Chapter 369| Chapter 370| Chapter 371
Chapter 369: The Arrogance of the Mud Child
Sometimes, Sheng Wanyan truly felt like she was the absolute pillar of the family, while her husband was more like a sensitive, high-maintenance little wife. Left with no choice, she quickly gave him her word, promising that she would never keep secrets from him again and would immediately come to him with any grievances.
“I promise I won’t hide anything from you next time. I’ll tell you everything.” She smiled softly, teasing him a little. “How about I just let you handle all my venting and anger from now on?”
Hearing her swift reassurance, the heavy tension in Gu Tingxiao’s chest finally dissolved. The corners of his mouth twitched upward into a faint smile, though he still felt the need to maintain his stern, commanding tone. “You expect there to be a next time?”
“No… definitely not.”
Sheng Wanyan raised her hand, playfully making a solemn vow. Before she could lower her arm, Gu Tingxiao caught her wrist, pulling her gently toward the mattress and gesturing for her to lie down beside him.
She stared at him, utterly bewildered. She had just been trying to reassure him—why on earth was this man suddenly dragging her into bed?
“Rest,” he commanded softly.
Before she could offer a word of protest, Gu Tingxiao covered her eyes with his large, warm palm, silently insisting she take an afternoon nap.
Sheng Wanyan hadn’t felt particularly tired at first, but resting against the familiar comfort of his side, a deep exhaustion washed over her. Within minutes, her breathing evened out, and she drifted off into a profound sleep.
Once she was safely under, Gu Tingxiao opened his eyes and quietly studied her gaunt, delicate face. How could he ever let her swear such reckless oaths? If a vow ever came back to haunt her or put her in harm’s way, he would never be able to live with himself. He trusted his wife implicitly and knew she meant every word she said, but he never wanted her to carry the risks alone.
Just having you by my side is more than enough…
Gu Tingxiao closed his eyes, lacing his fingers securely through hers, and finally allowed himself to drift off to sleep.
By the time Mother Sheng and Mother Gu returned from their shopping trip, it was already half past three in the afternoon. Stepping into the living room and spotting the mountain of high-grade goods piled on the table, they immediately pressed for details.
Upon learning that the packages were a peace offering from Captain Feng’s family, the two older women fell silent. Now that Gu Tingxiao had returned from the dead, they no longer had any moral justification to harbor bitterness toward the couple. More importantly, since Gu Tingxiao himself harbored no resentment, what right did they have as onlookers to perpetuate the feud? The initial terror of the tragedy had finally passed, and there was no use holding onto old grudges.
“Mom, what should we do with all these things?” Sheng Wanyan asked later, gesturing to the parcels. She knew Gu Tingxiao was slated for an immediate promotion upon his official return to active duty, and she worried about the ethics of accepting such expensive gifts.
“Just keep them,” Mother Gu advised gently. “If you try to force them back, it will only make that poor couple feel worse. Tingxiao nearly lost his life saving Captain Feng. They bought these luxury goods strictly to help nourish his body, so no one can possibly gossip about it.”
It was exactly what any honorable family would do. If Captain Feng hadn’t brought a substantial offering, the rest of the base would have branded him entirely ungrateful and spineless. Accepting the packages was actually a kindness, ensuring the neighborhood wouldn’t talk down on his character.
With Mother Gu’s blessing, the lingering weight of hesitation vanished from Sheng Wanyan’s mind. She methodically stored the malted milk tins, pastries, and fine goods into the kitchen cabinets, intending to integrate them into her husband’s daily recovery diet.
As the days blended together, Gu Tingxiao’s physical strength improved by leaps and bounds, accelerated by the meticulous schedule Sheng Wanyan maintained when applying his healing ointments.
Once the overwhelming scrutiny of the family compound finally began to cool down, Mother Gu finally summoned the courage to take little Yi Yi outside for some fresh air. The baby girl was currently in the thick of practicing her walking steps, her curiosity regarding the outside world growing by the day. If she was cooped up inside the apartment for too long, she would transform into a loud, fussy little rebel.
