When Jiang Si spoke these words, her tone was calm, her expression composed, and there wasn’t the slightest hint of boastfulness in her words.
Yet every syllable she uttered filled Su Wanwan with overwhelming despair.
At this moment, Su Wanwan felt like nothing more than a ridiculous clown.
Even the carefully prepared accusation letter she had brought now seemed utterly feeble in the face of solid evidence.
Seeing her stammer, unable to form a coherent response, Jiang Si had no patience to waste time arguing with her. She cut straight to her demand.
"Leaders, I’ve said all I needed to say," Jiang Si declared.
"I take full responsibility for every word I’ve spoken and am willing to undergo any investigation by the organization!"
"But Comrade Su Wanwan, driven by personal motives, has repeatedly harassed me, tampered with my husband’s premarital medical report, and now falsely accused my family of treason!"
"This matter cannot be brushed aside. I demand justice from the organization!"
"Additionally, there are two things I don’t understand."
"Go ahead," the leaders urged.
Jiang Si nodded, her gaze settling on Su Wanwan.
"First: Comrade Su Wanwan has lived in Capital City for years and has never even been to Hu City."
"How did she learn about my family’s so-called plan to flee?"
"Second: On my way here, I overheard many people in the residential compound gossiping that the military district received numerous anonymous tip-off calls early this morning."
"I want to know—were those calls connected to Comrade Su Wanwan?"
At this, Su Wanwan’s pupils constricted sharply.
What was Jiang Si implying? Was she insane?
Didn’t she fear that Su Wanwan would expose her secret—that she had been reborn?
Jiang Si understood the look in her eyes, but she wasn’t afraid.
Su Wanwan clearly hadn’t considered the times they lived in. Superstitious nonsense like rebirth—even if she dared to say it, who would believe her?
Moreover, prejudice was an immovable mountain in people’s hearts.
Before all this, perhaps some might have given her words a sliver of credibility.
But now, with her reputation in ruins, what good would it do even if she spoke the truth?
Did she have proof?
Since that was the case, Jiang Si might as well seize this opportunity to escalate the matter.
That way, no one could ever use her identity as a capitalist’s daughter against her again.
In truth, even if Jiang Si hadn’t raised these two points, the military district would have investigated thoroughly.
Division Commander Yao carefully gathered the donation receipts and certificates from the table and solemnly handed them back to Jiang Si.
"Comrade Jiang, you’ve suffered an injustice today," he said.
"Rest assured, within two days at most, the military district will give you a satisfactory resolution."
Jiang Si didn’t deny her grievances but simply nodded.
"Thank you, Division Commander. I apologize for the trouble."
Division Commander Yao waved it off, but when he turned to Su Wanwan, his expression darkened beyond recognition.
"Comrade Su, do you have anything to add?"
"I—"
Su Wanwan bit her lip, her mind blank.
In her past life, she had almost no interaction with the Jiang family. The only reason she knew about their escape to Hong Kong was because her elder sister had mentioned it.
Aside from Jiang Si being sent to the countryside and the Jiang family’s flight, she knew nothing else.
"Very well. Since you have nothing further to say, we’ll conclude here."
Seeing that Su Wanwan couldn’t provide any evidence, Division Commander Yao ordered the guards to detain her temporarily.
Once the formalities of her military discharge were complete, she would be handed over to the local authorities.
The guard nodded and immediately produced handcuffs.
But at that moment, Su Wanwan’s composure shattered.
With a twisted smile, she glared venomously at everyone in the room before locking eyes with Huo Tingzhou.
"You think Jiang Si is some saint?" she spat.
"If her family hadn’t fallen into ruin, leaving her with no way out, she would never have come to Qiongzhou Island—let alone married you!"
"Huo Tingzhou, are you blind?"
"Can’t you see she doesn’t love you? She’s just using you!"
"A shameless woman like her, trampling on others’ sincerity—she should’ve died in a cowshed, or been married off to a corpse!"
Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, Su Wanwan lunged at Jiang Si.
"It’s all your fault, you bitch! Why did you have to come to Qiongzhou Island? You ruined everything! I’ll kill you—"
Before she could finish, a loud thud echoed through the room.
Huo Tingzhou had kicked her several meters away.
During his years with the Jiang family, protecting Jiang Si had become second nature to him.
As a rule, he never hit women.
But Jiang Si was the exception to that rule.
The attack had been sudden, and Huo Tingzhou hadn’t held back. Su Wanwan crashed into the wall and collapsed, motionless.
The onlookers were stunned into silence.
Division Commander Yao exchanged a glance with the Division Political Commissar, and both silently busied themselves with organizing the documents on the table.
They saw nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Director Cao was stunned for a few seconds before quickly joining them.
The entire office was in motion, with only the Division Chief of Staff lagging behind by a few seconds. He frowned, about to say something, when Huo Tingzhou spoke up in a deep, firm voice:
"Reporting to the commanding officer, my wife has been frightened. I need to take her home now. I will submit my self-criticism report first thing tomorrow morning."
Division Commander Yao couldn't even bear to look at him, waving his hand dismissively. "Go, go, get out of here!"
These troublemakers were giving him headaches all day long!
That said, if a man couldn’t protect his wife in a critical moment, what kind of man was he, really?
As for Huo Tingzhou’s actions, Jiang Si wasn’t the least bit surprised.
Still, he was a soldier now, and it wouldn’t be worth it if someone like Su Wanwan ended up affecting his career.
As if reading her thoughts, Huo Tingzhou spoke up first.
"She won’t die. A couple of days in bed should fix her. I won’t get disciplined either—at most, I’ll have to write a self-criticism."
Even if he did face disciplinary action, he wouldn’t have hesitated to kick her.
He had been close enough to see it clearly—Su Wanwan had aimed straight for his wife’s face. How vicious!
Jiang Si didn’t respond, just stared at him intently.
After a long pause, she finally said, "She just blurted out so much back there. Don’t you have anything to ask me?"
Huo Tingzhou hadn’t planned on asking anything.
An irrelevant person had spouted irrelevant words—why should he dwell on them?
But judging by his wife’s expression, he figured he ought to say something.
He didn’t brush it off. Instead, he answered earnestly:
"No matter the reason, the fact that you came to me first is enough."
They had already registered their marriage. From today onward, they were husband and wife—the closest of kin, the dearest of companions.
If there was anything about him worth her using, he’d only be glad.
As for that woman’s claim that his wife didn’t love him at all?
Huo Tingzhou didn’t give it a second thought. He might be a little slow when it came to emotions, but wasn’t he capable of knowing whether his wife treated him well or not?
Since when did he need some outsider to wag her tongue about it?
