Chapter 175 My daughter-in-law is too tired tonight
"boom--"
The venue felt like it had been hit by a bomb.
The cadres were in an uproar, and a wave of whispers instantly rose up.
They couldn't even imagine that Commander Zhao's son, a supposedly upright and good young man who was not interested in women and a big shot in the economic field, would bully a woman from the countryside.
They would never believe it, even if you beat them to death!
Zhao Jingxiang seemed completely unsurprised. He slowly stood up and looked Zhou Jiuzhen in the eye with a calm expression. "Do you have any evidence? If you have evidence, please report it to the police instead of making baseless accusations here."
To those present, these words sounded like the calm and collected demeanor of someone who had been wronged.
“Evidence? Of course I have it,” Zhou Jiuzhen said, pulling a crumpled blue cloth button from his pocket and holding it above his head. “This is what that woman tore off your clothes when she was struggling. There’s also some plaster you rubbed off when you climbed over the wall on her dormitory windowsill, which matches exactly the plaster from the seams of your leather shoes! Do you want to get it tested now?”
The button gleamed old under the lights of the auditorium, like a silent piece of evidence, leaving everyone present speechless.
"Enough!"
With a furious shout, Zhao Tingguo slammed his fist on the table and stood up abruptly.
His military uniform collar was pulled tight, and the imposing presence of someone who had led troops for many years silenced the entire room instantly.
He stared intently at Zhou Jiuzhen, his eyes churning with turmoil. "Zhou Jiuzhen, Commander Zhou! Zhao Jingxiang is my son, and also the Minister of Commerce. You dare to slander him at the conference without any solid evidence? Do you know what the consequences will be?"
“Commander Zhao,” Zhou Jiuzhen’s chest heaved violently, but he straightened his spine to meet that authoritative gaze, “I am a soldier, and more importantly, a Party member! In my eyes, there are no sons of commanders, only scum who violate military discipline and bully comrades!”
“If I shut up just because he’s your son, I’d be letting down this uniform and the word ‘soldier’!”
His voice was powerful and resonant, each word striking a chord in people's hearts.
Some cadres quietly straightened their backs, their eyes filled with more respect.
Zhao Tingguo was so angry that his fingers trembled as he pointed at Zhou Jiuzhen's nose: "What a fine 'deserving of respect'! Zhou Jiuzhen, if you can't produce solid evidence today, I'll make you take off this military uniform right now!"
"good!"
Zhou Jiuzhen's voice boomed like a bell, each word resounding and powerful, "If the police don't find any evidence of his crimes later, I'm willing to take off this uniform!"
The entire room fell silent.
Zhao Tingguo opened his mouth as if to say something, but his throat seemed to be blocked, and he could only make a hoarse sound.
The young man before me, with his sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, as stubborn as a wolf, reminded me of my own youth.
Zhou Jiuzhen stared intently at the idol he had worshipped since his youth.
He used to think that someone like Zhao Tingguo would definitely be selfless, but he was greatly disappointed.
She didn't understand why she felt inexplicably tense when she saw him today.
“Commander Zhao,” Zhou Jiuzhen’s voice was a little hoarse, but still firm, “everyone is equal before military discipline. Do you dare to investigate?”
Zhou Jiuzhen knew that only by publicly requesting an arrest could he catch Zhao Jingxiang off guard and prevent him from making any further moves.
Zhao Tingguo's chest heaved violently, his gaze fixed on Zhou Jiuzhen, his lips pressed tightly together.
The auditorium was so quiet you could hear each other breathing.
Everyone watched the two men facing off, saw Commander Zhao's eyes red with anger, and saw Regiment Commander Zhou's clenched fists, not daring to breathe.
Zhou Jiuzhen stood tall, like a poplar tree that refused to bend in the cold wind.
He didn't know that he was facing his own father, with whom he shared blood.
The scoundrel he exposed was his own younger brother.
The wind seeped in through the cracks in the window, carrying the chill of late autumn, and lingered in the shock and silence of the room.
Two police officers put handcuffs on Zhao Jingxiang's hands.
Under the watchful eyes of the elders who had watched him grow up, Zhao Jingxiang was led out of the auditorium.
