Chapter 6

After much thoughts, it was decided without hesitation.

Gu Qinghuan took out a black-boned chicken from the refrigerator and stewed it in a clay pot over a low flame. Inside, she added astragalus, longan, red dates, american ginseng, and goji berries, all of which were nourishing herbs, good for replenishing energy and blood, and also nutritious.

This was prepared for Mother Gu.

Then she steamed two baskets of frozen buns and ate two of them with milk, while the rest were carried to “The Madman’s” room.

When she entered: the Madman instinctively shot a fierce look at her.

Gu Qinghuan braved herself and placed the two buns on the kang beside him.

“Figure it out yourself.” She said, not caring whether he understood or not.

After all, she couldn’t feed him; what if he bit her?

Although his body was restrained, his head could still move, so eating a bun shouldn’t be a problem, right?

There were still six buns left. Gu Qinghuan packed them in a lunchbox and placed them on the table by the door.

The two children would have them for lunch when they returned at noon. She had to go out and wouldn’t be able to attend to them.

After Gu Qinghuan left, the man on the bed stared blankly at the buns right in front of him, his gaze slowly focusing.

He leaned over, took one, and chewed it carefully before swallowing.

A tear slid down from the corner of his eye.

Though he was living a life worse than a dog, he still wanted to try and stay around a little longer for the children.

Occasionally, when his mind was clear, he would look at his current situation.

Proud as he was, he wished he could die cleanly and soon, but he just couldn’t bring himself to leave the two poor children.

---

Gu Qinghuan went to the Madman’s father, Branch Secretary Xu Mingshan.

“Educated Youth Gu, is your health better? What’s the matter?”

Xu Mingshan spoke, then suddenly remembered that Educated Youth Gu was already his second daughter-in-law. When he thought about it, he felt a little embarrassed. After all, what he had done was something that went against his conscience.

This young girl, so beautiful, had ended up with a madman and two burdens, this is just ruining her whole life.

He truly couldn’t take care of his son, and his wife was unwilling to help. He had no choice but to come up with this desperate solution of finding his son a long-term meal ticket.

This girl had a good heart. Just looking at how she sold herself to treat her mother’s illness showed that she was a straightforward person.

“Can I ask you for a favor?” Gu Qinghuan was not shy, speaking directly, with a look of wanting to speak but holding back tears. That expression instantly took control of Xu Mingshan.

Although this old man was very bad, just like Liu Guifang, when asking for help, one had to show the proper attitude.

Gu Qinghuan had worked in the workplace in her past life, so no matter where she went, she understood the ways of human interaction, reading the situation.

As the saying goes, speak to people in the language of people, and to ghosts in the language of ghosts.

“What’s wrong? Just say it.” Xu Mingshan thought she might be having second thoughts, his expression darkening.

“The Old Residence has been vacant for too long. There are holes everywhere, and it’s impossible to live there. I think the roof won’t hold much longer. If it falls, it could kill someone. You know more people than I do. Could you help us get a new place to live? Even a smaller one would be fine.”

So it was this issue. As long as she wasn’t backing out, everything was negotiable.

Although Xu Mingshan hadn’t seen the Old Residence with his own eyes, he knew its condition. Gu Qinghuan’s concerns weren’t without reason. If something happened, it would be a huge problem.

If the son of the village branch secretary were to be killed by a falling roof in that dilapidated house, it would be the talk of the village for a lifetime.

The reason they were so eager to move them yesterday was that Liu Guifang wanted everything settled and was afraid Gu Qinghuan might change her mind.

As long as they lived together, Gu Qinghuan would have no way to back out unless she was willing to ruin her reputation and never marry again.

Xu Mingshan was a man who cared deeply about his face. Gu Qinghuan’s words gave him enough respect, making him feel comfortable inside.

After all, they were his own son and daughter-in-law. If things were made to look too bad, others would gossip.

With a wave of his hand, Xu Mingshan said: “What you said makes sense. I just remembered, Wang Laocai from the mountainside passed away last year. He had no heirs, and the house has been empty, no one dared to live there.”

“Wang Laocai?”

Gu Qinghuan flipped through the memories of her previous life. Twenty years ago, Wang Laocai’s family had been the largest landowners in Xu Family Village—no, back then, it wasn’t called Xu Family Village.

Most of the land was owned by his family, but after the land reform, he was classified as a landlord and was overthrown.

