Sigh. 'My son-in-law's actions were indeed wrong.'
Wen Xiu frowned. 'But this doesn't point to any fundamental problem. How many men in this world truly put their wives before themselves? Most of them think only of themselves when their own lives are on the line.'
'But if my daughter abandons her husband in the hospital and runs back here with the child because of this, things will get serious.'
This world is unfair to women. This was one thing that had never changed, no matter how dynasties rose and fell. Society had always been far more demanding of women than of men.
The thought of her daughter living a life where people would point fingers and look down on her made Wen Xiu's expression turn serious. She suppressed her fleeting pity for her daughter; she couldn't let this make her daughter's future path more difficult.
"Minzhen, don't be willful. Mom will go cook a bowl of noodles for you two. After you eat, you need to hurry back. Take some money with you and just say you came back to your family to raise funds. When you get back, don't argue with your husband. First, take good care of him until he recovers. It won't be too late to settle this score with him then."
Seeing her daughter's eyebrows shoot up in anger, Wen Xiu couldn't help but patiently soothe her. "Be good. Mom is doing this for your own good. I would never harm you."
"Mom, I'm not going back. I want to divorce him. You have no idea how despicable he is. He's clearly the one in charge of the household finances, yet he's always stingy about buying anything. Even on the rare occasion I came back home for a visit, he was never willing to give me money to buy things to bring back. And after all that, at a time like this, he still had the nerve to tell me he has no money for medical treatment…"
The moment Zhang Minzhen heard her own mother advising her to go back and take care of Gu Lihui, she stared at Wen Xiu in stunned disbelief, then immediately and vehemently shook her head, refusing completely.
"Listen to me! If you act like this, what will people say about you? Do you care about your reputation at all? No matter how big the issue is, we can settle the final score later." Seeing Zhang Minzhen's reaction, even the patient Wen Xiu grew anxious, her tone becoming stern.
Gu Nuan Nuan, listening from the side, wanted to cover her face.
'My mom just gave a whole speech, but she didn't get to the point at all. Can I really blame Grandma for trying to persuade her? If Mom had just directly said that her scumbag dad has an illegitimate son, I refuse to believe Grandma would still be calmly telling her to go back.'
Gu Nuan Nuan finally understood the saying about the eunuch worrying more than the emperor. She had tried to interrupt several times, but her grandmother cut her off before she could even start, waving her away dismissively as if she were being noisy and telling her to go play somewhere.
Gu Nuan Nuan wanted to cry but had no tears. 'This is blatant bullying! They're stripping me of my right to speak just because I'm young! Can I file a complaint?' In the end, she could only helplessly tug on her mother's hem and urgently prompt her, "Lin Jiayi. Lin Jia Bao."
"Right."
Prompted by her daughter, Zhang Minzhen's wits finally came online. "Mom, I'm not going back! He had the nerve to keep a woman and an illegitimate child on the side. Now that her husband found out and threw acid in his face, the fact that I didn't go and land a few more hits on him is me showing him enough mercy. And he still expects me to go take care of him? Hmph. Not a chance."
She bit her lip, her eyes filled with tears as she looked at Wen Xiu. "Mom, I don't care what anyone thinks of me afterward. I just can't get over this. I am set on divorcing him. I don't want a man like that."
"What did you say? Say that again." Upon hearing this, Wen Xiu's reaction was even more intense than Zhang Minzhen's.
"I'm not going back," Zhang Minzhen said through clenched teeth.
"Not that part." Wen Xiu slapped her lightly in frustration. "What's all this about a woman and an illegitimate child?"
"Oh, you mean that." Seeing her mother's dark expression, Zhang Minzhen had a flash of understanding. She quickly recounted, in detail, everything she had heard from Gu Nuan Nuan from beginning to end. Then, she looked at Wen Xiu pitifully with tears streaming down her face. "So, Mom, please don't ask me to go back again. Anyway, I want a divorce. I insist."
"You dimwit! Why didn't you mention something so important earlier? You made me think…"
Wen Xiu smacked Zhang Minzhen forcefully again, the fury on her face even greater than her daughter's. "Divorce him! I support your decision to divorce him! Why would you go back to a family like that? Are you supposed to raise an illegitimate child for that Gu fellow? This is utterly outrageous! Ptooey! Do they really think the Zhang family has no one to stand up for you?"
Zhang Minzhen was dumbfounded. 'Mom's tune changed so fast! Who was that just now, insisting I go back and take care of Gu Lihui?'
"Are you stupid? He was already keeping a woman and an illegitimate child on the side, and because of that, her husband found out and threw sulfuric acid on him. What is that? That's called getting what he deserves!"
Wen Xiu looked up, met her daughter's shocked gaze, and glared back irritably. "Tell me, if you had told me the reason as soon as you came back, would I still have tried to chase you back there? Your mother isn't so muddle-headed that I can't tell right from wrong. And the girls of our family are not so debased as to have to stick by and serve that Gu fellow after something like this."
"…"
Zhang Minzhen stood with her mouth agape, speechless for a long moment. 'So, it turns out this is my fault for not explaining it clearly from the start?'
"Who else is there to blame? But it's good that you knew enough to get angry and come back with Nuannuan. This marriage is truly over. If it were any other problem, we could try to make it work, since divorce isn't good for the child, after all. But that illegitimate child of his is even older than our Nuannuan, and his heart is so biased. Is that what you call a biological father? How can you possibly make it work under these circumstances?"
Wen Xiu was both angry and sad, and her eyes couldn't help but turn red.
"Sigh... You two stay here and don't worry. Your dad, your older brother, and your younger brothers will step in to handle what comes next. And if that's not enough, you still have plenty of uncles and cousins... Even if you divorce, we can't just let his family off easy. We will take back everything that is rightfully yours."
She knew that under these circumstances, her daughter had to get a divorce. But after the divorce, what would she do? A woman who was no longer young, with a child in tow? If she remarried, who knew what that situation would be like?
Her gaze fell compassionately on Gu Nuan Nuan. She couldn't help but pull the little girl closer, stroking her small head as tears fell and her voice choked with sobs. "When adults have problems, it's always the children who suffer in the end. What kind of sin led to this? That Gu fellow seemed decent enough on the surface, not an unreasonable troublemaker like his mother. But you can know a person's face without knowing their heart. All his wickedness was hidden inside."
Her grandmother's words made tears roll down Gu Nuan Nuan's cheeks.
"SOB SOB SOB…" Hearing her mother's words, Zhang Minzhen also began to cry uncontrollably.
"Stop crying. There's nothing to be afraid of. You truly can't be with a man like that anymore. Listen to your mother. We're getting a divorce. After it's done, if you and Nuannuan meet someone suitable and you want to remarry, then remarry. If not, we'll get a plot of land approved for you here in our village. The family will help you build a house, so you and your daughter will have a place of your own. You'll live next to your brothers, and everyone can help each other out. In the future, even when your mother and I are gone, you won't have to fear being bullied."
It was unclear when he had arrived, but the patriarch of the Zhang family, Zhang Minzhen's father Zhang Dazhuang, was already standing there. His face was ashen, and he had clearly overheard the conversation between the mother and daughter.