Su Qiao carefully put away the letter, money, and ration coupons. However, she placed the letter paper with the four crossed-out characters separately beside her pillow.
Her fingertips unconsciously traced across the pillow, as though she could touch those hurriedly written characters through the fabric.
The iceberg had already begun to show the slightest signs of melting.
The corners of her lips curled up silently.
That was a good thing.
There was no fun in a stone that could never be warmed. But a stone that was cold on the outside yet warm within, one that secretly worried about you when you weren’t looking—that was a stone worth prying open.
She took a brand-new sheet of letter paper from the drawer, its red letterhead reading “Serve the People,” and sat down at the desk.
She unscrewed the cap of her fountain pen, the nib pausing in midair for a moment.
Then an idea flashed through her mind like a bolt of lightning.
Wasn’t he fond of using an official, businesslike tone to hide his concern?
Then she would deliberately use the softest, most innocent demeanor to tear through that hard shell of his.
The nib touched the paper, saturated with ink, leaving behind elegant handwriting tinged with deliberate vulnerability.
She didn’t address him as “Commander Gu.” Instead, she used two far more intimate words.
“Changfeng:”
Just those two words alone were enough for her to imagine what a spectacular crack would appear on Gu Changfeng’s eternally icy face when he saw them.
His brows would surely draw tightly together, his lips pressed into a straight line, while he thought, “Comrade Su Qiao, please pay attention to how you address me,” yet he wouldn’t be able to find any reason to reprimand her.
After all, they were legally married.
Su Qiao’s pen glided across the paper as she continued writing mischievously.
“Greetings. I received the money and ration coupons you sent. There was quite a lot, more than enough for me. You’re working so hard at the military base all by yourself, so you don’t need to send this much in the future. Everything is fine here, it’s just…”
She deliberately paused there, leaving behind an ellipsis, as though she were a sensible little wife who had suffered some grievance but didn’t want her husband to worry.
After a moment, she continued in lighter strokes, almost as if she were sighing.
“…I just miss you a little.”
After writing that sentence, Su Qiao couldn’t help but chuckle.
Good grief, even she was getting sickened by her own calculated sweetness.
But she knew that against a straight-laced man like Gu Changfeng, this move would be nothing short of a nuclear-level blow.
When he read those words, he would definitely spring up from his chair, pace back and forth around the room, his ears burning red. He would curse, “Nonsense!” while being completely unable to stop himself from repeatedly looking at those few words.
She continued writing, beginning to make her “complaints” without appearing to complain.
“I’ve already settled everything at home. Sister-in-law Wang and the other neighbors have all been very kind to me, so you don’t need to worry. It’s just that a few days ago, someone seemed to have broken in. In the middle of the night, I heard someone trying to pry open my door. I was terrified and shouted loudly. Perhaps I startled the neighbors, because they ran away. Later, the police came and said they had caught them. It was just a false alarm.”
She casually reduced what had actually been a deliberate attempt on her safety into nothing more than a “false alarm.”
Between the lines was the fear and lingering fright of a weak woman living alone, yet she deliberately pretended to be strong because she didn’t want her husband to worry.
Then she changed the subject and mentioned Sun Cuifen.
“Not long after that, Auntie also came to see me. She was very worried about my safety after seeing me living alone and wanted me to move in with them so they could look after me. I thought this is our own home, so I didn’t agree. Auntie seemed a little angry because of that. Sigh, perhaps I don’t know how to express myself and hurt her feelings.”
With just a few sentences, she had painted a vivid picture of a poor little woman whose relatives coveted her property, whose home had been targeted by thieves, who was all alone with no one to rely on, and who still blamed herself for everything.
Every word was an arrow aimed directly at the target called Gu Changfeng’s “sense of responsibility.”
She hadn’t directly complained even once, yet the entire letter screamed, “I’m so pitiful. Come and worry about me.”
Su Qiao admired her own masterpiece, but felt it still wasn’t enough.
She needed to add another spark.
At the end of the letter, she wrote the finishing touch in an almost humble tone.
“Please don’t worry about me. Your duties at the military base are more important. I’ll take good care of myself, and I’ll do my best to get along with the neighbors and relatives. It’s just that sometimes, when it gets dark and I’m lying alone in bed at night, whenever I hear the slightest rustling outside, I still… still feel a little scared.”
“That’s enough. I won’t say anymore, or you’ll laugh at me for being timid.”
“Best wishes.”
She signed her name at the bottom—Su Qiao.
There was no date.
She wanted him to guess when the letter had been written, and which days she meant by “a few days ago.”
After letting the ink dry, Su Qiao carefully folded the letter and slipped it into an envelope.
She could almost vividly “see” Gu Changfeng’s every reaction upon receiving the letter, despite the thousands of miles separating them.
First, his heart would skip a beat because of that “Changfeng.” Then his breathing would become unsteady because of the words “I miss you.” When he saw “thieves” and “Auntie,” his expression would instantly darken, a storm brewing in his eyes.
Finally, those words—”I still feel a little scared”—would become the last straw.
He would be restless. He would be irritable. He would be unable to stop wondering how she was doing right now.
“Gu Changfeng, your wife has been bullied. Let’s see what you’re going to do.”
Su Qiao muttered to herself in satisfaction, as though victory in the battle had already been secured.
Early the next morning, she went to the post office and mailed out the letter loaded with all her little schemes.
After sending it off, she felt refreshed and cheerful, as though she had already reaped the fruits of victory.
In a pleasant mood, she went to the state-run restaurant and ate a bowl of shredded-pork noodles. Then she prepared to go home, change her clothes, and make a big score at the black market that evening.
Meanwhile.
Thousands of miles away, at a frontier military district, dust was flying across the training field.
Gu Changfeng was dressed in a training uniform, his face so dark it looked as though water could drip from it.
“Everyone! Five-kilometer armed cross-country run! Anyone who can’t finish within twenty minutes won’t be eating tonight!”
His deep roar rang out across the entire training field like a thunderclap.
A group of soldiers who had just been chewed out until they could barely raise their heads immediately howled and charged forward.
Communications officer Xiao Li stood at the edge of the field, holding a stack of documents and nervously keeping his head down, not daring to make a sound.
He had no idea what had gotten into their commander today. From the moment he arrived that morning, Commander Gu had been radiating an aura that screamed, “Stay away.”
When it came to drilling the new recruits, he was practically pushing them to their limits.
Gu Changfeng watched the soldiers charging forward while howling, his brows still tightly furrowed.
He had absolutely no idea that a “complaint letter” powerful enough to completely break through his defenses was currently making its slow journey toward him aboard a green-skinned train.
And what he knew even less was that at the very moment he was furiously raging over the soldiers’ failure to meet their training standards, several police officers from the county Public Security Bureau had already tracked down the small courtyard Sun Cuifen had rented in town based on the confessions of the two thugs.
A chaotic and explosive drama was about to unfold, far beyond his sight.