Seeing her aggressive stance, Wen Jiaojiao was just about to start unbuttoning her clothes when she stopped. Wu Qin was afraid the two would get into a fight, and since it would be difficult to break up a fight while undressed, she decided not to take off her clothes either.
Liu Xiaocui quickly dried herself, her hands never stopping as she kept her eyes fixed on the two women.
“So what if I did? And what if I didn’t?”
“So it really was you! Wen Jiaojiao, how can you be so vicious? You even dare to hurt your own cousin! I’ll tear you apart today!”
Wen Lili’s face twisted viciously as she reached out to grab Wen Jiaojiao’s hair.
Wu Qin instinctively cried out in alarm.
But Wen Lili had forgotten one thing: she had already been unable to beat Wen Jiaojiao back home, and things were no different now.
Not to mention that she was completely naked.
Wen Jiaojiao raised a hand and blocked Wen Lili’s grabbing hand. With her other hand, she gave Wen Lili a hard twist under the arm.
Wen Lili instinctively recoiled and cried out in pain. There was water on the floor, and with her bare feet, she lost her balance.
Thud!
She fell heavily onto the floor.
Everyone froze.
Wen Jiaojiao was also a little surprised. But once she realized what had happened, she could barely suppress the smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
Serves her right.
After two seconds of silence, Wen Lili, still sprawled on the floor, finally let out a scream like a slaughtered pig.
“Wen Jiaojiao, you vicious bitch! You actually hit me! Ah—!”
Her face had gone pale from the pain. Half her body hurt so badly that she could barely move, and tears and mucus streamed down her face.
Liu Xiaocui rolled her eyes at her stupidity, then immediately pretended to help her up.
“Lili, how could you be so careless? Come on, get up.”
But the moment she touched her, Wen Lili sucked in a sharp breath.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!”
Her voice had completely changed from the pain.
“I can’t move! That vicious Wen Jiaojiao has crippled me! Hurry and take me to the infirmary!”
Wen Lili lay on the floor and wailed.
Wu Qin was speechless.
“You clearly slipped and fell by yourself. What does that have to do with Jiaojiao?”
At those words, Wen Lili reacted like a rooster that had just been stepped on. Her voice became shrill.
“She pushed me! I’m going to report her to Regiment Commander Shen! You people are all heartless!”
Liu Xiaocui deliberately put on an exasperated expression.
“Jiaojiao, you really used too much force. You don’t know your own strength. Lili has been badly hurt this time.”
Wen Jiaojiao stared at her in shock.
“Didn’t you see what happened? She slipped and fell by herself. I didn’t push her.”
Liu Xiaocui blinked twice.
“I didn’t see you push her? Then I guess I must have seen it wrong.”
Her words immediately made Wen Jiaojiao frown.
She looked at her childhood friend with a deeper, more complicated gaze.
The way Liu Xiaocui had phrased it made it sound as though she were covering for Wen Jiaojiao, deliberately hiding the fact that she had pushed Wen Lili.
Judging by everyone’s reactions, Wen Jiaojiao’s expression grew colder.
Liu Xiaocui really thought she was clever.
Did she think Wen Jiaojiao was stupid?
A sense of sadness welled up inside her.
So, in her previous life, she had never truly experienced genuine friendship.
As for why Liu Xiaocui was doing this, Wen Jiaojiao didn’t want to think too deeply about it. She had seen too many cases of people targeting others for no reason at all.
She was already used to it.
After several people hurriedly helped Wen Lili get dressed, they carried her to the infirmary.
The fall really had caused a fairly serious injury. The bones around her hip had shifted slightly, and she had also strained her lower back. She would need at least two or three months to recover.
When Wen Lili heard that she would have to recuperate for several months, she immediately refused to accept it. She demanded that Wen Jiaojiao be punished.
Some people said Wen Jiaojiao had pushed her, while others said she hadn’t. But Wen Lili stubbornly insisted that Wen Jiaojiao had pushed her.
With such a serious incident, Regiment Commander Shen Wenjie couldn’t simply ignore it.
In the Office
Shen Wenjie stared sternly at the young recruit standing before her.
“Do you know how serious the consequences of that push were?”
Wen Jiaojiao met her gaze calmly. She wasn’t panicking about the situation.
