Shen Shuyue leaned back on the sofa, rubbing her stomach.
Qiu Chengyue took his clothes out to the balcony to hang them up.
Shen Shuyue glanced toward the balcony and asked, “Your little childhood sweetheart didn’t wash your clothes for you?”
“Why didn’t you just marry your little childhood sweetheart? Such a pure and pretty young woman—you’ve already broken her heart. That makes you the bad guy.”
“Besides, you’re not ‘clean’ anymore. You can’t stay faithful to her now. If she finds out, do you think she’ll still want you?”
“I’m a pretty generous person. Once I’ve had enough fun, we’ll get divorced.”
“When that happens, you can run off and live happily ever after with your little sweetheart, while I’ll take my divorce certificate and go out and enjoy myself.”
Shen Shuyue never intended to spend the rest of her life with Qiu Chengyue.
Especially not with a man who had another woman in his heart.
Over on the balcony, Qiu Chengyue had been hanging clothes when he heard what she said. He frowned and walked out.
“What childhood sweetheart? What happily ever after?”
“Shen Shuyue, do you think a military marriage is something you can just end whenever you want?”
His tone was extremely unpleasant.
It was completely different from the gentleness he showed Jiang Xinmei.
Shen Shuyue said, “Why can’t we get divorced?”
“We didn’t get married because we wanted to in the first place. You don’t like me, and I don’t like you. If both of us want a divorce, why can’t we get one?”
“Besides, your superiors never said we weren’t allowed to divorce.”
Qiu Chengyue: “……”
They could get divorced.
But it wasn’t easy.
There were procedures to follow and approvals to obtain.
Unless things became absolutely unbearable, the application wouldn’t be approved.
If both sides simply didn’t want to live together anymore, that wasn’t enough.
It would have to reach the point where someone’s life was in danger.
“You’re overthinking it.”
Qiu Chengyue went back to hanging up the clothes.
He still hadn’t eaten.
Shen Shuyue hadn’t left any food for him, so Qiu Chengyue had no choice but to cook himself a bowl of noodles.
His cooking skills were truly terrible. The noodles he made were still completely tasteless.
He had eaten noodles like this many times before and never thought much of it, but tonight, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stomach them.
Even after adding chili sauce and soy sauce, they still tasted like nothing.
It took him a long time, but he eventually finished the entire bowl.
Shen Shuyue and Qiu Chengyue had nothing to say to each other.
She sat on the sofa, touching up the nail polish on her toenails, while Qiu Chengyue sat at the dining table watching her.
After a long while, Qiu Chengyue finally stood up and took the bowls and chopsticks to the sink to wash them.
……
The next day, Shen Shuyue heard that Jiang Xinmei had arrived at the entrance of the family compound early that morning with breakfast, waiting for Qiu Chengyue.
As the men from the family compound headed to their military unit, they saw her standing there. She even smiled and greeted them, completely unaware—or perhaps simply unconcerned—that waiting there for Qiu Chengyue was inappropriate.
It was the women in the family compound who told Shen Shuyue about it.
Some of them simply wanted to watch the drama unfold, while others genuinely meant well.
Not everyone was a bad person.
“Comrade Shen Shuyue, you really need to be careful. That Jiang Xinmei doesn’t seem as innocent as she looks.”
“I heard that she and Battalion Commander Qiu have known each other since they were children. They’re especially close.”
“I also heard that one of the main reasons she was able to get a job at the health clinic this time was because of Battalion Commander Qiu.”
“You’re Battalion Commander Qiu’s wife, after all. No matter how close those two are, they should still keep their distance and avoid suspicion.”
Shen Shuyue didn’t take the matter too seriously.
So what if they were close?
She didn’t care.
It wasn’t as if Qiu Chengyue could go out and sleep with Jiang Xinmei, right?
He was a soldier, after all. He knew better than anyone what the consequences of messing around would be.
