Chapter 105: Chapter 105: Idle Gossip About Gu Yunchuan

Grandma Yun felt sorry for the child she had raised herself. Originally, she should have let him go out on his own once he became an adult, but she had kept him at home until the day he got married.

She thought, since the Yun family line would end with her anyway, someone would have to inherit it eventually. Rather than letting an outsider benefit, she might as well leave it all to Yun Nianzhou—after all, he was the child she had raised with her own hands.

Obviously, Yun Runtong and his wife had no intention of letting her have her way.

Yun Nianzhou was completely unaware of the undercurrents. All he knew was that his parents had never cared about him; it was his grandmother who had raised him. Deep down, he even resented his parents for their coldness and lack of affection, and often went against them out of spite.

He didn’t realize that, in his parents’ eyes, his rebellious behavior made him look like nothing more than a petty clown.

After their discussion, everyone in the Yun family went to bed.

The couple lay in bed, each lost in their own thoughts.

“Runtong, if our Zhouzhou were still here, he would never be so short-sighted, only able to see as far as the crack of a door. He wouldn’t have such poor taste either. There are so many well-bred young ladies in the capital, yet after all his picking and choosing, he ended up with a shifty-eyed woman. It’s laughable,” Liang Zhiqiu said, stifling her anger.

Yun Runtong felt the same way.

He had once considered grooming this child as his successor, since he and Liang Zhiqiu would not have any more children. But perhaps personality is innate—this child was too petty, timid, and clueless, making it impossible for him to truly like him.

He and Liang Zhiqiu had painstakingly chosen Gu Qinghuan, who was steady and poised. Though her background wasn’t perfect, she was still a descendant of the scholarly Zhong family.

A skinny camel is still bigger than a horse; families like the Zhongs, as long as nothing went wrong, were not ones they could easily climb up to. In the capital, money and power aren’t enough—you need a solid foundation, and the Zhongs had one that ordinary families could only dream of.

Old Mr. Zhong Weiqian had students all over the country and connections everywhere. It was only in these special times that he chose not to trouble others.

But Yun Nianzhou had no understanding of their good intentions. He broke off the engagement on a whim and made a huge scene, leaving Yun Runtong at a loss as to how to face his old friend.

Now, he was asking to marry Gu Qinghuan’s stepsister, rubbing their faces in the dirt.

Yun Runtong was determined not to let him stay at home any longer. The sooner this troublesome child became independent, the better.

“Let’s sleep. I believe that if our child were still in this world, he would do just fine—after all, he’s my son,” Yun Runtong said.

They slept soundly through the night.

The next day, Gu Qinghuan called a tailor to her home to have a dress custom-made.

Lanting didn’t want to attend that woman’s wedding and would rather stay home with the child over the weekend.

Gu Qinghuan let him be, but she and Xu Huaian were definitely going. Not only would they go, but they would go looking their absolute best.

The tailor she hired was from the shop Zhong Zijun used to love. The old master no longer ran a storefront and only took on private jobs to make ends meet.

His craftsmanship was impeccable and he could handle any style. Gu Qinghuan simply offered the highest price and asked him to finish the dress within three days.

Xu Huaian had no idea what she was up to. She ordered a suit for him, took him to the department store to buy leather shoes, and even made him get a new haircut.

He just did as she said.

Gu Qinghuan was busy these days as well. Using her left hand, she wrote an anonymous letter to the director of the chemical plant, detailing Gu Yunchuan’s family background and financial situation, and suggested he investigate whether Gu Yunchuan had been embezzling funds.

She knew it would take some time for results, but she wasn’t in a hurry. She could wait.

Meanwhile, at Gu Yunchuan’s workplace, he was bombarded with questions about what had happened the previous day.

He had already made up a story: he said Gu Qinghuan’s life in the countryside had been tough, so she came back to ask her father for money, and that’s why she had threatened him.

He shifted all the blame onto Xia Shuhua, making her the scapegoat and distancing himself from the mess.

Unfortunately, his story wasn’t convincing at all. Anyone with eyes could see how much the siblings had suffered—no amount of excuses could erase that.

As the saying goes, “With a stepmother comes a stepfather.” The two siblings had been such good kids, and now look at them.

Some people had even run into Lanting outside and knew that, at such a young age, he was already fending for himself. People couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

Gu Yunchuan’s family wasn’t poor, yet he’d rather support someone else’s daughter than take care of his own children. Behind his back, people joked that he was the best stepfather in all of China.

And now, rumors had spread throughout the family compound that Gu Yunchuan was a “green-haired turtle” (cuckold), raising his wife’s ex-husband’s child. By today, the gossip had reached the entire factory.

There were no secrets at the plant—nothing escaped notice, especially not the romantic scandals of the dashing accountant Gu.

Some workers would burst out laughing when they saw him from afar.

Gu Yunchuan was baffled.

Finally, his good friend at the factory, Wu Zhenqiang, couldn’t stand it anymore and quietly pulled him aside.

“Yunchuan, be honest with me—do you really not know about your wife’s situation?” Wu Zhenqiang was a straightforward guy, not one to bottle things up.

“Xia Shuhua? What about her? I really don’t know!” Gu Yunchuan thought he was talking about yesterday’s events.

“Don’t get upset. I’m just telling you what I heard from the others at the plant. They said… they said…”

“What did they say? Just spit it out!” Gu Yunchuan was as anxious as a cat on a hot tin roof.

Wu Zhenqiang steeled himself and said, “They said someone saw your wife sending living expenses to her ex-husband’s family every month—twenty yuan each time. They say she’s still tangled up with her ex, and that your youngest son might not even be yours. They’re calling you a cuckold, saying you’re raising someone else’s child… Yunchuan! Are you okay?”

Wu Zhenqiang watched as Gu Yunchuan, unable to catch his breath, collapsed on the spot.

He quickly carried him to the infirmary. It was a while before Gu Yunchuan finally came to.

It wasn’t anything serious—just a fit of rage.

Lying on the hospital bed, Gu Yunchuan didn’t have time to worry about how the gossip had started. What mattered more was whether any of it was true.

He told Wu Zhenqiang to keep quiet for now and help him discreetly look into Xia Shuhua’s ex-husband’s situation."