B5SB -Chapter 253 Severing Ties

Gu Yihan saw Hu Shan’s pale face, her lips completely colorless.

A flash of concern crossed her eyes, and she asked, “How could Cheng Bo make you do the laundry?”

She glanced at the basin—most of the clothes inside were men’s. No need to ask; she knew whose they were.

Hu Shan smiled faintly at her words but didn’t reply. She set the basin from the sink down on the floor.

She wiped her hands with her apron, looped her arm through Gu Yihan’s, and cheerfully greeted the aunt behind them: “Auntie, we’re heading back first.”

The aunt smiled warmly at Hu Shan: “Go ahead, Xiao Shan. When you have free time, come sit in my room—I have something to talk to you about.”

Hu Shan nodded with a smile, then turned and held Gu Yihan’s hand as they walked inside.

“Xiao Han, sit for a bit. I’ll pour you a glass of water.”

Gu Yihan nodded with a smile, sitting on the wooden bench while Jiang placed the net bag she carried on the table.

She took in the twenty-some-square-meter house.

Only a square table sat in the center of the bedroom, with two long benches.

There wasn’t even a wooden coffee table or sofa. The place was frighteningly sparse.

They say a proper wedding requires forty-eight legs—meaning Hu Shan’s marriage, Cheng Bo had provided only four legs.

Looking up, she saw Hu Shan coming over with an enamel mug, and immediately rose to take the cup with both hands.

“Xiao Han, I’m really glad you came,” Hu Shan said with a smile as she sat across from Gu Yihan.

A square table separated them.

Gu Yihan looked up at Hu Shan and asked casually, “Sister Shan, I remember when you got married, you had the ‘three revolutions and one chime’?”

Hu Shan glanced around the small room and smiled as she explained: “I bought it—all three revolutions and one chime—nothing missing.”

“The bicycle at home? Cheng Bo is riding it.”

She lifted her arm to show the watch on her wrist to Gu Yihan.

“I wear the watch every day. I don’t know how to use the sewing machine, so I had Cheng Bo send it back to my hometown.”

“As for the radio, his cousin borrowed it.”

Gu Yihan was surprised: “How could his cousin even ask? That was your betrothal gift.”

Just mentioning Cheng Bo’s cousin gave Hu Shan a headache—she had never seen someone so shameless.

Sighing, she stood and sat next to Gu Yihan.

“Cheng Bo’s cousin comes to my house, and she’s like a bandit entering the village—wants everything she sees.”

“She complains non-stop, using her pregnancy as an excuse—saying this hurts, that hurts, needs good food to calm herself.”

“I could tolerate that, but the filth was unbearable—spitting everywhere at home.”

“I told her off a couple of times, and she cried to Cheng Bo, claiming I was bullying her under the guise of being her sister-in-law.”

“And of course, Cheng Bo believed her full-of-holes lies.”

“She scolded me, saying I couldn’t protect my own child, that I was jealous his cousin was healthy and could have children.”

As she spoke, tears of grievance streamed down Hu Shan’s face.

Gu Yihan, hearing that Cheng Bo’s cousin spat everywhere, couldn’t sit still—she felt the floor tiles beneath her were dirty.

She turned to see Hu Shan crying, tears and snot all over, and forced herself to sit again.

Tentatively, she asked, “Sister Shan, is she really Cheng Bo’s cousin?”

Hu Shan wiped her tears, looked at Gu Yihan, and choked out, “Of course she is. What else could she be?”

“If she weren’t Cheng Bo’s cousin, who would put up with her?”

Gu Yihan felt a surge of anger. The woman was literally stepping all over her, yet she tolerated it all for Cheng Bo—was she out of her mind?

Exhaling, she couldn’t resist asking, “Could it be… she’s pregnant with Cheng Bo’s child?”

Hu Shan froze at the question, then burst out laughing.

“Xiao Han, your imagination is too wild. They’re related by blood—there’s no way she could have his child.”

“Besides, Cheng Bo’s cousin has been married before. Otherwise, where would the child in her belly come from?”

Hu Shan didn’t get angry at Gu Yihan for joking about Cheng Bo behind his back—she just found her wild imagination amusing.

Seeing Hu Shan didn’t believe her, Gu Yihan changed the subject: “Sister Shan, why didn’t you go back to the provincial city with your parents?”

Hu Shan’s smiling face suddenly turned cold: “When my parents came to Kun City, they said they were worried about my health and forced me to go to the hospital for surgery.”

“I obeyed them and went to the hospital to terminate the pregnancy.”

Gu Yihan looked at Hu Shan and smiled: “Doesn’t that work out just the way you wanted?”

Hu Shan took a long time before speaking: “They also forced me to divorce Cheng Bo, saying he married me to continue the family line. I refused, so they threatened to publish in the newspaper that they were severing ties with me, and said all future family assets would go to Brother Jiang.”

Gu Yihan lowered her head in silence. She had said everything she could today. Hu Shan didn’t believe her—there was nothing she could do.

Seeing the time—it was almost noon—she stood and smiled at Hu Shan, saying goodbye.

“Xiao Han, stay for lunch!”

Gu Yihan smiled at Hu Shan and declined: “Sister Shan, the child at home is waiting for me.”

Then she gently pushed Hu Shan back into the room, preventing her from seeing her out, and turned to leave, pushing her bicycle.

Qin Shou went out to pour water and saw Gu Yihan’s back.

Thinking he was mistaken, he hurried to the door and asked the aunt who had just spoken to Gu Yihan: “Auntie, who was that lady just now, coming to our yard?”

The aunt, thinking Qin Shou was trying to flirt with a young woman again, glared at him: “Every time you see a pretty girl, you can’t walk away?”

“Don’t forget, your wife is pregnant!”

Qin Shou quickly waved his hands. “Auntie, I think she looked like my wife’s sister.”

The aunt shoved him aside. “Dream on! Your wife’s sister? Can you go a single day without bragging?”

“She works at the textile factory, a colleague of Cheng Bo’s wife! She has nothing to do with your wife.”

Hearing this, Qin Shou slapped his thigh.

He immediately ran back inside, angrily telling Gu Meng, lying on the bed: “Gu Yihan came to our yard and didn’t even look at you once.

“She doesn’t care about you at all!”

Gu Meng smirked, touching her protruding belly: “Let her have a few more days of her comfortable life.”

Qin Shou glanced at the plump Gu Meng, lazily smirking, “All you can do is brag, yet she’s living comfortably anyway.”

Gu Meng sneered at Qin Shou: “What do you know? Soon, Grandma Gu will be begging to come take care of me.”