In the neighboring broadcast room.
Cai Xiaolan’s face flushed crimson as she simpered, “I always talk like this normally!”
Chen Fengying, the staff member, glanced at Su Jincheng and said, “Stop with the baby talk and speak properly. If you don’t know how, let the male comrade beside you teach you.”
“I’ll come back after you’ve learned it.”
Contempt flashed in Chen Fengying’s eyes—such shameless behavior from someone so young, truly disgraceful.
If her own children dared to act like that, she’d break their damned legs.
After the woman left, Cai Xiaolan burst into tears, weeping as pitifully as a pear blossom bathed in rain.
Su Jincheng’s heart ached at the sight, and he quickly comforted her, “Don’t listen to her nonsense. I think your voice is lovely. I like it.”
“Really? You mustn’t lie to me,” Cai Xiaolan asked with a pout.
Su Jincheng nodded, “Really, but from now on, you can only talk like that to me. Just speak normally to everyone else.”
“Okay, I’ll do whatever Brother Jincheng says.” Cai Xiaolan’s eyes shone with adoration for Su Jincheng.
And Su Jincheng absolutely loved this kind of devotion.
The two lingered intimately for a while longer while the room was empty.
Suddenly remembering something, Cai Xiaolan pulled away from Su Jincheng’s embrace and whispered, “Ruan Tang is going to marry that good-for-nothing Jiang Ye.”
“What?” Su Jincheng exclaimed in shock.
Cai Xiaolan jumped, “Brother Jincheng, you scared me.”
Su Jincheng didn’t bother comforting her and urgently asked again, “What did you just say? I didn’t hear clearly.”
Seeing how tense Su Jincheng was about Ruan Tang, Cai Xiaolan seethed inwardly but kept her composure, obediently repeating, “Ruan Tang has already agreed to marry Jiang Ye—the son of the Neighborhood Committee Director.”
Upon hearing this, Su Jincheng grew agitated. Abandoning his self-criticism statement, he stood up and left.
“Where are you going?” Cai Xiaolan rose to follow him.
But because she had deliberately worn high heels today, she lost her balance and fell hard.
Sharp pain shot through her palms, knees, and chest.
Cai Xiaolan glared at the door, her eyes filled with venom.
After a moment, she picked herself up from the floor. Instead of chasing after Su Jincheng, she sat back down and diligently rewrote her self-criticism statement.
She would make sure everyone knew that Su Jincheng had slept with her.
He could only be hers.
Meanwhile, Su Jincheng went straight to the tenement courtyard.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Urgent knocking sounded at the door.
Ruan Tang hurried to answer it, her eyes filled with disgust when she saw Su Jincheng.
“What are you doing here?”
Seeing the revulsion in her eyes, Su Jincheng looked wounded.
“Do you hate me this much now?”
Ruan Tang didn’t want to waste words with him and repeated, “What are you doing here?”
Su Jincheng sighed helplessly, “You can’t marry Jiang Ye. He’s not a good man.”
Ruan Tang frowned, “Is that all?”
Su Jincheng nodded mechanically.
Although he didn’t love Ruan Tang, they had grown up together and shared some history. He couldn’t just watch her throw herself into a pit of fire.
Ruan Tang let out a cold laugh, “If that’s all, then get lost. I don’t know if he’s a good man, but I do know he’s hundreds—no, thousands—of times better than you.”
With that, Ruan Tang moved to shut the door.
Su Jincheng jammed his foot in the doorway, pleading urgently, “Ruan Tang, I haven’t finished. Jiang Ye truly isn’t someone you can entrust your life to. Even if you’re doing this to get back at me, you can’t just marry anyone!”
Ruan Tang released her hand and snapped, “What exactly do you want? We’re already no longer engaged. My affairs are none of your business.”
Su Jincheng replied, “Even after breaking off the engagement, we’re still friends. I can’t just stand by and watch you jump into a pit of fire.”
Ruan Tang was speechless.
“Sorry, but I don’t befriend cheaters.”
Su Jincheng’s face darkened. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the broadcast.
