Mother Zhou forced a stiff smile, turning to Gu Yan's grandmother. "In-law, our Mingzhu is young and doesn't know any better. Whatever we brought her was strictly part of her dowry."
"You can see how we raised such a fine daughter all these years, only for her to rush into marriage with a severely wounded Company Commander Gu, and her future looks... oh, sigh. Not to mention she still has two half-grown children to look after..."
Mother Zhou's voice choked with tears. "If we asked for a dowry, it was only to secure some sort of safety net for Mingzhu."
Without missing a beat, Zhou Mingzhu pulled out the severance agreement and handed it directly to Gu Yan's grandmother. "This is the severance agreement between me and my family. They took the university spot I earned—"
Mother Zhou shrieked, "Zhou Mingzhu!"
Mother Zhou lunged forward, trying to snatch the agreement and grab Zhou Mingzhu.
Refusing to take the paper, Gu Yan's grandmother waved her hands in a panic. "Old woman that I am, I can't read a word."
Taking advantage of Mother Zhou's rush, Zhou Mingzhu quickly shoved the agreement back into her pocket.
Turning to face Mother Zhou, Zhou Mingzhu said, "Mom, you should go back. Ever since I was little, you taught me to know gratitude. You've been hitting the Gu family up for money for years now; asking for another betrothal gift is simply wrong."
Her eyes blazing red, Mother Zhou gritted her teeth at Zhou Mingzhu. "I'm doing this all for you! Get out here with me!"
After a moment's thought, Zhou Mingzhu followed Mother Zhou out of the house.
Holding out her hand, Mother Zhou demanded, "If you aren't going to make the Gu family pay, then you pay. Your sister is heading to university soon, and she'll definitely need extra cash for travel and expenses. Once you're mistreated in the Gu family, you'll still have your sister and brother to back you up."
"Get back inside right now, before I say something truly ugly. If you keep making a fuss, Zhou Mingzhu, don't even think about going to university!"
Without sparing Mother Zhou another word, Zhou Mingzhu turned on her heel and walked back inside, refusing to waste any more breath on her.
Staring daggers at Zhou Mingzhu's retreating back as if she were speaking a foreign language, Mother Zhou yelled, "With the way you're turning your back on everyone, the day will come when you live to regret this!"
Zhou Mingzhu paused, let out a cold laugh, and walked into the house without looking back.
She looked apologetically at Gu Yan's grandmother. "Grandmother, I brought two pounds of meat. I'll cook it for dinner tonight. Tomorrow I'll go to the team leader to get a certificate, because the day after tomorrow I plan to take Xiaojun and Tongtong into the county to pick up a few things, catch the train the day after that, and take them to find Gu Yan."
Gu Yan's grandmother's eyes grew moist. Deep, weathered gullies were etched into her wheat-colored skin, and her old quilted jacket was neatly mended.
In her eyes, relief mingled with pity and affection. She nodded generously. "You must be Mingzhu. You've had it hard. I'll cook tonight; you wouldn't know where everything in the kitchen is kept."
Before Zhou Mingzhu could reply, Gu Yan's grandmother stood up and led her into Gu Yan's room.
The room Gu Yan's grandmother had kept for him was simple—a five-foot-wide wooden bed and a large solid-wood wardrobe painted a bright jujube red.
"The family circumstances aren't great. When I was young and gave birth to Gu Yan's mother, my health was ruined, and she was my only child. When we built the new house, your grandfather's health was already failing, so we only put up three rooms in total: two for living and one for the kitchen."
"This room is a bit small, but you'll have to make do for a couple of nights. I've wronged you."
Zhou Mingzhu shook her head. "Grandmother, what are you saying? This isn't wronging me at all."
After exchanging a few more polite remarks with Gu Yan's grandmother, Zhou Mingzhu went to the stove to boil water so she could clean up Xiaojun and Tongtong.
Lujun and Qitong, eight and five years old respectively, were old enough to understand what was going on.
