Jiang Yuan and Jiang Qi assessed the situation and immediately hid behind Ning Qiao. Only then did their big brother show a sliver of mercy.
Still, the two cheeky brothers couldn’t avoid a couple of thwacks on the head.
Jiang Guoguo swallowed nervously.
She’d been this close to asking her big brother for money to buy a popsicle too—lucky she hadn’t spoken up in time.
Ning Qiao’s slight frame couldn’t fully shield the two lanky boys, but fortunately, Jiang Heng wanted to maintain a good image in front of his wife and held back. Observing closely, he noticed that while she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the kids’ boisterous affection, she didn’t outright reject it.
If they’d gone back to their hometown to get married, the organization would have given them a few days off at least. But since their wedding was held on the island, the leadership hadn’t granted a single extra day. So after breakfast, Jiang Heng had to head back to the military unit.
Once he left, Ning Qiao let out a breath of relief.
Though the younger siblings had bullied people in the original storyline, they wore their emotions on their sleeves and were easier to get along with. Jiang Heng, on the other hand—perhaps because of the relationship between them—made it hard for her to relax.
When it was about time, Ning Qiao urged the three younger ones to head to school.
Both in this life and the last, the Jiang family’s second, third, and fourth siblings had been utterly resistant to studying. What was the point of school? But now that their little sister-in-law was the one urging them, things were different. They slung their bookbags over their shoulders and headed out.
But they looked up and caught their little sister-in-law’s gaze.
Jiang Yuan was the first to obediently adjust his bookbag properly.
Then Jiang Qi silently did the same.
Jiang Guoguo tilted her head and said with a smile, “Little sister-in-law, let’s go!”
The little girl stood straight, grinning, clutching the canteen her big brother had given her.
At first glance, her well-behaved expression could fool anyone.
Ning Qiao stared at her for a moment, then hesitated: “You’re going like that?”
She pointed at Jiang Guoguo’s hair.
It fell to her shoulders—not long, not short—tied into two messy little pigtails that looked like a bird’s nest.
The reason was simple: her three older brothers didn’t know how to do her hair. Sometimes the aunties in the compound would help redo it when they had time, but most days, the little girl walked out with that nest atop her head.
Yesterday, on the day of her big brother and little sister-in-law’s wedding, Director Bai had done Jiang Guoguo’s hair. She hadn’t undone it before bed, and now she was ready to head out without a care.
In the original storyline, when the author briefly introduced the foil family’s background, it was mentioned in passing that the Jiang household lived rough. The second and third brothers brawled regularly, and the youngest was mocked at school as a dirty little ragamuffin—a stark contrast to the refined, polished lives of the original female and male leads. But Jiang Guoguo never seemed to care. When others laughed at her, she’d plant her hands on her hips and fight back like a prickly hedgehog. In the end, she may not have made friends, but at least she never let herself be walked over.
Looking back now, Jiang Guoguo was a little pitiful too—always bristling, always on the defensive, her heart eventually hardened by it all.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Guoguo blinked, looking puzzled at her little sister-in-law.
Ning Qiao pursed her lips.
In the original story, she had offered her sincere heart, only for Jiang Guoguo to try every way to drive her away—even shredding her prettiest dress to pieces.
The little girl was pitiful, but she herself was even more innocent!
Ning Qiao steeled herself and decided not to get involved: “Nothing. Let’s go.”
“Okay!” Jiang Guoguo pulled her along affectionately. “Little sister-in-law, just hang out at home for a while—we’ll be back in the afternoon!”
“What is little sister-in-law supposed to do by herself?”
“Maybe catch her a couple of crickets?”
At the mention of crickets and spiders, Ning Qiao’s lips twitched.
“No way!” Jiang Guoguo said firmly. “Little sister-in-law would be scared!”
After discussing among themselves, the three older kids gave up on the cricket idea.
Jiang Guoguo was cheerfully carefree and turned to leave.
“Wait a second,” Ning Qiao said softly.
Jiang Guoguo looked back, curious.
Ning Qiao beckoned: “Come here. Let me redo your braids.”
The little girl froze.
When she snapped out of it, she dashed back into the room to grab a comb, her steps light and eager, her expression one of delighted surprise.
Ning Qiao took the comb and sighed silently.
She just couldn’t help it.
Jiang Guoguo attended the military district elementary school, while Jiang Yuan and Jiang Qi were already in middle school.
On days they didn’t skip class, they’d walk together, covering a few li, dropping the youngest off at her school first. Then the two brothers would amble on to their own.
They always took their time, even stopping to stare at wildflowers by the roadside. Being late didn’t faze them—as long as they showed up, the teachers wouldn’t tattle to their big brother.
But today, the atmosphere wasn’t as laid-back as usual.
