The middle-aged woman was all talk, but when it came to fighting, she hardly knew a move or two.
Naturally, she couldn’t win against this battle-hardened old country woman.
The three of them began to tussle.
To be precise, the old woman held onto the woman, letting her grandson continue eating the meat.
Seizing the opportunity, Fang Yuan clutched the lunchbox tightly and quickly returned to the train compartment, closing the door behind her.
Calmly, she returned to her berth, opened the lunchbox, and slowly began eating the braised pork belly.
Hmm, the taste was rather ordinary. With incomplete seasonings and it being a large-batch meal, the flavor naturally wasn’t great.
Still, it was meat after all, bought for fifty cents, so she had to finish it no matter what.
As she ate the meat and listened to the sounds of the woman and the grandmother-grandson pair tussling outside, she found it quite appetizing.
The people in the compartment glanced at her a few times, but no one spoke.
They had all heard what happened outside earlier, and they couldn’t exactly say the girl was in the wrong.
They just admired the young girl’s sharp tongue—she really knew how to talk.
Fang Yuan didn’t care what these people thought.
She ate and drank as she pleased, and after that, no one asked her for a bite when she bought meat again.
After another two days and one night on the train, they finally arrived at the terminal station.
Stepping off the train, she was met with a dense sea of people.
On the platform, a soldier in uniform held a small photo, looking at it repeatedly before finally matching it with Fang Yuan’s face.
Once confirmed, he squeezed through the crowd and ran over:
“Hello, sister-in-law! I was sent by Battalion Commander Zhao Qingzhuo to pick you up. The battalion commander was called away on an urgent mission yesterday, so he asked me to bring you back!”
“And you are?” Fang Yuan asked the young soldier, feigning confusion.
With the information from the System, she knew this was Liu Lei, the comm soldier of the original host’s husband.
But since this was her first time here, she had to pretend not to recognize him.
“My name is Liu Lei. I’m the battalion commander’s comm soldier. He sent me to pick you up!”
Liu Lei saluted Fang Yuan as he spoke, taking her luggage from her.
“Look at this, Baobao. Someone like her is actually an officer’s wife, and she even has someone picking her up? She wouldn’t even spare a bite of meat for a child—how heartless! Pah!”
The mocking voice was loud and familiar. Fang Yuan followed the sound.
It was the old woman who had asked for the meat, accompanied by a young girl around eighteen or nineteen years old.
“Huh!”
Fang Yuan looked at the girl. Why did this woman resemble the original female lead?
“System, is this the female lead? Why does she look different from the memories you gave me?” Fang Yuan asked the System in her mind.
The young girl’s face was dark and sallow, her skin rough and coarse.
But her features were about seventy to eighty percent similar to the female lead the System had shown her, leaving Fang Yuan uncertain.
【Yes!】
The System’s voice echoed in her mind.
“No way? This is Zhang Xiuzhen? She looks nothing like the version in the script you gave me!”
Fang Yuan scrutinized the woman again. The System had transmitted memories of a fair-skinned, beautiful woman.
The one before her could only be considered average-looking. Unless she underwent modern facial adjustments and skin whitening, there was no way she could transform into a swan.
【She obtained the Space, and the spiritual energy within nourished and improved her physique and appearance, which is why she looks different.】
【Host, don’t worry. Now that you’ve claimed the Space, you’ll also become more and more beautiful over time.】
“So you’re saying everything about this woman is thanks to the Space? Then wasn’t my original self at a huge disadvantage?”
Upon hearing the System’s response, Fang Yuan almost died of heartache.
Such an incredible treasure had actually fallen into the hands of this malicious family. Just thinking about it made her feel deeply unsettled.
[…]
The System remained silent, tacitly confirming it.
So this Zhang Xiuzhen had taken the same train as her and was actually in cahoots with that old woman who had demanded meat from her.
If that old woman hadn’t been so angry and come up to curse her, she would never have known.
Want to become a commander’s wife? Pah!
Keep dreaming—dreams are where everything comes true!
Fueled by her frustration, Fang Yuan fired back without hesitation:
“Auntie, judging by your appearance, you must be heading to the army to visit family? You fought and snatched someone else’s meat on the train—how can your son still be a soldier? I’m starting to wonder if your family bribed their way in back then.”
She spoke loudly enough for many around them to turn and look.
So that was why the original host had suddenly become friends with the female lead from the countryside.
It must have been because the old woman saw how generous the original host was and deliberately told her daughter to befriend her just to take advantage.
Truly, the kind-hearted get bullied!
“How dare you, you little wretch, speak about my son! My son became a soldier through proper channels. What nonsense are you spouting? If you were my daughter-in-law, I’d have my son divorce you on the spot!”
The old woman, feeling somewhat guilty from Fang Yuan’s words, pointed at her and began ranting wildly.
“Your daughter-in-law must be truly unfortunate. Once we reach the army, I’ll have to report this to the political commissar. The Chairman himself said women hold up half the sky, yet your family still clings to feudalistic rubbish. We can’t let such backward thinking corrupt the army’s morale!”
Fang Yuan retorted without backing down.
The female lead’s family already had questionable political backgrounds. During the political movements, they had almost been exposed.
If the female lead hadn’t married a capable man, how could her brother have stayed in the army, let alone been promoted to regimental commander?
Now that she was here, such rotten apples were better off removed from the army sooner rather than later.
“You—”
Just as the old woman was about to speak again, Zhang Xiuzhen quickly stopped her mother.
“Mother, don’t say anymore. We’re in public, and many people are watching. Let’s hurry—big brother is waiting for us!”
She glanced around, noticing many people secretly observing them.
Her mother wanted her to marry an army officer. If they gained a bad reputation, how could she ever marry into a good family?
“Right, right, I almost let this wretch lead me astray. Bao’er, wait—let me curse her a few more times.”
The old woman, ever doting on her late-born daughter, turned back and hurled a string of curses at Fang Yuan:
“You little wretch, don’t get too smug. That belly of yours will surely bear a girl—you’ll never have a son. Your husband will beat you three times a day, and we’ll see how you strut around then!”
“Three beatings a day? Your family is truly something—harming women worse than enemy spies. Your family must have been bandits or brigands in the past, right? Someone should definitely investigate what your family used to do.”
At the mention of bandits, both the old woman and Zhang Xiuzhen paled.
The old woman reacted quickly, turning back to curse at Fang Yuan:
“You’re the bandit! Your whole family are bandits! My ancestors were poor peasants for eight generations. Daughter, let’s go.”
After cursing, she turned and hurried away with her daughter and grandson.
She was genuinely afraid Fang Yuan might have someone investigate her family—it would be disastrous if it harmed her son.
“Hmph, guilty conscience. That family is definitely no good. Let’s go, Xiao Liu!”
Fang Yuan snorted coldly, watching the three retreating figures with a dark expression.
He then signaled Liu Lei to hurry up and leave, so as not to be gawked at like monkeys.
Little Liu followed behind Fang Yuan in a daze, carrying several large bags of luggage.
Didn’t the battalion commander say that the wife was gentle, beautiful, and virtuous?
She is indeed beautiful, but the gentleness is nowhere to be seen!