The two people inside the room were startled by the sudden sound and trembled as if they had simultaneously touched a high voltage. They reflexively separated.
"What child?"
Zhou Qiqi spoke with a tremor in her voice, as if she were being coquettish.
As she asked the question, she subconsciously smoothed her slightly disheveled hair, trying to hide her inner turmoil.
It was the same right hand that I had just used.
Shen Huaichuan opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came out as his tongue swirled in his mouth, as if his throat was choked by his tongue.
Just then, the clear "clack-clack" of leather shoes on the ground came from outside.
A middle-aged woman walked in with steady, unhurried steps.
She wore a fine-checkered polyester shirt, an A-line skirt that went past her knees, flesh-colored stockings, and shiny black leather shoes. She had short, ear-length hair and wore a black headband.
He was capable and energetic, clearly not an ordinary person, but rather an educated professor.
"Director Zhou."
Shen Huaichuan quickly greeted him.
Zhou Qiqi then realized that the person who came was Zhou Shuhua, the wife of the military region's political commissar and the director of the women's committee of the military dependents' district.
She quickly stepped forward, her face beaming with smiles, and said warmly and earnestly.
"You must be Director Zhou? Thank you so much for the coal stove. I wouldn't have been able to cook today without it. I was just telling Huaichuan that I'd buy some things and come to your house to thank you in person another day, but I didn't expect you to come here so soon..."
"You're Zhou Qiqi?"
Zhou Shuhua sized up the woman in front of her, who was dressed in a red dress and looked exquisite. Her eyes held a hint of scrutiny, and her tone was indifferent.
"Forget the pleasantries, let's get this straight about the child!"
Zhou Qiqi keenly sensed Zhou Shuhua's inexplicable dislike for her and instantly realized that this director was probably up to no good and had come specifically to cause trouble.
She dropped her previous enthusiastic demeanor, crossed her arms over her chest as if building an invisible defensive wall, and her tone returned to its calm state.
"What child? Whose child is it? I don't quite understand what you mean."
"Whose is it? Yours!"
Zhou Shuhua rolled her eyes at Zhou Qiqi, as if to say that she was pretending to be confused, and then pulled a child out from behind her.
It was a little girl, who looked to be about five or six years old.
She was wearing a black long-sleeved dress, her braids were a bit messy, and her face was a little dirty.
But her facial features are outstanding, with big eyes, long eyelashes, and a delicate little nose, making her look like a porcelain doll.
Unfortunately, a small patch of skin on her neck and right cheek was covered with pitted scars, which looked like the marks left by severe burns.
Zhou Qiqi's heart skipped a beat when she saw the little girl's appearance.
For some reason, he looks somewhat similar to Shen Huaichuan.
Her eyes widened, like a cat with its fur standing on end, as she glared angrily at Shen Huaichuan beside her and questioned him.
"This is your daughter???"
He paused, then repeated it incredulously.
"You have a daughter???"
Shen Huaichuan felt a chill run down his spine from her angry and shocked gaze. He quickly shook his head and said, "No."
Zhou Qiqi had just breathed a sigh of relief when Shen Huaichuan's next words were like a sharp knife, piercing straight into her heart.
"But this is indeed our child."
"What happened?"
Zhou Qiqi was completely stunned, her mind a complete mess.
But she also knew that this wasn't a good place to talk, especially with the child right in front of her.
So, she simply reached out and, like a little tyrant, grabbed Shen Huaichuan's arm and pulled him toward the bedroom, while leaving Zhou Shuhua with a single sentence.
"Director Zhou, since you've come to stand up for the child, please help look after him for a while longer. It's your kindness to do this!"
This sounds rather odd, but upon closer examination, there's nothing wrong with it.
Zhou Shuhua pursed her lips, feeling utterly helpless, and could only shift her gaze to the child, speaking softly.
"Zhouzhou, shall we go play in the yard first?"
The little girl she called Zhouzhou had calm, still eyes that remained undisturbed throughout, like a deep, still lake.
Hearing Zhou Shuhua say this, she didn't say anything, but just nodded slightly.
Zhou Shuhua took out a few glass marbles from her pocket and handed them to the little girl.
The little girl reached out her small hand, obediently took it, and then slowly walked into the yard with small steps.
She placed the marbles on the ground, but instead of playing with them happily like other children, she quietly squatted to the side, staring intently at the marbles, as if everything around her was irrelevant.
Zhou Shuhua looked at the scene before her but did not show any surprise; she simply sighed softly.
Inside the room, Shen Huaichuan sighed softly, looking at Zhou Qiqi who was spinning around like a top, chattering incessantly and lost in thought. He wanted to interrupt her, but didn't know where to begin.
"I understand. That little girl is your comrade's child, right?"
"Your comrade-in-arms sacrificed his life, and you, in a display of spirit, brought the child back and are raising him?"
Does your child call you "Dad" now?
"So, you're saying I can have a painless pregnancy now?"
She reads a lot of military marriage novels, and many of the plots are written like this.
The woman has a mischievous child at home who drives her crazy and causes a series of misunderstandings. It turns out the child is the child of her deceased comrade-in-arms.
"Then, the child definitely won't like me, and those people outside will stir up trouble and create a lot of misunderstandings..."
The more Zhou Qiqi thought about this plot, the more of a headache she got.
As a single, childless, and cat-owning office worker, what she fears and hates most are unruly children.
Seeing that Zhou Qiqi was getting more and more out of control, Shen Huaichuan quickly pressed her shoulders, trying to calm her down, speaking gently.
"Don't think too much about it. You're the child's aunt, not her mother."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Qiqi immediately fell silent. It took her a while to process what she had just heard, and she asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"Auntie? That child is your brother's child?"
Shen Huaichuan nodded and began to explain slowly.
Xu Shu had already given Zhou Qiqi a general explanation of the Shen family's situation.
The eldest son, Shen Huaishan, was also a soldier. He was wounded and went missing while fighting on the border. There has been no news of him for ten years, and his family has been searching for him everywhere.
The second son, Shen Huaiyue, and his wife, Chen Jiao, work for a classified organization.
Three years ago, the two were seriously injured while on a mission and both became vegetative. They are now lying in the hospital, barely surviving with the help of machines.
But there was one very important point that Xu Shu kept hidden from everyone.
That point was also one of the important reasons why Lin Yao was unwilling to marry into the Shen family.
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