Su Nanzhi closed her eyes, bracing for the impact of pain, but instead her entire body collided with a warm, somewhat firm embrace.
The familiar woody scent that reached her nose made Su Nanzhi’s eyes fly wide open.
It was Gu Xizhou.
She tried to straighten up in a fluster, but a muffled grunt from the man reached her ears.
Su Nanzhi couldn’t help but tighten her grip, and the grunt that had just stopped sounded again.
Realizing something, she looked down at her left hand.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Su Nanzhi didn’t know where the strength came from, but she straightened herself up without any external support.
Head bowed, she kept apologizing to Gu Xizhou.
Seeing that Gu Xizhou’s face was ashen and he remained silent, Su Nanzhi immediately grew anxious.
Although Gu Xizhou was a short-lived man who probably wouldn’t marry or have children in the future, it couldn’t be because she couldn’t have children.
Gu Xizhou watched Su Nanzhi’s eyes darting around wildly, his face cycling through shades of pale and red.
Finally, he squeezed out two words from his mouth: “It’s fine.”
Only then did Su Nanzhi let out a heavy sigh of relief, though she also just realized that her gaze from a moment ago had been somewhat inappropriate.
She blurted out, “Regiment Commander Gu, you’re in pretty good shape.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Su Nanzhi mentally slapped herself several times.
This damn mouth of hers.
Gu Xizhou was almost amused into laughter. “I am indeed in pretty good shape.”
With that, he stopped paying attention to Su Nanzhi and walked over to the crowd that Wang Yong had already intercepted, where people were still arguing.
Facing over a dozen people, Qin Lie and Zhao Xue had their clothes torn, their faces covered in fingernail scratches, looking utterly miserable.
“What’s going on here?”
Gu Xizhou’s cold expression made the military family members who had wanted to continue fighting dare not make another move.
Qin Lie and Zhao Xue wanted to fight back, but they knew they were in the wrong, so they hung their heads in silence.
Qin Lie stammered, “Nothing.”
Losing face in front of his sworn enemy was worse than death.
It was all Zhao Xue’s fault—why did she have to say something about country bumpkins?
And that bitch Su Nanzhi…
At the thought, Qin Lie couldn’t help but shoot a vicious glare at Su Nanzhi, who was standing a few steps away in a daze.
Gu Xizhou narrowed his eyes. “Deputy Battalion Commander Qin, do you think what I said is wrong?”
Wang Yong, standing nearby, chimed in with a smile, “Regiment Commander, let Political Commissar Zhu make the ruling. Then those who need to apologize will apologize, and those who need to pay compensation will pay compensation.”
Auntie Zhao, who had been slapped by Zhao Xue, immediately burst into loud wailing.
“Oh dear me, Political Commissar Zhu must give this old woman justice!”
“These soldiers are beating people to death!”
Even as she howled, it didn’t slow her down one bit as she pushed Qin Lie’s wheelchair toward the military office building.
Seeing this, the remaining aunties and sisters-in-law dragged Zhao Xue along and followed.
If their luck was bad, worst case they’d apologize; if their luck was good, they might even get an extra egg with today’s meal.
Watching Qin Lie and Zhao Xue being escorted away by the crowd, Su Nanzhi almost burst out laughing. Fortunately, she remembered her pitiful little persona.
“Comrade Su, don’t be upset.”
Seeing Su Nanzhi’s pitiful state, Wang Yong’s face was full of sympathy.
“I think you’d better call off your engagement with Deputy Battalion Commander Qin.”
After several days of investigation, he could say that apart from Qin Lie and Gu Xizhou, he was the person in the unit who knew Su Nanzhi best.
Which meant he knew all the more about Su Nanzhi’s miserable background.
The Qin family was a household of the old, weak, sick, and disabled—the only able-bodied one, Qin Lie, was serving in the army and rarely came home.
If Qin Lie were someone who knew gratitude, that would be one thing, but this Qin Lie clearly wasn’t anything good.
Su Nanzhi gave a “tragic” smile. “Little comrade, you’re still young. You wouldn’t understand.”
18-year-old Wang Yong glanced at his own biceps, then at Su Nanzhi—a weakling of the same age—and his expression was hard to describe.
Gu Xizhou lifted his gaze, his expression complicated.
Does she love him that much?
After delivering her declaration of “love,” Su Nanzhi stopped paying attention to the two men, covered her face, and ran back into the courtyard.
She ran slowly—because she was afraid she’d laugh out loud.
