The residential compound was large, but word spread quickly. There was no way the Su family could have come up with so much rice all at once.
So, as Su Shuochi took Gu Jiaojiao to the black market to sell the rice, a storm of gossip erupted in their wake the moment they left the compound.
"Did you read the paper today? General Sheng published a notice clarifying that he has severed all ties with Gu Jiaojiao."
"I saw it, I saw it! Gu Jiaojiao is finally getting what she deserves. After she did something so disgraceful, how could the Sheng Family possibly still want her?"
"Well, she brought this on herself. They raised her for eighteen years. She should have just quietly stepped aside for Song Zijin. Sigh..."
"You all have nothing better to do than stand around spouting nonsense again? You made my sister-in-law so angry she fainted yesterday, and you think you've gotten away with it, don't you?"
Su Qinchun ran home the moment school let out for lunch. All day, many of her classmates had been giving her looks of pity.
They were whispering about how her family, with one cripple and one invalid, could possibly survive in the future.
Her brother had said they still had money and that he would take her sister-in-law out for lunch today, so she wanted to rush home and see if he had actually done it.
Hearing the women gossiping about her sister-in-law again, Su Qinchun became furious and marched over to confront them.
She might talk nonstop and give Gu Jiaojiao a hard time in private, but in front of outsiders, she was fiercely protective.
"That invalid... without the Sheng Family's expensive tonics, she won't live much longer anyway, whether she gets angry or not."
"That's right. Little Su, you haven't heard, have you? The Sheng Family published a notice in the paper severing all ties with Gu Jiaojiao."
"Who cares about being connected to them? All that matters is that my sister-in-law has our Su family to treat her well."
"Your Su family? A bunch of mud-legs like you can afford to buy tonics for an invalid?"
"What's wrong with being mud-legs? You'd better watch your mouth! My parents have jobs, and my eldest brother gets a monthly salary plus his veteran's pension. How does that count as having no money?"
"If worse comes to worst, I'll just quit school and take care of my brother and sister-in-law at home. What's so impossible about supporting them?"
"TSK TSK... Now that you mention it, three incomes to support two invalids is more than enough."
The group of women fell silent. Their own families weren't even as well-off as the Su family. Seeing that no one had a comeback, Su Qinchun hurried home.
"That Mrs. Su is such a formidable woman. Why would she be willing to take on an invalid?"
"Who knows? Maybe it's because Gu Jiaojiao is pretty. Didn't you see them earlier? She and that cripple actually looked quite well-matched together."
"Can you eat pretty? The Su family went from one invalid to two. What kind of good life can they possibly have now?"
"That's true. Gu Jiaojiao is such a jinx. Why haven't her birth parents come to get her?"
"Her birth parents are on some farm. What could they possibly do? It's better they don't show up. If they did, it'd be an even bigger disaster."
It was almost lunchtime, so the women dispersed in twos and threes to go cook. None of them noticed Sheng Xinglian standing behind a large tree.
Seeing how radiant and beautiful Gu Jiaojiao looked, she was hit with a wave of jealous hatred. 'Why does she get to parade around in public looking like that, even after marrying a cripple?'
'Those stupid women. Don't they know the Su family just hosted a wedding banquet and collected a lot of gift money?'
'They should have said it right to Gu Jiaojiao's face—demanded she repay the Sheng Family for eighteen years of room and board. Yes, that's it! I'll write a letter to the Gu Family.'
'Since I can't get my hands on the money Gu Jiaojiao has, I'll just sic that troublesome Gu Family on the bitch.'
'Let's see how glamorous she can be then. A bitch like her deserves to be despised by her in-laws and ridiculed by everyone.'
'I know the Gu Family is in dire straits right now, on the verge of ruin and death. But I have no intention of saving them.'
'What's the point of saving useless people? But now, they finally have a purpose: to drag Gu Jiaojiao down.'
