"No, I heard your brother had acid thrown on him and is in the hospital. And the acid... uh, they say it was thrown by the father of your brother's twin son and daughter from an affair..." He Xiulin's gaze flickered as she watched Gu Jinhua's expression, trying to see if she knew her brother had another son and daughter out there.
She and Gu Jinhua were close and knew a lot about each other's families. Gu Jinhua had never mentioned this before, but He Xiulin couldn't be sure if that was just because Gu Jinhua was keeping it a secret.
"You're saying my brother had acid thrown on him and is in the hospital? Are you sure?" Gu Jinhua's voice, momentarily stunned, shot up an octave, then dropped as if someone had grabbed her by the throat. She glanced around, her voice a mix of panic and disbelief as she asked.
"Mhm," He Xiulin nodded. "I heard it from your niece. So, did you know your brother has a set of twins—a boy and a girl?"
Unable to read her expression, she decided to just ask directly.
"My brother is in the hospital, and that mother-daughter pair still dares to pack up and go back to her parents' house?" Gu Jinhua's face twisted with rage, her anger boiling over as she dodged He Xiulin's question. "No, I have to go stop them. Xiulin, can you watch my counter—"
"I doubt you'll be able to catch them now. Jinhua, don't you think you should send someone to your parents' place to let them know first..." He Xiulin quickly advised, but before she could finish, she saw Gu Jinhua had already bolted and was far in the distance.
She pursed her lips. 'Well, great. Looks like I'm stuck watching her counter now, whether I like it or not.'
"Hey, Xiulin, what's going on? Why was Jinhua in such a rush?" The woman from the counter next to Gu Jinhua's had been straining to listen in. She'd only caught a few words and couldn't make out the details, but seeing their expressions was enough to make her lean over and ask.
"Ahem... It's just that Jinhua's brother is in the hospital, and Zhang Minhua abandoned him there to take their daughter and run back to her parents' house. How could Jinhua not be in a hurry?"
He Xiulin said this with a cold smile, still annoyed that Zhang Minhua had been so disrespectful and dismissive toward her earlier that day.
"What? No way! Zhang Minhua doesn't seem like that kind of person. How could she do something like abandoning her husband at a time like this?" the woman from the next counter said with a look of utter disbelief.
"Hmph, why not? What's the use of putting on a good act all the time? You can know a person's face, but not their heart..." He Xiulin sneered, leaning in to whisper with undisguised malice toward Zhang Minhua. She deliberately omitted the part about Gu Jinhua's brother being at fault, focusing only on the details that made Zhang Minhua look bad. With this new piece of gossip, the person from the counter across from them soon joined in.
One person told ten, and ten told a hundred. In no time, almost everyone in the entire supply and marketing cooperative knew the story of how Zhang Minhua had abandoned her husband in the hospital and taken her child back to her parents' house.
Of course, everyone had their own opinion. There were the impulsive types who believed the story and righteously condemned Zhang Minhua. There were the calm ones who didn't believe it, feeling it was out of character for her and suspecting there was more to the story. And then there were the majority, who were skeptical but, since it didn't concern them, treated it as a juicy topic for discussion...
Gu Jinhua stormed out of the supply and marketing cooperative like a whirlwind. After searching the whole way without finding a trace of Zhang Minhua or Gu Nuan Nuan, she was practically frantic with anger. Unable to control herself, she kicked the ground a few times. Then, seeing her pigskin shoes covered in a layer of dust, she felt a pang of regret and pulled her foot back, muttering resentfully, 'Hmph. We'll see if you dare to show your face at work tomorrow.'
She stopped, and after the wind cooled her head, she calmed down and thought for a moment. Then she quickly turned back towards her home. She needed to go back and have her older son run over to her mother's place to tell her what happened. Someone had to go take care of her brother.
Thinking of Zhang Minhua running off, her chest heaved and her eyes looked as if they were laced with poison. 'That bitch. How convenient for her to just up and leave. Now the job of taking care of my brother at the hospital tonight will probably fall on me. There's no way I'm doing that!'
"Where are your grandma and your brother?"
Gu Jinhua's home was on the first floor and had a small courtyard. She went inside and searched all the rooms. The door to her in-laws' room was closed, so she didn't know if anyone was inside. In the living room, she only saw her daughter, Liu Yixiang, watching TV. She wondered to herself, 'It's almost dinnertime, where could they have gone?'
"I don't know."
The TV was playing *Jigong*. The theme song played—"Worn-out shoes, tattered hat, my kasaya robe is ripped..."—and Liu Yixiang was staring at the screen without blinking, humming along. Hearing her mother, she gave a careless reply without even glancing at Gu Jinhua.
This show aired every evening, and Gu Jinhua, like the rest of her family, made a point to watch it on time. Tonight was a rerun of last night's episode. If Gu Jinhua had been home on a day off, she usually would have watched the rerun, too.
"Why are you always watching TV? Is your homework finished?" Seeing Liu Yixiang's attitude, Gu Jinhua's temper flared. She strode over and turned off the TV with a sharp CLICK.
"I finished my homework ages ago! Grandpa said I could watch this, what right do you have to turn it off? And you say I watch TV all day? You do the same thing when you're home!" Liu Yixiang wasn't afraid of Gu Jinhua at all. Seeing the TV turned off, she grew furious and jumped to her feet, yelling at her mother. Then she lunged for the TV, trying to turn it back on.
"You little rebel! What kind of attitude is that? No watching TV! I don't care if your homework is done, you're not watching." Being talked back to by her daughter made Gu Jinhua's already foul mood even worse. She exploded with rage, completely ignoring her daughter's point about her grandfather giving her permission.
"I'm going to watch it! You don't get to decide, Grandpa promised me!" Liu Yixiang saw Gu Jinhua firmly blocking the TV with a fierce expression, refusing to budge. She burst into tears with a loud "WAAAH!" and ran to her grandparents' room, crying and pounding on the door.
"Get back here!"
Gu Jinhua's face went pale, and she hurried over to pull her daughter back, but she was too slow. The door opened, and Liu Donghai came out, his face grim and his sharp gaze fixed on her. "Aren't you supposed to be at work today? Why are you home at this hour?"
"Dad... you're home. I... something happened with my brother's family. He's in the hospital with no one to look after him, and my sister-in-law ran back to her parents' house. I came back to ask Liu Cong to run over to my mother's and let her know..."
Seeing her father-in-law, Gu Jinhua immediately deflated and stammered her explanation.
"Liu Cong went to the market with his grandmother. I'll tell him when they get back. He can go after dinner." Liu Donghai glanced at his granddaughter, who was still sniffling with tears on her face, and his expression toward Gu Jinhua grew even colder.