Chapter 9 Gossiping and getting caught

Xia Mi carried a small tin bucket and walked towards the beach.

The wind in early spring was still freezing cold. A gust of wind blew in Xia Mi's face, making her shrink her neck so cold that she felt lucky to have the headscarf.

She changed into her bucket boots, carefully climbed up onto the reef, and squatted on it.

The novelty of cracking oysters attracted Xia Mi. She used tools to crack one oyster at a time. The oyster shells were pried open to reveal the tender white meat with a faint fishy smell. She then scooped it out with an iron spoon and threw it into the bucket.

The action repeats itself, accompanied by the sound of waves and ship horns in the distance, Xia Mi squats on the reef and struggles for money. -Zhuifeng Island Military District Hospital.

Yan Yiming was lying in bed recuperating. Ever since Xia Mi came, he felt like ants were crawling all over his body and he felt uncomfortable all over.

Li Jiajia walked into the ward wearing a headscarf.

"Jia Jia, why are you still wearing a headscarf indoors?"

Yan Yiming was puzzled. He remembered that Li Jiajia had complained before that a headscarf looked ugly and made one look like an old woman.

When Li Jiajia heard her lover's voice, all her grievances burst out.

She sat down beside the bed, raised her hand to take off her headscarf, revealing a conspicuous slap mark.

"My dad hit me because of Xia Mi." Li Jiajia choked up, her nose was sore, and her hot tears fell on the back of her hand. "This is the first time my dad hit me, and it was because of an outsider."

Yan Yiming was shocked, and the first thing he showed concern about was...

"What happened to Xia Mi?"

Li Jiajia stopped crying and her eyes changed from sadness to surprise, with signs of getting angry.

After Yan Yiming realized that he had said the wrong thing, he quickly apologized, "I meant that she had done something weird again. No matter what, a political instructor cannot hit someone."

Li Jiajia felt better now that someone was standing on her side.

Yan Yiming coaxed her patiently while Li Jiajia told her the story of Huo Jingchen and Xia Mi submitting their marriage report.

The person on the bed was unable to react for a long time after hearing this. "Didn't they say Captain Huo had a fiancée? How come he really wants to marry Xia Mi?"

"How would I know? Huo Jingchen is a hypocritical man. He might have abandoned his fiancée and found a new lover. He even made up a story that he didn't have a fiancée."

Li Jiajia's abusive words turned into a sharp blade, stabbing straight into the softest part of Yan Yiming's heart.

Abandoning his fiancée and looking for a new love, isn't that what he said? Unfortunately, Li Jiajia was so obsessed with her lover that she didn't realize that her words hurt Yan Yiming.

"Captain Huo must have his reasons for making this decision. Jia Jia, does your face still hurt?"

Yan Yiming suppressed his guilty conscience, raised his hand and gently stroked Li Jiajia's cheek, his voice soft.

Faced with such an intimate action, Li Jiajia blushed and shook her head shyly, "It doesn't hurt now."

"I wrote to my mother and asked her to send some vanishing cream. Yours should be almost used up." After saying that, Yan Yiming yawned, "My wound hurt so much last night that I didn't get enough rest. I want to catch up on some sleep."

"It's not finished yet, no need to trouble Auntie, I'll get busy now."

Li Jiajia's mood turned from gloomy to sunny and she left the ward happily.

The moment the person left the ward, Yan Yiming put away his smile, looked out the window expressionlessly, and decided in his heart to take some time to go find Xia Mi.

Li Jiajia was so happy that she forgot to put on her head scarf and walked to the nurses' station.

"Jia Jia, what happened to your face? Did Yan Yiming hit you?"

The nurses at the nurses' station were immediately attracted over. They had all just finished changing their dressings and were taking a rare break.

As soon as the word "beat" came out, the situation suddenly became serious.

Li Jiajia shook her head to explain, worried that everyone would misunderstand, "No, I was beaten by my dad."

Once the gossip came out, the curiosity buried in everyone's bones was aroused, and the three nurses surrounded the person.

