Tang Rubao was startled and quickly grabbed the basin beside her.
Bang!
She smashed it against his head.
Zhou Jingran felt a sharp pain, his head throbbing as stars seemed to burst before his eyes.
Seizing the chance, Tang Rubao shoved him away and fled the kitchen.
Zhou Jingran stood there, raising a hand to rub the spot where he’d been hit.
His lips had brushed against her face, he must have been out of his mind to want to kiss her lips.
Back in the Nanning barracks, his comrades often teased him about Tang Rubao.
Even if the whole world abandoned him, Tang Rubao never would. She could give up everything, but never him.
Everyone knew how deeply she loved him.
The way she looked at him had always been full of love and admiration, devotion mixed with humility.
If he wanted to kiss her now, she should have felt honored… and yet she dared to hit him?
A flicker of anger and frustration flashed in his dark eyes.
Was she playing hard to get?
Hmph. He didn’t have time for her games.
After escaping the kitchen, Tang Rubao hurried back to her room.
She raised her hand and wiped her face where his lips had touched, disgusted by the lingering feel of his saliva.
In her past life, she had always longed for his kiss, but he never gave it.
Now, in this life, she no longer cared.
With disdain, she thought, how could this man be so despicable?
Hearing familiar footsteps outside, Tang Rubao tensed up.
Soon, the sound of the door opening and closing followed, and only then did her nerves finally relax.
She had been afraid Zhou Jingran would break in and force her to consummate the marriage.
The thought that he had gone to find Tu Xiuxiu made her feel a trace of bitter irony.
He claimed he didn’t love Tu Xiuxiu, yet he clearly favored her.
…
Half an hour after Zhou Jingran left, night had fully fallen.
Tang Rubao found some clothes and quickly took a cold shower.
The dim yellow light bulb cast a faint glow in the room.
She lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, recalling the path of her previous life, her brows tightly furrowed.
Back then, after she became pregnant, Zhou Jingran had sent her back to the countryside.
She stayed there for decades, and he never once returned to see her.
Not when their daughter was born.
Not even when she died.
He never loved her.
And when she finally asked for a divorce, she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
Suddenly, Tang Rubao sat up.
She got out of bed and walked barefoot to Zhou Jingran’s room.
From his drawer, she took out paper and a pen he usually used. Then, imitating his handwriting, she began to write a divorce application.
In her past life, after being sent to the countryside, she had developed excellent handwriting, good enough to mimic Zhou Jingran’s style.
All of his old schoolwork and notebooks were still kept in a cabinet at her family home. She had carefully studied and replicated his handwriting from his school days.
Once she finished, she carefully placed the divorce application under her pillow.
If Zhou Jingran wouldn’t divorce her, then she would do it herself.
The next day, before Zhou Jingran returned, she took the divorce application to the political commissar’s office.
When Political Commissar Cheng Gang saw the application, his expression twisted as if he had swallowed something foul. “Battalion Commander Zhou wants a divorce?”
Tang Rubao nodded.
Cheng Gang looked at her in disbelief. “Why didn’t he come submit it himself?”
Tang Rubao lowered her gaze slightly, like a student who had done something wrong and was writing a self-criticism.
“Xiuxiu’s hand is injured. He’s been staying with her after training these past few days. We’ve already discussed the divorce calmly. Whether it’s him or me submitting it, the result is the same.”
“You’re really willing to part with Jingran?” Cheng Gang leaned back in his chair, studying her darkened expression.
He had been a comrade of Tang Rubao’s father, so he naturally knew how deeply she loved Zhou Jingran.
It was Tang Rubao who had accidentally burned Tu Xiuxiu’s hand. Zhou Jingran had carried Tu Xiuxiu to the hospital and stayed with her all night.
Cheng Gang had only learned about all this from his wife that very morning.
Tang Rubao said calmly, “Political Commissar, I’ve liked him since I was a teenager, and I’ve made my feelings clear to him. But his heart has never been with me.
“He married me because my father ordered him to. You can’t force feelings. It’s time to let go and allow him to pursue the one he truly loves.”
“Xiuxiu’s husband died for the country. It hasn’t been easy for her to raise a child alone.”
“After I divorce Zhou Jingran, he can marry her and take care of her and her daughter openly.”
“What about you? You need someone to take care of you too,” Cheng Gang said, raising an eyebrow, a trace of concern in his eyes.
Tang Rubao lifted her hand and wiped at the corner of her eye as if brushing away tears, then revealed a bright, carefree smile. “I can take care of myself.”
Seeing her like this, Cheng Gang sighed softly. “Leave the divorce application with me for now. I’ll talk to Zhou Jingran later.”
…
Tang Rubao walked out of the political commissar’s office, her heart heavy.
She wondered how Zhou Jingran would react when the political commissar presented him with the divorce application.
She had heard that military marriages were not easy to dissolve.
If Zhou Jingran refused to divorce her, was she going to keep wasting her life on him like in her previous life?
“Xiuxiu already has it hard raising her daughter alone. What’s wrong with Battalion Commander Zhou taking better care of her? You even deliberately burned Xiuxiu’s hand. Tang Rubao, how can you be so jealous and heartless?”
At that moment, a young military wife with short, ear-length hair, wearing a chrysanthemum-patterned polyester blouse and black trousers, walked up and started scolding Tang Rubao.
Tang Rubao stopped and looked at the woman pointing at her.
It was Zhang Yunmei, Tu Xiuxiu’s best friend and the wife of Deputy Battalion Commander He, who lived across from her.
Tang Rubao slapped her hand away. “If you point at me again, I’ll break your fingers.”
Then, without giving her a chance to respond, she clicked her tongue and shook her head. “You say you’re not jealous or heartless, then why don’t you let your own husband take care of her?”
Zhang Yunmei was left speechless, unable to retort.
She looked at Tang Rubao in surprise, sensing that she was different from before, but she couldn’t quite say how.
It felt strange.
Tang Rubao lifted her gaze and glanced around.
Several military wives were busy in their yards, pulling weeds, planting vegetables, watering plants.
But while their hands worked, their ears were clearly tuned in, listening to the gossip.
Tang Rubao curled her lips into a faint smile and deliberately raised her voice: “Don’t you see how Tu Xiuxiu is always clinging to my husband? Whenever he’s not training, he runs to her and forgets all about me, his own wife. Am I not allowed to be jealous?”
“You call me jealous and heartless, but if Tu Xiuxiu clung to your husband like that, what would you do? If your husband took care of her the way mine does, what would you do?”
Zhang Yunmei’s eyes flickered.
If Tu Xiuxiu got that close to her own husband, she would go mad.
But Tu Xiuxiu was her best friend. Even though she knew the behavior was inappropriate, she stubbornly defended her: “You’re talking nonsense! Battalion Commander Zhou and Xiuxiu are just friends. She would never cling to him. It’s your own dirty mind twisting everything. Xiuxiu is warm and kind, she would never do something as shameless as seducing him.”
Tang Rubao shrugged and glanced behind Zhang Yunmei. “But the truth is right in front of you. If you don’t believe me, just turn around and take a look.”