Gu Nuan Nuan quickly did the math in her head. At first, she thought nine yuan was too cheap, but seeing her mother's reaction, she snapped out of it and realized she'd been a bit too hasty. 'That scum dad is still lying in the hospital claiming he has no money for treatment,' she thought. 'It really isn't a good time for us to be spending money so conspicuously.'
Her mother was right; there would be plenty of time in the future. Sooner or later, she would make it so her mother could eat these buns for every meal until she was sick of them, without feeling the slightest pang of regret over the cost.
So, she gave her mother an embarrassed smile. "Then let's get five. We can eat them on the way for lunch." She figured her small stomach could handle one and a half, or two meat buns at most. Her mother was an adult; she'd need at least three to feel full.
"Three is enough. You can have two, and one is plenty for me. We can just eat something else when we get to your grandma's house," Zhang Minzhen said as she took out her money.
"I want five," Gu Nuan Nuan insisted, puffing out her cheeks and staring straight at her mother.
"...Alright, fine. Five it is." Zhang Minzhen and Gu Nuan Nuan had a small staring contest, but in the end, the mother gave in. It pained her, but she pulled a yuan and fifty jiao from her pocket. She didn't mind spending money on her daughter, but she couldn't help feeling the sting when she realized most of it was being spent on herself.
Along the way, Gu Nuan Nuan watched her mother eat one meat bun before carefully putting the other two away. She explained, "I'm full. I'll take the rest back for your grandpa and grandma to eat."
"Mom, you're only bringing two meat buns back for Grandpa and Grandma. But what if they can't bear to eat them either and secretly save them for one of their grandsons or granddaughters? What will happen if other people find out?"
Gu Nuan Nuan asked, sighing inwardly. It wasn't that she didn't care for her grandparents, but there would be plenty of opportunities to show her filial piety later. It didn't have to be right now.
Zhang Minzhen froze. That was exactly what her parents would do. 'Sometimes, good intentions can lead to trouble.'
"Mom, you should eat the meat buns today. We have money now. In a little while, we can make sure Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle, Aunt, and all our cousins get to eat big meat buns."
"You're right. I wasn't thinking it through." Zhang Minzhen reached out and stroked her daughter's small head. 'I've lived all these years for nothing,' she thought. 'On some things, my daughter sees more clearly than I do.'
No longer conflicted, she took out the two meat buns and slowly ate them.
Gu Nuan Nuan's eyes crinkled into a smile. In this short time, she'd already noticed that her mother was starting to listen to her opinions and suggestions, no longer treating her as just a clueless child. This was treatment she had only received in her past life after she'd become an adult.
'This is definitely a good thing,' she thought. 'And with this foundation, it will be even more beneficial for our family to get rich and aim for a life far beyond just being 'well-off'.'
With some greasy food in their stomachs, the mother and daughter no longer felt the fatigue from the long walk. It took about two and a half hours to walk from the small town to Gu Nuan Nuan's grandmother's house. By bike, it would only take forty to fifty minutes.
So, by the time the two of them arrived, it was already past 12:30 in the afternoon. The small courtyard gate was ajar. There was no one else in the yard except for Gu Nuan Nuan's grandmother, who was sitting under a simple, small awning in a shady spot, spinning thread on an old-fashioned, hand-cranked spinning wheel.
Watching her grandmother sit there, completely focused, her movements skilled as one hand cranked the wheel and the other pulled at the cotton roving. As the spinning wheel turned with a soft CREAK, a long cotton thread was drawn out from the fluff...
This peaceful, serene scene immediately made Gu Nuan Nuan think of her past life, of the string of disasters that had befallen this family one after another, and of the final outcome... Her eyes instantly reddened. "Grandma."
"Ah, why are you two here at this hour?"
Gu Nuan Nuan's grandmother, Wen Xiu, looked up. Seeing them, she first stopped her work and stood up, a pleased look on her face. But then she saw her daughter carrying a bundle and her granddaughter wearing a school bag, looking as if they'd brought all their belongings with them. She was startled. Peeking outside, she saw no sign of her son-in-law, and her heart skipped a beat.
"Mom—"
Seeing Wen Xiu was like seeing her backbone. Zhang Minzhen's nose tingled, and a stream of tears began to fall.
"You're a grown woman, why are you crying in front of your daughter?" Wen Xiu went over and used her sleeve to wipe away the tears. Then she saw that her granddaughter's expression was also strange, and a bad feeling washed over her. She asked tentatively, "Where's your husband? It's his day off, why didn't he come back with you?"
Zhang Minzhen just cried, her teeth clenched in silent fury, which made Wen Xiu anxious. "Say something, will you? What on earth happened?"
"My dad's in the hospital. Someone threw acid on him and ruined his face," Gu Nuan Nuan said from the side. She felt helpless watching her grandmother worry while her own mother fell apart at the critical moment.
"Your dad had acid thrown on him?"
Wen Xiu was shocked, then enraged. "Who would do such a depraved, despicable thing?"
She looked at her daughter and granddaughter, confused again. She quickly ruled out the possibility that they had come to raise money for medical expenses. Carrying their bundles, they looked for all the world like they had run away from home in a fit of anger. But at a time like this, no matter how great the conflict or resentment between a couple, this shouldn't be happening. Besides, her daughter and son-in-law had always gotten along well—
"Your husband is in the hospital. Shouldn't you be there with him? Why did both of you come back here? Is there something else going on that I don't know about?" she asked, probing.
"Mom, I was the one who was almost disfigured! You don't know—when that person threw the bottle of acid, that bastard Gu Lihui grabbed me without a second thought to use as a shield! It was so close. If Nuannuan hadn't reacted quickly and pulled me away, I'd be the one in the hospital right now." The memory still terrified Zhang Minzhen, and her tears fell even more fiercely.
"Ugh, how could he..." A flash of anger crossed Wen Xiu's face, but she paused, then said with some hesitation, "But Minzhen, you can't just leave your husband in the hospital and run back here in a huff because of that, can you? What will people say about you? After all, a bond is forged even from being a couple for a single day. He was in a moment of panic; what he did out of fear can be forgiven, right?"
Since she hadn't witnessed the terrifying scene herself, the shock didn't hit Wen Xiu as hard. An image formed in her mind: her son-in-law, in a moment of sheer panic, had instinctively pulled her daughter over to shield himself. But then her granddaughter, protective of her mother, had instinctively pulled her back.
'My son-in-law must have been acting unconsciously, terrified out of his mind,' she reasoned. 'Otherwise, how could a ten-year-old girl possibly have the strength to pull her mother away from the grasp of a grown man?'