Seeing Xie Zhongming, Zeng Xiuzhu was startled.
She thought her eyes were deceiving her.
Looking again, it really was the unlucky platoon leader she had poisoned with a packet of animal drugs five years ago.
My goodness, why did this man come to their village?
Feeling guilty, Zeng Xiuzhu’s burden slipped from her shoulders.
Two buckets of manure spilled instantly onto the field.
The stinking, dirty manure splashed all over Zeng Xiuzhu and also covered Xie Zhongming’s trousers.
Yet neither of them noticed.
Zeng Xiuzhu was preoccupied with her guilty conscience, ignoring the filth on herself.
Xie Zhongming, however, was filled with confusion. He chased after Zeng Xiuzhu urgently.
“Mom, where is the chubby wife? I heard from Aunt Liu that she died. How could the chubby wife die? When did it happen?”
Zeng Xiuzhu no longer dared to lie.
Moreover, Xie Zhongming’s intimidating presence frightened her.
She stammered,
“The chubby wife, she, she… the chubby wife really is dead.”
“But yesterday the village head sent a telegram to the military saying the chubby wife stole eight hundred yuan from a villager to prepare for her son’s bride. Was she not going to be sent to the security team?”
Zeng Xiuzhu could not answer this.
Over the past five years, she had bribed the village head and, using the chubby wife’s name, had defrauded Xie Zhongming of who knows how much money.
From the beginning, when he sent thirty eight yuan a month, to later sending one hundred yuan, all of it went into her pocket.
She often used the chubby wife causing trouble as an excuse for Xie Zhongming to pay various sums.
This time, she told him that the chubby wife had stolen eight hundred yuan from a villager and spent it all in the provincial department store because her son was getting married.
Once again, Xie Zhongming became their cash cow.
Who would have thought that after five years, Xie Zhongming would come to Chadain Village just before her son’s wedding.
Zeng Xiuzhu’s palms were sweaty. She stammered and could barely speak.
“Mom, when exactly did the chubby wife get into trouble? How did it happen?”
“Just these past few days. She, she, she stole the villager’s money, fell into the river, and drowned.”
Xie Zhongming did not believe that the chubby wife had simply died.
Moreover, Zeng Xiuzhu’s eyes wandered, and her story contradicted itself.
Sweat beaded on her forehead, either from farm work or guilt.
His sharp and perceptive gaze fixed on Zeng Xiuzhu.
With his insight, he could tell at first glance that she was lying.
“Mom, I ask you, did the chubby wife really steal the villager’s money?”
“Yes, she stole eight hundred yuan. Afraid of being beaten, she fell into the river and drowned.”
“Really drowned?”
“Of course. Why would I lie?”
“Was there a funeral? Was she buried?”
“Yes, buried.”
To hide her guilt, this time Zeng Xiuzhu answered firmly.
Xie Zhongming, however, saw many inconsistencies.
“If the chubby wife drowned in the river, why didn’t they send a telegram to tell me?”
“And why didn’t the burial wait for me to come back?”
Pressed with repeated questions, sweat poured from Zeng Xiuzhu’s palms.
Xie Zhongming sensed something was very wrong. His voice was cold.
“What exactly happened to the chubby wife? If you do not explain, I will investigate myself.”
“Once I investigate, if there is any trickery here, you will not escape responsibility.”
Seeing Zeng Xiuzhu so guilty, the more she tried to hide the truth, the more he suspected deception.
Frightened, Zeng Xiuzhu dared not invent anything too outrageous.
She looked at Xie Zhongming’s tall figure. His cold, hard brows radiated chill.
Even the air around seemed to freeze.
Still, she did not tell the truth.
“Zhongming, the chubby wife really did die, out there. I heard it from others. She just never came back.”
Clearly, she was lying.
“Looks like you still will not tell the truth.”
Afterward, Xie Zhongming stayed at Aunt Liu’s house.
He spent two and a half days going to the township police station.
He could not find any record of the chubby wife’s death or cancellation of her household registration.
He visited nearby villagers.
Only then did he learn that soon after they got married, Zeng Xiuzhu had driven the chubby wife out.
Some people had seen her in nearby villages.
After that, she disappeared.
No one knew whether she was dead or missing.
Xie Zhongming felt very guilty.
For five years he had not come to Chadain Village. Disliking the chubby wife, he never thought to bring her to the military with him. He believed that sending money to her in the village was enough to fulfill his responsibility.
Even during leave for visits, he had never come to the village in these five years.
Otherwise, he would not be learning about this now.
He returned to the chubby wife’s mother’s home.
