“Never mind, her head’s probably broken,” Qin Junyao explained to Li Xiaohua.
Cheng Mengzhi definitely knew about the gold hidden at home, so she was obviously just talking nonsense. Everyone knew her family’s ancestors were merchants, so it was completely normal for them to have left behind some money and valuables. She was definitely just using that to threaten her. Still, a person driven to desperation could do anything. Given the current situation, her marriage to Lin Shuyan hadn’t been completely finalized yet, so it was better not to make things too messy. Marrying someone while carrying another man’s child wasn’t exactly a glorious thing to begin with.
Cheng Mengzhi didn’t bother to argue. If they thought she was crazy, then she was crazy. Acting a little unhinged could solve a lot of problems—trying to reason with people was useless anyway. Since she was cast as the villainous supporting character, if threatening people could buy her peace and quiet, she didn’t want to blow things out of proportion either. Given the special status of the original host’s mother, it was best to provoke those people as little as possible. For the sake of her own peaceful life, Qin Junyao would definitely pressure Lin Shuyan to withdraw the report and quietly brush the investigation under the rug.
Entering the cafeteria to get food, meals were free for active-duty military personnel, though they could also pay extra to have the cafeteria kitchen whip up special dishes. Napa cabbage with tofu and stir-fried tomatoes and eggs were already completely gone. Cheng Mengzhi had no choice but to take some stir-fried bean sprouts with chives, cabbage with tofu, hot and sour shredded potatoes, seaweed and egg soup, and a steamed bun (momo).
She found a small corner to sit down, took a sip of the soup, put down her bowl, and bit into the bun. It was so hard! Even as a modern corporate ox, she wouldn’t be reduced to eating something this unpalatable, even if she had to resort to instant noodles. Helplessly, she took another sip of the soup; she really couldn’t get that bun down. Staring blankly at the bun, she thought that if she had to eat this every day, she’d go insane.
People in the military unit tended to give Cheng Mengzhi a wide berth. Because the original host constantly locked horns with the female protagonist and was currently under investigation, many people didn’t dare associate with her.
Xu Jingyun walked over with his lunch box, sat down across from her, opened the lid, and slid it toward Cheng Mengzhi. “White rice, stir-fried eggs with tomatoes, and braised beef brisket with potatoes.” He had seen from afar that she was struggling to eat hard foods like the steamed buns, so he gave her his own meal and picked up her discarded bun to eat instead.
Noticing the strange looks coming from people around the cafeteria, Cheng Mengzhi looked up at Xu Jingyun with a timid expression. “Why… why are you eating my food? What will people think of me if they see this?!” “You’ve done far worse things, and you’re worried about people seeing this?” Xu Jingyun’s voice was low, just loud enough for Cheng Mengzhi to hear.
That had been the original host drugging him, not her! Yet because she had transmigrated into the original host’s body, the mess now belonged to her.
Xu Jingyun had originally thought she was genuinely asking him for help, only to realize he’d been schemed against yet again—and the worst part was that this time, the scheme had actually succeeded. Under the circumstances at the time, carrying her off to the hospital would have instantly substantiated Lin Shuyan’s report that she had drugged Political Commissar Bai and Qin Junyao. When the drug first took effect, he had still been quite clear-headed, but as the potency surged, he found himself losing control. Cheng Mengzhi kept pressing against him, and he completely lost his reason and couldn’t hold back in the end.
Speechless from the retort, Cheng Mengzhi lowered her gaze to look at the lunch box. A bowl of white rice was truly a rare luxury right now. “If you want to eat, eat! I’m not afraid of you!” Cheng Mengzhi shoveled a large mouthful of white rice, finding the rice mixed with tomato and scrambled eggs to be wonderfully appetizing. “By the way, we made such a huge commotion last night, do you think…” We’ll get discovered? Her voice trailed off, becoming too embarrassed to finish the sentence.
“You picked your moment well. Both chiefs went to Beijing for a meeting, one of the remaining two neighbors was on duty, and the other got roaring drunk. He heard something, but he has no idea who it was.” Xu Jingyun had already scouted around that morning. Fortunately, the single quarters he lived in were quite a distance from the dormitories, and almost nobody lived on the third floor.