With the daily cooking and heavy housework entirely managed by the two doting grandmothers, Sheng Wanyan’s only real responsibility was looking after Gu Tingxiao’s medical needs. After harvesting the mature summer vegetables from her garden plot, she spent her free afternoons turning the soil and sowing a fresh batch of winter crops.
During one particularly bright afternoon, Mother Gu prepared to take Yi Yi out for a stroll. Naturally, Mother Sheng refused to let little Huzi miss out on the fun, so she scurried across the street to fetch the boy. Huzi had officially passed the stage of needing to be carried constantly; he was entirely determined to navigate the world on his own two feet. It was just that his version of walking looked remarkably like a frantic, undisciplined sprint. He couldn’t quite control the momentum of his own body yet, making his wild dashes terrifying to watch from the sidelines.
At first, Mother Sheng’s heart would leap into her throat whenever the boy took a tumble, especially since he frequently hit the dirt with considerable force. The onlookers would gasp, terrified he had broken something, but Huzi remained incredibly stoic. He would merely squeeze his eyes shut, choke back his tears, and stubbornly haul himself back onto his feet.
In truth, while the falls looked exceptionally painful, toddlers his age were remarkably resilient, blessed with enough baby fat to absorb the impact. It was never as catastrophic as the adults imagined. Eventually, after watching the little rascal repeatedly pop back up like a toy and continue charging forward without a single cry, the grandmothers realized their frantic panics were entirely in vain. The little boy didn’t care about the scrapes at all, completely consumed by the thrill of rushing ahead. For the adults to be left trembling with fear while the infant remained unfazed was frankly a bit embarrassing to admit.
The grandmothers eventually guided the two children to a shaded spot beneath a massive tree near the river bank. Spotting the glittering movement of the water, the babies’ eyes widened with pure fascination, their tiny hands reaching out as they babbled a demand to play in the stream. Mother Gu carefully guided Yi Yi’s tiny hand down to the edge, letting her fingers feel the cool, rushing flow of the current. The baby’s eyes went wide with wonder.
Mother Gu laughed, thoroughly entertained. Even though her granddaughter was still so small, she already possessed an incredibly expressive little face.
“Are Captain Gu’s mother and Captain Sheng’s mother taking the little ones out for a stroll?” a passing neighbor called out warmly.
A group of military wives spotted them by the timberline and immediately swarmed over, their voices dripping with enthusiastic courtesy as they launched into small talk. Mother Sheng and Mother Gu returned the greetings with practiced, polite smiles, well aware of the golden rule: never slap a smiling face. Although these exact women had undoubtedly been whispering malicious rumors behind their backs just weeks ago, they were bound to cross paths within the compound sooner or later. When people approached you with such aggressive friendliness, the only logical move was to maintain a peaceful, superficial harmony.
“Yes, we decided to bring the children out to see the sunshine,” Mother Sheng replied smoothly.
“Of course! The weather is absolutely gorgeous today; it’s the perfect afternoon to let the little ones stretch their legs,” a neighbor chimed in, the crowd nodding and laughing in unified agreement.
After a few minutes of polite banter, Mother Gu smoothly manufactured a graceful exit, claiming the babies were getting fussy and needed to explore further down the path.
Mother Gu kept a firm grip on Yi Yi’s arms, guiding her steps slowly across the packed dirt. Since the baby girl was still in the early stages of learning to walk, her stamina was highly limited, and she could only manage a few yards before her knees buckled. Huzi, on the other hand, was a seasoned explorer, completely independent as he darted through the brush to investigate every leaf and stone. Sometimes he moved so fast he was practically a blur, sprinting ahead without a single backward glance. Mother Sheng had a grueling time keeping up with him; if she hadn’t possessed the formidable physical strength of a seasoned worker, she never would have been able to lasso the boy.
