Back to the 1980s: Transmigrated as the Bigshot's Pampered Wife-Chapter 26: The Gu Family

But Gu Jiaojiao had also stopped giving her money. Fine, then she would let the Gu Family go and torment that bitch.

The Gu Family had indeed received Sheng Xinglian’s registered letter. At that moment, inside a dilapidated thatched cottage...

...sat the bone-thin Old Sir Gu, the dying Eldest Brother Gu, the listless Mr. Gu, and Mrs. Gu, who was barely breathing.

Also present was Uncle Dong, the eldest son of the Dong family. He had received a telegram from his eldest sister’s husband and driven from the commune to bring his second nephew home.

"Uncle... Dong... Do you know a Sheng Liangyuan from your compound?" Old Sir Gu asked, clutching the letter in his hand.

"I do. Sheng Liangyuan lives next door to me." Uncle Dong had never been a man of many words.

"Lian’er wrote a letter saying she’s not a member of our Gu Family, and that our real daughter’s name is Gu Jiaojiao. Did you know about this?"

Uncle Dong glanced at his sister, who was all skin and bones. She looked as if a gust of wind could carry her away.

A wave of grief washed over him. For so many years, he, his father, and his brothers had all done their best to help.

Now, things were finally looking up. Old Sir Gu could even return to his teaching post.

But unfortunately, his eldest nephew returned home injured. Old Sir Gu’s health was already failing, like a lamp running out of oil, and he couldn’t withstand the shock. He fell gravely ill and was now bedridden.

The organization had sent many renowned doctors, but neither the grandfather nor the grandson showed any improvement.

The leading doctors had even told them to prepare for their funerals.

His sister was only forty-three, yet she was hunched over like a woman of sixty.

"I know a little about it. I heard that Sheng Jiaojiao’s health isn’t good either, and now... now she’s..."

Uncle Dong looked at the Gu Family with pity, unable to bring himself to say the rest.

"Uncle, please tell us! What else happened to my sister?" Gu the Second, Gu Jingtai, asked anxiously.

People on the farm were spreading rumors that his sister, Sheng Xinglian, had found a powerful connection and abandoned them.

He hadn’t believed it, so he secretly went to find her. But she truly had refused to acknowledge him, viciously telling him she wasn’t a daughter of the Gu Family.

Fuming, Gu Jingtai had returned to the farm and gotten into a fight with his friends, which had angered his mother so much she was now barely breathing.

The rest of the Gu Family stared intently at Uncle Dong.

Uncle Dong collected his thoughts, organized his words, and began to speak with careful consideration.

"Jiaojiao was spoiled by the Sheng Family her whole life, supposedly because she was premature and had poor health. Ever since she learned she wasn’t their biological daughter, she’s been raising hell and tormenting Sheng Xinglian..."

"Impossible! My daughter would never be that kind of person!" Mrs. Gu cried out hysterically.

Once, she too had been one of heaven’s favored daughters. Her father, Mr. Dong, was a high-ranking official, and she had fallen for Gu Chengzhou, a man from the Imperial City.

Gu Chengzhou was handsome and brilliant, and she was no less his equal. They fell in love at first sight.

’The children we had should be intelligent and sweet. Life has been hard, but all our children have good characters.’

’Our daughter—no, our adopted daughter—was just a little timid, but there were no other flaws in her personality.’

’She and her husband’s hair was already streaked with gray; how could their own flesh and blood be so wicked!’

"If Jiaojiao is truly that bad, it must be because the Sheng family raised her poorly," Mrs. Gu stated, her voice firm.

Uncle Dong was speechless.

’The Sheng Family is from the upper echelons of society. How could their upbringing possibly be poor?’

’But he couldn’t bring himself to say that there was something wrong with the Gu family’s bloodline either.’

’And yet, Jiaojiao’s reputation in the compound was truly awful. Even he, a man who paid no mind to gossip, often heard about her misdeeds.’

’His youngest sister, Dong Yuanyuan, and his own daughter, Dong Lili, were especially bad. At the dinner table, all they did was babble on about Jiaojiao’s wrongdoings.’

"Was it my youngest sister who told you that? She’s a nasty piece of work, just like her mother! Dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes to phoenixes, and the daughter of a rat will know how to burrow."

Mrs. Gu, who had been on the verge of death just moments before, was now railing against her youngest sister with uncontrollable fury.

