It had to be said—Guo Xuyang truly lived up to being the male lead.
He was genuinely handsome.
Tall and broad-shouldered, with the kind of upright, righteous face that was extremely popular in this era.
Thick eyebrows, bright eyes—just looking at him made people want to ask:
“Old Guo, do you need a wife?”
No wonder the original Lin Wan had wanted to steal him.
Lin Wan’s shamelessness actually made Guo Xuyang laugh in anger. He took a step forward, only for Zhang Qin to hurriedly grab his sleeve and shake her head with tears in her eyes.
“Xuyang, don’t do anything rash!”
“It’s not Wanwan’s fault…”
Don’t let her trap you into something!
Crystal-clear tears rolled down her moist eyes one drop at a time. Her ordinary beauty instantly became breathtaking under the embellishment of those tears.
She had simply been born in the wrong era.
If she had been born in the 1980s, she could have starred in melodramatic television dramas and become famous throughout the country.
“Zhang Qin!” Guo Xuyang’s face darkened with anger.
“She stole your boyfriend!”
“And you just let her have him? What do you take me for?”
“And now you’re even defending her? I really misjudged you!”
Zhang Qin felt as though her heart were breaking.
Tears poured endlessly from her eyes.
She looked so pitiful and fragile that even the sun seemed to hide behind the clouds in sympathy.
Lin Wan immediately snapped back.
“Guo Xuyang, poke two holes in an eggplant and it would be more of a man than you!”
“You can’t even protect your own woman, yet you’re blaming her for not defending your relationship.”
“You know perfectly well what her position is in that household. She’s a soft target. How is she supposed to fight back?”
“And you? You can’t save her from her misery. All you know how to do is throw tantrums!”
“Bah!”
“Coward!”
“Good thing I’ve changed my mind and don’t want you anymore. Even if I did steal you, I’d throw you straight into the trash afterward!”
Lin Wan thought to herself that after insulting him this thoroughly, her stance should be perfectly clear by now.
So hurry up and get lost together and register your marriage already!
As long as the two of them got married on the spot, all ties between them and her would be completely severed. Then her mother wouldn’t be able to force Zhang Qin to go to the countryside and suffer the tragic fate that awaited her.
If that happened, the miserable destiny of their entire family could be changed.
The more she thought about it, the more energized she became.
Guo Xuyang’s face had turned green from anger.
His fists were clenched so tightly that veins bulged on his forehead and neck.
Zhang Qin was equally stunned by Lin Wan’s words.
What… what trick was she trying to play now?
She couldn’t possibly be helping me!
That’s right. She couldn’t be helping me. She was only trying to drive a wedge between me and Brother Xuyang.
But why…
Why did hearing those divisive words make her feel wronged?
Why did she feel that Lin Wan was right?
Guo Xuyang pointed angrily at Lin Wan.
“Lin Wan, stop twisting the facts! The ones bullying Zhang Qin have always been you and your mother!”
“Your mother is an evil stepmother! She makes Zhang Qin do all the housework, scolds her whenever she feels like it, and helps you steal her things!”
Insult Huang Guixiang?
Absolutely not!
That was the mother she’d only gotten after transmigrating!
Lin Wan rolled up her sleeves and smacked his pointing hand away.
“Don’t point at me!”
“Open your dog eyes and tell me—which family’s daughters don’t do housework?”
“Why should Zhang Qin be some special exception?”
Zhang Qin cried even harder.
But she was too timid and powerless to stop Guo Xuyang.
How could he do this?
She had only vented a few grievances to him when she felt upset. How could he repeat all of it in front of Lin Wan?
Zhang Qin didn’t even dare imagine what kind of storm awaited her at home once Lin Wan ran back and tattled to Huang Guixiang.
Guo Xuyang was disgusted by Lin Wan’s shamelessness.
With obvious contempt, he said,
“Zhang Qin isn’t an exception. You’re also a daughter of that household. Why don’t you do any work at all?”
Lin Wan sneered.
“I don’t do housework because my biological mother spoils me!”
“If Zhang Qin doesn’t want to do it, then she can ask her own father to spoil her too!”
“Before my mother married her father, she did every single chore in that house. She had to wash everyone’s clothes—including her own brother’s and sister-in-law’s underwear. She practically raised her nieces and nephews like a live-in nanny, and she was the one washing all the dirty diapers!
“Because there was always endless work to do, her father forced her to drop out of school when she was in junior high.
“It was only after my mother married into that family that her brother and sister-in-law had to wash their own clothes and take care of their own children!
