The 60s Island: The Daily Life of a Capitalist Young Lady with the Army - Chapter 88: Plenty of People Like Me

Chapter 88: Plenty of People Like Me

Long Peiye’s face instantly darkened again, becoming even blacker than the night sky moments before. “Comrade,” he said, his voice not loud but sharp as an ice-forged steel blade, each word striking heavily upon everyone’s hearts. “You’d better watch your tone.”

Li Hong whipped her head around like an enraged she-wolf, glaring fiercely at Long Peiye.

“She was the one who disrespected me first!”

But after shouting this, her entire body suddenly froze. The anger in her bloodshot eyes rapidly faded, replaced by an absurd, incredulous astonishment.

“You… what did you call me?” Her voice began trembling uncontrollably. “‘Comrade’?”

She looked as if she had heard the world’s funniest joke, yet her expression was uglier than crying. “You don’t even know my name?!”

“Long Peiye! How can you not remember me?!”

For him, she had practiced dance relentlessly, just to catch his eye during performances! For him, she had rejected all marriage proposals! For him, she had brought people here today!

And he didn’t even know her name!

Long Peiye merely looked at her calmly, his gaze as indifferent as if he were looking at a roadside pebble, without the slightest ripple of emotion.

“Unrelated people,” he stated flatly, “I don’t see the need to remember.”

This sentence hurt a thousand, ten thousand times more than the kick earlier. That kick had landed on her body. These words precisely crushed her heart.

Li Hong felt her vision darken, her entire body beginning to sway unsteadily. All her pretenses, all her pride, all her delusions—in this moment, were utterly shattered by this man’s casual remark.

It hurt more, made her more desperate, than being kicked away moments before.

Scalding tears finally burst forth, mingling with blood and grime to carve two wretched trails down her face. Staring at Long Peiye, at the man she had adored for three whole years, she mustered her last ounce of strength to cry out mournfully.

“I liked you so much… How could you treat me like this?”

Hearing this belated, meaningless confession, the corner of Long Peiye’s mouth instead curled into an extremely mocking arc.

“Plenty of people like me,” he drawled, each word like salt ruthlessly rubbed into Li Hong’s wounds. “Should I treat every single one of them as honored guests?”

His gaze swept mercilessly across her pitiful face.

“Moreover,” he paused, his tone dripping with undisguised disgust, “being liked by someone like you strikes me as rather unfortunate.”

Unfortunate.

He said that being liked by her was unfortunate.

Li Hong completely snapped.

The thread of reason in her mind broke with an audible “snap.”

She abruptly turned away from Long Peiye, instead looking at the stunned female soldiers from the Arts Troupe behind her, and at Bai Rumeng who had been watching from the sidelines all along.

She let out a piercing shriek, her voice distorted as if weeping blood.

“Did you all hear that! How could Battalion Commander Long be like this!”

“For a capitalist’s Fox spirit, he treats us like this! Humiliates us revolutionary comrades like this!”

Her fingers pointed wildly, her voice filled with agitation and despair.

“Could the man we’ve always admired… really be this cold-hearted and ungrateful?!”

Li Hong’s piercing shriek, like a broken gong, hovered over the small courtyard, lingering relentlessly.

The remaining female soldiers exchanged uneasy glances, the color draining completely from their faces.

Long Peiye’s coldness was like a basin of ice water poured over their heads, chilling them from head to toe.

If he could be so heartless to Li Hong, then couldn’t he be equally heartless to them?

Yet deep down, a stubborn spark of unwillingness flickered persistently.

Li Hong was Li Hong, and they were themselves.

Perhaps… Battalion Commander Long simply detested madwomen like Li Hong?

One of the female soldiers, who usually possessed considerable charm, mustered her greatest courage and took a small step forward.

Her voice carried a barely noticeable tremble, brimming with anticipation.

“Battalion Commander Long… then, do you still remember me?”

Long Peiye’s gaze skimmed over her face like a dragonfly touching water.

“Sorry, no impression.”

Three words, devoid of any warmth, pierced the female soldier’s heart like three ice spikes.

The anticipation on her face instantly froze, then shattered piece by piece.

As if all her strength had been drained, her expression dimmed immediately.

Seeing this, another female soldier nearby felt her heart tighten, but couldn’t resist speaking up.

“What about me? Battalion Commander Long, we met at the Arts Troupe’s evening party!”

Long Peiye slightly furrowed his brows, seemingly genuinely trying to recall.

Just as a glimmer of hope rekindled in the female soldier’s eyes, he spoke.

“I think I’ve seen you somewhere,” he paused, then added the second half, “but I don’t remember.”

More hurtful than directly saying he didn’t know.

Another young heart was shattered to pieces.

Bai Rumeng, enduring the excruciating pain from the brick hitting her shoulder, saw the military morale about to collapse and immediately cried out sharply.

“Don’t believe him! Peiye wasn’t like this before!”

Her venomous gaze fixed firmly on Xu Xiangsi, as if wanting to carve a piece of flesh from her.

“It’s all this Fox spirit! He’s been bewitched by Xu Xiangsi, that’s why he’s lost his mind!”

These words acted like a shot of adrenaline.

The female soldiers who had just had their hearts broken instantly found an outlet for their emotions.

Yes! It must be like this!

How could the Battalion Commander Long they admired be so heartless!

It’s all this woman’s fault!

Poisonous gazes, united in common hatred, shot toward Xu Xiangsi nestled in Long Peiye’s embrace.

However, none of the expected panic or fear appeared.

Protected within the man’s sturdy arms, Xu Xiangsi even spoke with a smile, her voice clear and sweet, yet each word piercing their hearts.

“Oh? Are you suggesting…”

She tilted her head, looking innocent and naive, “That in the short month since I married Long Peiye…”

“He suddenly forgot all your names?”

“Suddenly stopped caring about you?”

“Suddenly underwent a complete personality change, transforming from the good man you saw into a cold-hearted bastard?”

With each sentence she spoke, the female soldiers’ faces grew paler.

After finishing, she even put on an expression of genuine admiration.

“It seems Li Hong was right. I might… indeed be a Fox spirit.”

“Otherwise, how could I have accomplished such an extraordinary feat in such a short time?”

She even gave herself a firm nod and delivered a concluding statement: “Hmm, I’m truly remarkable.”

At this, the entire courtyard fell completely silent.

Even Li Hong’s sobbing ceased.

Everyone stared at her as if struck by lightning, utterly dumbfounded.

Long Peiye didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

He lowered his head, looking at the little wife in his arms who was puffing out her small chest with a “praise me now” expression.

What in the world was going through that peculiar little mind of hers?

His little wife had just been pointed at and called a fox spirit.

Why did she seem… rather pleased about it?