Chapter 50

“Have you lost your mind to money? At a time like this, you still want to take that cursed money? He’s back alive, where do you think you’re going to collect that so-called compensation?”
Secretary Li felt reluctant as well, but he was just a small village secretary. How could he dare oppose a high-ranking officer returned from the army?
In the end, he told his wife to behave herself for a while. She agreed verbally, but her heart churned with doubt, You spend money greasing palms and playing the good guy around the village. If it weren’t for that compensation income, would you dare spend so freely? If this income is cut off… what then?
Qin Yuanzheng accompanied Bai Xinmei back from the town in a small car. As they passed through Lotus Village, the villagers’ envious gazes made that long-dormant air of superiority slowly resurface in her. She curved her lips and looked out the window at the neighbors, savoring the jealousy and admiration in their eyes.
That long-lost, indescribable joy greatly satisfied the vanity that had been parched in her heart for years.
Sitting beside her in the back seat, Qin Yuanzheng held her hand and promised, “Meimei, live your life with me. What you want, I can give you too. Song Jinping is just a greenhorn who’s only just stepped into society. So what if his family background is good? He’s still a young man with nowhere solid to stand. I am a bit older than you, but every inch of my achievements was earned by my own hands. I think I’m more worthy of your trust than that kid. Have you forgotten those turbulent years back then? Even in the worst of times, I still protected you. Let me ask you, does Song Jinping have that kind of courage, resolve, and ability?”
Put nicely, it was reminiscing about past affection. Put bluntly, Qin Yuanzheng was leveraging past favors to demand repayment.
Every word struck straight at the heart. He emphasized everything he had done for her, firmly grasped Bai Xinmei’s love of vanity, stepped on his rival in the process, and then added temptation on top of it all.
Bai Xinmei lifted her eyes to look at him. Her rosy lips moved slightly as hesitation filled her gaze. Qin Yuanzheng… for the first time, she truly didn’t know how to choose.
To the villagers of Lotus Village, the way the two of them looked at each other was the very picture of a perfect match. Bai Xinmei had endured hardship and now finally tasted good fortune. But to Song Jinping, watching from not far away, it was anything but a pleasant sight.
A few days ago, he had gone back to the capital. He never expected to return to see the two of them so inseparable. That woman had probably already forgotten him completely. During that brief period of warmth, he had drowned in her tenderness and forgotten that she was, from the very beginning, a woman who loved money and profit. A successful and accomplished Qin Yuanzheng was naturally far more valuable than a mere sent-down educated youth like him.
“Second Brother, when are you going to bring that girl you like home so we can all meet her? Our family isn’t that narrow-minded.”
“Didn’t Yueting mention it last month? Why hasn’t there been any news since?”
“What, are you afraid your parents will make things difficult for her? Grandma’s still here. Whoever my grandson likes, that’s who he’ll marry. No need to worry about things like matching family backgrounds.”
Matching family backgrounds, he was afraid she wouldn’t even look at him…
His family’s voices still echoed in his ears. Song Jinping clenched his fingers into fists, his gaze dark and heavy, thin lips pressed into a straight line as he exhausted every ounce of strength to restrain the urge to step forward and question them.
Veins bulged faintly at his temples, cracking the calm mask on his face and revealing a hint of a ferocious beast beneath.
Heh. A cold, muffled laugh escaped his nose. He never imagined that he, Song Jinping, who had sailed smoothly and proudly for twenty years, would stumble over a woman like this. Meimei, you were the one who provoked me first. Now you want to walk away unscathed? Too late.
It was as if he were forcing himself to endure punishment, watching that display of “affection” to the very end. Only his increasingly gloomy expression betrayed his state of mind.
That gaze, thick with jealousy, was like an X-ray capable of piercing steel. Qin Yuanzheng, a soldier who had survived brutal battlefields, could not possibly fail to notice it.
He wrapped an arm around Bai Xinmei’s shoulders and pulled her closer into his chest.
Instinctively, Bai Xinmei wanted to resist. She wasn’t used to putting on a show of marital affection in public.
“For now, you are still my wife.”
The man said only that. Bai Xinmei immediately stopped moving.
Suddenly, she heard the long-absent system notification.
[Mission update: Song Jinping has entered blackening state. Blackening progress: 10%. Favorability: 95%.]
Song Jinping was here too?
Sweeping her peripheral vision across the crowd, she spotted Song Jinping staring straight at her. Panic rose instinctively in Bai Xinmei’s heart. She tried to break free from the man’s embrace, only to find it useless.
“Qin Yuanzheng, let go.”
She was angry now. She hated being forced like this, especially when Qin Yuanzheng was clearly doing it to provoke Song Jinping. He’d practically pushed the man into blackening already.
This time, Qin Yuanzheng didn’t insist. He obediently released her.
After getting out of the car, Qin Yuanzheng brought up the matter of the martyr’s pension. He planned to have the town government keep quiet about the investigation. If anyone asked, they would say it was a household registration review, to see whether the village branch secretary would make any suspicious moves. Catching him red-handed would be best; otherwise, things might drag on.
Bai Xinmei nodded and thought for a moment. “Handle it as you see fit.”
