Chapter 14: Regiment Commander Zhou, Your Beautiful Wife Is Being Bullied  

What did people normally imagine when they thought of a “capitalist’s daughter”?  

Of course, it would be someone dressed in fine, elegant clothing, wearing beautiful dresses, expensive high heels, and living a life of luxury.  

A woman who never lifted a finger, ordering servants around for even the smallest tasks.  

Yet, the person standing before them now—  

Not only was she dressed in clothes more tattered than their own, but she was also holding a hoe, turning the soil in the courtyard.

She looked just like the most ordinary rural woman engaged in labor.  

The only unusual thing about her—  

Was that she was incredibly fair-skinned, unlike the typically tanned complexion of most working women.  

But…  

Was it not possible for a young woman to be naturally beautiful and simply incapable of getting sunburned?  

In the spacious courtyard—  

Jiang Rou stood among a group of unfamiliar women, their gazes locked onto one another. A strange silence lingered in the air.  

Amid this stillness—  

A young woman, around twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, stepped forward from the group of wives.  

Her name was Lin Yulan, the wife of Regiment Commander Liang Guangming.  

Since Liang Guangming was the eldest among the five regiment commanders, Lin Yulan was often pushed forward by the other wives to take charge when necessary.  

And this moment was no exception.  

Even Lin Yulan couldn’t conceal the shock and disbelief in her eyes as she looked at Jiang Rou.  

She hesitated before asking,  

“You are… Jiang Rou?”  

“It’s me. I am Jiang Rou.”  

“You… you are Regiment Commander Zhou’s fiancée?”  

“That’s right, I am Zhou Chongshan’s fiancée.”  

As Jiang Rou’s simple yet firm words fell, the lingering doubts in the crowd’s hearts crashed to the ground with a resounding thud.  

Oh, dear!  

They had made a huge mistake!  

This woman looked nothing like the daughter of a capitalist!  

What a colossal misunderstanding!  

As the women exchanged bewildered glances,

Jiang Rou was also observing this group of people.  

Although she had read parts of the original novel, a book was merely words on a page—it didn’t provide faces for every character, especially not for the countless minor supporting roles.  

Jiang Rou couldn’t possibly remember them all.  

If not for the fact that the novel’s opening featured a cannon-fodder ex-wife who shared her exact name—  

She wouldn’t have even opened that book.  

So at this moment, Jiang Rou had no idea who these people were.  

However, there were more than a dozen of them, all women, most of them around thirty years old. Some wore work clothes, while others were dressed in military uniforms.  

These women could move freely in and out of the military family compound.  

They had even barged into Zhou Chongshan’s home without so much as knocking.  

It was obvious—these women were also military wives living in this compound.  

Among them, everyone instinctively gathered around a slightly older woman.  

Jiang Rou paid extra attention to this older woman, carefully observing her. From her demeanor, Jiang Rou could sense a composed yet passionate revolutionary spirit.  

It was a very distinct aura.  

She was—Yang Hongping.  

Jiang Rou quickly recalled that the original novel had specifically described a character called “Sister Hong.”  

Then, she remembered—  

Earlier, when this group had stormed in, Yang Hongping had mentioned the words “capitalist’s daughter.”  

Piecing everything together,  

Jiang Rou’s eyes suddenly lit up.  

She understood what was happening.  

These people had come to capture her!  

But the moment they saw her in tattered clothes, doing farm work in the courtyard, the situation had taken a turn.  

If she had been dressed like yesterday—in a pretty dress and high heels—she might have already been labeled a class enemy.  

That was close!  

Without even realizing it, she had managed to avoid disaster.

What came next…  

Jiang Rou took out a handkerchief, wiped the sweat from her face, and then lifted the corners of her lips into a gentle smile.  

She was already young and good-looking, but with this smile, she appeared especially radiant and poised.  

She acted as if nothing had happened, making no mention of how the women had stormed in so aggressively just moments ago.  

She simply let it all go, as if it had never occurred.  

Facing Yang Hongping, who stood in the center, Jiang Rou greeted her with confidence and grace.  

“Hello, you must be Sister Hong.”  

That single, affectionate Sister Hong instantly closed the distance between them.  

At Yang Hongping’s age, she naturally felt a sense of care toward younger people.  

