Seeing her cousin standing by the well, Gu Jin shouted, "Minmin."
The latter was wiping her face with a towel and looked back upon hearing her cousin’s voice.
Gu Jin shook the dress in her hand, "Come, I bought you some new clothes, go try them on."
Upon hearing about the new clothes, Gu Minmin dropped the towel and ran over.
After handing her the clothes, Gu Jin greeted her grandfather and uncle and led the child towards the kitchen.
Once everyone was seated at the table and the food was served, Gu Minmin dashed in wearing the new clothes.
The little girl was in a red plaid skirt, white socks, and small leather shoes, looking very spirited.
"Wow! Minmin, this dress is really pretty!"
Chen Hong had heard Gu Jin mention buying clothes for her daughter but didn’t expect it to look so good on her.
Look at this red plaid skirt, it’s the first of its kind in the village; she hadn’t seen other girls wearing something like this, truly stylish.
Gu Decang stared at his daughter, who looked transformed in the new clothes, with a surprised expression.
Only the old Mr. Gu and Gu Jiajie kept their heads down to eat, not even glancing over.
The old man was too old to appreciate fashionable things at this time.
Meanwhile, Gu Jiajie had seen Gu Jin buy it in the department store yesterday, knowing exactly what kind of clothes they were, so there was no novelty for him.
Gu Minmin was so happily overwhelmed that she ate her meal cautiously, afraid of staining the dress.
The family ate with lively chatter, and no one mentioned yesterday’s incident.
It was not until after the meal that Chen Hong brought up to the old man the three IOUs Gu Jin had given her yesterday.
She stammered, "I was thinking of asking the village chief to resolve this; after all, it was money spent by Jin’er."
The old man glanced at Gu Jin, as well as the obedient An Mingji seated beside her.
The bruises on the child’s face looked much better than before.
"Handle it as you see fit."
The old man stood up and left, showing he didn’t care how Chen Hong wanted to handle it.
Once he left, Gu Jin and the child followed him out.
Gu Jiajie and Gu Minmin also slipped away.
"Xiao Jin!"
Gu Jiajie called out to Gu Jin, who was heading back to her room.
Hearing her cousin’s voice, Gu Jin saw him looking hesitant to speak, so she told the child beside her, "You go inside first."
After An Mingji obediently went inside, she walked over to Gu Jiajie, "What’s up?"
She roughly guessed what it was about but wanted him to say it himself.
"I’m planning to go talk to Yuanzi and Wu Ren today about going south. Since they don’t have families to bring along, we plan to head south in the next couple of days."
"Sure, let’s go to the county at noon to get the money, and you can check out the tickets as well."
Gu Jiajie grinned, "Then I’ll go find them now!"
Seeing his excitement, Gu Jin threw cold water on him, "Did you tell Auntie about going south?"
"...No."
He hadn’t even thought about telling his mom.
Judging by his expression, it was clear he wanted to keep it from the family, which Gu Jin didn’t agree with, "You plan to go far, you should at least inform the family."
"We’ll see. You know my mom’s temperament; if she knows I’m heading south, she’ll definitely cause a fuss."
With that, he turned and ran out, not wanting to continue the conversation.
...
At noon, Gu Jiajie returned full of energy and entered Gu Jin’s room directly.
Soon after, the two of them, along with the little one, went out together, first heading to the town to wait for a bus to the county.
After what happened yesterday, Gu Jin really couldn’t leave the little one alone again.