Chapter 80: The Wind Has Changed

Chapter 80: Chapter 80: The Wind Has Changed

"Jinhua, are you off to bring food to your older brother again?" He Xiulin called out, seeing the lunchbox in Gu Jinhua’s hand.

"Xiulin, I’m really in a hurry. We can talk later." Gu Jinhua had no time to spare. She grabbed a steamed bun to chew on with one hand, held the lunchbox in the other, and was about to rush off.

"Do you know what everyone’s been saying these past few days?" He Xiulin said, hurrying after her when she saw Gu Jinhua was actually leaving.

"What are they saying?"

Gu Jinhua didn’t slow down, so He Xiulin had to walk alongside her. "It’s all bad things about your older brother. The tide of public opinion has completely turned."

"How is that possible?" Gu Jinhua stopped in her tracks.

"Why wouldn’t it be?"

Seeing that Gu Jinhua was interested, He Xiulin quickly pulled her into a corner and started whispering. Gu Jinhua’s expression soured as she listened. For the past two days at work, Zhang Minzhen had been acting as if nothing was wrong, which had already disappointed her. But times were different now. She realized that not only had the Zhang family become difficult to deal with, but even Zhang Minzhen herself had become unprecedentedly tough. Her few, small attempts to test the waters had all been met with a surprising and firm rejection, leaving her rebuffed. Adding to that, Chen Suxiang had warned her about the consequences of provoking Zhang Minzhen. Her older brother’s life was on the line; this was no joke. So, no matter how aggrieved Gu Jinhua felt, she had no choice but to endure it. Thankfully, when people gossiped about Zhang Minzhen in private, they would usually say she was too ruthless and too heartless toward her own husband. That was when she would feel a little better. But she never expected the tide to turn so quickly, or that everyone would find out about her brother’s affair.

Gu Jinhua’s face darkened, and she silently cursed Zhang Minzhen and the Zhang family. ’They must have spread those rumors. They’ll really stop at nothing. To think they’d do something like this just to gain sympathy. No wonder Zhang Minzhen has been so brazenly unbothered these past two days, no matter what anyone said about her. So this is what she was waiting for...’

Zhang Minzhen, the target of Gu Jinhua’s silent curses, had also noticed something was off.

Early this morning, she suddenly noticed many more customers at her counter. However, most of them were clearly just "passing by." Their eyes weren’t on the shelves; instead, more people were stealing glances at her... Those looks, filled with sympathy, pity, and something else she couldn’t quite name, made her feel extremely uncomfortable...

’What is going on?’

Zhang Minzhen was baffled. ’Could the news have spread that fast?’ she wondered. ’Has my divorce become the talk of the town? But am I really that famous? Would all these people really come out of their way just to gawk at me like I’m a monkey in a zoo, all because I’m getting a divorce? What’s even stranger is that everyone seems to be looking at me with pity. Abnormally, almost no one is looking at me with scorn or ridicule.’

"Daughter, there’s no hardship in this world you can’t overcome. When you meet a man like that, getting a divorce is the right thing to do. There’s nothing to be sad about. It’s fate. You have to try and move on." Perhaps misinterpreting the expression on Zhang Minzhen’s face as sadness, an old woman carrying a basket paused for a moment, sighed, and offered these words of comfort before leaving.

Zhang Minzhen’s jaw dropped in astonishment.

She had no idea that at that very moment, in the grocery store where the whole incident had been witnessed, the shopkeeper was as busy as a bee. Her business today was several times better than usual. When she opened her doors first thing in the morning, she was surprised to find quite a few people already waiting outside. She only understood this rare phenomenon after someone bought something and then immediately got straight to the point.

It turned out that for every last one of them, buying things was just an excuse; their real purpose was to fish for gossip.

But who cared? An opportunity to do business and gossip at the same time was rare indeed. She couldn’t care less what their main purpose was. And so, the shopkeeper got excited. As if injected with chicken blood, she would tell anyone who asked every last detail of what she’d seen that day. In her spare moments between selling goods, she didn’t forget to join a group of people in a heated discussion...

"That man is a real monster. They say even a one-day couple shares a deep bond, but he didn’t hold back at all when it came to ruining his wife. Being his wife is the worst luck imaginable. If you ask me, he got what he deserved. And the guy who threw the acid has had a rotten string of luck for eight lifetimes. Not only was he cuckolded, but he was raising another man’s children—two of them! Who could stand something like that? Why didn’t he just go and chop him up with a knife? Just throwing some acid is letting him off way too easy," the shopkeeper said, looking annoyed as if a good show had been cut short.

"But he was arrested by the police and thrown in jail just for throwing acid. If he’d killed him, wouldn’t he have had to pay with his own life?" Passerby A remarked, clicking their tongue.

