Chapter 6: Where Did the Child Get Thrown?  

Jiang Rou heard the noise outside the door and had to hurriedly dry herself off before putting on her clothes. She rushed out to open the door, not even having time to dry her hair.  

Her long, damp hair was only briefly pressed with a towel before it hung loosely over her shoulders, still dripping water.  

“I’m coming.” Jiang Rou responded, fastening the last button of her top before reaching out to open the courtyard door.  

She had locked this door before taking a bath.  

Because there was a military unit stationed on the island and this was a military family compound, there were no thieves, and most people didn’t bother locking their doors.  

But Jiang Rou was different—she still maintained her habit of valuing privacy.  

As soon as she opened the door, before she could even clearly see the person knocking, a figure outside had already squeezed in at lightning speed.  

That person even bumped into Jiang Rou’s shoulder in the process.  

The force was nothing short of aggressive.  

Immediately after, a sharp female voice rang out.  

“Big Brother Zhou! Big Brother Zhou? Are you home?”  

She called out several times, but there was no response from Zhou Zhongshan inside the house. It seemed she was certain that he wasn’t home and was still training at the grounds.

So when she turned her head, she finally looked at Jiang Rou.  

Immediately after, the woman’s eyes widened in shock.  

It was because Jiang Rou clearly looked like she had rushed out in the middle of a bath to answer the door.  

More importantly—Jiang Rou was a woman!  

There was actually an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old woman inside Zhou Zhongshan’s house, and she had been bathing here!  

Just these two facts were enough to set off alarm bells in the woman’s mind.  

She glared at Jiang Rou and sharply questioned her.  

“Who are you? Why are you in this house? Do you even know where you are? This is the residence of Military Unit Commander, Regiment Commander Zhou! Not just anyone can waltz in! What is your identity? You’d better get out right now before I call someone over!”  

A rapid-fire interrogation was hurled directly at Jiang Rou.  

Yet, instead of getting angry, Jiang Rou merely chuckled softly as she listened to the woman’s shouting.  

Because in just a few short sentences, Jiang Rou had already recognized this person’s identity from her vague memories of the original novel.  

This woman was Xu Chunxiang, a villager from this small island.  

In the original story, after Zhou Zhongshan brought the children to the island, he had no time to take care of them. Moreover, due to certain special circumstances, he couldn’t send them to school.  

So, he had tried to find a literate young person among the island’s villagers—someone who could teach the children some basic knowledge while also looking after them.  

Essentially, a home tutor of that era.  

Xu Chunxiang had attended a few years of elementary school and could recognize some words.  

The moment she heard about this opportunity, she did everything she could to secure the position.  

But in reality, Xu Chunxiang had never truly intended to care for or educate the children.  

Her real goal was to get close to Zhou Zhongshan.  

If everything went well, she could soar to success and become the Commander’s Wife.  

That was why, while everyone else respectfully addressed him as “Regiment Commander Zhou.” Xu Chunxiang was the only one who persistently called him “Big Brother Zhou.”  

It was nothing more than a deliberate attempt to create intimacy between them.  

If she became the Commander’s Wife, she would be one of the most prominent women on this island.

Thus, Xu Chunxiang gained yet another identity.  

She was the vicious female supporting character in the original story, always opposing the reborn female protagonist.  

Arguments, scheming, drugging, seduction…  

As long as it was dramatic and sensational enough, she had done it all.  

However, a vicious supporting character like her could never outmatch a reborn protagonist with a golden finger. She was repeatedly humiliated, slapped in the face, and ultimately served as a foil to highlight the protagonist’s brilliance.  

Even the abuse of the two children was something the reborn female protagonist had discovered.  

It was precisely because of this that the protagonist quickly closed the distance with Zhou Chongshan, gained his trust, and secured a good reputation…  

But that was all for later.  

At this moment—  

What amused Jiang Rou was not Xu Chunxiang’s character design as a vicious supporting character in the original story, nor was it her arrogant shouting.  

Instead, it was the pair of shoes Xu Chunxiang was currently wearing.  

Jiang Rou lowered her gaze to look at them.  

White, with thin straps, high heels.  

Weren’t these the very shoes Jiang Rou had deliberately exchanged with someone when she got off the ship?  

After a whole afternoon of twists and turns, they had somehow ended up on Xu Chunxiang’s feet.  

From the looks of it, that middle-aged woman at the dock was likely Xu Chunxiang’s mother.  

Jiang Rou recalled the scene and then turned to the Xu Chunxiang before her, realizing that the greed and calculation in their eyes were indeed identical.  

Heh.  

Her sneer grew colder.  

Xu Chunxiang, who was making a grand show of dominance, had never expected that her shouting would not intimidate Jiang Rou. Instead, it earned her nothing but a mocking sneer.  

