The younger sister mistakenly identified her brother when visiting relatives and was kissed by the c

His words were powerful and thought-provoking!

Qiao Mingzhu's face turned deathly pale, as if it had been plastered with three layers of putty, and not a trace of color could be found.

Her legs went weak, and she staggered back half a step. Her lips trembled like a quail freezing in the wind, and her eyes darted around frantically. Guilt and panic completely shattered her mental defenses: "I...I didn't...I'm not..."

Apart from these few words, her throat felt like it was stuffed with a wad of water-soaked cotton, and she couldn't piece together a complete sentence!

at this point.

Everyone present, seeing her extremely guilty and pathetic state, unable to utter a single word of rebuttal, understood perfectly well what was going on!

It was all a shameless lie she fabricated to break off the engagement!

At this crucial moment when the atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating, and the Qiao family wished they could disappear into the ground, the moment of truth arrived.

Qiao Xinxin, who seemed to thrive on chaos, blinked her "innocent" yet "clear" big eyes at just the right moment.

She instinctively turned her head to look at Qiao Mingzhu, who was covered in sweat and looked ashen-faced. In a tone of utter astonishment, as if her worldview had collapsed, she delivered the final and most fatal blow: "Oh! What happened?"

"Little sister, could it be that Comrade Zhou really didn't hit you?"

"Then...then all that crying you did at home before, was it all a lie to Mom and Dad, a lie to my older brother, and...a lie to me too?"

Faced with this barrage of questions, Qiao Mingzhu opened her mouth, but her throat felt like it was stuffed with dry grass, and she couldn't utter a single word.

"I...I..."

She could only keep crying, her face streaked with tears, trying to gain sympathy and forgiveness from the crowd with this pitiful appearance.

In reality, her hands were clenched into fists, her sharp nails digging into her palms so hard they almost drew blood!

She used the gesture of bowing her head to shed tears to desperately conceal the almost insane hatred in her eyes.

Qiao Xinxin! It's all your fault, you bitch!

Qiao Mingzhu wished she could tear Qiao Xinxin to pieces.

The image of kindness, understanding, and gentleness that she had painstakingly cultivated for twenty years has been completely destroyed today!

If word gets out that Qiao Mingzhu slandered a hero and disliked her fiancé, how can she face anyone in the compound?! What respectable family would dare to marry her?!

It's all that damn country bumpkin's fault!

Seeing Qiao Mingzhu keep her head down, pretending to be dead and not saying a word for a long time, Qiao Xinxin's eyes darted around, and suddenly she slapped her thigh, raised her voice, and shouted loudly in realization, "Oh! I know!"

She tilted her head, blinked her eyes, and feigned an innocent and straightforward demeanor, directly hitting Qiao Mingzhu's heart: "Mingzhu, do you not want to marry Comrade Zhou at all, and do you not want to fulfill this marriage obligation? So you deliberately made up those lies at home so that Mom and Dad and your older brother could stand up for you and legitimately dissolve this engagement, right?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Qiao Xinxin's face immediately showed deep disappointment: "Mingzhu, if you really don't want to get married, you can discuss it properly with Mom and Dad. How could you spread rumors that Comrade Zhou bullied you and abused you?! He is a soldier who shed blood and was wounded for the country and the people! He is the most respectable person. How could you do such a despicable thing as throwing dirty water on a hero just to break off your engagement? You have disappointed me so much!"

boom--!

These words were like stripping Qiao Mingzhu's secret, shameful thoughts naked and exposing them to the public!

The expressions on everyone's faces in the living room changed drastically in an instant!

Qiao Shouguo and Qin Fangfang were terrified and instinctively tried to cover Qiao Xinxin's mouth.

"You brat, what nonsense are you spouting?!" Qin Fangfang's face flushed red with anger as she glared at Qiao Xinxin. "Your sister is definitely not that kind of person!"

Startled by the shout, Qiao Xinxin seemed to wake from a dream, immediately covering her mouth in terror, shaking her head repeatedly, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Dad, Mom, I shouldn't have said those things! I didn't mean to. I was just so angry when I heard that Comrade Zhou didn't hit anyone, and I felt indignant on his behalf... I was wrong! Mingzhu is usually so innocent and kind, she could never have such malicious thoughts!"