“Reporting to the regiment commander, I can swear to the Party and the people that I did not push Wen Lili. She slipped and fell on her own.”
Her calm and composed attitude caused a flicker of surprise to cross Shen Wenjie’s eyes.
Deep down, Shen Wenjie already believed her to a large extent.
Walking barefoot on the wet floor of a public bathhouse could easily result in a fall. Moreover, the people who had been present at the time had given conflicting accounts.
Some said they hadn’t seen clearly. Some said it looked as though Wen Jiaojiao had pushed her. Others said she had simply slipped.
Although Wen Lili, one of the people involved, insisted that Wen Jiaojiao had pushed her, Shen Wenjie knew that the two women had a history of conflict. It was entirely possible that Wen Lili was deliberately framing her.
That was what Shen Wenjie thought privately, but her expression remained stern.
“Whether you pushed her or not, the root of the matter is that you and Wen Lili got into a physical confrontation, which resulted in this.”
“I heard that the two of you are cousins. Joining the military together should have been a good thing. I didn’t expect you two to be so incapable of getting along.”
“This time, both of you will receive a demerit. If you have another conflict in the future, both of you will leave the army.”
Shen Wenjie’s gaze remained icy.
Wen Jiaojiao lowered her head obediently and listened to the reprimand.
Her obedient and aggrieved appearance caused Shen Wenjie to become momentarily distracted.
For some reason, she suddenly thought of her own cousin when they were students.
Back then, whenever her cousin was being scolded by her uncle, she had worn exactly the same expression.
Every time, the scolding would eventually come to nothing. Her uncle simply couldn’t bear to be too harsh on her. She was his only daughter and had lost her mother from birth.
And it wasn’t just her uncle who couldn’t bear to treat her harshly. Shen Wenjie’s own mother had always treated her and her cousin differently as well.
Realizing that she had been distracted, Shen Wenjie cleared her throat.
“Raise your head.”
Wen Jiaojiao obediently lifted her head, her eyes clear and determined.
Shen Wenjie continued, “The consequences of this incident are serious. For now, I believe you when you say you didn’t push her.”
“But the fact that you failed to get along with a fellow soldier is enough to warrant three days of confinement.”
“Since you’re a new recruit, I’ll let you off this time. You’ll receive a demerit, write a self-criticism, and spend one day in confinement. Dismissed.”
“Yes, Regiment Commander!”
Wen Jiaojiao saluted and walked out.
Only then did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Her palms had been sweating from nervousness. She had been afraid that Shen Wenjie would simply believe Wen Lili and put all the blame on her. If that had happened, she really would have been in trouble.
Fortunately, Regiment Commander Shen was fair and impartial, so Wen Jiaojiao had no complaints about the punishment.
As Wen Jiaojiao walked back toward the dormitory, the new recruits and veteran soldiers once again cast strange looks in her direction.
“She really is ruthless. She threw her own cousin down and injured her that badly. Who would have thought someone so pretty could have such a vicious heart?”
“Did she really push her? I heard Wen Lili slipped and fell by herself in the public bathhouse. The floor really is slippery. I almost fell there myself last time…”
“Who knows? Anyway, neither of those cousins seems like a good person. If they can fight like this even after joining the army, who knows how badly they fought at home…”
Wen Jiaojiao ignored the pointing and whispering around her.
She took the paper and pen Shen Wenjie had given her back to the dormitory and told Wu Qin and the others what had happened.
Wu Qin and Wang Xiaomei looked worried.
“Wen Lili went way too far this time. And Regiment Commander Shen, too! How could she believe Wen Lili’s story? No, I have to go explain everything to Regiment Commander Shen. You didn’t push her at all.”
Wen Jiaojiao hurriedly stopped her.
Having a friend who genuinely cared about her warmed her heart.
“Wu Qin, don’t go. Regiment Commander Shen knows what really happened. She’s only punishing me for failing to get along with a fellow soldier.”
Zhang Shaoying clicked her tongue.
“If it’s just failing to get along with a fellow soldier, writing a self-criticism should be enough. Why are they putting you in confinement?”
“And for an entire day, too. Can you handle it? Don’t get so scared that you faint from crying in there.”