Chapter 209: Led Astray

Chapter 209: Chapter 209: Led Astray

The mother and daughter asked around as they went, and it only took a few questions to find out where they were going.

Looking for a pregnant woman from the family compound, here at the hospital?

The nurses were quite the gossips and had already gathered in a huddle to start whispering.

"Oh my, another man in an officer’s cap just arrived!"

"That senior leader from a moment ago, that was Mr. Shen, right?"

"I heard the pregnant woman is his granddaughter?"

That was why as soon as Wu Xin asked which room the pregnant Miss Shen was in, she got her answer.

Just as the pair rounded the corner from the stairwell, they saw Yang Lei with his head hanging low, getting a dressing-down.

Wu Xin and He Wei exchanged a knowing look.

’The leader must have been led astray.’

Without another word, He Wei broke into a run, leaving her mother completely in the dust.

Wu Xin jogged to catch up.

"Slow down, slow down! Who is that man?"

"I didn’t get a good look! But he doesn’t look like someone who’d side with those country folk!"

He Wei waved her hand dismissively as she walked.

"At most, we might have met him once during a Spring Festival visit. I can’t even remember him clearly, so how would he have a chance to know people from our village?"

The words were barely out of her mouth when she was already standing before Liang Youwen.

"Sir, have you made some kind of mistake?"

He Wei had barely finished speaking, and before Liang Youwen could even ask who she was, Wu Xin immediately chimed in.

"Oh, Leader, this really isn’t our fault!"

"We have no idea what that girl told you, but we didn’t lay a single finger on her. We really never touched her!"

Wu Xin waved her hands back and forth like a rattle-drum, desperate to proclaim their innocence.

Yang Lei looked up, stunned.

"What are you two doing here?"

Director Cheng quickly pulled Leader Liang aside.

"Leader Liang, this is Mr. Yang’s wife, and the one next to her is her mother."

Yang Lei also turned quickly, nodding toward He Wei and her mother.

"This is Leader Liang, from our division."

Wu Xin’s voice grew several decibels louder.

"Leader Liang, I’m not one to gossip! But you just don’t know... oh!"

She heaved a heavy sigh, her brow knitting into a tight knot.

"That girl... is just unspeakable!"

"If she hadn’t caused a scene and come to the hospital herself today, I wouldn’t have even bothered with her. I..."

"Mom!"

Yang Lei shouted, cutting her off abruptly.

"Stop talking nonsense!"

He was genuinely anxious.

He was afraid of getting implicated, but he was even more afraid of He Wei and her mother getting hurt.

But when those words reached He Wei’s ears, their meaning twisted completely.

Her eyes blazed, and fury shot through her.

"What? Your heart aches just because she said a few nasty things?"

"Who is she to you? Why are you protecting her so fiercely?"

"Have you two been fooling around this whole time?"

The moment she said it, the color drained from everyone’s faces—everyone except for He Wei and her mother.

But He Wei remained completely oblivious, continuing to shout at the top of her lungs.

"Was it the way she sways her hips that made you lose your head?"

Wu Xin, being the elder, finally noticed the grim expressions on everyone’s faces. She quickly grabbed her daughter’s arm and whispered a warning.

"That’s enough, be quiet!"

"This isn’t why we came here today at all!"

Although she was telling her daughter to be quiet, her own words were dripping with insinuation, slinging mud and pinning all the blame on Guo Shushu.

"Who’s the one being ambiguous? Who’s the one acting all flirty and coy?"

Her voice hadn’t yet faded when the door to the hospital room was pushed open.

Yang Wanqing came out, steadying herself against the doorframe, with Guo Shushu following behind her.

"Madam, why have you come out?"

"Rest assured, I will give you a full account of this!"

Yang Wanqing didn’t even lift an eyelid.

"And how will you do that?"

"By letting others point fingers at my granddaughter and call her a homewrecker?"

Her two retorts left Liang Youwen speechless, his mouth hanging open, his throat feeling as if it were stuffed with cotton.

The old woman’s silver hair was impeccably styled.

Just from the way she stood there, her sheer presence made it clear she was no ordinary person.

Wu Xin quietly nudged her daughter’s arm.

"Is that the little bitch’s grandmother?"

"How’d she get here faster than the ambulance?"