Perhaps trusting in the security of the family compound, the gate to Qin Lie’s house wasn’t locked, so Su Nanzhi pushed it open directly.
Qin Lie’s position in the army was deputy battalion commander, and the housing provided by the military was a two-bedroom, one-living-room layout.
Past the courtyard gate was the front door of the house. Su Nanzhi hadn’t expected that not only was the courtyard gate unlocked, but the front door was too.
A thought flashed quickly through her mind. Pushing open the front door, she saw a cloth bundle containing her clothes carelessly tossed in the corner of the living room.
The bundle containing hometown specialties, however, was nowhere to be seen. Those specialties were things she had saved up for by scrimping and saving, or traded money and goods for.
Given Qin Lie’s tendency to put on a show of generosity, he’d probably given them all to Zhao Xue.
Since he was so generous, then let him be even more generous.
Su Nanzhi picked up her cloth bundle and set it on the table, then began rummaging through every cabinet and drawer.
Three jin of white rice in the kitchen, one jin of white flour, half a cured chicken, two cured fish, a jar of lard, various seasonings—collected.
Three cents on the table, four yuan under the pillow, over a hundred yuan hidden deep in the wardrobe, and various grain and oil ration tickets—collected into Kongjian.
Clothes without patches in the cabinet—collected.
Aside from the furniture and bulky items that were hard to move, anything of value was taken.
In her previous life, she had lived in this house for over a decade. Though her relationship with Qin Lie hadn’t been good, she knew all the places where he hid his private stash of money. So with this series of quick actions, it only took her a few minutes.
Su Nanzhi nodded in satisfaction, then casually tossed the enamel cup on the table to the floor. As it clattered with a “clang,” she hurriedly rushed outside.
“Someone, come quick! There’s a burglar!”
Half an hour later.
When Qin Lie rushed back to Jiashu Yuan, what he saw was the house turned upside down in chaos, along with Su Nanzhi sobbing with her head lowered.
Seeing him return, Su Nanzhi’s eyes lit up. She dashed over to Qin Lie, grabbed his wheelchair, and pushed him straight toward the bedroom.
But before they even reached the bedroom, because her emotions were too “overwrought,” Qin Lie toppled over with his wheelchair, crashing to the ground.
Qin Lie’s plastered leg slammed heavily onto the floor. The pain instantly drained the color from his face, turning it deathly pale. Fortunately, he remembered that quite a few military family members were gathered in the courtyard watching the commotion.
But just as he swallowed back the cry of agony that was about to escape his lips, a heavy weight pressed down on his plastered leg once again.
“Ahh—”
Qin Lie could no longer bear it and let out a scream.
His pained cry drew the attention of the neighbors who had been watching the excitement in the courtyard.
Su Nanzhi pressed down with both hands once more, then reluctantly withdrew them, saying anxiously, “Brother Qin, I’m so sorry, I was just too flustered just now. Are you okay?”
Gu Xizhou, who had rushed over to the Qin household the moment he heard Su Nanzhi’s cry from next door, silently withdrew his hand upon witnessing this scene.
As Su Nanzhi spoke, she reached out to touch Qin Lie’s leg, but the moment her hand extended, the man shoved her away forcefully.
“Get lost.”
Qin Lie’s face was a mess of snot and tears from the pain, looking utterly ridiculous and completely lacking in intimidation.
Su Nanzhi barely managed to suppress her laughter before it escaped, covering her face and standing to the side, whimpering, “Brother Qin, what are we going to do? The house has been robbed clean. Your leg can’t have any more problems now.”
“What if you end up a cripple?”
Hearing this, Qin Lie momentarily forgot the searing pain in his thigh. He roughly wiped the snot from his face with his sleeve, and when he saw the completely empty room, his eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
“Who? Who robbed my house?”
Zhao Xue, who had lagged a few steps behind Qin Lie, heard his furious roar the moment she entered the courtyard.
Then, seeing Qin Lie’s stripped-bare room, if there hadn’t been so many people around, she might have nearly fainted on the spot.
She had already mentally claimed Qin Lie’s belongings as her own.
Hearing Qin Lie’s words now, she pointed at Su Nanzhi with agitation and blurted out, “It must be Su Nanzhi! She’s the only one who came to Brother Qin’s courtyard.”
Su Nanzhi sprang forward in a single stride and slapped Zhao Xue across both cheeks, left and right. Before Zhao Xue could even react, Su Nanzhi covered her face with both hands and burst into renewed sobbing.
“I just got back to Jiashu Yuan and you’re already accusing me of stealing? You’re practically forcing me to die!”