Sister Zhang’s kneel sent shockwaves through everyone in the laundry room.
No one could have imagined that Sister Zhang, who moments ago had been overbearing and domineering, would now kneel before Jiang Wu in front of so many people!
“Sister-in-law, what are you doing? Get up quickly!”
“Exactly! Talk things out properly, why resort to kneeling?”
Several military wives nearby hurried over to help her up.
But Sister Zhang seemed as if her bones had been removed, collapsing on the ground and impossible to pull up.
Clutching Jiang Wu’s calf, she cried pitifully, tears and snot streaming down her face: “Sister-in-law! I was wrong! I was truly wrong!”
“I just have a wretched mouth! I was just jealous of how pretty you are, jealous of how much Commander Qin dotes on you!”
“I was just envious! I was talking nonsense! Please, please don’t take it to heart!”
As she cried, she secretly stole glances at Jiang Wu’s expression from the corner of her eye.
She was genuinely terrified now.
Jiang Wu’s few words had been like knives, each one striking her Achilles’ heel.
She didn’t dare gamble, and she couldn’t afford to lose!
Jiang Wu looked down at Sister Zhang clinging to her leg, crying miserably, her own eyes showing not a ripple of emotion.
She, of course, knew about the matters in Sister Zhang’s household. This was all thanks to the divine sense she had cultivated in her previous life in the Unity Joy Sect.
Although she had now lost all her spiritual power, and her divine sense was pitifully weak, it was still more than enough to cover this small residential compound and eavesdrop on some family secrets and gossip.
Last night, she had used her divine sense to overhear the argument between Sister Zhang and her husband, Old Wang, and had learned about their scheme of stealing military raincoats and reselling them to relatives back in their hometown.
She hadn’t originally planned to expose this. After all, avoiding trouble was better than inviting it.
But this Sister Zhang had truly gone too far, insisting on running headlong into her line of fire.
So, she had no choice but to “kill the chicken to scare the monkey.”
“Sister Zhang, get up,” Jiang Wu spoke calmly.
“The matters of your household don’t interest me.”
“I’m speaking plainly today only to tell you one thing.” She paused, her voice carrying a hint of coldness. “One must leave room with their words. Otherwise, you never know when retribution will come.”
Hearing this, Sister Zhang trembled even more violently.
How could she not understand the warning in Jiang Wu’s words? This was a clear admonition!
“Yes, yes, yes! You’re absolutely right, sister-in-law! I’ll remember! I’ll never dare again!” She nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, almost on the verge of kowtowing to Jiang Wu.
Seeing her like this, Jiang Wu also found it rather tiresome.
She pulled her leg free and took a step back. “Alright, get up. With so many people watching, this is unbecoming.”
With that, she ignored the stunned Sister Zhang on the ground and the wide-eyed military wives around her. She walked calmly to an empty faucet and began washing her clothes.
She washed meticulously and quietly, as if the person who had just dominated the room and forced Sister Zhang to kneel and beg for mercy moments ago wasn’t her.
The laundry room was eerily silent.
Everyone looked at Jiang Wu with a completely new gaze, one tinged with awe.
This woman was not simple!
She was no longer the same “drama queen” who only knew how to cry, make a scene, and throw tantrums.
She had become inscrutable, someone not to be provoked lightly.
Sister Zhang knelt on the ground for a while longer. Seeing that Jiang Wu truly had no intention of pursuing the matter further, she finally, with the help of others, tremblingly got to her feet.
She didn’t even bother with her laundry anymore. Grabbing her basin, she slunk away in disgrace from the place that had utterly humiliated her.
After this storm, no one dared gossip in front of Jiang Wu anymore.
In fact, their looks towards Jiang Wu now held a hint of flattery and ingratiation.
“Sister-in-law, your basin looks heavy, let me help you carry it back?”
“Sister Jiang Wu, you look a bit pale, didn’t sleep well last night? I have some brown sugar at home, let me bring you some to nourish yourself?”
The world of women was just that pragmatic.
When you were weak, everyone wanted to step on you; when you were strong, everyone wanted to curry favor with you.
Jiang Wu responded to their overtures with polite indifference.
