"Yan Jingwan had also developed edema from starvation. She was only sixteen or seventeen years old, starving to the point of having very little flesh on her body, yet she had a large belly. Her stepmother even slandered her in the compound, saying she was immoral, couldn't keep her pants down, slept with an old man in the village just for a few bites of food, and was pregnant with someone's bastard."
"It's not actually pregnancy, it's clearly a big belly caused by edema."
"Oh my god, she's not afraid of being struck by lightning for making up such obscene rumors about a child!"
Feng Juan felt suffocated just by listening.
"What happened next? Did Yan Jingwan explain it clearly?"
"I've explained it, but there's no explanation. There are always some people with malicious hearts who are willing to believe what they see and insist on thinking something filthy. You said you're not pregnant, so why are you so pregnant?"
"Luckily, this girl was also a smart person. She knew that explaining was useless, so she just grabbed a piece of hemp rope, ran to the front of the Military Commission office building and hanged herself. After making a big scene, she finally cleared her name."
Yun Qiao was dumbfounded. "Oh my God! Pushing people to this extent! How could Yan Jingwan's stepmother be so cruel! She's suffered so much, almost starved to death, and now she's being subjected to such slander. Doesn't her father care?"
"He wants to intervene, but he doesn't dare. His wife's family is very powerful, and he himself was promoted by his father-in-law." Aunt Feng sneered, "They can promote him, but they can also kick him down. They can do whatever they want. Does he dare to say 'no'?"
Yun Qiao didn't expect that Yan Jingwan, who looked so beautiful, had such a miserable life.
She clenched her fists when she heard this.
"Little Grandma, you're right. Some fathers are truly beasts! No, even beasts love their children, but this man is worse than a beast!"
"That's right," Aunt Feng said. "It caused quite a stir at the time. People from several nearby compounds knew about it. Everyone who heard about it cursed the black-hearted stepmother and father."
Feng Juan sighed, "Since this matter has become such a big deal, how come I didn't know about it?"
Aunt Feng: "You were very ill at that time, taking medicine every day. Sometimes you couldn't leave the house for several months at a time. How could you have known where to go?"
"Too."
Feng Juan thought about it and realized that she was indeed very ill when she first arrived in Beijing.
One reason was that she was not used to the unfamiliar environment, and the other was that she didn't want to leave Pingyang Province from the bottom of her heart. She wanted to stay in Beijing and wait for her daughter to come home, but she couldn't persuade Qin Lin, so just a few days after arriving in Beijing, her depression relapsed. It was not until a year or two later that her condition improved and she went out to meet guests.
"So what happened next?" Yun Qiao asked. "I see Yan Jingwan and Zhi are living quite well now. They're the lead dancers in the cultural troupe and have a respectable career."
"Afterwards, that's how it was," Aunt Feng said calmly. "People tend to forget things, and her stepmother was a great actress. She treated her well on the surface, and gradually her reputation changed. Instead, she was always compared to her stepmother's younger sister. People said she was ambitious, scheming, and trying to steal everything from her younger sister. She wasn't as simple and kind-hearted as her younger sister."
"What's wrong with being ambitious? Given the environment she lives in, if she didn't have any scheming or tricks, wouldn't she be eaten alive by her stepmother?" Yun Qiao sneered: "Simple and kind? That's all bullshit!"
Feng Juan laughed.
In fact, she felt that Yun Qiao was quite right, but the words were a bit rude. She patted Yun Qiao's arm gently, with a smile in her eyes, without any hint of blame: "Girls, don't talk about dogs and shit all the time. It's so unpleasant."
Yun Qiao pursed her lips and smiled shyly.
Aunt Feng said, "The words are rough, but the truth is there. Yun Qiao is right. Being innocent and kind also depends on the environment. If you had a pair of black-hearted stepmother and biological father, if you didn't have any scheming and just blindly gave in, you would probably have been driven to death by her stepmother when you were seventeen or eighteen."
"So, Yan Jingwan has a pretty strong character," Feng Juan said. "Regardless of whether she and Qin Zheng can succeed, her personality alone makes her very suitable to be a military wife."
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