The next day, the Gu family members were all feeling drained.
They had stayed up too late the night before, especially when moving the cabinet. Maybe it was because of their age, or maybe the cabinet was just too heavy, but Gu Maowen had accidentally strained his back and nearly got pinned under it. The shock made everyone scream and panic in chaos.
Gu Maowen had been through a lot in his life, but this was the first time he had injured his back moving furniture.
Although Jiang Huijun had massaged him with medicinal oil before bed, the aching, tingling pain kept him awake all night, so naturally, he wasn’t feeling well.
Jiang Huijun, who shared the same bed, also barely got any sleep because of his tossing and turning.
Gu Yuanhui had been in pain too and had similarly slept poorly.
As for Gu Yuanzheng and Gu Yuanxiang, they had spent most of the night tidying up the rooms. On top of that, they had seen many of their cherished ornaments and collections smashed to pieces—hardly anything left intact. That infuriated them so much that they couldn’t sleep at all.
Early that morning, Gu Yuanxiang had gotten up to prepare breakfast for the whole family, so she had even less rest.
The group sat around the dining table, yawning repeatedly and eating without much appetite.
Gu Yuanzheng, despite feeling exhausted, was young and could push through. He turned and asked with concern, “Dad, is your back okay? Do you want to go to the hospital to see a doctor?”
The others also looked worriedly at Gu Maowen.
“I’m fine.”
Gu Maowen didn’t want to lose face in front of his children, so he pretended not to care.
“Your mother massaged me with the medicinal oil last night. I’m feeling much better today. As long as I’m careful, it should be okay.”
Jiang Huijun, however, was uneasy.
“Old Gu, do you want to take the day off to rest properly at home?”
Getting a back injury at their age was no small matter.
Gu Maowen shook his head.
“There’s an important meeting at the bureau today. I can’t leave.”
Gu Yuanhui, his face still bruised and swollen, whispered to Gu Yuanxiang, “That woman is such a troublemaker. One day she’s going to—”
Before he could finish, Gu Xi came down from upstairs.
He was so startled he hiccupped, feeling pain all over, and immediately shut his mouth tight, looking guilty.
Gu Xi sat down calmly and began eating breakfast.
Seeing the very person responsible for their sleepless night, the expressions on Gu Maowen and Jiang Huijun’s faces darkened considerably.
Last night, Gu Maowen had knocked on her door so many times his palm was swollen, but Gu Xi never opened it. That infuriated him.
Out of all their children, even the most stubborn eldest son Gu Yuanyang had never been as rebellious and defiant as Gu Xi, challenging his authority and causing him so much distress.
If it weren’t for some sense of reason holding him back, he probably would have broken down the door and dragged her out to kneel on the floor.
Not to mention if the door got damaged and they had to call someone to fix it, who knows what outsiders would think.
Gu Xi slowly served herself a bowl of bean porridge, eating it alongside a fried egg and some pickled vegetables.
She frowned and said as she ate, “The egg is overcooked, there’s too much salt, and it’s both fishy and salty—tastes awful.”
Her stomach churned, making her feel nauseous, but she forced herself to keep eating.
Eating was one way to stay alive; she couldn’t let her body collapse before she died.
Enduring the extreme discomfort, she forced as much food down as she could.
Hearing this, Gu Yuanxiang felt hurt and thought, If it’s that bad, then why even eat it?
She had been spoiled by her parents and brothers all her life and had rarely done housework. Before Gu Xi returned, there was a housekeeper at home, and after the housekeeper went back to her hometown, Gu Xi took over all the household chores.
She herself never needed to lift a finger—just sit comfortably and wait to eat.
It was only recently, under Jiang Huijun’s guidance, that she had started learning to cook. Doing anything without burning the food was already considered a success.
Gu Maowen slammed his chopsticks on the table angrily.
“If you don’t like it, then don’t eat! Get out of here!”