Wang Laocai’s parents and wife had died during the political movements, and later, he and his son were forced to live in the mountainside’s cattle shed, looking after cattle.

Wang Laocai’s son had been well-educated from a young age, a smart young man. Because of his education, at only fifteen or sixteen, he became a teacher in the town, able to support his family. He even managed to rebuild the family’s house with new roof tiles, making it bright and neat.

Unfortunately, he was falsely accused of having an affair with a married woman from the town. Due to his identity as the child of a landlord, no one believed him. The young man, driven by pride and anger, ended up committing suicide by drowning in the river.

From then on, Wang Laocai had no heirs, and he became a strange and reclusive old man.

Last winter, he fell ill at home, but no one knew. In the end, he couldn’t survive and died from his illness.

The only reason the original owner knew all of this was that this strange old man had once helped her.

Wang Laocai’s house was quite good, still a tile-roofed house. So why did no one dare to occupy it? There was a reason for that.

Back then, most of the people in Xu Family Village were tenants of the Wang family, basically relying on them for their livelihoods. 

However, during the landlord struggles, everyone completely forgot the help the Wang family had given them, and they ruthlessly fought against Wang Laocai’s family. In the end, they wiped out his family.

Having done such ungrateful things, they were afraid even to approach the house, let alone live in it.

Furthermore, they were also worried that the house of a family with no heirs would have bad feng shui and bring misfortune to their own homes.

In fact, Xu Mingshan was the most hypocritical of them all. He had once been a servant boy for Wang Laocai.

Wang Laocai had treated him well, allowing him to study culture. Without that, he would never have been able to become the Branch Secretary simply because he could read and write.

Ironically, it was said that the big-character poster used to criticize Wang Laocai’s family during the political struggle had been written by Xu Mingshan himself.

The house the Xu family now lived in was still the old landlord mansion of Wang Laocai’s family.

Xu Mingshan, this cunning middle-aged man, had perfectly embodied the act of forgetting gratitude and repaying kindness with harm—he was no good. 

However, for now, he was still useful, so Gu Qinghuan suppressed the disgust in her heart.

She put on an expression of having gained a great favor. “I don’t mind at all, not at all, Dad, you’re so great! You’re even willing to spend money to buy us a house. I don’t even know what to say! I’ll go tell Huai’an the good news right away.”

After delivering her “good person” card, Gu Qinghuan quickly bolted out of there like a dog being chased, vanishing in a flash.

Xu Mingshan was left standing there in a daze.

So, this money still had to come out of his pocket? What kind of nonsense was this?

But after a moment, he began to think it over. After all, it was an empty house with no heirs, and no one dared to live there. He could just give it to them. He didn’t believe the villagers would say anything; after all, he was the Branch Secretary.

Having been the Branch Secretary for nearly twenty years, his official authority was quite significant.

---

On the other side, Gu Qinghuan took a turn and headed straight to the Educated Youth Courtyard.

She went to find the only person in the compound who owned a bicycle: “the wealthy” Chen Jianghe, to borrow it for a day.

It was understood that borrowing a bike required payment—two mao per day, which was an unwritten rule of the Educated Youth Courtyard.

After all, the bike wasn’t something that fell from the sky. Everyone wanted to use it, so there had to be a price.

The county town was too far away, and walking would take an hour or two. She didn’t want to exhaust herself, and riding the bike would at least save her half the time.

Chen Jianghe had already gone to work, and his roommate Zhu Chunlin was on duty to cook today. He returned early, and when he saw Gu Qinghuan unexpectedly coming to borrow the bike, he looked at her curiously.

“Gu Qinghuan, are you okay? If you’re really in any trouble, you must let us know. Everyone will help you.”

He was the nice guy in the compound, so it wasn’t surprising that he said this.

However, everything was in the past, and Gu Qinghuan didn’t want to chat with him.

She glanced at the female youth in the kitchen who had been secretly observing her. Gu Qinghuan deliberately raised her voice, saying: “I’m fine. Here’s two mao. Please give it to Chen Jianghe. I have something urgent to attend to, and I don’t have time to speak with him directly.”

“Okay, I’ll be sure to pass it on to him.” Zhu Chunlin’s character was still reliable.

Gu Qinghuan pushed the two-eight bike parked in the courtyard out the door, took a couple of minutes to adjust, and then smoothly hopped on, riding towards the county town she remembered.

The original owner had taken her mother to the doctor twice, so she knew the way.