Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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That same year, the female lead made her debut.
That day, Chen Jiacheng returned from a banquet and excitedly came to find Jiang Shining, saying he wanted to discuss something. Jiang Shining already had a premonition.
Compared to Chu Haoli, Chen Jiacheng was slightly better. Over the years, with Jiang Shining subtly and intentionally guiding Chen Jiacheng to like her, he now wanted to take the female lead and had thus come back to discuss it with her ahead of time.
Jiang Shining sat at the table and sighed softly.
“That Miss Luan sounds like an exceptional person; you mustn’t get into any trouble because of her.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. Who would dare to compete with me for the person I’ve set my sights on?” Chen Jiacheng snorted.
“Would Miss Luan be willing?” Jiang Shining asked.
Chen Jiacheng remained silent.
After a long pause, he said, “…Even if I don’t want to, I will!”
Jiang Shining sighed again.
“If you insist on marrying her, then divorce me.”
She had two options in mind. If she couldn’t stop the two from seeing each other, getting a divorce and starting her own business would be a good alternative. This wasn’t ancient times anymore; women could be bosses too. Then she could personally approach other male leads and supporting characters to continue her scheme.
“What did you say?” Chen Jiacheng was stunned.
“Miss Luan is so young and outstanding, she naturally wouldn’t stoop to be a concubine. Even if you force her to marry you, you have to show sincerity, don’t you?” Jiang Shining said calmly and gently. “And if you ask me to be a concubine, I still refuse. Since that’s the case, I’m willing to divorce you to make your happiness possible.”
Chen Jiacheng was stunned. If this had happened ten years ago, he would have divorced Jiang Yiru without hesitation. But now, why was he finding it difficult to decide?
“Then…then let’s have two wives, both legal wives?” Chen Jiacheng asked, racking his brains. “Two wives” meant two principal wives.
Jiang Shining felt disgusted but couldn’t help but show it on the surface.
“Chen Jiacheng, are you insulting me?” she said.
Now, almost no one dared to call him by his full name, but when Jiang Yiru said it, he actually felt a little guilty.
A few days passed peacefully like this. Chen Jiacheng thought it over and over, feeling that it was unbecoming of a great general like himself to be controlled by a woman! Divorce? That was impossible; did he want to be laughed at by others? Forced marriage? Regardless of what the woman thought, he could just do his own thing, right?
However, Jiang Yiru was also the mother of his eldest son, which would inevitably affect the father-son relationship.
Chen Jiacheng didn’t know what he was worried about. One day, he invited Luan Heli to the Marshal’s Mansion as a guest and also invited all three of his wives. The second and third concubines were too shrewd. Seeing that the girl was young and beautiful and had an aristocratic air that was unattainable to them, they naturally knew that Chen Jiacheng was testing them.
After everyone left, a commotion broke out that very night.
Third wife Xu Lingxin had a son, while second wife Sun Qinling got nothing. She had no children, and her power was taken away by Jiang Shining. So fear kept her from sleeping peacefully.
“Sun Qinling, what exactly do you want?” After the second concubine had been making a scene all night, Chen Jiacheng finally couldn’t take it anymore.
Sun Qinling, who was throwing a tantrum on the bed, quickly got up after hearing this.
“I, I just want a child! Mr. Xu and Madam both have their own children, but I don’t…” she pleaded. “Can you ask Madam to let me raise Ruozhi? We live together, it’s just a matter of changing rooms. I just want to raise a child… I really love her. If you let me raise her, I promise I won’t cause any more trouble.”
Chen Jiacheng’s temples throbbed. He thought about it and realized Sun Qinling was right. The main house and the side room were only a corridor apart, so it didn’t matter where the child lived. If he could stop Sun Qinling from causing trouble and also intimidate Jiang Yiru, making her behave, wouldn’t that kill two birds with one stone? He then said irritably, “Fine, fine, stop making a fuss. Tomorrow, she’ll let you raise Ruozhi.”
