Forced to marry a disabled man in the countryside? I'll repay you tenfold!

He immediately patted his chest and said to Zhou Yanshen and Su Wanqing, "Don't worry, have as many children as you want, your uncle will help you take care of them! Let your mother do whatever she wants, I can't control her anymore! She'll regret it one day!"

Su Wanqing smiled gratefully at her uncle. She genuinely liked Uncle Ding and was happy to live with him.

Seeing that Zhou's mother's relatives couldn't control her, Gu Yuan quickly seized the opportunity, grabbed Zhou's mother's hand, and lied through his teeth, "Guixiang, since your family has no objections and doesn't oppose us being together, and my father's side isn't interfering either, let's find a time to get married after I've made up for the food debt!"

Su Wanqing had no objections; she would wholeheartedly agree as long as Zhou's mother didn't live with her after the marriage.

Upon hearing that Gu Yuan was determined to marry Zhou's mother, who was twelve years his senior, Aunt Wen immediately stepped forward to question him: "Gu Yuan, have you thought this through? If you marry her, your father will disown you! And have you considered Zhi Xing? If he has a stepmother, will things be good for him? Will she be willing to take care of Zhi Xing? What will happen to Zhi Xing if you have children together?"

Gu Yuan stole a glance at the fierce-looking Old Master Gu, instinctively shrinking back, but still stubbornly said, "Mom, it's Dad who doesn't recognize me, not me who doesn't. I still recognize you both, that's enough! As for Zhixing—you've raised him for these past few years, and he's so smart, just keep raising him. Besides, Guixiang can't even take care of herself, how could she possibly take care of Zhixing? I can't bear to see her suffer. We don't plan to have children either. Is having children too dangerous for Guixiang? And if we did, we wouldn't know how to take care of them, what would be the point?"

Zhou's mother really isn't good at taking care of people. The fact that this room was so clean is because, apart from the fact that everything was brought by Zhou's mother, Gu Yuan did all the tidying up himself.

Su Wanqing stared at Gu Yuan in disbelief—she thought Gu Yuan's ideas were incredibly progressive, but in this era they were truly outrageous.

Gu Zhixing watched this scene unfold quietly. He knew his father's character all too well; in his previous life, his father had nearly driven the old man to his death, and the old man had stubbornly lived to the age of ninety-eight before finally passing away.

If they had been separated earlier in this life, the old man would have suffered less and might have lived to be a hundred.

Upon hearing this, Old Master Gu grabbed a broom and was about to strike Gu Yuan again. He had just stood up when he swayed and fell straight backward—he had fainted from anger!

Everyone in the room was in a flurry of activity when they realized that Su Wanqing was right next to them.

"Dr. Su! Quick!"

Gu Yuan's face turned deathly pale. Ignoring his own pain, he rushed to support the old man. Although he could be unreliable at times, he was still filial to his parents—it was just that his thoughts were too unconventional; otherwise, he wouldn't have been so bold as to hide in this run-down place and even hook up with Ding Guixiang. Come to think of it, he was actually the one who had been taking the initiative all along…

Su Wanqing immediately took out her silver needles, inserted them a few times, and then secretly fed him some enhanced spiritual spring water. A moment later, Old Master Gu slowly woke up, but his complexion was still not good.

"The old man is in good health and there's nothing seriously wrong," Su Wanqing said, putting away the silver needles. "But he can't be subjected to any more stimulation. Let's leave it at that for today and let Grandpa Gu go home to rest."

Liu Shuqing sighed and waved his hand, "That's settled then. Gu Yuan, you need to renew your grain ration certificate and pay the fine tomorrow. Don't stay here tonight, come back with me for the night, I'll arrange a place for you to stay tomorrow."

Gu Yuan replied matter-of-factly, "No need. Gui Xiang and I are getting married soon, so I can just sleep in her room."

Just as a look of joy appeared on Zhou's mother's face, Uncle Ding exploded: "Get out! The marriage isn't even settled yet, and you're already thinking about sleeping in the same room? Wait until you and my sister are really married! You may be shameless, but I am!"

Zhou's mother's face immediately fell.

Aunt Wen was trembling with anger, pointing her finger at Gu Yuan's nose and yelling, "You've disappointed me so much! For a woman, you'd abandon your parents and children? You've let us down after all these years of risking our lives to protect Zhixing! You've let your father down!"

After she finished cursing, she didn't look at Gu Yuan again. Zhou Yanshen silently carried the old man on his back and walked towards the cowshed. Aunt Wen followed without looking back.

Gu Yuan stood there, looking aggrieved. Who had he secretly come here for? He could have lived a peaceful life in the city, but instead, he came to this wretched place to suffer. He'd finally met someone he truly loved; was it wrong to pursue his own happiness?

Gu Zhixing knew that although his father was unreliable in his previous life, he had helped his grandparents in the most critical moments, which allowed the whole family to survive. In this life, he was able to take care of his grandfather and grandmother, so he didn't need his father anymore.

He glanced back and said calmly, "Dad, I don't object to your marriage." Then he ran off.

Gu Yuan paused for a moment, then smiled: "Son, thank you! I knew you were my son!"

……

Outside the door, a large crowd had gathered, some cracking sunflower seeds, others munching on roasted soybeans, chattering excitedly.

The moment they saw Grandpa Gu being carried out, chaos erupted:

"Oh dear, did Grandpa Gu die of anger?"

"They were just yelling the loudest a moment ago, who knew that the unregistered resident inside was his son!"

"Old Master Gu is really unfortunate to have such an unfilial son."

"So how should we deal with the affair?"

Liu Shuqing walked out with a stern face and shouted, "Alright, alright, everyone disperse! It's a misunderstanding. That man isn't an unregistered resident; he's someone's legitimate son! They're both single, what's wrong with dating? Can't they have a free love relationship? What kind of behavior is this, all of you gathered here? Disperse, disperse!"

The crowd was skeptical, but dared not linger any longer and dispersed in twos and threes.

But everyone knew that for the next month, the whole group would talk about this. They talked about it while eating, while taking a dump, and the first thing they said when they met was, "Hey, do you know about that unregistered person? You know, the one from Dr. Su's family"—"What happened? What happened?"—and then they'd go on and on with embellishments.

Su Wanqing had a headache just thinking about it.

……

When she got home, she was too tired to move. Zhou Yanshen carried the large and small bags of luggage into the house and put them away one by one.

Zhou's mother went to the next room. Uncle Ding sighed, said "Go to bed early," and went to the backyard to get busy. The chicken coop and pigsty hadn't been cleaned all day; the manure needed to be taken out and composted, and the vegetable garden needed watering. And then there were the oysters and river shrimp that Su Wanqing had been raising—strangely enough, in just over half a month, they seemed to have gone crazy, multiplying in clumps.

The front and back yards together are over 100 square meters, and I can work for four or five hours a day.

Inside, Zhou Yanshen boiled water and let Su Wanqing bathe first. Neither of them had had a proper bath in half a month, and she soaked in the wooden tub, sighing contentedly. Zhou Yanshen wanted to bathe with her, but was afraid of touching her swollen belly, so he waited until she finished.