Moreover, after decades in the revolution, she had encountered all kinds of people and had developed a keen eye for reading them.  

She had noticed the brief flicker in Jiang Rou’s gaze just now, as well as the way her expression subtly shifted.  

With a single glance, she could tell that this young girl was perceptive—Jiang Rou had already figured out what had transpired.  

Yet, she had chosen to accept it calmly. She didn’t question anyone, didn’t complain, and certainly didn’t try to stir up trouble.  

Instead, she had let the matter pass quietly, as if nothing had happened.  

In doing so, she preserved the dignity of the military wives in the compound while also laying the groundwork for future harmony among them.  

This girl was not only intelligent—she was perceptive and tactful.

Yang Hongping particularly liked Jiang Rou’s eyes—so clear and bright. She was a good girl.  

And yet, this girl was actually Zhou Chongshan’s fiancée.  

That rough and rugged man—he must have accumulated great fortune in his past life to deserve such a blessing.  

After a brief moment of contemplation, Yang Hongping responded to Jiang Rou’s words.  

“You know me?”  

“Oh, no, no. This is our first time meeting. But I’ve heard Chongshan mention you before. He said you are a true revolutionary who has made significant contributions to the country. He also told me that you’re currently the women’s director of the military family compound. He said that if I ever need anything, I should come to you because you would surely help me solve my problems.”  

Jiang Rou spoke with a warm smile, her tone gentle, effortlessly delivering a long string of praises.  

Her words were full of admiration, yet there was no trace of flattery in her expression.  

Moreover, she had attributed these words to Zhou Chongshan, making them sound even more sincere.  

Yang Hongping listened, then nodded in approval.  

She stepped forward and took Jiang Rou’s hand.  

“Your name is Jiang Rou, yes? Then from now on, we’ll call you Sister Rou (Little Sister Rou). The sun is scorching out here in the courtyard—let’s go inside to talk.”  

“Alright, I’ll listen to Sister Hong.”  

Jiang Rou nodded immediately, then turned back to the other military wives behind her and warmly addressed them.

“Sisters-in-law, you should all come inside as well. Don’t stay out in the sun.” someone said.  

With that, a group of people followed Yang Hongping and Jiang Rou, making their way into the house in a grand procession.  

Inside, there were hardly any chairs or stools. Everyone glanced around and widened their eyes in astonishment.  

Zhou Chongshan was single, and the sisters-in-law had never been inside his house before. They truly had no idea that his home would look like this.  

It was completely bare.  

How could a dignified military regiment commander live such a frugal life?  

After entering the house, Yang Hongping asked Jiang Rou about her background.  

“Rou, judging by your accent, you sound like you’re from the south. Are your parents still back home?”  

This question was partly out of concern and partly meant to let everyone understand Jiang Rou’s family background and status.  

Jiang Rou did not hide anything. She openly shared how she had been switched at birth and later caught in the entanglement of a true and false daughter situation.  

“My parents… were actually my adoptive parents. One was a schoolteacher, and the other was a newspaper editor—both were proper, educated people…”  

They were nothing like ruthless capitalists.  

“Later, when I learned the truth about my birth… my biological parents were farmers in a rural village. I wanted to return to them, but they had already passed away years ago…”  

Her biological parents had been farmers, and now, she herself held the status of a farmer.  

As for the matter of the arranged marriage substitution, Jiang Rou chose not to mention it, allowing everyone to naturally assume that she had always been engaged to Zhou Chongshan.  

When she finished recounting her tragic background, the room fell into complete silence.  

The sisters-in-law had never imagined that such a dramatic, dog-blood twist—something that only happened in opera plots—could actually occur in real life.  

The parents who had raised her for over a decade were not her biological parents.  

And her real parents had long passed away before she even got the chance to meet them.  

In other words, Jiang Rou was now just a pitiful orphan.

“So pitiful… Rou, I never imagined… your life has been so rough.”  

“Doesn’t that mean you have parents, yet it’s as if you have none? You’re all alone now…”  

“Rou, we’re truly sorry. We didn’t know the situation and misunderstood you! Curse those wretched gossips outside! Spreading nonsense! I swear, I’ll rip their tongues out!”  

“We’re all the same… all people with hard lives…”  

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