Chapter 2 1/2

Before the quarrel with Qiao Weiwei, Yan Lei refused to divorce and hadn’t returned home for several days, sleeping in the camp. He never expected that his wife would run away.

When he returned home, he found out that Qiao Weiwei had entrusted the child to the neighbor and left him a letter.

Yan Lei, originally from a poor rural area, was illiterate before joining the army. He attended literacy classes in the army to learn how to read. When he opened the letter, he learned that Qiao Weiwei was determined to divorce him and pursue her own happiness.

Yan Lei felt bitter and angry, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and came to the provincial capital to find Qiao Weiwei. If possible, who would want their family to fall apart?

But before coming, he had also considered that if Qiao Weiwei was determined to be with her “prince charming,” he wouldn’t cling on and would let go decisively.

Their union was a mistake. During the arranged marriage, many comrades advised him. The girl looked too fragile, didn’t seem like someone who could work hard, and had a faint resentment between her eyebrows—not someone who could lead a stable life.

But at that time, he was determined to find someone with a high level of education. Among the girls who caught his eye that day, only Qiáo Wēiwēi had completed high school. Although she dropped out halfway, in Yán Lěi’s mind, she was an intellectual. Yán Lěi had respect for “educated people,” so he held her in high regard.

However, Yán Lěi did not anticipate that living with this cultured girl would be genuinely difficult. They had various conflicts from the beginning of their marriage. But because Qiáo Wēiwēi became pregnant shortly after their marriage, with the blessing of the child, the marriage barely held on for a few years.

Unexpectedly, it reached the point of breaking up.

He wanted to live with an educated person, and coincidentally, Qiáo Wēiwēi also had the same idea.

The technician had been communicating with Qiáo Wēiwēi too frequently, and Yán Lěi felt something was wrong. However, his level of education was just above illiteracy, so he couldn’t understand the technician’s letters. The technician’s letters often contained obscure references and words that left him baffled.

When Qiáo Wēiwēi read those incomprehensible letters, tears filled her eyes.

Damn it!

Qiáo Wēiwēi left, and in anger, Yán Lěi went to find her. Divorce would cause too much harm to everyone in the family, and he still wanted to try to salvage the marriage.

One last time.

Today, when he arrived in the provincial capital, he went directly to the diesel engine factory to have a private conversation with the technician. After all, the matter of having a green hat couldn’t be publicized; it had to be discussed privately.

The technician, seeing him in military uniform, guessed who he was and turned pale. He immediately confessed, “I and Qiáo Wēiwēi have a pure friendship. I got married yesterday, and she even came to eat sweets at my wedding.”

Yán Lěi thought Qiáo Wēiwēi had eloped with him, was stunned, and sensed that something was wrong. After pressing him, he found out that it was all Qiáo Wēiwēi’s wishful thinking.

Clearly, the technician had written many letters to her!

Yán Lěi grabbed the technician by the collar and lifted him up, gritting his teeth. “What do you mean by not taking responsibility for seducing her?”

The well-mannered technician, compared to the tall and sturdy Yán Lěi, looked like a bean sprout. He stiffly said, “We really have a pure, pure friendship. She misunderstood on her own. If you don’t believe me, read the letters I wrote to her.”

He shifted the blame to Qiáo Wēiwēi.

The technician was confident that Yán Lěi couldn’t find any evidence against him. There was nothing explicitly seductive in the letters he wrote to Qiáo Wēiwēi. He knew what Qiáo Wēiwēi yearned for, and he could subtly capture her attention, but if you said he seduced her, well, there wasn’t a single suggestive word.

Yán Lěi had read those letters, and indeed, there was nothing explicitly seductive. So, he never understood why Qiáo Wēiwēi made such a fuss about divorcing him. But his intuition told him that this bastard was using words to seduce his wife!

In fact, if the soul of the reincarnated Qiáo Wēi in this world could see, she would understand.

The technician… was just flirting.

Just casually flirting around, enjoying the ambiguous feeling of being admired, longed for, and admired.

Qiáo Wēiwēi was a married woman, and the technician thought it was safer to flirt with her than with a young, unmarried girl. There is no need to take responsibility.

Heh.

“Where is she?” If he couldn’t figure it out, Yán Lěi decided not to think about it. He sternly asked.

“I took leave a few days ago to prepare for the wedding, and she wasn’t around. She came to find me; she left a message for my colleagues, saying she’s temporarily staying on Huāyún Road. I only found out today when I went to work. I saw her briefly at the wedding yesterday; she ate a candy and left. Really, there were many guests, and I didn’t get a chance to talk to her.”

He had to make it clear that he was innocent; he couldn’t let Qiáo Wēiwēi blame him. After all, he was already the factory director’s son-in-law.

Qiáo Wēiwēi had complained in her letters that her husband, from a rural background, lacked education and was like an “uncivilized beast.”

Hmm, that description was quite appropriate.

The technician didn’t know that Yán Lěi had been to the battlefield, experienced trials of blood and fire, and had actually shot enemies with real bullets, seeing the broken bodies of many comrades.

People who had such experiences were different from ordinary people. This was most evident in their eyes.

Qiáo Wēiwēi admired cultured university students who were polite and courteous. She disliked Yán Lěi for being the opposite.

A marriage that couldn’t get along in every aspect was a tragedy.

Yán Lěi stared at the troublesome university student for a moment, let go of his collar, turned around, and suddenly turned back, punching the technician in the face. He slammed him to the ground, glasses shattered, nose bleeding, and stars swirling in his eyes.

YánLěi walked out of the diesel engine factory, returned to his jeep, and said, “Let’s go to Huāyún Road!”

This way, he found his runaway wife.

Of course, Yán Lěi didn’t know that he found not Qiáo Wēiwēi but just Qiáo Wēi.

He kicked the door open, gave Qiáo Wēi a choice, and waited for her response.

The small, run-down house was extremely low, without even a window; there was only a small hole high up in the wall for ventilation. The room was dimly lit, and there was a somewhat unpleasant, musty smell.

Yán Lěi’s gaze fell on his wife, who was still as frail and delicate as before, with fair skin. But today, her face seemed unusually pale, lacking any trace of color.

It could be said that it was pallid.

Yán Lěi was filled with anger.

He thought she was in love with someone else, but it turned out she was foolishly deluding herself. A cultured person who had read books had such a malfunctioning brain! What a waste of all those years of education!

The woman standing a few steps away from him leaned against the table, gazing at him, but she didn’t give him an answer.

Yán Lěi became impatient and was about to speak again. Suddenly, he saw Qiáo Wēi give him a faint smile.

That smile carried tranquility and peace—a look his wife had never had in these past few years.