Seeing that Zhou Mingzhu took the trouble to give the two children separate baths, Gu Yan's grandmother happily went off to the kitchen to busy herself with dinner.
After dinner, while it was still daylight, Gu Yan's grandmother told Zhou Mingzhu to turn in early and took Lujun and Qitong off to sleep in her own room.
Naturally, Gu Yan's grandmother wanted to have a private, heart-to-heart talk with the two children.
Far from minding, Zhou Mingzhu was deeply grateful for the peace and quiet.
She locked the door with a light touch and pulled out the Jade Pendant.
Wiping away all her exhaustion, Zhou Mingzhu double-checked to ensure there were no unusual sounds outside, then took a utility knife from her backpack. She sterilized the blade briefly by passing it over a candle flame before slicing her finger.
She pressed a drop of blood onto the Jade Pendant, but it remained completely unresponsive.
Zhou Mingzhu frowned. Didn't novels always say these pendants contained a Spirit Spring Dimension?
Just as she began to wonder if the pendant required a specific owner, she was instantly pulled into a space filled with rich black soil.
The space was quite small, measuring only about five hundred square meters.
The spirit spring inside was nothing more than a tiny puddle.
Cupping some of the Spirit Spring Water in her hands, Zhou Mingzhu took a sip. Aside from being exceptionally sweet, it tasted quite ordinary.
However, the dull, lingering ache at the back of her head suddenly began to itch.
She looked down at her cut finger; a delicate line of fresh pink skin had already formed, and the split was completely healed.
Zhou Mingzhu drank a few more sips, but the wound did not vanish any further, leading her to guess that the Spirit Spring Water had no cumulative stacking effect.
She looked toward the end of the space, where a wall of white mist hung like a fog. She couldn't walk past it, and pressing against it with her hands failed to pierce the haze, so she quickly lost interest in investigating further.
Zhou Mingzhu stepped out of the dimension. Lacking a wristwatch, and with no clocks in Gu Yan's grandmother's home, she had no way of knowing the exact ratio of time inside the dimension compared to the outside world.
The novels never made it very clear either, only mentioning that one could spend a long time inside the space while only a few minutes seemed to pass outside.
Fearing that Gu Yan's grandmother might knock on her door and catch her inside, Zhou Mingzhu put the question of the dimension aside and began mapping out her plans for the next day.
She wrote down a few events she still remembered; lacking a photographic memory, she was afraid she would forget them in a few days.
Lulling herself to sleep with the sound of rural frogs and the occasional bark of a village dog, Zhou Mingzhu slowly drifted off to dreamland.
The village loudspeaker blared early in the morning, but Zhou Mingzhu sleepily rolled over and went back to sleep.
By the time she woke up, Lujun and Qitong had already finished the breakfast Gu Yan's grandmother prepared and had gone out to gather pigweed and firewood.
Seeing the food left on the table and the empty room, Zhou Mingzhu quickly ate her breakfast, cleared away the dishes, and sat down to write a letter.
Zhou Mingyue wanted to steal her university spot?
The Zhou family certainly had high hopes.
The real reason Zhou Mingzhu had taken Zhou Mingyue's schoolwork notebooks when she left the Zhou family was so she could write a report letter.
Ten minutes later, Zhou Mingzhu reviewed the report letter she had just written.
She deliberately mimicked the original owner's handwriting, then neatly stacked Zhou Mingyue's composition alongside several of her graded assignments.
This report letter was not going to be sent to the county admissions office.
Since Mother Zhou worked at the neighborhood committee, Zhou Mingzhu had no idea what kind of connections Mother Zhou might have used to swap Zhou Mingyue's and Mingzhu's scores.
If she sent the report letter to the county admissions office, and the person who received it happened to be an acquaintance of Mother Zhou's, the letter would be completely useless.
Therefore, Zhou Mingzhu decided to mail the report letter directly to the admissions office of Peking University.