Perhaps because she had not expected to attract so much attention, after her moment of pride, Li Qingran’s face showed signs of awkwardness and nervousness.
“Make way. Don’t block my path.”
Holding the fabric, Li Qingran struggled to make her way out of the supply and marketing cooperative.
Jiang Hua withdrew her probing gaze, lifted her foot, and stepped aside to clear the way.
Li Qingran shot her a cold glance. She did not say a word of thanks and continued struggling out with the fabric in her arms.
Only defective fabrics were left in the supply and marketing cooperative. Jiang Hua selected two bolts, one pink and one blue. The flaws were not serious. As long as the defective parts were cut away, there would be no problem.
Song Jin also picked what she wanted, and the two of them walked back, both feeling satisfied.
When Jiang Hua returned home, Xu Chenghuai had already gone to work.
She waved to the two children, handed the buns to them, and took the opportunity to ask, “Have you been playing with Ma Fenghuo lately?”
Yunshu took the bun eagerly and answered without hesitation, “No.”
Jiang Hua froze. “Why?”
“I don’t like him. He bullies Brother.” The little girl clenched her fists, her fair, tender face puffed up with anger.
Yunkai retorted unhappily, “I wasn’t bullied. Don’t talk nonsense.”
Hearing this, the little girl looked confused. She blinked her round, bright eyes, tilted her head, and said uncertainly, “I saw it. He hit Brother, and Brother yelled at him very angrily.”
Yunkai had not expected her to actually know. He immediately panicked, his eyes widening as he explained in embarrassment and anger, “That was me bullying him, not him bullying me.”
The little girl thought about it. It did seem like Brother had been fiercer. She nodded solemnly at Jiang Hua. “Yes. Brother bullied Ma Fenghuo.”
The two little brats were far too adorable. Jiang Hua could not hold back and laughed out loud.
Still, fighting was not right. She needed to understand the situation. Jiang Hua looked at Yunkai and asked, “Why did you fight with Ma Fenghuo?”
Yunkai’s immature little face tightened. Anger appeared in the eyes that were just like hers. He let out a cold snort and took on a posture of refusing to communicate.
Jiang Hua: …
At first, she had been quite patient with Yunkai, partly out of guilt. But as time went on, the little brat kept that cool, stubborn attitude. Sometimes she was so annoyed that she wanted to kick him.
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll go ask Ma Fenghuo,” Jiang Hua said, casting him an annoyed glance.
Yunkai: …
His little face stiffened instantly. He stubbornly craned his neck. “Then go ask. See if Ma Fenghuo will tell you.”
Jiang Hua smiled. “I’m not going to ask him about that. I’m just going to apologize to him on your behalf.”
Yunkai’s eyes widened. Anxious and angry, he said, “Why should you apologize? I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“You’re still little. How can you tell whether you were wrong or not?” Jiang Hua said. “Otherwise, just tell me the truth, and I’ll help you judge.”
Yunkai choked again. Confusion and conflict appeared in his round eyes. He looked at Jiang Hua, his face full of unwillingness.
Jiang Hua calmly met his gaze.
Yunkai stomped his foot. Rarely showing a childish side, he said angrily, “Fine, I’ll tell you, okay?”
Jiang Hua smiled, looking as if she was all ears. “Go on.”
“Ma Fenghuo has a nasty mouth. He spoke badly about my dad. I couldn’t hold it in and beat him up.” Yunkai paused, then emphasized, “I held back for a long time.”
Looking at his indignant, childish little face, Jiang Hua raised her brows and deliberately asked, “But you still couldn’t hold back. Ma Fenghuo really deserved a beating?”
Yunkai glared at her in embarrassment and anger. He crossed his arms, turned around, and refused to look at her. “I’m not talking to you anymore.”
Jiang Hua finally could not hold it in and burst out laughing.
He was just too adorable.
Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives.
Ma Fenghuo’s voice actually rang out from outside the courtyard. “Xu Yunkai, I’m here to play with you. Come out.”
Children’s friendships were truly strange. Just moments ago she had been saying she was angry, yet now that she heard the other party’s voice, Yunshu immediately broke into a wide smile and ran outside on her short little legs.
“I’m coming, I’m coming.”
Yunkai had some pride, but clearly only a little, not much. He lifted his face and glanced at Jiang Hua. A trace of hesitation and inner struggle flashed across his face. In the next moment, he also dashed out.
Jiang Hua: …
Whose child is this, being this adorable?
Outside the Xu family courtyard was a small alley connected to other lanes and hutongs, extending in all directions. The children in the compound loved to chase one another in the alleys, playing games of the Eighth Route Army capturing enemies.
Ma Fenghuo was five years old this year, two years older than Yunkai and Yunshu. His skin was dark, but his features were quite delicate.
“Let’s play the Eighth Route Army game. Yunkai and I will be the Eighth Route Army,” he said, first looking at Yunkai, then shifting his gaze to Yunshu and pointing with his small hand. “Yunshu, you be the enemy.”
Yunshu’s small mouth immediately puckered. She said unhappily, “I’m not being the enemy. I want to be the Eighth Route Army.”
Ma Fenghuo said, “The Eighth Route Army are all men. You’re a girl. How can you be the Eighth Route Army?”
“You’re talking nonsense. The Eighth Route Army doesn’t distinguish between men and women. The great leader even said that women can hold up half the sky.” Despite her young age, Yunshu spoke with remarkable clarity. “Ma Fenghuo, you look down on women. We’re not playing with you anymore!”
Yunkai naturally stood firmly on his sister’s side. “Your mom is a woman too. Do you look down on your mom?”
