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Chapter 614: Chapter 604: Setting a Trap for Her
They also asked about Shen Yunfang’s situation, and she had nothing to hide. The school was about to start in a few days, and she was going to work, so even if she wanted to keep it a secret, she couldn’t. Thus, she spoke about it openly.
Zhou Hua exclaimed loudly, "What, you’re a college graduate, and you’re going to be a college teacher afterward?"
"Yes," Shen Yunfang replied with a smile, giving a definite answer.
"Xiaoshen, you really are fortunate. You must be the golden phoenix that flew out of the countryside," Wang Cuihua said with a face full of envy.
Shen Yunfang was among the younger ones here, so it wasn’t appropriate for everyone to call her "sister-in-law." Therefore, she let everyone just call her Xiaoshen.
"It’s not as exaggerated as sister Cuihua says. I just happened to pass the college entrance exam. Since there wasn’t much burden at home, I went to study; now that I’ve been assigned a job, I’m just following our Old Li around. Doing anything is the same, all contributing to the country," Shen Yunfang said modestly.
"Your mother-in-law didn’t object? She just let you go to school?" Qiao Danfeng, who had been quiet and looking down the whole time, suddenly looked up and asked.
It was only then that Shen Yunfang got a good look at Qiao Danfeng’s actual appearance. Well, how to put it, she didn’t really look like a rural daughter-in-law. She had a delicate and lovely face; if she were a bit paler, she would have the air of a young lady from a noble family.
"We split the household when I got married," Shen Yunfang explained. Once a family officially split in the countryside, they became two separate households. If one wanted to do something and the in-laws disagreed, they could only persuade but had no right to stop it.
It seemed like she wanted to say something more, but then she stopped, changed her mind, and quietly murmured, "You are really lucky," before lowering her head again.
"Danfeng, let me tell you, it’s not about who is more fortunate than whom. The country has said that women can hold up half the sky, so as women, we must stand on our own two feet," Sister Xiao, seeing Qiao Danfeng’s timid manner, couldn’t help but try to encourage her.
Qiao Danfeng must have heard this kind of talk a lot and showed no reaction, still sitting off to the side like a quail.
"Sister Xiao, stop talking about her. If it were useful, you wouldn’t need to waste so much breath," Zhou Hua said with a disdainful look.
Wang Cuihua beside her gently tugged at Zhou Hua to stop her from going on.
Wang Feifeng, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the drama from the sidelines as if it had nothing to do with her.
"Don’t stop me. Xiaoshen isn’t an outsider. She’s bound to find out about these things sooner or later anyway. There’s nothing to be afraid of saying," Zhou Hua, as if a wire in her head had been crossed, started spouting like a machine gun, spilling all of Qiao Danfeng’s family troubles, of course with plenty of her own personal spin.
Throughout the whole process, Shen Yunfang didn’t give an opinion and just listened quietly until Zhou Hua finished speaking.
Actually, the story was quite clichéd. Qiao Danfeng’s family used to run a rice shop, but in the movements of the previous years, they were classified as "rich peasants," a status considered a sin. So, she suffered a lot of bullying in the village because of her class status. Although she was good-looking, none of the villagers came to propose marriage, and most of the men who did show interest were only after taking advantage of her.
Zhou Guoqing, who was Qiao Danfeng’s man, was a soldier. During a trip home on leave, he saved a heavily bullied Qiao Danfeng, then took a fancy to her. Afterward, he went home and told his family he wanted to marry Qiao Danfeng.
But Zhou Guoqing’s mother was a formidable woman. Upon hearing that her oldest son fancied the daughter of a wealthy farmer, she disagreed vehemently, throwing a fit that almost led to her demise. In the end, however, Qiao Danfeng was allowed to marry into the family.
The old lady harbored resentment in her heart, unable to direct her anger toward her son, so she took it out on her daughter-in-law. After Zhou Guoqing returned to his unit post-marriage, Qiao Danfeng was treated like a beast of burden by the old lady, burdened with the most exhausting chores, denied sleep and food. Whenever Qiao Danfeng wept, the old lady would curse her, accusing her of having bad "class origins" and telling her she should be grateful for marrying into the Zhou family, scoffing at her for acting like a landlord’s pampered daughter in her own house. Furthermore, she criticized Qiao Danfeng for failing to bear Zhou Guoqing any children, labeling her a useless hen incapable of laying eggs and branding her a sinner of the Zhou family.
Accustomed to being bullied, Qiao Danfeng did not dare to resist, silently enduring the abuse. Her plight worsened when she was forced to wash clothes by the river in the depths of winter. Weak from barely eating, and struggling to break the ice, she collapsed into the frigid waters.
Had it not been for a passerby who happened to come along, she would have perished. Even after the incident, she developed a severe fever for days, while the Zhou family neglected her completely, leaving her to fend for herself.
Someone with a good heart sent a telegram to Zhou Guoqing, and when he rushed home through the snow, he found his family eating merrily indoors, while his wife lay delirious with fever on the cold brick bed.
Zhou Guoqing returned and had Qiao Danfeng hospitalized, saving her life. However, the doctor warned that her body had suffered severe damage, and it would be extremely difficult for her to conceive in the future.
Hearing this, the old lady immediately demanded that her son divorce her, arguing that the Zhou family could not afford to support a barren hen.
Fortunately, Zhou Guoqing still possessed the soldier’s spirit and stood firm against his mother’s tantrums. Once Qiao Danfeng’s health improved slightly, he took her with him to live with the military.
But the old lady could not stand the thought of this woman sharing in her son’s good fortune, so she regularly came to assert her authority. Zhou Guoqing wanted to protect his wife, but he couldn’t turn his mother away, especially since he had daily training, leaving him genuinely helpless at home.
The wives in the military residential compound disapproved of how the old lady treated her daughter-in-law, to the extent that even the logistics department intervened, but the old lady was obstinate, and nobody’s words had any impact on her.
Later, Zhou Guoqing was recalled from his mission to resolve his domestic issues before returning to work. Seeing that her actions were affecting her son’s job, the old lady finally ceased her hostilities and packed up to go home.
Not long after Qiao Danfeng began to enjoy some peace, the old lady sent a distant niece who had once in her hometown been known for her good fortune, claiming she would stay only for a few days. However, within days of her arrival, the niece’s intentions became clear; she was there to usurp Qiao Danfeng’s place. Despite this cuckoo-like act, Qiao Danfeng tolerated it and even served the niece like a submissive wife.
With Zhou Guoqing away on a mission, the niece had already been residing in the compound for nearly a month, and all the military wives knew about it. Some even advised Qiao Danfeng to be tougher, saying such a nuisance should be kicked out.
Yet Qiao Danfeng, for reasons unknown, did nothing and simply continued to bear it.
Over time, there were not a few among the military wives who looked down on her for acting so spineless.
Indeed, at first she might have appeared pitiable, but after repeated incidents, it made people feel not only sympathy for her misfortune but also anger at her lack of fight, causing that pity to turn into disdain.
"Xiaoshen, you’re the wife of our regiment’s commander. What’s your take on this situation?" After Zhou Hua finished speaking, she didn’t forget to set a trap for Shen Yunfang.
Shen Yunfang felt exactly that way. Being a newcomer among the military wives, and although Li Hongjun was indeed the regiment’s commander, she hardly knew anything, and here they were, expecting her to judge the situation. It was an outright setup for her to pick sides.
