Chapter 399: Gu Yinxue Cannot Continue to Stay in the Gu Family

Gu Zhiyan took a deep breath to calm himself down. He was the older brother; he had to yield to his little sister. This was a principle that had guided him from childhood to adulthood.

Jiang Lai was now his little sister.

His little sister.

"Grandpa and Grandma are already here. They asked where you were, so I came to pick you up and take you back to see them."

"Dad set up a room for you at home. Every single thing in that room was placed exactly where he wanted it, thinking you could live there when you came back. Can't you appreciate your father's good intentions?"

Ke Zhongyu demanded coldly, "Who's going to appreciate Jiang Lai?"

Gu Zhiyan frowned and looked at Ke Zhongyu. "Jiang Lai came back and had a welcome banquet thrown for her. In the morning, the entire Gu family showed up; in the afternoon, the Gu family's friends and relatives all came to congratulate her. Isn't that enough?"

Ke Zhongyu: "It was the Gu family who insisted she come back, not her insisting on returning to the Gu family. Why the Gu family threw such a grand welcome banquet — are you really not clear on that?"

Gu Zhiyan wasn't completely clueless, either.

He knew it was because of Jiang Lai's current status and position.

Gu Zhiyan fell silent for a moment, then softened his tone a little. "The Gu family is the Gu family; our family is our family. Since you've already come back to the Gu family, how could you not come home? What would others think?"

Jiang Lai nodded as if taking it seriously. "So it's fear of gossip. I thought it was a genuine welcome."

Gu Zhiyan choked on his words and retorted, "That's not what I meant."

Jiang Lai and Ke Zhongyu both wore expressions of disbelief.

The two of them, one dressed entirely in black and the other entirely in white, looked like a pair of black-and-white reapers — especially since the words coming out of their mouths always stung.

"Jiang Lai, what will it take for you to come back?" Gu Zhiyan assumed she didn't want to return because Gu Yinxue was still at home, so he said, "Yin Xue has already gone to the Gongzuoshi."

Meaning Gu Yinxue had moved out on her own.

What did that have to do with her?

Jiang Lai asked in return, "You're not about to say Gu Yinxue moved out because I wouldn't come back, are you?"

Gu Zhiyan opened his mouth, didn't refute, and explained, "Yin Xue wants you to come back. After all, that place is your real home. If you come back, Mom and Dad will be happy too."

"Song Nvshi will be happy?" Ke Zhongyu couldn't even be bothered to call her Auntie, scoffing coldly. "Jiang Lai not moving back is for your own good. Otherwise, the day Song Nvshi has a mental breakdown, you'd all pin the blame on our A Lai."

Gu Zhiyan felt there was something odd about that remark, just as strange as the atmosphere at home lately and his parents' relationship.

He stayed silent, and Ke Zhongyu continued his cold mockery. "If Gu Yinxue genuinely wanted to leave and make room for Jiang Lai, why bother going to live at the Gongzuoshi? She could just move into the house the Gu family bought for her outside. What's the point of putting on a sob story?"

"Ke Zhongyu!" Gu Zhiyan still couldn't tolerate others making mocking remarks about the little sister he'd watched grow up. "Is Jiang Lai the only woman in your eyes? Can you not learn to respect other women besides respecting Jiang Lai?"

"I respect my mother, Ms. Nian, I respect my younger sister, Ke Zhongying, and I even respect my secretary. These are all women. The prerequisite is whether the qualities they possess are worthy of my respect." Ke Zhongyu's voice was deep. "Gu Yinxue? Not included."

He was just short of saying to Gu Zhiyan's face that Gu Yinxue had a character problem.

Jiang Lai listened to Ke Zhongyu's words and smiled faintly. She took hold of Ke Zhongyu's hand, signaling him to stop talking. If he went on, she was a little worried Gu Zhiyan might drop dead of anger right here.

Then this shop would suffer an unprovoked disaster.

She and Ke Zhongyu would also suffer an unprovoked disaster.

"Let's go. I haven't gotten my driver's license yet — it's too early to look at cars."

"Mm." The man who had just been condescendingly mocking someone instantly turned docile in tone. The sheer contrast was so stark that even Gu Zhiyan was momentarily stunned.