“And it was only because my mother married into that family that your girlfriend, who had already dropped out after junior high, was able to continue her education!”
“My mother never let her go hungry. She never let her freeze. She cut her workload in half and even allowed her to finish high school. She didn’t marry her off to some old widower as a stepmother just to collect a bride price and use it as my dowry.
“She didn’t treat her like livestock the way some families do—those families with daughters named Zhaodi, Pandi, Yindi, and Laidi, who raise their daughters like work animals and then sell them off for huge bride prices to pay for their sons’ marriages.
“My mother has already outperformed ninety percent of stepmothers in this country.
“And yet, in your mouths, she somehow becomes the evil stepmother.
“If you’re not ungrateful ingrates, then who is?”
“And as for me stealing her things—sure, I can try to take them, but she can refuse to give them to me.
“But her father insisted she hand them over. He insisted on using her to curry favor with my mother.
“The one bullying her was her biological father, not my mother!”
“The fact that I have a mother protecting me isn’t my fault. And the fact that she doesn’t have a father protecting her isn’t my fault or my mother’s fault either!”
“You people always blame everything on women. Back in feudal times, whenever a dynasty fell, everyone blamed some seductive concubine for leading the ruler astray. But nobody ever stopped to think—if the ruler had been competent, could a concubine have really manipulated him?
“When the signal beacons were lit for a lover’s amusement, if King You of Zhou hadn’t allowed it, do you think Bao Si could have ordered anyone to light those beacons?”
“And you, Guo Xuyang, are no better. If you knew Zhang Qin had such a hard life, then you should’ve married her immediately, gotten the paperwork done, and taken her with you to your military posting so she could escape that family.
“But what were you doing instead?
“You were blaming her.
“Blaming her for giving you up to me. You’re a living, breathing man. Could she really just hand you over?
“What are you, a corpse? She says marry me and you just obey?
“She only said those things because agreeing would earn her fewer scoldings… Instead of sympathizing with her, you rubbed salt into her wounds. Forget it. There’s no reasoning with a useless man like you!”
“And Zhang Qin, you’re no saint either. Just because you’re weak, does that mean you’re automatically right? Does the whole world have to revolve around you?
“Did you give birth to Guo Xuyang? Did you raise him?
“What gives you the right to say you’re handing him over to me?
“He’s a person, not an object!
“Besides, if I’m such a terrifying monster in your eyes, why would you push me onto Guo Xuyang?
“What, are you afraid he’ll have too good a life otherwise?
“For the sake of your own selfish interests, you were willing to drag him into this mess. That’s really something!”
Lin Wan unleashed her tirade without holding back.
Her principle was simple:
Everyone got their share.
No favoritism. No exceptions.
It felt amazing.
Without caring whether the two of them could handle it or not, she strode past them with her head held high.
Leaving Zhang Qin and Guo Xuyang standing there, questioning their entire existence.
The pair stood frozen in the wind, their worldviews shattered into countless pieces.
As they struggled to rebuild their beliefs, each saw guilt reflected in the other’s eyes.
“Good grief!”
“Commander Huo, that woman is terrifyingly impressive!”
“Whoever marries a wife like that is doomed!”
“Damn, did you hear her? She talks about stealing someone else’s boyfriend like it’s perfectly justified!”
“Such a beautiful face wasted on someone so vicious!”
“Commander Huo… this is bad. Why do I feel like she actually made some good points?”
Inside a jeep parked by the roadside not far away, Du Guoqiang, a guard and driver, had watched the entire spectacle unfold. His mouth never stopped moving as he offered commentary on everything he had seen.
The man sitting in the passenger seat had his military cap pulled down over his face and ignored him the entire time.
“She’s coming this way, Commander Huo!”
“Holy crap! She’s gorgeous! Like a fairy descended from heaven!”
“Too bad her tongue is so sharp!”
“Don’t gossip about female comrades.”
Huo Xiao finally lost patience with Du Guoqiang’s nonstop chatter and removed the cap covering his face.
But in the very next moment, a young woman in a white blouse and green military trousers skipped cheerfully past the front of the jeep, humming a tune.
She looked extraordinarily happy.
The smile on her face was so bright it was dazzling.
There was a vivid vitality about her that made one’s heart tremble.
Without realizing it, Huo Xiao’s gaze followed that joyful figure as she squeezed onto a crowded bus.
“Go to the post office and hurry Old Xiao along,” Huo Xiao instructed, sending Du Guoqiang away.
Then he slid into the driver’s seat himself and started the jeep.
Following the bus.
Meanwhile, Lin Wan, who had just boarded the bus, had no idea that she was being followed.