Ma Fenghuo hurriedly shook his head and apologized timidly. “I’m sorry. I won’t say it again.”
Yunshu snorted, still not appeased, and pointed at him with her small finger. “You said bad things about my daddy and you still haven’t apologized. Ma Fenghuo, you’re a bad kid. We don’t want to play with you.”
Ma Fenghuo grew even more anxious, afraid that the siblings really would not play with him. He hurriedly explained, “I didn’t say bad things about your daddy.”
Yunkai became unhappy as well. The way Ma Fenghuo said that made it seem as if Yunkai had wronged him.
“You’re still not admitting it. I heard it myself.”
With no one listening to his explanation, Ma Fenghuo also became angry and said irritably, “I already told you, I just heard it from other people. I didn’t say it myself. Forget it. If you don’t want to play with me, then don’t. I won’t play with you either!”
After saying that, he turned and ran off, his back practically spelling out “I’m very angry.”
Yunshu froze for a moment and subconsciously looked at her brother. “Ma Fenghuo left.”
Yunkai withdrew his gaze and snorted. “Let him go. He said our daddy would be taken away. His daddy should be the one to be taken away!”
In a child’s limited understanding, only bad people would be taken away. How could their own daddy possibly be a bad person?
Although Jiang Hua did not know the grudges between children, Li Qingran’s abnormal behavior had caught her attention.
In her impression, although Li Qingran’s natal family was better off than hers, they were still just an ordinary worker family. Ma Yuanhang’s salary was even lower than Xu Chenghuai’s, and like Jiang Hua, Li Qingran had no income.
So, where did the Ma family get the money to support Li Qingran buying so much fabric at once?
Almost instantly, Jiang Hua thought of how in her previous life, it was discovered that Director Chen had taken money from enemies. At the time, Director Chen and Auntie Chen would rather die than admit it. Could there have been something else going on?
What if the one who took the money was not Director Chen, but Ma Yuanhang?
Was Director Chen framed?
Jiang Hua’s heart immediately began pounding violently. She pressed a hand to her chest, her fingers seeming to tremble.
After dinner.
While the two children were out playing, Jiang Hua hesitated for a moment, then decided to tell Xu Chenghuai about this matter.
“Can we talk?” Jiang Hua reached out and tugged lightly at the hem of his clothes, lifting her face to look at him.
The pull on the corner of his clothes was barely perceptible, yet Xu Chenghuai seemed to encounter enormous resistance. He immediately stopped moving, lowered his gaze, and met those moist almond-shaped eyes.
Xu Chenghuai followed along naturally and put down the bowl and chopsticks in his hands. He sat on a nearby chair, his long legs bending slightly as he stretched them forward. “Go ahead.”
The words at the tip of Jiang Hua’s tongue instantly got stuck.
Xu Chenghuai had actually wanted to talk to her for a long time. This was just the right opportunity.
He said, “If you don’t speak, then I’ll speak?”
Jiang Hua froze and raised her brows to look at him.
Xu Chenghuai did not beat around the bush and asked directly, “What has happened to you recently? Why do you seem like a completely different person?”
Jiang Hua stood stunned. She had not expected Xu Chenghuai to notice.
She thought he would not realize it, and even if he did, he would not care. But since he had asked, that meant he did care.
Jiang Hua’s eyes reddened, and she nearly burst into tears.
Seeing this, Xu Chenghuai frowned. His deep eyes were fixed tightly on her. “What exactly happened?”
Jiang Hua pinched her palm, suppressing the surge of emotion, and said in as steady a voice as possible, “I had a dream.”
This was the wording she had prepared.
Under Xu Chenghuai’s gaze, Jiang Hua said, “In the dream, I lived through my entire life. It was very real, so real that I felt it was real.”
Xu Chenghuai’s brow furrowed even more deeply. He said in a matter-of-fact tone, “No matter how real it was, it was still just a dream. It wasn’t real.”
Jiang Hua was so angry that she laughed. Xu Chenghuai always used this flat, emotionless tone, as if everything had nothing to do with him.
Her gaze, carrying a hint of coldness, fell on his face as she said seriously, “I think it was real. So I’ve decided to change the way I live. I don’t want to live like the me in the dream.”
Xu Chenghuai was also angered into a laugh. “And what is this so-called change in the way you live?”
Ignoring him? Distancing yourself from him?
Jiang Hua was not fazed at all. Even though this was the first time in two lifetimes that she had contradicted him, and even though her palms were sweating, she still forced herself to straighten her back and said in a justifiable voice, “Living happily.”
Xu Chenghuai: …
He looked at her in disbelief. “What did you say?”
Could it be that during all the time she had been married to him, she had never been happy?
Xu Chenghuai could not accept this answer. Yet when he thought about it carefully, it did seem to be true. He could not recall ever seeing her genuinely smile.
Four years of marriage did not even compare to the past four days.
For a moment, Xu Chenghuai could not put into words how he felt.
Jiang Hua sneered lightly. What was past was past. She did not want to bring it up again.
Her half-true, half-false confession was meant to let Xu Chenghuai know the reason. After all, she was not an actress and could not keep acting for a lifetime. A person’s change always needed a reason.
Jiang Hua felt that although her reason was absurd, it was still reasonable.
After a long while, Xu Chenghuai reluctantly accepted her words. He fell silent again for a moment, then asked, “Then what did you want to tell me?”
After the release just now, Jiang Hua could already face Xu Chenghuai calmly and indifferently.
She said, “In my dream, Director Chen and Auntie Chen died.”