Chapter 10: 10. Chapter 10: Ruthless Person

Chapter 10: The Ruthless One

Lu Nanting was the type to climb up wherever he found a foothold. Not only did he not pull away, but he leaned even closer to her

"Our darling Xixi is truly amazing! If I were in that kind of situation, I certainly couldn't have done better than you."

Having understood the crux of her inner turmoil, Lu Nanting didn't feel afraid; instead, he felt a sense of relief.

Knowing where the problem lay and prescribing the right medicine was always more effective than fumbling around blindly.

Gu Lanxi felt as if she had punched a pile of cotton.

She couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

After the incident occurred, the first thing she had to face was arranging the funerals for the three elders.

Because of her backstabbing and the family's heartless abandonment, her scumbag father, who had lost his parents in a single day, had a complete mental breakdown.

On top of that, his mistress stirred up trouble, calling to say their "heir to the throne" had a fever and was hospitalized, so the scumbag father actually returned to Jiangnan overnight.

Before leaving, he went to the extreme of packing up and selling off all the assets in their hometown at rock-bottom prices. He even took her textbooks and old clothes, wrapped them specifically in bedsheets, and dragged them out to sell to a scrap recycling station.

His way of handling things was a galaxy away from Gu Lanxi’s, leaving many people’s jaws on the floor!

Seeing that he was about to leave—not only ignoring his wife but his own parents as well—the clansmen rushed to stop him, demanding he take responsibility. He acted like a rogue, even picking a fight with a twelve-year-old child

"It’s hilarious! I’m not even a member of your Gu clan, why should I care about your Gu clan’s business? Isn't Gu Lanxi so damn capable? With her here, do you really need idlers like us?"

When the clan scolded him for not wearing mourning clothes for his parents—a sign of extreme unfilial behavior—he still had a retort

"I’m an unfilial, disloyal person; I don't know anything about loyalty or filial piety! Get lost!"

He had intended to put on airs, waiting for people to beg him repeatedly before he would stay, and he even wanted the family to revoke their decision to expel him from the clan.

He was even willing to use his son as a bargaining chip for this.

When things didn't go his way, he not only refused to perform the funeral rites for his parents himself, but he also forbade his son from returning to pay his final respects, infuriating everyone to the point of collapse!

Having just made a grand show of upholding the family's reputation, the clan elders huddled together and decided to let Gu Lanxi handle the matter.

Gu Weihao had indeed been expelled from the clan, and his illegitimate son would never be recognized!

He didn't want to come back? Who cared?

Since the clan rules had been changed, boys and girls should now enjoy equal status!

With Gu Lanxi there, if he insisted on acting so irrationally, then let him be!

As for whether her grandfather and grandmother would be cursing from the grave, that wasn't something they needed to worry about.

Poor management of the family and lack of ability—he deserved it!

Having pooled the money for the funeral, the relatives had done all they could.

Upon learning that her scumbag father had abandoned his duties, twelve-year-old Gu Lanxi didn't panic. Instead, she rose to the challenge and handled everything beautifully.

The money was provided, and there were people to help with the manual labor; she only needed to keep vigil, wail at the funeral, and greet the guests.

Furthermore, the funeral wasn't a grand affair, and since only relatives attended, it wasn't actually that difficult to manage.

She handled things with such transparency that when the funeral ended, she even gathered the funeral gifts received and returned a portion of the funeral expenses to each household.

Although she hadn't paid it all back, this attitude earned her a great deal of respect.

In the dead of night, the candles in the mourning hall flickered. Three pitch-black coffins were arranged in a "pin" shape in the main room, the air thick with the scent of incense and paper money.

She wasn't afraid. Instead, she had the presence of mind to pin the blame on her scumbag father. While wailing and burning paper money, she would list his faults in a weak, mournful voice—item by item. If not for the need to be credible, she would have started from before she was even born.

She couldn't be blamed for doing this.

After all, with her scumbag father gone, she still had to live in her hometown, and a good reputation was essential.