Cheng Mengzhi let out a secret sigh of relief. “Let’s just pretend what happened last night never happened. As for the reporting business, I’ve already worked things out with Qin Junyao; she’ll take care of it.” Cheng Mengzhi had never intended to make Xu Jingyun take responsibility. “That won’t do. Since we’ve already been intimate, I have to take responsibility for you. If you don’t have any issues with it, I plan to submit our marriage application tomorrow.” Xu Jingyun greatly disliked Cheng Mengzhi’s scheming methods, but a marital bond had been forged, so he believed he had to own up to it.
Cheng Mengzhi was relatively open-minded. Sleeping with Xu Jingyun wasn’t a total loss given how handsome his face was; it wasn’t a huge deal. “Unnecessary! Once this matter is resolved, I’ll apply for a transfer back to work in Beijing, far away from that pair of unhinged lunatics, so I don’t have to face whatever disaster they cook up next.” The reason cannon fodder characters were cannon fodder was because they belonged to the male and female protagonists—getting anywhere near them was a death sentence.
Are those lunatics supposed to mean Lin Shuyan and Qin Junyao? “I asked around for you this afternoon regarding Lin Shuyan reporting you for drugging. There’s insufficient evidence, and results should come out in a couple of days.” Xu Jingyun had wondered that morning whether the original host had really framed Political Commissar Bai in the past, seeing as she had pulled the exact same trick on him last night. Yet the allegations turned out to be completely baseless. For a moment, he wasn’t quite sure what to make of Cheng Mengzhi’s true intentions.
“When you return to Beijing, where will you live? I remember your mother is under surveillance, so you won’t be able to go back to your old home.” As soon as the question left his lips, Xu Jingyun realized his mistake, a look of awkwardness and guilt washing over his face. It was because Cheng Mengzhi had witnessed her father’s suicide firsthand that her personality had become so timid and submissive, with the only bold thing she’d ever done being her pursuit of Lin Shuyan.
“I’ll stay at a guesthouse first. What else can I do?” Since childhood, Cheng Mengzhi had never received parental affection; she was always the most easily overlooked person in the family. In the original host’s memories, however, her parents had been deeply in love and doted on her entirely, granting her every wish. Her eldest brother was adopted, meaning she was the parents’ only biological child, while her younger siblings, who were many years younger, were the orphans of fallen comrades. With her father having passed away a year ago, her mother surely needed someone to keep her company.
“It’s fine, anyway, there’s nothing we can’t talk about! It was wrong of me to drug you, but as for Lin Shuyan reporting me for something I never did—believe it or not!” Cheng Mengzhi said, diving back into her meal. She hadn’t eaten all day and was absolutely starved. She polished off the food in her lunch box in no time at all.
Not far away, Lin Shuyan was sitting down with his meal when he happened to spot Xu Jingyun and Cheng Mengzhi sitting together, a sudden, inexplicable wave of irritation washing over him.As soon as he thinks about getting married, he starts looking for a new target. She really is a vanity-driven woman. Breaking off our engagement was because she looked down on me for lacking culture and being a rough soldier, and now that she’s given up on me, she’s gone hunting for someone with an even higher status. Sure enough, all the women in the Cheng family were motivated purely by vanity.
“Isn’t that Comrade Cheng? She used to chase relentlessly after you—what’s gotten into her lately? She hasn’t come looking for you at all!” Battalion Commander Liang asked Lin Shuyan with an amused expression, ready to watch a good show.
Another man nearby was eating his meal, listening to what Platoon Leader Liang had said, and glanced over. Being good friends with Lin Shuyan, he had also witnessed everything Cheng Mengzhi had done for him. “Shuyan, you went way too far this time. You knew full well that Comrade Cheng could never do something like framing Political Commissar Bai and Comrade Qin, yet you still insisted on filing a report. What if someone with malicious intent used that to ruin Comrade Cheng?!”