Because their little sister-in-law was urging them to hurry the whole way.
Whenever they started dawdling, she’d start her gentle prodding from behind, like a shepherd herding sheep.
The three of them suddenly felt like “sheep,” and it was embarrassing.
Most people on the island were familiar faces. To avoid being laughed at, they all quickened their pace.
Jiang Guoguo’s steps were the most bouncy. Whenever they ran into a classmate, she’d put on a proud expression and casually swing her head side to side, as if by accident.
Her little sister-in-law had just done her braids—and they were so pretty!
After dropping Jiang Guoguo off at the school gate, Ning Qiao figured her task was done—because Jiang Yuan and Jiang Qi said their middle school was farther away, and making the round trip again would be too tiring for her.
“Pay attention in class. Don’t fall asleep secretly,” Ning Qiao told Jiang Guoguo.
Jiang Guoguo scratched the back of her head.
Actually, she never fell asleep secretly—she did it right out in the open.
Jiang Qi covered his mouth to stifle a laugh.
“Don’t pull the girls’ pigtails,” Ning Qiao told him.
Jiang Qi’s eyes went wide.
Had their big brother told their little sister-in-law?
“And you.” Ning Qiao turned to Jiang Yuan. “No fighting.”
The three of them looked utterly bewildered.
How did their little sister-in-law know all that? But somehow, being reminded like this—it had been so long—felt warm. They took it all in.
The younger siblings nodded like chickens pecking rice, patting their chests and promising to behave, then turned and happily headed off to their respective schools.
Watching their retreating figures, Ning Qiao’s face fell with a hint of regret.
She’d meddled again without meaning to…
After seeing them off, Ning Qiao walked back to the compound alone.
From the military district elementary school to the family quarters, there were a few winding paths. She vaguely remembered the way back, but to be safe, she asked a passerby.
Everyone on the island was warm and enthusiastic—they’d nearly escorted her all the way to the compound.
Ning Qiao couldn’t help but think of Su Qingshi that day.
Why had she deliberately pointed her in the wrong direction?
As the original story’s female lead, Su Qingshi was cold by nature. She was indifferent to everything around her—whether it was her own family or, later, her husband and mother-in-law after marriage—she never showed much warmth. But it was precisely this coldness that made the male lead, Tang Hongjin, seem all the more devoted in his love for her.
For now, the plot had only reached the point where Su Qingshi and Tang Hongjin were married. Their feelings hadn’t yet developed, but before long, something would happen between them. Tang Hongjin’s older sister and brother-in-law would die unexpectedly in an accident, leaving behind two children. Being kind-hearted, he couldn’t bear to see them suffer and would decide to adopt them.
Once those two children arrived, there’d be even more gossip and mockery in the compound. Everyone was sure Deputy Battalion Commander Tang’s wife would make a scene. But the two little ones would turn out to be like warm little suns, slowly melting Su Qingshi’s heart.
When she’d had that dream, Ning Qiao was feverish and barely lucid, so she hadn’t paid much attention to plotlines unrelated to her.
Now, looking back, all the story’s developments seemed designed to heal Su Qingshi’s childhood wounds, to mend her shattered heart.
But Ning Qiao didn’t understand—what did any of that have to do with her?
Su Qingshi’s childhood was tragic, but Ning Qiao hadn’t caused it. She genuinely loved life, yet she’d been dragged into being the “foil” for no reason—even the scene where Su Qingshi deliberately pointed her the wrong way, causing her to get lost on the island, was supposed to be entertaining in the original plot, simply because the original female lead had strong likes and dislikes and was “unpretentious.”
It was absurd.
Still mulling over the original storyline, Ning Qiao finally made it back to the compound.
At this hour, the military dependents with nothing to do were all gathered in the yard, chatting.
Ning Qiao had some free time too, so she could finally take a good look at her bicycle.
The aunties laughed at how childishly excited she was over the bike.
When they found out she didn’t know how to ride it, Sister Xiulan offered to teach her, holding the handlebars and telling her to get on.
But the moment her hands touched the handlebars, she noticed something off.
“This bike has a flat tire, doesn’t it?”
“The wheels feel light—definitely a leak.”
The compound residents were warm-hearted and gathered around to help check.
Aunt Wu crouched down and squeezed the tire: “Oh my, someone stuck two nails in it!”
Ning Qiao quickly crouched down too.
The punctures on the rear tire were plain to see.
“Such a beautiful bike—who would be so spiteful as to puncture the tire?”
“Is there really someone like that in our compound? So heartless!”
“Can’t they stand to see others happy?”
“If little Jiang’s wife had ridden it without knowing, she could’ve had a bad fall.”
The chatter went back and forth.
Hearing the commotion, Su Qingshi’s door, which had been slightly ajar, clicked shut.