Xu Chunxiang burned with fury.  

She raised her voice even louder and shouted,  

“Who exactly are you? If you don’t speak, I’ll call someone over and have the soldiers arrest you!”  

Jiang Rou looked at Xu Chunxiang indifferently, her lips lightly parting as she asked a question.

“You? And what exactly is your relationship to this household? What right do you have to question my identity?”  

Xu Chunxiang was momentarily stunned by Jiang Rou’s counterquestion.  

She couldn’t come up with a rebuttal right away.  

However, Jiang Rou did not give her time to recover and immediately pressed further.  

“As far as I know, Zhou Chongshan is not married, nor does he have any female relatives in his family. You don’t go by ‘Regiment Commander Zhou,’ nor do you address him as ‘Comrade Zhou.’ Instead, you keep calling him ‘Big Brother’ so affectionately. Don’t tell me… you’re his sworn sister?”  

The moment those words left her mouth—  

Xu Chunxiang’s face turned red with anger.  

That term—”sworn sister”—was not exactly a compliment.  

In this era, people were highly sensitive about relationships between men and women. If one wasn’t careful, such things could easily be misinterpreted and lead to trouble.  

Flushing with fury, she snapped back,  

“Stop talking nonsense! My relationship with Big Brother Zhou is close, but not because of anything like that. I simply like children, so I help him take care of them!”  

Faced with Xu Chunxiang’s agitated response, Jiang Rou remained as calm as ever.  

She simply let out a flat “Oh.”  

“Oh? You say you like children, and that’s why you help Zhou Chongshan take care of them. Did he pay you a salary for it?”  

Xu Chunxiang’s expression turned ghastly pale, then darkened in an instant.  

She clenched her teeth and forced out a response.  

“So what if I did?”  

Jiang Rou continued her cold mockery.  

“If you’re getting paid, then your job is to take care of the children properly and mind your own business. With the way you were talking just now, anyone who didn’t know better would think you were their actual mother—”  

Midway through her sentence—  

Jiang Rou’s smile gradually faded.  

She had been too caught up in arguing with Xu Chunxiang and had overlooked something important.  

Xu Chunxiang was here.  

Then what about the two children she was supposed to be looking after?  

“Xu Chunxiang, where are the children? You’re standing here—where did you leave them?”  

Jiang Rou called out Xu Chunxiang’s name in urgency and, without a second thought, turned to stride toward the front door.  

She was extremely anxious.  

Because she knew that Zhou Chongshan’s two children each had their own issues, minor but significant.  

If they were lost—  

That would be a huge problem.

Jiang Rou rushed out in a panic.  

But the moment she stepped through the door, she collided head-on with a firm, broad wall of muscle, catching the salty scent of the sea breeze clinging to the person before her.  

It carried the dry warmth of the sun—surprisingly pleasant.  

Dazed, Jiang Rou looked up and found herself staring into Zhou Chongshan’s deep, handsome face.  

Caught off guard, their gazes met—his dark eyes locking onto hers.  

As Jiang Rou dashed out, Zhou Chongshan instinctively reached out, his arm wrapping around her waist.  

His arm registered the soft, delicate sensation.  

Slender. Supple.  

One arm was enough to encircle her completely.  

At the same time—  

After holding Jiang Rou’s gaze for a moment, Zhou Chongshan’s eyes involuntarily lowered.  

They landed on her white shirt.  

The only clothes Jiang Rou had for changing were the few stuffed inside her handbag.  

How could the real heiress, Jiang Xiu’er, have been so kind as to prepare new or decent clothes for her?  

Every piece was old and worn.  

The cleanest among them was a school uniform the original owner had worn in high school.  

A white button-up shirt paired with blue trousers.  

Simple and neat.  

The original owner had graduated a year ago, so the uniform was slightly tight, but still wearable.  

As a result, the white shirt now clung tightly to Jiang Rou’s fuller, more developed figure.  

The transparent buttons barely held together.  

The fabric across her chest strained as if on the verge of splitting open.  

Through the gaps, a glimpse of fair, smooth skin was visible.  

Jiang Rou had been too focused on opening the door for Xu Chunxiang earlier to notice any of this.

On top of that, Jiang Rou had just washed her hair, and the damp strands were still dripping, leaving moisture on her clothes.  

The thin white shirt, soaked through by the water vapor, turned translucent.  

It clung to Jiang Rou’s body like a second layer of skin.  

Just moments ago—  

When Jiang Rou crashed into him, Zhou Chongshan had felt nothing but softness pressing against his chest.  

At the same time, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the floral pattern on her undergarment beneath the sheer white fabric.  

The suggestive scene lay completely exposed before him.  

For a man of thirty, his breath hitched, and his nostrils burned with heat.  

It felt as though he had been thrown back under the scorching midday sun.