After washing and hanging her clothes, she returned home.
Closing the door, she shut out all the outside noise and commotion.
Lying on the bed with her eyes closed, she began to contemplate her next steps.
Things with Qin Lie seemed to be progressing initially.
Although that man wouldn’t say it, his body’s reactions didn’t lie.
He was already developing feelings for her.
What she needed to do next was to simmer the frog in warm water, taking him down completely bit by bit.
As for the residential compound, after today’s commotion, it was unlikely anyone would come looking for trouble with her anytime soon.
Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction.
However, Jiang Wu had overlooked the biggest “ticking time bomb” left by the original host – the “lover” prepared for the elopement, Zhou Mingyuan.
That afternoon, Jiang Wu was at home reading a book.
It was a copy of The Barefoot Doctor’s Manual.
Although she possessed elixirs from the Unity Joy Sect, those were potent and drastic remedies that treated symptoms, not the root cause.
Her current body was severely depleted. To truly restore it to health, she needed to rely on the medical knowledge of this world.
She was reading intently when a commotion suddenly erupted outside the courtyard.
“Jiang Wu! Get out here!” A man’s voice, furious and frantic, rang out at the gate of the courtyard.
Immediately, the chatter of neighbors rose in response.
“Hey, isn’t that Comrade Zhou from the Cultural Troupe, the one who plays the violin?”
“What’s he doing here looking for Commander Qin’s wife?”
“He looks furious, is he here to pick a fight?”
Hearing the words “Comrade Zhou,” Jiang Wu’s heart skipped a beat.
She put down the book and walked to the window, peering out discreetly.
She saw a man in a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses standing outside her courtyard gate.
The man looked clean-cut and refined, but a shadow of gloom and impatience lingered between his brows.
It was Zhou Mingyuan, the man from the original host’s memories with whom she had planned to elope.
How did he find his way here?
Jiang Wu frowned.
In the original host’s memories, she had met this Zhou Mingyuan at a military district performance.
Zhou Mingyuan was a violinist in the Cultural Troupe. Decent-looking, he knew how to spout saccharine sweet nothings, completely charming the original host.
The original host thought she had found true love. For him, she was willing to divorce Qin Lie, even abandon everything to run away with him.
They had agreed to meet at the pier the very afternoon Qin Lie was due back from the troops, to board a ship and leave the island together.
But that day, Jiang Wu had crossed over.
She was busy dealing with Qin Lie and had long since forgotten about this Zhou Mingyuan, tossing him to the far corners of her mind.
Yet, here he was, showing up on his own!
“Jiang Wu! I know you’re in there! Open the door!” Seeing no movement from inside the house, Zhou Mingyuan started banging on the courtyard gate again, his voice growing louder.
His racket attracted even more onlookers.
The military wives from the compound all came out of their homes, gathering around the courtyard, pointing and whispering.
“What on earth is going on? What exactly is the relationship between this Comrade Zhou and Jiang Wu?”
“Don’t you know? I heard Jiang Wu made such a fuss about getting a divorce before, all for this Comrade Zhou!”
“What?! Really?!”
“Absolutely true! I heard they even bought the boat tickets to elope!”
“Oh my goodness! Then why now… is she back on good terms with Commander Qin? And… even had him carry her home?”
“Who knows! In my opinion, this woman is fickle. She keeps one eye on what’s in her bowl, and the other on what’s in the pot!”
“So this Comrade Zhou showing up… isn’t this like catching an adulterer?”
Every word of the crowd’s gossip clearly reached Jiang Wu’s ears.
Her expression darkened.
She knew she had to go out and deal with this trouble.
Otherwise, the reputation she had worked so hard to turn around would be completely ruined.
And if Qin Lie found out some strange man had come knocking because of an “elopement”…
Jiang Wu didn’t dare imagine the consequences.
She straightened her clothes and composed her expression, then opened the door and walked out.
The moment she appeared, all the chatter stopped.
Everyone’s eyes focused on her—filled with curiosity, disdain, and schadenfreude.
Jiang Wu seemed not to notice those looks at all.
She walked straight to the courtyard gate and looked at Zhou Mingyuan through the fence.