Chapter 5: 第5章 拿你的宝贝蛋出气

But today she was in a foul mood and didn't hold back at all, opening her mouth to retort sharply.

"Look at you in your fine linen robes, embroidered with flowers and grass. If you sold those to buy meat for the grandparents, how much meat could you get? Why are you staring at the money for my medicine?"

"Forcing me to save the medicine money to buy meat for the grandparents, then watching coldly as I die of illness? If this gets out, will you get a good reputation, or some great benefit?"

"Don't you believe it? Those long-tongued women outside will poke at our Gu family ancestors' spines and curse! Say we've raised a nest of gluttons! Eating meat bought with a junior's life!"

"You're someone who's seen the world, the wife of a Tongsheng scholar at that. At your age, how can you spout such nonsense?"

"I truly worry for my eldest uncle. If he ever takes office as an official, won't someone like you bring disaster upon him?"

The moment these words fell, the smile on Wei Shi's face froze, her slanting eyes shooting fire.

Wei Shi was no easygoing person. Being lectured like this by a junior in front of the whole family, she was both furious and resentful.

She scanned the corridor, spotted the broom in the corner, and stepped toward it.

Gu Lianshan in the courtyard didn't like this one bit. He stepped forward, blocking Gu Tang, glaring at Wei Shi with ill intent: "You dare try moving an inch!"

Wei Shi's movement stiffened.

Just hearing Second Master Gu's thunderous roar made her heart tremble.

The broom within arm's reach—she couldn't take it, couldn't leave it.

Gu Lianshan wasn't a man of propriety. What "elder sister-in-law," what "men don't argue with women"—none of that worked on him.

He could plant his hands on his hips and curse a long-tongued neighbor in the street, or wail and threaten suicide like a shrew.

As long as it satisfied him, there was nothing he wouldn't do.

And Wei Shi knew this perfectly well, which was why she dared not cross Gu Lianshan.

"I'm telling you straight! If you dare lay a single finger on my daughter, I'll go back and break your precious darling's arms and legs!"

He was already seething at Wei Shi because of Gu Tang's words. Now seeing her reach for the broom to hit someone, Gu Lianshan was convinced his daughter had suffered no end of torment while he was away.

The more he thought, the angrier he got. He simply used Wei Shi's precious son to threaten her.

When Wei Shi married into the Gu family, she had miscarried repeatedly at first, then bore two daughters before finally having a son.

For this son, Wei Shi truly cherished him to the bottom of her heart. First, she unilaterally gave him the pet name "Tianbao." Then, fearing he wouldn't survive, the usually obedient Wei Shi tied a hemp rope to the roof beam and forced the Gu elders to light an eternal lamp for Gu Tianbao at the temple. If they didn't, she'd hang herself in the Gu house.

The two elders were frightened by her manic state and paid Gu Laoda to go light it.

From then on, the whole Gu family knew: Wei Shi valued Gu Tianbao more than her own life.

So Gu Lianshan threatening Wei Shi with Gu Tianbao—worked every time!

Sure enough, the moment Gu Tianbao was mentioned, Wei Shi instantly went docile, clutching her handkerchief with a face full of grievance.

She endured for a moment, but ultimately couldn't swallow the humiliation. Covering her face, she went into the main hall to weep to the Gu elders.

Gu Tang tugged her father's sleeve. "Grandma's definitely going to scold you now."

"Let her scold. What can she do? Doesn't hurt or itch. Your father isn't afraid of her." Gu Lianshan was a total rogue.

He jerked his chin toward the west wing, signaling Gu Tang to go inside: "You go back to your room. Stay out of this."

Gu Tang was still uneasy. Before leaving, she warned: "You'd better not make her sick with anger. If she gets sick, that thing we talked about earlier won't be easy to handle..."

"Relax. Your father knows the measure."

Gu Tang paused, mentally cursing: Who doesn't know who? You don't have a clue in that head of yours!

She opened her mouth to persuade further, but heard Old Madam Feng's cursing from the main hall: "Second son! You death-seeking bastard! You won't rest until this family falls apart?!"

Hearing his mother's curses, Gu Lianshan perked right up.

He signaled Gu Tang to go back again, then strode toward the main hall, screaming at the top of his lungs

"You're truly blind and deaf! Didn't you hear what the eldest daughter-in-law said just now, or did you just not want to hear? Is this how a senior aunt behaves?

Other families' senior aunts wish for the whole family, young and old, to live in peace and harmony. But her? She wishes for this one to suffer, that one to die. Even a venomous snake in the mountains isn't as poisonous as her..."

Hearing Feng Shi's voice, Gu Tang didn't want to say another word. Cursing her bad luck silently, she turned and walked back to her room without looking back.

Before Gu Tang transmigrated here, Feng Shi had transferred all her rage from that lawsuit onto the original owner, harboring a deep grudge.

Normally, she used her status as an elder to torment the original owner daily.

Feng Shi's method wasn't simple beating and scolding—it was ordering you to work.

Everything had to be done: cooking, washing clothes, scrubbing pots and dishes, feeding pigs and chickens, sweeping the courtyard, washing feet and pouring water for the elders.

All the Gu family's chores, big and small, the original owner had to do!

And that wasn't enough. For every task the original owner did, Feng Shi found a fault.

She belittled her from head to toe, made her out to be worthless, said she couldn't handle anything, was a burden on the family. That they let her live to grow up was already a tremendous kindness.

So the original owner had to be grateful!

If she hit you, you took it. If she cursed you, you listened.

If the original owner dared make a fuss, Feng Shi would shame her with filthy words.

Say a thirteen-year-old girl would be married off in a year or two. If you can't even do these chores, how will you serve your husband?

If you can't serve your husband, will he even sleep with you?

If he doesn't sleep with you, you won't bear sons.

If you don't bear sons, you're a sinner!

Those were truly vile, obscene words!

What grandmother speaks to her granddaughter like this?

Feng Shi was deliberately leading the original owner astray—if she couldn't kill her, she'd ruin her.

Back in her room, Gu Tang closed the door, climbed onto the bamboo couch, and pushed the window open a crack, looking worriedly toward the main hall.

Feng Shi emerged trembling from the hall, her bound feet unsteady, leaning against the doorframe.

Feng Shi was in her early fifties but looked sixty or seventy. Her skin was sallow and dark, wrinkles crisscrossing her face, covered in brown spots of varying sizes.

Loose eyelids drooped, forming a pair of triangular eyes. When she looked at people, it was like appraising goods, cold and sinister.

Few in the village associated with her, and she rarely went out, staying in this small courtyard day in, day out.

Hearing her son curse so fiercely now, Feng Shi's old face grew even uglier. She pointed at him and snapped back: "You bastard! Is that how you speak? She's your elder sister-in-law!"

Please collect~ Please vote~

(End of chapter)