Unable to endure the hardships of rural life, she returned home to arrange a marriage with a militar

After Shen Rujun left home, Shu Yun immediately took out a dusty gray shirt from the closet, wrapped her face with a headscarf, and her two thick eyebrows were particularly noticeable. After checking in the mirror several times to make sure that her eyebrows were not drawn crooked, Shu Yun straightened her clothes and left home furtively.

Shu Yun's arrival was unfortunate; the old woman who usually worked in the courtyard wasn't there. A young woman opened the door, sized Shu Yun up, and asked, "Comrade, who are you looking for?"

Shu Yun: "Is Grandma You home?"

"She broke her leg yesterday and went to the hospital this morning. If you need anything, I can pass on the message, or you can come this afternoon. She should be back from the hospital by then."

"Oh, thank you. I'll come see her this afternoon."

Shu Yun left, but she came again in the afternoon. She spent a lot of money to buy half a chicken at the market, cooked chicken soup, and brought it over in a thermos.

This time, Shu Yun finally saw that the courtyard gate was open. A chubby little boy was sitting on the steps playing marbles. When Shu Yun passed by him, the aroma of chicken soup was so strong that the boy sniffed it and immediately rushed to Shu Yun, pointing at the insulated container and saying, "I want to eat it, give it to me."

As she spoke, she tried to grab it, but Shu Yun quickly raised the insulated box high, saying, "This isn't for you."

Her thick eyebrows furrowed, like two wriggling caterpillars. Where did this brat come from? He's just like his father!

The little boy seemed used to being bossy and said rudely, "I don't care, I want it too, otherwise I'll have my dad arrest you."

"Oh ho, so you know how to bully others with your power." Shu Yun narrowed her eyes dangerously, glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and rolled up her sleeves, ready to give the little brat a beating. Anyway, with her current appearance, even the original owner of this body probably wouldn't recognize her.

Just then, a shrill female voice came from inside the courtyard, "Come in, stop making a fool of yourself outside."

A woman came out from inside, took the child and went into the house, closing the door behind her without glancing at Shu Yun once.

"Mom, I want chicken soup too, I want some too."

"No, no money. Don't cry anymore, or when your dad gets back, see how he deals with you."

The little boy's voice weakened, but he still stubbornly said, "What? We don't have money? We don't have money! Let's go sell bowls! We'll have money if we sell them!"

Shu Yun couldn't hear what was said next; it must have been the child's mother who covered the child's mouth.

Shu Yun saw the old woman lying in bed and placed the insulated food container on the table. "I heard you fell down, so I specially prepared some chicken soup for you. Please try it."

The old woman said, "Why are you being so polite? I haven't even heard anything about the house yet."

Shu Yun: "No rush. By the way, Grandma, I see you're quite agile. How did you fall?"

The old woman took a sip of chicken soup, and her expression softened. But after hearing Shu Yun's words, she snorted coldly, "It's all because of that brat next door. He plays marbles at the door every day. I wasn't paying attention and stepped on it, and I fell and hurt my tailbone."

Shu Yun continued the conversation, "Then why didn't we see that family come over? Did they get their medical expenses reimbursed?"

Grandma: "What are you thinking? Wang Jinnan is an official, no matter how small. Who would take money from his pocket? Don't let him hold a grudge."

"However, I noticed that his family lives in a courtyard house, so their living conditions shouldn't be bad. Why did his kid rush up and try to snatch the chicken soup I brought today?" Shu Yun inquired discreetly.

The old woman scoffed, "They're definitely taking advantage. How could their family be poor? They have vases and dishes that cost a fortune."

Before she could finish speaking, she was interrupted by a young woman who came in carrying water. She must have been the old woman's daughter-in-law. The woman tugged at the old woman's sleeve, and the old woman stopped talking.

Shu Yun wisely refrained from pressing the matter further, but based on the boy's and the old woman's conversation, it wasn't hard to conclude that Wang Jinnan's family must have hidden a lot of cultural relics and antiques that had been confiscated during the search, and that they had even been selling them privately.

She remembered that the Shu family had also had a lot of calligraphy and paintings collected, but after they were taken out, there was no further news about them.

Having enough evidence to convict Wang Jinnan, Shu Yun pondered how to expose it as she walked back, not wanting to reveal herself.

Suddenly, she stopped and stepped aside. From the depths of the alley came the sound of a group beating someone, and the leader was none other than Wang Jinnan!

"You dead rat from the sewer, don't let me see you again, or you'll end up like your sister, ptooey." A glob of phlegm was spat onto the face of the man lying on the ground, disgusting Shu Yun, who was huddled in a corner watching the commotion.

Wang Jinnan kicked the man lying on the ground intermittently with his toes. The man, who was panting heavily and powerless to resist, was instantly provoked by what he said and threw a punch at Wang Jinnan.

"I will not let you go, you murderer."

Wang Jinnan was enraged. Things had been going wrong for him lately. The director had clearly found out about Shu Yun's suicide attempt, and it had caused quite a stir. Wang Jinnan had been reprimanded and had been keeping a low profile ever since. But this kid just had to walk right into the line of fire.