"Your father loves you so much, why would he suddenly hit you?"

Li Jiajia did not hide anything and told everything from Xia Mi's going to the island to her marriage to Huo Jingchen, portraying herself and Yan Yiming as victims.

Because of preconceived ideas, people who have never met or don't know Xia Mi have a very bad first impression of her.

Some family members passing by couldn't help but stop at the nurses' station and join in.

Within half a day, the news that Xia Mi was a fake daughter and Yan Yiming's fiancée spread throughout the hospital.

Then it spread from the hospital to the family quarters.

Someone saw Xia Mi go to Jiang Shengmei's house in the morning, and several people who were on good terms with her came to inquire about her.

A woman wearing a gray coat, about 1.5 meters tall, with pigtails hanging down to her buttocks, spoke first.

"Sister-in-law Shengmei, you know that Xia Mi, you must know about her affairs, right?"

The other one is about 1.7 meters tall, with a long face, wheat-colored skin, and small single eyelids.

"I would say what Captain Huo likes about her. She is pretty, but if you marry a wife like this, will you feel at ease when you go on a mission?"

Jiang Shengmei was squatting in the yard weeding.

She turned around and looked at the two of them in confusion, "Where did you know this?"

"It came from the hospital. Just now, Sister Liu sent Erwa to the hospital for an IV. Jiajia said that Jiajia is Yiming's girlfriend. This news must be true!"

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Jiang Shengmei threw the weeds in her hand to the ground.

For the first time, she began to dislike the child she had watched grow up.

"This is a military matter and Captain Huo's personal decision. No one can interfere. If you feel uncomfortable, go and persuade him."

When Jiang Shengmei thought of Xia Mi's innocent face, she could never imagine that she would be the kind of person that Li Jiajia described, who had done so many evil things and was driven to the island to be married off.

"Sister Shengmei, I'm back. Thank you for lending me the things."

A gentle female voice came from the door. Xia Mi was wearing black boots. There were three or four drops of mud on her fair face. She had smiling eyes, like a little white cat with a stained face.

The two people who were gossiping turned into stone statues and looked at Xia Mi awkwardly.

Jiang Shengmei glanced at the two of them helplessly, walked forward to take the things, and glanced at the bag of shells wrapped in Xia Mi's handkerchief, which was a full bag.

"You spent the whole morning on this?"

Xia Mi paused for a moment, then smiled sheepishly, "I'm slow, and I had nothing else to do, so I just slowly chose by the sea."

In fact, she dug three pounds of oysters in the morning and earned 45 yuan.

The first time she dug, she got several small cuts on her hands. Although there was no bleeding, her fingertips turned white from being soaked in water for a long time, and the wounds were obvious.

She originally wanted to just pick up a few shells to get by, but there were so few beautiful and complete shells that it took her an hour to collect a bag.

"Then you should go back quickly. It's already noon."

Xia Mi's cheeks were red from the sun.

Xia Mi returned the things and was about to leave when she was stopped by someone, who greeted her warmly.

"Comrade Xia, I heard that you are going to marry Captain Huo. May I ask where you are from?"

Xia Mi stopped and looked back at the two of them, her eyes gradually turning cold, "Where is my hometown? Didn't Li Jiajia tell you? I thought she would tell you everything."

This sentence made the whole audience fall into silence.

The two looked at each other, and only until Xia Mi left did they frantically try to find words to talk about.

"She heard it? My, what kind of behavior is this, standing at the door and eavesdropping on people's conversations."

The tall guy was caught gossiping and made up his mind to talk bad about Xia Mi.

The same was true for another person.

"That's right. The look in her eyes just now was simply terrifying. Sister Jiang, does your political commissar really want to approve Captain Huo's application? Captain Huo is such a good man, is he really going to marry someone like this?"

Xia Mi took two steps before realizing that the headscarf had not been returned yet, so she turned back.

I just happened to hear these words.

(End of this chapter)