Chapter 4: Neither of Them Are Any Good!
It had to be said that Guo Xuyang truly lived up to his status as the male lead.
He was exceptionally good-looking.
Tall and well-built, he possessed the kind of righteous, upright face that was incredibly popular in this era. With his thick brows and large eyes, anyone looking at him would be tempted to ask, “Old Guo, do you want a wife or not?”
No wonder the original host had wanted to snatch him away.
Guo Xuyang was so incensed by Lin Wan’s rogue behavior that he laughed in anger. He took a step forward, only for his sleeve to be frantically tugged back by Zhang Qin, who shook her head through her tears. “Xuyang, don’t do anything reckless!”
“Don’t blame Wanwan…” Don’t let her squeeze you for money!
Crystal-clear tears rolled down one by one from her moist eyes, elevating her otherwise modest beauty from a six out of ten to a solid ten. Her only misfortune was being born in the wrong era. If she had been born in the 1980s, she could have starred in Qiong Yao’s television dramas and would definitely have shot to fame across the entire country.
“Zhang Qin!” Guo Xuyang’s face contorted with rage.
“She’s stealing your boyfriend!”
“You just give me up the moment she tells you to. What do you take me for?”
“And now you’re still speaking up for her. I truly misjudged you!”
Zhang Qin felt an agonizing wave of despair. Tears gushed like a spring. She looked poignantly beautiful and utterly broken; even the sun seemed to hide behind the clouds to mourn for her.
Lin Wan didn’t hold back at all and barked, “Guo Xuyang, you can poke two eyes into an eggplant and it would display more manhood than you!”
“You can’t even protect your own woman, yet you blame her for not defending your relationship.”
“It’s not like you don’t know her status at home. She’s a total pushover—how could she possibly resist?”
“As for you, instead of saving her from that fiery pit, all you know how to do is throw a temper tantrum!”
“Bah!”
“Coward!”
“Thank goodness I changed my mind and stopped trying to steal you. Otherwise, even if I got my hands on you, I’d turn around and toss you right into the trash can!”
Lin Wan thought to herself that since she had lashed out this harshly, she must have made her stance crystal clear, right? They should take the hint, hurry up, and scurry off to get their marriage certificate registered! As long as the two of them got married right then and there, they would be completely settled. Her mother would no longer be able to force Zhang Qin, thus saving her from the fate of being ruined and dying in the countryside. Consequently, the tragic destiny of their own family would be completely rewritten!
At this thought, Lin Wan felt her fighting spirit soar.
Guo Xuyang’s face turned completely green from the scolding. His fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white, and the veins on his forehead and neck bulged aggressively.
Zhang Qin was also left utterly stunned by Lin Wan’s words. What… what kind of trick was she trying to play now? She couldn’t possibly be helping me! Right, she couldn’t be helping me. She’s only saying these divisive things to drive a wedge between Brother Xuyang and me!
Yet, for some reason, hearing those sowing-discord words actually made her feel aggrieved, and she couldn’t help but feel that Lin Wan was right.
Guo Xuyang pointed an enraged finger at Lin Wan. “Lin Wan, stop turning black into white! The ones bullying Zhang Qin have always been you and your mother!”
“Your mother is a wicked stepmother who dumps all the household chores onto Zhang Qin, barks at her at every turn, and helps you snatch her things!”
Speaking ill of Comrade Huang Guixiang? That absolutely wouldn’t fly! That was the only mother she had gained after transmigrating!
She rolled up her sleeves and slapped Guo Xuyang’s hand away with force. “Don’t you dare point at me!”
“Open your dog eyes and take a good look around. Which young woman in any household doesn’t do chores?”
“Why should Zhang Qin be the sole exception?”
Zhang Qin’s crying grew even more intense, but she was fragile and powerless, utterly unable to hold Guo Xuyang back. How could Guo Xuyang be like this? She had only vented her grievances to him to pour her heart out—how could he bring it up right in front of Lin Wan? Zhang Qin didn’t even dare to imagine what kind of raging storm would be waiting for her at home once Lin Wan went back and complained to Huang Guixiang.
Guo Xuyang was thoroughly repulsed by Lin Wan’s shamelessness. He said with absolute loathing, “Zhang Qin isn’t an exception, but you are also a daughter of that household. Why is it that you don’t do a single thing?”
Lin Wan sneered mockingly, “I don’t do anything because my biological mother spoils me! If Zhang Qin doesn’t want to do anything, she can always get her biological father to spoil her!”
“Before my mom married her dad, she did every single chore in that house. She had to wash the underwear of the entire family, including her older brother and sister-in-law! She helped raise her nephews and nieces like a tireless nanny, and she washed every single diaper! Because there was an endless mountain of work, her dad made her drop out of school when she was only in junior high.”
