Chapter 23: Regret Not Acting Sooner

Gu Caihe’s shrill outburst immediately darkened Gu Dapeng’s face.

He had always been confused about why his wife insisted on dividing the household, but now, looking at his eldest son’s sullen face and his eldest daughter jumping up and down for no reason, he seemed to understand a little.

Still, no matter how disgraceful, they were his own flesh and blood. Gu Dapeng scowled and barked, “Shut up! Who gave you the right to speak here?”

Gu Caihe stared at her father in disbelief. Gu Yuzhu looked at her so-called elder sister, her emotions complex beyond words. With that level of intelligence? Forget it, better to leave it to her mother. After all, her mother had been a senior maid. Gu Yuzhu figured that in this life, she might just be able to live like a salted fish, lying flat without worry…

According to Yan Fengru’s plan, after the household split, Gu Dapeng would live with his eldest son, while she would live with the youngest son, and the youngest daughter would also stay with her. Other than the thirty taels of silver, Yan Fengru was otherwise quite fair—dividing everything into five parts. One part each for Gu Qingshan (the eldest son), Gu Dapeng, Yan Fengru herself, Gu Qingbai (the younger son), and the last share for Gu Yuzhu.

Since she was not yet married, she had to have a dowry set aside.

Even Gu Qingshan had nothing to say about this.

When his younger sister Gu Caihe got married, the betrothal gift from the Han family had all been given to her as dowry, plus an extra five taels of silver. In addition, their father had asked his master to make a redwood cabinet and bought two thick and warm new quilts to send with her.

That dowry was one-of-a-kind in their village.

Yan Fengru didn’t care for Gu Qingshan’s share; it would go to him after she passed. Her own share would go to her son, Gu Qingbai. Gu Dapeng had no objections to this. After all, they were dividing the household, not divorcing. Gu Qingbai and Gu Yuzhu were still his biological children…

The main portion was property. After that came the house, cooking utensils, and such. Yan Fengru didn’t want the house. Although the Gu family’s house was large, it would be awkward to continue living together—bumping into each other every day defeated the purpose of dividing the household.

Yan Fengru had already decided: once she and the old man split, she would take the two children and move to town. If she found suitable land in the countryside, she would buy it. Once her son was older, she would have a small courtyard built for herself to retire in.

By the time the Jiang family arrived, the Gu household had already completed the division.

Old Madam Yuan was a thin and dark-skinned woman with high cheekbones and a somewhat mean expression. As soon as she arrived, she was tackled by Gu Caihe, who threw herself into her arms.

Gu Caihe howled in anguish, while her younger sister looked like she had something to say but held it in. The old lady immediately assumed her grandchildren were being bullied.

“Gu Dapeng, you heartless bastard! My daughter Chunyan hasn’t even been gone for that many years, and you’re already being a wicked stepfather to my grandchildren. You’ll die a terrible death!”

The grandmother and granddaughter cried bitterly in each other’s arms.

Finally, the old lady remembered why she had come. However, by then, Xiao Jiang had already explained the situation regarding the division of the Gu household. Old Madam Yuan immediately exploded.

“I said it back then—when Chunyan died, Qiu Xia, her biological younger sister, wouldn’t mistreat her niece and nephew. But now that my daughter is gone, no one listens to me anymore. You just had to bring in that vixen and let her turn the household upside down. If those two children didn’t visit me from time to time, I bet they wouldn’t even get a full meal.”

Yuan rambled on and even wiped at tears that didn’t exist. Yan Fengru was utterly disgusted by the old hag.

Your daughter was married into the family. She died, and now you expect her sister to take over the whole household too? Where do you get such a giant ego? Her face was as big as a basin! But the worst part was how she acted like she had every right to be indignant. Even the clan elders of the Gu family were starting to feel embarrassed.

Gu Dapeng had never known how to deal with this former mother-in-law.

Jiang was a quiet, reserved woman. Back when she was alive, Madam Yuan had at least focused on her daughter, occasionally urging her to support the maternal family—but overall, things were manageable. At the very least, she didn’t cause trouble for Gu Dapeng.

But now, Gu Dapeng realized how unreasonable this former mother-in-law really was. Listen to her! He was merely her ex-son-in-law. Now that her daughter was gone, did she think she had the right to decide who he married next? Not marrying again would be considered letting her down? Even his own mother in her grave wouldn’t accept this logic.

Of course, Gu Dapeng didn’t say any of this aloud. He wasn’t eloquent.

Yan Fengru just sneered, silently watching Yuan jump around, wearing a sarcastic smile. That old hag was nothing more than a shrew—you couldn’t reason with her. No matter what you said, she’d twist it to make herself sound right. Better to save the energy for the kids.

So Yan Fengru wasn’t affected in the slightest.

Seeing that neither Gu Dapeng nor Yan Fengru spoke up, Yuan assumed she had intimidated them and grew bolder. She opened her mouth and demanded, “The eldest son has always had the duty of supporting the parents. I say everything in the house should be left to Qingshan—he’s the real pillar of this family. That Gu Qingbai is just a brat raised by a stepmother, that little @#￥%@…”

Gu Yuzhu was stunned. The combat power of rural women in ancient times was terrifying. The foul language was outrageous. Still, it was the first time Gu Yuzhu had such a real, tangible sense of ancient life.

She had truly transmigrated, landing in an unknown dynasty in the body of a peasant girl. She now had a mother who doted on her and a twin brother. As for her father—Gu Yuzhu hadn’t thought much about Gu Dapeng. She felt that his fatherly love paled in comparison to her mother’s.

After all, in her previous life, she’d experienced complete fatherly love from the old Taoist priest. So Gu Yuzhu wasn’t all that concerned with Gu Dapeng. She definitely didn’t care for him the way she did for Yan Fengru. Perhaps this had something to do with the original host’s feelings as well.

Children are always sensitive. They know who genuinely cares for them. It’s not that Gu Dapeng treated her badly—she was his biological child after all—but his love was spread too thin. The original host never felt it deeply, so she naturally didn’t reciprocate much.

As the old woman’s words became increasingly inappropriate, the Gu family’s clan elders realized they could no longer stay silent. Letting her ramble on would make it look like the Gu family had no backbone—that outsiders could come meddle in household divisions.

Regardless of whether Jiang was alive or not, this Yuan woman was now an outsider.

No one had ever heard of a mother-in-law interfering in her son-in-law’s household division. It was laughable. With the help of the Gu clan elders, Yuan was finally forced to back down.

She watched helplessly as her former son-in-law divided the household. Word had it that the entire thirty taels of silver went to that vixen. Yuan stared daggers at Yan Fengru’s retreating back, as if trying to bore a hole into her.

That poisonous glare even made Gu Caihe flinch.

“Mother?” Xiao Jiang was inwardly overwhelmed with jealousy. It had only been a few years since her sister passed—eight, to be exact—and yet the Gu family had managed to save thirty taels of silver and build such a grand courtyard. That spoke volumes about her former brother-in-law’s capabilities.

It should have been her who married him as a second wife. Thinking of how she had missed out on thirty taels of silver, Xiao Jiang was so regretful she wanted to cry! If she’d known Gu Dapeng was so capable, she would have fought harder back then.

Xiao Jiang bitterly regretted not acting sooner.