Chapter 28
Everything Lin Xixi said was made up. How could she name any real names? She stammered, “I didn’t see their faces either, so I don’t know who they were.”
She paused, then raised her voice again, “I’ve only been here for a few days, how would I know anyone? Aunt Qiao, you should know everyone, right? You should be able to recognize them by their voices?”
“I can’t tell,” Qiao Wei replied confidently. “I basically don’t associate with them, so I don’t even know their names. If you don’t believe me, go ask your Aunt.”
Lin Xixi was choked up once again.
Because Sister Yang had already told her that Regimental Commander Yan’s wife was educated and very arrogant, and she didn’t usually associate with uneducated people like them.
She had told Lin Xixi not to be like Qiao Wei and to be warmer towards people. Everyone was neighbors, and their husbands were comrades-in-arms; it wasn’t right to be so distant and not interact. It was so cold!
Qiao Wei was actually quite grateful for this “stay away from strangers” persona that Qiao Weiwei had established, as it saved her, the transmigrator, a lot of trouble.
She said, “Then next time you hear them, grab hold of them and don’t let them run away.”
“You are a decent young girl, how can you let people ruin your reputation like this? You came to your uncle’s house; did you want your uncle to help you find a partner in the Military Unit? If your reputation is ruined, how will you find a partner?”
Lin Xixi stiffened her neck and said, “I never did anything like that!”
She had been reborn; she could never let people point their fingers at her and call her a slut like in her past life!
Qiao Wei chuckled and said, “I’ve been thinking about it. Maybe the men they were talking about are your uncle and my old Yan.”
“Huh?”
“On Tuesday, didn’t we go to the bathhouse? You came out alone first. Were you standing together with your uncle and my husband? There shouldn’t have been anyone else. The men are all at the Battalion Headquarters during the day, and we don’t see them. In the evening, when you come back, you’re busy cooking and taking care of the children for your uncle and aunt, so you don’t have time to see anyone else, right?”
Lin Xixi nodded immediately and said angrily, “Yes, yes, yes! I haven’t seen more than a few people since I came here!”
She had come specifically for Yan Lei, but she didn’t know that Qiao Wei hadn’t died, and Yan Lei was living a normal life step-by-step. The so-called normal life meant that if Lin Xixi wanted to see him, she had to sneak out of the house early in the morning, and she almost got caught by her uncle.
How difficult it was.
She was staying indoors all the time, yet she was still being gossiped about. How hateful.
“So you see, these people don’t know anything. They just look at you, see you standing close to two men, and start spreading rumors about you,” Qiao Wei said. “None of it is to be believed.”
Lin Xixi suddenly calmed down.
Because she finally realized something was wrong. How did she seem to have been led astray by this Qiao Wei? Wasn’t the topic supposed to be Qiao Wei’s elopement? How come, in a blink of an eye, this woman was blabbering on about her?
If she let her keep talking like this, who knows where the conversation would lead. Lin Xixi hardened her heart and asked directly, “Did you really not run off with someone else?”
She stared at Qiao Wei.
Qiao Wei raised her eyelids, “You find the person who said this for me. I’ll drag her to the Residential Compound playground, and we’ll call everyone out—men and women, call them all out! I’ll confront her in front of everyone and see what grounds she has to say such things!”
Lin Xixi flinched.
She hadn’t expected Yan Lei’s wife to have such a strong personality. If she really went around spreading the news about her (suspected) elopement, what would happen if she got caught and dragged to the Residential Compound to be confronted in front of so many people?
She—she didn’t have any evidence; it was all based on what her aunt had “heard” or “was said,” but that was all from over twenty or nearly thirty years ago.
Lin Xixi couldn’t help but feel her confidence waver. She felt that spreading rumors wasn’t a viable path.
Qiao Wei drank all the sugar water in her bowl, took out a handkerchief to wipe her mouth, turned her head, and asked the two children, “Is it delicious?”
Yan Xiang had also finished eating the yellow peaches and nodded while holding his bowl, “Delicious!”
Wu Nier hadn’t even finished one piece. She was holding her chopsticks with a yellow peach skewered on them, her mouth and face smeared with sugar water as she nibbled. Hearing this, she spoke with a mouthful of peaches, vaguely saying, “Delicious! Sweet!”
