Rebirth Counterattack with Space
Chapter 163 - 157: Romance

Chapter 163: Chapter 157: Romance

Lu Aibing first put on a solemn face, showing a color of grief and indignation, followed by a loud wail.

Shitou and Zhang Cai both looked at him with surprise.

"What are you wailing for?"

"I’m just so unfortunate... When I was his cousin, I was tightly controlled, and now I’ve become his real brother, is there any way out for me? I should never expect a day to turn my life around," Lu Aibing lamented with a mournful face.

"It’s good to have someone look after you. How else do you want to ’turn your life around?’ Don’t flip so much that you overturn heaven," Zhang Cai glared, in a good mood, she called over Shitou and lifted her foot to leave, "Let’s go inside too, this is a joyous occasion."

"Hehe... Shitou, let’s go, we are brothers in adversity."

Lu Aibing hooked Shitou’s shoulder in high spirits. Compared to the greater sense of joy that came with profit, like the one Zhang Cai carried, he was mostly happy for his parents. He was also delighted at the thought of being closer to Lu Aiguo.

No wonder, though there were two cousins in front, the one he had always been most convinced by since he was little was Lu Aiguo.

At this moment, he had completely forgotten that the respect he had for Lu Aiguo over the years was actually forced out by Lu Aiguo’s fists and ’carrots’.

...

"What?"

Ge Su thought there was something wrong with her ears. Her youngest son was telling her that the most capable cousin from the Lu Family’s third branch in her daughter’s in-laws’ house wasn’t actually a cousin but the in-laws’ real son?

"Impossible. We live in the same village, how could we not have heard a thing about such a big matter?"

"How could it be impossible? It’s the absolute truth." Zhang Ming slurped his porridge from the bowl, occasionally picking up a chopstick full of vegetables to chew. Without even lifting his head, he spilled everything he knew, speaking with such detail that it left no room for Ge Su to doubt.

"Oh dear, that explains it."

Ge Su slapped her thigh in sudden realization, "No wonder there was a rumor going around secretly for a while, saying Lu Aiguo was actually the bastard born from the affair between your sister’s father-in-law and his sister-in-law?"

"There was such a thing?" Now it was Zhang Ming’s turn to be stunned.

"Absolutely. Just look at how much Lu Aiguo’s face resembles his real father, it’s even more similar than your brother-in-law by threefold."

Ge Su nodded, "So many people back then spread rumors that Lu Chaoqun might act upright, but in reality, he was quite the charmer, not even sparing his sister-in-law. You don’t know how attractive Chen Cui—Lu Family’s third uncle’s wife—was. Seductive and enchanting... cough, why am I even telling you this."

Ge Su suddenly caught herself a halfway through, her old face blushing red.

"Go on, tell me, I won’t repeat it to anyone," Zhang Ming’s curiosity was piqued, unable to contain himself.

"It’s just that the wife has good looks. But what’s so good about being as skinny as a bamboo pole? To this day, I still can’t understand how Lu Sanliang could have been so bewitched as to reject a bride his old man had approved of, insisting it had to be her. And what happened in the end? He even brought disaster upon his own brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. I tell you, when you marry, you better not get a skinny one like that. What’s so good about a skinny girl? They all struggle with childbirth."

As Ge Su spoke, she began to go off on a tangent.

Zhang Ming couldn’t help but roll his eyes and said in dissatisfaction, "What’s wrong with being skinny? My sister is a skinny one too."

"You ungrateful child." The fact that his daughter could not bear children was always a sore spot in Ge Su’s heart, something that couldn’t be touched lightly. This was why she firmly believed in the theory that skinny women struggle with childbirth. Her son now picking at this hidden wound made her immediately feel annoyed and saddened, and she couldn’t help but raise her hand to wipe her eyes.

"My dear mother, the handwriting isn’t even dry, and you’re like this when I don’t even know where my future wife is? Okay, okay, okay, I promise I’ll get your approval before I even think of marrying, alright?"

Seeing that things were not going well, Zhang Ming hastily soothed her first, though he inwardly disagreed.

"Mom, since the rumors about our now in-laws were so unpleasant back then, why did you agree to let sister marry into their family?" Zhang Ming persisted in circling back to the topic.

"If your sister and your brother-in-law are happy together, why should I interfere?"

Ge Su glared at her own son. Her daughter’s marriage had been a source of pride for her among her husband’s siblings, allowing her to stand tall.

The Su Family was so well-off. They’ve got power and influence. Over the years, nobody in the village dared to bully them outright, did they? Our man of the house is a bit spineless, too honest for his own good. In the company of his siblings, he’s always the one who gets the short end of the stick, and I often get squeezed out by the sisters-in-law. But ever since my daughter got married, who’d dare give me a dirty look?

It’s good enough that my daughter married well, but it’s even better that the in-laws are reasonable people. Look, all these years, they only had one son in the public eye, yet they never said a word against my daughter despite her issues. They treat her the same as always.

And then there’s Lu Aiguo. In the past, I was able to reap some benefits thanks to him. Later on, my daughter came home and insisted on taking the younger son to Haicheng. The day they returned, he didn’t just come with bags full of things; he also gave me three hundred yuan.

That’s three hundred yuan! An amount we couldn’t save up in years, and my son earned it in just a few days in Haicheng.

In the future, with Lu Aiguo shifting from being a son-in-law’s cousin to a sworn brother, won’t the benefits be even greater? The more Ge Su thought about it, the more excited she became. Her daughter was a bright girl who would surely understand this logic. Still, just to be safe, she would have to remind her sometime, to prevent any foolish mistakes.

--

It was Lu Aibing who brought the news about Lu Aiguo acknowledging his biological parents. He came with Lu Aiguo to personally inform his eldest uncle, Lu Chaoqun. They also brought along the New Year’s goods that Lu Aiguo and Xia Yuan had sent for Lu Chaoqun’s family, filling more than half a cart of a tricycle.

On the way back, the tricycles weren’t actually enough to carry all the New Year’s goods that Lu Aiguo and Xia Yuan had brought. Some items were even secretly added afterwards when no one was looking.

Lu Chaoqun and his wife didn’t show much of a reaction upon hearing the news; they just sighed again about the past events, telling Lu Aiguo not to hold any grudges against Lu Aibing and his wife, and to let bygones be bygones.

Within a few days, the rumors about Lu Aiguo’s true parentage had spread throughout Yushu Village.

While others might have been okay with it, the Su Family was secretly furious. They had suffered quite a bit these past days and had been warned by Lu Aibing in no uncertain terms. At least they dared not trouble Xia Yuan openly anymore. As soon as Lu Aiguo and the others returned, they had already repeatedly sent the kids in their family to approach Lu Yun, on the pretense of luring her out so that Chen Juxiang could then coax her into returning with them.

As long as they could lure Lu Yun back home, they’d "ride a donkey to read the songbook"—they’d take their time to watch how things unfolded.