At most, the two of them would chat and exchange a few meaningful glances.
As long as Qiu Chengyue kept himself physically clean before their divorce, Shen Shuyue felt she could accept it.
“The two of them? They’re just normal classmates. They haven’t seen each other in a long time, so it’s perfectly normal for them to want to talk.”
“Let them be. Nothing’s going to happen.”
Shen Shuyue looked completely indifferent.
The sister-in-law talking to her sighed.
“You still need to be careful.”
“That woman isn’t exactly innocent either. Battalion Commander Qiu is already married, yet she still went and bought him breakfast.”
Shen Shuyue: “……”
……
The matter between Qiu Chengyue and Jiang Xinmei soon spread throughout the family compound.
Some of the women didn’t know where they had dug up the information, but they learned that Jiang Xinmei came from a poor family. Her parents still worked the fields in the countryside.
She was the most promising person in her family. She had managed to get into a nursing school, and now she had even secured a stable job at the local health clinic.
Some people praised Jiang Xinmei, while others called her shameless and accused her of having no sense of propriety.
After gossiping about Jiang Xinmei, some of them turned their attention toward Shen Shuyue.
Some people claimed that Shen Shuyue probably couldn’t have children, which was why Qiu Chengyue had grown close to another woman.
If she became pregnant, Qiu Chengyue definitely wouldn’t associate so closely with other women.
Shen Shuyue was the root of the problem.
It was because she couldn’t have children that this situation had happened.
“Do you think if Shen Shuyue keeps failing to have children, Battalion Commander Qiu will be allowed to divorce her?”
“Every man wants a son to carry on the family line. Even ordinary men can’t stand not having a son. Battalion Commander Qiu doesn’t even have a child of his own. He doesn’t even have the chance to become a father. Surely the higher-ups would allow them to divorce, right?”
“They definitely would.”
“Look around the family compound. Which man doesn’t have children? Battalion Commander Qiu must have already confirmed that Shen Shuyue can’t have children, so he went looking elsewhere.”
“Look at how openly Battalion Commander Qiu and that Jiang Xinmei are walking around together. They must be dating.”
“Oh my God, they’re dating? But Shen Shuyue and Battalion Commander Qiu haven’t even divorced yet. Is it really appropriate for him to start dating Jiang Xinmei already?”
The women exchanged glances.
If that was really the case, then things were getting serious.
Dating before getting divorced?
Wasn’t he afraid of the negative consequences it could bring?
……
Prices in the Wanzhou area remained extremely high because of the flooding.
Pork had risen to five yuan per pound, while vegetables had gone up to eighty cents per pound.
Rice had also increased in price, although not by much.
While the women in the family compound discussed Shen Shuyue and Jiang Xinmei, they also couldn’t help talking about the rising prices.
A few days earlier, pork hadn’t gone up in price. It had only cost one or two yuan per pound. Even at that price, they had been reluctant to buy it.
Now that it had risen to five yuan per pound, they could afford it even less.
Chicken, duck, and fish had all become more expensive too. They couldn’t even afford those anymore.
Not only had the meals at the family compound become worse, but the food at the military unit had also deteriorated.
There had still been some meat before, but now there wasn’t even a trace of it.
Everyone’s meals had gotten worse for another reason as well: many people were afraid to buy meat outside.
They were worried about getting spoiled or contaminated meat and becoming sick after eating it.
……
Shen Shuyue, however, was completely unaffected.
Her refrigerator was stocked with meat. Whenever she wanted to eat meat, she could have it.
She didn’t have to worry about whether eating it would affect her health.
Vegetables couldn’t be stored for very long, so she could simply go outside and buy more whenever she needed them.
Vegetables costing only a few cents per pound were nothing expensive to her.
While everyone else was worrying about how they were going to put food on the table, Shen Shuyue’s father—the richest man in Wanzhou City—arrived at the family compound with several large trucks loaded with supplies.