The Comeback of the Cannon-Fodder Supporting Actress

As soon as Su Mingzhu got off the plane, she called out to Wei Bin: ”Uncle, let’s find a place to sit for a bit, I’ll call my mom.”

”Okay, then we’ll grab something to eat while we’re at it.”

Wei Bin remembered there was a branch of their own restaurant near the airport, so he led the bunch of kids over there.

Once inside, he skillfully ordered food for the four kids.

Su Mingzhu took out her phone to call Anning.

Fang Xu and Wei Sha also crowded over.

When Su Mingzhu was making the call, Wang Shushu had just been taken away by the police, and the Old Madam was still chasing and beating Yang Lao Mao.

Anning was just about to step in and stop them when she heard her phone ring.

She said to Yang Erchou and Li Cuixia: ”Dad, Mom, hold them back a bit, don’t let Grandma beat Grandpa into something serious.”

Yang Erchou hurried over to pull the Old Madam away.

Anning walked aside, took out her phone, and answered.

”You’ve gotten to the Capital, right?”

Su Mingzhu said with a smile: ”Yeah, we just got off the plane, Uncle is taking us to eat right now.”

When the kids left, everything over at Yangjiazhuang was a total mess and no one had eaten, so chances were they were starving by now.

Anning said, ”Order whatever you like and eat a bit. Your Aunt has already spoken with Grandpa and Grandma over at the Gu Family, you and your sister will stay there for the next few days.”

”Mm, I know. I’ll have my uncle send us over later.”

While agreeing, Su Mingzhu asked, ”Mom, how are things at home? Was my grand-uncle really murdered?”

Once she asked that, the others all leaned in, even Wei Bin pricked up his ears to listen.

Seeing that, Su Mingzhu simply turned on the speakerphone and set the phone on the table so everyone could hear.

”Yes, your grand-uncle was poisoned to death. We’ve found the killer too—it was Wang Shushu.”

Anning didn’t even call her ”Aunt,” she directly used Wang Shushu’s name.

Well, without Yang Dachou, what relationship did Anning have with Wang Shushu? Now that Yang Dachou had been killed by her, Anning certainly wouldn’t acknowledge her anymore, so she just called her by name.

”It was her?”

Everyone cried out in shock; none of them had expected that it was actually Wang Shushu who killed Yang Dachou.

”Mom, why? There’s got to be a reason, right?”

Just bringing this up felt shameful.

Anning herself felt she’d lost face.

And it wasn’t something she could properly explain to a few juniors over the phone: ”Things here are a total mess, I won’t say much now. We’ll talk when you get home.”

She coaxed Su Mingzhu into hanging up.

After putting away her phone, Su Mingzhu and the others all exchanged looks.

Fang Xu slapped his forehead: ”This really is a jaw-dropping piece of gossip, but getting only half the story is torture.”

Wei Sha was still frowning: ”Why didn’t my aunt tell us?”

Su Mingzhu smiled and patted Wei Sha’s head: ”There must be stuff in there she doesn’t want us to know. All right, I’m starving, let’s hurry up and eat.”

That was what she said, but she felt awful too; hearing only half the gossip was really unbearable.

After settling things at home, Xiao Yuan found a car and went with Anning to the Public Security Bureau; they still had to take Yang Dachou’s body back and lay him to rest.

Back at Yang Dachou’s house, the three Yang Junni sisters were all sitting in the room crying.

Zhang Xiangxiang and Zhang Xiangshan were in the main room talking with Fang Jianhua, and Gu Anzhen and Yang Yu had just calmed the Old Madam down and brought her out of the inner room.

Gu Anzhen sat next to Fang Jianhua and said angrily, ”I really didn’t expect Wang Shushu to be this kind of person. Tell me, does Xiao Qun know she poisoned Big Uncle? Or were the two of them in on it together?”

As soon as Yang Yu heard that, she immediately got up to go call Yang Erchou.

Yang Erchou thought something else had happened again and rushed over in a panic.

Gu Anzhen said to him, ”Dad, we can’t just let this go. The Xiao Family has to give us an explanation, and also Xiao Qun—does he know about Wang Shushu poisoning Big Uncle or not?”

Yang Erchou froze for a moment, then his expression grew even darker: ”The police have already taken Xiao Qun in for questioning; we should have an answer soon.”

Yang Yu fetched a chair for him to sit on, then said his voice was hoarse and she’d get him some water to drink, when she saw Song Xiaoli leading her daughter Yang Jiajia over.

”Second Uncle.”

Song Xiaoli called out.

Yang Erchou responded, ”You’re here, sit down.”

Song Xiaoli sat down with Yang Jiajia.

Yang Erchou glanced at Yang Jiajia, a gentle, grandfatherly smile appearing on his face.

