“Kid, didn’t your brother already say that braised pork was for you? So your Sister Ji isn’t going to eat it, and she doesn’t want to either!”
The moment Zhuangzhuang looked up, he saw a tall, broad shouldered man standing before him.
He was even bigger than Zhuangzhuang himself.
His face was darker than his older brother’s had ever been whenever he got scolded.
Those eyes fixed on him as though they were about to swallow him whole.
Although Zhuangzhuang usually acted like a little grown up, this time he was genuinely frightened.
He stood there frozen for a long moment.
Ji Wanning was just about to stop Lu Changzheng.
But the next second, Zhuangzhuang’s legs kicked helplessly in the air as he burst into loud sobs.
“The Big Bad Wolf is here! He’s going to eat children! He’s going to eat children! Sister Ji, save Zhuangzhuang!”
Ji Wanning couldn’t help laughing at his words.
Still, she quickly patted Lu Changzheng’s hand, signaling him to put the little boy down.
The moment Zhuangzhuang’s feet touched the ground, Ji Wanning scooped him into her arms, letting his little head rest against her shoulder.
She gently patted his back, soothing him.
“It’s all right. It’s all right. Sister Ji is here. The Big Bad Wolf won’t come and take Zhuangzhuang away. He isn’t the Big Bad Wolf, and he definitely won’t eat you.”
“Waaah… He is! He’s the Big Bad Wolf who eats children!” Zhuangzhuang cried as he stubbornly insisted.
Ji Wanning looked up at Lu Changzheng helplessly.
Looking slightly embarrassed, Lu Changzheng raised his head to stare at the sky.
He really hadn’t expected this child to cry so easily. He was far fiercer with the soldiers under his command every day.
Kids were just kids.
After Ji Wanning patiently explained several more times, Zhuangzhuang finally stopped crying and reluctantly accepted that the tall, dark faced man wasn’t actually the Big Bad Wolf.
“Then, Sister Ji, why are you with the Big Ba… I mean, this uncle?”
Lu Changzheng’s dark eyes widened.
He almost blurted out a protest.
Why was Ji Wanning “Sister,” while he was “Uncle”?
He wasn’t that much older than Comrade Ji!
But then he hesitated.
He really was older. He was twenty five.
Comrade Ji was only eighteen.
A seven year difference.
Seven years…
That was indeed a bit older.
Still, it wasn’t that bad, was it?
Lu Changzheng turned to look at Ji Wanning.
Afraid she might think he had been bullying the child, he hurriedly explained,
“I didn’t bully him. And… we’ve already registered our marriage.”
Now that they were legally married, even if they didn’t have feelings for each other yet, they still had to remain faithful to one another.
Ji Wanning nodded.
That did seem reasonable.
For some reason, though…
She suddenly thought he seemed…
A little cute. Cute enough to make her want to pat his head.
The thought left Ji Wanning feeling rather puzzled.
She figured it was probably because they were married now.
Marriage really did make people see each other differently.
“Sister Ji, then will you still come to my house to eat braised pork?”
Sniffling, his eyes still red, Zhuangzhuang looked up at her expectantly.
Lu Changzheng’s face darkened again.
“Kid…”
He had barely opened his mouth when Ji Wanning’s soft, gentle voice interrupted him.
“Zhuangzhuang, Sister can’t go with you anymore. Sister is already married.”
Married?
Zhuangzhuang knew what marriage meant.
Just like how his older brother wanted to be with Sister Ji.
One day, they would get married.
So now…
Sister Ji had married someone else?
His eyes immediately filled with tears again.
Still unwilling to give up, he asked, “Sister Ji… who did you marry?”
Ji Wanning bit her lip before quietly raising a slender finger and pointing toward Lu Changzheng.
Zhuangzhuang followed her finger.
After staring blankly for several seconds…
He burst into tears all over again.
This time he cried even harder than before, as though his little heart had completely shattered.
After the school bell rang and all the children went inside for class…
“I’m sorry. Kindergarten children can be rather emotional, but they’re all very innocent. They don’t have any bad intentions.”
Ji Wanning and Lu Changzheng had already left the kindergarten.
“It’s fine.”
Lu Changzheng agreed with her.
Even though he still thought that little boy was rather annoying.
As they continued walking, they eventually arrived at the entrance to the family housing compound.
Perhaps because most people had gone to the auditorium for the blind date event, or simply to watch the excitement, the entrance to the compound was unusually quiet.
