The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 166 Land Must Be Bought

Gu Jingzhe listened to Tong Huaqiong and originally didn't want to pay any attention to Fan Tong.

On second thought, she wondered if Fan Tong had some ulterior motive for coming to see her.

It's no wonder Gu Jingzhe was suspicious. In the first few days after he returned to school, Fan Tong completely ignored him. When he encountered Fan Tong at school and called him "senior brother," Fan Tong was clearly impatient.

Now Fan Tong is being overly enthusiastic towards her.

He didn't believe that Fan Tong had discovered his good qualities in the past few days and was willing to befriend him.

With that in mind, Gu Jingzhe slowly began to probe Fan Tong for information.

People will reveal their true colors when they are in a hurry.

Gu Jingzhe didn't have to put in much effort to get Fan Tong to frequently mention Gu Taohua and Tong Huaqiong's plans for their children's marriages.
Gu Jingzhe was a cunning and intelligent person. As soon as Fan Tong mentioned Gu Taohua's potential, he understood that Fan Tong had taken a liking to Gu Taohua.

Wait a minute, isn't it rumored in the private school that Fan Tong is going to become the son-in-law of the wealthy Huang family?

Why has he taken a liking to his own sister again?

Gu Jingzhe understood immediately: Fan Tong had been abandoned by the Huang family and was now trying to take advantage of Tao Hua.

Was he after the peach blossoms?

They were after peach blossom desserts.

Gu Jingzhe was still unaware of whether his younger sister and Fan Tong had any private contact.

But in any case, based on his understanding of Fan Tong, Fan Tong was not a good match.

He had to nip that thought in the bud, so he said coldly, "Senior Brother Fan, you don't need to ask about my sister. My sister is meant to be with a man of unparalleled martial prowess. You're all bookish and can't even kill a chicken. You're not good enough for my sister."

Gu Jingzhe's words were so direct that Fan Tong was almost driven mad with anger.

This is to say he's a weakling.

"From now on, Senior Brother Fan, we should only discuss academic matters. If we need to discuss anything else, then let's drop the subject."

After Gu Jingzhe finished speaking, he stood up and left.

Fan Tong stomped his foot, spat at the departing Gu Jingzhe, and cursed, "Your sister doesn't deserve a heroic and peerless man. What kind of heroic man would want a girl who can knock out a pig with one slap? Your sister can just wait to be an old maid. Even if she begs me to be her concubine, I won't even give her a second glance."

Fan Tong hurled his insults without Gu Jingzhe hearing a single word.

Gu Baishuang's son, Nie Xiaofeng, overheard this while passing by and asked Fan Tong, "Who is Senior Brother Fan cursing?"

Fan Tong knew that Nie Xiaofeng and Gu Jingzhe's whole family didn't get along, so he wanted to win Nie Xiaofeng over. He said, "The fat girl who scolded Gu Jingzhe is your fat aunt."

"Your uncle wants to marry your fat aunt to me. Tell me, I, Fan Tong, am at least a scholar. Do you think I would want that country girl who sells cakes on the street? Besides, she's so fat and speaks so coarsely and wildly."

Fan Tong thought Nie Xiaofeng would side with him, but Nie Xiaofeng rolled his eyes and said, "Who are you trying to fool? You want to use me as a pawn to stand up for you? Dream on. Did my aunt eat your rice?"

Nie Xiaofeng stormed off angrily.

Did Fan Tong assume that he was mentally challenged just because he was physically strong but academically weak?

Who are you coaxing?
He knew his uncle well enough to know him well, and he would never tell Fan Tong about his aunt.

There's no other reason than that Fan Tong's family is so poor that even his uncle wouldn't bring up this topic.

Fan Tong's insults towards Gu Taohua also displeased Nie Xiaofeng.

His chubby aunt and his mother never had any disputes; on the contrary, they would greet each other when they met.

Although he didn't like Tong Dajiao's whole bunch of scoundrels, he had no reason to team up with outsiders to harm his chubby aunt, with whom he had no conflict of interest.

The Dragon Boat Festival is fast approaching.

This is the first important holiday that Tong Huaqiong has celebrated in this era.

