Dare to shirk responsibility? This adorable little one will tear down your military district!

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, the morning market outside the military region was already bustling with activity.

Vegetable vendors, breakfast vendors, and workers rushing to work were all packed together. Wang Guifen, with her two sons and daughter-in-law, didn't dare approach the military district gate. Instead, she found a place with the highest foot traffic and squatted down against the wall of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Wang Guifen deliberately didn't wash her face today. Her hair was all tangled up like a nest of dry grass. She wrapped her tattered cotton-padded jacket around herself and looked even more miserable than a beggar.

"What a tragedy... Heaven is blind..."

While wiping away her dry tears, Wang Guifen drew circles on the ground with a dry twig, making noises that were just loud enough for passersby to hear, but not so loud as to be annoying.

Zhang Cuihua, being cooperative, banged the empty, broken bowl loudly beside her, saying, "Sister/Auntie, please have mercy and give us something to eat. We've come to visit relatives, but we haven't found any and we're starving."

These days, people are kind-hearted. When they see that the old and the young are begging for food, several middle-aged women carrying vegetable baskets will gather around them.

"Auntie, what happened? Who did you go to stay with? How did you end up homeless?" a kind-hearted woman asked.

Wang Guifen lifted her eyelids and saw that the fish had taken the bait. Tears welled up and started falling in a steady stream.

"Don't even mention it, it hurts my heart to think about it." Wang Guifen pounded her chest, looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't. "I came to see my son. My son has made something of himself, he's a high-ranking official inside."

She pointed her bark-like hand toward the military region.

The onlookers were even more astonished upon hearing this: "How can a high-ranking official make his own mother beg for food? Who is this heartless person?"

"It's not my son's fault." Wang Guifen sighed deeply, her voice low, as if afraid of being overheard, yet also wishing the whole world knew.

"It's my daughter-in-law... she's a formidable woman. My son was away in the army for three years, a full three years without coming home! And what happened? That woman showed up at our door with a three-year-old girl."

At this point, Wang Guifen paused, her cloudy, triangular eyes sweeping around, full of implications.

Those around them instantly understood what was going on.

Three years away from home, and the child is three years old? Pregnancy takes ten months, no matter how you calculate the time, it doesn't make sense!

"Auntie, you mean... that child isn't your son's?" a quick-tongued daughter-in-law exclaimed.

"Shh! You can't say things like that!" Wang Guifen slapped her thigh anxiously, her face full of "protection."

"My son cares about his reputation! He's the regimental commander! If people find out he's being cuckolded and raising someone else's bastard, how can he lead the troops?"

As her mother, I'm heartbroken! I went to persuade that woman to leave with her bastard child and stop harming my son, but... but I was attacked and driven away by dogs!

As he spoke, Meng Jianjun turned around at the opportune moment, revealing the large tear in his pants caused by the dog's claws, and the still-wet urine stains.

"Hiss—" A collective gasp filled the air around them.

"That's so unethical!"

"This woman cheated on her husband and then dared to unleash her dog on her mother-in-law?"

"You can know a person's face but not their heart. That Commander Gu looked so imposing all the time, but who knew he was such a sucker!"

Rumors travel faster than birds with wings. Especially risqué stories about high-ranking officials in government compounds—these are the kind of gossip people love to talk about over tea.

In less than half a day, the news spread throughout the vegetable market and then, through the mouths of the military wives who were buying groceries, reached the military compound.

In courtyard number six.

Lin Wanrou had just diced the piece of pork belly that Commander Lei had brought yesterday, preparing to make noodles with soybean paste for the father and son.

"Wanrou, are you washing the vegetables?"

Li Aihong, who lived next door, was perched on the wall with a handful of sunflower seeds in her hand. She was looking at Lin Wanrou with a strange gaze, which was fixed on Lin Wanrou's stomach and waist, with a hint of inquiry and disdain.

"Hmm, has Sister Li eaten?" Lin Wanrou replied with a smile without thinking much of it.

"How can I eat this?" Li Aihong spat the sunflower seed shells into Lin Wanrou's yard.

"My husband, Old Zhang, is very shrewd. He says if you can't even figure out the family's livestock, you might as well raise a dog. Hey, Wanrou, I heard you only came here after Commander Gu left home for more than three years?"

Lin Wanrou paused in her cutting of meat, the blade striking the cutting board with a "thud".

She's not stupid; the barb in those words was sharp.

"What do you mean by that, sister-in-law?" Lin Wanrou looked up, her smile fading.

"It's nothing, just a casual chat," Li Aihong rolled her eyes and said sarcastically.

"It's all over the place, people are saying that someone's not faithful, that she's carrying another man's child and looking for a sucker. Maybe Commander Gu is just kind-hearted, or... maybe she has some unspeakable reason?"

"Bang!"

Lin Wanrou slammed the cleaver in her hand onto the cutting board, and half of the blade was embedded in the wood.

Li Aihong was so frightened that she almost fell off the wall.

"Can't you speak properly? If you can't, then straighten your tongue!"

Lin Wanrou's face darkened, and the confidence that Gu Changfeng had instilled in her returned.

"My husband is on a special mission, don't you understand the confidentiality regulations? If you're so bored, go clean up your own latrine and stop spewing nonsense!"

"You! Who are you calling names?!" Li Aihong was so angry she turned red in the face.

"Everyone outside is saying it! That old lady has been crying outside the supply and marketing cooperative all day! They're saying your daughter isn't Commander Gu's child at all! If you're innocent, why are you so upset?"

Lin Wanrou swayed, her face turning deathly pale instantly.

She never imagined Wang Guifen could be so vicious. For money, she wouldn't even care about her own son's reputation; she was practically tearing Gu Changfeng's face off and trampling it on!

If this rumor becomes true, how will Gu Changfeng be able to hold his head high in the army? What will the soldiers think of him?

"mom."

A soft little hand suddenly slipped into Lin Wanrou's cold palm.

Meng Yaya appeared beside them at some point, a half-eaten milk candy dangling from her mouth. The little girl stared at Li Aihong on the wall, her big eyes blinking rapidly.

"Aunt Li, you're so concerned about my family, do you have a crush on my dad?" Meng Yaya's clear voice carried far.

Li Ai's face turned green: "What nonsense are you spouting, you brat!"

"I'm not talking nonsense," Meng Yaya said innocently. "Otherwise, why do you keep asking if my dad can have children? What business is it of yours whether my dad can have children or not? Do you want to give me a little brother?"

"puff--"

The battalion commander, who was passing by outside the courtyard, spat out the mouthful of water he had just drunk.

Li Aihong blushed deeply with embarrassment, pointed at Meng Yaya and stammered "you you you" for a long time before finally spitting out a mouthful of saliva and shrinking back, too ashamed to show her face.

Looking at her daughter's mature demeanor, Lin Wanrou's anger suddenly subsided by half, and her eyes welled up with tears.

"Ya Ya, don't listen to their nonsense." Lin Wanrou squatted down and hugged her daughter's small body.

"I won't listen." Meng Yaya buried her head in her mother's arms, gently patting Lin Wanrou's back with her little hands, but a cold glint flashed in her eyes that was not commensurate with her age.