Chapter 48
It was indeed a misunderstanding; otherwise, if it were true, it would have inevitably impacted Regimental Commander Zhao’s career.
Qiao Wei said, “Brother Zhao, don’t be angry. Getting angry now is useless. First, we need to figure out who is spreading this rumor. Second, we need to know how far this rumor has spread, how many people know about it, and how many believe it to be true?”
The most critical thing right now is the word “impact.”
This is a matter concerning his career. All four of them grew serious.
“Xiao Qiao is right.” Regimental Commander Zhao had his impression of Qiao Wei refreshed for the first time. He felt that educated people spoke with clear logic and a sharp mind.
“There is one more thing I find strange,” Qiao Wei said.
“What?” asked Regimental Commander Zhao.
Qiao Wei asked, “When the Division Commander’s daughter came to the Military Unit, did she hide her name? Why does Yan Lei know her, but others don’t? If the people saying this could clearly state that the girl mentioned is the Division Commander’s daughter, no one would be spreading rumors, right?”
Just like Lin Xixi; she is certainly a grown woman, but she is Regimental Commander Zhao’s niece. Without the premise of matchmaking her and Yan Lei, Yan Lei looks at her as an elder looks at a junior.
No one would think anything of it.
Whoever thinks otherwise has a dirty mind.
Regimental Commander Zhao’s face turned dark, and he gritted his teeth, “Which bastard! I’ll drag him out…”
Qiao Wei said, “We must find this person. Find them and make them explain why they are spreading this rumor. If we can’t find them, and the rumor spreads further, it will become a matter of you having to explain yourself. I’m afraid that by then, no amount of explaining will clear your name.”
Sister Yang nodded vigorously, “Yes, yes, exactly!”
She said, “Leave this to me! I will definitely drag this foul-mouthed, black-hearted person out.”
Qiao Wei said, “Drag them out, make them clarify it to everyone, and make them apologize to you—that’s all necessary. But what impact does this have on the Military Unit? Do we need to do something about it?”
As she spoke, she looked at Yan Lei.
Because she had been speaking with such clear logic, Yan Lei hadn’t interrupted. Now that she looked over, her gaze was bright and seemed to hold an expectation.
What was she expecting?
“It can’t just end like this. With a comrade who stabs you in the back like this, how can anyone feel at ease?” Yan Lei said, “For this matter, first find the person, and then drag them before Division Commander Pan.”
After Yan Lei finished speaking, his gaze met Qiao Wei’s again, and he saw the smile in her eyes.
One who knew the future and felt this matter had to be handled cleanly to avoid leaving handles for others to use during the special era in the future.
The other with the typical protagonist style of ‘if others don’t offend me, I won’t offend them, but if anyone offends me, I will destroy them.’
The couple was surprisingly in sync.
On the contrary, Regimental Commander Zhao and Sister Yang were a bit hesitant, “Do we really need to take it to Division Commander Pan?”
Qiao Wei exchanged a look with Yan Lei again.
Yan Lei gave her a look.
You are good with words, say more.
Qiao Wei said, “Ruining someone’s career is like killing their own father.”
“Besides, even you, a grown man, are angry hearing this, right? Division Commander Pan’s daughter is a young woman. The Military Unit is full of men, and she’s being slandered like this just after arriving. Shouldn’t you tell her father? Why should a perfectly fine young woman have mud slung at her?”
Sister Yang was also a woman, and she had a daughter herself, so she immediately said, “Exactly, she is a young woman!”
With that, Regimental Commander Zhao no longer hesitated, “Alright, that’s it. If they are heartless, don’t blame me for being unrighteous.”
He looked at his wife. Sister Yang had panicked in the morning and missed a lead, but now she patted her chest and guaranteed, “Leave it to me.”
She said, “Xiao Qiao, come with me to catch them tomorrow!”
With no television, no internet, and hardly even any books to read, entertainment activities were too scarce.
Suddenly, excitement fell from the sky, an immersive experience, and Qiao Wei perked up, “Okay!”
“Sister-in-law, Sister-in-law…” Qiao Wei whispered, “My legs are numb…”
Sister Yang lowered her voice, “Bear with it a little longer, we will definitely catch them.”