When Jiang Shining woke up the next morning, she sensed something was amiss; the courtyard was unusually quiet. Usually at this time, the maids would be watching the brother and sister taking a walk in the courtyard, so why was there not a sound today?
She changed her clothes, went out, and walked towards the lobby. Once inside, her expression turned cold.
Chen Jiacheng sat in the main seat, the other side empty. Chen Tanliang stood by the door with an adjutant’s arm around his shoulder. The second and third concubines sat to the side, and the second concubine, Sun Qinling, was holding none other than the innocent and naive Chen Ruozhi in her arms. The child was only two years old, understanding nothing, blinking her eyes and looking around.
“What does this mean?” Jiang Shining said coldly.
Chen Jiacheng put down his teacup and smiled. The man was handsome with sharp features, but his words were incredibly hateful.
“Well… Lingling is getting a bit lonely living alone. You two both have children, but she doesn’t. So, if you two can take care of Ruozhi together, let her take care of her for a while, and you can rest.”
Jiang Shining felt a rush of blood to her head; she was furious. But when she was truly angry, she didn’t argue or make a scene.
She coldly watched these people, when she heard the second concubine coaxing Chen Ruozhi.
“Ruozhi, how about living with your stepmother from now on?”
After hearing what she said, the child suddenly stopped crying.
“No! I want my mommy, my mommy!”
“Hey, don’t move, don’t move…” Chen Ruozhi began to struggle, and Sun Qinling almost couldn’t hold her.
Amid the children’s cries, Chen Tanliang shouted, “Don’t bully my mother! Don’t bully my sister!”
He rushed over and forcibly snatched his sister from Sun Qinling’s hands, and the two retreated to the doorway behind Jiang Shining.
“Chen Tanliang!” Chen Jiacheng roared.
However, his attention was quickly drawn to Jiang Shining, because Chen Jiacheng felt as if her eyes were cutting into him like knives.
“I used to be easy to bully, and I couldn’t be bothered to argue with you,” she said coldly. “But my children are my bottom line. Anyone who dares to touch them, I—”
“What’s wrong with you?” Chen Jiacheng roared. “Are you trying to rebel?”
Jiang Shining suddenly launched an attack, snatching the guns from the waists of the soldiers guarding the door and pointing them at them.
The concubines screamed, “She’s gone mad! Jiang Yiru has gone mad!”
The soldiers were stunned. Chen Jiacheng slammed his hand on the table, “Jiang Yiru, who are you trying to scare? Just because—” Just because… Jiang Yiru, does she even know how to shoot?!
Before he could finish speaking, a loud bang rang out, and the vase on the small table between the second and third concubines shattered. The two women screamed in fright and instinctively tried to dodge, but both were wearing high heels, and in their haste, they both fell to the ground.
A hush fell over the room; everyone was stunned, except for the child who was still crying. And water dripped down the table and onto the messy floor.
Chen Jiacheng was dumbfounded.
He stared blankly at Jiang Yiru until she slammed the guns on the table.
“I’ll say it again, the children are my bottom line.” She slowly turned her gaze to her two concubines and said coldly, “Understand?”
The two concubines were so frightened that they cried and nodded repeatedly, their faces pale.
She looked up at Chen Jiacheng again, whose eyes widened slightly, waiting for her to speak. But Jiang Shining said nothing, turned around, and left with her son and daughter.
When the two concubines crawled over crying and begging him to uphold justice, Chen Jiacheng was still in shock.
…He must be crazy.
Otherwise, why would he find Jiang Yiru’s demeanor when she held the guns so incredibly cool?
This was, of course, the ultimate mystery of the universe: men are all inherently lecherous. They crave excitement and things that are hard to control.
Meanwhile, Jiang Shining took her two children back to her room. She finally managed to calm her younger daughter down. Chen Ruozhi, still with tear stains on her face from the fright, fell asleep feeling wronged.
When she looked up, she saw Chen Tanliang standing by the bed. The young boy was staring at the two of them, his lips pursed and he didn’t say a word, but tears kept falling down his face.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Shining gently put Chen Ruozhi down, pulled him into the outer room, and knelt down to gently wipe away his tears. “Did I scare you?”