He ordered his men to teach him a lesson, and the sound of their fists hitting flesh made Shu Yun's teeth ache. She couldn't help but shrink back against the wall, but the man still wouldn't beg for mercy. "Wang Jinnan, you'll get your comeuppance sooner or later, and your henchmen won't have a good end either."

The soldiers then became even more ruthless, beating the man until he vomited blood and his breathing weakened before they stopped and left.

Once the alley was quiet again, Shu Yun walked over to the man on the ground and asked, "Are you alright?"

The man heard the sound, his eyelashes trembled, and he struggled to his feet, blood dripping from his brow bone. "I'm fine."

Shu Yun asked, "Do you have a grudge against Wang Jinnan?"

Rong Qi turned sharply to look at the woman in front of him, his voice hoarse, "You know her?"

Shu Yun nodded, ignoring the wariness in the man's eyes, and said, "I have evidence of his illegal activities. Do you want it?"

Rong Qi: "Why?"

Shu Yun: "Because I also have a grudge against him."

Rong Qi: "Who are you?"

Shu Yun: "Who I am is not important. Do you want the information I have?"

Rong Qi's face darkened. There were five people in her family. Her father had been caught making inappropriate remarks. Originally, her father wanted her and her sister to go to the countryside, but Wang Jinnan came to search the house, took a fancy to her sister, and forcibly took her away. After that, there was no news of her sister until half a month later, when a body with tattered clothes and a swollen body was found by the lake.

When his parents heard the news in the cowshed, their already exhausted bodies finally succumbed to the blow and they passed away one after another, leaving him alone to eke out a living.

He looked at Shu Yun, and could vaguely see the beauty of her features through her makeup. He couldn't help but think of his sister, and his tone softened a lot. "So what if there is evidence? Wang Jinnan has a protector. Even if I report her, it will be useless."

He wrote more than one letter of complaint, but they all eventually disappeared without a trace.

Shu Yun: "Since it's impossible to get through in Haicheng, why not appeal to higher levels? You can go to the provincial level, and if that doesn't work, you can go to the capital. His influence isn't that great."

Rong Qi listened to Shu Yun's words and asked, "Tell me, what other crimes do you know he has committed?"

Apart from his own words, no one dared to come forward to testify about his sister's death. It was as if there was no way to verify his guilt. The only way to uncover his crimes was to follow the clues from his other crimes and eventually expose all of them to the public.

“Nowadays, all regions are cracking down on the trafficking of cultural relics. If you want to attract the attention of the higher-ups, you might as well exaggerate the matter. The people who buy cultural relics are a mixed bag, and who knows if there are spies among them who are smuggling our country’s cultural relics abroad. If you think that the crime of trafficking in cultural relics is not enough to attract the attention of the higher-ups, then how about adding the crime of colluding with foreign spies?”

"Furthermore, his protector is Zhang Hailong from our committee. He has been trying to get promoted in recent years, but he's not the only one with this ambition. However, he has the strongest competition. Do you think his competitors would want this whistleblower letter?"

Shu Yun's words ended there, and Rong Qi watched her departing figure thoughtfully.

------------

The tumultuous blind date left Shen Rujun anxious. Unable to contain her impatience, she went to find the matchmaker, Wang, but unfortunately, she wasn't there. She was left out in the cold wind and developed a high fever in the middle of the night, suffering through the entire night. The next day, Shu Yun, worried, took her to the hospital.

No sooner had the man left than Wang the matchmaker arrived. Not worried about not seeing him, she casually found an empty spot by the flowerbed and sat down to wait for him.

"Why did Matchmaker Wang come over today? I've seen Shen Rujun busy with Shu Yun's affairs lately. How come she has a suitable person?" The elderly men and women who had been squatting at the entrance of the building with chairs gathered around curiously.

Matchmaker Wang: "Yes, there is a suitable person."

"Oh dear, with her current circumstances, she'll never get married. What good match could she possibly have? Matchmaker Wang, you're so good with words, such a respectable person." The person who said this had once considered having her son marry Shu Yun, but the Shu family refused at the time, and she had always felt uneasy about it. Now that she heard about the Shu family's troubles, she was the happiest of all, telling everyone that she had been farsighted in rejecting the Shu family back then.

The matchmaker glanced at her and asked, "Has your daughter found a boyfriend yet?"

The man straightened his back. "Found it. It's in the factory."

Matchmaker Wang is shrewd; she knows this means temporary worker, someone who hasn't become a worker yet. She chuckled, "This time, Shu Yun is going on a blind date with a regimental commander in the army. The young man is handsome and a good match for Shu Yun."

"Commander, isn't he quite old? How could he possibly be interested in Shu Yun!" Listen to that sour remark.

When Shu Yun brought Shen Rujun back, the first thing she saw was Wang the matchmaker, who was sitting with her legs crossed, listening to the neighbors gossip and eating melon seeds.

Shu Yun: "Grandma."

Matchmaker Wang patted the sunflower seed shells off her lap onto the ground, saying, "You finally decided to come back."

There were too many people outside to talk, so Shu Yun ushered Wang, the matchmaker, into the house. As soon as Wang sat down, she said, "I have good news. A young man has taken a liking to your niece and has come to my place specifically to ask you to be his matchmaker."