Wang Dahai, a battalion political instructor in the same unit as Lin Shuyan, felt that even as close friends, Lin Shuyan had gone too far. If this weren’t the cafeteria, Wang Dahai’s voice would have been a lot louder. Glaring angrily at Lin Shuyan, Wang Dahai stuffed a massive bite of food into his mouth. “You better think this through. If you’ve made up your mind, I’m going to start pursuing Comrade Cheng tomorrow. A fine girl like her—if you won’t cherish her, I will.” Wang Dahai picked up his finished tableware, stood up, and walked away. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to shoot one last glare at Lin Shuyan.
Seeing Wang Dahai walk away, Battalion Commander Liang looked at his retreating back and smiled at Lin Shuyan. “I think Comrade Cheng is quite pretty. Her salary is already higher than most girls’, and she’s educated and gentle. If you’re dead set on marrying Comrade Qin, I’m planning to pursue Comrade Cheng myself.” Marrying a girl like that would make a man wake up smiling in his sleep.
As Battalion Commander Liang walked off, Lin Shuyan’s face turned exceptionally grim. Staring at Cheng Mengzhi, he mentally cursed her as a vixen. She managed to bewitch so many men into obsessing over her in a single breath; even if she was just playing hard to get, he wouldn’t look back.
After finishing lunch, Cheng Mengzhi headed back. Xu Jingyun caught up with her, and seeing that nobody was around, he brought it up again. “Cheng Mengzhi, we already share a husband-and-wife relationship. I’m submitting the marriage application tomorrow, and once we’re married, my rank allows you to join me on the military base.” “No need. I made myself perfectly clear just now.” Cheng Mengzhi had no desire to end up tied to Xu Jingyun. “I’m simply informing you. You were the one who created this situation in the first place, so I have no choice but to take responsibility for you.” Xu Jingyun refused to let himself turn into a heartless cad.
Just as Cheng Mengzhi opened her mouth to argue back, she suddenly remembered that people’s mentalities in this era were entirely different from those in future generations. “Besides, you’ve already… before marriage. If you don’t marry me and end up marrying someone else down the line, that man is bound to mind.” Xu Jingyun knew very well that if a girl lost her chastity and her future husband found out she wasn’t pure, he would certainly care deeply.
Cheng Mengzhi figured it was normal for him to think that way. Men of this era could reluctantly accept a divorced woman, but they simply could not tolerate a woman who had lost her premarital purity, writing her off as loose and undisciplined. Besides, the original host was genuinely at fault here to begin with.
“Can’t I just not get married? There isn’t a single good man out there,” Cheng Mengzhi muttered casually, picking up her pace, only to misstep and twist her lower back. “Ah—”
“Careful!”
Instead of hitting the ground, the pain was intercepted as a steady palm caught and pulled her into a firm embrace.
Feeling physically under the weather to begin with, misstepping and twisting her back only made her discomfort worse. Every step she took sent intermittent twinges of sharp pain down below.
“Cheng…” Wang Dahai had been waiting under a large tree ahead for quite a while. “What are you two…” Don’t tell me she’s about to face a rejection before even getting confessed to?! He had originally planned to look for an opportunity to confess to Cheng Mengzhi, only to witness Xu Jingyun catching her in a hug.
Cheng Mengzhi quickly steadied herself and smoothed down her clothes. “You misunderstood. I accidentally missed a step, and Staff Officer Xu caught me.” Please don’t let word of this spread, or I’ll be drowned in spit.
“What do you mean he caught you?” Battalion Commander Liang appeared as well, holding a pack of fruit drops in his hand.
Recognizing the newcomers, Cheng Mengzhi felt a wave of awkwardness. “I just… missed a step and almost fell.” Cheng Mengzhi knew better than to try explaining.
Seeing the two men show up, Xu Jingyun realized they were clearly gunning for Cheng Mengzhi.
Catching on instantly, Battalion Commander Liang looked at how close Xu Jingyun and Cheng Mengzhi had been standing—falling down, only to be rescued by Staff Officer Xu. “Comrade Cheng, there’s no possibility left between you and Battalion Commander Lin. He has already submitted his marriage application and is about to marry Comrade Qin. I’ve liked you for a long time, but because you fancied Lin Shuyan, I never had the chance to confess. Now that the opportunity is here, I want to ask—would you consider me?”
Straightforward to a fault, Battalion Commander Liang grinned foolishly as he finished asking, rubbed the back of his head, and then glanced over at Wang Dahai.
