Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
As soon as he mentioned business, General Ji’s wife grew quiet. She shifted her gaze and sighed. ” I don’t understand at all. Old Ji, I’m going inside first.” She shook her head at Xu Piaohong and her mother before shuffling back to the sitting room.
Xu Piaohong was both shocked and angry. She had never imagined that General Ji and his wife, who had always been kind and held her to higher regard than others, would turn their backs on her! Her tears streamed down as she choked out, “Uncle Ji, what did I do wrong? Why are you treating me like this? What law did I break? I don’t understand! I always stand proud and confidently say that I always dothe right thing. When did I ever break the law? Please tell me clearly!”
Mrs. Xu panicked—her child was being unruly again! It was one thing to argue with others, but she was just asking for trouble by messing with General Ji!
“Piaohong! Shut your mouth! We’ll go home and discuss this; maybe there was a misunderstanding. We’ll figure it out with your dad first.” Mrs. Xu kept shooting looks at Xu Piaohong and then tried to drag her out forcibly, bowing all the while to General Ji.
Xu Piaohong’s stubbornness reared its head and she refused to leave. She hugged the pillar at the entrance of the Ji manor and shouted, “I didn’t do anything wrong! I know I didn’t do anything wrong! Why do I have to leave? They are framing me—!”
Slap!
Xu Piaohong couldn’t finish screaming the last sentence before her mother furiously hit her across the face. “Aren’t you done yet? I already told you that we will talk about it at home. Why are you angering General Ji here?”
The guards at the door watched the mother and daughter. If they refused to leave, the guards would force them to go. After all, General Ji gave the orders and they must obey. The sound of a row of guns disengaging from the safety rang throughout the courtyard. Xu Piaohong and Mrs. Xu looked up at the row of black muzzles with shock; they were so frightened that they stumbled out, screaming, from General Ji’s courtyard.
When they returned home, it was to Deputy Chief of Staff Xu reading a magazine on the couch. He saw his daughter’s swollen eyes and an obvious handprint on her cheek. Throwing aside the magazine, he stood up angrily and strode up to his wife and daughter to ask loudly, “What’s going on? Piaohong, who hit you? Who would dared to touch my daughter? Do they want to die?!”
“Dad!” Xu Piaohong finally heard a normal voice of concern and was so touched she collapsed into his chest to cry. “Dad! You have to make this right for me! I’m being bullied!”
Mrs. Xu looked at Xu Piaohong with disappointment and yanked her out of her father’s arms. She pointed angrily at her. “Go back to your room to reflect now! Don’t come out and throw tantrums!”
Xu Piaohong had been hit by her mother for the first time and was very indignant. She only felt aggrieved but seeing her mother unusually angry was frightening. She stamped her feet and shouted, “Lock me up forever if you can! I’ll never come out! Or get married!”
“Get married? All you know is that! You’re a young girl who chants about getting married all day long. Don’t you have shame?” Upon seeing her daughter’s impudent attitude, Mrs. Xu raised her hand to slap her again.
Deputy Chief of Staff Xu quickly blocked her and tried to intervene, “Fine, fine, let’s talk about this calmly. Our child was bullied outside and instead of consoling her you’re hitting her? Don’t you feel bad about it? Isn’t she your very own daughter?”
“It’s because she’s my daughter that she must be strictly disciplined!”Mrs. Xu grew anxious and irritated when recalling General Ji’s expression today. After forcing Xu Piaohong upstairs with a few more words, she nervously grabbed Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s hand and whispered, “Piaohong seemed to have gotten into some kind of trouble. Today, General Ji was very upset and practically kicked us out of his house. Can you go out and ask about what happened?”
“What?!” Deputy Chief of Staff Xu was so shocked his voice cracked. “What on earth did you two do? How did General Ji get so upset?! He kicked you out too, oh my God. Was it you or Piaohong?!”
“Of course it was your precious daughter.” Mr.s Xu glared from the top of the stairs. “If I hadn’t hit and dragged her out of General Ji’s house earlier, she would have argued with him. Don’t you think our daughter lacks common sense?”
