In the morning, Sienna arrived at the entrance of the cowshed. Before even stepping inside, she covered her nose and mouth.

  When she craned her neck and walked inside, it was even worse. Not only were flies buzzing over the cow dung, but there were maggots crawling everywhere.

  "Ugh..."

  Enduring the intense physical disgust, Sienna shoveled a few times. She began to regret being soft-hearted toward that bitch Elena.

  Last time, someone had mentioned that if you wanted to frame someone, you should stuff propaganda from the other side, or some pornographic novels, into their personal belongings, and then report them to the officers in the camp...

  Sienna had once thought about reporting Elena.

  From Matthew’s mouth, Sienna also knew one more thing: Battalion Commander Barda was someone willing to do things for money, provided the money was enough.

  How much was enough?

  Sienna guessed that Barda’s salary was around 4,000 pesos. To frame a female soldier, giving him one month's salary should be enough, right?

  Sienna could easily get 4,000 pesos. Every time her adoptive father sent her things, there would be 500 pesos tucked inside the package. Even if Sienna did nothing and just saved for half a year, she would have 4,000 pesos.

  "Pah..."

  "Is that bitch even worth 4,000 pesos?"

  Sienna thought to herself that in Battalion Commander Barda’s eyes, Elena was worth at most 1,000 pesos.

  Thinking of this, Sienna suddenly felt a surge of energy. She didn't care about the maggots anymore and shoveled several loads of cow dung in a row.

  A cold sneer behind her gave Sienna a fright. She turned around and saw a middle-aged uncle standing behind her. This person looked very familiar.

  Sienna remembered. This uncle was the one who drove the ox cart to pick them up on the first day.

  The uncle slowly moved the fodder over to feed the cows, looking like he had a lot of free time.

  Eh? Couldn't she just pay this uncle to help her shovel the cow dung?

  "Uncle, can we talk? About this work..."

  The uncle usually wore a straw hat while plowing in the fields, so Sienna didn't recognize him, but he recognized Sienna. He said very impatiently:

  "Who were you calling a bitch just now? Hurry up and work. If you don't do it well, I’ll report you to Battalion Commander Barda."

  "You..."

  The more Sienna shoveled cow dung, the more she regretted it. How could she be so stupid to let Elena move into a private courtyard? Elena was completely out of her control now.

  On weekends, Elena could take friends to the private courtyard as guests or go up the mountain to pick wild fruit. This meant she could make friends without spending any money.

  But for herself, she always had to use many snacks to coax her friends. It was clearly a losing business.

  No, to frame Elena, she had to have contact with her. To drive a wedge between Elena and her friends, she also had to have contact with her.

  Sienna returned from the cowshed before noon. She specially made a detour to the edge of Elena's field:

  "Elena, do you want to move back to the barracks?"

  "..."

  Elena couldn't figure out what trick Sienna was playing again. Was her brain full of water today because she got slapped yesterday? She gave Sienna a wary, sidelong glance. "I’m living quite well right now. I have no plans to move."

  So ungrateful!

  Sienna bit her teeth and strode to catch up with Elena, who had turned her back on her. "That place is a haunted house after all. Your health isn't good, so it’s not suitable to live there. There are many people in the barracks; it’ll be lively if you move back."

  "Hey! I wasn't targeting you yesterday. You misunderstood!"

  Misunderstood my ass!

  Elena had lived two lives; how could she not know the bad intentions in Sienna’s heart? Although she didn't understand why Sienna always targeted her, she always remembered one point: as long as something was hers, Sienna would want to snatch it.

  Eh? Wait!

  Just as Sienna was about to walk away, Elena called out. "Hey, if you have a way to make that fiancé of mine shut up for a while, I’ll consider moving back to the barracks."

  Fiancé?

  So you do care?

  Sienna smiled maliciously and nodded.

  At the other end of the field, Sienna found Elias, who was moving cow dung. Elias didn't have a good impression of this woman either. He kept a dark face and pretended not to see her.

  "Fiancé Big Brother!"

  Sienna’s mocking way of calling him made Elias even angrier. However, he knew he had no one to rely on and couldn't afford to offend people, so he simply walked away.

  "Didn't you hear me talking to you?"

  "Can you have some manners?"

  "Do you want to make some money?"

  "You can earn money!"

  Elias had just taken an advance from the Battalion Commander. He really couldn't help but be tempted. "How? I won't do anything illegal or against discipline."

  "Go help me shovel cow dung. I’ll give you money. 30 pesos a day. How about it?"

  "30 pesos?" Elias would have been tempted even by 10 pesos. The rice bought with 10 pesos would be enough for him to eat for two days. "Now? Give me the money."