Sheng Xinglian never would have dreamed that her jealousy and desire to make life difficult for Gu Jiaojiao would, in a twist of fate, end up saving the Gu Family's lives.
Having been reborn, she considered herself very clever and believed she saw everything with perfect clarity.
'My dad only published that notice severing ties after hearing people say Gu Jiaojiao should pay back her living expenses.'
'In truth, my dad and my eldest brother are just as attached to that invalid as they were in my past life. They're only nice to me out of pity.'
'That's why I don't dare egg on the second and third dummies anymore. The second one is so single-minded; if he says he's cutting ties, he'll do it completely and never seek out that invalid again.'
'And ever since the third dummy found out Gu Jiaojiao gave me eight hundred yuan, he can't stand the sight of me.'
'It's all that invalid's fault. If she'd just kept her mouth shut, the third dummy would still be wrapped around my little finger like before.'
Sheng Xinglian stomped her foot and could only head home in frustration. The moment she encountered someone from the compound, however, her expression switched back to a sweet, well-behaved smile.
'Gu Jiaojiao actually pushed that cripple out of the compound? I thought they said he refused to even step outside his door.'
'I need to get home and write to the Gu Family, telling them Gu Jiaojiao is their biological daughter. Their Second Brother Gu came looking for her once.'
'I was afraid Gu Jiaojiao would give the New Year's money the Sheng Family gave her to Second Brother Gu, so I didn't tell him Gu Jiaojiao was his real sister.'
'My dad's letter to the Gu Family never reached them. Because their Eldest Brother Gu was dying from blood loss.'
'At this time in my past life, I was attending high school in the county town. I didn't know about the Gu Family's situation, and no one told me.'
'Later, after I was officially recognized and returned to the Sheng Family, I put the Gu Family completely out of my mind.'
'When I saw how dazzlingly successful Gu Jiaojiao became, I wanted to find the Gu Family to make her miserable, but by then, the entire Gu Family was already dead.'
The "cripple" she was just cursing, Su Shuochi, was expertly guiding Gu Jiaojiao along a familiar path to the black market.
His wheelchair was covered by a white cloth, concealing the two hundred pounds of rice piled on it. Even though they were right at the entrance to the black market, Gu Jiaojiao was struggling to push the heavy load.
She was filled with regret. 'If only I had stored some cash in my space.'
'But I haven't used cash for a transaction in years. I never imagined I'd one day need it so desperately.'
'Sigh... There's no medicine for regret.'
"Jiaojiao, just steady the wheelchair. I'll handle the pushing," Su Shuochi said, hearing her panting.
"It's okay. You just hold on to the rice. Do you know someone here in the black market?"
"I do. We just need to keep heading deeper inside. Someone will come up to us. Don't say a word."
After speaking, Su Shuochi used one hand to steady the rice and the other to help push a wheel, lightening his wife's burden.
After they had gone about two hundred meters, a young man in his twenties approached them. "Chief, what brings you here?"
"Houzi, I've got some rice. See what kind of price you can offer."
"Right now, rice in the state stores goes for eighteen fen a pound, but you need ration coupons. So on the street, it's twenty-three fen. If the quality is good, you can get as much as thirty-five fen a pound."
Houzi had been a soldier under Su Shuochi's command, a promising young man. But his father had injured his leg hauling bricks on a construction project.
As the only son, he had requested a discharge to go home and care for his father.
Houzi was a nickname his comrades had given him, saying he was as sharp as a monkey.
Gu Jiaojiao was surprised someone in the black market would be so direct. She had assumed the prices Houzi quoted were what he would buy it for, not what it would sell for.
The rice she had on hand sold for 5.6 yuan a pound at the supermarkets she was used to. 'Getting 56 fen for it here should be no problem at all,' she thought.
Su Shuochi had told her not to say anything, but she couldn't hold back. "Are you going to buy our rice for thirty fen a pound and then sell it for fifty-six?"
Houzi: "..."