Gu Nuan Nuan lowered her head, slowly reining in her resentment. She constantly reminded herself: 'I won't get angry. Getting angry will only destroy me. It's useless, and hiding away to cry is even more so. My goal in this life is to make the people who wronged me angry instead.'
Best of all would be to anger them to death.
The little villain inside Gu Nuan Nuan's mind cackled with glee.
'In my last life, despite being in such a weak position in the Gu Family, I managed to "win over" the one person who seemed impossible to win over—my grandfather—and get him to stand up for me and my mother. So, in this life, now that I hold all the cards, what can't I accomplish?'
After witnessing her grandfather beat someone that year, Gu Nuan Nuan forced herself to suppress her fear whenever she visited her grandparents. She abandoned her old habit of taking a detour just to avoid him. Instead, she began to slowly and deliberately get closer to him, trying every trick in the book to "flatter" and "be filial" to him.
She spent a very long time demonstrating her "filial piety" to her grandfather. She devoted what felt like three hundred percent of her patience to him, single-mindedly creating the illusion that she trusted him completely.
For example, she committed his every habit and hobby to memory, along with every casual remark he ever made. She learned to discern his true desires and needs from the most subtle, unintentional details. She was so thoughtful and attentive that she would instinctively do things for him before he even had to ask, acting almost without conscious thought...
It was then she discovered that, if she put her mind to it, she could take the art of flattery to its absolute pinnacle. This, however, also forced her to face a deeper truth: she was the kind of person who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals.
Winning over her grandfather proved to be a hundred times harder than she had imagined.
She finally broke through to him after three or four years of persistent effort. It happened just as she was beginning to despair, thinking she would never be able to win him over.
Then suddenly, everything changed completely.
For the first time ever, her grandfather began to intervene, stopping other members of the Gu family from bullying her and her mother. With his interference, her scum of a father and her grandmother finally toned it down. They no longer dared to threaten her mother with issues of custody and child support.
The change began with one particular incident. For more than half a year, she had secretly used her free time to collect and sell scrap materials, hiding it from her mother. She saved up every penny and dime she earned from the junkyard...
During that time, she only hid her activities from her mother and maternal grandparents, not deliberately from anyone else. As a result, every time she visited the Gu Family, the family's "perfect pair" of twins would mercilessly mock and viciously attack her in front of everyone.
They even maliciously speculated that she and her mother were so poor they couldn't put food on the table, forced to survive by scavenging and eating from garbage heaps. Through it all, she forced herself to grit her teeth and endure, refusing to look at the contemptuous, condescendingly charitable expressions on the faces of the Gu family.
This went on until one day, she had finally saved up enough money to buy her grandfather a somewhat expensive pipe. She approached him in private and offered it to him, hoping to replace the old one he'd been using for years—a pipe so worn and patched up that he still couldn't bear to part with it.
In a timid voice laced with regret, she told her grandfather, "I can't afford the best pipe for you right now. But in the future, when I'm earning money, I'll buy you an even better one. I'll make sure you smoke the finest tobacco and drink the finest liquor." Although his expression remained unreadable, as she turned away, she caught a glimpse of his hand, now hidden behind his back, clutching the new pipe. It was trembling.
Her grandfather's change wasn't immediate; his face remained as impassive as ever. But then one day at the dinner table, Gu Jiayi started picking a fight again, throwing a tantrum and accusing Nuannuan of not washing her clothes properly. Her grandfather shot a dagger-like glare in her direction and cut in coldly, "If you think someone else can't wash them clean enough, do it yourself." Everyone froze, stunned.
Similar incidents occurred a few more times. The rest of the Gu family grew alarmed as Mr. Gu defended Gu Nuan Nuan time and again. Before, they had laughed at her behind her back more than once, watching her try so desperately to curry favor with the old man.
No one in the Gu Family was a fool. Gu Nuan Nuan's intentions were so obvious; who couldn't see she was trying to find a patron?
But Mr. Gu was a cold and detached man. As long as you were smart enough not to provoke him, made sure he had his cigarettes and liquor, and his meals were on the table on time, you could raise all the hell you wanted. The sky could fall for all he cared. He wouldn't lift a finger. How could you expect someone so utterly selfish to protect you at every turn and become your patron? It was pure wishful thinking.
The rest of the Gu family was just waiting for the show to end, eager to see Gu Nuan Nuan's dejected face when her efforts came to nothing. Unfortunately for them, they all guessed wrong. The outcome proved once again that with enough persistence, you really can grind an iron rod into a needle. Even the most cold-hearted person can't resist years of constant "coddling."
Gu Nuan Nuan's life became much easier overnight. Gradually, no one at the Gu Family dared to order her around anymore. She no longer had to be their little maid, buried under an endless pile of chores every time she visited.
Mr. Gu's defense of Gu Nuan Nuan left the rest of the Gu family stunned and, at the same time, deeply resentful.
The first person to crack was Gu Nuan Nuan's grandmother.
Once, she even worked up the courage to confront Mr. Gu, shouting, "I've served you my entire life, and you've never once protected me like that! Gu Nuan Nuan is just a slip of a girl! Do you really think she's being filial? She's just putting on an act to fool you!"
Mr. Gu gave her a merciless beating and then sneered, "So what if it's an act? Since when do I need your permission to protect someone?"
As Gu Nuan Nuan recalled this, a complex look filled her eyes.
'Grandfather actually knew all along.'
After she grew up, she didn't break her promise. She really did buy him the best tobacco and liquor. He refused to switch out his old pipe, but he accepted everything else she offered without question.
By then, she and her mother no longer needed her grandfather's protection. Still, she continued to make special trips back to the small town to see him regularly. 'Maybe I kept it up not just for Grandfather,' she thought, 'but also to flaunt my success in front of the rest of the Gu family?'
She wanted the Gu family to see her rise in the world, only to realize they could do nothing but watch, unable to get a single benefit from it.
As for her grandfather... she couldn't even tell how much of her affection was genuine. Or had she been playing a part for so long that she'd started to believe it herself?
Her "act" still had its value. With her grandfather keeping them in line, the rest of the Gu family behaved themselves after she got married. Her scum of a father and her grandmother, in particular, never dared to cause trouble for her or her mother again.
'Perhaps that was the real reason I continued the charade with Grandfather? Deep down, I couldn't bear the thought of the Gu family making a scene in front of Luo Hongyi and his family. The truth is, I was afraid my own sordid nature would be laid bare before Luo Hongyi...'
'It's all so complicated.' In the end, she didn't even know what she felt for her grandfather. Was it genuine familial affection, or was it more like pity?
Yes, pity. She felt pity for her grandfather. She believed that, deep down, they were the same kind of pitiful person. There was no real reason for it; Gu Nuan Nuan just had this strange and stubborn conviction...