Chapter 143: Tattoo

Weng Meijuan had mixed feelings about her daughter’s whirlwind marriage. Setting aside her anger that He Yunzhi had registered the marriage without seeking her or her husband’s consent, Weng Meijuan was actually quite satisfied with Gu Jingchen as her son-in-law.

Gu Jingchen was impeccable in every respect. He had a gentle personality and treated her and He Jingyao with great respect.

His education, appearance, and conduct were all excellent. There was only one drawback: his family was a mess.

Other than Gu Jingchen, not a single member of the Gu family had anything to recommend them.

Weng Meijuan and He Jingyao were both graduates of prestigious schools. They had been graduate students at Capital University back in their day, so they placed enormous importance on education.

Yet apart from Gu Jingchen, not one person in the Gu family had applied themselves to their studies.

Gu Chengye had dropped out of high school, while Jiang Yulan had studied traditional opera since elementary school and had barely received any formal education.

Gu Jinghan and Gu Chacha weren’t interested in studying either. They had spent money to get into some private college in Jiangcheng and ended up with worthless bachelor’s degrees.

As for He Huanhuan, there was even less to say! She had dragged down the Gu family’s educational average to a whole new low—she had only graduated from middle school!

He Huanhuan insisted that in her original world, she had been admitted to high school!

She had dropped out of high school just like Old Mr. Gu, and that was fundamentally different from merely graduating from middle school!

Graduating from middle school meant failing to get into high school. She had gotten in but hadn’t gone.

There had been all sorts of reasons for that, including financial and family circumstances, but none of them had anything to do with her intelligence.

However, Jiangcheng was a model city for educational streaming. Every year, half of the students were filtered out during the high school entrance exams.

The original owner had been one of those students who didn’t make the cut.

Weng Meijuan worked in the education system. Using her position to do a little digging, she had learned the educational background of every member of the Gu family.

As a result, she despised the Gu family from the bottom of her heart. How ignorant, uncivilized, and backward could a family that didn’t value education be?

That was why she hoped Gu Jingchen would keep his distance from his family, and He Yunzhi should cut off contact with them altogether.

But after moving out, He Yunzhi stopped coming home. Even when Weng Meijuan went to find her at school, her attitude was cool and distant.

When Weng Meijuan told her not to associate with the other members of the Gu family, He Yunzhi had actually argued back, asking why she wanted her to do something so rude.

She had even asked whether that was the sort of upbringing one would expect from someone who worked in the education system.

Weng Meijuan had been rendered speechless.

There hadn’t been much to do at work that afternoon, so she had gone home early.

As soon as she arrived, a pop-up notification appeared on her phone, alerting her to a trending local event.

Weng Meijuan considered herself a cultured person and believed she needed to keep up with the times.

So after short-video apps became popular, she had downloaded one too. Whenever she had nothing better to do, she sent He Yunzhi videos filled with life advice and lessons on interpersonal conduct.

She usually ignored local trending notifications, but the words “brightly colored hair” in this one caught her eye.

She couldn’t help thinking of He Huanhuan’s yellow hair. She immediately tapped the link and was taken into a livestream.

In the livestream, He Huanhuan was sporting purple hair and smiling as she interacted with the comments.

“Have Liang Zheng make a heart with his collarbone? How are we supposed to do that?”

As she spoke, she tried making one herself in front of her collarbone. Weng Meijuan’s brows instantly drew together in disapproval.

What a disgrace! Absolutely indecent!

She raised her phone, intending to call Gu Jingchen and tell him to keep He Huanhuan in line.

But before she could exit the livestream, she saw Gu Jingchen appear in the camera’s frame.

Gu Jingchen smiled gently at the camera. “Our shop has just opened today. We hope everyone...”

Weng Meijuan’s vision went black, and she nearly fainted.

They had all gone to embarrass themselves at the opening of some little electric scooter shop?

She opened the livestreamer’s profile, found the shop’s address, and immediately got up to see what was going on.

