Chapter 22: Extremely Satisfied (Part 2)

“No need. I’ll just take this out. You should listen to my daughter and stay in the room with your son. Don’t go out or speak—if people outside hear, it’ll be trouble.”

Lu Yan nodded.
Since they didn’t need his help, he didn’t insist.
He obediently stayed inside the room and waited.

Meanwhile, Aunt Yang, seeing her sister-in-law hadn’t come out after so long, became even more arrogant.

“Girl, your mother’s been in there forever just to get an abacus. Is it really taking that long? Or is she scared? If she’s scared, then just give me the money already!”

Just as she finished speaking, Lin came out of the room holding the abacus. She handed it to her daughter and stood quietly off to the side.

Gu Leyou sat down on a chair with the abacus and started fiddling with the beads, muttering under her breath,
“Three times seven is twenty-one, four times seven is twenty-eight, subtract the two and the result is seven…”

Watching this little girl play with the abacus and mutter to herself gave Aunt Yang a bad feeling, though she still impatiently snapped,
“Are you done yet? No matter how you calculate, you still owe me money.”

Gu Leyou’s lips curled up in a slight smile.
Aunt Yang, say all you want now. You won’t be talking like this in a minute.

She finished calculating, set down the abacus, stood up, and smiled politely.
“Aunt, if you want our family to give you eleven taels of silver, then you’ll need to first pay us back the seven taels your family owes us. Once we get that, we’ll give you the amount you’re asking for.”

“Seven taels? What nonsense is that? When did we ever owe you money? It’s clearly you who owes us!” Aunt Yang was starting to panic.

“When my little brother got injured, and my mother was hit by your family, even my face was scratched—those medical costs are no joke,” Gu Leyou explained.

“How could that cost seven taels? That’s ridiculous!” Aunt Yang argued.

“Aunt, I already gave you the family discount out of consideration for our kinship. If I charged at market rate, you’d owe even more.”

Aunt Yang stood in the courtyard with her hands on her hips, wanting to yell, but couldn’t find the words.

Seeing her silent, Gu Leyou continued,
“Since you’re not saying anything, I’ll take that as agreement. Please hand over the money. Once you do, I’ll naturally give you the money you claim we owe.”

Aunt Yang realized this family was serious and immediately lost the aggressive attitude she had when she came in. She shrank back and stammered,
“I don’t have any money. All the money is controlled by the old lady (grandmother); she runs the household.”

“Then you should go back and get the money from Grandma first,” Gu Leyou said.

“You little brat, this house isn’t even yours to manage. Why can’t you just give me the money first and I’ll go get yours later?”

Gu Leyou knew exactly what kind of trick Aunt Yang was trying to pull.
“Well, in that case, Aunt, I think it’s time for you to go. Since you can’t give us money right now, we can’t give you any either. We can’t do business at a loss, can we?”

It was clearly a polite way of kicking her out.

But Aunt Yang wasn’t the type to give up easily. If she couldn’t get money today, she’d come back every day until she did.

Still, a wise person knows when to retreat. If she stayed, that clever girl might actually get money out of her, so she turned and left, throwing out a final threat,
“You just wait. I’m not letting this go. I’ll be back!”

When her voice could no longer be heard, Lu Yan finally came out of the room with his son.
The whole Gu family breathed a sigh of relief.

But Gu Leyou still had important questions.

“What happened after I left this morning? Did Cousin give you any trouble? And why is Aunt claiming she got hurt? Dad, don’t tell me you hit her in a fit of anger?” she asked, puzzled.

“That’s impossible,” Gu Haixiong said. “You know I never hit anyone. As for how your cousin Gu Mingyue got hurt, only she knows. But you already know what kind of people your uncle’s family is. There’s no way they’d let us in to check for ourselves.”

“Miss Gu, Uncle, Aunt—I believe they’re just trying to extort you,” Lu Yan added.

“What makes you say that?” Gu Leyou asked.

“Look. Your cousin left here uninjured. She only got hurt after going home, and you didn’t give her any money. So, either she hurt herself or got someone else to do it.”

Hearing this, everyone suddenly understood.

Gu Leyou, however, still had some doubts.
Her future husband didn’t seem like an ordinary man.

Such insight usually came from people raised in powerful households—not a mountain-dwelling hunter.

His background might not be simple after all.

“So what should we do next?” Lin asked.

“Aunt, Uncle, in my humble opinion,” Lu Yan replied, “instead of waiting for them to cause trouble again, you should go on the offensive. If they say you hurt their daughter, go to their house and ask to see her yourself. That way, you can get to the bottom of things and won’t need to pay them anything.”

Gu Haixiong, though an honest man, found the logic sound and decided to go see his brother’s family himself.

If he could see Gu Mingyue, he might be able to uncover the full story.

Just as he was about to leave, Gu Leyou stopped him.
“Dad, take Mom with you. She’ll know how to handle it. We don’t have much money right now, and we all know Aunt won’t give up easily if she doesn’t get any.”

Gu Haixiong refused.
“You and your mom should stay and keep our guests company. As for that side of the family—I can handle it. I’m not stupid. You think I’d just hand over money for nothing?”

Speaking of money, Gu Leyou was thankful she hadn’t handed over her earnings to her parents yet.
Otherwise, given their honest nature, they probably would’ve given the money to Aunt Yang just to keep the peace.

They’re good, honest farmers—but not great at handling messy family politics.