“I may not be married, but my parents arranged a marriage for me long ago with a soldier. Before my parents died in a car accident, he came to see me. When I learned he was going to join the war in Vietnam, I was terrified that once he left, he might never come back—but I couldn’t stop him from going to the battlefield.
“So many fine young men of our country gave their lives on the battlefield, and only then did we earn the peaceful life we have today without foreign invasion. He is a soldier; protecting the country and the people is his duty and mission. We agreed that once he completed this mission and returned, we would get married.
“I really, truly love him. I was afraid he wouldn’t return from the battlefield, so I secretly drugged him—just in case. If he really couldn’t come back, at least I could leave behind his bloodline. I didn’t fool around with some wild man. The child in my belly is not a bastard. The child’s father is a soldier who protects the country and the people, a man who stands tall between heaven and earth.”
Tears shimmered in Shen Shujiao’s eyes. Her sorrowful yet powerful voice made everyone around her feel moved as well.
In this conservative era, becoming pregnant before marriage was indeed a huge weakness that Shen Xueman could exploit to attack her. Shen Shujiao could only play the emotional card in this battle of public opinion.
She reframed the special means used by Shen’s father as her own desperate act to preserve her lover’s bloodline, draping a gauze of romance over her story with Huo Zhoubai.
Many of the onlookers were young men and women. After hearing Shen Shujiao’s words, their gazes shifted from mockery and disdain to understanding—especially the women.
At an age when people act impulsively for love, if they had a fiancé who was an officer about to head to the battlefield, they might very well do the same as Shen Shujiao.
“So Shen Shujiao was engaged to a soldier. No wonder her parents were never in a hurry to arrange a match for her.”
“I never believed what Shen Shengchang said. Shen Shujiao is so dignified and well-mannered—how could she possibly be carrying some wild man’s child? If they really treated her like a daughter, how could they publicly accuse her of premarital pregnancy and keep calling the child a bastard, afraid others wouldn’t know?”
“…”
Seeing public opinion shift with just a few words from Shen Shujiao, a flash of coldness passed through Shen Xueman’s eyes. She really had underestimated Shen Shujiao, the original novel’s female lead.
She had actually turned the shameful incident of drugging Huo Zhoubai and sleeping with him the first time they met into a tragic and heroic love story of leaving behind a legacy for love.
But Shen Xueman couldn’t expose the lie either—because the man in Shen Shujiao’s story had gone to war, and there was no way to verify it.
At the same time, Huo Zhoubai’s absence also gave Shen Xueman a handle to strike back.
“Little sister, today’s Huaguo was built on the blood and sacrifice of countless soldiers. Soldiers are the loveliest, most respectable, and most sacred heroes in the hearts of ordinary people. How can you use comrades-in-arms as a shield just to make excuses for your premarital pregnancy?”
In her previous life, Shen Xueman had been the secretary to a ruthless entertainment company boss. She had seen all kinds of celebrity scandals and was most skilled at public-relations battles.
Sure enough, with just a few instigating words, she made the crowd doubt Shen Shujiao again.
Watching people whisper in suspicion, a long, satisfied gleam flashed in Shen Xueman’s eyes.
So what if the child in Shen Shujiao’s belly really belonged to a soldier?
So what if her story was moving?
As long as Huo Zhoubai—the person involved—didn’t appear today, no one could be sure the child was a soldier’s.
Today, she had to nail Shen Shujiao to the pillar of shame for premarital pregnancy.
“My man is a soldier. It is only natural that he takes responsibility for the child in my belly. I don’t need to use anyone as a shield. This is the marriage certificate between me and my fiancé, Huo Zhoubai.”
As she spoke, Shen Shujiao took a stamped marriage document out of her pocket.
“Before my fiancé left for the army to submit his marriage application, he thought that I might become pregnant and that people might humiliate me over premarital pregnancy. So he wrote this marriage certificate to protect me. If he goes to the battlefield and never returns, then the child in my belly will be a martyr’s orphan. If he returns safely, the marriage application he submitted will take effect, and we will be a legally married couple.”
Seeing the marriage certificate in Shen Shujiao’s hand, Shen Xueman staggered back a couple of steps.
The original novel did mention that Huo Zhoubai wrote a marriage certificate to Shen’s parents the next day.
But she had never taken that document seriously. She never imagined that just as she was about to nail Shen Shujiao to the pillar of shame, Shen Shujiao would turn the tables with that single piece of paper.
Although this era was conservative, this was the bustling city of Shanghai, where people’s thinking was relatively more open.
Young people, in particular, found Shen Shujiao’s love story romantic and touching.
Sure enough, when everyone saw that the marriage certificate bore not only fingerprints but also the regiment commander’s seal with Huo Zhoubai’s name, along with the army’s address and detailed unit number, their gazes toward Shen Shujiao softened.
“You defend the country on the front lines, and I carry and nurture new life in the rear to protect our little family—so romantic, so moving.”
“I knew Shujiao wouldn’t do anything improper. With this marriage certificate and Commander Huo having submitted a marriage application, you’re a military family member. Being pregnant is a good thing.”
“Shen Shengchang, your niece is carrying a soldier’s child. How could you say she’s pregnant with a wild man’s child? And even persuade her to get an abortion?”
“Why persuade her to abort? Obviously to get Shujiao to abort the child so they could drive a wedge between her and her soldier husband. She’s an orphan with no one to rely on—wasn’t she just at their mercy?”
“Maybe when they tricked her into getting an abortion, they never planned to let her come off the operating table alive?”
“…”
Hearing these speculations, Shen Shujiao immediately seized the moment and said to the speaker:
“Aunt Xu, that’s exactly what you’re thinking. At the black clinic, I heard Shen Shuman and the doctor say they would give me triple the dosage of abortion medicine. I knew they wanted my life, so I reported them to protect myself. When they saw I had escaped and realized I knew their plot, they ran to my home to search for the property my parents left behind. And they really found it. Just as they were about to empty my house, I arrived in time with the security team. Otherwise, everything my parents left me would have been taken.”
To avoid leaving evidence for outsiders, Shen Xueman had pretended to be the doctor and operated on her herself—there was no “doctor” at all.
But precisely because of that, whatever she made up sounded believable to everyone.
“That’s right. When we arrived with Comrade Shen, her entire family was discussing transferring their assets to Hong Kong. We’ve also found letters at Shen Garden showing their collusion with overseas forces. The evidence is conclusive. We are handling the case according to the law, and no one is allowed to interfere,” Li Changzhu shouted authoritatively at the crowd.
With the marriage certificate proving Shen Shujiao had an officer fiancé, everyone believed her. And these wealthy people were shrewd—they had long believed that Shen Shengchang was trying to swallow Shen Shujiao’s inheritance.
They had only wanted to muddy the waters so the armband security wouldn’t dare act rashly.
Now that Shen Shujiao had exposed Shen Shengchang’s family’s true face, they naturally stopped siding with them.
“We are all law-abiding good citizens. We would never do anything that betrays the country.”
“Exactly. We’d never do such heartless things like colluding with overseas forces. Foreigners have killed so many of our compatriots—I wish I could skin them alive and drink their blood.”
“We are the bravest, most unbreakable people in the world. Being Huaguo citizens is my greatest pride.”
“…”
Everyone hurried to proclaim their patriotism, afraid of being taken away by the armband officers.
“Captain Li, how should slandering the reputation of a quasi-military family member be dealt with?” Shen Shujiao asked solemnly, looking at Li Changzhu.
End of this chapter (Please click the next chapter to continue reading!)