If she hadn't witnessed the entire incident—seen that man desperately pull the woman in front of him as a shield—the shopkeeper thought she might have felt some sympathy for him. But now...
"Ptooey. Serves him right," she muttered under her breath, cursing him in her heart. 'What an absolute scumbag.'
"Ma'am, I'd like to borrow your phone to call the police and an ambulance." Zhang Minzhen's face had darkened, but she offered no explanation for what had happened.
"Don't worry, I just made both of those calls. The police station isn't far, so they should be here soon. I even got the license plate number of the car that drove off."
The shopkeeper replied quickly. You could tell she was a warm-hearted person.
"Thank you," Zhang Minzhen said, truly grateful.
"Not at all, not at all! It was no trouble. Say, who is that man to you, anyway? I saw you all walking together, and you seemed quite close. How could someone suddenly attack him so viciously?"
The shopkeeper waved her hand dismissively, her face a mask of curiosity as she stared at Zhang Minzhen, her gossipy heart burning with questions. Unfortunately, Zhang Minzhen had just been through a major ordeal and was still feeling faint, with no desire to speak.
"He's my father," Gu Nuan Nuan suddenly chimed in.
"What?" The shopkeeper was stunned.
"He's my father," Gu Nuan Nuan repeated for the shopkeeper.
"You... you're saying that... that man is your father?" The shopkeeper pointed toward Gu Lihui a short distance away, staring at Gu Nuan Nuan in disbelief, her voice stuttering. Then she muttered to herself, "Is he her stepfather?"
She couldn't help but look at Zhang Minzhen with pity. "Honey," she said earnestly, "it's always best to stick with your first husband. These second ones... you see? In a crisis, they're worse than useless..."
"He's not my stepfather. He's my real father."
"Your real father? A real father would do something like that?" The shopkeeper was utterly stunned.
"It's true." Gu Nuan Nuan nodded firmly, then dropped another bombshell. "I know the man who ran away, too."
"You know him?"
"You know him?"
This time, it wasn't just the shopkeeper who gasped in surprise; even Zhang Minzhen was shocked.
"Yes. He's the father of my classmates, Lin Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao." Gu Nuan Nuan lowered her head, looking sad.
"Your classmates' father? Then why would he try to throw acid on your dad? Did you do something to offend your classmates, so their father came to get revenge on yours?" The shopkeeper was an impatient woman. She not only blurted out the question on her mind but also added her own imaginative theories.
"I never did anything to them. They're the ones who always bully me." Gu Nuan Nuan lowered her head, composing herself for a moment before looking up at the shopkeeper, her eyes red, and crying out.
'There's definitely more to this story.'
The shopkeeper instantly grew excited. Her eyes lit up as she coaxed Gu Nuan Nuan, "Tell me, why do they bully you? Did you do something to make them mad? But wait, that doesn't make sense. If that were the case, their father should have come after you. Why would he go after your dad?"
"I never did anything to make them angry. They target me on purpose. It's because I get to call my dad 'Dad,' but they can't."
"'You get to call your dad 'Dad,' but they can't?'" Both the shopkeeper and Zhang Minzhen mulled over this sentence. Suddenly, the color drained from Zhang Minzhen's face. She instinctively refused to accept the implication behind those words. She swayed on her feet and couldn't stop herself from snapping at her daughter, "Nuannuan, what nonsense are you spouting?"
"Honey, don't get worked up," the shopkeeper interjected. "The child just had a terrible fright. If you raise your voice, you'll only scare her more. She might really know what's going on. Just let her explain. It's always better to know the truth than to be left in the dark."
The shopkeeper sensed she had stumbled upon a major scoop. Her spirits soared, and every cell in her body buzzed with excitement. Seeing Zhang Minzhen trying to stop Gu Nuan Nuan from speaking further, she wasn't about to let that happen. She quickly turned to Gu Nuan Nuan and coaxed her, "Those two classmates of yours have their own father, don't they? Why would they be jealous of you and want to call your father 'Dad'?"
Gu Nuan Nuan shrank back and looked timidly at Zhang Minzhen, her lips pursed. She adopted a posture that said she wouldn't say another word unless her mother allowed it.
"Speak."
Zhang Minzhen steeled herself. 'The woman is right. It's better to know the truth than to be kept in the dark and made a fool of. Maybe my daughter really does know some inside story that I don't. When you're already drowning in debt, what's a little more? What happened today has already pushed me past my breaking point. What's one more shock at this point?'
"...One time, I overheard Grandma and Dad talking. They said that Lin Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao are actually Dad's children, that their names should be Gu Jiayi and Gu Jiabao, and that they're a hundred times better than me."
Gu Nuan Nuan looked at her mother, tears of grievance streaming down her face. "I didn't dare tell you before. I was so afraid you wouldn't believe me. They were also talking about finding some fault with you, Mom, so they could kick you out of the house with nothing. Then they would marry Lin Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao's mother into the family, saying they couldn't let the Gu Family's bloodline remain outside. And they said that since I'm already growing up and will be a young woman soon, I could stay behind to do chores. They said I wouldn't need to go to school anymore, and in a couple of years when I'm a little older, they could marry me off for a good bride price..."
"Shameless!" Hearing her daughter's words, Zhang Minzhen's mind exploded. Her vision swam, and her head throbbed like a drum—THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. She swayed, on the verge of collapsing.
"Mom...!" Gu Nuan Nuan cried out in fear, quickly grabbing her mother to keep her steady.
'Seeing her mother like this, she felt a genuine flicker of fear. Had she made her 'medicine' a little too potent?'
"Honey, you have to stay strong! Don't you dare collapse now," the shopkeeper urged. "With a heartless monster for a husband and in-laws like that, your daughter needs you. If you collapse now, you'll be giving them exactly what they want. After what happened today, they're going to hate your daughter's guts. Without you to protect her, it'd be a miracle if they didn't torment such a good, sensible girl to death!"
"She's right. I can't collapse. I won't give them what they want."
Zhang Minzhen didn't doubt her daughter's words for a second. Seeing how desperately the girl had protected her today—that fierce burst of strength at the critical moment that had saved her from being disfigured—she knew. Compared to her father, her daughter was unequivocally on her side.
And just as the shopkeeper had said, because her daughter had desperately pulled her away, saving her from taking the blow for Gu Lihui, her in-laws—who already despised her—would now hate her to the bone.
Her daughter was still so young. Without her protection, they would surely torment her however they pleased. When that time came, even her own family might not be able to step in and help.
With that thought, she crouched down, pulled her daughter into a tight embrace, and began to sob. After a few choked cries, she asked Gu Nuan Nuan, "Nuannuan, if Mom wants to divorce Dad... would you be okay with that?"