diymy Chapter 603: The Powder Keg Exploded
Chapter 603: The Powder Keg Exploded
Gu Youtian was so angry he almost collapsed in the snow.
This son always causes trouble, not only crippling his own leg but also implicating him in Wu Ren’s breakup. Now he blew up the house and almost took the lives of the whole family.
Unbearable.
Gu Youtian went up and slapped Gu Ruinian, cursing, "You can’t stay quiet for a moment, what exactly are you trying to do? Drag the whole family to die with you?"
Before the end of the year, he had planned to agree to the Xu family’s proposal to let Gu Ruinian become their son-in-law.
Under the persuasion of Mr. Gu and the tearful plea of Mrs. Jia, he gave Gu Ruinian a chance.
He regretted it deeply.
Gu Ruinian covered his face and glared at Gu Youtian. He indeed wanted to blow up the entire Gu family.
Especially Gu Youtian.
Mrs. Wei came to her senses, hugging Yao Jia, crying, "Ruinian, even if you don’t like Yao Jia, you can’t think of taking his life. Don’t you know your gunpowder could kill someone? How could you lead Yao Jia to ignite it? What were you thinking?"
Mrs. Wei truly didn’t expect Gu Ruinian to be so malicious as to use Yao Jia to ignite the fuse.
If her son had been blown up, Gu Ruinian would have found all sorts of excuses and ultimately blamed it on Yao Jia for being irresponsible and recklessly setting off fireworks and getting killed.
By then, once Mr. Gu covered things up, her son would have died in vain.
Mrs. Wei wished she could tear Gu Ruinian into pieces.
"Fengnian, I know Ruinian doesn’t like me as a sister-in-law, but you are his own brother, and Yao Jia is your son. Didn’t he consider your feelings when he tried to blow up Yao Jia?"
Mrs. Wei indeed had the intention to incite Gu Fengnian to beat Gu Ruinian, but her fear was genuine, and her tears were sincere.
Her son almost got blown up tonight.
Gu Fengnian was furious beyond words, he didn’t even need Mrs. Wei’s persuasion; he had long wanted to beat Gu Ruinian to death.
On the night of the Lantern Festival, children of the village challenged the biting cold wind with their lanterns. At this moment, they were at the old Gu residence eating melon seeds.
The flickering lamplight, reflected by the snow, danced across Gu Fengnian’s distorted face.
Gu Ruinian looked at Gu Fengnian’s face through the light, suddenly terrified.
Usually eloquent, he couldn’t say a word in the face of the enraged Gu Fengnian.
Xiao Long quietly stood beside Tong Huaqiong, holding a fire poke in the snow.
Gu Fengnian’s eyes scanned around, saw the sturdy fire poke in Xiao Long’s hand, snatched it despite Xiao Long’s exclamation, and hit Gu Ruinian.
The blows were extremely heavy; if not for Gu Ruinian wearing thick cotton clothes and pants in the winter, his spine would have been broken.
An honest man’s fury can be deadly.
Initially, the village chief wanted to step forward to prevent a potential fatality. Remembering Gu Ruinian privately manufacturing gunpowder and potentially dragging the entire village into trouble, the thought of intervening dissipated.
Every man is a father. If anyone threatened his son’s life, he’d want to kill them too.
Thinking of his own son, the village chief recalled the chaos Gu Ruinian caused in the autumn, when his own son, Liu Qingsong, was almost poisoned.
Gu Ruinian staggered, unable to run or dodge, taking Gu Fengnian’s beating head-on.
Mr. Gu and Mrs. Wei watched coldly, not saying a word.
The cold was intense. The two elders, already drenched in cold sweat from the fire scare, felt slightly feverish after being hit by the cold wind outside.
People from the clan brought thick cotton clothes to wrap them up and offered ginger tea.
"Fengnian, beat that unfilial brat as hard as you can," Mrs. Wei said, her voice trembling as she warmed up.
Her words snapped Mrs. Jia out of her stupor.