Cheng Mengzhi: Actually, you really didn’t have to say all that. Battalion Commander Liang truly had no filter. If the original host had heard those words, whether she rejected him or not, she definitely would have burst into tears first.
Xu Jingyun: I got here first!Wasn’t Cheng Mengzhi disliked by almost everyone?! A sense of crisis flared up within him.
Stepping forward, Wang Dahai shoved Battalion Commander Liang aside and anxiously blurted out, “Comrade Cheng, I was here first!” Turning to face Liang, he flared up. “You play dirty!”
After throwing that curse, Wang Dahai took a step forward, placing himself right in front of Cheng Mengzhi. “Comrade Cheng, ever since the first day you arrived at the military unit, I’ve liked you. The only reason I kept my feelings hidden before was because I knew you had a thing for that bastard Lin Shuyan. Now that I feel like there’s a chance, I want to confess my feelings to you.”
Panicking and desperate to make his own pitch, Battalion Commander Liang tried to muscle his way back in. “Comrade Cheng—” Mph— Wang Dahai clamped a hand tightly over Liang’s mouth.
“Comrade Cheng, I have two older brothers, an older sister, and a younger sister. Both my older brothers are dual-income workers, and my parents are dual-income workers too. My sister is married and works as a temporary factory hand, while my younger sister is participating in rural construction down in the countryside. My monthly salary is a hundred yuan, and with allowances and mission subsidies, I pull in over a hundred and ten yuan a month. I only send twenty yuan a month to my parents, and over the past few years, I’ve managed to save up a bit—I have over three thousand yuan in savings!”
“Get the hell out of the way!” Breaking free from Wang Dahai’s grip, Battalion Commander Liang barked, “Comrade Cheng, I have an older sister who’s married, and an older brother who works at the military munitions factory. I don’t have to worry about my parents at all. I—”
Cheng Mengzhi’s mouth twitched. This wasn’t a blind-date convention; what on earth were they doing?
Frowning at the two of them, Xu Jingyun snapped sharply, “Are the two of you really that idle?”
The pair snapped back to their senses. Realizing that Staff Officer Xu outranked them, they immediately fell silent.
With an awkward laugh, Cheng Mengzhi let out a tactful rejection. “Well… thank you both for your kind feelings. First of all, your aesthetics are completely normal—I feel the same way, and I happen to adore myself quite a bit. However, I have no plans to get married right now.”
“Why not?! Lin Shuyan isn’t anything special; choosing me would be way better than choosing him. We hold the exact same rank, and even though my family background isn’t as good as his, at least I… have never been in a relationship before, and I don’t have any high-maintenance women in my past.” As Wang Dahai finished speaking, he shyly rubbed the back of his head.
Anxious as ever, Battalion Commander Liang glared at Wang Dahai, thinking, Look at him being all smooth. He eagerly volunteered himself next. “I’ve never been in a relationship either, I’m the exact same way, and I promise I’ll treat you right, Comrade Cheng.”
Cheng Mengzhi cast an awkward glance at the people walking over to eat at the cafeteria. “Look, I really don’t want to get married right now, nor do I want to date either of you.” To put it simply: Not interested, don’t like you.
Wang Dahai persisted, “Then when can you start dating? I can wait for you.” “Me too,” chimed in Battalion Commander Liang.
Dark lines plastered Xu Jingyun’s forehead.How could they still not take a hint when the rejection was this obvious?! They had zero spine whatsoever.
“You won’t have to wait, because I’m currently considering…” Looking over at Xu Jingyun beside her, she reached out and looped her arm through his. “We’ve actually been trying each other out as objects of affection lately.”
The two men stood frozen, their expressions blank as they locked eyes with Xu Jingyun’s piercing gaze.
Giving an awkward chuckle, Cheng Mengzhi figured that since they had already slept together anyway, using him as a shield should be fine, right? She just hoped Xu Jingyun wouldn’t pull the rug out from under her. Her twisted lower back was acting up, making her whole body ache so badly she could barely stand, and her legs were actually trembling.
