Grandma Chen’s words were reasonable, and Hua Fengzhen couldn’t find fault with them. Several military wives outside were whispering, saying she was brainless, believing whatever others said, saying she favored sons over daughters and didn’t treat Xiaomai like a human being, making her work like a beast. Hua Fengzhen’s face turned red with shame.

She hadn’t expected Lin Meizhen to trick her. If it weren’t for Lin Meizhen, why would she have dragged Xiaomai here?

Now it was all over.

She had lost face terribly.

Zhang Xiaoe continued to blabber: “Hua Fengzhen, look how generous Wen Nan is, she shares half of her work points with Xiaomai no matter how much she earns, and you’re still picking on her, are you embarrassed?” Then she spat: “I’d be too ashamed to do that.”

Hua Fengzhen: …

She was also very angry. It was all Lin Meizhen’s fault, otherwise she wouldn’t have lost so much face, and she couldn’t refute Zhang Xiaoe’s words.

Hua Fengzhen glanced at Wen Nan, said nothing more, grabbed Zhao Xiaomai and turned to leave, her furious demeanor suggesting she was going to settle accounts with Lin Meizhen.

After they left, Grandma Chen closed the yard door, pulled Wen Nan’s hand and sat her down on the bench: “Nan Nan, don’t mind people like that. Let’s eat, the noodles will get soggy.” She then looked up at Zhang Xiaoe, who was still lying on the wall, and asked: “Have you eaten?”

Zhang Xiaoe: “I’m waiting for Lao Du.”

She seemed to hear something, looked back at the outside of the yard wall, and said to Grandma Chen: “Lao Du and the others are back.”

Wen Nan picked up a chopstick of noodles and turned to see Zhang Xiaoe “whoosh” jump off the wall and disappear.

Wen Nan: …

Grandma Chen smiled angrily: “She’s like that, making a fuss all day long. Her daughter is just like her. Luckily, her daughter got married. If she still lived in the family quarters, we would hear them arguing every day.”

Through the wall, Wen Nan heard Chief Du’s loud voice: “Zhang Xiaoe, quickly serve me some food, I’m starving!”

Wen Nan: …

After a while, Chen Xu also came back from outside.

He entered the door and glanced at Wen Nan sitting at the dining table. Wen Nan smiled at him: “Brother, you’re back.”

Chen Xu nodded, went to the well to fetch water to wash his face: “There was an inspection in the regiment today, so I came back a little late.”

Grandma Chen was scooping noodles in the kitchen. When she brought the bowls out, she recounted how Lin Meizhen incited Hua Fengzhen, and Hua Fengzhen brought Xiaomai to their house to find trouble with Wen Nan.

Zhang Xiaoe next door was also telling Chief Du about what had happened. After listening to Zhang Xiaoe recount the events, Chief Du frowned: “Lin Meizhen can’t stand the peace in our regiment’s family quarters, can she?!” He slurped a mouthful of noodles and said: “When I go to the regiment this afternoon, I have to talk to Kang Jin, telling him to control his wife and stop stirring up trouble in our regiment’s family quarters.”

Zhang Xiaoe also said: “And Hua Fengzhen, she’s led around by the nose by Lin Meizhen, she made a lot of jokes at noon. Everyone here knows that she treats her son like an ancestor and doesn’t treat Xiaomai like a human being. When she heard that Wen Nan gave Xiaomai half of her work points, she smiled until her mouth reached her ears.” The last sentence was completely fabricated.

Chief Du paused his eating, snorted: “Brainless!”

Zhang Xiaoe was stunned, looked up and glared at him: “Who are you calling brainless?!”

Du Jianming interjected: “My dad is scolding you.”

Chief Du knocked Du Jianming on the head with his chopsticks, glared at his son: “You little rascal, aren’t you causing enough trouble for your dad?”

Du Jianming chuckled. His skin was like his father’s, dark and tanned, and he showed a mouthful of white teeth when he smiled.

The Du family and the Chen family were separated by a wall. Moreover, both couples were loud, so whatever was said in the other courtyard could be heard clearly in this one. Chen Xu sat opposite Wen Nan, seeing her lowering her head to eat noodles, with no worry on her face, so he lowered his head and ate a mouthful of noodles and said: “I’ll talk to Chief Kang later in the regiment and ask him to tell his wife.”

Wen Nan bit off the noodles in her mouth and quickly shook her head: “No need, it’s already been clarified.”

And she didn’t want to cause trouble for Chief Chen.

Grandma Chen said: “It’s fine, let Xiao Xu go and tell him, let Chief Kang properly discipline his wife. What kind of thing is she doing!”

Wen Nan didn’t speak anymore, lowering her head to eat quietly. However, after a while, a quarrel suddenly came from outside the yard. Zhang Xiaoe next door also heard the noise and dropped her chopsticks and ran away. Wen Nan heard the ‘thump thump thump’ footsteps outside the door and ran over, looking back at the half-open yard door.

Grandma Chen didn’t even raise her head, and said: “No need to look, it must be Zhang Xiaoe running over to watch the fun again. Whenever something happens to anyone, she runs faster than a rabbit.”

At the same time, Chief Du’s loud voice came from next door: “Zhang Xiaoe, get back here!”

Wen Nan: …

The quarrel in the distance became more intense, sounding like Hua Fengzhen and Lin Meizhen were fighting, and the voices of enthusiastic military wives trying to stop them, shouting at them to stop fighting.