As she spoke, she turned to look at Zhou's parents, whose faces were ashen, and stammered, trying to cover it up: "Uncle Zhou, Aunt Liu, I was just talking nonsense! Mingzhu likes Comrade Zhou so much, how could she possibly dislike him? She certainly wouldn't spread rumors on purpose, she's probably just... um... probably just too worried about Comrade Zhou..."

Qiao Xinxin paused, her brows furrowing in a troubled expression. "No, if my sister was crying at home because she was worried, then why did she say that Comrade Zhou hit her? It should be... um, what should it be?"

She stood there, twisting the hem of her clothes with her fingers, looking distressed as if she couldn't keep up the lie any longer. In the end, she could only sneakily and cautiously look at Qiao Mingzhu's face, as if silently asking for help: Sister, this lie is too convincing. I can't help you make it up anymore. You have to do it yourself.

Seeing Qiao Xinxin's sassy and pretentious manner, Qiao Mingzhu's face turned green!

She felt as if a huge wad of cotton had been stuffed into her chest, neither going up nor down, making her vision blur.

She was so angry that she was trembling all over, and in her extreme anger and despair, she even felt a strange sense of absurdity that made her want to laugh.

What a Qiao Xinxin! What a country bumpkin!

They trampled on her to death, and then pretended to be innocent!

At that moment, the atmosphere in the living room instantly plummeted to freezing point, so oppressive that it felt as if even the air itself had solidified.

No one spoke to break the deathly silence.

Zhou Zejun's face was now as black as the bottom of a pot, the veins on his forehead were throbbing, and he exuded a terrifying calm before the storm.

Liu Hongmei, who always greeted Qiao Mingzhu with a beaming smile and treated her like her own daughter, now had her lips tightly pressed together, and tears welling up in her eyes.

The affection she once showed in her eyes when she looked at Qiao Mingzhu was gone, replaced by undisguised hatred and disgust!

Stared at like that, Qiao Mingzhu shuddered and felt cold sweat breaking out on her back.

She waved her hands frantically, explaining incoherently, "It's not like that, Uncle and Aunt, it really isn't! Xin Xin... she misunderstood me, I absolutely didn't mean to call off the engagement! I just... I just felt..."

She stammered for a long time, her mind racing, and finally, as if grasping at a straw, she cried out in a daze, "I felt that Brother Li Guang hadn't been talking much lately! His eyes were strange too, gloomy, and always made me feel scared... I was so scared that I exaggerated a bit at home, I really didn't mean to slander him!"

Tears streamed down her face as she desperately tried to explain, but her weak, even ridiculous, explanation was utterly useless at this point.

Just then, Zhou Liguang, who had been silent all along, suddenly chuckled softly.

"Oh……"

He instantly drew everyone's attention in the living room.

"Since it's so difficult, let's cancel the engagement between our two families."

Zhou Liguang casually dropped a bombshell, leaving everyone present with mixed feelings and goosebumps.

Without waiting for anyone to exclaim in surprise, he curled his lips into a self-deprecating smile, then raised his large palms and slapped his legs, which were in casts and completely numb, twice.

"Ever since I injured my leg on a mission, I've seen how Comrade Qiao Mingzhu avoids me like the plague. She's come to see me less than a tenth of the time she used to, and every time she does, she stands eight feet away from me, as if afraid of getting any bad luck on me."

Zhou Liguang stared sharply at Qiao Mingzhu, each word like a knife cutting away her last veil of modesty: "I saw it all a long time ago. You mind that I'm crippled, you mind these broken legs. You say you don't mind, but that's just for the sake of our families; it's all a lie."

"Since that's the case, a forced marriage won't be happy. There's no need for our two families' engagement to continue."

"I didn't! I really didn't!"

Upon hearing the words "cancel the engagement," Qiao Mingzhu panicked and scrambled forward to grab Zhou Liguang's hand, pleading, "Brother Liguang, believe me, I really don't despise you!"

If she were to be publicly jilted by the man, she would not only completely offend the Zhou family, but also solidify her infamy as someone who "disdains the poor and loves the rich, and abandons a disabled hero" for all time!

She did want to break off the engagement, but definitely not in such a disgraceful way!