Chapter 14: This Woman—You Can’t Spoil Her

Seeing that everyone was agreeing with him, the old man turned to Qin Kaishen, blowing his beard and glaring as he lectured,
“At your age, still so immature. And you young people too—don’t know how to behave! Letting your mother act out like this? It’s just outrageous!”

Qin Kaishen: “……”

Qin’s mother got anxious and pointed at Bai Yalan’s family, who were carrying chicken and duck cages.
“How is this my fault? Look how much they bought! Obviously, they’re trying to show off to us—”

Bai Yalan didn’t want to hear any more nonsense and interrupted her coldly,
“Of course not. These are things our family bought for ourselves—it has nothing to do with you. I’ve already said it: I’ve repaid everything I owed, and I don’t owe your family a single thing.”

If anything was owed, it was your family who owes me.

After this long scene, even Bai’s father lost his patience.
“Xiaolan, there’s no need to waste time with unreasonable people like this. Let’s go—we still have things to do at home.”
There’s no need to waste more time bickering with their family. He politely said to the surrounding crowd,
“Excuse us, please let us through!”

Bai Yalan didn’t waste another word and turned to leave. Qin’s mother still wanted to say something more, but Bai’s mother stepped in front of her and directly pulled her daughter away.

From beginning to end, Bai Yalan didn’t even spare them a single extra glance. Qin Kaishen could hardly believe it—she had embarrassed him and his mother so thoroughly in public, and didn’t show him the slightest bit of regard.

Still frozen in place, the chicken-and-duck vendor, seeing that his big customer had already left, waved his hand and shouted,
“Alright, alright! Show’s over—nothing more to see here!”
He then turned to Qin Kaishen and his mother,
“Hey, you two still haven’t paid for the chickens and ducks you picked out. Do you want them or not?”

“We don’t want them!” Qin’s mother was fuming and snapped without thinking.

The vendor’s face turned red with anger. So these two had wasted half his day haggling over nothing, just here to mess around?

So he lost his temper too,
“You’re something else, lady. That attitude of yours! If you didn’t want them, why waste all that time picking through them?”

Qin Kaishen grew even angrier at this and, feeling thoroughly humiliated, grabbed his mother to leave. But Qin’s mother was still furious and began to throw a tantrum.
“So what if we don’t want them—what, is that illegal now? You heartless crook! Picking your stuff and then treating people like trash!”

The vendor, already annoyed and not afraid to offend them, directly shouted,
“If you can’t afford it, don’t buy!”

“You—!”
The Qin’s mother and son almost choked on their anger. Qin Kaishen furiously reached into his pocket for money, only to realize he barely had anything left. It dawned on him—he’d already spent almost all his cash on this trip to town and only had enough left for the ride home. His face darkened even more.

With the vendor chuckling in an oddly sinister way, Qin Kaishen scowled and stormed off.

Qin’s mother was still sticking her neck out and jumping in anger, arguing,
“You dog-eyed vendor, looking down on people! Let me tell you, don’t you dare underestimate us. My son is—”

The vendor cut her off, not wanting to waste more time arguing,
“Ma’am, calm down already. Your son’s long gone.”

Only then did Qin’s mother turn around and realize her son had stormed off in anger. She quickly chased after him, calling out his name.

Behind her, the vendor and his fellow sellers shook their heads,
“Unbelievable. What kind of people are these?”

“Right? Unbelievable,” the others echoed.

No matter how loudly Qin’s mother called or shouted, Qin Kaishen never looked back. He carried his things and left the market that had so thoroughly humiliated him without a second glance.

By the time Qin’s mother finally caught up, she was panting hard,
“Kaishen, don’t be mad at Mom. It’s all that Bai comrade’s fault—she must have done it on purpose!”

On purpose to embarrass them, on purpose to make them look bad.

Qin Kaishen thought the same. But now he didn’t want to talk about it at all. He just planned to head straight to the station with his mother and go home.

Unexpectedly, he caught sight of Bai Yalan again. He was furious and tried to ignore her, but shamefully realized… he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

That girl who used to admire and adore him so much—how could she change her attitude so quickly?
Are women really this cold and heartless?

He didn’t want to believe it. He felt incredibly unwilling to accept it.

That family of three was eye-catching.

