Chapter 47: She Must Be Crazy

"Gu Fengrui, exactly when are you going to agree to divorce me?!"

Upstairs in the bedroom, Lu Jiaor had just finished administering acupuncture to Gu Fengrui when a clear, shrill scream echoed from downstairs.

It was a woman’s voice.

Shortly after, the voice of Sister Long, who was specifically in charge of the household logistics, rang out in a hurried attempt to stop her.

"Xiao Lu, Xiao Rui is in the middle of acupuncture right now. Can we talk about this later, please?!"

"Why don't you sit down and wait a moment? Let me pour you a glass of water, and we can talk things through properly, take our time and discuss it calmly."

However, Sister Long's words had zero effect because the other party did not take her seriously at all.

"When did it become your turn, an outsider, to chime in on our private matters?! Who gave you the right?! Step aside, I am going to divorce Gu Fengrui today."

Instead of lowering her volume, the woman's voice grew increasingly shrill and arrogant, mocking Sister Long as an outsider who had no qualification to speak to her.

Lu Jiaor heard every word clearly from upstairs. She watched as the expressions of both Gu Fengrui and the elderly patriarch shifted instantly, while the guard standing nearby also wore a grim look.

"Chief, I'll go down and escort her out."

The guard had no intention of letting anyone go upstairs to disrupt Commander Gu's treatment. The atmosphere at home right now was finally peaceful, and he refused to let anyone ruin it—not even if that person happened to be one of the former mistresses of the house.

"No, you don't need to go down. I'll go take a look."

Old Master Gu stopped both the guard and his eldest grandson, waving his hand with a calm expression before turning to head downstairs.

Naturally, leaving the old man to handle it alone was worrisome. Without waiting for Gu Fengrui to say anything, Lu Jiaor stood up.

"Comrade Xiao Zhou, stay here and keep an eye on Dongdong's father. Dongdong, will you stay here and keep your father company, okay? Daddy really needs Dongdong right now. Auntie and Grandpa are going to go down and see what's happening."

Dongdong had been sitting quietly by his father's bed, watching the needles being inserted. But ever since the woman's voice pierced through the house from downstairs, he could no longer sit still. His eyes darted nervously toward the doorway, welling up with a look as though he wanted to cry.

Lu Jiaor certainly did not want the child to go downstairs at this moment to face the ugly faces of the adults, nor did she want him to realize that his own mother did not want him.

"Auntie, it's Mom."

Little Dongdong's eyes filled with tears as he told his young aunt in his sweet, childish voice that he recognized his mother's voice.

"Oh, so it is Mom! Hearing Mom shouting like that, Auntie thinks she must be sick. Some people lose control of themselves when they get sick, you know. It's not that she actually wants to act like this, so Dongdong, we have to save a little face for Mom. We won't let her know that Dongdong figured out she's sick, otherwise she'll be very sad. Alright?"

Going crazy... well, that counted as a form of illness too, absolutely.

Lu Jiaor gently wiped away the tears from the corner of the little fellow's eyes, patted his head, and smoothly deceived the child with a bright, comforting smile.

Upon hearing that his mother was simply sick—which explained why she was shouting and screaming, as she must have been suffering terribly—the little boy suddenly felt like he understood. He nodded heavily at her.

"Auntie, Dongdong understands. We won't let Mom know. Auntie, you must cure Mom's illness."

Not only was the little fellow well-behaved and obedient, but he also showed incredible maturity as he begged Lu Jiaor to help treat his mother.

"Of course. After all, this is Dongdong's mother. Auntie will do everything in her power to make her well so she never has these spells again, okay?"

Lu Jiaor smiled radiantly as she coaxed the child with double-entendres, secretly promising to set this woman straight so she wouldn't dare throw tantrums ever again.

Little Dongdong nodded happily with his tiny head. His aunt was exceptionally capable; she would definitely be able to help his mother.

"Then you wait here for a moment, okay? Auntie is going downstairs to cure her illness."

The old man had already gone down, and Lu Jiaor needed to hurry down as well. Getting angry was bad for an elderly person's health.

The guard and Gu Fengrui had listened to the entire exchange between the adult and the child with bewildered expressions. They had been feeling deeply heartbroken for the little boy having such a mother and had been wondering how to comfort him.

They never expected Lu Jiaor to resolve the situation so effortlessly. Judging by her demeanor, she was actually heading downstairs to "treat" the woman.

Lu Jiaor quickly descended the stairs and arrived just in time to see Old Master Gu standing face-to-face in a tense confrontation with a pretty woman.

Although fury raged inside the old man's heart, his face remained completely composed. The pretty woman stood with a stubborn posture, yet anxiety leaked through her features.

At that moment, Lu Jiaor's descent caught the attention of the pretty woman. However, looking at Lu Jiaor, the woman showed no hostility at all, presumably because she already knew who Lu Jiaor was.

"Grandpa Gu, Gu Fengrui and I have lost whatever feelings we had for each other a long time ago. I just want to go live the life I want now. I'm begging you, please let Gu Fengrui and me get a divorce."

Lu Xiaoning was single-mindedly fixated on divorcing Gu Fengrui. She had endured enough for far too long. She had never loved him; marrying him back then was merely a means of self-preservation.

Now, all her family members had returned, their former status had been restored, and she had run into the person who had once captured her heart. That person had not judged her at all and had remained single all these years, leading her to believe their thread of fate had never snapped.

Yet, Gu Fengrui refused to grant a divorce, and the Gu family refused to let her go.

Lu Xiaoning was driven to the verge of madness. Even though she refused to return to the Gu household, abandoned her child, and completely ignored Gu Fengrui, he still wouldn't divorce her.

Therefore, Lu Xiaoning truly could not wait any longer. That special someone wanted to take her abroad, to a better place to live a better life. Without a divorce, she couldn't leave at all.

Today, she had cast aside her image and her pride to come and make a scene. Even if it meant hurting the child, she was determined to get this divorce through.

"You want a divorce?"

"Yes."

Before Old Master Gu could speak, Lu Jiaor interjected, having grasped the situation, and looked curiously at the pretty woman.

So this woman was Gu Fengjian's country wife, huh?! Word had it that she used scheming tactics to marry into the Gu family. Who would have thought she was actually quite pretty, and remarkably daring too, Lu Xiaoning thought as she nodded in response.

"Are you abandoning your husband and child for the sake of true love? Or do you despise Dongdong's father because he's paralyzed?"

Since neither possibility could be read clearly from the other woman's face, Lu Jiaor simply guessed out loud. Either way, it undoubtedly boiled down to one of these two reasons.

Lu Xiaoning's face twisted in an ugly expression of anger and outrage: "..."

How was this country bumpkin speaking to her?! Did she have any right to address her? What did any of this have to do with her?!

"Grandpa, a forced melon is never sweet, and you can't keep a person whose heart has already flown away. Why torture yourself? Staring at someone who loathes you every single day will only shorten your life. Life is short, so we might as well live every day happily. Dongdong and the others might be young, but they are smart and sensible; when they grow up, they will understand."

It was just a divorce, not a matter of life and death.

Lu Jiaor did not subscribe to the notion that it was better to mend a marriage than end it. Life belonged to oneself, and naturally, it should be lived with joy.

No one had the right to make her unhappy. If someone made her unhappy, she would immediately distance herself from them. After all, nobody depended on anyone else to survive.