“Regimental Commander Fu! The trafficker confessed! She confessed!”
After capturing the trafficker at the train station, Fu Sinian and Liang Kailai didn’t immediately return to the military unit. Their original special mission had already been completed successfully, but Fu Sinian made a last-minute decision to stay an extra day for investigation.
Because of Jiang Tang, Fu Sinian participated in the interrogation of the trafficker.
The trafficker had a tight mouth. To avoid going to prison, she stubbornly refused to admit she was a trafficker, shouting that she was being framed.
Fu Sinian, together with the public security officers, spent a full day and night before finally prying open the trafficker’s mouth.
From the trafficker’s lips, he heard two names.
“Lin Pingchuan… Jiang Dehai… They’re the ones who made me do this… That woman was also sent by them…”
Who Lin Pingchuan was, Fu Sinian didn’t know. It just sounded like the name of a young man, which inexplicably made his chest ache with a sour feeling.
As for Jiang Dehai, Fu Sinian naturally knew that this man was Jiang Tang’s uncle.
And then thinking about how Jiang Tang had appeared “unable to restrain herself” after being drugged on the train—she had actually been sold by her own uncle!
Something was wrong!
Jiang Tang was in danger!
A grave expression settled on Fu Sinian’s handsome face, a flicker of worry flashing through his deep black eyes. His tall figure pushed open the door of the interrogation room and strode away in large steps.
“Regimental Commander Fu… Regimental Commander Fu, wait for me…”
Fu Sinian left too quickly—Liang Kailai could barely keep up.
Fu Sinian was a man who hadn’t even furrowed his brow when a bullet tore through his arm during a mission. What on earth could make him rush off so urgently? Liang Kailai was extremely curious and immediately followed close behind.
…
At the same time, the Jiang household was also in turmoil.
Early in the morning, Jiang Qinghuan woke up first. She planned to go to the bathroom and then return to bed for some more sleep, after which she’d order those two little beggars to buy her breakfast. Jiang Tang had been acting crazy all day yesterday, but after a night’s sleep she should have come to her senses. The game of playing the good mother should be over—she shouldn’t be protecting those two little beggars anymore.
Just as she was thinking this, she stumbled out of her room half-asleep and saw—an empty expanse all around.
The rosewood table, the landscape calligraphy and paintings, the intricately carved shelves, the lacquered five-drawer chest with carved patterns, the radio, phonograph, and electric fan sitting on top of the chest…
All the valuables in this house were gone! Every last one of them!
That was a rosewood table! It weighed at least a hundred or two hundred catties to lift—it would take two burly men to carry it. How could it just disappear like that?
The people their family had arranged weren’t supposed to empty the house until tomorrow night. Why was it already empty now?
Jiang Qinghuan couldn’t believe it and rubbed her eyes, but what she saw before her was still an empty expanse.
“Dad—Mom—”
Jiang Qinghuan’s heart-wrenching cries echoed through the empty house.
Jiang Dehai and Ding Yuqin were woken up and walked out of their room. “What’s all the fuss? What are you yelling about so early in the morning? Is it another one of those trivial little matters—”
Their words cut off mid-sentence.
Jiang Dehai and Ding Yuqin also saw the empty house.
“Gone? How is everything gone?” Ding Yuqin looked around in panic, then immediately rushed to the kitchen. Empty! Also empty! Nothing was left!
Jiang Qinghuan stood rooted to the spot, trembling, and shouted in terror, “Mom, how did this happen? What about our house? What about our things! Without these things to exchange for money, how are we supposed to leave!”
“Stop your shouting! Go check on Jiang Tang right now—is that girl still here or not?” Jiang Dehai remained relatively calm and was the first to think of Jiang Tang, who had been acting strangely yesterday.
“That’s right, where’s Jiang Tang? Is Jiang Tang still here?!”
Ding Yuqin quickly chimed in and grabbed Jiang Qinghuan’s hand as they rushed toward Jiang Tang’s room.
They didn’t even need to get close—they could see at a glance that the room’s door was wide open, and inside it was equally empty.
The blue-and-white porcelain vase that Jiang Tang had been using as a trash can on the floor—Ding Yuqin had specifically asked around and learned it could sell for five hundred yuan. How was it gone?!
Ding Yuqin wailed loudly, “My blue-and-white porcelain vase… The flower-and-bird paintings on the wall… How are they gone… Everything’s gone…”
What Jiang Qinghuan had her eye on were the various beautiful dresses in Jiang Tang’s wardrobe—there were even trench coats from Paris, France, little leather shoes from Italy, and a violin she’d been coveting for a long time.
