The person who came was no other than the youngest daughter of the Qiao Family’s main branch, that Qiao Hui whom He Meijun had described as sly as a fox and up to no good.
“Shushu, what’s wrong with you lately? Why have you been cooped up in your room and not going out…”
After Qiao Hui pushed open the door and walked in, she looked at the girl sitting in front of the vanity mirror. The arc at the corner of her mouth stiffened slightly, and a flash of amazement and… hidden jealousy passed through her eyes.
Looking at this little cousin before her, whose skin was fair and tender, pretty in a way that didn’t seem like a country girl at all, Qiao Hui felt extremely jealous.
At the same time, a trace of doubt arose in her heart—that was, this little cousin of hers seemed even prettier today? Had she been this pretty before?
But this doubt flashed by and vanished. After all, Qiao Hui had only been reborn from twenty years in the future a few days ago, so she felt somewhat unfamiliar with the little cousin before her.
In a strict sense, she hadn’t seen this little cousin for twenty years. To her, she was a stranger.
But even as a stranger she hadn’t seen in a long time, in Qiao Hui’s memories from her rebirth from the future, her little cousin had always been a very beautiful image.
From childhood, among the granddaughters of the Qiao Family, Qiao Shu had been the prettiest, and also the most pampered one at home. Her life seemed destined to be doted on by everyone—like a favored child at home in her youth, protected and cherished by her husband after marriage, living a smooth and easy life her whole life, never suffering a bit, always enjoying good fortune.
Unlike her…
At this thought, Qiao Hui lowered her eyelashes, a flash of resentment in her eyes.
She thought of how in her previous life, she had schemed exhaustively to snatch the marriage alliance with the Capital Feng Family, marrying Feng Xiao, who had an impressive background and a bright future. She had thought she could surpass Qiao Shu and become the envy of all as the regiment leader’s wife.
But she never imagined that after marrying over, nothing went her way. Even though the two children weren’t Feng Xiao’s own and shared no blood with him, their status as martyrs’ orphans made them even harder to handle than his own flesh and blood. Countless eyes watched her, and the aunties in the military family courtyard would constantly teach her how to be a mother. The slightest mistake would be blown out of proportion, spreading gossip throughout the entire courtyard.
Even worse, there was a stepmother in the military family courtyard who was around her age and practically perfect in every way as a contrast. Being inferior to her in everything made her role as stepmother all the more awkward.
She had never been patient with young children to begin with, and under the comparison with that practically perfect stepmother, she ended up with not a shred of good reputation in the military family courtyard.
In the end, she threw caution to the wind, stopped caring about her reputation, and did whatever made her comfortable, completely ignoring those two martyrs’ orphan foster children.
She figured that as long as she and Feng Xiao had their own child later, and she sent away those two eyesores, the gossipy busybodies in the military family courtyard couldn’t accuse her of mistreating the kids and being a wicked stepmother anymore.
But who would have thought her little scheme would fall through? She never got to consummate her marriage with Feng Xiao when he returned from a mission—instead, she received news of his sacrifice for the country!
When she got that news, she was completely dumbfounded!
To think she had been a perfectly innocent young maiden, only to become a young widow with two burdensome tagalongs!
In that instant, her sky fell! Her mental state wasn’t quite right, and during that time, she was always anxious and insecure.
At that time, the Feng Family was greatly shaken upon learning of Feng Xiao’s sacrifice. Elder Feng, whose health wasn’t good to begin with, passed away right after hearing that his most favored grandson was gone.
With two pillars gone all at once, the Feng Family couldn’t attend to her for the time being.
And because of that, she made some irreparable mistakes, leading to her utterly miserable life afterward…
Thinking of those wretched, impoverished days, Qiao Hui felt a chill run through her body and shuddered involuntarily.
Qiao Shu took in all of Qiao Hui’s abnormalities.
If Qiao Shu were the original owner, she definitely wouldn’t have noticed these oddities in Qiao Hui.
But Qiao Shu was someone who had transmigrated from the 21st century, and a voracious reader as well as a novelist. So after transmigrating, from Qiao Hui’s various strange behaviors, she vaguely guessed that this Qiao Hui had probably had some fortuitous encounter like her—most likely reborn from the future.
Otherwise, after already snatching the Feng Family marriage from the original owner, why would she suddenly and oddly give it back…
This meant that marrying Feng Xiao might not be a good choice—at least, for Qiao Hui, it wasn’t the ‘right path’.
However… whether Feng Xiao was a good choice or what risks came with marrying him, for her now—who was about to revert to that cheating constitution from her previous life—marrying Feng Xiao was her best option at present.
“Second Cousin, what do you want with me?”
Qiao Shu blinked her eyes and looked at Qiao Hui, who had sunk into her own thoughts, before speaking softly.
Since she suspected Qiao Hui was reborn, she planned to avoid this second cousin as much as possible. After all… if she noticed her own oddities and suspected she wasn’t the original owner, it wouldn’t be good for her.
