Gao Shuzhen from Gaojia Village also began to busy herself with her son's wedding. The mother and son did not invite anyone to come and help. They simply tidied up Gao Dongxing's house and that was it.
"That's good enough. No matter how much you clean it up, it'll still look the same." Gao Shuzhen felt a pang of sadness looking at the empty house.
The room contained only a bed made of a door panel, some clothes spread out on a bamboo pole lying across the wall, and farm tools placed in the corner.
When Gao Shuzhen and her son said they were tidying up the room, they were really just laying out a newly woven rattan mat and tidying up the clothes on the bamboo pole.
"Mom, can we use that cabinet in your room for a bit?" Gao Dongxing put his arm around Gao Shuzhen's shoulder and gently shook her a couple of times.
Gao Shuzhen slapped his hand away. "My room only has one more cabinet than yours, and you're already eyeing it? Your uncle specially sent it to me."
Speaking of this cabinet, it was actually Gao Shuzhen who specifically asked for it. Gao Ci'an and his wife even had a fight over it, since there are really not many pieces of furniture left, and this cabinet is one of only two of them.
“But you can’t have a wedding without any decent furniture, or people will laugh at you.” Gao Dongxing knew his mother would be reluctant, but this was the only large piece of furniture in the house. If it was placed in his room, it would be convenient for the two of them to store their clothes.
"What's so funny about that? Besides, we didn't invite any outsiders this time. They're not some important people. We can just bring them back later." Gao Shuzhen said dismissively.
"Mom," Gao Dongxing called out, "this is the most important event of my life. Can't you grant me even the smallest request?"
"No, if you had found a girl from the village, it would have been easier for me to ask your uncle for some things. But look at the kind of person you've found! You dare to bring someone from out of town, someone whose background you don't even know, into the village. The village has a lot of complaints about us now."
Gao Shuzhen gets angry when she talks about this. Gao Dongxing only worked two days at the village entrance, but somehow he fell in love with a woman who had fled here and insisted on marrying her.
Gao Shuzhen felt very disgusted because she had seen too many women these days who didn't follow the right path and flirted with the men in the village every day at the village entrance.
What angered her even more was that the other party was offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal, meaning she would have to support his sister after marrying him. No matter how much she objected, Gao Dongxing insisted, even saying that if she didn't agree this time, he would never get married again.
Ever since the news of Gao Dongxing's incident spread, villagers now feel safe only when their families accompany them to the area for duty.
“They’re looking at people with prejudice. Cen Ran isn’t like that. You’ll understand once you get to know her.” Gao Dongxing’s voice softened unconsciously as he spoke of his future wife.
"You've only met them a few times, how can you know so much about them? Be careful, you can't judge a book by its cover. What if you bring home a troublemaker? Our family will be in even worse shape then." Gao Shuzhen didn't think so highly of them.
In her view, after such a long period of fleeing, as a girl with a younger sister, to be able to make it here unscathed must have been a long and complicated journey.
"No matter what you think, I've decided on her. I'm going to go out of the village to bring her back. Don't say anything!" Gao Dongxing didn't care about arguing with his mother about the cabinet anymore and hurriedly went out of the village to bring her in.
Gao Shuzhen watched her son disappear in an instant, muttering to herself, "This wife hasn't even been married into the family yet, and she's already starting to go astray. Will I even have a say in this house anymore?"
Gao Shuzhen didn't want to stay at home any longer, as it would make her feel like she was waiting there to welcome her new daughter-in-law.
She closed her door and headed towards her brother's house. Along the way, she encountered some villagers who congratulated her with glee.
"Why aren't you at home being a mother-in-law today? What are you doing here?" Hu Lingling asked sarcastically as soon as Gao Shuzhen entered.
Gao Shuzhen was already used to her attitude, and called out directly into the house, "Brother, are you home?"
"Your brother isn't here, so don't come to my house again," Gao Zian replied curtly from inside the house, without showing his face.
"What's wrong now? I don't think I've offended you recently." Gao Shuzhen put on a wronged expression, which disgusted Hu Lingling standing next to her.
"Don't you know what your family has been up to lately? Stay away from our house from now on, or you'll corrupt Gao Liang." Hu Lingling rudely shooed her away.
"Brother, are you just going to stand by and watch outsiders bully your sister like this?" Gao Shuzhen ignored Hu Lingling's attempts to stop her and tried to barge into the house.
I had finally managed to mend my relationship with my brother a little over this period. He would even talk to me on the street sometimes, but I never expected it to go back to the way it was before.
Gao Shuzhen was unwilling to accept this. She knew that Gao Dongxing's decision to marry an outside woman had made many people in the village laugh at him, but this was not what she wanted.
Hu Lingling grabbed a broom from the corner of the wall and kept stirring up dust in front of her. "These people are all outsiders to you. Only Dongxing and your wife who you found are your own people. You'd better go back and guard your own home, or your whole house will be taken away."
"Our Gao family must have had the worst luck in eight lifetimes to have married a woman like you who causes so much trouble. What kind of sister-in-law stops her sister-in-law from going back to her parents' home?" Gao Shuzhen said, brushing the dust off her clothes as she backed away.
"Then look at which sister-in-law is like you, always stirring up trouble and bringing up everything. If your parents-in-law knew what kind of person you are, they would strangle you on the spot." Hu Lingling was also a little angry, thinking that the rumors might delay Gao Liang's wedding.
"I can't be bothered to talk to a woman like you." Gao Shuzhen, perhaps feeling a little guilty when she heard her mother mention her parents, started shouting into the house again.
But this time, Gao Zian was so angry that he stopped paying any attention to his sister.
"Dad, are you really not going out?" Gao Liang sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) looking at his father across from him.
“If we don’t go out, everyone knows what’s going on with those women outside. But Gao Dongxing won’t listen to advice, he’ll get what’s coming to him sooner or later.” Gao Zian was also very angry when he talked about this. He had even privately talked to Gao Dongxing, but he didn’t expect to be mocked by the kid instead.
Think about how tough that kid was back then, claiming he no longer recognized them as mother and son, so why is he meddling in their affairs now?
Gozian glanced at his son across from him. He didn't even dare to mention these things to his mother and son, otherwise they would say that he had brought it on himself.
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