Back to the 1980s: Transmigrated as the Bigshot's Pampered Wife-Chapter 135: Marriage Requires Equal Standing
"Li Dahua, what’s with that look on your face? If you hadn’t tempted your little brother with money, would he have gone astray at such a young age?"
Mrs. Li opened her gap-toothed mouth and pointed a fat finger at her eldest daughter, telling her off.
"Mom, you’ve always thought it was wrong for me to bring money back to our family?" Aunt Dong looked at her mother in disbelief.
"It *is* your fault. If it weren’t for you, how could your brother have thrown his weight around and bullied people?
We’re the Li family, we’re so poor. Where would he have met all that riffraff?"
Mr. Li raised his hand as if to strike his eldest daughter, but his hand froze mid-air. He clenched it into a fist, the veins on it throbbing.
It trembled before he finally lowered it, coughing in anger. "You... just go ask Jianping to get your brother out! We won’t blame you anymore then."
After all, they had been riding on their eldest son-in-law’s coattails for so many years, which brought them a great deal of prestige. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖
"I scrimped and saved just so you all could have a better life, and in the end, you all blame me? Is this really what all of you think?"
Aunt Dong stared, dumbfounded, first at her mother, then at her father, and then at her six younger sisters and their husbands.
Every member of the Li family wore an expression that said, ’Of course it is.’ She then glanced at the Dong Family, and they all looked at her as if she was getting what she deserved.
Aunt Dong was so furious she nearly died of anger.
Her mind drifted back to when she was eighteen and met Dong Jianping. He was dashing and heroic in his military uniform.
He stood out like a jade tree planted between dark mountains and pale rivers, radiating a constant, jewel-like brilliance.
His eyes were pitch-black and bottomless, like a deep pool that could drown a person, leaving them breathless.
It was love at first sight, a connection that felt eternal. She fell for him in that single glance and mustered the courage to pursue him, but the gap between them was just too vast.
But heaven favors the persistent, and eventually, they got married. It wasn’t that she had moved him with her devotion, but rather that she had resorted to a little trickery.
Not long after they married, she became pregnant. Ten months later, she gave birth to a son whom they named Dong Qiming. Two years after that, she had a daughter.
While their relationship wasn’t what you would call incredibly passionate, it was still harmonious.
After she got married, her mother never scolded her again, especially when she returned home bearing expensive gifts and money.
Her parents would grin from ear to ear, treating her with warmth and kindness. They even said that as the eldest, she was the pillar of the Li family, the one they all depended on.
Those gifts were brought back from the Imperial City for her by her husband’s older sister. Unwilling to use them herself, she would take them back to her parents’ home instead.
Being worshipped by her parents and younger sisters greatly satisfied her vanity.
Back then, they were so enthusiastic, showering her with endless praise as if it cost them nothing.
And so, she grew even more brazen, scrounging money and valuables from her sister-in-law to show off to her family.
Later, when her sister-in-law’s family fell on hard times, not only did she show no concern, but she even resented them for being useless.
She no longer had expensive gifts to show off to her family, so she began to scrimp on her own food just to save a little money to bring back to them.
When she saw her family make her husband take the seat of honor at the table while her brothers-in-law had to stand and eat in the kitchen, she felt that her own hardships were worth it.
But now, her father and everyone else were telling her that it was all her fault.
That if she hadn’t brought money home, her only brother would never have gone bad!
It was as if she were the great sinner of the Li family, whose heinous crime had caused their line to be cut off.
She realized that her family hadn’t been cherishing her all this time; they had been exploiting her in disguise.
And what about her? She had been wholeheartedly devoted to her family, pinching every penny when it came to herself and her own children, wishing she could give even more to her parents.
Her family had no idea that in her husband’s home, she was completely subservient, waiting on her father-in-law and step-mother-in-law hand and foot.
She brought her husband his basin for washing his feet and emptied it afterward, taking care of him in every conceivable way.
She didn’t even dare to speak loudly in front of her husband’s older brother and sister-in-law, and she even had to constantly placate her younger sister-in-law.
She had always known that marriage required forbearance and humility. More importantly, she knew that marriage required partners from families of equal social standing and comparable status.
The gap in both family background and status between her and her husband was immense, which was why she could only be subservient in the Dong Family.
For the past nineteen years, though she felt stifled in the Dong Family, she had truly enjoyed boundless prestige within the Li family.
She found her sense of superiority with her own family, and over time, she became much more assertive, no longer as timid and cautious around the Dong Family as she once was.
Her husband indulged her, but everyone else in the Dong Family disdained her—even her own son and daughter despised her.
Her daughter had glared at her fiercely several times and said, "How could Dad have ever married someone like you?"
Already insecure, she was left speechless and reacted by giving her daughter a harsh beating. Her son stepped in to protect his sister, saying...
"Sister, don’t say things like that to her anymore. The Li family are her real relatives. We’re all just outsiders."
As she thought of this, Aunt Dong looked up and saw her son and daughter staring at her with undisguised schadenfreude.
Their eyes seemed to say: ’So it’s your turn to suffer. This is your karma.’
The look in her children’s eyes was the last straw for Aunt Dong. She could no longer bear it and fainted.
"Mom!" Dong Qiming and his sister cried out in alarm, rushing forward to catch her.
"Dahua!" Dong Jianping shot to his feet, shouting her name.
But Aunt Dong was completely unconscious and didn’t hear the frantic calls of her husband and children.
When the Li family saw their daughter faint, they were at a loss. A moment later, they filled the Dong Family’s living room with their wailing.
Li Dahua was the eldest daughter of the Li family and truly was their support. It was just that when it came to a choice between their son and her, she wasn’t so important after all.
Dong Jianping and his son carried Aunt Dong to the hospital, while the Li family could only leave in disgrace.
Gu Jiaojiao and Su Shuochi went to see the courtyard house. She finally understood why Su Shuochi had said one of them didn’t need renovations.
From a distance, the vast courtyard flickered in and out of view, partially hidden by the shade of the trees. It created a beautiful tableau under the brilliant sunlight.
Up close, the courtyard looked slightly dilapidated, as if telling all who saw it of its long and storied history.
Pushing open the rusted iron gate, they were greeted by the sight of a large, empty front yard. The flying eaves at the corners of the walls seemed to whisper of its former glory.
A few weeds and wildflowers were still in bloom, and the climbing vines that clung to the walls were especially verdant.
They stretched out tenaciously, their branches and tendrils twining through the cool air, spreading across the entire wall as if stubbornly guarding the courtyard with their very bodies.
The main bedroom in the courtyard was still made of red sandalwood. The house featured intricate carvings, and upon entering the room, one would be met with the fragrance of the wood.
Gu Jiaojiao looked at him admiringly. "Su Shuochi, you have such a good eye! I fell in love with this place the moment I saw it. It really doesn’t need any renovations."
"As long as Jiaojiao likes it, that’s all that matters. The other courtyard is even better than this one, so I’ll renovate that one first. We can live there before we go to the Imperial City."
"Okay! Let’s go check it out later. How about I just put some of the rice, flour, and noodles from my space into a few of the rooms?"
Gu Jiaojiao sat down in a Grand Tutor chair in the living room, crossing her legs in the posture of a crime boss.
"Darling, have some juice and a snack. Rest a bit before you start moving things," Su Shuochi said dotingly.
Gu Jiaojiao looked at the man acting like her eager lackey. ’It’s so good to have him,’ she thought.
Those who are fated to be together, no matter how far apart, will eventually find each other and walk hand-in-hand through this world.
And for those without that fate, even if they are shoulder to shoulder, they will remain strangers, never truly meeting.