The Gu family sent out a batch of holiday gifts and also received some holiday gifts.

People like Gu Baishuang, Huang Yuanwai, Magistrate Liu, and the Lu family all sent gifts.

Tong Huaqiong accepted them all. Even on the day of the festival, the number of customers at Peach Blossom Dessert Shop remained high.

To reward the staff at Peach Blossom Desserts, Tong Huaqiong booked a fine banquet.

Given Tong Huaqiong's wariness of Manager Qian, she booked a banquet at another restaurant this time. Manager Qian was very disappointed when he found out and tried several times to visit her to ask him what he had done to offend Tong Huaqiong.

Ultimately, I didn't dare.

After the Dragon Boat Festival, the Gu family got busy again.

According to the agreement between Gu Baishuang and Gu Dahan, their parents were to be buried together.

Of course, Tong Huaqiong did not participate in this busy work. Her decision was firm: whoever wanted Old Man Gu could have him; she did not want him.

As a filial son, Gu Dahan was put in charge of the joint burial of his parents by Tong Huaqiong, and Chen Sufeng, as his daughter-in-law, was asked by Tong Huaqiong to help at home.

As for her own three bad bamboo shoots, Tong Huaqiong made no demands.

Gu Taohua and Tong Huaqiong shared the same attitude: there was nothing for her to do in this matter. As a girl from the Gu family, she wasn't even listed in the family genealogy, so why should she get involved in such things? Making money was far more appealing.

Gu Dashu was also unwilling to participate. He felt that Tong Huaqiong had made a great sacrifice for this matter, and he was unwilling to pay respects to his father's first wife.

As for Gu Jingzhe, he was involved in the whole thing.

He wasn't contradicting Tong Huaqiong; it was mainly because Gu Dahan was too honest, and Tong Huaqiong wanted him to stand up for Gu Dahan.

Tong Dajiao had parents-in-law and an unmarried sister-in-law. After Old Man Gu died, they moved to another place with Old Man Gu's younger brother.

The in-laws and Old Man Gu's brother were not easy people to get along with. They would fight with each other no matter what. When Old Man Gu was alive, Tong Dajiao had a lot of arguments and fights with them.

They were not just at odds with Tong Dajiao, but with all the members of the Chuangda family indiscriminately.

This includes Gu Dahan and Gu Baishuang.

Tong Huaqiong was worried that they might cause trouble regarding the burial of Old Man Gu and Yuan, so she had the cunning young Gu Jingzhe stay at home with her elder brother to keep an eye on things.

However, Tong Huaqiong was overthinking it; the two elders of the Gu family, along with the second branch of the Gu family, never returned.

Although Tong Huaqiong didn't know the reason, it didn't stop her from being happy. It would be best if she never came back.

She had no desire to deal with this family.

She didn't want to tie her to Old Man Gu's parents in the name of filial piety.

Old Gu and his first wife were buried together very smoothly.

This earned Tong Huaqiong another wave of goodwill from her stepson and stepdaughter.

Especially Gu Baishuang, who had previously doubted her stepmother's motives, was told by Chen Sufeng what Tong Huaqiong had done to the eldest son's family during this period. Gu Baishuang's dissatisfaction with Tong Dajiao almost disappeared.

Tong Huaqiong had no time to care about her stepdaughter's opinion of her.

She is planning to buy land.

Last time, the old master of the Lu family entrusted Lu Zhaozhao to give her a congratulatory gift of three hundred taels of silver. In addition to the two hundred taels she swindled from Granny Yan and the Xu family, she had a total of about five hundred taels of silver to manage.

She surpassed Xu Zaohua's father, Xu Jin, to become the richest woman in Qinghewan.

She does want to do other businesses, but she hasn't found any new business opportunities yet. The money she has is too hot to handle, so she wants to spend it.

In this day and age, there is no more profitable business than buying land.

After all, where there is land, there is production.

Tong Huaqiong searched through Tong Dajiao's memories and found that whenever a prince rebelled in this era, there would be a period of turmoil when his army passed through Yanguan Town.

If unrest really affects doing business, then you can go home and live a simple life on your own land.

Therefore, she had to buy land.

(End of this chapter)