Wu Xin whispered, her eyes darting quickly toward the elevators and the end of the hallway.

He Wei shook her head.

"How should I know!"

The words had barely left her mouth, and she was still in the middle of shaking her head when Yang Wanqing’s gaze shot toward her like a dagger.

"Is your mouth rotten? Did you eat porridge mixed with sewage for breakfast? Otherwise, how could such a foul stench come out every time you open it?"

Guo Shushu tightened her grip on her purse strap.

"Just because you have no morals, you assume the whole world is just as vile. Just because you’re promiscuous, you see everyone else as a cheating sneak!"

Guo Shushu looked very demure, with a few strands of hair at her forehead held back by a black clip.

When had He Wei ever been subjected to such an insult?

Her face flushed crimson, the blush spreading rapidly to her ears, and she roared back instinctively.

"Who are you cursing at?"

"I’m cursing at whoever’s craning their neck to be cursed."

Guo Shushu didn’t even raise her eyelids, merely casting a sidelong glance at her.

That one look sent a chill through He Wei’s entire body.

What stunned her even more was Guo Shushu’s manner of speaking—it was so crisp and fluent.

The little bit of confidence He Wei had from having grown up in a city instantly vanished.

It wasn’t just He Wei who heard it; her mother, Wu Xin, also straightened her back instantly.

Looking again at Guo Shushu’s clothes and posture, Wu Xin quickly plastered on a smile and hurried to explain.

"Miss, please don’t be alarmed, this is all a misunderstanding! We really didn’t intend to cause any trouble!"

"It really has nothing to do with us!"

Wu Xin sized Guo Shushu up and down as she spoke.

"That young married woman... what is her relationship to you?"

The words had just left her mouth when Shen Rongdan pushed the door open from inside the room. Hearing her, he let out a cold sneer.

"My sister-in-law. So you tell me, what do you think her relationship is to my sister?"

"S-sister-in-law?"

The mother and daughter froze on the spot, their eyes wide as saucers as they stared at each other.

What was going on?

How could a country bumpkin marry a wife from Beijing?

And one so classy at that?

She spoke and acted so confidently, not at all like someone who clawed their living from the dirt...

She couldn’t make sense of it, but in her mind, Wu Xin had already slapped a label on Guo Shushu.

’Something’s wrong with her head. She’s an idiot who probably got her head caught in a door.’

’This girl is either a genuine fool or she’s just playing dumb.’

’If my daughter looked like that, even if she could only count to three, I would absolutely never let her marry someone from the countryside!’

’I’d have to break her legs to stop it!’

With this wave of disgust, Wu Xin’s backbone stiffened, and her voice grew louder.

"So, your sister-in-law. It’s really not our fault. We just went over to have a little chat. Who knew she’d suddenly get a stomachache?"

Shen Rongdan’s anger flared.

"A little chat?"

"Is that your family’s special way of chatting?"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the women cowering behind Wu Xin.

"Calling someone a brood sow, cursing her as a country bumpkin, and saying she has no shame?"

Wu Xin’s mouth twisted into a sneer.

"She’s the one who shrieked about having eight kids! Eight kids!"

"If that’s not a pig, what is?"

SLAP!

Before the words had even left her mouth, a resounding slap struck her across the face.

Wu Xin clutched her face, her eyes looking as if they were about to pop out of her head.

"You... you hit me?"

Yang Wanqing’s face was like stone.

"I’m striking an unreasonable, ill-mannered, feral creature like you! Today, I’ll teach you the lesson your parents never did! Have you never given birth yourself? Pah! You can’t get a pearl from a pig’s snout. You grew up eating chaff and weeds, and now you’ve learned how to bare your teeth?"

A fleck of spittle landed on the back of Wu Xin’s hand, warm and sticky.

Wu Xin flinched instinctively, then immediately froze, not daring to move.

"What sort of creature are you! Saying only a pig would have eight children—were you born from a pig yourself? Hmm?"

After being slapped and then roundly berated, how could a woman of her age possibly stand for it?

Her face flushed beet red, and raising an arm, she prepared to lunge at Yang Wanqing.

But the people nearby weren’t about to let her succeed.

Leader Liang strode to Wu Xin’s right side, his left hand quickly gripping the inside of her right forearm, his thumb pressed just below her radius bone.