Hu Lili’s face flushed red as she cast a guilty glance at the grim-faced Liu Guoqiang.
“I didn’t. I didn’t go to your house, and I never touched Mu Xiaocao’s trunk.”
She had looked around very carefully when she went in; there wasn’t a soul around the Family Compound. Since no one saw her go in, what could Mu Xiaocao possibly do to her?
“Hu Lili, if you don’t want to make a big scene out of this, give me back the money!”
“I said, I didn’t touch your trunk.” Hu Lili flatly refused to admit it.
“Mu Xiaocao, can you stop making a scene? From now on, I won’t give Hu Lili any more money. Just come back with me!” Liu Guoqiang looked at Mu Xiaocao with eyes full of disappointment.
She had asked him for money yesterday, and today she was here to extort money from Hu Lili. How had she become so vulgar and loathsome?
Hu Lili looked at Liu Guoqiang in shock.
What? He wasn’t going to give her money anymore? That wouldn’t do! What Liu Guoqiang gave her was more than her actual salary. It was only with his money that she could eat and dress well. Without that fifty yuan, how was she supposed to live? She was even planning to save up for an eighteen-inch television.
“Xiao Cao, Guoqiang only helped me out because he saw how pitiful I was. In the future… in the future, I won’t let Battalion Commander Liu bring me meals anymore. Please, stop forcing us, okay? Neither mine nor Guoqiang’s salaries are high. Don’t you feel a bit guilty, reaching out your hand to demand money from him every day?”
Mu Xiaocao looked at her hypocritical display and sneered. “The money I get my hands on each month is barely five yuan, yet you can get five ten-yuan bills just by shedding a few crocodile tears. Hu Lili, who exactly is Liu Guoqiang to you? How can you rely on him with such a clear conscience? I’m forcing him? Did he give me five hundred yuan? Calculate for yourself just how much of his money you’ve spent over the last few years! Heh, I’ve never seen a family where the Subsidy isn’t given to the relatives but to an outsider instead. Why is my life so bitter? I married a man who didn’t come home for three years and never even consummated the marriage, and now that I’ve come here to Accompany the Army, I have to be bullied by another woman. Do you think I like the idea of divorce? But if I don’t get a divorce, how am I supposed to live this life!”
Mu Xiaocao crouched on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.
She truly felt wronged. Recalling the resentment and rage from her past life, she even felt the urge to kill these two. But she couldn’t; murder was against the law.
Hu Lili clenched her fists. Guoqiang had said this Mu Xiaocao was just a country woman—ignorant, timid, and cowardly. But look at her now. Her words were logical and her tongue was sharp; how did she look anything like a cowardly, incompetent country peasant?
“Mu Xiaocao, you really are malicious. Lili is already so pitiful; what are you trying to achieve by bullying her like this? No wonder Battalion Commander Liu wants to submit a Divorce Application. A difficult country bumpkin like you isn’t worthy of Battalion Commander Liu at all. If I were him, I’d divorce you too.”
Hu Ping walked over while tying her apron, looking at Mu Xiaocao with a disdainful gaze.
The onlookers had varying expressions. Some felt that Hu Lili, having lost her husband and her chance to be a mother, was indeed quite pitiful. It was only right for Battalion Commander Liu to look after a Martyr’s Widow a bit more. After all, they were old classmates.
Others felt Hu Lili was shameless. Battalion Commander Liu had a family, yet he neglected them and spent most of his energy on Hu Lili—it was truly despicable. Hu Lili had a job and a Pension; she was much better off than Mu Xiaocao.
Mu Xiaocao stood up and looked coldly at the nearby Lu Gang, who looked quite uncomfortable.
“Deputy Battalion Commander Lu, your mother is certainly generous. I admit that Hu Lili is pitiful. How about this: you help her out too. Hu Lili won’t ask for much—just give her half of your salary.”
“In your dreams! My family has two sons to raise; we don’t have money to give to others! Lu Gang, if you give a single cent to some fox spirit, I’m through with you!” Lu Gang’s wife glared fiercely at Hu Lili, her eyes full of loathing.
Then, she turned to the awkward Hu Ping and shouted, “Mother! The children are hungry and dinner isn’t even ready yet, and you have time to stand here sticking your neck out for someone else? If you’re so worried, why don’t you go live with Hu Lili? That way she won’t be so lonely that she has to keep her eyes glued to other women’s husbands.”
Lu Gang’s wife was also from the countryside and sympathized deeply with Mu Xiaocao’s plight. Life was not easy for a rural Military Wife. Not only did they have to endure long periods of loneliness, but they also had to manage the household and the fields; a woman had to do a man’s work. She naturally looked down on Hu Lili and wouldn’t be as muddled as her mother-in-law, trying to curry favor with a widow.
Hu Ping glared at Mu Xiaocao. “You country bumpkin, what nonsense are you talking about? Why should my family’s money be given to anyone else!”
“Exactly! So why should my family’s money be taken by Liu Guoqiang to help Hu Lili? Everyone here is a comrade of Hu Lili’s husband—why don’t you all help this ‘pitiful’ person? Why must you pluck the feathers from just one person!”
As soon as those words were spoken, several military wives grabbed their husbands and took a few steps back. What a joke—only someone with a hole in their head would give away their money to help Hu Lili.
“Heh, when I refuse to give Hu Lili money, I’m being petty. But when you don’t give, it’s only natural?” Mu Xiaocao shot a cold glance at Hu Ping.
Lu Gang stepped forward and grabbed Hu Ping to pull her back. “Mom, why are you interfering in someone else’s family business!”
Mu Xiaocao stared coldly at Hu Ping’s retreating back. “Unless you have suffered another’s hardships, do not advise them to be kind. Unless you know another’s pain, do not speak of their failings. If you endured what I have, you might not be as kind as I am. If you knew my suffering, you might not be as decisive as I am. Sisters, elders—I hope that one day, if your men leave you behind to take care of another woman, you won’t cry.”
“My man wouldn’t dare! If he gave another woman a single cent, I’d break his legs!”
“Exactly. A man as ‘kind and selfless’ as Battalion Commander Liu is probably an endangered species in this world.”
“Haha, true…”
The onlookers couldn’t help but burst into laughter, their voices dripping with mockery.
Liu Guoqiang felt his cheeks burning with shame. He used to think it was only right to give half his salary to Hu Lili, but now, he felt like a public sinner!
“Mu Xiaocao, have you had enough?” Liu Guoqiang snapped sternly.
“No!” Mu Xiaocao’s momentum was even stronger than his.
“You all say Hu Lili is pitiful. It is indeed heartbreaking that her husband sacrificed himself. But has the army mistreated her? Has the country mistreated her? Let me ask you, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of military wives in this compound. After we joined the army to Accompany the Army, none of us sat around eating for free. Some stayed home to raise children and do housework, others worked in the Military Factory to earn money for the household. How many are like Hu Lili, dressed exquisitely every single day without a single hair out of place? Look at her—buying pair after pair of leather shoes, changing into one dress after another, applying box after box of vanishing cream. Now look at me. To take care of everything inside and outside the home, my skin has been tanned by the sun, and my hands and face are rougher than anyone else’s, covered in calluses and wrinkles.”