The Adopted Cannon Fodder Made a Comeback

Gu’er felt a throbbing pain in her head. Her thoughts were a jumble. She was trying to remember if Huang Mingyu had ever mentioned in which year, or in what kind of accident, Liu Yuan had died. But because her mind was in such a mess, Gu’er couldn’t recall it for the moment.

"Hey, I’m talking to you. Didn’t you hear me?"

Seeing Gu’er looking like she was about to collapse, Wu Dadao frowned and shouted at her.

Gu’er stared at Wu Dadao with a dazed look in her eyes. ’Does she know her son is going to die soon?’

Gu’er suddenly jolted. ’I can’t say that to Wu Dadao. She’d curse me out. I can’t let Liu Yuan die. I have to think of a plan.’

’Since Heaven let me be reborn and run into Liu Yuan and Huang Mingyu, and let me know Liu Yuan’s fate, I have to find a way to save him. I can’t let him die.’

It dawned on Gu’er then why Liu Yuan was the first person she met after her rebirth. It turned out she and Liu Yuan had a deep connection in her past life as well.

"What?"

Gu’er had no idea what Wu Dadao had just said to her.

"I told you not to come into the city anymore. Don’t think you can see my A Yuan this way. He won’t pay you any mind. My A Yuan has a girlfriend now. See? It’s Mingyu. And Mingyu is a worker."

Wu Dadao spoke to Gu’er, her face etched with impatience.

’Yes, Huang Mingyu is a worker, but she’s a terrible person.’ Thinking of her past life, Gu’er felt that if she had a knife in her hand, she would stab Huang Mingyu to death without a second thought. That way, she couldn’t harm anyone else. That way, that little girl wouldn’t have died.

Gu’er glared at Huang Mingyu, her eyes bloodshot. She had never detested someone so much, even more than she detested Zhou Mazi.

Gu’er recalled the things Huang Mingyu had done in her past life. Leaving everything else aside, she herself had been indirectly killed by Huang Mingyu.

Zhang Juan gave birth to a child, a daughter named Chen Yue.

Gu’er had been taking care of Yueyue since the day she was born. Zhang Juan refused to breastfeed, so every night, it was Gu’er who got up in the middle of the night to mix formula and feed the baby.

Once the baby was a month old, she had to get up several times each night to help her use the potty.

If the child felt the slightest bit unwell, Gu’er would stay up watching over her almost all night.

After countless hard days and nights, she raised the child until she was four years old.

Little Yueyue was adorable and sensible. She was very attached to Gu’er, calling her "Grandma" every day in a soft, sweet voice and often giving her kisses. Just seeing her filled Gu’er with joy. It could be said that Little Yueyue was Gu’er’s entire hope and emotional anchor. It was she who made Gu’er feel that life was worth living; it was she who brought warmth into Gu’er’s life.

But the Chen family and Zhang Juan felt the child was too attached to Gu’er, and they were unhappy about it. They said they wanted to send the child to kindergarten. Although Gu’er couldn’t bear it, she was, after all, only the grandmother. So she steeled her heart and sent her.

After that, she dropped her off and picked her up every day.

After starting kindergarten, the child often caught colds and sometimes ran a fever.

Chen Tao and Zhang Juan didn’t think it was because the child was being infected by other children in a large group setting like kindergarten. Instead, they blamed Gu’er for not taking good care of her.

Gu’er’s heart ached for Little Yueyue, and at the same time, she was constantly being blamed. The stress and anxiety caused her heart condition to flare up.

That day, she felt particularly unwell. She called Zhang Juan and said she couldn’t pick up the child that afternoon, asking them to do it.

Zhang Juan was out drinking with two of her friends, and Chen Tao said he had a party and couldn’t get back. So, they asked the child’s paternal grandmother, Huang Mingyu, to pick her up.

Huang Mingyu had never helped take care of the child since she was born. She viewed Gu’er as a free nanny and felt she didn’t have to do anything.

She was reluctant to pick her up because she was downstairs playing in a mahjong parlor.

But she couldn’t refuse. In the end, she went and picked up Little Yueyue. However, she didn’t take Yueyue home; she brought her to the mahjong parlor instead.

She went back to her game, leaving Little Yueyue to play by herself in the residential complex.

Yueyue pulled on her grandmother’s hand, saying she wanted to play on the swing. There was a swing set in the complex, and Gu’er used to take her to play on it, holding her as they swung. She loved it. But Huang Mingyu was in the middle of an exciting hand and refused to move, telling Yueyue to go by herself.

Yueyue was only four years old, yet she actually told her to go sit on it by herself. Then she went back to her game.

Yueyue didn’t understand how dangerous it was. She climbed onto the swing herself, and after just a few swings, she fell right off, landing on the back of her head. Blood instantly pooled on the ground.

But Huang Mingyu had no idea. By the time another child found her and screamed for help, by the time someone recognized it was Yueyue, and by the time they found Huang Mingyu, more than half an hour had passed since Yueyue’s fall.

Huang Mingyu stared at her unmoving granddaughter lying there, at the blood all over the ground, and was dumbstruck. Instead of rushing Yueyue to the hospital, she was thinking about how to evade responsibility.

After thinking for a long while, she called Gu’er. She didn’t say anything had happened to the child, only told Gu’er to come over.

Gu’er was feeling extremely unwell that day and didn’t understand what was happening. She thought maybe Yueyue missed her, or perhaps Huang Mingyu was trying to be lazy. She took her medicine, rested for a bit, and then forced herself to go.

When she saw Little Yueyue’s head covered in blood, Gu’er’s vision went dark.

She rushed over and held Yueyue, calling her name. In that moment, Yueyue was no longer breathing.

"You, you watch her. I-I’m going home now."

After dropping those words, Huang Mingyu actually left.

She just walked away like that. She went home!

By now, more than an hour had passed since Yueyue fell from the swing.

Gu’er was filled with hatred. ’She’s the child’s grandmother! How could she do something like that?’

But Gu’er had no time to think about anything else. She rushed the child to the hospital.

But by the time they reached the hospital, it was too late. The child would never wake up again.

Gu’er couldn’t understand. She couldn’t understand why. Why was the one time she didn’t pick her up the time the child lost her life?

By the time Chen Tao, Zhang Juan, and Huang Mingyu arrived at the hospital and learned the child was gone, they didn’t blame Huang Mingyu at all. Instead, they cursed at Gu’er, saying it was all her fault.

Gu’er was already devastated by Little Yueyue’s death. Being screamed at like that, she became overwhelmed and fainted.

When she woke up, there was no one by her side. The doctors and nurses looked at her with pity. When she had fainted, no one had paid her any mind; it was the doctors and nurses who had carried her away and saved her.

Gu’er was in the hospital for three days. She was all alone. Zhang Juan never came to see her.

She was discharged from the hospital.

Chen Tao, Zhang Juan, and Huang Mingyu constantly came to her place to shout, curse, and break things. They said that because she was sick and didn’t pick up the child, the accident happened. They said it was all her fault.

They accused her of faking her illness, called her a jinx, and screamed at her, asking why she didn’t just die from her sickness instead of living to harm others. Zhang Juan was especially vicious. She hated Gu’er for giving birth to her into such a family; she was ashamed of Gu’er. She told Gu’er to die and pay for her daughter’s life.

Gu’er’s heart ached, not for them, but for Little Yueyue. Her lovely granddaughter... how could Heaven be so cruel as to take her life? She truly would have rather died herself than let it be Yueyue.

’Without Yueyue, what’s the point of living? What’s the meaning of it all!’

————————————

This was the real reason why, in her past life, Gu’er had lost all will to live and had not wanted children.