Lu Jiang sighed, "Criticisms, punishments, self-reflection, public confession, these are the standard procedures. The military has no room for such perverse influence. Four soldiers were implicated and all were transferred to areas even harsher than this one. The Art troupe performers implicated can no longer take the stage. Involvement in such a scandal, the physical punishment is not as important as the blow to their reputation. They’re avoided by everyone as if they’ve contracted a contagious disease, the emotional toll can be far heavier than the physical discomfort."
Feng Qingxue remained silent.
This place is already one of the harshest, areas more severe than this are rare, implying those soldiers weren’t expelled from the military.
The women from the art troupes likely experienced the same as Fang Ning, unable to go on stage, but doing odd jobs within the group.
In fact, what Feng Qingxue feared most was the special period beginning two or three years later. If such a thing happened now, it would certainly be brought up then. They might face a new round of punishment like Qiao Desheng and Fang Ning.
Lu Jiang stroked his wife’s sweat-dampened hair, "They knowingly broke the rules. Who are they to blame? The whistleblower? No, they should blame themselves. They broke the rules, were indiscreet. Even if they were to correspond, they should have immediately destroyed the letters, rather than leave evidence to be found."
"Who is the whistleblower? Although they might seem very righteous, I dare not associate with such a person, lest they betray me one day without my awareness." Feng Qingxue said.
Lu Jiang pondered for a moment. As a close aide to Colonel Ye and a member of the commander Chen’s inner circle, he was not kept in the dark about these matters.
"The whistleblower is Chen Chen. She reported Fang Ning for receiving a love letter from a soldier, but strangely, Fang Ning was not among those eventually found to have misconduct."
Upon hearing Lu Jiang’s words, Feng Qingxue was taken aback.
Fang Ning? It was actually Fang Ning.
She had thought that Fang Ning was wrongly implicated, but it turns out she was the one who was reported.
Except Chen Chen, nobody in the Art Troupe, including the troupe leader Bai, knew Fang Ning was the one being reported.
Even though Fang Ning was unaware that she was the one being reported, she was nonetheless grateful to Feng Qingxue after her narrow escape. A few days later when things started to quiet down in the troop and the Art Troupe, Fang Ning specifically bought two cans of malt essence to gift Xibao.
Feng Qingxue warmly welcomed her, "Xibao is not here. His father is off today and took him out to play."
"No problem." Fang Ning wasn’t there for Xibao, "I came specifically to thank you, Qingxue. Thank you so much. If it weren’t for you, I can’t even imagine what kind of fate I would be facing now."
At this point, tears welled up in her eyes.
Feng Qingxue sighed slightly, taking out the letter from inside her military coat pocket and passed it to her, "I won’t say much else. You should destroy it as soon as possible so it doesn’t leave evidence for someone to discover."
Fang Ning gratefully accepted the letter, noticing it was still folded as it was, untouched. Her gratitude deepened.
She had a unique way to fold the letter. She could tell at a glance whether it had been tampered. Even if Feng Qingxue opened it, given she had helped her through this crisis, her heart was filled with gratitude.
"Thank you!" Fang Ning immediately threw the envelope into the stove, watching as the fire consumed it to ashes.
... The day was hot and stuffy, annoying and sleepy with all kinds of troubles, will update later in the evening.