  "Oh, no!" Sienna had already shoveled half of the dung today, so why would she give Elias 30 pesos? "Tomorrow, 30 pesos for the day."

  Elias agreed without even thinking.

  He didn't know enough about Sienna yet. He didn't notice that she only said "tomorrow," and didn't say it would start from then.

  He secretly calculated in his heart. The veterans in the camp all said Sienna was punished to shovel cow dung for half a month. Sienna must have been unable to take it after only half a day.

  Starting tomorrow, there were still 14 days of work. He thought he could earn a total of 420 pesos by working hard for those 14 days. After paying off his debt, he would still have 120 pesos left. Not bad...

  This woman is really rich!

  Thinking about how he had gained no benefits from sticking to Elena, Elias now became interested in Sienna.

  Why did someone so rich come to the army barracks?

  ...

  Antonio arrived at the canteen a bit early for lunch and happened to bump into Bernardo at the entrance.

  Bernardo smiled at Antonio but gave Dante a fierce glare.

  Antonio saw from the corner of his eye that Dante’s face was as pale as ash, but he kept his body straight and saluted Bernardo. His voice was a bit hoarse, but it didn't tremble.

  "What exactly do you like about him?"

  Finally, Antonio heard Bernardo ask this question. He was overjoyed. He thought Bernardo would hold it in for a week before asking.

  "Actually, it’s just chemistry between people. Last time I went out in the car, I saw the way he saluted, and it actually looked quite good."

  After Antonio finished speaking, he smiled and looked at Dante. The boy's eyes were wide open, looking both terrified and embarrassed.

  As for Bernardo, a cold snort represented everything.

  "This is completely out of line!"After Bernardo sat down to order food, he began to scold Antonio. "Why don't you find another personal guard? You can find one more. Good things come in pairs."

  Bernardo meant: even as Commander, he didn't have a personal guard in the barracks, so who did a Deputy Division Commander think he was, wanting one?

  Antonio sat opposite him without looking at him and muttered in a low voice, "Finding another one isn't impossible."

  Today, Antonio directly started asking Bernardo to promote him to Division Commander. Anyway, even if that Division Commander was found innocent after the investigation, it was impossible for him to return to his original position.

  Seeing that Bernardo didn't speak, he raised a bunch of conditions again. For example, the Intelligence Bureau should be under his control. Bernardo usually didn't have time to manage the Intelligence Bureau, and those people actually used public funds to pay for prostitutes and didn't even report it to Bernardo. On what grounds!

  As he said this, he acted like he was standing up for Bernardo’s interests.

  Antonio also proposed to take charge of the power supply system. For a military sub-district to have three power outages in half a year was simply a great humiliation. If the enemy attacked, they wouldn't even know how they died.

  He also proposed to take charge of the garage. Every day, there should be a dedicated person to strictly check the damage to vehicles. Those people couldn't be allowed to secretly pocket money under the guise of repairing cars.

  "Enough!"

  "Out of the three Division Commanders, you have the lowest rank, but you raise the most conditions!"

  Bernardo’s roar made the teacup on the table vibrate. That was because his huge body was also trembling with anger.

  "Er..." Antonio pretended to be lost and helpless.

  Bernardo also seemed to realize he had lost his temper. He calmed his emotions and said: "The Intelligence Office, the power supply system, the garage, the guardhouse—they can all be under your management. You can be the main person in charge of the garage and the guardhouse. But the Intelligence Office and the power supply system are too important; you can only be in partial charge. I am still the direct supervisor. Any matter needs to be reported to me in advance before a decision can be made."

  "I can also choose not to care about you interfering with the Intelligence Bureau’s punishment of Xavier. But on Saturday, you must come to my house for a drink."

  "I'll go then," Antonio muttered, looking fearless.

  The shock on Bernardo’s face greatly exceeded Antonio’s expectations. This man almost dropped the utensils in his hand.

  But he still kept his leader's posture and nodded:

  "Antonio, you are very good..."

  Good for what? Antonio wanted to laugh. Weren't there still four days until the weekend?

  In four days, he could stir up a lot of trouble.

  ...

  Roan sold ten bottles of jam and suddenly earned 600 pesos. If it were selling vegetables, he would need to sell for more than half a month and have very good prices to earn such a large sum of money.

  Most importantly, Mateo officially ordered 50 bottles of jam from him, to be delivered in three days, also at the price of 60 pesos per bottle.

  When he strode into the psychiatric hospital, he felt the whistling sound of wind in his ears.

  Leo was sitting on a chair in the long corridor, getting a haircut from a nurse.

  "You’re looking more and more like Antonio."

  "Long legs, walking fast, head held high."

  "A man with a confident look, making his own decisions in everything."

