Chapter 45 Are you nervous?

Watching the two of them wrestling with each other, Ji Tangtang raised an eyebrow and smiled, then nimbly slipped through the window into Gu Shiyu’s room.

In the darkness, his eyes shone like a sky full of stars, fixed unwaveringly on her. The dim light only made the lines of his face deeper, sharper. Ji Tangtang’s heart skipped a beat for no reason. This man… was simply too good-looking.

For once, she felt a little self-conscious. Handing him a bag of buns, she said, “Hungry? My mom made some buns at home, she asked me to bring you some.”

“Thank you.” Gu Shiyu didn’t stand on ceremony. Earlier, after Shen Meifang had failed to get money from him, she had spent the whole evening throwing things around and cursing. Of course, she hadn’t given him any dinner. He was long used to that. But he hadn’t expected Ji Tangtang to bring him food. A strange, unfamiliar warmth rose in his chest, and his eyes felt moist.

“No need to thank me. I bought these with the ration tickets and money you gave me.” Ji Tangtang brushed off her clothes and casually sat down beside him.

Gu Shiyu’s whole body instantly went tense.

“Go on, eat! They won’t taste good cold.” Ji Tangtang noticed his nervousness. “What? Just because I sit here, you get nervous?”

Gu Shiyu was silent for a moment. Instead of eating, he said softly, “I’m sorry.”

Ji Tangtang tilted her head, blinking. “What are you apologizing for all of a sudden?”

“It’s all because of me.” Gu Shiyu lowered his gaze. “If not for me, you wouldn’t have had to suffer so much trouble, wouldn’t have been insulted…”

Ji Tangtang realized he was apologizing for Shen Meifang cursing her. She arched an eyebrow. “But you weren’t the one who said those things. What are you apologizing for?”

“You’re dragged down by me. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be scolded again and again.” His eyes dropped to his legs. These legs… they couldn’t even allow him to stand up and protect her, let alone fight for her. He was nothing but a burden to her. He could never give her happiness.

His heart sank once more into darkness, swallowed by endless despair and guilt.

“This has nothing to do with you. Stop putting everything on yourself.” Ji Tangtang disliked seeing him so hopeless. Her tone sharpened. “Besides, didn’t she just get her lesson today? You think I’m weak, that I need you to defend me? Don’t look down on me.”

Outside, under Gu Hongwen’s attempts to mediate, Gu Weiguo and Shen Meifang finally separated. But the fall earlier had already left them injured, and after fighting each other their wounds were worse. Shen Meifang had lost two teeth and her swollen face looked like a pig’s head. Gu Weiguo’s face was covered with bloody scratches, and his already twisted back hurt so badly he could barely stand straight.

Gu Hongwen helped them back inside to apply medicine. Once she calmed down, Shen Meifang remembered the two pigs that had run off. She shouted toward the inner room, “Xiangling! Xianglan! You two useless girls, lying around like corpses—can’t you hear the racket outside? Get out here and help catch the pigs!”

Gu Xiangling and Gu Xianglan were fourteen-year-old twin sisters. After giving birth to Gu Hongwen, Shen Meifang hadn’t conceived for many years. When she finally became pregnant again, and it turned out to be twins, both she and Gu Hongwen had been full of hope. But to their disappointment, the twins were girls.

Worse, childbirth had left Shen Meifang with health problems. From then on, she despised the girls, treating them with nothing but scolding and beatings. Over time, the sisters grew timid and cowardly, always hiding whenever possible, trying not to draw attention to themselves.

Just now, hearing the noise outside, they had pretended not to notice. But when Shen Meifang called them out by name and cursed them, they had no choice but to timidly run out.

“What use are you two? The pigs ran off and you didn’t help, your father and I were fighting and you didn’t step in either.”

“What’s there to help with?” Gu Weiguo seized on the chance to snap back. “You crazy woman—wasn’t it enough you hit me? Now you want to drag the girls in to fight me too?”