For several days, she alternated between crying for the dead and burning paper, while complaining to relatives about her miserable fate in having such an unreliable father.

"For Grandpa and Grandma to have given birth to him—it would have been better to give birth to a piece of roast pork!"

By repeatedly pinning the blame on him, the effect was outstanding. Even now, when friends and family mentioned him, they would shake their heads, as if sympathizing with him would make them the same kind of person.

At only twelve years old, with no one behind the scenes giving her advice, she was able to pull this off. For a long time, people looked at her as if she were a monster.

No one gave her nicknames anymore, and people no longer dared to bully her just because she was young.

She became a well-known "ruthless one" far and wide.

Because of her family, the Gu clan suffered its biggest scandal in a century, and in the end, her father took the fall for everything.

The matter was suppressed, but she only gained a superficial victory.

Her grandparents' and mother's spirit tablets could still enter the ancestral hall, and her name was written in the genealogy, but she was plunged into extreme poverty as a result.

Some clansmen hated her to the bone because she was in the same situation as her scumbag father.

Others treated her very well because her outburst had greatly protected their rights.

Thus, for the next two years, before she took her scholarship to university, while some people constantly tried to trip her up, many others secretly helped her so she wouldn't starve.

Because she was a minor, even if she fought for the inheritance of the three elders, with her father as her legal guardian, it wouldn't end up in her hands. If she waited until she was an adult to fight for it, her scumbag father might even prepare a "debt package" for her.

So, one late night, a clan aunt secretly found her and told her to take the opportunity to kick her father out and change her guardian.

At that time, she was still eating leftovers at the clan leader's house, living under the stairs, and wearing old clothes given to her by others. To go to school, she had to kneel in the ancestral hall and cry to her ancestors for tuition, then go to the offering table the next day to take it.

Because her mother was dead, the number of people who hated her was countless. Even if someone wanted to be kind to her, they didn't dare to do it openly.

Seeing that autumn was approaching and she was still sleeping on a hard wooden board under the stairs, she was awakened by the aunt's words and immediately took action.

During that time, she followed the aunt's advice and made her misery known to everyone. The community intervened several times, and it even alarmed the police, but her father only felt satisfied and ignored her, eventually even refusing to answer her calls.

After all, he had a son and a daughter, his original wife was dead, and his mistress was moving in—it was a complete family. He didn't care about this daughter who hadn't grown up by his side and who, like her mother, had a heart like a scorpion.

Since he had already been expelled from the clan, Gu Weihao burned his bridges, never intending to return, and acted without any regard for consequences.

The Gu family couldn't afford the shame, so they finally gave in to Gu Lanxi's wishes.

Gu Weihao lost his guardianship over her due to abandonment.

She was successfully adopted by a childless branch of the clan, transforming from the only seedling of her branch into the only seedling of another.

From then on, her father and his children never returned, and her grandfather and grandmother couldn't even enjoy the incense she had previously looked down upon.

The grandmother who adopted her treated her like a stranger and left her inheritance to her own nephews, but Gu Lanxi didn't blame her.

Because that grandmother was simply following the clan's arrangements to give her a status so she wouldn't be sent to an orphanage and bring shame to the Gu family.

But after that grandmother passed away, every Qingming Festival, she would return to her hometown to burn an excessive amount of incense and paper money for her, placing the finest offerings.

Although she wasn't superstitious, even if there was the slightest possibility that it would make her grandfather and grandmother go mad with rage in the afterlife, she would persist in doing it.

Because of this, she would laugh out loud even in her dreams.

It was truly good for the body and mind.

It was a pity that such low-cost happiness only came once a year.

Self-reliant, always on the road to making money.

Heart like a scorpion, putting her own interests first at critical moments, never considering what would happen to those who treated her poorly.

Young Master Lu's first impression of her was quite objective.

This woman, who appeared infinitely gentle, was essentially a domineering lioness.

(End of chapter)