It was just like her room.

“Wen Nan—”

Zhao Xiaomai’s voice came from outside the courtyard.

Wen Nan closed Chen Xu’s door and turned around, responding, “Xiaomai, I’m here.”

Zhao Xiaomai pushed the door open and entered. She was wearing a burlap sack, having run through the rain to the eaves. She stamped her feet, shook the sack to remove the water, placed it on the ground, and turned to smile at Wen Nan who was walking over. “How are you feeling?”

Wen Nan brought two stools from the kitchen and handed one to her. “Much better.”

Although it still hurt a little, it was within her tolerance.

Grandma Chen’s voice came from the window of her room, “Xiaomai is here?”

Zhao Xiaomai responded to Grandma Chen’s room. Grandma Chen said, “You two chat, Grandma will sleep for a while.”

“Wen Nan, at noon, the Kang family had another fight.”

Zhao Xiaomai sat on the stool, her hands gripping the edges as she moved closer to Wen Nan. Seeing Wen Nan curiously looking at her, Zhao Xiaomai hesitated for a moment, then whispered, “They seem to be fighting because of you.”

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gone out of her way to tell Wen Nan.

Wen Nan: ???

Why would the Kang family’s fight involve her?!

She asked, “What does their fight have to do with me?”

Zhao Xiaomai said, “I heard it when I went to the latrine. Aunt Niu said that Lin Meizhen bullied you, which offended Chief Chen. Chief Chen will definitely make things difficult for Commander Kang. Then Commander Kang will have a hard time in the regiment headquarters, and it will be difficult for him to get promoted. His wife isn’t able to bear children; what use is she? Commander Kang didn’t say anything at first, until Lin Meizhen and Aunt Niu started fighting, and then Commander Kang pulled them apart.”

At this point, Zhao Xiaomai paused, looked up at Wen Nan’s snow-white face, as if afraid someone would hear, she leaned closer to Wen Nan and whispered, “Do you remember Aunt Zhang saying this morning that Commander Kang and Lin Meizhen fought last night?”

Wen Nan raised an eyebrow: “I remember.”

How could she not remember?

Last night, she thought Commander Kang and Lin Meizhen fought because Chen Xu told Commander Kang about Lin Meizhen’s ambiguous relationship with her brother-in-law.

But from what Xiaomai said, it seemed to be related to her?

Sure enough, Zhao Xiaomai said, “Last night, they fought because of you. Commander Kang didn’t let Lin Meizhen go to work, just for fear that she would bully you again and upset Chief Chen.”

She looked at Wen Nan enviously, then lowered her head and fiddled with her fingers.

Wen Nan received love and care from Grandma Chen and Chief Chen at home. So after Lin Meizhen bullied Wen Nan, Commander Kang was afraid that Chief Chen would make things difficult for him, so he angrily fought with Lin Meizhen, warning her not to trouble Wen Nan. Unlike her, although her father was also a battalion commander, everyone in the family quarters knew that she was a child unloved by her parents, and anyone could bully her.

So Lin Meizhen would scold her from time to time, and the Kang family turned a blind eye. Now it’s Wen Nan, and Commander Kang and Aunt Niu couldn’t sit still.

Zhao Xiaomai bit her lip, almost breaking her fingers. She felt that it was good to be loved.

Her hand was suddenly grasped by Wen Nan. Zhao Xiaomai was stunned, vaguely raising her head to meet Wen Nan’s smiling eyes. Wen Nan squeezed Zhao Xiaomai’s hand and smiled, “Let’s not talk about her. Xiaomai, do you want to learn to write?”

Zhao Xiaomai was stunned. Wen Nan squeezed her hand again, “Wait for me.”

She ran to the kitchen, picked up two thin wooden sticks, and ran out, handing one to Zhao Xiaomai. Zhao Xiaomai looked down at the stick in her hand and finally came to her senses, “I can’t write, my mother didn’t let me go to school.”

There was a school in Xinghua Village, where children from the family quarters and Xinghua Village studied.

Her younger brother, Zhao Xiaoqiang, went to that school. Her brother always laughed at her for being stupid, unable to even write her name. Zhao Xiaomai thought her brother was also stupid; after a year of school, he couldn’t even write his name properly, his handwriting was crooked and looked like ants crawling.

“Xiaomai, I’ll teach you.”

Wen Nan bent down and slowly wrote the three characters ‘Zhao Xiaomai’ on the muddy ground with the small stick in her hand, explaining the stroke order and the force of the writing to Xiaomai. Zhao Xiaomai followed Wen Nan’s movements, but Wen Nan’s writing was elegant and beautiful, while hers was crooked and illegible.

Wen Nan smiled, stood up, went behind Zhao Xiaomai, bent down, and held her hand, writing the name ‘Zhao Xiaomai’ stroke by stroke on the ground.

“Xiaomai, this is your name.”

Zhao Xiaomai tilted her head and looked at it, tracing the three characters in the air with a twig, finally looking up at Wen Nan happily, her eyes full of smiles, “Wen Nan, you’re amazing, your handwriting is so beautiful, did you go to school in your hometown?”

Wen Nan sat on the small stool and nodded, “Yes, my… grandmother sent me to high school.”

Zhao Xiaomai envied Wen Nan even more.

They were both girls, but Wen Nan was loved by her grandmother, and her grandmother even sent her to school, while she was considered a burden by her parents. Her family thought that giving her food was enough.

