"Rest assured," Shen Chi chuckled softly, "though Yu Bingliang is also a Major General, he’s not worth worrying about for me."
Seeing Lin Xiaoguai’s puzzled face, he affectionately wrapped his arm around her waist and whispered in her ear, "Where do you think his Lieutenant General rank came from?"
"Yu Bingliang lacks both ability and connections. If it weren’t for sheer luck, not to mention Major General, he would probably have died on the battlefield long ago."
"Luck?" Lin Xiaoguai was somewhat confused, she didn’t understand what kind of luck could let someone leap up the ranks to Major General so easily.
"Yeah," Shen Chi quickly stole a kiss and said, "You should know about the old chief who just passed away. During the Korean War, that old man went to the battlefield himself because of his eldest son’s sacrifice and ended up being saved by Yu Bingliang. As it indirectly saved the then precarious New China, the Staff Department later discussed and promoted him from Lieutenant to Major General."
"From Lieutenant to Major General!?" Lin Xiaoguai’s face was full of disbelief.
"That’s right," Shen Chi said, somewhat amused, "but where is the honor in that? Those in the Staff Department were really mocking him and, of course, they were also shutting up the soldiers below. Sadly, Yu Binglian is too full of himself to understand their meaning and really thinks he’s something special."
Lin Xiaoguai grew even more confused, "From what you’re saying, it seems the Staff Department isn’t very friendly towards Yu Bingliang. Why is that?" Everyone knew that the old chief at that time was very popular.
"Do you really think Yu Bingliang was capable of saving the old chief who had been through wars all his life?" Shen Chi sneered, "The older generation knows this: if it hadn’t been for Yu Bingliang clinging to the old chief’s hand and excessively flattering him, the old chief would have been able to react when the grenade was thrown. And that would’ve been the end of it, but the old chief didn’t settle the score with him. Instead, Yu Bingliang went around saying he saved the old chief. The image of him pulling the old chief to one side was indeed seen by some, and those who didn’t know the full story naturally took it for the truth. Soon enough, Yu Bingliang’s ’heroic deeds’ spread throughout the camp."
"At the time, including the old chief, the top brass at the Military Department were thoroughly fed up with him, begrudgingly giving him the rank of Major General, but without any real position of power. So many years have passed, and others of the same rank have been promoted, while only he has remained stuck at Major General."
"If it hadn’t been for him constantly talking about how he saved the chief back then, the matter of his illegitimate daughter would have spread already. How could he enjoy such ease now?" After all, the top echelons of the Military Department didn’t want the soldiers to think they were "ungrateful."
"It can be like that!?" Lin Xiaoguai exclaimed in surprise.
Suddenly, she had an epiphany about where Lu Rong’s peculiar attributes might stem from.
"So don’t worry, Yu Bingliang can’t pose a threat to me. Even though he’s a Major General, he doesn’t have as much actual power in the Military Department as a Lieutenant Colonel might."
By Sunday evening, Zheng Cuicui came as agreed to take Lin Xiaoguai to the banquet.
"When does the banquet end?" Shen Chi asked Zheng Cuicui.
"Midnight, but there’s no need to stay that late. We can come back around nine o’clock," Zheng Cuicui said, admiringly eyeing Lin Xiaoguai who was dressed in a mint Qipao looking graceful and exquisite, and couldn’t help but exclaim, "Sister-in-law looks truly beautiful in a Qipao. You can’t even hide your scholarly charm. You look like you’ve stepped right out of a painting."
Shen Chi was upset, though he also thought Wanwan looked beautiful, he didn’t want other men to see her!
He began to regret encouraging Wanwan to go to the banquet with his sister-in-law and almost voiced his change of heart.
"Be careful, I’ll come to pick you up later." Since he had arranged for his sister-in-law, Zheng Cuicui, to introduce Lin Xiaoguai into the social scene, Shen Chi couldn’t go this time.
But with this experience, he would never again let Lin Xiaoguai go to a banquet alone. What if she caught the eye of some wolf!
"I know. You and Little Niangao have a good dinner too. Remember to make sure he finishes his vegetables," Lin Xiaoguai instructed.
Zheng Cuicui helped Lin Xiaoguai into the car, and Shen Chi watched until the vehicle disappeared from view.
"Nervous?" Zheng Cuicui asked softly in the car.
"Not really," Lin Xiaoguai shook her head, somewhat coquettishly, "I have sister-in-law, right?" Because of Zheng Cuicui’s unaggressive nature, although they hadn’t met many times, they got along quite well.
"Don’t count on me too much," Zheng Cuicui said with a bit of guilt, "Because of my relationships with Liu Yuzhi and Dong Fei, I’ve hardly attended these kinds of banquets, and the little experience I do have is from my childhood when I was still with the Zheng family."