As the two passed each other, Zhao Jingxiang stopped in his tracks. When he looked at Zhou Jiuzhen, his eyes remained calm and composed. He leaned closer to him and whispered provocatively, "Zhou Jiuzhen, I overestimated you. You're just an illiterate brute."
He slowly curled his lips into a smile, his eyes icy cold, and said, word by word, "You're finished!"
The eerie tone sent chills down the spine of the guard standing nearby.
It wasn't until Zhao Jingxiang was taken away that the guard, Wang, came to his senses and asked Zhou Jiuzhen with a look of fear and lingering apprehension, "Why wasn't he scared at all? Did we fall into some kind of trap?"
Anger surged in Zhou Jiuzhen's eyes as he clenched his fist at his side. "Good will prevail over evil. If he's setting a trap, let him come!"
The speaker in the auditorium behind him coughed awkwardly, and the meeting continued.
Ignoring the angry glare from Zhao Tingguo, Zhou Jiuzhen turned and walked out of the auditorium with a righteous air.
＊
Inside the post office.
Ling Huanwu waited all afternoon before finally getting through to her classmate in Gangcheng on the phone again.
However, the other party said that when they went to the address she gave them, they did not see the couple and children she mentioned.
Ling Huanwu was at a loss, completely unsure of what to do next.
But in order not to worry her mother-in-law that something had happened, she still lied and said that the children were all safe, and her mother-in-law breathed a sigh of relief.
On the way back to the guesthouse, Wang Guihua used the savings she had accumulated from secretly selling flatbread to buy five catties of lard and fresh pork, as well as two catties of brown sugar.
In the end, he gritted his teeth and used the last dollar he had left to buy soybeans.
“Daughter-in-law, look how thin you’ve become lately. You’ve been taking care of Jiuzhen and busy with the cooperative’s affairs. You’ve lost a lot of weight. I’ll give you these to help you recover when we get back.”
Ling Huanwu helped carry the things and then realized that her mother-in-law had bought them for her to nourish her body.
She looked at the little old woman in front of her, who was even thinner than her, and her eyes welled up with tears.
The old lady just took a liking to a gray cheongsam in the cooperative. Her eyes were glued to it. She said she had never worn a cheongsam before, but she could never bring herself to spend her cloth coupons and money to buy herself a new dress.
Ling Huanwu suppressed the urge to burst into tears and rushed forward to take her mother-in-law's hand, calling out affectionately, "Mother, Mother, my dear mother."
The setting sun dyed the clouds orange-red.
Smoke mingled with the aroma of cooked food drifted in the warm light, sparrows flew away from the eaves with a touch of golden light, and twilight gently crept in.
The shadows of the old man and the young man on the street stretched out very long.
Anyone who saw them would think they were mother and daughter.
When she returned to the guesthouse, Zhou Jiuzhen had already made up the bed and was sitting on the bed waiting for her.
Wang Guihua brought the hot food she had bought to the wooden table in the guesthouse, and soon the small, cramped room was filled with the aroma of the food.
The three of them sat around the table eating, none of them mentioning where they had gone that day.
Ling Huanwu and her mother-in-law also assumed that Zhou Jiuzhen stayed at home all day.
The three chatted and laughed, passing food to each other.
Suddenly, the mother-in-law's gaze shifted to the enamel mug on the table. She picked it up and examined it closely. "How did this enamel mug get broken like this? It was perfectly fine when I came here yesterday. Will we have to pay for it when we check out tomorrow?"
Zhou Jiuzhen and Ling Huanwu both looked at the enamel cup that had several pieces of paint chipped off. Their faces turned bright red, and they dared not look up at anyone.
Last night, at this dinner table, their enamel cups wobbled and fell to the floor countless times.
Ling Huanwu picked it up, but it fell again soon after, which broke her down and brought her to tears.
They initially thought their mother-in-law was just saying it casually, but to their surprise, she changed the subject and said something that left them both stunned and shaking their heads in disbelief.
"Huanwu is too tired, she's become as thin as a willow branch. I'll take care of Jiuzhen at night from now on!"
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