It was rare for the eldest branch of the family to have such a good child as Yang Jiajia. She was nothing like her grandpa or her father—she was smart, sensible, did well in school, and had a bit of Anning and Anzhen’s temperament.

”Jiajia’s about to take the college entrance exam, right?” Yang Erchou asked.

With a shy smile, Yang Jiajia said, ”Mm, this year.”

”Once this matter with your grandpa is over, hurry back to school, don’t let your studies fall behind.”

Yang Erchou patted his pockets, took out US$ 100, and handed it to her: ”Here, take it and buy yourself something to eat.”

Yang Jiajia tried to refuse, but he forced the money into her hand: ”Your Second Grandpa is giving it to you, just take it.”

Smiling, Yang Jiajia thanked him.

Song Xiaoli said to her, ”Go outside and play.”

After thinking a moment, she took out another US$ 100 and handed it to Yang Jiajia, telling her to go buy some water for her grandpa and aunts.

Yang Jiajia went out with the money.

Only then did Song Xiaoli lower her voice a bit and say to Yang Erchou, ”Second Uncle, it’s not that I’m trying to stir things up. I’ve been mulling this over for quite a while and I don’t know if I’m right or not. I’ll just say it and you can help me think it through.”

Because of the connection through Jiajia, Yang Erchou actually spoke gently to her for once: ”If something’s on your mind, just say it. Are you having some difficulty?”

Song Xiaoli shook her head, thought a bit more, and said with a very troubled look, ”My mother-in-law got herself mixed up with Xiao Qun a long time ago. From the way she talked, it sounded like she and Xiao Qun were already involved back when she was still unmarried. Later, because the Xiao Family’s political background was bad, their reputation was bad, and they were poor, the Wang family wouldn’t let her marry him, so it fell through. So I’ve been thinking: since the two of them were sneaking around together that early, then... then who exactly do our head of the household and Fugui belong to?”

That one sentence was like dropping a bomb, leaving Yang Erchou and the three Yang Junni siblings all dizzy and reeling.

Even Gu Anzhen and Yang Yu were stunned: ”You can’t just go around saying things like that.”

Snapping back to his senses, Yang Erchou waved his hand: ”This matter... it’s hard to say for now.”

Yang Yu thought Song Xiaoli must be crazy; the things she was saying were truly beyond anything she’d imagined, and she couldn’t figure out what was going on in her head.

She quietly stood up and went outside, took out her phone, and called Anning.

Anning had just come out of the Public Security Bureau and gotten into the car when Yang Yu’s call came through.

”Sis, what’s going on?”

Yang Yu quickly repeated everything Song Xiaoli had said: ”Ningning, what do you think she means? Is she planning to divorce Big Brother or what? But she dotes on Jiajia so much, she doesn’t look like someone who’d give up on Big Brother and Jiajia.”

Anning actually laughed: ”Her thinking isn’t hard to guess. She just wants to kick Yang Fugui out. Right now, with Big Uncle gone and Wang Shushu going to prison for murder, Yang Fugui is about to be released. Once he really comes out, won’t she and Big Brother have to deal with him? If he were easy to handle, that’d be one thing, but is he? And besides, how old is he now? What can he even do when he comes out except fight them over the house and the land? In the future he might even become a burden on Jiajia. But if Yang Fugui isn’t actually one of our Yang Family, then the house and the land all belong to Jiajia, and she can save herself a lot of trouble.”

Anning had a clear grasp of what Song Xiaoli was thinking.

This year, Yang Jiajia was in her final year of high school and about to take the college entrance exam. Her grades were quite good, and she had a real shot at getting into university—and going to university costs a lot of money. Yang Fuyu and Song Xiaoli were really tightening their belts, constantly trying to make money just so they could put Jiajia through college.

But if Yang Fugui came out at this time, who knew what kind of trouble he might cause? If things blew up so badly that Jiajia couldn’t go to school, what would they do?

”So she’s that sure Big Brother is really one of us?”

This was the part Yang Yu couldn’t figure out: ”What if it turns out Big Brother isn’t the Yang family’s child and Yang Fugui is? Then what?”

Anning laughed even louder: ”Sis, take a good look at Jiajia’s features.”

Just then, Yang Jiajia came back carrying an armful of bottled water, bumping into Yang Yu as she walked in.

Watching Jiajia approach from a distance, the way she looked, the way she walked—it was almost exactly like Anning in her younger days.

In an instant, Yang Yu understood what was in Song Xiaoli’s mind.

After greeting Yang Yu, Jiajia went into the yard.

Only then did Yang Yu say to Anning, ”I just saw Jiajia. Honestly, she really does look a lot like you.”

”They say nieces take after their aunts. We’re family, there’s always something similar.”

With that one line, Anning made Yang Yu feel even more assured: ”So what Song Xiaoli saw was that Jiajia looks like our side of the family, so she’s convinced Big Brother must be one of us, and Yang Fugui might not be.”