Zhang Shaobing was even more concerned about finding a partner for Jiang Ting than he was about finding one for himself. The regiment commander was almost thirty, and after finally taking a liking to a girl, he absolutely couldn’t let someone else steal her away!
Jiang Ting turned around at his words. Standing on the steps, he looked down at him coldly.
“Zhang Shaobing, you’re being very talkative.”
With that, he strode away.
“……”
Zhang Shaobing was left speechless. Who was he worrying so much for, anyway?
Typical case of the eunuch being more anxious than the emperor!
……
Inside the bathhouse.
“Jiaojiao, your skin is so fair.”
Wang Xiaomei looked enviously at Wen Jiaojiao, who was drying herself.
Wu Qin didn’t dare stare too openly, but she secretly agreed with Wang Xiaomei. They were all women, so how did Wen Jiaojiao’s skin look as fair as milk?
Zhang Shaoying was the most exaggerated of all. She was practically staring.
“Jiaojiao, if I were a man, you wouldn’t be able to walk out of this bathhouse today.”
There were only the four of them in the bathhouse, so they didn’t hold back at all when they talked.
Zhang Shaoying’s words immediately made Wang Xiaomei’s face turn bright red all the way to her neck. Wu Qin covered her mouth and giggled, while Wen Jiaojiao rolled her eyes helplessly.
“Are you flirting with me now? Zhang Shaoying, I’ve discovered that there really isn’t anything you won’t say.”
To say something like that in the 1980s—especially coming from an unmarried young woman—was quite shocking.
“Exactly. Shaoying, why are you acting like a pervert?” Wu Qin’s little face was flushed. Although there were still some things she didn’t understand, she somehow knew just how embarrassing those words were.
Zhang Shaoying giggled and decided to play along. She raised a finger, lifted Wu Qin’s chin, and said with a mischievous grin, “How do you know I’m a female pervert?”
Her flirtatious gesture irritated Wu Qin, who slapped her hand away and glared at her.
“I think you’re asking for a beating! Xiaomei, Jiaojiao, come help me beat this pervert!”
“Coming! A pervert walking down the street—everyone should beat her up!”
Wen Jiaojiao had already changed into clean clothes. She rolled up her sleeves and pretended to charge over.
Still completely undressed, Zhang Shaoying immediately surrendered.
“I’m sorry, ladies! How about I put my clothes on first, then we can fight?”
“Who wants to fight you?” Even the usually refined Wu Qin rolled her eyes. She couldn’t understand why Shaoying liked fighting so much.
“……”
The four girls laughed and joked around as they finished bathing. At Wu Qin’s suggestion, they decided to go shopping for a while.
Among the four, Wen Jiaojiao and Wang Xiaomei were the poorest. Their families weren’t well-off, and they hadn’t received their allowances yet, so they didn’t have any spare money.
Zhang Shaoying didn’t care much about clothes either. She even thought long hair was troublesome and had cut hers short. From behind, it was difficult to tell that she was a girl.
Wen Jiaojiao was actually a little envious. Zhang Shaoying’s hair was already dry, while theirs was still slightly damp.
She gathered her own hair together. Without a hair dryer, all she could do was let it dry naturally.
The four young women walking down the street made for a beautiful sight. Among them, Wen Jiaojiao was especially eye-catching, becoming the center of attention wherever she went.
Men and women, young and old, couldn’t help but sneak glances at her.
Seeing this, Zhang Shaoying couldn’t help sighing.
“Jiaojiao, you really shouldn’t have joined the army. You should’ve become a celebrity. You’d definitely be famous.”
Wen Jiaojiao smiled bitterly at that.
She really had become famous in her previous life, but the danger had come just as quickly. If she had a choice, she would rather have had an ordinary appearance.
Being a celebrity might look glamorous on the outside, but only those who had experienced it knew how much suffering happened behind the scenes.
“My goal is to become a good soldier. I’m not interested in being a celebrity.”
Wen Jiaojiao spoke seriously before following Wu Qin into the commune.
Wu Qin wanted to buy a new outfit, while the others were there to give her their opinions.
“What do you think? Does this color look good?”