Eventually, Huzi plonked his bottom right down into a damp patch of soil near the bank, happily patting at the mud. Eager to be included, Yi Yi scrambled over on her hands and knees, plopping down right beside her cousin to join in the excavation. They began slapping the wet earth, joyfully smearing the sludge across each other’s limbs, neither of them harboring a single shred of disgust.
Assuming the two toddlers were merely engaged in a harmless, quiet game, Mother Gu and Mother Sheng let their guard down, turning their backs to chat quietly with another passing neighbor.
But the absolute second Mother Gu turned back to check on her granddaughter, her jaw dropped in pure horror.
The play area was situated dangerously close to the riverbank, meaning the rich soil was thoroughly saturated with water, creating a thick, sticky, midnight-black sludge.
“My sweet little ancestors!” Mother Gu shrieked, her eyes nearly popping out of her skull.
Mother Sheng whipped her head around at the scream, and the sight left both grandmothers thoroughly paralyzed. It was an absolute disaster. Both children were completely encased in a thick, uniform layer of wet mud from head to toe. The only features visible on their entire bodies were two pairs of wide, blinking eyes and two wide-open mouths, revealing a few tiny, gleaming white baby teeth.
“Hehehe!”
“Giggle, giggle, giggle!”
The two little rascals were having the absolute time of their lives, completely oblivious to the fact that they looked like swamp creatures. The military wives standing nearby stared at the muddy lumps, entirely unable to recognize the elite grandchildren of the Commander-in-Chief beneath the grime. There wasn’t a single clean patch of fabric left on either child; the fine, expensive material of their tailored birthday outfits was thoroughly soaked through with black sludge.
Mother Gu and Mother Sheng stood frozen, their hands hovering in the air, completely at a loss as to where they could even place their fingers to lift them. Mother Gu stared down at the children, a look of profound, comical disdain flashing through her eyes. How on earth had they managed to achieve this level of filth in under five minutes? Didn’t they feel any sticky discomfort?
Mother Gu swallowed hard, looking helplessly at Yi Yi. In response, the muddy little creature bared her tiny front teeth and flashed her grandmother a brilliant, gummy smile. She looked radiantly happy, completely ignorant to how spectacularly ridiculous she looked.
Yi Yi enthusiastically extended her muddy, dripping arms, demanding a hug. Mother Gu recoiled in instant panic, flatly refusing the offer. Instead, she gingerly pinched a tiny, relatively dry section of the baby’s collar, hoisted her up like a soiled laundry bag, and began marching rapidly toward the apartment.
Mother Sheng didn’t want to ruin her own blouse either, initially intending to force Huzi to march back on his own two feet. But the muddy boy took that as a challenge, giggling wildly as he prepared to launch his entire sludge-covered body into her waist for a proper embrace. Terrified of the incoming collision, Mother Sheng surrendered, scooped him up bodily, and sprinted down the path.
Along the entire length of the residential avenue, Mother Sheng and Mother Gu were subjected to a barrage of stunned, highly amused stares from the neighbors. In all their years of high-society elegance, neither grandmother had ever endured such a spectacularly embarrassing public promenade.
Chapter 370: Two Children Are Blind? ? ?
Aunt Xie had just stepped outside when she caught sight of the two children. Her eyes widened instantly in sheer disbelief.
“Are… are these really the two little ones from your families?”
She could honestly barely tell. If she hadn’t seen Mother Gu and Mother Sheng physically holding the bundles in their hands, she wouldn’t have dared to guess who they were.
Mother Gu and Mother Sheng looked at her with utter helplessness. They were indeed none other than the two little clay monsters of their households.
“Oh my goodness…” Aunt Xie muttered, her lips twitching. How on earth did they manage to get themselves into such a state? She couldn’t help but wonder if the little rascals would end up getting a proper spanking once they got inside.