"He was arrested that quickly? Hey, you have to tell me all about it..." The shopkeeper, hearing a piece of news she didn’t know yet, immediately and eagerly asked for more.

"I know about that too! Oh my god, you should have seen how many police officers showed up that day! Everyone thought a murderer was on the loose in our town..." Before Passerby A could even speak, Passerby B, not to be outdone, jumped in. But before he could finish, someone else interjected, "You’re talking about the son of Mr. Lin from the textile factory, right? Poor guy. He’s such an honest man, and he doted on his wife and kids. So many people were envious of their twins, a boy and a girl. Who would have thought, who would have thought."

...

Like a gust of wind, the rumors quickly spread through every street and alley of the small town. Even people living far away, near the Gu family’s home, had heard them.

"Do you know what I heard today?"

A neighbor of the Gu family, whom everyone called Xiao Mei, smiled mysteriously at the group of gossiping middle-aged and elderly women. Without trying to build suspense, she launched right into her story, nodding her head in the direction of the Gu family’s house. "It’s about the Gu family. Their eldest son had acid thrown on him. His face is ruined, and he’s still in the hospital. I heard his wife is also making a fuss about divorcing him."

"...You mean the Gu family’s eldest? What happened? Everything was fine, so how did he end up disfigured and getting a divorce?"

"That family’s eldest son is quite handsome. He’s not a woman, though, so why would someone hate him enough to throw acid on him? Have they caught the culprit? Did they say why they did it?"

"Exactly! After the ’Strike Hard’ campaign a couple of years ago, didn’t all those troublemakers lay low and stop acting so recklessly? What, are some fearless idiots starting to pop up again?"

"Oh, that’s terrifying! Have they arrested the person who threw the acid?"

"Isn’t the Gu family’s eldest son’s wife a nice person? Why would she want a divorce at a time like this? She and her sister-in-law both work at the supply and marketing co-op. That sister-in-law is so arrogant; she can’t be bothered with us when we go there, always looking down her nose at people. But the wife is nice. Not only is she a good person, but if you ask her to buy some of the internally discounted items, she’ll almost always agree..."

"You can know a person’s face, but not their heart."

"I don’t think so."

"What are you all talking about? Let’s hear what Xiao Mei has to say first."

The topic was quite popular. As soon as it was brought up, it immediately captured everyone’s attention. One by one, they started asking questions, but the conversation quickly went off-topic. An impatient voice called out, and the crowd instantly fell silent, all heads turning to look at Xiao Mei.

Xiao Mei didn’t mind being ignored earlier. She grinned and said, "Well, it’s a long story. Here’s what happened..."

"The Gu family’s eldest son seems like such a gentle, cultured person. How could he do something like that? Stealing another man’s wife and even having bastard children with her?"

"The upper beam is crooked, so the lower beam will be too. With a mother like that, what kind of good son could she possibly raise?"

"No wonder! I was just saying, the Gu family’s in-laws rarely ever visit, so why did several of them show up all at once that day?" someone said, enlightened after hearing Xiao Mei’s story.

"Which day was that? Was it the day we heard all that noise coming from their house again?"

"That’s the one. Tsk tsk, every time she gets beaten, her screams are worse than a pig being slaughtered. I can hear it clearly from my own home," someone said with a laugh.

This sent the whole group into a fit of laughter.

"She gets what she deserves. She’s never satisfied with taking advantage of people. Take buying tofu, for example. Not only does she insist on getting an extra piece for free, she’ll shamelessly demand a bowl of soy milk too, or else she’ll just stand there and not leave. Jiang, the tofu seller, gets nervous just seeing her."

"Nervous? Who around here isn’t nervous when they see her? Taking advantage when she buys things is nothing. The other day, Mrs. Yan Xin’s boy, Yan Xin, accidentally grazed her with his bicycle—didn’t even break the skin—and she grabbed him and demanded he pay her medical fees. She even went to their house, blocked the door, and threw a tantrum until she managed to extort five yuan out of them."

"I heard about that too. Mrs. Yan Xin was furious and tells everyone she meets about it. I also heard she’s not very nice to her eldest daughter-in-law..."

"Actually, the guy who threw the acid is pitiful too. It’s not just that he was cuckolded; he found out the son and daughter he worked so hard to raise aren’t even his own. Who wouldn’t fly into a rage if that happened to them?"

"You can say that again..." Just as someone was about to voice their own opinion, another person nudged them with an elbow and whispered a warning, "Stop talking."

The person snapped their mouth shut. The surroundings fell silent. She turned her head to where the crowd was looking and saw the subject of their conversation, her face bruised and purple, walking past them with a basket, her eyes fixed straight ahead...

After the woman was a good distance away, that same person clicked their tongue. "My, my, how did her face get all colorful today? I can’t believe she still has the nerve to go out."

...