  Roan could only smile at such a comment, thinking to himself that it was normal for a son to look like his father.

  "You miss my father too much, don't you?"

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  "Correct. Lately, I always dream of him shooting at me, more often than I dream of my first love."

  "Pffft... don't move. If you move again, I’ll clip your ear." It was clearly the nurse who was moving, but she pretended to blame Leo.

  Leo seemed to have a soft spot for this nurse who was twenty years younger than him. "I had a fight with them just to leave my hair for you."

  "However," Leo added with regret, "I’m old. If I were twenty years younger, I would definitely chase you."

  "Slap!" Another palm smacked Leo’s forehead.

  Roan secretly summarized in his heart: truly, there is always someone who can subdue another. Leo specifically accepted being lectured by this young girl who was only two or three years older than Roan.

  At this moment, Roan thought of Elena. What kind of person and what kind of method could subdue her? Something that would make her obediently make jam without raising conditions that were too high?

  After the nurse walked away, Roan took the initiative to talk to Leo about his business in the black market. He was looking for peace of mind; if any accidents happened, Leo could at least cover for him.

  "You’re telling this to a mental patient? Aren't you afraid he’ll talk?" Leo started to mock him.

  "Stop messing around, Uncle. Sofia really needs this way to make money. Even if you use all your savings, we still need to earn a big sum."

  Mentioning Sofia, Leo indeed quieted down. "Alright."

  "I have something to ask you. How can a man make a woman listen obediently?"

  "Coax her! If you can't coax her, scold her! Then give her the cold shoulder!"

  Roan waved his hand: "I’m not talking about being in a relationship."

  But Leo only glanced at him: "In my eyes, you are in love. It’s the kind where the heart is first awakened; there's a breeze in your step, and your whole face is glowing."

  "You must have fallen in love with someone."

  "That’s because I made a lot of money!"

  039:Negotiation for a Stake

  Sienna and the new man talked by the field for a long time?

  Heard this man is going to help Sienna shovel cow dung tomorrow?

  Getting this news, Matthew was going crazy with worry. His mother wasn't home, he ran into the kitchen like the wind to find his grandmother.

  Grandmother just had a fight with his mother, ignored him.

  Matthew hurried to find his second uncle.

  "Uncle, what to do, my wife she..."

  "What 'your wife'?" Barda originally wanted to scold his nephew, glanced around and saw no one, his serious leader face immediately showed a mysterious smile.

  "What are you worrying about? These people came from far away, they’re just born to suffer.. You are different, when you get your driver's license, you can drive tractors, big trucks, maybe even an ambulance at the county hospital!"

  "By then, you still worry that little girl won't like you? We won't even want her then."

  Matthew wanted to say more, his uncle directly shouted:

  "Go home and study!"

  Matthew had no father, second uncle was his father, he could ignore his mother, but absolutely must listen to his second uncle.

  Watching his second uncle whistle and walk away with hands behind his back, Matthew had to go home and memorize books with a slumped head, but all the cartoon traffic police in the books had Sienna’s face.

  Restless Matthew ran to the yard and hit his head with a book, accidentally throwing a large piece of paper tucked under the book away, plus the wind blew it outside the wall, just picked up by the passing Marco.

  Marco was illiterate, but he knew this paper was useful, could make paper planes, start a fire, or sell to the old man smoking tobacco for 0.2 pesos. If he saved ten, he could trade for candy.

  Hearing Matthew looking for keys in the yard, Marco quickly ran away.

  On his way home, he ran into Elena who just finished lunch.

  "Wait, what are you holding, let me see."

  When Elena took the paper and scanned the words, she was shocked.

  This was an announcement released twenty days ago, the half-blown-up county hospital was to be rebuilt, needing two emergency drivers, twenty nurses, one cashier, one accountant, and four pharmacists.

  Also, the county state-owned feed factory was restarting, needing 20 workers.

  Anyway, the point was:

  For fairness, every military camp gets at least one male and one female recruitment quota, extra spots, everyone can apply.

  One month after the announcement, the written exam starts.

  So now, isn't there only ten days left?

  Hearing Marco explain the paper's origin, Elena’s head was about to explode, this didn't happen in her last life.

  But Barda got the notice and didn't post it, obviously to guarantee his family got the spots.

  She remembered her last life, although she was reported by Sienna, the one who sent her to the labor reform prison was Barda, he did it without even checking if the report was true.

  This life...

  Since things changed, Elena didn't know if Barda would still attack her, but from this matter, this life's Barda was still not a good person.

  She took a candy from her pocket.

  "This paper, I'm taking it."

  Marco quickly shook his head, "Sister Elena helped us a lot, what's a piece of paper, just take it, I can't take the candy."