“Well, I won’t keep you from getting them home,” she added quickly, scurrying back inside her house and slamming the door shut in one swift motion. She had just seen little Yi Yi trying to reach out to give her a muddy hug. Thank goodness she had moved fast enough; otherwise, she would have suffered the exact same messy fate.
Meanwhile, Sheng Wanyan was in the front yard washing clothes. When she heard the front gate creak open, she knew the grandmothers had returned from their walk.
She raised her head, a bright smile ready on her face, only to freeze the absolute second her eyes landed on the object in Mother Gu’s hands. The smile vanished from her lips, replaced by a look of sheer, blank stupor.
Mother Gu looked back at her and offered a strained, highly defensive laugh. “Haha… Wanyan.”
Sheng Wanyan let out a hollow chuckle of her own, completely speechless as she stared at the muddy creature. Not only was the child entirely encased in slime, but black water was actively dripping from her tiny feet onto the path.
“Mom, did we somehow lose the baby along the way?” Sheng Wanyan asked blankly.
“Not exactly…” Mother Gu grimaced.
Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law stared at each other in shared, silent disgust. Yet, the child in question thought the whole thing was a magnificent joke and burst into a bubbly laugh. She used her filthy, mud-caked hands to smear the sludge even further across her face, and then, to Wanyan’s horror, she prepared to stuff her dirty fingers right into her mouth.
Sheng Wanyan completely snapped. This girl truly knew exactly how to dismantle her mother’s boundaries.
“Ah, no! Stop it!”
Unable to bear it for another second, Sheng Wanyan surged to her feet in a flash of maternal fury, lunging forward to pull the baby’s hands away from her mouth.
Hearing his wife’s sudden shriek from the living room, Gu Tingxiao panicked, quickly grabbing his crutches and hobbling out as fast as his injuries allowed to see what was wrong.
Sheng Wanyan stared down at Yi Yi in despair. Seeing her mother leaning close, the baby assumed she had come to play and excitedly lunged forward, throwing her muddy arms right around Wanyan’s neck.
Sheng Wanyan: “…” Hehe.
She lowered her head expressionlessly, staring at the fresh, dark grease stains instantly ruining her clean clothes.
“Gu. Jin. Sheng.” Sheng Wanyan gritted her teeth, calling out the baby’s full name in a tone vibrating with pure menace.
The moment Gu Tingxiao cleared the doorway and saw his daughter completely coated in river silt, his pupils constricted. Sensing that his wife was on the absolute warpath, he didn’t waste a heartbeat. He hurried forward on his crutches, tossed them unceremoniously onto the floor, and scooped Yi Yi bodily into his arms, showing absolutely zero disdain for his filthy daughter.
He then whipped around to face Sheng Wanyan, flashing her his most charming, placating smile as he desperately tried to de-escalate her fury. “Wife, leave it to me. I promise I’ll clean every single inch of her. Why don’t you go inside and take a nice, relaxing shower?”
He knew that if his wife stayed out here for another minute, their daughter was going to experience a very real lesson in maternal discipline.
Sheng Wanyan stared at the father and daughter standing in absolute, unified solidarity against her. She let out a cold snort and delivered her final, unyielding ultimatum. “Listen to me closely. If she comes out of that bath and I find a single speck of dirt left on her…” She paused, her eyes narrowing. “…both you and your daughter can sleep in the woodshed tonight!”
“Don’t you worry, Wife! I promise to complete the mission flawlessly!” Gu Tingxiao barked back with absolute military gravity, vowing to deliver a perfectly clean, sweet-smelling daughter back to her arms.
Terrified that her precious granddaughter might actually get exiled to the backyard by her third daughter-in-law, Mother Gu sprinted to the kitchen to boil a massive cauldron of hot water.
Gu Tingxiao and his mother perched themselves on low stools in the washroom, working methodically to scrub the baby down. It took them exactly five complete basins of fresh water before the underlying skin was finally visible.
“Huzi!!! Just wait until I get my hands on you! You are in so much trouble!”
