Upon seeing Song Qingshan, Liu Zaiye’s simmering anger boiled over, as his old grudges were reignited by new provocations. He quickly shifted his focus—his main target was Song Qingshan, after all.

Enemies had to be prioritized.

Su Xiangwan could wait. Song Qingshan, who had knowingly concealed his wife’s questionable background and even shielded her from organizational scrutiny, was far more culpable in Liu Zaiye’s eyes.

The thought of dealing with him felt exhilarating, like harvesting ripe wheat.

To make matters worse, Song Qingshan poured fuel on the fire: “If you’ve got a problem, take it out on me. At the time, I didn’t know your wife was ill. Besides, in the army, it’s not about personal grudges—it’s about completing the mission, isn’t it?”

Hearing his wife mentioned only enraged Liu Zaiye further. He lunged forward, grabbing Song Qingshan’s collar.

But Song Qingshan, with his military strength, effortlessly lifted Liu Zaiye off the ground.

The two men wrestled, drawing the attention of others.

Liu Ming, Liu Zaiye’s lackey, decided to provoke Song Qingshan further:
“Come on, Captain Song! Hit me! Let’s see if you dare.”

They knew Song Qingshan, as a soldier, couldn’t attack civilians.

But if he lost his temper and retaliated, they’d have a legitimate excuse to report him to the authorities.

Even Liu Zaiye egged him on: “Go ahead, Song Qingshan! Protect your wife! Punch them, and maybe I’ll actually fear you!”

Seeing Song Qingshan’s face darken further, Su Xiangwan became alarmed.
“Lu Dan’s Dad, don’t lose your temper! Stop! Right now!” she shouted anxiously.

Their children, Lu Dan, Gou Dan, and Li Chengze, joined in, circling around Song Qingshan.
“Dad, don’t fight!”

Although Song Qingshan seemed ready to explode, he suddenly let go of Liu Zaiye’s shirt and stepped back.
“Go back to the guesthouse and rest. I’ll come find you tonight, and we’ll talk this out,” he said coldly.

Liu Zaiye was furious:
“What’s the matter, Song Qingshan? Afraid to hit us? Aren’t you a soldier? Use your fists—prove yourself!”

Ignoring him, Song Qingshan grabbed his son’s hand, pulled Su Xiangwan close, and walked away.

Liu Zaiye considered chasing after them, but before he could, a group of destitute families surrounded him.

Among them were two children with jaundiced faces, clearly suffering from hepatitis B.

No matter where Liu Zaiye moved, they followed, bowing deeply in gratitude.

With no other choice, Liu Zaiye returned to the guesthouse.

Despite his anger, something stirred within him. Recalling his late wife’s struggle, he pulled out fifty yuan for each child’s family.

Handing over the money, he leaned back on the guesthouse bed, a smug grin on his face.
“Sometimes, charity feels good. Looking at those kids reminds me of your sister-in-law,” he remarked. “If only one day hepatitis B could be eradicated from our republic—gone for good.”

But then he added, almost maliciously, “And if it has to exist, let Song Qingshan catch it. I hate him, Li Yifan, and Gu Bei the most.”

His sister, Liu Minli, looked at him with pursed lips before speaking:
“Brother, don’t you think Su Xiangwan played us? Those two hepatitis B kids she takes special care of—don’t you think she deliberately arranged for them to tug at your heartstrings and get you to donate?”

Liu Zaiye shot upright, as if jolted from a coma.
“Really?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Slamming a fist into the mattress, Liu Zaiye muttered:
“Damn it, I’ve been duped. That Su Xiangwan played me like a fiddle, exploiting my biggest weakness.”

He fumed at the thought of her—beautiful and flamboyant, yet utterly infuriating. How could she make a fool of him the moment he arrived in Qingshui County?

Just then, Liu Ming rushed in, breathless.
“Director! There’s trouble. Song Qingshan and his family look like they’re packing up to leave. Are they trying to flee?”

Hearing this, Liu Zaiye slapped his chopsticks onto the table.