After recovering, he followed them outside and asked, "Jiang Lai, are you really not going back?"

Jiang Lai: "That's a fact."

Gu Zhiyan didn't understand. "Why? How can you be this cold toward your own family?"

Jiang Lai looked back at him and said earnestly, "I am never cold toward my family."

This was a complete refusal to regard the Gu family as her family at all.

Gu Zhiyan was a bit angry. He had already acknowledged Jiang Lai as his younger sister, yet Jiang Lai refused to acknowledge him as her brother, and didn't even consider them family.

He watched Jiang Lai and Ke Zhongyu get into the car. The door closed, and the car drove away.

Gu Zhiyan returned empty-handed.

Arriving home, the first person he saw was his father.

But the first to question him were his grandpa and grandma.

Old Master Song: "Where is she?"

Old Madam Song: "Where is Gu Jiang Lai?"

Only then did Gu Sen find out what his son had gone to do. He asked, "You went to find Jiang Lai?"

Gu Zhiyan said in a bad temper, "I went to pick her up. She wouldn't come back."

Old Madam Song's face immediately went cold. "That child — wandering out there, she's been led astray."

Gu Sen immediately called out to Old Madam Song and said sternly, "Jiang Lai was raised very well. Don't speak of her like that when you don't understand her."

Faced with her son-in-law's rebuke, Old Madam Song didn't quite dare to make a sound. She had one son and two daughters, and only her eldest daughter, Shi Wei, had married well — which benefited the Song family and her son along with her, and her own standing in the Song family rose accordingly. All of this was thanks to Gu Sen's position and abilities in the Gu family.

Old Master Song didn't think that far. He asked, equally sternly, "Why won't she come back? She isn't married. Having a home and not returning — is she trying to make people point fingers at the Gu family, or at you and Shi Wei?"

Gu Sen: "If they point fingers, we'll bear it. A momentary lapse in judgment between me and Shi Wei led to today's situation. Whatever cause was planted, only that fruit can be reaped."

Old Master Song fell silent as well.

The silence in the hall was only broken two minutes later when Song Shiwei walked through the door, pulling Gu Yinxue by the wrist.

"Dad, Mom, you're here."

Everyone looked over.

Gu Yinxue called out as usual, "Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, Brother."

Her eyes darted around, and not seeing Jiang Lai anywhere, she bit down and asked, "Brother, didn't you go pick up Jiang Lai?"

Gu Sen replied, "She had something to attend to. She's not coming back."

Gu Yinxue's expression visibly grew anxious, and she also said, "There's something urgent at my Gongzuoshi too. Let me go back and handle it first."

"Go back where?" Song Shiwei held her back. "What urgent thing could there be? People are managing the photography base for you. You're the boss — act like a boss. Handling every little thing yourself, what kind of way is that?"

"Now that you're home, just carry on as before."

She herself isn't coming back; it's not that we won't let her come back.

"Song Shiwei." Gu Sen looked at his wife, using his eyes to remind her to mind her words.

Old Master Song glanced at Gu Yinxue, then asked his daughter and son-in-law: "Have Yinxue's birth parents been found?"

As soon as his words fell, Gu Yinxue's face turned pale.

No one in this household wants to go look for Gu Yinxue's birth parents.

Back then, Gu Yinxue was brought back by Gu Sen; since we already took her in, we must bear this responsibility. Besides, the children are all grown now, so there's no need to mention the word 'adopt'.

However, Gu Yinxue is after all not a biological daughter; Gu Sen needs to redivide the family property.

Song Shiwei and Gu Zhiyan's view is, what's the point of seeking birth parents from a poor, remote place? Gu Yinxue has lived in the Gu family for twenty-eight years; she is already a Gu family member.

Old Madam Song glanced at everyone's expressions, worried about an argument breaking out, and softened her tone: "Yinxue is also twenty-eight; she can take care of herself, whether she looks for her birth parents or not is fine. It would be better to first find her a husband's family."

Old Master Song and Old Madam Song's implied meaning is the same: Gu Yinxue cannot continue to stay in the Gu family.

Everyone present could tell.