Wu Qin picked up a long-sleeved dress with a blue-and-pink floral pattern and asked for their opinions.
“It looks pretty.”
Wen Jiaojiao genuinely thought it suited her.
Wu Qin looked especially suited to dresses. They matched her gentle, ladylike temperament.
Zhang Shaoying had absolutely no interest in dresses. In her opinion, they were inconvenient for doing anything.
Wang Xiaomei accompanied Wu Qin as she browsed through the clothes, her eyes filled with longing. However, she couldn’t bring herself to buy one.
The dress cost twenty yuan. That alone would use up more than half of her monthly allowance, and it wasn’t even one of those particularly fashionable styles.
Wang Xiaomei looked at it wistfully.
“This dress is so pretty. But even after I get my allowance this month, I don’t think I could bring myself to buy it.”
Seeing how much Wang Xiaomei wanted it, Zhang Shaoying pursed her lips but said nothing.
Wen Jiaojiao smiled.
“I wouldn’t be willing to buy it either. So let’s work harder. Once we have more money in the future, we’ll buy whatever we want.”
They didn’t buy any clothes. Wen Jiaojiao did, however, buy a small box of face cream. Her face tended to get dry during autumn.
After all, women should take good care of their skin.
“Does anyone else need to buy anything? If not, we should head back to the unit,” Wu Qin said.
Wen Jiaojiao shook her head.
“I’ve got everything I need. Let’s go back. We should wash our dirty clothes as soon as we get back to the unit.”
“Okay.”
After finishing their shopping, the four girls started walking back.
The road outside the market was relatively deserted. They had only walked a short distance when a group of hooligans suddenly blocked their path.
“Look at these pretty little girls. We’ve been following you for quite a while. How about coming to the disco with us? Your big brothers will treat you.”
The leader had dyed his hair yellow and looked like trouble at first glance.
There were seven or eight young men in total. Their lecherous eyes wandered over the girls, especially lingering on the prettiest one, as if her beauty had ignited a fire inside them.
Wang Xiaomei and Wu Qin had never encountered anything like this before. Seeing so many men in front of them, they instinctively felt afraid.
Zhang Shaoying simply gave them one polite word:
“Get lost!”
Wen Jiaojiao’s expression turned icy. She looked at the men with undisguised disgust.
These hooligans were a bunch of crude, unemployed thugs. The more disgusted and repulsed a woman appeared, the more it seemed to provoke their desire to dominate her.
“This little girl has quite a temper. Your big brothers have money. You don’t have to spend anything. Come have some fun with us, huh?”
Zhang Shaoying had never been insulted like this before. She immediately raised her leg and kicked him.
“How dare you block my way? Are you looking for a death wish?”
The man standing at the front hadn’t expected it. He was kicked squarely and immediately sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.
This woman could really kick!
The man became furious.
“Don’t push your luck! I’m asking you one last time. Are you coming with us or not? If you refuse, don’t blame your big brothers for what happens next!”
“Don’t blame us? And what exactly are you going to do?”
Zhang Shaoying had been fighting since she was a child. There wasn’t much she was afraid of.
Seeing how fierce she was, the hooligans didn’t dare underestimate her. They exchanged glances and then rushed forward together.
When Wen Jiaojiao saw that Shaoying had actually started fighting them, she became extremely worried. But none of them knew how to fight, so she and the others quickly looked around for branches they could use as weapons.
They could at least sneak up behind the men and hit them when they weren’t looking.
Zhang Shaoying was genuinely good at fighting. Taking on three people at once wasn’t a problem for her, but seven or eight attacking together was another matter. She was kicked several times.
Amid the chaos, Wu Qin didn’t know who had slapped her. Tears instantly streamed down her face, but she didn’t stop fighting.
She swung the branch wildly, keeping her eyes shut as she struck at anyone within reach.
Wang Xiaomei was in much the same situation. She waved her branch around randomly while shouting for help.
“We came from the army! Do you know what crime it is to assault military personnel?”
Wen Jiaojiao tried to scare them with the threat.
But the hooligans were already caught up in the fight and weren’t listening to a word they said.