After a short while, as if remembering something, she had already walked toward the house when she suddenly turned back, tilted her head, and asked, “If the village secretary is caught in the act, what’s the worst that could happen to him?”
Qin Yuanzheng smiled at her and asked in return, “How do you want it handled?”
Feeling that he was teasing her, Bai Xinmei snorted lightly. “Best if he dies without a burial.”
“Alright. Then I’ll shoot him dead.”
Bai Xinmei: !!!
“That’s… not necessary. I just want them to suffer a bit.”
She was genuinely frightened by his words. Soldiers did have guns, but even she knew they couldn’t be used casually.
Besides, she didn’t truly hate them enough to want someone dead. She was just venting.
She really was too kind. A trace of amusement flickered in Qin Yuanzheng’s eyes. Meimei had always been a kind and lovely girl. Otherwise, back then, she wouldn’t have taken out the silver dollars she’d saved for so long to pay his tuition.
Her current shortcomings were merely the result of cruel circumstances, forced traits like valuing profit and admiring vanity.
If she hadn’t become this way, how could she have survived such a bumpy life, falling from great heights into the mud?
These were nothing more than defenses she had developed to protect herself.
He understood.
Over the next few days, Bai Xinmei’s mind kept replaying the look in Song Jinping’s eyes that day as he watched her with Qin Yuanzheng. She wanted to go find him, yet feared that he was still blaming her.
But the pension matter really did require Qin Yuanzheng to step in, it was, after all, his pension.
“Have you heard? The town says families of martyrs should hurry up and collect their pensions.”
That day, the village secretary’s wife went to the town supply and marketing cooperative to buy some pastries, only to come back empty-handed. There was no other reason, she didn’t have ration tickets. Usually, she spent a lot of money buying tickets on the black market before purchasing pastries.
Ever since Qin Yuanzheng returned, there had been no more pension money to collect. Naturally, their family could no longer enjoy peach crisps, osmanthus cakes, creamer, or white sugar.
The children at home had been clamoring for sweets these past few days. With no other option, the village secretary’s wife decided to try her luck at the cooperative, thinking she had bought there so many times before that the clerk should recognize her and do her a favor.
To her surprise, the clerk didn’t recognize her at all and insisted on tickets before selling anything.
After taking a figurative hit to the face, the village secretary’s wife cursed under her breath as she headed back. Passing by the town government building, she overheard a few cleaners chatting.
She immediately leaned in to listen.
“That’s a huge sum of money.”
“Are you talking about the martyr’s pension?”
The village secretary’s wife joined the conversation and painfully handed over a few pieces of candy.
For the sake of the milk candies, the women didn’t mind her listening in.
“Yeah, everyone on the list can collect it. There’s one named Qin something… tsk, what was it again? Qin what? He hasn’t come to collect it these past two months. It’s still on the books, locked in the town accounting office’s safe.”
She couldn’t quite recall the name.
Unable to suppress her excitement, the village secretary’s wife blurted out, “Qin Yuanzheng, right?!”
The middle-aged women looked at her in surprise. How did this woman know?
“Yes, that’s the name.”
“Me! Me! I’m the one who comes to collect the pension for him!”
Could it be that Qin Yuanzheng hadn’t come to the town government yet? Had her husband lied to her? After all, Qin Yuanzheng hadn’t been back for very long, he might not have reacted so quickly. Every time, she had signed Bai Xinmei’s name, and her family even sent food and gifts to the Qin household now and then. The Qin family’s life wasn’t bad at all, and Bai Xinmei, even more so, she rarely worked the fields and was always given light tasks. She hadn’t suffered one bit.
From the village secretary’s wife’s perspective, Bai Xinmei was already living an enviable life. After all, she was the one who had truly experienced hardship. She could hardly imagine what Bai Xinmei’s life had been like before her fall, let alone know that when Qin Yuanzheng had still been “alive,” he never let her do any heavy work at all.
And so, in her own mind, everything made perfect sense. She stepped easily into the trap Qin Yuanzheng had laid.
The middle-aged women exchanged glances. One of them had a sharp gleam flash through her eyes.
“Then it’s perfect timing. Go collect the money. It won’t take much effort anyway.”
“Alright!”
The village secretary’s wife was instantly overjoyed. She hurried inside, just as she always had.
Only this time, the clerk distributing the pension seemed to be a different person. She felt a little uneasy. “Comrade, I’m here to collect the pension.”
The “clerk,” dressed in a Zhongshan suit, lifted his eyelids and glanced at her, then began asking questions unhurriedly. “Name. And whose family member you are.”
“My name is… Bai… Xin… Mei. Qin Yuanzheng’s family.”
The village secretary’s wife craned her neck, cautiously uttering the sentence she had repeated for four years.
“You are Bai Xinmei?”
Previously, they had just handed her the money and had her sign. Why was this clerk asking so many questions now? She couldn’t help complaining inwardly.
“Bai Xinmei has things to do at home, she needs to watch the children, so it’s inconvenient for her to come. I’m here to collect her husband’s pension on her behalf.”
“Do you have any proof?”
The “clerk” continued to press her. The village secretary’s wife grew more and more impatient, completely unaware that this was merely stalling for time, waiting for Qin Yuanzheng to arrive in town.