“It was only after my mom married into the family that her brother and sister-in-law were forced to wash their own clothes and raise their own brats! It was also because my mom married in that your junior-high-dropout girlfriend was able to resume her education!”
“My mom never let her freeze, never let her starve, cut her workload by half, and even let her finish high school. She didn’t marry her off to some old widower to act as a stepmother just to trade her for a bride price to use as my dowry.”
“She didn’t treat her daughter like cattle, the way families with names like Zhaodi, Pandi, Yindi, or Laodi do, only to sell them off for a high bride price once they grow up so their brothers can afford a wife. My mom has already outdone ninety percent of the stepmothers in this country. Yet, an excellent person like her becomes a wicked stepmother in your mouths. If you two aren’t ungrateful wolves, then who is?”
“Furthermore, regarding me snatching her things—I can try to snatch them, and she has every right to refuse. But her dad is the one who insists she give them up, using her just to curry favor with my mom. The one bullying her is her own biological father, not my mom!”
“It is not my fault that I have a mother to protect me, and it is certainly neither my fault nor my mom’s fault that she doesn’t have a father to protect her!”
“Pushing every single mistake onto women… When dynasties fell in the feudal era, they blamed it on bewitching concubines misleading the rulers. Why don’t you consider that if the ruler himself were decent, could a bewitching concubine ever mislead him? Lighting the beacon fires to play a prank on the feudal lords—without King You of Zhou, whose orders would Bao Si have been able to command to light those fires?”
“And you, Guo Xuyang, the same goes for you. Since you knew Zhang Qin had it rough, you should have hurried up to marry her, get the certificate, and take her with you to the military base to get her away from her toxic family. But what are you doing instead?”
“You’re blaming her. You’re blaming her for giving you up to me. You’re a full-grown, living person—how could she possibly give you away? Are you a corpse? If she gives you away, you just go ahead and marry someone else? She only went along with it in words to save herself from getting scolded a bit more… If you don’t feel bad for her, fine, but you just had to rub salt in her wounds… Forget it, there’s no reasoning with a useless man like you!”
“And Zhang Qin, you aren’t any good either. Just because you’re weak, does that make you right? Does everyone have to revolve around you? Did you give birth to Guo Xuyang or raise him, that you can just say you’re giving him up to me? He’s a human being, not an object! Besides, if I’m such a monstrous person in your heart, yet you still try to shove me onto Guo Xuyang, are you afraid his life will be too good? To satisfy your own selfish desires, you’re willing to ruin him. You’re truly something else!”
Lin Wan unleashed a torrent of words. Her primary strategy was to shower everyone equally with criticism, completely unbiased!
She felt thoroughly vindicated.
Without caring whether the two of them could take it, she stepped right past them, held her head high, and walked away.
She left Zhang Qin and Guo Xuyang standing in place, completely questioning their reality.
Left bewildered in the wind, their perceptions were shattered into pieces. While questioning their lives, they desperately tried to reconstruct their worldviews. Both could see a deep sense of guilt reflected in the other’s eyes.
“Good grief!”
“Regiment Commander Huo, that woman is way too fierce, isn’t she?”
“Whoever marries a wife like that is bound to be miserable!”
“Holy cow, she sounded completely justified when talking about stealing someone else’s boyfriend!”
“What a waste of a pretty face, to be so vicious!”
“Regiment Commander Huo, I’m completely done for. Why do I actually feel like what she said makes sense?”
In a jeep parked on the roadside not far away, the guard and driver, Du Guoqiang, had observed the entire sequence of events, his mouth running continuously as he offered his commentary.
The man sitting in the passenger seat had his military cap pulled over his face, ignoring him entirely.
“She’s coming, she’s walking this way, Regiment Commander Huo!”
“Holy crap, this woman looks like a heavenly fairy. She’s so beautiful!”
“A pity her tongue is too sharp!”
“Do not gossip about female comrades!” Huo Xiao, thoroughly annoyed by Du Guoqiang’s chatter, removed the cap covering his face.
However, in the next instant, a young woman wearing a white shirt and green military trousers ran past the front of the jeep, humming a tune and bouncing on her steps. She seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood, the bright smile on her face practically dazzling.
She looked so vividly alive that it made one’s heart skip a beat.
Huo Xiao’s gaze subconsciously followed that joyful figure, watching as she squeezed onto a public bus.
“Go to the post office and hurry Old Xiao up!” Huo Xiao sent Du Guoqiang away. He then slid into the driver’s seat himself and drove off, trailing the bus.
Having squeezed onto the bus, Lin Wan had absolutely no idea she was being followed.