Seeing Old Gu angry, Jiang Huijun remembered what had happened last night and worried the father and daughter might have a serious fallout.
She spoke gently but firmly, “Xi Xi, please say less and don’t make your father angry! Also, Xiang Xiang got up early to make breakfast for us. She worked hard and already did a very good job.”
She looked at her foster daughter with a face full of pity, making Gu Yuanxiang feel even more aggrieved.
Gu Xi looked at her puzzled.
“Hard work? I’ve been cooking, working in the fields, washing clothes for the whole family since I was three. I’ve been doing this for over ten years—why don’t you say I’ve worked hard?”
Her expression darkened as she continued, “So just because she cooks a meal, you feel so sorry for her, but I’ve been doing hard labor for over a decade and I’m not worthy of pity, is that it?”
Everyone was speechless.
Jiang Huijun realized she had said the wrong thing.
She wanted to say something, but Gu Xi went on, “It may not taste good, but it’s a lot better than the wild vegetable steamed buns from the countryside. At least these don’t have that bitterness or hard texture that can hurt your teeth, and you can get full eating them. Besides, eggs are a luxury out there, something you can hardly eat even once a year. Girls aren’t supposed to eat them…”
Everyone was stunned.
She had never spoken like this before.
Although they knew she grew up in the countryside, they didn’t really understand what kind of life she had lived there. Their impressions of rural life were vague and superficial, and they had no idea what it was like growing up as a girl in a family that valued boys over girls.
She never talked about it, and they never asked.
Maybe when Gu Xi first returned, Jiang Huijun had asked a few concerned questions, but they were mostly surface-level. At the time, Jiang Huijun worried more about Gu Yuanxiang feeling insecure because she wasn’t a Gu family child, fearing she might do something foolish. Her attention was mostly on her foster daughter, so she hadn’t really listened to Gu Xi.
Later, seeing Gu Xi quietly helping with chores and the household seemingly unchanged, she stopped asking.
After finishing, Gu Xi continued eating her breakfast.
She didn’t mean much by her words; she was simply stating facts to let them know what kind of life she had lived and that she no longer wanted to be treated like a beast of burden.
If they still wanted her to work like that, she would have no choice but to fight back.
Everyone was at a loss for words, their moods complex.
Jiang Huijun felt a heavy sadness and said, “Xi Xi, why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Tell you what?” Gu Xi looked up at her, then glanced around at the others, her expression calm.
“Would it have helped if I did? You all despise me for being uneducated, ugly, and unsophisticated—not like Gu Yuanxiang, who’s clean, pretty, and proper. I embarrass the Gu family and bring shame on you all. When I returned to the Gu family, it became a joke in the Cadres’ Compound”.
You probably thought I shouldn’t have been accepted back…”
“Xi Xi, we didn’t think that way.”
Jiang Huijun quickly interrupted, looking awkward.
Gu Maowen’s face stiffened. Even if he thought that way in his heart, having her say it out loud was unbearable.
He had never realized this gloomy, awkward daughter could be so sharp-tongued, and that her words could hurt so deeply.
Gu Yuanzheng was unusually stunned, feeling a strange tightness in his chest.
Gu Yuanxiang lowered her head, unable to speak.
Only Gu Yuanhui sneered inwardly, thinking she was self-aware.
Gu Xi didn’t care about their reactions.
“You know what you think yourselves.”
Gu Maowen couldn’t stand it and snapped angrily, “What do you mean? Are you blaming us? We are your parents!”
To him, no matter what parents did, children should never resent their parents—that would be unfilial.
Gu Xi’s accusations were just wrong in his eyes.
Gu Xi didn’t back down.
“You don’t think the people in the compound know? Maybe they secretly laugh at you, calling you fools, saying you’re crazy for caring for a fake daughter living well in the city instead of your own suffering flesh and blood. I bet you enjoy raising other people’s kids.”
Everyone at the table froze.
They stared at Gu Xi, thinking they must have misheard.