While they were busy scrubbing Yi Yi, Pan Yue’s furious shrieks echoed clearly from across the street, accompanied by the occasional, gentle murmurs of Grandpa and Grandma Sheng trying to calm her down. However, as the grandparents continued their persuasion, they caught a proper look at the state of their own apartment, and before long, their voices joined the chorus, angrily scolding Huzi right along with Pan Yue.
It was safe to assume the other little clay monster across the path was not enjoying a particularly peaceful afternoon either.
Once the baths concluded, Sheng Wanyan stood in the yard, watching basin after basin of pitch-black water being dumped onto her pristine vegetable garden. She felt entirely drained, temporarily losing the capacity for speech. This little girl had truly been spoiled to a fault; no matter what disaster she caused, she simply flashed a sweet smile to get out of it. She weaponized her own baby charm so effectively that it made it almost impossible for the family to properly scold her.
Sheng Wanyan walked into the bedroom to inspect the results. Seeing that Yi Yi had indeed been restored to a clean, porcelain-fair state, her internal anger finally began to subside. She could tolerate her children playing and making a bit of a mess, but tracking thick river sludge across the house and trying to eat it was where she drew an absolute line. If Mother Gu hadn’t been standing guard, she would have given the child a firm piece of her mind.
Exhausted from her wild mud adventure, Yi Yi had fallen into a deep, peaceful sleep, completely oblivious to the fact that her mother was thoroughly displeased with her. Instead, she reached out in her slumber, tightly clamping her tiny fingers around Sheng Wanyan’s hand, snoring softly.
Sheng Wanyan: “…” So I’m the only one who actually suffered from the high blood pressure here, right?
She couldn’t bring herself to take it out on her sleeping daughter, but she could certainly direct her remaining frustration toward the child’s father.
Gu Tingxiao was currently covered in stray splatters of mud himself. He had just managed to pull a clean shirt over his shoulders when he felt a heavy, resentful gaze piercing through his back.
“This is entirely your fault. She inherits this wild, mischievous streak straight from your side of the family,” Sheng Wanyan huffed, sitting down on the edge of the mattress and pinning him with a freezing glare.
“Wife, you are absolutely right. It must be my genetics,” Gu Tingxiao agreed smoothly, offering zero excuses. In all honesty, Yi Yi’s current behavioral patterns were an exact carbon copy of his own childhood antics. Besides, his beautiful wife was such a refined, gentle intellectual; there was absolutely no scenario where she could have been such an unruly gremlin as a child.
Sheng Wanyan, who had spent her own childhood aggressively brawling with the local boys in her neighborhood: “……”
A sudden wave of guilt washed over her, but she fiercely maintained her stern composure, knowing she couldn’t afford to lose her momentum. If she softened now, this father-daughter duo would completely walk all over her in the future.
“As long as you know,” she sniffed.
Leaving him with that final warning, she turned on her heel and marched into the kitchen to prepare dinner, unable to bear the sight of the co-conspirators for another second. One was constantly instigating structural chaos, while the other was perpetually working behind the scenes to clean up the mess. If they kept this up, they were bound to trigger a massive disaster sooner or later!
The moment the kitchen door clicked shut, Gu Tingxiao let out a long breath of relief. He turned his head, staring helplessly at his soundly sleeping daughter. My sweet little girl, he thought, please do your old father a favor and try not to provoke your mother’s temper in the future. Otherwise, I’m the one who ends up taking the fall!
Yi Yi merely blew a little bubble of drool in her sleep, completely deaf to her father’s desperate plea. In her toddler dreams, she was currently back on the riverbank, happily splashing through the glorious, sticky black mud, entirely eager to do it all over again.
The saga of the mud children finally came to a close, but because Mother Sheng and Mother Gu had marched the twin disasters across the main residential avenue in broad daylight, a massive group of dependents had witnessed the promenade.
