Everyone felt really sorry for her and were clearly upset on her behalf, wondering how people like that could even exist.
“Being betrayed by your own sister… that must hurt a lot, right?”
“I don’t think your sister is a good person at all. Try not to dwell on it. Since you and Deputy Commander Lu have already filed for marriage, just focus on building a good life together—that’s what matters.”
“Exactly! Honestly, you and Deputy Commander Lu look great together. He’s never had a girlfriend or any rumors about him. At least we know he’s a decent man!”
…
The military wives started out curious for gossip, but gradually shifted to comforting her and even supporting her.
On the outside, Liu Qingyue still looked pitiful and hurt.
“Don’t worry—we won’t just stand by and let anyone bully you. We’re all military wives here, and I hate people who act like that!” one of them said firmly, patting her chest. The others quickly agreed.
They made it clear they would stand up for her.
Liu Qingyue knew she had achieved what she wanted, so she wiped her tears and said softly,
“Thank you all so much. I’ll make sure to live a good life with Deputy Commander Lu.”
“When everything’s settled, I’ll invite all of you over for a simple home-cooked meal!”
After chatting a bit more, the women finally left—still talking among themselves about how shameless Liu Wanwan had been.
“We should spread this around so everyone on the island knows what happened!”
With that plan in mind, Liu Qingyue returned home.
As soon as she went inside, she shut the door and lay down on the bed.
From what those women said, the story would spread on its own—no need for her to do anything else. Gossip travels fast among military families. Even people who don’t get along still love hearing news. Within three days, the whole island would know.
Thinking about it, she rubbed her chin.
Maybe yesterday’s scene wasn’t big enough… she should’ve made sure everyone knew right away.
Oh well.
She let it go.
Meanwhile, after returning home, Liu Wanwan stayed in her room the whole time.
Zhou Heshan had been suspended, and after going out in the morning to submit his written self-criticism, he came back and called out when he didn’t see her.
“I’m here.”
Hearing his voice, Liu Wanwan deliberately pinched her thigh hard to force out a couple of tears, making her voice sound choked with emotion.
“Heshan… I’m in the room.”
Her voice trembled, so Zhou Heshan immediately felt something was wrong and pushed open the door.
Even though his mother had spoken harshly, he had comforted Liu Wanwan earlier that morning. Their relationship was already set, and he was planning to submit their marriage application—she should’ve been happy.
So what happened?
When he entered, he saw her sitting there with tears streaming down her face. He quickly walked over and sat beside her.
“Wanwan, what’s wrong?”
“I went out for a walk just now… and I ran into Liu Qingyue again. She said a lot of awful things to me,” she said, sobbing and wiping her tears.
Zhou Heshan immediately grew concerned.
“And then? Did she do anything to you? Are you okay? Did it affect the baby?”
You could tell—he was genuinely nervous.
“No…”
“I think she already knew I was pregnant, so she was deliberately trying to cause trouble. I just went to talk to her, but she started pretending to cry. Then a bunch of military wives showed up, and everyone started talking all at once!”
The more Liu Wanwan talked, the more upset she became.
But after hearing everything, Zhou Heshan stared at her, took a deep breath, rubbed his temples, and stood up.
“Liu Wanwan… is something wrong with your brain?”
She looked up at him in shock, completely unable to believe what she just heard.
“S-Shan… how can you say something like that?” she stammered.
“You’re hurting my feelings…”
“Hurt?” Zhou Heshan let out a cold laugh. “Are you serious? Think about it—this whole situation is already a huge mess, and you still went and made it worse!”
“At a time like this, you went to provoke Liu Qingyue? Do you want both of us to get completely ruined by gossip?”
“My mom was already very unhappy with you yesterday. I barely managed to calm her down, and today you go and stir up trouble again!”
He was beyond frustrated. In his eyes, Liu Wanwan was acting foolish and didn’t even understand that they should lie low for a while.
Hearing this, Liu Wanwan realized she had been too impulsive. She sniffed and said,
“I didn’t mean for things to turn out like this… I just wanted to ask her if she already knew about us and if she exposed it on purpose…”
“Even if she did—so what? We can’t afford to make things worse now!” Zhou Heshan cut her off, clearly done talking.
He used to like her because she seemed gentle and understanding… but now, he felt like she lacked common sense and might even ruin his future.
Seeing he was angry, Liu Wanwan didn’t dare argue anymore. She sat on the bed, looking pitiful.
“I didn’t realize… Heshan, I’m sorry. I just got too emotional.”
“Please don’t be mad at me. I promise I won’t do anything like that again.”
She sniffled again.
Zhou Heshan was still annoyed, but thinking about the baby she was carrying, he held back.
After things calmed down a bit, he lowered his voice and said,
“Until we’re officially married, stay away from Liu Qingyue. Don’t go see her again.”
“The more this spreads, the worse it gets. I need this to die down so I still have a chance with my superiors.”
“Otherwise… I can forget about getting promoted for the rest of my life.”
He made the situation sound serious on purpose so she wouldn’t cause more trouble. As expected, she nodded quickly and promised not to go again.
Only then did he finally feel a bit relieved.
That afternoon…
Yang Su returned from the military hospital. When she saw Liu Wanwan doing housework, she still felt annoyed—but after remembering what people at the hospital had said, she forced herself to calm down.
She took a deep breath, then looked at her son, who was sitting on the couch.
“You two should just submit the marriage application. Once it’s approved, go ahead and get married.”
Since there was already a child involved, if their family refused to accept Liu Wanwan, it would damage their reputation—and even her own position at the hospital.
She had worked for years to become the head nurse. She couldn’t risk everything now.
People at the hospital had been telling her all day:
“If your family doesn’t take responsibility, you’ll be ruining that girl’s life.”
After thinking it over, she felt a headache coming on. She rubbed her temples and went straight into her room.
Meanwhile, Liu Wanwan was overjoyed when she heard this.
She quickly dropped the broom, ran over, and grabbed Zhou Heshan’s hand.
“Heshan, we can finally get married! We can finally be together!”
“In a few months, our baby will be born… and I’m sure it’ll be a big, healthy baby boy!”