Deputy Chief of Staff Xu had no outstanding family background and had used his own ability to rise from a soldier to the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Tactical Operations Department of a military area. He had more brains than his wife and daughter so he knew it must be very serious if General Ji had lost his temper. However, he thought, Xu Piaohong had been with her mother all day; what trouble did she get into? Deputy Chief of Staff Xu glanced at his wife. They had been married for many years and he knew her very well. Aside from some minor flaws with her ego, she was a good person. So when did Xu Piaohong get into this mess? He quietly pondering what happened in their family room, the ticking of the clock his only companion. Just when Deputy Chief of Staff Xu got ready to get information from others, his phone rang at the same time a piercing scream sounded from Xu Piaohong’s room. Then he heard something fall, like it had tumbled down the stairs from the second floor. Deputy Chief of Staff Xu and his wife stood up at the same time and looked towards the stairs.
“Dad! Mom! You have to help me! Someone recorded me and put it online!” It turned out Xu Piaohong rushed down from the second floor and lost her balance, so she had almost rolled down the stairs. Luckily the Xu home was a small high-rise unit so there weren’t many steps between the first and second floors. It was also thickly carpeted so Xu Paiohong wasn’t injured. She crawled up and held up the phone. Tears streaked down her face as she shouted at her parents. “Someone’s recorded me! I want them to go to jail! I want them to go to hell! How dare they mess with me! They must want to die!”
Deputy Chief of Staff Xu ignored her. He walked up to the French window in the corner of the living room and answered the call. “Little Meng, what is it?”
Little Meng was Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s confidante in the Tactical Operations Department. He was practically his personal secretary, but of course Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s rank was not high enough to warrant his own personal secretary. Little Meng was also not officially his subordinate. His voice sounded from the phone anxiously: “Deputy Chief of Staff Xu, your daughter Piaohong got into a big mess! Hurry up and go online to watch the trending video on the social media sites!”
Another video?! Deputy Chief of Staff Xu looked back at his wife and daughter in the middle of the living room. They were huddled together and watching something, the video, he figured, on Xu Piaohong’s phone. Deputy Chief of Staff Xu hesitated for a second and then followed Little Meng’s instructions. He unlocked another phone to find a social media app. As soon as he got in, the trending video with top hits and a number of comments was one entitled, “Mentally Unstable Lovestruck Girl Extorts Target In The Supermarket: Imperial Major General Turns a Blind Eye.” Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s heart dropped, his hands shaking. He struggled to start the video and only watched for a bit when it was suddenly removed from the site. However, he had seen enough to know what happened. The loud and abrasive girl in the video was his daughter, Xu Piaohong; the snooty looking older woman was none other than his wife. They were supposed to have gone to to the supermarket this morning and instead caused such a huge mess! Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s expression was heavy with dismay, sweat trickling down his face.
Little Meng continued over the phone, “Deputy Chief of Staff Xu, you have to prepare right now. The video has made its way to General Ji. Do you want to send someone to beg for forgiveness? Or ask Mrs.Ji for help? This is not a minor mistake, it’s a serious leak of military intelligence!”
Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s flushed face lost all its color. His mouth twitched and he almost passed out. Steadying himself against the wall, he coughed and tried to calm down so he could ask, “Who else knows about this?” If he had to beg for forgiveness, he must make sure to assuage all the parties involved or not only would Xu Piahong lose her future career, but she could also end up in jail.
Little Meng exhaled sharply, “Who else knows?! Deputy Chief of Staff Xu, you still don’t realize how serious this is! The entire military area knows, the whole nations knows! Hell, the whole world might even know!”
Crack!
Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s phone fell to the marble ground, the battery popping out and the screen totally shattered. The web-like cracks cut through the weary man’s reflection.
“Dad! These people are just too much! I want to sue them! They recorded me!” Xu Piaohong stormed over to him and snarled, “Also, this is Major General Huo, just look! Isn’t this his back?!” Xu Piaohong had just taken a screenshot of Huo Shaoheng’s back as evidence so she could go argue with him.