“Don’t talk while you’re eating. Swallow it first,” Qiao Wei said, rubbing her fluffy head. She turned back and changed the subject, saying to Lin Xixi, “You really came to the right place to find a partner.”
“It’s not that I look down on our peasant brothers; we are all proletarian brothers, there’s nothing to look down upon. It’s just that for daily life, eating and drinking, it’s definitely better to find a worker or a soldier,” she said. “Especially in the Military Unit, the benefits are so good. Among the company-level cadres, there are many young, unmarried men, and their salaries are higher than workers’. If you find a partner in the Military Unit, it’s definitely better than finding one back home. There’s enough money to spend and enough ration coupons.”
Qiao Wei could see that Lin Xixi seemed to have an obsession with Yan Lei, but she still wanted to guide her not to hang herself on one tree. There wasn’t only one man named Yan Lei in this world.
In the end, she couldn’t empathize with Lin Xixi. It was also because the original text always compressed the female lead’s “past life,” quickly giving a summary before immediately entering a new life to make new choices. By going straight to the sweet romance, it didn’t reveal the more complex side of the female lead’s inner self.
Qiao Wei thought that if Yan Lei didn’t work out, she could just go find Zhang Lei, Zhao Lei, Li Lei, or Wang Lei.
But for Lin Xixi, she didn’t want to just marry anyone.
Life was really too hard to predict. Back then, the halo of the educated youth from the city was so strong in her eyes, but later she realized that he was just a mediocre person.
Marrying a Zhang Lei or a Zhao Lei—who knew if Zhang Lei or Zhao Lei would end up laid off and unemployed like her educated youth husband?
Even these officers now, most of them would be demobilized and transferred to civilian jobs in the future. Most people were just mediocre.
A better one, like her uncle, was just a middle-level leader in an ordinary public institution. The family lived quite comfortably.
But it was still far from being rich and powerful.
Sister Yang had also told her niece, Lin Xixi, who came to borrow money back then, that they had no contact with that Yan Lei anymore; they were already out of reach.
Even for Regimental Commander Zhao’s family, the only “big shot” they knew was Yan Lei.
People’s status was like a pyramid; the higher you go, the fewer people there are. How could there be so many dragons and phoenixes among men?
For example, in a factory, one group leader for every five people, one section chief for every five groups, one workshop manager for every two production lines. In a factory of a thousand people, there was only one factory manager.
Dragons and phoenixes among men were one in a hundred, one in a thousand, one in ten thousand. Wealth and power belonged to a very small minority.
If Lin Xixi, having been reborn, married another mediocre person and lived a mediocre life, that would be a joke. She even felt that marrying someone slightly better and living a life of having enough food and clothing was meaningless.
If she didn’t become the wife of a high-ranking official, if she didn’t become someone above others, then what was the point of this rebirth!
And among the information she possessed, the only great noble person she could seize in advance from over twenty years ago was Yan Lei!
Not Zhang Lei, not Zhao Lei, it had to be Yan Lei!
Qiao Wei was not aware of Lin Xixi’s inner journey. She never gave up on guiding Lin Xixi to find another path, even offering advice: “Why not look at the chief’s guards and drivers? They are also very good choices. Having worked for the chief, there will be someone above, and there’s no need to worry about the future…”
Lin Xixi’s visit today had not achieved her goal at all, and she had been holding back a breath in her chest. Hearing this, she couldn’t help it and retorted, “If the chief is unlucky, won’t you be unlucky too! Unless you draw a clear line…”
She realized she had said something she shouldn’t have just as the words left her mouth, and her voice stopped abruptly.
Qiao Wei gently tucked the stray hair by her temple behind her ear and asked calmly, “What line? Draw a line with what?”
Lin Xixi stammered, “I mean, being with a chief can be good or bad, what if something happens…”
She had a guilty conscience and tried to divert the topic, “Wu Nier, Wu Nier, are you finished eating? Let’s go back!”
Qiao Wei chided her, “Let her finish the sugar water.”