By the time she arrived, it was already getting late. The shop’s opening event had ended successfully, and He Huanhuan and the others were preparing to close up for the night.

She stood by the side of the road and watched Gu Jingchen, Han Mo, and Liang Zheng dutifully wheel the electric scooters into the shop. Her brows were furrowed so deeply they could have pinched a He Huanhuan to death.

They were all outstanding young entrepreneurs in Jiangcheng. How could they be doing this sort of menial work by the side of the road?

What was worse, while Gu Jingchen and the others were working, He Huanhuan and another oddly dressed girl were sprawled across the electric scooters, taking a break!

The scooters were parked right by the roadside, and the two girls were lounging across them on the sidewalk. What kind of behavior was that?

Her face darkened instantly, and she raised her leg, ready to go over and reprimand He Huanhuan.

But after taking only two steps, she suddenly noticed that Liang Zheng had taken hold of the blue-haired girl’s hand!

Her eyes widened.

Liang Zheng and that blue-haired girl...?

She quickly ducked out of sight beside the road and took a picture of the scene, sending it to Liang Zheng’s mother.

[Sis Li, take a look. Is that your Liang Zheng? How did he get involved with some delinquent-looking girl?]

In truth, she knew the blue-haired girl was He Huanhuan’s friend.

But Weng Meijuan already disliked He Huanhuan. Naturally, she was even more disgusted by Meili, who was covered in tattoos.

In her eyes, Meili was no different from a social menace.

She crouched down and zoomed the camera in to three times magnification, carefully taking several pictures of the tattoos exposed on Meili’s body. She sent them all to Liang Zheng’s mother.

[Sis Li, look at all the tattoos on this girl! They’re terrifying! You need to keep a close eye on Liang Zheng. Don’t let some bad girl lead him astray!]

She didn’t stop to consider that, given Liang Zheng’s age, who exactly was more likely to lead whom astray?

But that was how prejudice worked. In her heart, Meili was a bad girl. Even if Liang Zheng were fifty or sixty years old, Weng Meijuan would still insist that Meili was the one who had corrupted him.

At the Liang residence, Li Changxin was practicing calligraphy in her study.

Her phone buzzed on the corner of the desk, but she paid it no attention.

Since retiring, her life had been extremely peaceful. Normally, no one contacted her.

And even when they did, it was rarely anything urgent.

She planned to finish writing one sheet before checking her phone, but it began chiming repeatedly, disrupting her concentration.

Who could be sending her so many messages at this hour?

She set down her brush and picked up her phone. Her eyes widened in shock.

What... what was this?

She enlarged the photos bit by bit. Despite the blurry image quality, the numerous tattoos covering Meili’s body were unmistakable.

As was her dazzling blue hair.

Li Changxin felt dizzy and hurriedly backed out of the photos.

She steadied herself against the desk and sat down, thinking calmly for a long while before deciding to call Liang Ye.

She remembered Liang Ye mentioning that the biological daughter the Gu family had found liked dyeing her hair.

Could that be the Gu family’s biological daughter?

After composing herself, she called Liang Ye. He answered with a cheerful laugh.

“Mom, how did you know I’d just gotten home? Did you secretly install surveillance cameras in my house?”

Li Changxin wasn’t in the mood to joke with him.

“Xiao Ye, tell me honestly. Is your brother dating the biological daughter the Gu family found?”

There was a three-second silence on the other end.

Then came an earth-shaking wail.

“My brother really likes Huanhuan? How could he do this? He’s so handsome! How am I supposed to compete with him?!”

To be fair, he did have a pretty accurate understanding of his own limitations.

Li Changxin ignored his lamentations and asked, “The girl’s name is Huanhuan? Are you close to her? What is she like? And why does she have so many tattoos?”

Liang Ye answered tearfully, “We’re really close. She’s a wonderful person and never wastes money. She has a tattoo... No, wait—what tattoo?”

How come he didn’t remember Huanhuan having a tattoo? The only person he knew with a tattoo was...

Qi Meili? And his brother?

His brother and Qi Meili???