Gu Cheng recalled the grievances Gu Ruo had poured out to him, and his dissatisfaction with Gu Qing grew even stronger. His second sister had kindly reminded her to mind her manners in front of outsiders, but Gu Qing had treated her kindness with contempt and even turned around to berate her. Having been close with his second sister since childhood, Gu Cheng would never allow anyone to bully her. With this in mind, he jammed his hands into his pockets and walked downstairs, feigning an air of nonchalance.
Gu Qing’s gaze lingered on Gu Cheng’s face for only two seconds before she looked away. If Gu Ruo did not welcome her as an "outsider," she had even fewer expectations for this brother she had never met. She did not care how much they hated her as an interloper, as long as they didn’t stir up trouble in front of her. However, the siblings seemed to share a telepathic connection, both constantly goading her into violence.
As Gu Qing passed Gu Cheng, her peripheral vision caught him suddenly extending his foot. She sneered—he wanted to trip her and send her tumbling down the stairs?
Before Gu Cheng could succeed, Gu Qing stepped firmly onto his instep. Gu Cheng had been in the middle of a stride, and as Gu Qing pinned his foot down, he was already in the process of lifting it. Stumbling over her, his body instinctively lurched forward, and Gu Qing seized the moment to shove him from behind. Taken by surprise, Gu Cheng lost his balance and was sent tumbling down the stairs. He let out a startled cry.
"Ah—!"
The moment the sound left his lips, he rolled down the steps. Gu Qing turned and looked down at him with cold eyes. He was on his knees, gripping the banister for support. His knees throbbed with such piercing pain that he lacked the strength to stand.
Ye Zhixue, just arriving home, saw this scene and her eyes widened in terror.
"Chengcheng!"
She hurried over in a panic to help him up. Gu Cheng was about to let out a string of curses, but upon hearing Ye Zhixue’s voice, he immediately feigned injury: "Mom, the eldest sister pushed me down the stairs!"
Ye Zhixue was already deeply dissatisfied with Gu Qing’s behavior today, and now that she had pushed Gu Cheng down the stairs, her anger flared even more intensely. She had tolerated Gu Qing's wretched personality only for the sake of the two families' alliance, but her son was her entire life. Whoever dared to bully her son would face her wrath, regardless of the cost. She glared at Gu Qing, hissing, "Why did you push your brother?"
Gu Qing looked coldly at the act Gu Cheng was putting on. She scoffed inwardly; they were indeed siblings, with the same repertoire of dramatic tricks. Facing Ye Zhixue’s interrogation, she replied indifferently, "He tried to trip me first. I was simply returning the favor to teach him a lesson."
Her tone was flat, not one of desperate explanation, but a calm statement of facts.
Gu Cheng was, after all, only a fifteen-year-old boy. Seeing Gu Qing’s composed demeanor, he felt a strange sense of panic. Fearing Ye Zhixue might believe her, he grabbed her arm and cried out, changing the subject, "Mom, she pushed me down the stairs on purpose! I wasn't trying to trip her. Ah, my leg hurts so much, is it broken?"
Recently, the fact that the Lu family's eldest son, Lu Jingyan, was paralyzed had become the biggest news in all of Beicheng. Everyone lamented the fall of such a golden boy. Upon hearing that her son’s leg was in pain, Ye Zhixue became instantly paranoid. She quickly comforted him, "Don't be afraid, Mom is taking you to the hospital right now."
However, Gu Qing’s lukewarm attitude had thoroughly incensed her. After using her phone to call an ambulance, Ye Zhixue finally had the headspace to deal with Gu Qing.
"I just brought you back, and you’re already trying to intimidate your siblings? It seems if I don’t teach you a lesson today, you won’t even know who your mother is."
With that, Ye Zhixue bounded up the stairs, reached Gu Qing, and raised her hand to slap her across the face. Just as the blow was about to land, Gu Qing caught her wrist and pressed it down with force.
Ye Zhixue looked at her in shock: "You actually dare to..."
She had barely begun to speak when the grip on her wrist tightened, forcing her to gasp in pain. Gu Qing locked eyes with her and said, word for word, "I said, he tried to trip me first, so I pushed him down. Ye Zhixue, I never expected fair treatment from you, but don't think you can bully me for someone else’s sake. If you want me to marry Lu Jingyan and get everything you want, you’d best not offend me. Otherwise, you’ll have to marry off your precious youngest daughter instead."
With that, Gu Qing released her hand. Ye Zhixue was shoved backward, staggering two steps and nearly falling down the stairs before grabbing the handrail just in time. Gu Qing went upstairs without looking back.
Ye Zhixue had not yet recovered from what was said. She stood there, staring blankly at Gu Qing’s solemn, cold back, the image of those eyes burned into her mind. There was a ruthless edge in her clear pupils that felt entirely foreign to Ye Zhixue, who had never truly understood her. In her memory, before Ruoruo was born, this girl had always been meek and submissive on the phone. She had always believed Gu Qing was easy to control.
What was most terrifying was that alongside this sense of estrangement, she felt a creeping unease. If the previous incidents—refusing to change clothes and refusing to lie as instructed—showed that Gu Qing was not someone easily manipulated, then these few words were enough to prove her intelligence and calculating nature were far beyond the ordinary. These few sentences revealed that she was constantly tracking events in Beicheng and that she was fully aware of why they had brought her back from the countryside. If she knew their goals so clearly, yet still agreed to come, what was she planning?
Ye Zhixue suddenly questioned whether bringing Gu Qing back from the countryside was the right decision. If she sent her to the Lu family and she became a member of the Lu household, would Gu Qing thwart the benefits Madam Lu had promised their family?
Ye Zhixue’s thoughts were complex, tinged with a deep, unspeakable shame. She had plotted and schemed against Gu Qing, assuming that a girl raised in the countryside would never see through her. After all, most children raised in the country were somewhat timid when facing the outside world. She knew this because she, too, had come from the country; she knew how shy she had been when she first arrived in the big city.
She had never expected Gu Qing to understand everything. She felt like a clown in front of her. Yet, there remained an odd, lingering guilt; Gu Qing was her daughter, after all, and no one knew better than her just how biased her heart was. But then she thought, as her daughter, shouldn't Gu Qing be sharing her burdens? And if she married into the Lu family, she would enjoy a lifetime of luxury and wealth. Yet that wretched girl dared to speak to her with such a tone and attitude. She had clearly spent too much time with that old woman; she had become an ill-mannered, wild girl.
Gu Cheng was also stunned by Gu Qing’s words, but he lacked the depth of thought to dwell on them. To him, it only confirmed what his second sister had said: their eldest sister, Gu Qing, was truly a vicious, barbaric, and hopeless country bumpkin.