Tang Hongjin had been injured on a mission and was on sick leave. Earlier that morning, his mother had gone out to buy groceries, leaving only him and his wife at home.
“Qingshi, was that you?” Tang Hongjin asked.
“Afraid of what?” Su Qingshi looked at her husband, who had quietly closed the door, and smiled faintly. “It was just a little joke.”
Tang Hongjin’s heart sank.
A bicycle—while not completely unaffordable for officers and their families if they saved up—was still a luxury for most households.
Everyone in the compound had their own petty thoughts. Envy and schadenfreude were human nature, but the only one bold enough to actually puncture someone’s tire was probably Su Qingshi.
No one else had that kind of nerve.
Tang Hongjin shook his head: “You really are—”
“Really what?” Su Qingshi raised an eyebrow.
He lifted a hand to ruffle her hair, but she dodged it. “Too headstrong,” he said.
He stood up and made for the door.
Su Qingshi asked flatly, “Where are you going?”
“It’s still a brand-new bike. We should take responsibility,” Tang Hongjin said. “It’s fine—I’ll handle it.”
Su Qingshi knew he had always been a responsible man.
He was unconditionally tolerant and indulgent with her, but when it came to major matters, he stood firm.
“But Qingshi, next time, could you not? We all live in the same compound—we see each other every day. It puts me in a difficult position.”
Su Qingshi watched his helpless expression, her own face blank.
When Tang Hongjin stepped out into the yard, Ning Qiao was staring at her bicycle with a worried look.
He approached and said, “There’s a shop on the island that repairs bicycles. The old master there does excellent work.”
This was the first time Ning Qiao had met the original male lead.
Looking past him, she saw the door still open, and Su Qingshi inside watching her as if enjoying a joke.
In an instant, Ning Qiao understood everything.
“I don’t know the way,” she said. “Fix it and bring it back.”
The people in the compound looked puzzled.
Deputy Battalion Commander Tang was indeed known for being easygoing, but wasn’t the new Jiang wife being a bit presumptuous, ordering him around like that?
Ning Qiao pressed him: “Shouldn’t you?”
Tang Hongjin froze. Instinct told him she knew something.
But he quickly regained his composure. He’d heard the new little wife in the compound was delicate and not the fiery type.
She probably wouldn’t make a big deal out of it.
“Of course I should. I’m sorry—I was planning to put a couple of nails in the yard to make an extra clothesline, and one fell and punctured your tire,” Tang Hongjin confessed.
The people in the compound finally understood.
“It’s fine as long as it gets fixed,” Ning Qiao said. “Please ask your wife to be more careful next time.”
Tang Hongjin tried to explain: “It wasn’t—it was—”
“It was you who punctured it.” Ning Qiao looked at him, said lightly, then added, “I almost got that wrong.”
By now, the aunties in the compound all wore expressions of surprise.
Tang Hongjin’s face flushed with embarrassment.
He’d been injured last time, his arm still bandaged—moving wasn’t easy. But Ning Qiao had already let go, leaving the bicycle in his hands.
Su Qingshi must have heard everything, but she didn’t deny it. Instead, she wore a mocking expression.
As if ridiculing her husband for wading into this mess.
After a moment, Su Qingshi closed the door.
Tang Hongjin pushed the bicycle to the repair shop on the island.
Ning Qiao went back inside to make herself some dumplings. Before cooking them, she mixed the dipping sauce Sister Xiulan had taught her and asked if she’d made it right.
But Sister Xiulan couldn’t care less about dumpling sauce right now—she was hoping the drama would get even juicier.
One by one, the plump, tender dumplings were scooped out, white and round like little ingots. Ning Qiao sat at the table, eating them one bite at a time.
Everything went back to normal, as if nothing had happened—except for the military dependents in the compound, who were still utterly baffled.
The couple hadn’t denied it, which meant the bike’s flat tire really was related to the Tang family.
And it was the new Jiang wife herself who’d gotten it out of them. If she hadn’t asked, would they ever have said anything? And how could a nail that “accidentally fell” end up so firmly lodged in the tire? The marks clearly showed it had been done deliberately.
The whole thing felt strange and out of place.
Everyone in the regiment could tell that Battalion Commander Jiang was in an unusually good mood that morning.
The usually stern Jiang Heng was even smiling as he ate in the mess hall. The soldiers whispered among themselves that on any normal day, Battalion Commander Jiang’s face would be dark and forbidding. But today, when Liu Xiaowu had an upset stomach, he’d even asked after him with concern—it had to be the new wife’s influence!
The young soldiers chattered on, unaware that even though they kept their voices low, Battalion Commander Jiang heard every word.
But Jiang Heng didn’t stop them.
Because every word they said was true.
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