of Involution" could only act humble and hurry to fix it.

The temperature has dropped so much, it’s freezing, and I kept urging him: "Is it plugged in yet? Why are you so slow? Are you even capable of anything?"

The King of Involution was like a thief, fixing the water pipe while begging me, "Keep your voice down! My lady! Keep your voice down! The window is open, it’s not soundproof!"

Damn it, the neighbors probably think this couple is playing some wild games.

Just taking a shower together can lead to an accident.

Good heavens, fixing a water pipe actually led to social death.

I was so angry at the time.

Now I really regret it.

If I had even half of little Gu’s emotional stability, I wouldn't have ended up like this.

I swear, tomorrow I’ll wrap a scarf around my face and go buy a lottery ticket. If I win the grand prize, I’m going to buy a villa.

There are too many neighbors; it’s amazing how they make the act of living so exhausting.

A night of foul language, and the King of Involution is sleeping like a dead pig while I’m still typing.

No one is here to praise me for my creative insults; I feel like something is missing.

Poor guy, he finally finished five days of work, and he has to go to school on the weekend. I’ll let him off the hook.

What can relieve worries? Only shopping, shopping, shopping.

What are you planning to buy for Double 11? Give me some inspiration.

(End of chapter)