Mrs. Gu’s body was weak, but her mind was sharp. As she thought about it, she realized her stepmother must have been the one who swapped the two babies.

It had been her stepmother, after all, who attended to her during her postpartum confinement period.

Uncle Dong broke out in a nervous sweat. He didn’t dare speak recklessly, terrified he might anger his sister to death.

"Brother-in-law," the listless Mr. Gu spoke up, "can you bring Jiaojiao here to see my father one last time?"

It was unclear if the dying Eldest Brother Gu, lying silently on the recliner, had heard any of their conversation.

Just as Uncle Dong was struggling to find an answer for Mr. Gu, he suddenly spoke. "I... want to see Lian’er... one last time."

"She won’t come back, big brother," Gu Jingtai said resentfully.

"Then we’ll go see them both," Old Sir Gu declared, settling the matter.

*

Back at the Su family’s home, after Su Shuochi explained the situation several times, his mother and Su Xiaomei finally realized it was all a misunderstanding.

Su’s mother said sheepishly, "Should I have Chun Ni go get Doctor Sun to come take a look at her?"

"That won’t be necessary. Please, leave the room. I’ll wake Jiaojiao up."

Once his family had left the room, Su Shuochi lifted the thick terrycloth blanket again and saw Gu Jiaojiao opening her eyes.

"Jiao... Jiaojiao..."

"Get off me."

"Jiaojiao, are you thirsty?" Su Shuochi quickly maneuvered himself into his wheelchair, poured a glass of warm water, and offered it to his wife.

Gu Jiaojiao clutched the terrycloth blanket around herself, revealing her delicate collarbones and fair arms...

Su Shuochi gulped, then carefully brought the glass to her lips.

Still feeling weak, Gu Jiaojiao let him hold the glass as she drank most of the water.

"Do you know anything about first aid? I wasn’t even unconscious! You... you made me pass out from exasperation!"

Gu Jiaojiao was too embarrassed to admit he had kissed her until she fainted. Besides, she wanted to have a proper relationship with him.

’A first kiss is a first kiss,’ she thought, deciding to let it go. "Just remember for next time," she said, "I’m delicate. I can’t handle the pressure from your big hands."

"Jiaojiao... you fainted because I was pressing on you?" Only then did Su Shuochi feel a scorching heat in his own hands.

Before, he had been too panicked to notice anything. His mind had been blank, and he hadn’t even registered the feeling of giving her mouth-to-mouth—there was only anxiety.

But now... he touched his lips, and they felt hot too. The sensation burned all the way down to his heart...

Gu Jiaojiao watched as the man’s face and ears turned bright red. ’Don’t tell me he didn’t feel a thing back then!’

’If I’d known this would happen, I never would have said it.’

"Jiao... Jiaojiao... I’ll go fetch a bucket of hot water for your bath." With that, Su Shuochi got into his wheelchair and left.

The day before, Gu Jiaojiao had set up a simple, partitioned-off shower area in their room, as she wasn’t used to going outside to wash up in the mornings.

She took two bottles of a nutritional drink from her pocket dimension and drank them. ’This body is too weak.’ She had been going out to sell rice every day recently, but that still wasn’t enough of a workout.

The body’s original owner had a poor appetite, but Gu Jiaojiao’s was fantastic. She enjoyed every bite of her food, and her health was already much better than before.

While she bathed, Su Shuochi wiped the bamboo sleeping mat clean and put the terrycloth blanket and pillows in the washing machine.

Although it was a fully automatic washing machine from Gu Jiaojiao’s pocket dimension, the Su family didn’t have running water, so it had to be used like a semi-automatic one.

Even if Su’s mother and the others couldn’t recognize luxury goods, they could tell the high-quality blanket was something special. They just assumed it had been purchased at the Overseas Chinese Store.

They didn’t ask, and Su Shuochi offered no explanation. Even if they had, he wouldn’t have told them the truth.

After her bath, Gu Jiaojiao washed her hair. She took a hairdryer out of her pocket dimension, and Su Shuochi helped her blow it dry.

Once her hair was dry, they found that Su’s mother had already finished cooking. "Mom," Gu Jiaojiao said, "your cooking is delicious."

"Of course it is. Back in the village, your mom was a renowned cook for miles around. It’s just that before, even the cleverest housewife can’t cook a meal without rice."

Mr. Su said with a simple, honest smile.