Sensing Cheng Mengzhi’s abnormality, Xu Jingyun stepped in. “We’re already discussing our marriage arrangements. You two don’t stand a chance.” Aside from holding an official marriage certificate yet, everything that needed to happen had already happened.
Unwilling to believe it, Wang Dahai and Battalion Commander Liang stared at Cheng Mengzhi, searching her face for any sign of the truth.
Silently nodding, Cheng Mengzhi gave Xu Jingyun’s arm a little shake, urging him to get moving so they could leave. Being confessed to publicly by two men was a deeply humiliating ordeal.
Watching the retreating figures of the seemingly perfect couple walk away: “Do you think we really don’t have a chance?” Battalion Commander Liang asked despondently, looking at Wang Dahai.
Wang Dahai sighed softly. “Probably! Staff Officer Xu strikes me as a good husband material.” “You said it. Comrade Cheng marrying Staff Officer Xu is still infinitely better than her marrying Battalion Commander Lin.” As a man himself, Battalion Commander Liang understood male nature all too well.
Once they had walked far enough away, Cheng Mengzhi let go of Xu Jingyun’s arm, shot him a glare, and snapped, “Don’t go making wild claims on your own accord. If you say things you can’t deliver on, you’ll be the laughingstock of the whole base.”
“Then why did you make wild claims on your own accord? If you actually harbored feelings for me and took the initiative to pursue and confess, I might have actually agreed!” He was still harboring resentment over the original host drugging him.
Cheng Mengzhi shot back, “If I had confessed for real, would you have said yes?” “No. Without spending time getting to know each other, how could I know if our personalities are compatible?” Xu Jingyun replied.
Rolling her eyes, Cheng Mengzhi thought, That’s not what you were saying just a second ago. “So there you have it—strike first and figure out the rest later,” Cheng Mengzhi retorted. “Besides, you lack basic customer-service awareness, and I don’t like that.”
Xu Jingyun’s ears flushed bright red. He wanted to chew her out for being a shameless woman, but the words caught in his throat and he couldn’t bring himself to say them—cursing people out just wasn’t in his nature.
“I’m heading back.” Cheng Mengzhi was completely exhausted. Walking from the dorms to the cafeteria and then back again was pushing her physical limits.
Noticing that Cheng Mengzhi’s walking posture still looked off, Xu Jingyun stepped forward and caught her by the arm.
“What are you doing now?” Too exhausted and just wanting to sleep, Cheng Mengzhi impatiently turned around and glared up at him.
Seeing his awkward expression, Xu Jingyun cleared his throat and said, “Your walk still looks unnatural, and you’re clearly in physical discomfort. I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“I… I’m not uncomfortable. I just… missed a step and twisted my back earlier, that’s all. A bit of rest will fix it.” Desperate to escape, Cheng Mengzhi scrambled for an excuse.
Hearing that she was injured, Xu Jingyun grew even more worried. “If you hurt your back, you definitely need to get it checked out. I’m taking you.”
“No need.” Pulling her arm away, Cheng Mengzhi rejected him once more.
Glancing around to make sure nobody was nearby, Xu Jingyun pressed on, “You need to see a doctor. Physical discomforts need to be treated early, otherwise, an injury could get infected.”
Just as Cheng Mengzhi opened her mouth to argue back, she caught the strange, knowing look in Xu Jingyun’s eyes and finally grasped what he was actually implying. Coupled with the bright red tips of his ears, she couldn’t help finding the whole situation a bit ridiculous.
“When I looked at the bedsheets this afternoon, there were bloodstains—you definitely got hurt. I’ll go get medicine from the doctor. Since you can’t give a straight explanation yourself, the only way is for you to go so the doctor can prescribe the right treatment.” After finishing his explanation, Xu Jingyun added, “You… don’t have to be scared. The doctors are strictly bound by confidentiality. Besides, we’re getting married anyway, so there’s no need to fear getting found out. Getting you treated is what matters most.”
Cheng Mengzhi was completely at a loss for words with this man. He hadn’t taken a single word of what she’d just said to heart.
Indignantly shaking off his hand, she snapped, “You might not care about being seen, but I do! I ended up in this state because of you—if your technique was garbage just admit it, but dragging me off to see a doctor so I can humiliate myself? Absolutely not!”