Chapter 47: Mother Sheng’s Fighting Power
It was always better to defuse a time bomb before it could go off at any moment.
As for the Chen family’s desire to stir up trouble, Sheng Wanyan was fully prepared to escalate the matter even further. She didn’t believe for a second that the Chen family would be willing to sacrifice the entire household’s future and reputations just for their reckless youngest son. Even if Father and Mother Chen were blinded by favoritism, Chen Ming’s two older brothers and sisters-in-law certainly wouldn’t be.
When Sheng Wanyan clocked out of work, she spotted Gu Tingxiao waiting patiently at the cotton mill gates. The moment he saw her wheeling her bicycle out, he walked over with long, purposeful strides.
“How are your hands?”
“Did you apply the ointment?”
Sheng Wanyan nodded. Still worried, Gu Tingxiao reached out, gently took her hands, and inspected them. He let out a breath of relief when he saw that the raw, red marks had already begun to fade.
Suddenly realizing how intimate the gesture was, Sheng Wanyan pulled her hands back, her expression turning slightly self-conscious.
Gu Tingxiao rubbed his fingertips together, his mind involuntarily drifting back to the feeling of her waist when he had caught her earlier. How can a waist be so small? he thought. So soft and slender.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, clearing his throat.
“It’s alright. I have you to thank for everything today.” He was her savior, after all, so she wasn’t about to fuss over minor awkwardness.
“The youngest son of the Chen family has been formally locked up for hooliganism,” Gu Tingxiao reported, his tone turning serious. “He’ll be detained for several days. With a criminal record like that, his factory job is as good as gone.”
“Once he’s released from the detention center, he’ll be sent straight to the countryside for labor construction. He won’t be able to bother you ever again.”
Sheng Wanyan nodded, thoroughly satisfied. This was the best possible outcome. She knew full well that Chen Ming was only facing such severe charges because Gu Tingxiao had thrown his military weight behind the report. Otherwise, today’s incident would have resulted in a simple warning at most, and with the Chen family’s neighborhood connections, Chen Ming would have walked away completely unscathed.
“Thank you so much for today,” Wanyan said warmly. “Let me treat you to dinner tomorrow.”
“Alright.”
Gu Tingxiao agreed instantly. Sheng Wanyan hadn’t actually expected him to accept so readily. Normally, when soldiers encountered these situations, they would spurn any reward, reciting the standard line about serving the people and refusing to take a single copper coin from the public. No matter how oblivious she might be to romance, she could tell there was an underlying motive behind Gu Tingxiao’s actions.
“I’ll ride you home,” he said.
“Mm.”
Sheng Wanyan climbed onto the rear rack, clutched his heavy duffel bag in her arms, and let him pedal her back to the compound.
Upon reaching the apartment building, Gu Tingxiao finalized their dinner arrangements for the next day. After giving her a few more protective reminders, he hurried back to his Aunt Gu Tong’s house.
The moment Sheng Wanyan stepped across her threshold, she laid out the entire afternoon’s events to her family. After all, the calculating Chen family wasn’t going to let their son’s arrest drop without a fight.
Thud!
Father Sheng slammed his palm onto the dining table, his face contorted in rage. This Chen family was entirely shameless!
That wretched boy had actually dared to shout in the middle of a busy street that he was Wanyan’s fiancé. Thank goodness his daughter had shut him down immediately and Gu Tingxiao had intervened. Otherwise, if the Chen family had been allowed to spread those vicious lies across the neighborhood, the damage would be irreversible. Did they care about a young woman’s hard-earned reputation at all?
“What a wonderful Chen family!” Father Sheng hissed.
Hearing the details, Mother Sheng didn’t waste a single second arguing. She marched right out of the apartment and stormed upstairs to the Chen family’s door to unleash a reckoning.
“Go look after your wife. Don’t let the Chen family lay a hand on her,” Grandma Sheng commanded.
Father Sheng and Sheng Wanyan immediately sprinted out after her.
“Chens! Get out here right now!” Mother Sheng’s voice echoed down the concrete corridor.
“You miserable Chens! You marched into my home begging for a marriage alliance and were thrown out by my family. Yet you have the audacity to spread filthy lies across the city!”
“Claiming our households are already aligned? Your son, Chen Ming, actually had the nerve to harass my daughter in public, calling her his fiancée!”
“Why don’t you force your precious Chen Ming to look in a mirror? How can a household be so utterly devoid of shame!”
“If the Chen family doesn’t give the Sheng family a proper, formal apology today, don’t even think about settling this!”
Mother Sheng pounded furiously on the wooden door. Within seconds, doors flew open all along the hallway as neighbors crowded out to witness the spectacle. Pledging the details together from Mother Sheng’s shouting, they easily figured out what had transpired.