Hearing Qiao Shu’s clear, sweet voice, Qiao Hui snapped back to her senses and felt jealous again. Her little cousin was pretty enough, but even her voice was so pleasant…
“Oh, I don’t have anything particular. I just wanted to come see you more. After all… you’re about to leave home soon and marry that Regiment Leader Feng.”
Qiao Hui said with some malice. She just had to think that all the grievances and hardships she suffered after marrying Feng Xiao in her previous life would now be borne by Qiao Shu.
While she would take Qiao Shu’s place and marry that future bigshot with billions in assets…
Seeing the flicker of excitement and malice in Qiao Hui’s eyes, Qiao Shu grew even more certain of her guess—marrying Feng Xiao really carried great risks.
With that in mind, Qiao Shu casually probed for information.
“Second Cousin, what kind of person do you think that Regiment Leader Feng is?”
Seeing her little cousin looking at her with clear, limpid eyes, her face the picture of a silly, sweet, innocent girl, Qiao Hui sneered mockingly.
“Regiment Leader Feng… Though I haven’t met him, he’s already a regiment leader at just thirty, so he must have earned plenty of military merits. He’s surely an outstanding soldier.”
“Mm-hmm! I think so too. Regiment Leader Feng must be an excellent soldier. I’m so lucky to marry such a great hero~!”
Qiao Shu knew Qiao Hui was only praising Regiment Leader Feng now because she worried she might back out and not marry him, so she deliberately acted very fond of him, as if no one else would do.
Sure enough, seeing Qiao Shu’s ‘smug’ look, Qiao Hui felt uncomfortable.
She subconsciously said, “Heh, but sometimes these great heroes risk sacrificing for the country…”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Qiao Hui realized she shouldn’t have said that.
What if she scared Qiao Shu into backing out of marrying Feng Xiao? Then her plans would be ruined!
Though her grandfather had already sent the letter, and the marriage with the Feng Family was all but nailed down, the Qiao Family didn’t just have her and Qiao Shu as marriageable granddaughters—there was also Qiao Xia Hua from the second branch.
At this thought, Qiao Hui panicked a bit and wanted to take back her slip, but to her astonishment, Qiao Shu looked completely unconcerned???
For a moment, Qiao Hui couldn’t tell if her little cousin was truly foolish or pretending. She’d said so much, and she still had no reaction?
Little did she know, Qiao Shu wasn’t foolish—she truly didn’t care. She wasn’t marrying into the Feng Family for anything else, just for her own safety and peace. As for what kind of husband she got, she didn’t care much.
But… what Qiao Hui meant was—Feng Xiao would sacrifice for the country and die young???
At this thought, Qiao Shu frowned slightly and muttered inwardly. Since she’d chosen to marry Feng Xiao and borrow the Feng Family’s influence to protect herself, she should do something for this tool of a husband. Like… find a chance to pry more from Qiao Hui? Figure out exactly how he died, so she could save his life…
“Shushu, why do you seem… not very happy?”
Qiao Hui asked nervously, afraid her words had scared Qiao Shu off.
“No, I’m very happy! Of course I’m happy to marry a great hero like Regiment Leader Feng! A soldier as outstanding and experienced as Regiment Leader Feng won’t sacrifice himself. Second Cousin, are you jealous that I get to marry Regiment Leader Feng, so you’re saying such inauspicious things?”
With that, Qiao Shu pouted disdainfully at Qiao Hui, mimicking the original owner’s manner and mocking her.
This spoiled, willful attitude infuriated Qiao Hui and washed away her last bit of wariness.
“Jealous of you?”
Qiao Hui rolled her eyes and sneered.
“Yeah, you’re jealous of me. After all, I’m the one marrying Regiment Leader Feng and going to the Capital.”
Qiao Shu lifted her chin, her posture extremely arrogant.
Seeing this haughty, condescending look, Qiao Hui found her little cousin utterly ridiculous. So what if she was pretty? Her head was full of straw—she was a hopeless idiot.
With her spoiled, foolish ways, she’d probably fare even worse after marrying over!
Belittling Qiao Shu, and unable to stand her arrogant attitude, Qiao Hui dropped the pretense.
“I wouldn’t be jealous of you. Do you think being a stepmother is that easy? And those two kids are martyrs’ orphans—precious ones. You can tell just thinking about it they’d be hard to handle…”
But as she said this, inwardly cursing Qiao Shu as an empty-headed fool, little did Qiao Hui know that the ‘fool’ she scorned was inwardly mocking her as hopelessly dumb.
As expected, rebirth didn’t boost IQ~
Maybe… the Feng Family wasn’t a bad choice at all. It was just that Qiao Hui was too ‘hopelessly dumb’, dooming herself and wrongly blaming the Feng Family?
After all, that’s how novels went, right~