Chapter 48 – Righteous Fury

Gu Dapeng had known that his wife was planning to build a new house, but he hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. Truth be told, he was actually quite pleased.

Even though Yan Fengru, his later-wed “delicate wife,” didn’t get along with the two children from his first marriage, the twin boy and girl born afterward were his own flesh and blood.

Twins—a dragon and phoenix pair, symbolizing auspiciousness—were something many people envied. Gu Dapeng had lost count of how many people admired him for it. Even though he and Yan Fengru had separated households now, weren’t the twins still his biological children?

A wife who’d split off from the family now building a house for his son? He couldn’t ask for anything better.

After all, it would still be considered part of the Gu family’s property. How could he not go over and help? So before Yan Fengru could even ask, Gu Dapeng very dutifully went over to lend a hand.

Maybe because it was his own son, Gu Dapeng worked very earnestly. Interestingly enough, he felt that even though he wasn’t particularly old yet, he had been following his eldest son for a while—and all the money he earned was going to the elder son.

Which, naturally, was unfair to the younger one.

So after finishing his labor, he returned home to eat and didn’t feel right staying to dine over there.

Because of this, Gu Caihe nearly threw a fit—acting like some kind of devoted, filial daughter—furious on behalf of her father and claiming he’d been treated unfairly.

Even Li-shi couldn’t help having some thoughts about the matter.

Ever since the stepmother and father had separated households, each staying with one son, the stepmother had taken all the communal funds from the original household with her. Objectively speaking, the eldest branch had gotten the short end of the stick.

But because the twins had run into trouble repeatedly, Li-shi had accepted the arrangement without protest.

However, Gu Caihe had always disliked her stepmother and had suffered repeated misfortunes in her disputes with her. Now she felt completely justified—righteous even. As far as she was concerned, the key was to stand on the side of reason. If she was in the right, then she had nothing to fear.

So Gu Caihe started raising a ruckus at home, venting her anger at her father.

“Dad, how could you be so muddle-headed? She’s building a house for Little Brother, and yes, as his father, of course you should go help. It would look bad if you didn’t. But to go help and not even get a hot meal? That’s just too much!”

“That Yan Fengru—how can she treat people like that?”

“No, this can’t be tolerated. We’ve got to go talk it out with her. We can’t let you be humiliated like this.”

Li-shi chimed in supportively, “What Aunt Yan did this time really was going too far. Dad, you’re working so hard over there—how could she not even feed you? It’s not that we mind you coming back to eat—it’s just, her behavior was really inappropriate. Don’t you agree?”

When Yan Fengru had married into the family, Gu Qingshan and Gu Caihe had already been grown. Gu Qingshan protected his sister and essentially went toe-to-toe with his stepmother at home, refusing even to acknowledge her as his “mother.”

Gu Qingshan had always treated her coldly, and Gu Caihe, who wasn’t particularly bright and was often manipulated by the Jiang family, didn’t go out of her way to fight—but certainly wasn’t going to start calling her “Mom” either.

Because of this, once Li-shi entered the household, things were extremely awkward.

If she called her “Mom,” it wasn’t appropriate—it wasn’t her birth mother, and both her husband and sister-in-law clearly didn’t get along with the woman. But if she didn’t call her “Mom,” it seemed impolite.

After all, she was an elder.

Of course, Yan Fengru herself didn’t care whether they called her “Mom” or not—she had her own children.

With Li-shi’s support, Gu Caihe became even more aggressive. “We need to go over there right now and demand an explanation! Why should Dad be treated like this!”

Her tone was full of righteous indignation. If Gu Dapeng hadn’t known his daughter’s nature so well, he might have actually believed her. But Gu Dapeng knew the truth—Yan Fengru hadn’t told him not to stay for a meal; she simply hadn’t invited him explicitly.

It was he who, feeling guilty for favoring his eldest son, had chosen to go home instead.

His younger son had been forced to separate households at a young age. He couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry. That was all.

He was a grown man—he could easily go home and make do with a simple meal. There was no need to eat their food.

The less he ate, the more food they’d have left.

What Gu Dapeng hadn’t expected was that Gu Caihe would think of it this way.

And then he looked at Gu Qingshan and his wife. Clearly, they were in agreement too. Gu Dapeng was left feeling… unspeakably disappointed.

“Don’t stir up trouble… It’s not that your Aunt Yan didn’t let me stay… it was… I just…”

But he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. Working over there but eating here—somehow it felt like a betrayal of Qingshan and his wife.

Gu Dapeng was a straightforward, honest man, and because of that, he found himself wavering.

But if Gu Caihe were the type to be reasonable or clever, she wouldn’t be Gu Caihe. In her mind, Yan Fengru was being unkind. Who asks someone to work and doesn’t even feed them? That was just unacceptable no matter how you looked at it.

“Brother,” she turned to Gu Qingshan, “what’s with that Yan woman, huh? Back when we split the household, it was agreed—Dad would be cared for by both sides. Two people each, nice and fair, no one taking advantage. And now? What she said back then might as well have been a bunch of lies!”

“Aren’t they the ones taking advantage of us now? No way—we can’t let this slide. We have to go confront her.”

“What’s the deal here? Either Dad stops helping them entirely, or he stays over there and eats with them. We’re not going to be the ones taking the loss!”

Gu Dapeng’s eyes widened in disbelief. He couldn’t believe these were the words coming out of his own daughter’s mouth.

He was a simple, honest man. Though he had a soft spot for his sons—a cultural tradition passed down through generations—he had truly loved his soft, tiny daughter back when she was little.

But now, looking at the contorted, angry face of this woman who bore such a resemblance to his late wife, Gu Dapeng felt like he didn’t even recognize her.

How could she say something like this?

Even if she didn’t like Yan Fengru, wasn’t Qingbai her own younger brother?

Qingbai was building a new house. As his father, Gu Dapeng was still alive—how could he just sit back and do nothing? That would be outrageous. Just because of one missed meal, he should turn his back on his own son? He wasn’t dead yet, after all!

In the village, there were three things most valued: weddings, funerals… and building houses.

A house was the foundation of one’s livelihood. Only when someone had a house did they have roots.

Of course, there was also the idea of achieving scholarly honor—but since raising a scholar took a lot of money, such people were rare and not counted here.

Simply put, building a house was a big deal. A father still alive, refusing to help build his son’s house over a missed meal? That was shameful!

Seeing that his daughter was getting more and more out of line, Gu Dapeng grew furious and started trembling.

“Shut your mouth! Just shut it! Caihe, I never imagined you’d think this way. Fine. You all think I’m just some useless old man eating up your food, right? Well then, I won’t eat your food anymore! I have my own land—I’ll eat what I grow!”

After roaring that out, Gu Dapeng turned and stormed into the house. As he did, he thought to himself: Thank goodness we divided everything up fairly when the households split, even leaving some for after we’re gone. Now I’ve got the confidence to argue with the kids.

Otherwise, if I had to rely on them for meals, I wouldn’t even be able to raise my voice.