Wen Nan “whoa”-ed in her heart.

They were fighting?

She knew Hua Fengzhen couldn’t swallow this, being led around by Lin Meizhen, losing face in the family quarters, how could she just let it go? She thought Hua Fengzhen would at most quarrel with Lin Meizhen, but she didn’t expect them to fight, and she wondered who could beat whom?

Grandma Chen finished a bowl of noodles and snorted angrily: “Let those two fight, neither of them is easy to deal with.”

After saying that, she took the bowl to the kitchen.

Chen Xu ate quickly, and in a short while he had finished a large bowl of noodles. He scooped another bowl from the kitchen. Wen Nan stopped listening to the quarrel outside, bit her chopsticks, looked up at Chen Xu sitting opposite her. The man noticed her gaze, lifted his eyes to look at her, and asked directly: “Do you have something to say?”

Wen Nan nodded, finished the last bit of soup in the bowl, and holding the bowl, asked: “Have you found out about the person my brother introduced to me in the army?”

Chen Xu said: “Not yet.”

“Oh.”

She lowered her head, feeling a little disappointed.

Chen Xu lowered his head and ate a large mouthful of noodles: “I’ll call my brother’s unit in a couple of days and ask if his comrades are back.”

Wen Nan raised her head again and said with a smile: “Thank you, Big Brother.”

“No need to be polite.”

Chen Xu picked up the bowl and finished the last mouthful of noodles, got up and took the bowl to the kitchen. There was still an inspection in the regiment in the afternoon. Before going out, he told Wen Nan: “I’ll go to the grassland to help you send the grass tonight.”

“No…” need.

Before the word “need” was uttered, Chen Xu had already quickly gone out, leaving with Chief Du next door.

And Chief Zhao and Chief Kang came out sweating profusely, neither of them caring about their wives.

The fight between their wives was known throughout the family quarters. The most worried was Chief Kang. The cause of the incident was his wife, and it was directed at Chief Chen’s cousin. He worked under Chief Chen, and his leader’s family member was bullied by his wife. If this matter wasn’t handled well, it would also affect him.

Hua Fengzhen came out of Lin Meizhen’s house and sat down in the yard, her chest heaving with anger. Zhao Xiaodong was playing with a hook in the yard, spinning it around and shouting: “Mom, look how round I’m spinning it?” Hua Fengzhen was annoyed and yelled at him: “Be quiet!”

Zhao Xiaodong pouted and continued playing with his hook. Zhao Xiaomai pursed her lips and silently did the housework. After a big quarrel, the Zhao family and the Lin family had completely fallen out. There were still scolding sounds from the other side of the wall, it was Chief Kang’s mother-in-law scolding Lin Meizhen.

Chief Kang’s mother was called Niu Laihua, over forty years old. Chief Kang was her only son. Her husband died early, and her son finally made a success of himself, becoming a platoon leader. Who knew that his wife was such a person, not only unable to have children, but also causing trouble everywhere, offending two leaders, Chief Zhao and Chief Chen.

Chief Kang was a soldier under Chief Chen. Chief Chen’s cousin had only been here for two days and was bullied by his wife. Could Chief Chen be happy about that?

Niu Laihua stood under the eaves, her face full of anger, poking Lin Meizhen’s forehead with her finger, wishing she could poke a hole in it: “What’s the use of marrying you into our Kang family? You can’t have children, and you don’t do much housework, but you’ve caused me a lot of trouble! You don’t live a good life, you’re always thinking of crooked ideas!”

Lin Meizhen lowered her head, biting her lip without speaking.

In this family, as long as she didn’t get pregnant, she couldn’t hold her head up, and her family was ashamed to talk to her husband and mother-in-law. She had been married to the Kang family for three years, and her belly hadn’t moved at all. Who in the family quarters and Xinghuacun didn’t gossip about her behind her back? The neighbors in Xinghuacun said she was lucky to have married a platoon leader, but unfortunately, she couldn’t have children, and she would probably be sent back to her family sooner or later.

“I’m warning you for the last time! If you cause any more trouble, get out of our Kang family, and I’ll find a new wife for my son!”

“Mom—”

Lin Meizhen’s face changed, and she looked up to meet her mother-in-law’s fierce face. Niu Laihua said coldly: “If my son’s position is affected because of you, I won’t let you off!”

Then she snorted coldly: “What are you still standing there for? Go wash the dishes! After washing the dishes, go to work quickly!”

Lin Meizhen had nowhere to vent her anger, and angrily went to the kitchen, wanting to smash the chopsticks and bowls, but afraid of being scolded again by her mother-in-law. If she had known that things would develop to this point, she would definitely not have gossiped to Hua Fengzhen. She originally thought that Wen Nan’s words about sharing half of her work points with Xiaomai were just talk, but she didn’t expect it to be true.

And the next-door neighbor of the Chen family was the loudmouth Zhang Xiaoe. If the matter of Wen Nan exploiting Xiaomai was spread by Zhang Xiaoe, the whole family quarters would know what kind of person Wen Nan was, and who would dare to marry her in the future?

She sat at home waiting to see Wen Nan’s downfall, but instead of seeing a downfall, she fought with Hua Fengzhen, who came to her house to settle accounts, and was scolded by her mother-in-law. She felt like she had lost everything. Her face was scratched by Hua Fengzhen with several fingernail marks, burning and painful, and several pieces of flesh on her body were pinched purple.