Those words were piercing to the heart—an absolute killer for people who cared about face.
“Y-you…”
Gu Maowen’s hand trembling on his chopsticks, “Nonsense!”
Jiang Huijun’s face changed dramatically.
“Who said that?! That’s too much! How could you say such things…”
She was angry but also somewhat guilty.
Gu Xi said, “Everyone talks. If you don’t believe me, ask around privately.”
She tilted her head thoughtfully.
“Mom, you’re close with Chen Yunsheng’s mom, right? You can ask her; she should tell you.”
The fact she even named someone showed she was serious.
Jiang Huijun and Chen Yunsheng’s mom weren’t exactly close but lived in the same compound. Chen Yunsheng’s mom was straightforward and open, easy to get along with many people.
From an outsider’s perspective, their friendship seemed solid, or else Chen Yunsheng wouldn’t hang out with Gu Yuanxiang. The parents’ relationship naturally influenced their children.
Gu Maowen and Jiang Huijun sat stiffly, forgetting how to respond.
Both were proud and hated being made a laughingstock; they wanted their family to appear respectable forever.
The most disgraceful thing in their lives was the baby mix-up incident, and their biological daughter being raised by ignorant, backward rural parents—ugly, unsophisticated, timid, and unpresentable—had embarrassed them endlessly.
That was why they favored the polished, talented Gu Yuanxiang—they believed she was the daughter they deserved.
Though they thought this inside, they tried to show they didn’t mind, acting as if they weren’t ashamed of Gu Xi and treated both girls equally.
After all, they had sent Gu Xi to school and, in five years, she had gone from elementary to high school without missing a beat. There was no injustice.
Their family seemed peaceful and unchanged.
But now to find out people in the Cadres’ Compound actually saw them this way, laughing behind their backs—it was unbearable.
Gu Maowen was so angry he suddenly stood up but, because of the sudden movement, tripped and fell backward along with the chair.
“Old Gu!”
Jiang Huijun screamed.
Everyone rushed up to help him, crowding around and calling out loudly in the chaos.
Fortunately, Gu Maowen only fell down and looked fine, though his back pain from the previous night was still severe.
His face was pale as Jiang Huijun and Gu Yuanzheng helped him back into his seat.
Seeing Gu Xi still sitting there, unmoved, calmly eating breakfast, their anger couldn’t be contained.
Gu Yuanzheng shouted sharply, “Gu Xi, are you really going to keep upsetting your parents like this?”
He could forgive Gu Xi for hitting people and smashing the room, but deliberately making their parents angry was too much.
Gu Xi glanced at him, then at Gu Maowen and Jiang Huijun.
Gu Maowen’s face was dark, and Jiang Huijun avoided her gaze, looking both unwilling and angry.
Suddenly, Gu Xi forcefully slammed her chopsticks toward Gu Yuanzheng and said coldly, “How can you falsely accuse me out of nowhere? It’s those outsiders laughing at them and making them angry—what do I have to do with it? Those words didn’t come from me!”
Gu Yuanzheng snapped back, “Even so, you can’t say it so directly. It hurts Dad and Mom to hear.”
“Do you think if I don’t say those rumors, they wouldn’t hurt?”
Gu Xi angrily stood up and walked toward him. She grabbed his shirt and then punched him, knocking him to the ground.
Gu Yuanzheng fell, a bruise instantly forming on his chin and the corner of his mouth.
“Ah—”
Jiang Huijun and Gu Yuanxiang cried out in fright.
Gu Yuanhui slid under the table, instinctively curling up and covering his head. He was traumatized by Gu Xi’s beating.
Gu Xi looked down coldly at Gu Yuanhui glaring up at her from the floor and said with a sneer, “If I hear that kind of talk again, I’ll smash your mouth!”
After saying this, she turned and went to the kitchen to get a clean pair of chopsticks, then sat back down to continue drinking her porridge.
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