Within hours, the incident transformed into the absolute favorite gossip topic of the family compound. The middle-aged military wives, in particular, took the story and ran with it. It passed from one mouth to ten, and from ten to a hundred, mutating wildly with each subsequent retelling until it completely lost its original context.
“Let me tell you, Captain Gu and Captain Sheng’s kids turned into total mud monsters today—you could only see their eyes!”
“Did you hear? Captain Gu and Captain Sheng’s children have no eyes!”
“What?! Are you saying Captain Gu and Captain Sheng’s kids are completely blind?!”
“No, no, I heard their faces turned entirely black.”
“What on earth does that mean? They turned black? Did they go blind from getting river mud in their eyes?”
Eventually, the corrupted rumors reached every single corner of the base, leaving the general population under the firm impression that the two toddlers had permanently blinded themselves while playing in the silt.
For the next few days, whenever a member of the Sheng family stepped out of their courtyard, neighbors would corner them, frantically asking if the children were blind, forcing the family to constantly explain the ridiculous truth.
The rumors eventually grew so severe that Political Commissar Xie and Pan Yue’s parents panicked. Terrified by the gossip, they dropped their administrative duties and sprinted over to the quarters to inspect whether little Huzi had truly lost his sight. If the boy was blind, they needed to secure specialist treatment immediately; they couldn’t afford to delay!
Discovering the absurd game of telephone that had thrown the base into a panic, Pan Yue found herself caught between laughter and tears, and she spent the rest of the evening patiently detailing the mud incident to her bewildered parents.
Chapter 371: Failure to Induce Xu Guihua
It took a meticulous eye exam by the head nurse, Pan’s mother, to finally stop the two elders from panicking.
“The rumors are flying all over the base,” Pan’s mother muttered, still clutching her chest. “It scared your father and me half to death.”
“We heard at least three different versions on our way over,” she continued. “One person told us the kids had nothing left but their eyes, the next said they’d turned into chunks of black coal, and the third swore they were completely blind!”
As Pan’s mother listed the wildest rumors she had encountered, Pan Yue couldn’t help but laugh. That was just life in the military family compound. The moment the slightest incident occurred, it spread like wildfire, mutating into something unrecognizable with every retelling.
“Mom, don’t worry, everything is perfectly fine,” Pan Yue reassured her. “The two little rascals were just playing in the mud. They got so thoroughly coated in sludge that literally only their eyes were showing.”
Hearing the real story, Pan’s mother found it hilarious. The whole crisis had been nothing more than a neighborhood comedy of errors. “Well, as long as the kids are safe, that’s all that matters. Everyone will move on to some other gossip in a few days.”
Pan Yue nodded. For the past couple of days, she had barely dared to step outside, feeling like the mother of a supposedly blind child. The second she crossed her threshold, neighbors would corner her to ask about her son’s eyes. She had no idea how to explain it without sounding ridiculous.
Once Mr. and Mrs. Pan saw with their own eyes that their grandson was perfectly healthy, they headed home, vastly relieved after the scare.
Sheng Wanyan, who naturally preferred the quiet isolation of her own home, usually avoided the compound gossip entirely. However, when she stepped out to retrieve a postal package that afternoon, the sudden barrage of frantic, probing questions from the neighbors left her completely bewildered.
Xu Guihua bustled over, her face a mask of intense curiosity. “Is your little girl alright?”
Sheng Wanyan stared at her as if she had lost her mind. What is wrong with everyone today? she thought. “My daughter is perfectly fine!”
“Ah?”
Now it was Xu Guihua’s turn to be dumbfounded. Hadn’t the entire base concluded that Sheng Wanyan’s daughter had lost her sight? “Wait… her eyes… isn’t she blind?”
“Whose daughter is blind?!” Sheng Wanyan snapped, her temper flaring. Her little girl was healthy and vibrant; what kind of malicious nonsense was this woman spitting?