It was the first time she had seen her eldest son so angry.
Mrs. Jia feared Gu Fengnian would kill her younger son.
She leapt forward, embraced Gu Ruinian, and shouted, "If you want to kill him, kill me first."
Gu Ruinian had not hidden his gunpowder-making from Mrs. Jia, and she firmly believed that everything her younger son did was for the family.
The gunpowder explosion was just an accident.
Tong Huaqiong, seeing Mrs. Jia standing up, wondered if something had taken control of Mrs. Jia’s mind. Why else would she be a die-hard fan of Gu Ruinian?
If her son made gunpowder and nearly blew up the family, he’d have been kicked out long ago.
With Mrs. Jia in the way, Gu Fengnian was restrained, holding the stick and panting in anger.
"I thought you had settled down, always tinkering at home. Turns out you were making gunpowder. Ruinian, you’re quite bold."
"Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. Ever since you fell from grace as a scholar, you whine and blame the world rather than admit you’re a waste. You won’t resent the Zheng family after getting your leg broken over an affair with Xu Zaohua, so you’ve turned against us all. You hate Xiao Xue for not marrying you, blame me for not sacrificing everything to continue supporting you, resent your sister-in-law for thinking of her own son, and despise Yao Jia for being praised by Mr. Su for his studies... So you wanted to blow us all up."
"You’re just a coward full of malice, not daring to act on your own and drawing my son into your scheme. I used to believe that we shared the same parents, the same family. Who knew you saw me as an enemy? From now on, we’re no longer brothers in any sense."
Gu Fengnian roared at Gu Ruinian with hatred.
"Fengnian..."
Gu Fengnian coolly glanced at Mrs. Jia and interrupted her, "Mother, exactly how many children do you have? Open your eyes and see, you have two sons and a daughter. Aren’t Xiao Xue and I also your children? Yet, for Ruinian, you’ve repeatedly hurt us. Since that’s the case, from now on, you have only one son, Ruinian."
Tears streamed down Mrs. Jia’s face, yet she still stood protectively by Gu Ruinian.
Gu Fengnian felt a chill in his heart.
Then there was another loud boom.
Firelight shot into the sky from the back yard of the old residence.
In the flames, Gu Ruinian’s face turned ashen.
His gunpowder stash had exploded!
Everyone shouted, grabbing buckets to fetch water, rushing to fight the fire.
In the back yard of the old residence was a cellar where grain was stored. Since there wasn’t much left, the cellar had been abandoned.
Gu Ruinian, afraid that a large amount of gunpowder would be discovered, hid it there.
Earlier, although Mr. Su and others searched, they only found the gunpowder in the woodshed.
Yet, it exploded at this moment.
Mr. Gu, after multiple shocks, fainted directly onto the snow.
Tong Huaqiong surely didn’t want a funeral at this time, urgently asking someone to call the doctor.
Most people had gone to fight the fire, while the remaining young girls and daughters-in-law looked at each other, unsure of who would carry Mr. Gu inside.
"Let me."
In the firelight, Gu Honglian’s eyes brightened.
A figure appeared and hoisted Mr. Gu up.
Tong Huaqiong recognized him as Fan Tong, the scholar.
It was unclear why Fan Tong was in Qinghe Bay.
Tong Huaqiong followed them into the old residence.
The roof of the old house was burnt, the walls cracked.
But fortunately, it was barely habitable. Mrs. Wei cried as she patted the dirt off the bed, and Fan Tong gently laid Mr. Gu onto it.
The doctor arrived, stepping through the snow, and administered a few acupuncture points to Mr. Gu, who opened his eyes, listening to the ongoing fire-fighting efforts outside, tears slipping silently down his cheek.
"Grandpa, are you feeling better?"
Jingzhe came in from outside and said to Mr. Gu, "It’s lucky the gunpowder exploded in the cellar; the fire didn’t spread. The village chief is leading people to fight the fire."
Mr. Gu raised his eyes to look at the outstanding Jingzhe, feeling a mix of emotions.