“Comrade Lu, I’ll head in now.”
Lu Changzheng couldn’t help thinking that whenever he walked with Comrade Ji, the road always seemed far too short.
Still, he knew that since the family housing application hadn’t been approved yet, Comrade Ji still had to continue living in the Lin family’s section of the compound.
The family housing compound of the Eighth Northwestern Military District consisted of three separate sections, divided by two tall walls into Courtyard No. 1, Courtyard No. 2, and Courtyard No. 3.
The Lin family lived in Courtyard No. 1.
A brand new housing compound was also nearing completion.
It offered two kinds of housing.
One was a single story house with its own courtyard.
The other was an apartment building with an individual kitchen but a shared bathroom.
Lu Changzheng asked Ji Wanning whether she wanted to live in the new compound.
Ji Wanning nodded.
Either option was fine with her, but she chose the single story house.
She wasn’t used to noisy surroundings, and the apartment building housed too many families. The soundproofing probably wouldn’t be very good either.
Although he had never asked Ji Wanning exactly what her life with the Lin family had been like, he didn’t need to.
It was obvious that living under someone else’s roof couldn’t have been easy.
He decided he needed to investigate her situation more thoroughly.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get the family housing approved as soon as possible.”
“Mhm.”
With that, Ji Wanning turned and walked inside.
Lu Changzheng watched her retreating figure.
For some reason, he stood there staring for quite a while.
Only after she had completely disappeared from sight did he finally turn around.
His expression became serious once again, and the familiar aura that warned strangers to stay away surrounded him as he left.
“Hey, didn’t I just see Little Ning from the Lin family outside with a soldier? I think it was Commander Lu, the famous living King of Hell from the military district.”
In Courtyard No. 1, a middle aged woman sitting on a small stool at the entrance looked up from knitting a sweater as she spoke.
Across from her, another woman was sorting vegetables.
Hearing that, she quickly turned around, but all she saw was Ji Wanning’s graceful figure walking toward them from afar.
She looked radiant and elegant, like a freshly blooming white magnolia.
“I don’t see anyone. Isn’t Little Ning walking back by herself? Huzi’s Mom, are your eyes getting worse now that you’re getting older?”
The moment she finished speaking, Huzi’s Mom shot her a glare.
“My eyesight is just fine! Back in our village, I was the one who spotted the village chief sneaking around with that widow from far away. I was the one who exposed them. Nobody else noticed a thing.”
Aunt Wu, who was still sorting vegetables, looked eager to hear the rest of that story.
But before Huzi’s Mom could continue, she put down her knitting, looked up at Ji Wanning, and smiled.
“Little Ning, you’re back?”
“Hello, Aunt Zhang. Hello, Aunt Jiang.”
Ji Wanning greeted them politely.
Although she hadn’t interacted with them very often, she had a good impression of both women.
The only downside was that they loved gossip.
On several occasions, they had seen Lin Yun bullying her.
Each time, they had stepped in to defend her, even giving Lin Yun a tongue lashing that left her stomping away in anger.
Not long afterward, word of Lin Yun bullying Ji Wanning spread throughout Courtyard No. 1.
Lin Yun felt utterly humiliated.
Resenting Ji Wanning even more, she repeatedly complained to Uncle Lin and Ji Wanning’s mother, insisting that Ji Wanning was manipulative, that she had deliberately let others witness the bullying in order to ruin her reputation.
She even claimed that because of this, Fang Heng disliked her even more now and had called her vicious.
Meanwhile, under Lin Yun’s angry complaints, Ji Wanning’s mother came into her room, speaking gently and softly as she persuaded Ji Wanning to apologize to Lin Yun.
Naturally, Ji Wanning refused.
After that, her mother ignored her for a long time.
Perhaps she had already seen through her mother’s true nature.
Because of that, Ji Wanning’s emotions hardly wavered.
There was, however, one thing Lin Yun had been right about.
She had done it on purpose.
The moment she realized Lin Yun was about to bully her, she had deliberately chosen a place where many people were gathered.
She had wanted everyone to know how Lin Yun treated her.
She wasn’t the kind of person who silently endured being bullied.
But if Lin Yun hadn’t bullied her in the first place, she wouldn’t have had to suffer those rumors either.
Ji Wanning had never regretted what she did.
Nor would she ever apologize for it.