Chapter 47 – The Female Supporting Character Whose Life Was Taken Away by a Transmigrated Woman

Wen Xin was still under twenty years old. After their engagement, their wedding was scheduled for February of the following year. Not long after Wen Xin’s wedding, Qin Yishu left. She had been out for nearly half a year now, and Sun Jingyong’s calls had increased from once a week to three times a week. If she didn’t return soon, Sun Jingyong would probably go crazy.

It had been so long since they had seen each other, and Qin Yishu also missed her husband. She went directly to his station. She was already quite familiar with this military unit. The gatekeeper called Sun Jingyong, and within minutes, he arrived.

Sun Jingyong grabbed his things and led Qin Yishu towards the family area. They hadn’t walked far when they encountered a soldier coming toward them, rushing out with a luggage bag.

Qin Yishu glanced at him, and Sun Jingyong said: “That’s Zhou Wenhai.”

Qin Yishu immediately furrowed her brows.

Qin Yishu had a very poor impression of the Zhou family, and her opinion of Zhou Wenhai was even worse. In her view, Zhou Wenhai was an extremely irresponsible man. Although the incident with Su Quihe was a misunderstanding and the aftermath had been handled decently, when she later heard that Su Quihe was pregnant, he couldn’t wait to break off his engagement with his own niece. He took responsibility for Su Quihe, but did he take responsibility for his niece?

He had grown up with her niece. Didn’t he know how that scoundrel Wen Chengzhi treated her? How had their engagement come about? After all these years, didn’t he understand? To break off the engagement so decisively, did he really not know what kind of person Wen Chengzhi would find for her niece?

According to Sun Jingyong, Zhou Wenhai was an excellent soldier. The unit had conducted several mock combat exercises, and Zhou Wenhai performed outstandingly in each one, earning the title of a strategic mastermind. A man like that couldn’t possibly be unaware of those issues.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand; he simply didn’t want to think about it. Ultimately, he was just cold-blooded.

“He’s in such a hurry. What’s he going to do?” Qin Yishu asked.

Sun Jingyong wasn’t Zhou Wenhai’s direct superior, but since he was Wen Xin’s ex-fiancé, Sun Jingyong paid a bit more attention to him. In response to his wife’s question, he said: “He’s said that his wife disappeared after giving birth, and he’s going home to deal with things.”

Qin Yishu was taken aback. “Disappeared? What happened?”

Sun Jingyong shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Qin Yishu was briefly surprised, then decided to let go of the question. She followed her husband into the family compound.

Zhou Wenhai returned to Xiang Province in a hurry. After he got off the train at the Xiang Province Railway Station, he walked to the bus station to catch a ride home. On the way, he passed by He Xiunian’s tile shop. At that moment, Wen Xin was walking out of the shop with her arm linked with He Xiunian’s, and He Xiunian was holding a bright red candied hawthorn stick. Wen Xin was looking up at him, speaking animatedly, her expression full of life. He Xiunian slightly tilted his head, looking at Wen Xin with a look of affection and tenderness.

As Zhou Wenhai watched their interaction, a sudden discomfort filled his chest. The two people before him, one his fiancée from childhood and the other his cousin whom he had been at odds with since they were young, their union made Zhou Wenhai feel deeply unsettled.

He tightened the grip on his luggage, wanting to cross the street and talk to them, but just as he was about to step forward, he saw them get into a military green jeep. The vehicle quickly sped away after they got in. Zhou Wenhai stared at the license plate and froze for a moment.

Even after he got on the bus to head home, Zhou Wenhai couldn’t understand why He Xiunian and Wen Xin had gotten into that car.

When Zhou Wenhai arrived home, he found the house in a much more chaotic state than when he had last returned. A row of children’s clothes and diapers were hanging in the yard, chickens and ducks were running all over the place, and the sounds of children crying and Mother Zhou scolding a child to stop crying echoed from inside.

Zhou Wenhai pushed open the door. His mother had her back to him, preparing formula, while a small child lay in bed, eyes shut tightly, fists clenched as he cried loudly.

As Zhou Wenhai approached, the child’s face clearly came into view, and Zhou Wenhai realized with surprise that the child looked just like him.

Before he could look more closely, Mother Zhou noticed him. “You little brat, why do you walk so quietly? If I weren’t still young, I’d have been scared to death by you.”

Mother Zhou scolded him with a smile, and Zhou Wenhai put down his luggage, sitting on the edge of the bed to watch the child. “I got Dad’s letter and came back. What’s going on with Su Quihe? She hasn’t returned after giving birth?”

As soon as she mentioned this, Mother Zhou’s complaints overflowed. “That’s exactly it! When she gave birth, the doctor said the baby was too big to deliver naturally, so she needed a C-section. After the operation, they gave us the baby. She stayed in the hospital for recovery, and we brought the child back home, waiting for her to come back. We waited and waited, but she never showed up. The baby was already a month old before we went to the hospital to look for her, and the doctor said she had already been discharged.”

Mother Zhou grew more and more agitated as she spoke. “The doctor even said that her husband came to pick her up. Your dad and I were stunned when we heard that. You’re in the military, and Su Quihe has a husband? After your dad and I thought about it, we became suspicious. It turns out that Su Quihe had been seeing someone else all along, just waiting to have the baby and run off with that bastard!”

While speaking, Mother Zhou was feeding the baby. The child held the bottle, drinking eagerly. Looking at the child, her expression softened.

Zhou Wenhai furrowed his brows. “Su Quihe was in the hospital, and you didn’t stay with her? You just brought the child back home?”

Mother Zhou’s previously soft expression froze for a moment. “But didn’t the doctor say so? She needed to be taken care of, and no visits were allowed.”

