“I promised you that once I’d settled Sister-in-law, I would marry you.” Xie Yanzhou turned to look at Lin Wan, his tone much gentler.
Truthfully, he was at a loss too.
He understood how Sister-in-law felt, but he also thought she was being utterly unreasonable.
After Eldest Brother died, she had been heavily pregnant and spent every day blaming everyone else.
Nanny Wang bore the brunt of it. If the clothes weren’t washed properly, Sister-in-law would make her throw them away in front of Division Commander Xie and his wife.
If the food wasn’t to her taste, she would personally carry the plates over and dump them, one by one.
Dad and Mom wouldn’t make Nanny Wang leave just because of Sister-in-law’s temper. All they could do was keep asking Nanny Wang to forgive her.
Nanny Wang had worked for the Xie family for twenty years and had grown attached to them. She could understand how Eldest Brother’s death had shaken his family, too.
So Nanny Wang kept enduring it in silence.
And Nanny Wang’s endurance was itself a torment to Division Commander Xie and his wife.
Now the child was already several months old, but Lin Shuhua’s behavior had not improved in the slightest.
She spent lavishly every month, buying clothes and bags, going out for tea all day, and even playing mahjong.
When the baby needed to nurse, her mother-in-law had to carry the child to the mahjong parlor.
At last, Division Commander Xie couldn’t stand it any longer and lost his temper, forbidding Lin Shuhua from going to the mahjong parlor again.
Lin Shuhua agreed not to go, but insisted on getting a job in a military district—specifically, the Southwest Military District.
That was where Xie Yanzhou served.
Though still young, Xie Yanzhou had already earned many military honors and was now at deputy regimental level.
“Why does she insist on going to the Southwest Military District? There are so many military districts in the capital, and Uncle Xie is a division commander in the Capital Military District. It would be easy to arrange some idle post for her,” Lin Wan said calmly.
She knew that lately Xie Yanzhou had been trying to figure out how to get Lin Shuhua through the selection process and into the Southwest Military District.
“Dad has been honest and upright his whole life. Eldest Brother wanted to join the army, but he was rejected because his eyesight was just a little too poor. He asked Dad to pull some strings, and Dad gave him a terrible scolding. Eldest Brother never forgot that, and he told Sister-in-law about it too. So she knows not to touch Dad’s sore spot,” Xie Yanzhou explained.
“Ha, hahahaha…” As she listened, Lin Wan suddenly burst out laughing.
Xie Yanzhou stopped with one hand in his pocket and stared at Lin Wan, brows knitted.
Was she crazy?
“Xie Yanzhou, I always thought you were a smart man. You graduated high school and enlisted, got into military academy soon afterward, and stood out there. Later, you earned so many honors. And yet… I’m only realizing now that your intelligence is unreliable.” Lin Wan said.
“Lin Wan… I’ve come to see you in a new light too,” Xie Yanzhou gritted out.
“Have you?” On the roadside, at the mouth of an alley, with few passersby around, Lin Wan suddenly stepped close, lifted her eyes, and looked up at the man who was more than half a head taller. Pressed against his chest, she spoke in a low, magnetic voice, rich with seductive rasp. “Is it because we’ve seen each other completely naked, so now you’ve seen the naked truth of me?”
“Lin Wan, you…” Startled, Xie Yanzhou stepped back.
There was a wall behind Yanzhou, and his back hit it.
Lin Wan only moved closer, nearly draping herself against his chest.
Xie Yanzhou heard his own heart pounding. His hand seemed to have grown roots in his pocket; even now, he couldn’t pull it out.
“Xie Yanzhou, we’re about to be husband and wife. You need to know where the lines are. Keep your distance from every woman but me, or… I might go crazy with jealousy. I could be even crazier than Lin Shuhua!” Lin Wan narrowed her eyes, her words laced with a deep threat.
Xie Yanzhou was an extraordinarily rebellious man.
That was what Division Commander Xie and his wife had said: Xie Yanzhou and Xie Yanqing were complete opposites in temperament.
Xie Yanzhou had been stubborn since childhood. No matter who tried to order him around or tell him what to do, it wouldn’t work unless he respected that person. Otherwise, even the Jade Emperor himself could come down, and it still wouldn’t matter.
Apparently, Division Commander Xie had only one way to deal with Xie Yanzhou: beat him.
They’d broken who knew how many rulers at home, and it hadn’t seemed to do much good anyway.
So Lin Wan was counting on Xie Yanzhou’s rebellious streak.
Let him make trouble. She would push him into it, until the whole Xie household was in chaos.
“Sister-in-law is your older sister. She lost her parents when she was twelve and grew up in your family. She has no one to rely on but you. You shouldn’t treat her this way,” Xie Yanzhou said.
“Xie Yanzhou, shall we analyze what you just said?” Lin Wan stepped back, giving him room.
The pressure against Xie Yanzhou’s chest was gone, but in that instant, he felt strangely empty inside.
“Analyze what?” Xie Yanzhou turned and led Lin Wan on toward East Street.
Lin Wan walked slowly. “You said Lin Shuhua lost her parents at twelve. Do you know what happened? The old house they lived in suddenly caught fire. My uncle and aunt both died in the blaze trying to save her.”
Xie Yanzhou glanced sideways at Lin Wan. After a brief silence, he said, “Your family never told us about that. This is the first I’ve heard of it. I feel even sorrier for her now.”
Lin Wan rolled her eyes so hard they nearly disappeared into her head.
This man’s thought process was beyond her.
“Her emotional struggles probably have something to do with what she went through as a child,” Xie Yanzhou said, nodding.
“After she came to live with my family, Dad asked her to share a room with me, but she refused. So Dad had me room with my younger sister and Lin Xiao, and gave her my bedroom.” Lin Wan paused, then continued before Xie Yanzhou could speak. “Xie Yanzhou, I know what you’re going to say—that my Dad and Mom were kind. They weren’t being kind. They were making a mistake.”
“A mistake?” Xie Yanzhou looked at Lin Wan, confused.
“They were afraid she’d be sad, afraid she couldn’t handle things emotionally, so they kept soothing and indulging her. If they bought clothes, they bought two of everything. Whatever they bought, they bought in pairs. They never let her feel left out.” As she spoke, Lin Wan glanced up at the sky. “Heaven ought to have eyes, shouldn’t it? It should be able to tell kindness from evil!”
Xie Yanzhou said nothing. He didn’t really understand what Lin Wan meant by that last sentence.
“So after we treated her with such kindness, weren’t we still the ones she could count on? You say she had no one to rely on, no one backing her. Weren’t we there?” Lin Wan asked.
“Sister-in-law married into the Xie family, so naturally she had to put the Xie family first. That meant she neglected Uncle Lin and Auntie quite a bit,” Xie Yanzhou said with a nod.
In the past three years, Lin Wan’s parents had visited the Xie household twice.
Usually either Factory Director Lin was extremely busy or Division Commander Xie was swamped, and they had missed one another’s visits many times.
Xie Yanzhou deeply respected and admired Factory Director Lin.
He’d heard that back then, Lin had even sold his wife’s dowry to keep the county’s Cotton Textile Factory afloat.
He said he only wanted to keep the workers from losing their jobs, because behind every worker was a huge family that needed to be cared for, raised, and supported.