“Hello everyone, I’m Cai Xiaolan, Su Jincheng’s partner.”
“In the family temple, I gave him my innocence. I know we were wrong, but we’re truly in love and couldn’t control ourselves in the heat of the moment. We’ll restrain ourselves from now on and definitely won’t do such things again before marriage. I hope…”
Cai Xiaolan repeated the lines over and over.
Su Jincheng was dumbfounded. Why wasn’t she reading the prepared script?
If his mother found out they were still involved, she would never let him off the hook.
Seeing the panic in Su Jincheng’s eyes, Ruan Tang deliberately asked with feigned confusion, “Is she reading a self-criticism?”
“It sounds more like she’s declaring sovereignty! Should I congratulate you two on finally getting together?”
In just a moment, Su Jincheng was sweating profusely from anxiety. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
Without staying any longer, he got on his bicycle and headed back to the neighborhood committee.
Ruan Tang sneered. He couldn’t even clean up his own mess, yet he had the nerve to meddle in her affairs. Did he really think he was something special?
In the past, she only knew he would marry her. Whether they liked each other or not didn’t matter to her, since that’s how the older generation had always lived—marriage was just two people teaming up to get by.
So she had no expectations of Su Jincheng.
But she never imagined he would cross such moral boundaries.
And he had the nerve to say Jiang Ye wasn’t a good person? Then wasn’t he even less of a human being?
Hmph! Scum.
Meanwhile, Jiang Ye, who was labeled “not a good person,” was currently sweating buckets.
In a dilapidated courtyard.
Jiang Ye, shirtless and wearing black pants, was doing squats under the scorching sun.
The sandbag in his hands moved up and down with his motions.
The muscles on his arms were well-defined, tightening and hardening with each exertion.
His gaze was fixed ahead, determined. Beads of sweat trickled from his temples down his cheeks, neck, chest, abs, and finally disappeared into his waistband.
Hou Lin, squatting under a large tree, whispered to Liu Shunchao, “Shunzi, didn’t Brother Ye manage to get himself a wife? Why is he upset again?”
Usually, when Brother Ye was angry, he took it out on them. Today, he was taking it out on himself.
This wasn’t normal. It was really not normal.
Liu Shunchao looked just as confused. “I don’t know. Brother Ye’s thoughts are the hardest to guess.”
After watching for a while, Hou Lin sighed. “Let’s go. We shouldn’t slack off either. Let’s keep running, so he doesn’t take it out on us.”
These men were all Jiang Ye’s subordinates, making a living in the black market.
Usually, they were most afraid of people with red armbands, especially those from the neighborhood committee.
Jiang Ye had only one requirement for them: if they saw someone with a red armband, they should run—the faster, the better.
They were strictly forbidden to confront them directly, and under no circumstances were they to fall into Jiang Mother’s hands.
Otherwise, they’d be finished.
This was also why Jiang Ye, despite earning money, didn’t dare tell his family.
Jiang Mother would never allow him to work in the black market, but Jiang Ye had no choice.
Unnoticed, the sun had climbed directly overhead.
Jiang Ye didn’t stop practicing until he was completely exhausted. He first took a cold shower before leaving the compound.
The Jiang family lived in a two-courtyard siheyuan. Just as Jiang Ye passed through the Hanging Flower Gate, he heard Jiang Mother complaining in the main room: “Where has that boy gone again? He’s about to get married soon, yet he still doesn’t come home.”
“Really, it’s all your fault. Of all the names you could have chosen, you had to pick ‘Wild.’ Now look – he’s out wandering every day and never comes home.”
Jiang Father smiled helplessly: “Back then, I was thinking that humble names are easier to raise.”
“Look at those wildflowers, weeds, stray cats, and dogs – how tenacious their vitality is. Although Jiang Ye is unreliable, he’s tough and resilient.”
Jiang Mother was deeply worried in her heart. With her son’s temperament, if he didn’t change his ways properly, how would he be able to live well in the future?
“You two are secretly talking behind my back again.” Jiang Ye parked his bicycle and strode toward the main room with his long legs.