Chapter 2 The House Requisition
"Gu Cheng, you can't do this. Song Xiaoya's mom treated you so well before she passed. How can you force her daughter to death."
"That woman got divorced and now destroys someone else's relationship. So shameless."
"She's just a vixen."
The neighbors' pointing and gossip pulled me back from my previous life memories.
Zhu Xiuqin hurriedly took off my dress and covered her face as she ran out.
Once the neighbors left, Gu Cheng stared at me full of anger.
"Song Xiaoya, stop making a fuss. It's just one dress. Why do you have to act like you want to die over such a small thing?"
I looked at him calmly. "Do you really want to marry me? I thought you liked Zhu Xiuqin."
His gaze flickered. He softened his tone on purpose. "Song Xiaoya, I promised your mom I would take care of you. Let's stop fighting, okay?"
When Gu Cheng was young, his parents died one after another. His relatives thought he was unlucky and drove him and his young brother and sister out of the house. The skinny him knelt at my door begging for food.
My mom saw the three siblings were pitiful and took them in.
Life in the countryside was hard. To keep the three from starving, my family split our two portions of grain into five.
My mom did not force Gu Cheng to marry me before she died. She only hoped someone would help me when I was in trouble.
It was Gu Cheng who proposed marriage to me. I had feelings for him and did not resist.
He kept saying he wanted to repay my family, but he was repaying kindness with enmity.
Gu Cheng saw I did not speak.
He put on a difficult expression again. "Today you embarrassed Zhu Xiuqin. Later invite her home for a meal and apologize to her."
I did not respond and went to the Village Chief.
The Village Chief had mentioned to me that my house and the nearby land were planned to be converted into a school.
In my previous life I had refused the requisition and missed a large subsidy.
The procedures were handled quickly. The Village Chief said he would come to my house to collect the house in a week.
The Village Chief asked kindly, "Without the house, where will you and your family live?"
My expression did not change. "I have somewhere to go."
Gu Cheng and his siblings had lived in my house for too long. They probably forgot who the real owner was.
When I got home, Zhu Xiuqin was sitting with Gu Fang and Gu Yuan, who had just returned from school. The three were chatting and laughing.
The two children saw me and immediately glared at me. "Don't bully Zhu Xiuqin!"
Zhu Xiuqin pretended to scold them, but I saw mockery and sympathy in her eyes toward me.
It seemed she was mocking me for taking care of these children for so long, yet they still sided with her, an outsider.
In my previous life, these siblings would cry and curse me from time to time for jinxing their brother to death.
Because of my guilt, I could only treat them even better to make up for my perceived debt.
They knew Gu Cheng had faked his death but still sucked my blood without guilt.
Now thinking back, pitiful people must have hateful aspects.
Back then their relatives insisted on driving the three siblings away. There must have been a reason.
I immediately put on a stern face toward the two children. "This is my house. If you don't want to stay, you can get out."
For all these years I had treated them like my own brother and sister. This was the first time I spoke so harshly.
Gu Cheng's face stiffened instantly.