Qiao Wei regretted it.
She never imagined that Sister Yang’s guaranteed method of catching the person would be like this.
She never imagined that Sister Yang wanted her to pull down her pants and squat bare-bottomed in the Residential Compound’s public restroom to wait for the culprit.
You have to realize that in an era without electronic entertainment, there were no homebodies; people valued socializing.
The three main places for socializing: the vegetable market, the bathhouse, and the public restroom.
Although the new Military Unit Residential Compound had red brick and tiled houses, it had a drawback—unlike the old Military District where each household had a hand-pump well and a small dry toilet in their yard.
Everything here was unified.
Although there was running water, it wasn’t piped into the homes; it was unified outdoors, with several large rows of double-sided sinks.
Then there was the unified public restroom. Whether it was dark or raining, whoever needed to use the toilet had to come to the public restroom.
This made it the main gossip hub for everyone.
Sister Yang took Qiao Wei to squat together.
Qiao Wei wasn’t afraid of squatting side-by-side with others, bare-bottomed, pit by pit. But after squatting for so long, her legs were truly numb.
Qiao Wei grimaced.
She shifted her weight to the left, then to the right.
She was also worried about the children, “Are the children okay outside?”
“They’re fine, Xixi is watching them. There are slides and swivel chairs here, they are playing happily.”
The Military Unit Residential Compound had one benefit: it was a closed-management area, and outsiders couldn’t get in. Although Qiao Wei and the others didn’t live here, they had entry passes, so they could enter freely.
“I’m telling you, you should let the children play by themselves more. They’re almost four years old, right? You still won’t let go,” Sister Yang said.
Qiao Wei was silent.
Although she had never raised children, she knew that in later generations, no one dared to let a four-year-old run loose. In big cities, unless elementary students lived right next to the school, parents had to pick them up and drop them off.
But in this era… Junzi was indeed five and seemed to be left without supervision, running wild everywhere.
Yan Xiang, on the other hand, only followed Qiao Wei every day and would never leave the yard by herself.
“What’s there to be afraid of? She knows her way home, she won’t get lost,” Sister Yang clicked her tongue.
Indeed, at this time, you needed an introduction letter to go out. When Lin Xixi came to rely on her uncle, she had to have an introduction letter issued by the commune to buy a long-distance bus ticket.
The movement of people was strictly controlled, leaving no foundation for human traffickers to survive.
The biggest dangers here were electric wires and the river. Those who met with accidents were either electrocuted or drowned.
“You still need to let Xiangxiang play with other children more. I just feel Xiangxiang is too quiet… Shh—” Sister Yang stopped talking.
Two people came in and glanced at the people inside.
Sister Yang squatted in the innermost stall, turning her face inward so others wouldn’t see who she was.
Qiao Wei squatted outside her to block her a bit.
When those two saw that Qiao Wei was unfamiliar, they didn’t pay her any mind; they just unzipped their pants, squatted down next to each other, and started chatting.
Qiao Wei listened with great interest.
I have to say, the public restroom as a gossip hub really did serve as a form of entertainment.
It’s just that squatting makes your legs numb.
Hard work pays off; Qiao Wei and Sister Yang finally heard Regimental Commander Zhao’s name.
“Which Regimental Commander Zhao?”
“Zhao Dongsheng, the one who lives in the old district. His wife’s surname is Yang, the one with five children.”
“Oh, that Zhao. What about him?”
“Him? I heard he’s having an affair with the new female soldier…”
Sister Yang’s legs were also numb.
She had originally perked up and prepared to pull up her pants and catch them the moment she heard Regimental Commander Zhao mentioned, but her body swayed, and she almost fell into the pit. Fortunately, Qiao Wei helped her.
Qiao Wei asked with her lips: Do you know them?
Sister Yang nodded.
Qiao Wei shook her head slightly, signaling: Then there’s no rush.
Sister Yang nodded.
After those two left, Sister Yang and Qiao Wei painfully stood up and pulled up their pants, almost dragging their sore, numb legs out of the public restroom.
Qiao Wei went straight to the sink. Sister Yang didn’t know what she was going to do, but she endured the numbness and followed her.