Chen Tanliang kept crying, but he stubbornly pursed his lips, wiped them haphazardly, and then shook his head.
“I don’t want to study anymore,” he said softly.
“What?” Jiang Shining didn’t hear clearly.
“I don’t want to study anymore.” Chen Tanliang looked up at her with red eyes. “Only reasonable people get bullied. I want to learn to shoot, I want to join the army! That way, no one will bully us anymore!”
Jiang Shining sighed softly.
“Do you want to be like your father?”
Chen Tanliang shook his head without hesitation.
“A good leader is one who is cultured and has the nation and the world in mind,” Jiang Shining said gently. “A person who is uncultured and narrow-minded can only be considered a bandit with military power.”
She reached out and gently stroked Chen Tanliang’s head.
“Only by studying hard and growing up upright can you surpass your father and become a respectable person.”
“Promise me, Tanliang. No matter when or where, you must be an upright person.”
….
Maple leaves fluttered and danced in the wind as Chen Tanliang stood under the tree, waiting quietly.
Foreigners from Country M couldn’t help but turn around and look at him as they walked by. Although Chen Tanliang had black hair and yellow skin, he was wearing a military uniform from Country M, and his rank was not low.
Chen Tanliang closed his eyes, and scenes from his previous life seemed to flash before his eyes. He and his sister Chen Ruozhi met again in their reincarnation, and they hadn’t forgotten anything from their past life. However, this world was different. His family and country from his previous life seemed to have vanished, unlike the world he lived in.
The two were born in the United States, a country populated entirely by blond-haired, blue-eyed people. This country was not their original home, but they could only find similar countries, not the exact same one. Thus, the brother and sister were born and raised in the United States.
Their situation was somewhat special because their biological parents were extremely violent. They were rescued by social workers when they were very young and grew up in various circumstances. But for these people who had been reborn, those hardships were nothing.
After growing up, her younger sister Chen Ruozhi lived up to her mother’s expectation by entering the literary world. She went back to school and continued to excel, eventually getting into a top university.
Chen Tanliang didn’t have her kind of self-pursuit regarding academic qualifications and culture. In his previous life, he had been a young marshal and later a commander-in-chief, but he seemed to know nothing except leading troops in battle. He was used to military life, so he joined the army of Country M.
After climbing all the way up, he actually managed to get a pretty good spot.
However… by the time his younger sister graduated, he planned to be discharged from the military.
Chen Tanliang and others waited outside the university. He was dressed in a military uniform and looked handsome with deep eyes. So women passing by couldn’t help but turn around and look at him.
“Elder brother!”
Just then, a voice came.
Chen Tanliang looked up and saw Chen Ruozhi running towards him, waving and radiating youthful energy. He couldn’t help but smile slightly. In this life, there was an eight-year age difference between them, but for this older brother, that was insignificant.
A bigger one was better at taking care of a smaller one.
The brother and sister walked down the street, and Chen Ruozhi talked to him about their previous daily life, without mentioning their studies at all— for no other reason than that Chen Ruozhi was practically a demon king in academics, crushing everyone wherever she went, so she simply couldn’t be bothered to talk about it.
After walking for a while, Chen Ruozhi finally realized, “Why did you come to pick me up today?”
“I missed you, is that not allowed?” Chen Tanliang smiled slightly.
Chen Ruozhi looked incredulous.
Chen Tanliang sighed softly, his eyes dimming slightly.
“Today is the anniversary of our mother’s death, let’s go offer incense.”
The author has something to say:
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Jiang Shining sneezed more than ten times in a row.
Jiang Shining: Author, come out here, let’s have a chat 🙂
….
Because some of the settings are a bit sensitive, I’ve placed it in a fictional foreign country. Please understand. _(:з」∠)_
When writing about past experiences, I only briefly mentioned the part about the child. I won’t go into how the female lead fought and changed the timeline, anyway, the focus is on the baby~~~~=3=
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