After that none-too-confident “fine” from Jiang Chen, Gu Meiting was left utterly stunned, all the defiant resolve from moments ago completely gone.
The matter, it seemed, had finally come to an end. Ziqing watched coldly, waiting for them to leave.
The Gu family head and Madam Gu didn’t quite know what to say for a moment, and Jiang Chen and Gu Meiting both seemed at a loss too—the atmosphere grew awkward.
A flicker of something sinister passed through Gu Suying’s eyes, and she gave the still-terrified Jiang Yuan a sharp pinch. Jiang Yuan let out a sudden yelp and reached up to pinch back, but caught sight of Gu Suying’s warning glare and instantly understood what his aunt wanted from him!
“Boo hoo… Grandmother, Grandfather! Yuan’er doesn’t want to leave you!”
“Grandmother!”
Crying, he immediately threw himself at Madam Gu, clutching her legs tightly, tears and snot streaming down his face, wailing loudly!
“Grandmother, Grandmother, I don’t want to leave you!”
“Boo hoo, Grandmother, hold me!”
……
Madam Gu immediately scooped him up, hugging him tight, tears of old age streaming freely. This grandson—she’d cared for him since before he was even born, hadn’t gone a single day since his birth without seeing him, without doting on him, loving him even more than a blood grandson!
How could she bear to let him go!
Gu Meiting rushed over too, and mother, daughter, and grandson all wept together, heart-wrenching and deeply moving.
The Gu family head turned his face away, unable to bear watching, afraid he might waver, might act on impulse.
Gu Suying hurried over as well, offering comfort and soothing words—yet every single word still carried a hidden barb.
“Yuan’er, don’t cry, don’t cry. Practice hard, and when you grow up you’ll be able to protect Grandmother and Mother, and no one will ever be able to bully our family again!”
“Yuan’er, be good, it’s just moving out, it’s not like we won’t come visit. If you want to come, you can come every day, Auntie will make you delicious food every day too.”
……
Ziqing let it all provoke her without reacting. Gu Suying, still unmarried, was a rightful member of the Gu family, older than her besides—Ziqing couldn’t easily move against her. But that didn’t mean she was afraid of her. Going forward, staying out of each other’s way would be for the best—but the moment Gu Suying crossed a line, the moment any leverage fell into Ziqing’s hands, she would show no mercy.
In some ways, Gu Suying was even more detestable than Gu Meiting. Gu Meiting’s unpleasantness was direct—impulsive in action, even more impulsive in speech. Gu Suying’s unpleasantness, however, was full of calculation, every word laced with veiled insults and double meanings.
The crying showed no sign of stopping—if anything, it grew even more heartbreaking.
Ziqing had no intention of speaking up. They’d said themselves they wanted to leave—she certainly hadn’t driven them out. She sat calmly, watching Jiang Chen with sharp, piercing eyes. Jiang Chen didn’t dare meet her gaze at all, looking away, putting on a show of helpless sorrow.
Finally the Gu family head couldn’t take it anymore. “That’s enough, dear, that’s enough. It’s getting late.”
“Father-in-law, from now on… I won’t be able to attend to you both every day,” Jiang Chen said mournfully.
The Gu family head glanced at him and simply waved a hand. “Go pack up, then.”
“Father!” Gu Meiting turned back, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. The Gu family head watched her, and though he knew in his heart this family should have left long ago, his chest still ached as though pierced by a blade.
“Grandfather!” Jiang Yuan rushed forward, scrambling straight onto a chair and throwing his arms around the Gu family head’s neck. “Grandfather, Yuan’er doesn’t want to go, Yuan’er can’t bear to leave you! Yuan’er has to go with you every morning to recite lessons on the mountain behind the house! Yuan’er has to go fishing with you by the lake every evening! Yuan’er doesn’t want to leave, Grandfather, Yuan’er doesn’t want to leave you!”
After all, no one’s heart is made of iron—even the hardest steel can eventually be worn soft. The Gu family head, who had managed to keep his composure until now, finally broke down under his young grandson’s embrace, a single aged tear rolling down his cheek as he cried out in anguish, “What sins did I commit in my past life, to deserve this!”
Only then did Ziqing look over, her heart sinking slightly. She felt that none of this should have ever fallen to her to handle—it should have been properly resolved by the head of the household, the matriarch of the household, from the very start.
And yet, here she was, forced to deal with it—something that clearly wasn’t her fault had been twisted by this family into looking like her wrongdoing!
She couldn’t help but shake her head, about to speak, when the Gu family head resolutely handed Jiang Yuan over to Jiang Chen, took a deep breath, and said, “Go on then, Jiang Chen. A man must have backbone, must have dignity. Go. But remember this—Meiting will always be my daughter, and you will always be the Gu family’s son-in-law. The Gu family will always welcome you both as guests, anytime!”
The moment he said this, the anxiety that had been weighing on Jiang Chen’s heart finally settled with a heavy thud. But things had already gone this far—he had no choice but to keep up the act to the very end!
Carrying the still-wailing Jiang Yuan in one arm and holding the now-silent, exhausted Gu Meiting with the other, he bowed formally to the two elders and said earnestly, “Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, thank you for your care these past six years. I will carry this debt of gratitude in my heart forever. And now… farewell.”
With that, without so much as a backward glance, he strode away, wife and child in tow.
“Yuan’er, my precious Yuan’er!”
“Yuan’er… Grandmother can’t bear to let you go!”
……
Madam Gu’s voice grew hoarse with weeping. She hadn’t chased after them more than a few steps before her vision went dark and she collapsed in a faint. The Gu family head panicked, hurrying forward with Physician Hua to help her up.
Ziqing trusted Shiliang and Guxi to handle their duties well. Jiang Chen had freeloaded off the Gu family for six years, and still had the gall to put on airs of noble purity. If he’d simply admitted, with grace, that her accusation of being a “live-in husband” was accurate, she would have handed over everything the Gu family owned without a fight. But since he insisted on keeping up his pretense of grandeur—well then, apologies, but he wasn’t taking a single thing from the Gu family with him.
Letting the anxious voices and wailing outside fade into the background, Ziqing didn’t spare it another glance. She turned and, step by difficult step, made her way toward the main bedroom.
Her expression remained just as blank as ever—even after closing the bedroom door behind her, still not the grief-stricken expression the Gu sisters had been hoping for. No sorrow, no tears.
Just step by step, walking rather slowly, until at last she reached the bedside, and sat down silently beside Jun Beiyue.
She was even quieter than he was, as if continuing the silence from before, sitting there just as she had earlier, her expression blank as she gazed at him.
After a long, long while, she finally reached out slowly and simply held his large hand, a faint, calm smile touching her lips. “Prince Yao… it’s been a long time.”
She waited, waited for quite a while, but the man showed not the slightest reaction. She sighed faintly and, helplessly, set his hand back down.
“Great Zhou… everything is fine.” She murmured softly, just that single sentence, brushing aside every hardship of these past six months as though it were nothing.
She knew he wouldn’t respond, and yet her bare hand slowly reached up to trace his handsome face, moving gently along the elegant lines of his features, inch by inch. She couldn’t help but smile again, light and calm, faintly sweet, achingly beautiful.
But somehow, as she smiled, her hand suddenly stopped, and she choked up, her lips trembling. “But… Jun Beiyue… Qing’er isn’t doing well at all.”