Of course! With revolutionaries like him around, most people wouldn’t dare run. But Song Qingshan, with his military connections, could easily help his wife escape.

If Su Xiangwan managed to get away, how could he use her as leverage against Song Qingshan?

“Stay here,” he ordered his sister and subordinates. “Tonight, I’ll go to Captain Song’s place myself and see what’s going on.”

Meanwhile, at home, Su Xiangwan twirled in her new dress, delighting in how it swirled like a lotus leaf.
“Isn’t it too pretty to take off?” she mused.

Lu Dan and Gou Dan nodded enthusiastically.

“Doesn’t this mean we don’t have to cook tonight?” Su Xiangwan teased.

Li Chengze, unimpressed by her beauty, simply asked,
“Then what are we going to eat if you don’t cook?”

Even Song Qingshan chimed in:
“Why don’t you change out of it first and then cook?”

Su Xiangwan silently grumbled about the men in her life—so unromantic!

A woman dressed this beautifully should be treated to dinner out and a movie at the town square, not sent to the kitchen!

As she sighed, their daughter, Zhizhi, tugged on her skirt.
“Mom, I want chicken for dinner!”

Su Xiangwan couldn’t refuse her daughter.
“You want chicken? Fine. Let your brother slaughter one, and I’ll make us a feast,” she said, grabbing a basket and preparing to head out to buy vegetables.

Li Chengze pouted and said, “Don’t tell me it’s soy sauce hot pot again. Li Yifan is home today, you know. It’s such a hot day; if we eat with the doors closed, we’ll be roasted alive. If we leave the doors open, she’ll definitely come over.”

“Do you think chicken can only be eaten as hot pot?” Su Xiangwan asked him.

Li Chengze was already tying a cloth over his eyes. “Aside from hot pot, there’s no good way to eat chicken.”

This little guy had tasted all kinds of delicacies since he was young.

“Just wait. Today, I’ll make you the most delicious chicken ever,” Su Xiangwan said confidently.

When she returned from grocery shopping, the yard was a mess—feathers everywhere and blood on the ground.

Li Chengze was passed out on the stone table, and Song Qingshan was plucking the chicken’s feathers.

“Isn’t Chengze the one who loves slaughtering chickens? Why are you doing it?” Su Xiangwan asked.

Song Qingshan glanced at Li Chengze, unable to hold back a chuckle. “He tried to kill the chicken but didn’t manage it in one go. Then Zhizhi pulled the cloth off his eyes, and as soon as he saw the scene, he fainted.”

Su Xiangwan laughed as well.

She carried Li Chengze over, pinched his philtrum to wake him up, and called Lu Dan to fetch some water to cool his forehead.

Soon, Li Chengze was awake.

As soon as he woke up, without saying a word, he jumped up and prepared to hit Zhizi.

Of course, Zhizi ran away, and Gou Dan and Lu Dan weren’t about to let Li Chengze hit her either.

The four kids ran around the yard, yelling and shouting.

Eventually, Li Chengze caught Zhizi and slapped her twice on her bottom, which made the little girl cry. Only then did the commotion end.

Song Qingshan cleaned the chicken thoroughly, plucked off all the feathers, and chopped it into pieces according to Su Xiangwan’s instructions.

By then, Zhizi was still squatting by the chicken coop, crying.

The three boys had already run off somewhere, playing who knows where.

“Chengze seems to bully Zhizi a lot. How come you, being so protective, don’t intervene?” Song Qingshan asked as he handed a piece of candy to Zhizi to calm her down before coming inside.

Su Xiangwan was frying peanuts in oil and said, “It’s fine. Chengze wouldn’t actually hurt her. He’s just scaring her.”

“Even scaring her isn’t okay. She’s my daughter, after all. Tonight, I’ll talk to Chengze and tell him not to bully Zhizi anymore. Right now, in our family, Zhizi dislikes Chengze the most. He’s always finding ways to mess with her,” Song Qingshan said, feeling that this couldn’t go on.