Bai’s father was pushing a tricycle full of chickens and ducks, Bai’s mother was loading more items onto it, and Bai Yalan herself was standing in front of a supply cooperative, picking out various seeds—vegetables, flowers, crops. She even pulled a store clerk aside to ask where she could buy seedlings. This made Qin Kaishen feel increasingly puzzled. Ever since the drowning incident with Lu Qing’er, Bai Yalan’s behavior had been strange.

But without showing it on his face, he coaxed his mother into heading home first with a few words.

The Bai family bought a lot. Bai’s father had already taken one load of chickens and ducks home. By the time he returned, Bai’s mother had picked up rice, flour, and other supplies—chicken and duck feed included—and they left together for another trip.

When Bai’s father came back again, Bai Yalan had already picked out all kinds of crop seeds. She happily hopped into the small vehicle with her father and they drove home, loaded with goods.

The happier they looked, the worse Qin Kaishen felt.

Maybe it was curiosity—or something else entirely—but something compelled him to follow them home.

After the Bai family got home, they didn’t come out again. Qin Kaishen stood there, secretly hoping… hoping Bai Yalan would appear. If she did and saw him waiting under her building, surely she’d be moved?

Surely!

After all, ever since they’d known each other, she was always the one chasing after him.

This was the first time he had come looking for her—
(well, if you didn’t count the time he came over to question her about Lu Qing’er…)

But he waited for a long time—so long that even his body, trained through military exercises, began to falter and his legs grew weak—yet he never saw Bai Yalan come out.

Go knock on her door again? He couldn’t bring himself to do it.
In the end, all Qin Kaishen could do was walk away—frustrated, unwilling, and powerless.

Qin Kaishen’s irritation and emotional turmoil were unknown to Bai Yalan. And even if she had known, she wouldn’t have cared.

At that moment, she was in her space, happily stroking her magical bracelet and looking at the things she had brought in.

Inside the fenced-off area of the space, the chickens and ducks were lively and noisy.

Her father was scattering rice seeds in the field, her mother was planting vegetable seeds in the freshly prepared garden, and Bai Yalan herself was feeding the poultry with feed.

But Bai’s father and Bai’s mother didn’t stay in the space for too long. To them, tending to the farmland was just a hobby, a fun way to pass the time and keep their daughter company.

Back in Qin Family Village, Qin Kaishen was furious at how cold Bai Yalan had been to him and became moody and depressed.

In his bad mood, he didn’t even bother to go visit Lu Qing’er again. He stayed home until the end of the holiday. The thought of having to report back to his unit the next afternoon made him feel even worse.

Qin Kaishen packed his bags, and during dinner, the Qin family put together a lavish meal. Qin’s father even—uncharacteristically—opened a bottle of wine to drink with his son.

Noticing that her son still looked unhappy after days of sulking, Qin’s mother felt heartache and tried to comfort him.
“Kaishen, Mom knows you’re angry. I’m mad too. That Bai girl—so heartless! One moment she’s sweet, the next she turns her back. Unbelievable!”

Qin’s father had originally hoped his son could patch things up with Bai Yalan. But after hearing Qin’s mother’s exaggerated retelling of the county market incident, he too became displeased.

“Kaishen, no woman is born obedient—it’s all in how you handle her. You can’t spoil a woman too much. She’s not even married into the family yet and already acting so out of line? Just ignore her for now, let her cool off. Once she’s in the house, she’ll need straightening out.”

Qin’s mother agreed enthusiastically,
“Exactly! Look at our son—such great looks and talent. Tch, she thinks she can find someone better? Listen to your dad. Let her sit and stew for a while. She thinks she can open a whole restaurant just because we gave her three spoonfuls of soy sauce! Leaving our son? Ha! Where else is she gonna find such a fine man, already a company commander at such a young age? Our son is different—he leaves her, and there’ll be girls lining up to be picked!”

Father and mother took turns complaining, agreeing that Bai Yalan had gone too far. Even if she was playing hard to get, this was just humiliating. If she was already acting this way before even marrying in, how would things be afterward? They couldn’t cave—they had to crush her arrogance now.

Listening to them, Qin Kaishen felt they made sense. A woman should know her place—he couldn’t let her get too full of herself, or one day she’d walk all over him.

So he made up his mind:
He would ignore Bai Yalan completely for a while—
Let’s see if she regrets it.

He didn’t believe for a second she could find a man better than him.