Witnessing her genuine fury, Xu Guihua instantly realized that the neighborhood had completely botched the story. It seemed the baby was entirely unharmed! I knew it, she thought. How on earth could a child go blind just from playing in the dirt?
“Haha, please don’t be angry. It was just a rumor everyone was passing around,” Xu Guihua offered a sheepish chuckle, trying to placate her.
Sheng Wanyan pressed for more details, and once she connected the dots back to the riverbank mud incident from a few days ago, she was caught between an intense irritation and absolute amusement. She had severely underestimated the sheer storytelling capacity of the compound gossips. Not only could they whisper, but they could also manufacture a full-blown tragedy with multiple conflicting plotlines.
“Oh… those busybodies love to flap their lips, but not a single syllable that comes out of their mouths is grounded in reality,” Xu Guihua comforted her, her face flushing slightly. After all, she had just openly assumed the baby was blind right to her mother’s face, and she felt thoroughly embarrassed by her own lack of tact.
Sheng Wanyan found her guilty expression highly entertaining. “Why? Did you believe the rumors too?”
“How could I?!” Xu Guihua retorted proudly, tossing her head back. Was she the kind of opportunistic soul who celebrated another family’s misfortune?
“I’ll have you know,” Xu Guihua added defensively, “back when a few bitter women in the building were snickering that you’d lost your husband and were bound for a miserable life, I stood right up and gave them a piece of my mind out of sheer justice.”
“I was genuinely worried about your daughter. She’s easily the most precious little thing in this entire compound.” Xu Guihua’s fingers practically twitched at the thought of Yi Yi’s chubby face. She had never seen a child quite so exquisite, even back in the urban districts. In truth, Yi Yi was likely the most beautiful baby in the entire city.
Recognizing the woman’s underlying goodwill, Sheng Wanyan’s irritation melted away. She reached into her bag, pulled out a small handful of White Rabbit milk candies, and handed them over. “Here. Take these home to the children.”
“Well, in that case, I won’t stand on ceremony!”
The moment the words left her mouth, Xu Guihua unpeeled one of the premium candies and popped it straight into her own mouth. The rich, sweet dairy flavor exploded across her tongue, leaving her practically dizzy with satisfaction.
Sheng Wanyan stared at her, dumbfounded. “I distinctly recall saying those were for your children.”
“Before my kids turn eighteen, everything they own belongs to me,” Xu Guihua replied seamlessly, entirely unbothered. She was the one enduring the grueling labor of raising them; what was wrong with her enjoying a piece of luxury candy?
Sheng Wanyan: “…”
She had rarely encountered anyone quite so shamelessly transparent. Even if a mother intended to hijack her children’s treats, standard etiquette dictated she slip them into her pocket and consume them secretly at home. To open the wrapper the exact second the gift was delivered was truly an elite display of audacity.
Sheng Wanyan chose not to argue; she knew Xu Guihua was a master of circular logic and possessed a singular talent for justification. Shaking her head with an elegant roll of her eyes, she clutched her package and subtly guided the woman into a quiet, recessed corner of the courtyard structure.
“What’s this? Are you trying to bribe me?” Xu Guihua asked, planting her hands on her hips with an arrogant smirk.
Sheng Wanyan pinned her with a flat, measuring look, and Xu Guihua’s smirk vanished, her mouth snapping shut. She suddenly remembered that Sheng Wanyan was the daughter-in-law of Commander-in-Chief Gu himself; if anyone was doing the bribing in this dynamic, it certainly wouldn’t be the civilian.
“Is your Captain Fang currently being organized for a formal reassignment to an administrative post within the city bureau?” Sheng Wanyan inquired quietly.
Hearing the question, Xu Guihua’s eyes darted frantically around the perimeter, checking if any neighboring wives were lingering within earshot. “Keep your voice down! The official transfer documents haven’t even cleared the high command yet.”
