In the end, Gu Yundong and Gu Jinlin lost to Zhou Ping’s argument that the children were still too young. and should stay with their parents. She could not bear to part with them. Also, there were too many children at home, and their grandparents were too old to care for them.
It was true that the children were too young and their parents were loath to part with them. In addition, considering the family situation, they were rather embarrassed to leave the children with them.
So they decided that the two children should follow them back to the city.
Meanwhile, in the Li household!
For the past few days, the Li family of the Poplar Brigade had been suffering terribly.
Since that night, Old Madam Li had been unable to recover from her illness.
The day that Gu Yunshuang came for the divorce papers, she had gone out although she was still ill. As a result, her illness had worsened.
She was running a high fever and drifted in and out of sleep. Meanwhile, she continued to yell about ghosts!
Everyone asked her what had happened that night, but she insisted that she had encountered a ghost!
No one believed her at first, but when she continued to insist that it was so, some said that perhaps she had really encountered something, because of her many evil deeds.
Old Madam Li lay in bed for many days without any signs of recovery. Her three daughters-in-law continued to wait on her.
After Gu Yunshuang and Li Fangting left, there was no one to do the work at home. So all the chores and the burden of waiting on Old Madam Li fell on the other three daughters-in-law.
But they were used to Gu Yunshuang waiting on them and they had not done any work for many years. So they were rather slow and clumsy.
Disaster befell the Li family once again!
The oldest daughter-in-law fell into the river while doing the laundry. She was half-frozen and, like her mother-in-law, was unable to get out of bed.
The second daughter-in-law suffered a fall when she got up in the morning to make breakfast. She broke her leg and was also unable to get up.
So all the household chores fell to the third daughter-in-law.
She not only had to take care of her eldest sister-in-law, but she also had to take care of her second sister-in-law. Most importantly, she had to manage everything regarding this large household, and wait on the imperious Old Madam Li.
The third daughter-in-law had always been the most favored. Her parents had raised her to be rather delicate and she had lived comfortably during the many years that Gu Yunshuang had been in the Li family. She had not done any chores for years.
Now that she had to do all these things, how could she bear it?
When she cooked, the sparks flew and she almost burnt down the kitchen.
Her cooking was inedible.
So everyone thought of Gu Yunshuang.
The third daughter-in-law was in a bad mood. She angrily said to Li Dahai, “Fourth Brother, look, Gu Yunshuang has made our mother so angry that she is now so sick. How can you watch our mother carry on like this? Hurry up and get Gu Yunshuang to apologize to our mother and take care of her so that she will get better soon.”
Li Dahai had not been doing so well either. His family members had fallen ill one after another. Without a woman to do the housework, he did not even have a hot meal.
No one cleaned the house and it was filthy, unlike its usual spick and span appearance. No one washed the clothes when they were dirty. He had torn his clothes while working, and now he was still wearing his torn and dirty clothes. No one mended them for him.
But when he recalled that Gu Yunshuang had divorced him, he could not come to terms with it.
Was he already divorced?
“I… I’m already divorced. Our mother dislikes Yunshuang!”
The third daughter-in-law was furious. “Nonsense. Who says our mother dislikes Yunshuang? She was just angry. If you bring Yunshuang back to admit she was wrong, and take good care of Mother, Mother will certainly forgive her.
“Think about it. You were so good to her. Life is difficult for a divorcée. Hurry up and bring her back!”