It turned out Qiao Wei had aimed for several family members doing laundry, spotted one who looked fair-skinned and whose clothes were clean, and borrowed soap to wash her hands.
Sister Yang: “…”
She thought she was here to catch someone.
The two of them grimaced and moved around in place for a while; their legs were so numb it was excruciating, and it took a while for their blood circulation to recover.
“Let’s go!”
“Let’s go!”
Sister Yang, leading Qiao Wei, marched off valiantly to catch someone, heading straight to the home of the woman who had been spreading gossip in the public restroom earlier.
Upon seeing the person, Sister Yang immediately said, “I heard you spreading rumors about my Old Zhao in the restroom earlier!”
Naturally, no one wanted to take the blame. The person said, “I heard it from Old Yu’s wife.”
So, they grabbed her and stormed over to the home of the official surnamed Yu. The official’s wife also passed the buck, “Old Ding’s wife told me.”
Finally, Sister Yang and Qiao Wei, along with four or five other family members, finally traced the source of the rumor.
“So it was you! I knew it was someone with such a foul mouth and black heart. So it was you, this shameless, lying, ghost-cursed wretch that everyone hates!”
Facing the source of the rumor, Sister Yang stood with her hands on her hips, glaring angrily.
It turned out to be an old nemesis.
Qiao Wei actually knew that person too; she even occupied a place in the original owner’s memories.
Her husband’s surname was Fan, and like Zhao Dongsheng and Yan Lei, he was at the regimental commander level. She herself was surnamed Xia, named Xia Hehua.
This Xia Hehua had once been a teacher at the Residential Compound’s Kindergarten.
Back then, Sister Yang was pregnant with Wunie and taking care of Junzi. She also had to manage the food, hygiene, and chores for the whole family. Regimental Commander Zhao saw that other people’s children were all being sent to the nursery, so he suggested sending Junzi there as well.
Country children were always raised freely, and it was better to have someone watching him here. Sister Yang agreed, hoping to lighten her own burden.
But at that time, Xia Hehua was a teacher at the Kindergarten, and her own child was also there.
One day, Sister Yang came to the Residential Compound to pick up Junzi and saw that half of Junzi’s face was swollen. It was clear it wasn’t done by another child; children might bite or scratch, but they didn’t have the strength to slap another child’s face until it was swollen.
Children could be raised freely, but they couldn’t be bullied. Sister Yang wouldn’t have it on the spot.
Upon questioning, Junzi said, “Teacher Xia slapped my face.”
When she grabbed another teacher to ask, it turned out Junzi and Xia Hehua’s child were fighting over a toy. When that child couldn’t win against Junzi and started crying, Xia Hehua came over and slapped Junzi across the face.
This wasn’t the first time she had done this. Because she was protective of her own, and her child was acting like a tyrant in the Kindergarten, everyone had long harbored complaints. Some people had gone to argue and curse at her, pulling each other’s hair and scratching faces.
But this time, it blew up because Xia Hehua was unreasonable and even shoved Sister Yang, causing Sister Yang to almost miscarry.
Wunie was almost gone.
This was a big deal, and the Kindergarten director had long suffered because of Xia Hehua, so she took the opportunity to have Xia Hehua laid off to go home and raise her own child.
At that time, it happened that the original Qiao Weiwei came to check on the Kindergarten situation, and as a result, not only did she see a teacher chewing up food and feeding it to a child mouth-to-mouth, and see a child defecating in their pants without the teacher cleaning it up in time, but she also saw Xia Hehua bullying other people’s children to protect her own.
She remembered Xia Hehua.
Xia Hehua felt guilty. Seeing Sister Yang bring so many people to find her, she knew she was outnumbered and couldn’t win an argument. While cursing, she pushed Sister Yang out and slammed the door shut with a bang.
Sister Yang was so angry she stomped her feet. Just as she was about to curse again, Qiao Weiwei pulled her back and gave her a look, gesturing with her chin toward the few people who had followed along spreading gossip, as well as the others drawn to the periphery to watch the excitement.
Xia Hehua couldn’t run anyway; even if she ran, her husband couldn’t.
First, let these people in front of us who were spreading rumors know the truth!