Once she verified the corridor was completely empty, she let out a long breath and turned back to face Sheng Wanyan with an absolute, defensive seriousness. “Let me clear something up right now! I refuse to participate in any schemes that would compromise my family’s integrity or derail my husband’s career. Even if you hold the backing of the Gu family lineage, I won’t do it!”
Xu Guihua stared at her with a heavy blanket of wariness, leaving Sheng Wanyan thoroughly amused.
“Do you truly perceive me as that sort of underhanded person?” Sheng Wanyan countered dryly. “Furthermore, as you just noted, I am a daughter-in-law of the Gu household. Why on earth would I need to resort to clumsy sabotage? Do you think my family lacks the intellect to navigate things cleanly?”
Xu Guihua paused, digesting the point. It was entirely true. Given the staggering political elevation of her husband’s family, Sheng Wanyan was guaranteed a life of smooth luxury unless she actively chose to commit a monumental stupidity. Still, Xu Guihua felt there was an underlying insult hidden within Wanyan’s phrasing. After a moment of intense contemplation, she glared back at her. “You’re the one who lacks intellect.”
If Sheng Wanyan hadn’t been thoroughly impressed by the woman’s sharp ability to gather intelligence and hold her own in a verbal sparring match, she would have turned on her heel and walked away right then.
Sheng Wanyan’s silent, unbothered composure left Xu Guihua feeling a bit self-conscious, especially since the rich taste of the White Rabbit candy was still lingering in her mouth. “Alright, fine,” she mumbled, adjusting her collar. “Just lay it out plainly—what exactly are you trying to accomplish? If it’s within my power, I’ll certainly give you a hand.”
Xu Guihua possessed a fierce, unyielding loyalty to her friends, which was the precise quality Sheng Wanyan respected most.
“Your maternal family… your father holds a high-ranking executive seat within the city’s municipal command bureau, correct?”
Xu Guihua’s eyes went wide with shock. How on earth had she unearthed that piece of data? She had kept her family’s specific executive background tightly under wraps, allowing the base to merely assume she hailed from a respectable urban household. “You…”
“I didn’t run a background check on you,” Sheng Wanyan interrupted smoothly. “I simply used basic deduction.”
“How could you possibly deduce that?!”
Sheng Wanyan gave her a look of mild pity. “Your Captain Fang is executing a highly complex lateral transfer directly into a coveted city bureau seat with absolute smoothness. What kind of leverage do you think that requires?”
“And what does that have to do with my mother’s side of the family?”
Sheng Wanyan shook her head. This woman was remarkably sharp in some areas, yet hilariously dense in others. “You displayed an absolute, unshakeable certainty just a moment ago that the transfer was set in stone. Where do you think that boundless confidence originates?”
Xu Guihua pointed a finger at her own chest, her mind spinning as she realized she had walked right into a logical trap of her own making. She had dug her own hole, and now she had no graceful way to climb out.
“Brilliant,” Xu Guihua grumbled in defeat. “You guessed right. Now out with it—what do you want from my family?”
Sheng Wanyan had no intention of asking for immediate favors. Her goal was purely strategic: she wanted to utilize the Fang family’s upcoming relocation to the city to establish an early foothold and build a network of reliable, long-term connections.
“Has your father shared any updates regarding the shifting socio-economic landscape within the city lately?” she asked.
Xu Guihua nodded. There was no risk in sharing standard macro updates, especially since Sheng Wanyan’s connection to the Gu family meant she likely had access to far higher-grade intelligence anyway. “We talked about it during my last visit. The general administration feels much more relaxed lately, and a lot of old restrictions are easing up.”
Sheng Wanyan nodded, waiting for her to draw the obvious conclusion.
“But so what?” Xu Guihua shrugged, popping another candy into her mouth. “How does any of that economic stuff alter my daily life?”
Sheng Wanyan: “…”
This woman usually seemed so incredibly cunning when dismantling the neighborhood gossips, so why on earth did her brain completely stall the exact moment a massive, historic opportunity was laid out before her?