“I’ll tell you, Lin Meizhen! As long as I’m in this house, you can’t step into this house!”

“If it weren’t for your shameless mother begging to marry into our family, how could I let my son marry you? Now it’s good, he married a hen that doesn’t lay eggs!”

“Mother, I was wrong.”

“Wuwuwu, I was wrong, Kang Jin, please persuade mother, don’t let her send me back, I won’t fight with her anymore.”

The sound of arguing came through the rain, Wen Nan pricked up her ears to listen, it seemed to be the Kang family, three houses away from the Chen family.

Before she and Zhao Xiaomai could get up, Zhang Xiaoe from next door ran out first, and Commander Du’s loud voice roared, “Zhang Xiaoe, I’ll beat you with my shoe sole!”

“Da da da” footsteps ran past outside the door.

Zhao Xiaomai said, “Aunt Zhang went to watch the fun again.”

Wen Nan: …

Zhang Xiaoe was truly the number one online gossip eater.

Zhao Xiaomai put the burlap sack on her head, looked at Wen Nan, who looked up at her. She pursed her lips, a little embarrassed, “Shall we go and have a look too?”

Wen Nan nodded, “Okay.”

She picked up the umbrella leaning against the wall and went to the door with Zhao Xiaomai. The two of them stood against the wall and looked towards the Kang family not far away.

Outside the Kang family’s door, Lin Meizhen stood in the rain in a sorry state, drenched to the bone, wearing a red and black striped shirt, with a tear in the collar, her hair messy like a chicken coop, and several more scratches on her face. Kang’s mother was no better, her hair was also messy, wearing a black slanted-collar jacket, two buttons were torn off, revealing her neck and a little skin below, with two scratches on her neck, obviously scratched by Lin Meizhen.

Wen Nan clicked her tongue inwardly.

These mother-in-law and daughter-in-law fought quite fiercely.

Niu Laihua pointed at Lin Meizhen’s nose and cursed, “Get out! Get out! My son doesn’t want you!”

Seeing that Lin Meizhen didn’t leave, Niu Laihua became even angrier. She didn’t expect this hen that didn’t lay eggs to dare to hit her. She was her mother-in-law, she just pushed her a few times, right? This little bitch dared to fight back! Good, three years, she finally showed her true colors, today she dared to hit her, tomorrow she would dare to kill her mother-in-law!

“I can’t live like this anymore!”

Niu Laihua raised her broom and hit Lin Meizhen, “A daughter-in-law hitting her mother-in-law, she’ll be struck by lightning!”

With this sweep, Lin Meizhen’s face would be ruined.

She was so scared that her face changed, she dodged to the side, then ‘plop’ knelt on the ground, grabbed her mother-in-law’s hand so she couldn’t swing the broom, crying and shouting, “Mother, I was wrong, please forgive me this once.” Seeing Kang Jin come out, she knelt down and grabbed Kang Jin’s hand.

For Lin Meizhen, being sent back to her parents’ home was worse than losing face.

Although it was raining, the military wives nearby heard the commotion from the Kang family and ran out one by one, some with pots on their heads, some with burlap sacks, some wearing raincoats, all of them came to watch the fun. Wen Nan stood against the wall, peeking out to watch the fun. Commander Kang also felt ashamed, pulled Lin Meizhen up, and let his mother and Lin Meizhen go home to talk.

“Don’t watch this kind of excitement.”

A low voice suddenly came from behind, mixed with the sound of rain, mellow and pleasant.

Wen Nan turned her head and glanced, seeing Chen Xu returning from the army. The man was wearing a hat, raindrops falling along the edge of the hat. Zhao Xiaomai also saw Chen Xu and was startled. She quickly ran away from the wall and said to Wen Nan in a low voice, “Wen Nan, I’ll go back first.”

Wen Nan retracted her head, held up her umbrella, stood at the door, and looked up expectantly at Chen Xu, “Chief Chen, what did my brother’s comrade say? Did he say who the person my brother introduced to me is?”

The Kang family’s farce continued.

A large group of military wives had gathered outside, and Zhang Xiaoe was at the front watching the fun.

Chen Xu glanced at the noisy Kang family, turned and entered the house, stood under the eaves, took off his hat and hung it on the window, then took off his raincoat and shook it. He hesitated for a moment, then told Wen Nan the truth, “The person who called you before wasn’t this comrade. He said that a comrade named Fan Fengxue was very close to your brother, and it was probably him who called you.”

Before Chen Xu finished speaking, Wen Nan hurriedly said, “Where is Fan Fengxue?”

Chen Xu hung his raincoat on the hook on the kitchen wall, “He is one of the comrades I told you before who was transferred to Xinjiang. Xinjiang is very large, and the person who called doesn’t know which unit Fan Fengxue was transferred to. He promised me that when he comes back from this military exercise, he will go to the regiment headquarters to help me inquire.”

Wen Nan frowned and looked down at the rain at her feet.

So, the information was cut off at a person named Fan Fengxue.

She put away her umbrella and leaned it against the wall, sat on the small stool beside her, looking at the name she had just taught Zhao Xiaomai to write. Chen Xu looked down at the lonely Wen Nan. Her back was thin, her shoulders were hunched, and her head was down. The man sat beside her, picked up a small stone and threw it into the water circle in the courtyard. The stone landed, splashing a circle of water.