As Su Xiangwan took the peanuts out to drain the oil, she accidentally burned her finger and quickly stuck it in her mouth to soothe the pain.

“I told you it’s fine. Actually, it’s better for Zhizi to dislike Chengze. The more she dislikes him, the better,” Su Xiangwan said. “I don’t want my daughter growing up to like someone like Chengze.”

Since the book depicted a tragic ending for them, Su Xiangwan decided it was best for them to dislike each other from a young age, ensuring they wouldn’t get tangled up in the future. She felt this was incredibly wise of her.

But then she added, “By the way, I overheard you arguing with Liu Zaiye today. Seems like there’s some history between you two. Care to explain?”

Just then, Liu Zaiye swaggered into the courtyard of the local chief’s house.

People these days, especially those living in courtyard houses, didn’t have the habit of closing their doors when someone was home. As long as the family was in, the doors stayed open.

So, when he entered, he didn’t bother knocking.

Hearing Song Qingshan and Su Xiangwan talking about him, Liu Zaiye stopped in his tracks.

He was curious to hear how Song Qingshan would polish his own image while tarnishing Liu’s reputation in front of his wife.

In Song Qingshan’s view, the death of Liu Zaiye’s wife was entirely due to his own personality.

Their family wasn’t particularly poor, and his wife’s family had a hereditary history of hepatitis B. While other members of her family were fine, Liu Zaiye was adamant about curing his wife’s illness. He sought medical help everywhere, regardless of whether it was traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine, taking whatever the doctors prescribed.

As a result, his wife ended up swallowing massive quantities of pills every day.

Eventually, as the chief physician of the military hospital put it, the excessive medications poisoned her liver, causing it to fail.

Of course, Liu Zaiye faced considerable criticism from military district leaders, who repeatedly told him that since there was currently no cure for this illness anywhere in the world, the best approach was to manage it and wait for advancements.

But Liu Zaiye refused to accept fate or reason, instead harboring resentment against the leaders for not securing the resources he believed were his due.

For example, there was that special commendation task in 1961, which happened to involve a demining mission. No matter how you looked at it—physical strength, endurance, or operational capability—Liu Zaiye couldn’t match Song Qingshan. The mission took place in Ili and was an urgent, severe incident. In such circumstances, the leaders naturally prioritized ability over personal grievances, as was only right.

However, Liu Zaiye attributed his wife’s death to everyone else, believing that it was the collective actions of others that pushed her to the brink.

From Song Qingshan’s perspective, though, her death was entirely Liu Zaiye’s own doing.

“Liu Zaiye is quite devoted, isn’t he? Marrying someone with hepatitis B—something I couldn’t even imagine doing,” Su Xiangwan remarked.

Song Qingshan didn’t see it as a big deal. “If they loved each other, the illness shouldn’t matter. It’s just something to treat. But elevating a personal issue to the level of state policy and undermining military discipline? That’s where Zaiye went wrong.”

The reason Su Xiangwan had deliberately brought two hepatitis B-infected children into the conversation today was that she’d already learned from the book that Liu Zaiye’s wife died of hepatitis B, and he had deeply loved her.

As for why she was unusually well-dressed, it was because Liu Zaiye’s initial attraction to the original version of Su Xiangwan stemmed from her pitiful appearance.

At the time, she was wandering the city alone, dressed in rags, evoking his sympathy.

Though he looked down on her for being uneducated and uncultured, he couldn’t help but offer her aid while toying with her feelings.

In fact, the original Su Xiangwan’s eventual drastic change in personality had a lot to do with the emotional trauma inflicted by men like Liu Zaiye.

But now, the current Su Xiangwan was confident, beautiful, capable, and carefree.

She believed that under these circumstances, Liu Zaiye wouldn’t find her pitiable or take an interest in her.

In short, as a married woman, the invisible romantic entanglements that should be eliminated must be thoroughly eradicated.

Meanwhile, the couple was still in the kitchen.