“A C-section isn’t a major surgery. Why would they not allow visits?” Zhou Wenhai’s tone grew stern. “So, after you left the hospital, you never went back to check on her? Did you pay the medical bills?”

Mother Zhou’s face showed a hint of embarrassment. “The baby was so small, still in her confinement period. She couldn’t go out to see anyone. I had to take care of the baby, and it was busy farming season. Your father was busy plowing and planting crops, so there was no time to go to the hospital. When we left, the doctor didn’t ask for any payment. And when we went back to the hospital later, they didn’t ask us for anything either.”

Zhou Wenhai’s head ached listening to Mother Zhou’s excuses. He felt that if he were Su Quihe, after coming out of surgery, and the in-laws and the baby were nowhere to be found, and they hadn’t even visited her from surgery to discharge, he would have run away too.

But these were his own parents. And as his mother had said, she had to care for the baby, while his father had to manage the farm. They truly couldn’t spare the time.

“Did you give Su Quihe the ten yuan I sent back every month, like I asked?”

Mother Zhou was used to being poor, and it was harder for her to take money out of her pocket than to move mountains. How could she possibly give ten yuan to Su Quihe every month? Su Quihe, a woman who had climbed into bed with someone else, didn’t deserve it. She’d even complain if she had to give her two yuan.

Mother Zhou remained silent, and Zhou Wenhai already knew what that meant. He took a deep breath, his emotions complex.

He thought again about Wen Xin and He Xiunian, whom he had seen earlier in the Provincial Capital. “What’s the deal with Wen Xin and He Xiunian? I saw them holding hands today when I came back.”

Mother Zhou took the bottle from the baby’s hands and, as she fed him, explained that Wen Xin had reconnected with her family and that Wen Chengzhi, a murderer, had already been executed. As Zhou Wenhai listened, he remembered the jeep he had seen earlier with the license plate from the Xiang Province Military District.

Could it be that Wen Xin’s relatives were officials from the Xiang Province Military District? A sudden thought crossed Zhou Wenhai’s mind.

The next day, after he woke up, Zhou Wenhai went to the hospital to gather information. What he found out plunged his mood to an all-time low. His mother had lied. The hospital had never said visits were not allowed. While they hadn’t specifically mentioned the medical fees, who would expect someone to go to the hospital for treatment without paying?

As for the man who came to pick up Su Quihe, the hospital staff had said she called him her husband, and the medical fees had been paid. Could they really have kept him there, forcing him to stay? They were a hospital, not a detention center.

Zhou Wenhai walked home with heavy steps. He was 24 this year, the same age as Wen Xin, and when he married Su Quihe, she hadn’t yet turned twenty and couldn’t get a marriage certificate. After he returned, he had filed a marriage report. Due to the special circumstances, his superiors had given him a verbal reprimand but still approved his marriage application. He just had to wait until Su Quihe turned 20, and then they would go back to get the certificate.

Zhou Wenhai never imagined that his wife would run away, nor did he expect that his own parents would be so cold-hearted toward Su Quihe.

Having failed to find Su Quihe and not wanting to return home, Zhou Wenhai went to the Provincial Capital. He waited outside the store where he had seen Wen Xin and He Xiunian earlier for a long time, but when he didn’t see them again, he finally turned around and headed home.

That evening, Wang Zhuang went to see He Xiunian and mentioned that Zhou Wenhai had been waiting outside the shop. He Xiunian furrowed his brows when he heard this. “What did he come for?”

“Who knows? Maybe he heard you and Wen Xin are together and came to cause trouble.”

He Xiunian, looking at the report in his hands, thought back to how Zhou Wenhai had always slandered him in front of Wen Xin. He believed that Zhou Wenhai had come to make trouble today.

Wang Zhuang added: “It looks like Zhou Wenhai came back to find his wife. Did you know his wife ran off? Tsk, tsk. Apparently, it was because after she gave birth, his parents didn’t take care of her and didn’t pay the medical fees, so she had no choice but to run off with someone else.”

He Xiunian wasn’t surprised by Zhou Dashan and his wife’s actions. The couple was selfish, especially Mother Zhou—she was the kind of person who would watch her own brother and sister-in-law die without lifting a finger to help. If she wouldn’t even help her own closest family, how could she be expected to care for a daughter-in-law with no blood relation? It was a foolish expectation.

He Xiunian told Wen Xin about the situation, and when Wen Xin heard Zhou Wenhai’s name, she paused for a moment before saying: “Let him come find me. I’m curious to see what he’s planning to do.”

He Xiunian observed Wen Xin’s expression carefully. When she heard the news about Zhou Wenhai, there was no unusual emotion on her face; instead, she made a nonchalant, almost provocative remark, which made him smile slightly. He then shared the information about Su Quihe running off with another man.

Su Quihe, who had always been known for clinging to powerful people, would never abandon Zhou Wenhai, her golden ticket, to run off with someone else. If she had gone missing, it was likely because the National Security Department had intervened.

In the courtyard, Liu, a comrade from the National Security Department and recipient of the Oscar equivalent in his field, was starting his performance again.

This was Liu’s second visit to the courtyard, and nearly two weeks had passed since their last meeting.

Su Quihe was thrilled by his arrival. She suggested that they take a walk in the courtyard, and Liu, not wanting to perform for the servants inside the house again—especially after enduring their teasing the last time—agreed happily to her request.

The courtyard was a traditional Chinese garden, with flowerbeds, artificial hills, and small ponds. As they walked and talked, they encountered a number of servants working in the garden along the way.

Liu: …

However, this meeting wasn’t without its benefits. At least he learned that Hong Kong would be returning.