What the Chen family had done was incredibly underhanded. To boldly advertise a marriage alliance after being explicitly rejected was disgusting. Weren’t they deliberately trying to ruin the Sheng girl’s reputation so she’d be forced to marry him?
Inside the apartment, the Chen family had just received word of Chen Ming’s arrest and were frantically huddled together discussing a counter-strategy. They had originally planned to march down to the Sheng apartment to cause a scene, demanding the Shengs change their story and tell the police that the couple was merely engaged and having a playful lover’s tiff, thereby forcing the officers to release their son.
Instead, Mother Sheng had beaten them to the punch, exposing their dirty laundry to the entire building. This completely cut off the Chen family’s escape route, throwing them into a state of blind panic.
Mother Chen rushed out of the apartment to fight back, launching into loud curses the moment the door swung open.
“You absolute curse of a woman!” Mother Chen shrieked. “My poor son is suffering in a cell because of your wicked daughter! The Sheng family’s girl is completely heartless, locking up my boy just because he spoke a few words to her!”
Hearing the woman attempt to twist the narrative, Mother Sheng didn’t waste her breath. She lunged forward, grabbed a handful of Mother Chen’s hair, and delivered several sharp, resounding slaps across her face.
“That’ll teach you to be a lying snake!” Mother Sheng roared. “Let’s see you spread more filth!”
Mother Sheng’s raw combat power was terrifying. She didn’t need a single ounce of help from Father Sheng or Wanyan; she single-handedly pinned Mother Chen to the concrete floor and systematically pummeled her.
“Your son wasn’t arrested for talking! The police have formally charged him with hooliganism!” Mother Sheng shouted to the gathering crowd. “Your son cornered my daughter outside the State-Owned Restaurant, trying to terrorize her in broad daylight, and even raised his hand to strike her!”
“A brave, honorable soldier saw the assault and stepped in to protect my girl. And what did your precious son do? He actually attacked the military officer defending our motherland!”
“Neighbors, comrades, you judge for yourselves—should a degenerate like the Chen family’s son be locked away or not?!”
The crowd gasped in collective shock. The youngest Chen boy had truly crossed every line. To act like a common thug in the streets was one thing, but to assault a uniformed soldier? Was he entirely brainless? He had essentially signed his own ruin.
“Heavens above! The Chen family’s youngest boy has really done it this time.”
“Exactly! Acting like a hooligan in public and assaulting a soldier of the line? He must think he’s above the law.”
“He clearly has no respect for the state or the military.”
“Could the Chen family secretly be enemy saboteurs?”
Hearing the word saboteurs thrown around, the rest of the Chen family broke out in a cold, terrifying sweat. If that dangerous political label stuck to their household, the entire lineage would be destroyed!
“What kind of garbage are you spouting? Shut your filthy mouths or I’ll tear them open!” the Chen family’s eldest daughter-in-law screamed, rushing out of the apartment. If this crime cascaded into a political investigation, their whole family could face a firing squad.
“Hmph! If the youngest Chen boy is this rotten, how much better can the rest of you be?” a neighbor scoffed.
“Exactly! Raising a monster like that… who knows if the rest of this family are humans or ghosts?”
“And we’re forced to share a building with creatures like you! How are we supposed to sleep at night?”
“It’s terrifying. Living next to hidden criminals… what an absolute sin!”
The neighbors’ coordinated scolding rose like a tidal wave, completely drowning out the Chen family’s protests. Standing in the fray, Mother Sheng caught her daughter’s eye, a cold gleam of triumph flashing in her gaze. Her goal had been fully realized: by taking the offensive and capturing the moral high ground, she had rendered the Chen family entirely powerless to weaponize the arrest against them.
“Chens! If your household doesn’t give my family a proper financial and moral settlement today, this matter will never end!” Father Sheng bellowed, stepping forward.
Father Chen’s expression turned utterly grim. He could see that the Sheng family was laying down an ironclad boundary. They were leaving absolutely no room for negotiation, and they had zero intention of helping to bail his son out of jail. The Shengs were truly ruthless, refusing to show a single shred of neighborly leniency despite sharing a hallway for so many years.
Mother Sheng finally released her grip on Mother Chen’s collar, stepping back to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband, her eyes fixed coldly on their neighbors.
Mother Chen scrambled to her feet, her clothes torn and her hair a wild, disheveled mess. She snarled, preparing to lunge back into the fight, but Father Chen caught her arm, shoving her back.
He turned toward his eldest daughter-in-law, his voice hollow. “Go into the apartment and fetch fifty yuan.”
“What?!” the daughter-in-law gasped in horror.