Moments before, Zeng Xiuzhu and the chubby wife’s brother Liu Dazhu had been discussing what to do.
“Mom, could the chubby wife’s soldier husband try to reclaim the money he sent all these years?”
“Even if he does, it is gone. There is no money left. If he asks for it, I will fall to the ground and cry.”
“But the chubby wife was still driven out by us.”
“Just driven out. She did not commit murder or arson. It is not illegal. Do not worry.”
The next moment, Xie Zhongming stepped over the threshold and entered the main room.
The actions of this family were appalling.
His eyes, like steel forged in ice, carried thunderous anger.
“You did not kill or burn anyone. But you drove the chubby wife out. Her whereabouts are unknown. This is interference with military marriage.”
“Interfering with military marriage is a crime. If I pursue it, you will not get away.”
Even Zeng Xiuzhu, uneducated as she was, understood the words.
The threat softened her attitude immediately.
She stepped forward.
“Son in law, the chubby wife was too lazy and gluttonous. She did no work, only ate and slept. How could she have weighed over two hundred jin? I could not bear it, so I drove her out.”
Xie Zhongming snorted.
“A mother can educate her child. But driving out the chubby wife, keeping her whereabouts secret for years, and colluding with the village head to defraud my money is extorting and deceiving a soldier. You, your son, and that village head could face prison labor.”
The words “prison labor” made Zeng Xiuzhu almost collapse.
Nearby, Liu Dazhu pleaded desperately.
Xie Zhongming insisted that Zeng Xiuzhu return the money.
In the past five years, he had sent thirty eight yuan per month for the first two years, one hundred yuan per month for the following three years.
Including the money she defrauded, the total reached over six thousand yuan.
Zeng Xiuzhu fell to the ground, crying and shouting.
She claimed life had been hard and the money had been spent on food and medical care.
No money to return. Only one life to live.
Seeing that the money had likely already been spent, and there was no way to recover it, Xie Zhongming was helpless.
Even if he pursued it later, that would be another matter.
Now was not the time to punish these two vicious people.
He needed to quickly find the chubby wife.
He registered her as a missing person at the township police station, reported it, hoping she could be found soon.
He also planned to return to the military and use his and his father’s connections to see if he could locate the chubby wife.
That day, he bought a train ticket back to Jincheng.
Returning to the residential compound, Xie Zhongming met Jiang Beiyang’s mother, Zhang Hongmei.
“Aunt Mei!”
“Is this not Zhongming? Did you not go to Chadain Village to see your wife? Zhongming, why did you not bring your wife back?”
Zhang Hongmei had a loud voice and an outgoing personality. Her voice could be heard from far away.
So early in the morning, Qiao Xingyue, leaving the dorm, heard her from a distance.
What did that woman say?
Xie Zhongming’s wife was from Chadain Village. How could it be the same village as the chubby wife?
Qiao Xingyue carried two and a half jin of pork tied with hemp rope, and some eggs, cabbage, and potatoes in a net bag. She walked toward Xie Zhongming and Zhang Hongmei.
In Jincheng in March, the morning fog had not yet lifted.
It had rained last night, the ground was wet, and the air was cold.
Colder than the air was Xie Zhongming’s expression. Whenever asked about the chubby wife, he avoided answering.
“My wife is not convenient for my wife to come to the compound. Aunt Mei, I will go first.”
“All right, I am going to buy groceries too.”
Zhang Hongmei nodded awkwardly.
Recalling that her son Jiang Beiyang had warned her not to pry about Xie Zhongming’s wife, she did not continue asking and only regretted speaking earlier.
The cement ground was uneven. Qiao Xingyue, wearing cloth shoes, avoided the puddles and walked to Aunt Mei. Xie Zhongming was already more than ten meters away.
Jincheng was a huge basin. In spring, autumn, and winter, fog lingered in the mornings and evenings.
In the gray mist, Xie Zhongming’s figure was especially clear.
Every step he took, his shoulders were as upright as deeply rooted pines. Soon, however, his figure disappeared.
Seeing Aunt Mei leave hurriedly, Qiao Xingyue greeted her.
“Aunt Mei, good morning.”
“This is…”
Zhang Hongmei stopped and looked her over.
“Housekeeper for Commander Xie?”
This girl did not look like a widow. Fair skinned, tall, and slender, she seemed more like a lively college student.
“Aunt Mei, I am the new housekeeper, Qiao Xingyue, at Commander Xie’s house. Did I hear correctly that Comrade Xie just returned from Chadain Village?”
“You did not know he went to Chadain Village?”
Aunt Mei, loud and sociable, loved chatting.
“He went to Chadain Village to see his wife.”