The clamor easily swallowed Qin Shuyao’s cries for help, and the young man in military uniform seemed not to slow his steps, continuing straight ahead.
The wedding pranksters had already surrounded Qin Shuyao. The most frantic among them was the hooligan who had been kicked in the groin.
“You dare kick me? Today I’ll make you see just how formidable I am!”
The man reached straight for Qin Shuyao’s collar, intending to tear her clothes apart in full view of everyone.
Qin Shuyao struggled with all her strength, but it was nothing more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
Then, in the next instant, the hooligan who meant to rip open her clothes suddenly flew.
More precisely, he was thrown. His body traced an arc through the air before crashing heavily several meters away.
Chen Qilan, tall and straight in his military uniform, descended like a guardian from the heavens, pulling the helpless Qin Shuyao into his arms.
He took off his uniform jacket and draped it over her shoulders. His voice was deep and steady, carrying a warmth that put one at ease.
“Don’t be afraid.”
From the moment she awoke after being reborn, Qin Shuyao had kept herself strong.
She did not cry when the pranksters molested her. She did not cry when Zhang Baogen cursed and berated her. She despised the weakness of her former life. Tears, she believed, were the most useless thing in the world.
But now, when Chen Qilan stood before her like an immovable mountain, when he said those two words, “Don’t be afraid,” her tears disobeyed her, spilling down like beads from a broken string.
“Qilan, people are just making a bit of noise for a wedding. Why are you meddling here?”
Someone who knew Chen Qilan stepped forward to dissuade him, hoping to convince him not to get involved.
“Your grandmother must be waiting for you at home. You should hurry back.”
Indeed, Chen Qilan had grown up in the village with his grandmother and was known as something of a prodigy.
After all, he had been exceptionally admitted to a military academy at sixteen. By now, he should have graduated and entered active service.
As for how Qin Shuyao knew Chen Qilan, it was because in her previous life he had married Zhang Baogen’s younger sister, Zhang Lingzhi.
Others might not have known how Zhang Lingzhi married Chen Qilan, but Qin Shuyao, as a daughter-in-law of the Zhang family, knew very well.
The Zhang family had staged a despicable farce of a ruined reputation and forced an innocent Chen Qilan to take responsibility.
In the end, Zhang Lingzhi got her wish and married Chen Qilan, becoming a military dependent posted to the border. A few years later, Chen Qilan died in battle. Zhang Lingzhi took the generous compensation and remarried.
At that time, Qin Shuyao herself was trapped in misery and paid little attention to her sister-in-law’s marriage. She only knew that whenever Zhang Lingzhi returned home, she cried and complained that Chen Qilan never touched her.
In this life, the two of them had no prior connection. Qin Shuyao had sought Chen Qilan’s help because she trusted the uniform he wore and the ideals he upheld as a soldier.
As it turned out, she had won her gamble.
“If this were a normal wedding, I would not interfere,” Chen Qilan said. “But what you are doing now already constitutes illegal criminal behavior.”
He pointed to the bruises on Qin Shuyao’s face. “These are contusions caused by a heavy blow, and from the injuries it is clear she was struck more than once.”
“And she asked me for help. As a soldier, I have a duty to protect the people. So I will see this through.”
Qin Shuyao choked with sobs. She clutched Chen Qilan’s arm tightly and pleaded, “Please take me away. I don’t want to marry him.”
“You say you won’t marry and that settles it?” Zhang Baogen’s father, Zhang Runsheng, shouted, pointing at Qin Shuyao’s nose.
“Even if you die today, you’ll die inside our Zhang family’s gate and serve our ancestors underground!”
Qin Shuyao loathed Zhang Runsheng.
In her previous life, this father-in-law had behaved disgracefully and repeatedly tried to molest her.
When Zhang Baogen and He Cuilian found out, not only did they fail to condemn Zhang Runsheng’s vile actions, they instead accused Qin Shuyao of putting on airs.
Zhang Baogen slapped her hard across the face and cursed, “What does it matter if my dad touches you a bit? Will you lose a piece of flesh? You little slut, who are you pretending to be pure for?”
He Cuilian leaned against the wall with a false smile, picking her teeth. “What do we raise livestock for? Isn’t it for the owner to ride? Your husband is your owner, your father-in-law is your owner too. You little wretch, remember that.”
Qin Shuyao did not give in. When Zhang Runsheng tried once again to violate her, she raised a pair of scissors and stabbed straight through the old man’s crotch.
“This is a society governed by law,” Chen Qilan said. “None of you has the right to take another person’s life. She does not want to marry. I will first send her back to her parents’ home, and you can decide after both sides have discussed it.”
Chen Qilan stood tall, his voice firm and ringing.
As he finished speaking, he shielded Qin Shuyao and prepared to leave, only to have their path blocked by a group of strong young men.
“The wedding must happen, and the bride must be put through it. Don’t think that wearing an official uniform can scare us. You want to take her away? Ask our fists first.”
The hooligan who had been kicked could not swallow this humiliation. Today, he was determined to torment this little bride until she was half dead.
“You’re a soldier, right? You can’t lay hands on civilians, can you? If you hit me today, I’ll go complain to your unit and have you stripped of that uniform.”
There was truth to that. If Chen Qilan fought back, the nature of the situation would change completely. He might even end up before a military court.
Just as he was caught between advancing and retreating, two young married women stepped out from the crowd, spreading their arms in front of Qin Shuyao.
“A new bride is a person, not an object for you to abuse and toy with!”
These two women had also faced terrifying wedding pranks on their own wedding days. Only because their in-laws and husbands protected them had they escaped harm.
But as women, they could not stand by and watch another woman be bullied.
If they remained silent and did not resist, who knew how many more girls would have to endure such humiliation and torment in the future?
Before the pranksters could react, more women stepped forward from the crowd. In no time at all, dozens of women stood before Qin Shuyao.
Among them were young wives, middle-aged aunts, and even unmarried girls.
They understood clearly that at this moment they were not only speaking up for Qin Shuyao, but also for the humiliation they themselves had suffered, and for their future children.
Such a vile custom should not continue. If they did not protest now, then one day their own daughters might face the same plight as Qin Shuyao.
Qin Shuyao looked at the women standing in front of her. Their shoulders were thin and their bodies frail, yet they still held up a bright and open sky. She was moved to tears.
Gradually, these women carved out a path for Qin Shuyao to leave.
Hand in hand, they blocked the ill-intentioned pranksters and the unwilling members of the Zhang family, using their fragile bodies to build an unbreakable wall, allowing Qin Shuyao to escape her predicament.
“Come on. I’ll take you home,” Chen Qilan said.
He grasped Qin Shuyao’s wrist and walked away from the Zhang family with resolute steps.
After going a long distance, Qin Shuyao could not help but look back.
Those sisters were still standing there, backs straight and hands clasped, like towering statues, guarding all that was good in this world.
At that moment, Qin Shuyao could no longer restrain her emotions.
In the warm, flower-scented breeze of late spring, she staggered after Chen Qilan, crying uncontrollably.
She had been wrong.
In her previous life, she had resented the coldness of the world countless times, resented people’s indifference and the lack of rescue. She crawled in darkness and cursed everything, yet never once did she call out for help.
When the pranksters tied her to a utility pole, she cried, she screamed, she begged in pain, but she never shouted the words “Save me.”
In the eyes of outsiders, she seemed merely weak and compliant, perhaps even enjoying the “liveliness” of the wedding.
So how could she blame the world for being cold?
It was only that she had never reached out her hand to ask for help.
Fate is never held in someone else’s hands. It turns on a single thought of one’s own.