Seeing they were about to argue again, Gu Hongwen quickly interrupted. “Dad, Mom, stop arguing. Let’s get the pigs back first. I have something important to tell you.”

Worried about the pigs, the couple suppressed their anger for the time being and hobbled outside to search. After much effort, they finally drove the pigs back. Only then did Shen Meifang have time to ask what Gu Hongwen had meant earlier.

Gu Hongwen said, “Mom, I want to hold my wedding banquet with Tingting on the 30th as well.”

Shen Meifang was stunned. “Why would you want to marry on the same day as that cripple? That’s bad luck!”

Gu Weiguo also disapproved. “Even if you want to marry, you can always pick another date. Why must it be the same day?”

Gu Hongwen explained, “Dad, you don’t understand. Word about our family has already spread at the factory. Right now I can’t even lift my head there. If I don’t quickly change the way people see me, how can I keep working there?”

“What does fixing your reputation at the factory have to do with marrying Tingting on the same day?” Shen Meifang was confused.

Gu Hongwen said, “The point is to marry on the same day, so everyone sees there’s no difference in how you treat me and my brother. They’ll see you treat Big Brother even better than me.”

Hearing that she was supposed to act as if she treated Gu Shiyu better than her own son, Shen Meifang’s heart was full of reluctance. Hongwen was her own flesh and blood. No matter how much she favored him, it was natural. But that cripple wasn’t even her own child—why should he be placed above her real son? Without hesitation, she shook her head. “No.”

Gu Hongwen lowered his voice and coaxed, “Mom, it’s not about really treating him better. You just need to put on an act, so the villagers will think I’ve suffered a huge injustice.”

Let everyone know that all the allowance he earned was already spent on his medical treatment. Now our family really has no money left, so even for my wedding, I can only keep things simple. In fact, when both brothers got married at the same time, whatever the family had was always given to him first. Everyone needs to know that he misunderstood us, held resentment against us, and went into the city to ruin my reputation.”

“Will that really work?” Gu Weiguo felt his son’s idea wasn’t very reliable.

“How could it not work?” Gu Hongwen said. “By then, the villagers will definitely feel indignant on our behalf. When the story spreads to the factory, my reputation will be restored. Dad, Mom, you don’t know—our factory might have a batch of temporary workers turning permanent next month. With my performance, I had a real chance of being converted. But if my reputation is bad, I might not be on that list.”

Hearing that this matter concerned her son’s permanent position, Shen Meifang dared not take it lightly. She hesitated for a moment, then agreed. “Alright, we’ll do as you say. Tomorrow I’ll have someone go to the Ji family to finalize your marriage with Tingting.”

The family sat together, discussing until midnight how to salvage his reputation on the wedding day, before finally going to bed exhausted.

At dawn the next day, Shen Meifang endured the aches all over her body, grimacing in pain as she dragged herself out of bed to speak with Ji Tingting’s parents about the marriage. She hadn’t expected that Chen Yuexiang hadn’t slept a wink the previous night and was now pacing anxiously in circles.

When the two women met, both were taken aback. Chen Yuexiang was shocked at how swollen Shen Meifang’s face was, like a pig’s head. Shen Meifang, in turn, was shocked at how pale Chen Yuexiang looked, as though someone in her family had died.

“Meifang, what happened to your face?”
“Yuexiang, why do you look so pale?”

They spoke almost at the same time.

“Last night a pig got loose, I went chasing after it. It was dark, and I couldn’t see the road clearly, so I fell.” Shen Meifang couldn’t admit she’d gotten into a fight with her husband, so she blamed all her injuries on the fall. After she spoke, she suddenly remembered to ask, “What about you? What’s going on with you? Why do you look like an ant on a hot pan?”

Chen Yuexiang had been worrying all morning without finding a solution. Now that Shen Meifang asked, it was like she’d found a backbone to lean on. She quickly said, “Last night, Yuanqing and his brothers went into the mountains with their father, and they still haven’t come back. Do you think… could something have happened to them?”