In later generations, no one would drink this sugar water; it was cloyingly sweet, who would drink it? But here, a spoonful of white sugar in plain water made the children drink it with delight. This sugar water also had the taste of yellow peaches, sweet and delicious; for Wu Nier, she wouldn’t trade it even for nectar.
She held the bowl and drank it all down in one go.
After finishing, she was about to wipe her mouth with her sleeve, but Qiao Wei quickly caught her, “Hey, hey!”
She pulled Wu Nier to the hand-pump well, pumped water to wash her sticky mouth, chin, face, and hands clean, rinsed her own handkerchief, wrung it out, and wiped her dry, saying, “Remember to bring a handkerchief.”
After cleaning her up, she pushed her to Lin Xixi, “Alright.”
Clean and tidy.
Lin Xixi grabbed her hand and scolded her, “You’re just a glutton!”
What’s so good about a lousy can of yellow peaches.
She was a middle-aged woman from the 90s with a low level of education, and her way of raising children was the most traditional and old-fashioned kind—free-range, beating and scolding, not taking them seriously.
Especially since she was in a very bad mood right now, she didn’t control her strength when pulling, causing Wu Nier to stumble.
She had come carrying Wu Nier, but when she left, she was dragging her along.
The words “good stepmother,” emphasized repeatedly in the original text, showed a crack at this moment. Without sufficient motivation of self-interest, there was no drive to maintain the facade of loving children so much.
Qiao Wei watched her leave, and even the fake smile on her face faded away.
After Lin Xixi left, she went over and closed the gate.
Turning around, Yan Xiang was still sitting on the stool holding the sugar water bowl. When Qiao Wei went over, he said, “Mom, Sister Lin is scary.”
Although Yan Xiang was young, he was very delicate and sensitive. He had keenly sensed that Lin Xixi had accidentally ruined her “likes children” persona.
So that was probably why, under the stepmother’s “love,” he became such a silent and taciturn boy later on.
Qiao Wei felt heartache.
She squatted down and rubbed Yan Xiang’s head, “Don’t be afraid, she’s someone else’s family anyway.”
Yan Xiang’s little body relaxed.
Qiao Wei rubbed his head again.
Not only did Lin Xixi fail to gather the information she wanted from Qiao Wei, but she was also given a lot of advice on finding a partner.
How annoying, what partner? She only wanted to marry Yan Lei. Who could compare to Yan Lei?
They didn’t know how high-ranking of an official Yan Lei would be in the future.
Lin Xixi didn’t expect that her uncle, Regimental Commander Zhao, was already arranging a blind date for her.
When he returned in the evening after dinner, Regimental Commander Zhao quietly said to his wife, “I’ll arrange it for this Saturday night. You, dress Xixi up a bit.”
Why dress her up? Because Lin Xixi had come from the countryside, and all her clothes were brought from the countryside. Although she was young and beautiful and would look good even in a sack, for a formal occasion like a blind date, Regimental Commander Zhao still wanted her to look more presentable.
After all, he cared for his own niece.
He said, “Why don’t we buy her a dress?”
Sister Yang slapped his arm, chiding, “Are you burning money? Where would we get so many fabric coupons? The clothes Jun Jun and Wu Nier are wearing are all patched.”
Regimental Commander Zhao was also in a difficult position; it wasn’t that he couldn’t afford it, but fabric coupons were too scarce. He had many children, and they were very hard on clothes. He often had to find ways to get fabric coupons everywhere.
Sister Yang said, “Don’t be troubled. I see that Xixi is about the same height as the one from The Yan Household. Little Qiao has so many beautiful clothes; I’ll go ask her to borrow one.”
If it were anyone else, Regimental Commander Zhao would think it was fine; borrowing things from each other or even borrowing clothes to look presentable was a common thing. But Qiao Wei… that woman, relying on being educated and beautiful, was cold and arrogant, looked down on everyone, and especially looked down on people like them who came from a peasant background.
The peasant Regimental Commander Zhao also didn’t like dealing with Qiao Wei.
“Will it work? Her?”
Sister Yang scoffed, “Can’t people progress? I see that after she suffered a setback and was mistreated by her relatives in the provincial capital this time, she finally wised up and at least understands some social graces. I’m going to find her now.”
Sister Yang rushed off in a flurry to borrow the clothes.