As long as Jiang Tang was gone, all these things would be hers.
Now they were empty—even the wardrobe itself was gone!
“Could it be that Jiang Tang emptied this house while we weren’t paying attention? Impossible! Dad, Mom, Jiang Tang is just a brainless woman. How could she possibly move so many things! Without even waking us up!”
Jiang Qinghuan ranted like she’d lost her mind.
Jiang Dehai and Ding Yuqin’s faces were as ugly as they could possibly be. They also didn’t believe Jiang Tang had that kind of ability, but besides Jiang Tang, who else could it be?
“Dehai, without these things… how are we supposed to leave… The money we have on us isn’t even enough to cover the boat fare!”
“Dad… Jiang Tang’s gone. Are we still going to be sent down to the countryside? I don’t want to! I heard that going to the countryside means not only working in the rice paddies, but also carrying cow dung. I don’t want to!”
Ding Yuqin and Jiang Qinghuan both looked at Jiang Dehai, panicked and frantic.
They had not only lost the family property but also Jiang Tang, their biggest source of support. From now on, there would be no one for them to leech off of.
Jiang Dehai’s mind was equally in turmoil. He shouted at the mother and daughter, “You’re asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? Find her! Bring Jiang Tang back to me!”
The three of them hurriedly prepared to go look for Jiang Tang, but before they could even step out the door, a knock came first.
Thump thump thump! Thump thump thump! Thump thump thump!
The knocking was rapid and urgent, carrying an aggressive force.
Ding Yuqin went to open the door trembling with fear. As soon as she opened it, she saw a tall figure dressed in a crisp dark green military uniform, exuding a cold and intimidating aura that pressed down on her so heavily she couldn’t lift her head.
She had schemed against Jiang Tang multiple times—hiring traffickers, trying to strip the house of its belongings—and though none of her schemes had succeeded, the sight of a soldier still filled her with terror.
Ding Yuqin’s heart jolted, and she stumbled backward in panic. “Y-you… who are you? This is a private residence. You can’t just barge in here.”
Fu Sinian swept a cold glance over her, catching the guilt written all over Ding Yuqin’s face.
The thought that Jiang Tang might be in danger again made him unwilling to waste another second on these people.
Fu Sinian strode into the house and said coldly, “I’m Fu Sinian. Where’s Jiang Tang?”
Fu… Fu… Fu Sinian?
The Jiang Qinghuan family found the name “Fu Sinian” both familiar and strange. On the envelopes with money and ration tickets sent from the military every month, that name seemed to appear in the return address.
Jiang Qinghuan stared wide-eyed at the cold-faced, handsome man. “Y-you… you’re Jiang Tang’s crude, dull-witted soldier husband?”
They had only ever heard Fu Sinian’s name, never seen the real man. It was because Jiang Tang was pregnant with no one to care for her that they’d had the chance to move in and take over the house. In the five years since, Fu Sinian had never once shown up.
In Jiang Tang’s complaints, she’d said Fu Sinian came from a poor background and only got into university through worker-peasant-soldier recommendations; she’d said he was a rough, uncouth brute, fierce and ugly…
But the man before them was not only extraordinarily distinguished in bearing—even his face… was exceptionally handsome, with sharp, well-defined features, sword-like brows and starry eyes, radiating an innate, striking heroism.
Jiang Qinghuan trembled uncontrollably with fear, yet her eyes were fixed on Fu Sinian, unable to look away.
Deep in her heart, fierce jealousy blazed once more. Why did Jiang Tang, with a marriage arranged so casually, get to meet such a handsome soldier husband!
Ding Yuqin and Jiang Dehai, meanwhile, were so intimidated by the military uniform on Fu Sinian that they barely dared to breathe.
Fu Sinian couldn’t be bothered to observe their family’s reactions. He looked around the empty house and asked again in a cold voice.
“Don’t make me ask a third time. Where’s Jiang Tang? Where have you hidden her?”
Jiang Qinghuan suddenly retorted loudly, “Who said we hid Jiang Tang! It’s that dead girl Jiang Tang who ran off with some other man!”
Since Jiang Tang’s whereabouts were unknown anyway, even if she lied, no one would expose her.
Hearing Jiang Qinghuan’s words, a calculating glint appeared in Ding Yuqin’s eyes, and she immediately chimed in, “That’s right! Qinghuan is right! Fu… Fu… you two haven’t seen each other in five years, so you don’t know what’s happened at home. Jiang Tang had already hooked up with another man behind your back long ago—a man named Lin Pingchuan. She even sold off everything in this house and ran away with that man!”