  "Really don't want it?" Elena smiled, moving the candy two steps closer.

  Marco swallowed, but still shook his head.

  Dinner time, three people discussed in Elena’s yard.

  Elena advocated exposing this matter, making sure the corrupt Barda couldn't be camp commander.

  Lucy was hesitant, she worried Elena and Marco would be retaliated against.

  Roan thought reporting might not be effective, then Barda would explain to the higher-ups that he actually posted the announcement, but it was blown away by the wind, or torn by Marco, anyway, how to explain was all up to his mouth.

  "This matter cannot be left like this."

  This main point, Elena said it several times, her idea finally got Roan’s cautious support.

  But Roan’s support had conditions, Elena had to keep helping him make jam.

  "Help you make it?"

  "Uh..." Roan actually wanted to talk about cooperation, but just said it as helping.

  Roan saw Elena was unhappy and finally came around: "Let’s cooperate. How about it? We make money together."

  "Oh, by the way, for the ten bottles sold today, I’ll give you a cut of 10 pesos each." After saying that, Roan handed Elena two bills, one green fifty-peso and one red ten-peso.

  Elena didn't take it, she scoffed in anger: "You mean, cooperating with you only gets me one-sixth?"

  Is one-sixth not enough?

  Roan widened his eyes, thinking how could this woman be so greedy, he had the sales channels, and took all kinds of risks like illegal business, speculation, and following the capitalist road.

  Getting caught means prison!

  Result, she only helps make jam, and actually wants more!

  But because Roan already took Mateo’s deposit, now he didn't dare to argue a single word, could only stare with big eyes.

  Lucy didn't want to get involved, went to cook.

  "Hmph! One-sixth, I might as well go for a driver's license!"

  Roan’s eyes widened even more? What a joke? A woman not going for nurse, going for a driver's license!

  He had never seen a woman driving.

  Rarer than a sow climbing a tree.

  Seeing this man dawdling, Elena was a bit annoyed, directly chasing him away: "Hey, you leave quickly, I’m ready to eat."

  "One-sixth I won't do."

  "Fifty-fifty I can barely consider."

  Roan didn't know whether to laugh or cry:

  "What? Half? And barely consider?"

  "Exactly, give it to me." Elena stretched out a hand.

  "What?"

  "The 10 bottles you sold today, give me one-sixth first, 100 pesos, hand it over."

  It killed Roan to part with the money, he went home today and already recorded the money in the "sister's surgery fee" account, now actually wanted him to spit out 100 pesos.

  But despite the heartache, he still pulled out another green bill from his pocket, a total of 100 pesos to Elena.

  Result, Elena took the money, actually ran to show off to Lucy: "Yay, I earned money too, this weekend I’ll treat you to chestnut braised chicken."

  "..."

  Roan really couldn't understand, the woman who was just fierce, how did she become so happy in an instant.

  Who can handle this kind of person?

  No, if he leaves it's over, Roan decided to go for it.

  "I’ll give you thirty percent? Okay?"

  "No half, no consideration." Elena answered decisively, she was determined to live only for herself after rebirth, forty percent won't do, dream on.

  But given Roan’s situation, she was willing to save a sum of money to lend to Sofia for surgery.

  The problem was, this money must be hers, lending only counts as lending.

  She didn't want to be half a bit lower in the cooperation with Roan.

  "Half, I’m saying this for the last time, half then I’ll consider, if you don't want to give then leave, I’m going to eat."

  Elena opened the wooden yard gate, making a gesture to see the guest out.

  "Fine, fine, I’m really defeated by you." Roan not only surrendered verbally, but also pulled out a handful of money from his pocket, counted 10 fifty-peso bills, and handed them to Elena.

  Seeing Elena not taking it, Roan got anxious again: "What, you regretted it again?"

  "I said, half then I’ll consider, it's consider, you forgot?"

  My god!

  How are women this kind of animal!

  Roan was stunned, the cursing words played in his heart several times, but not a single word could jump out.

  "Consider? What else do you want?"

  "Help me take down Barda, go find a man named Leo."

  "..."

  Roan was dumbfounded, he really couldn't understand why Elena would know Leo, Leo came off the battlefield and had been living in a mental hospital.

  Who exactly is she?

  Actually Elena really didn't know Leo, she just heard Lucy crying in her ear the day before she died in her last life, saying Leo took down Barda.

  Lucy told Elena not to leave this world with such hatred.

  How would Elena know, Roan just met Leo this morning.

  "So, I take this paper to find Leo, and you agree to cooperate, right? I can't guarantee Leo will help you anyway, much less guarantee he has the ability."

  Elena heard this and confirmed, Roan knows Leo.

  "Deal."

  Roan handed the money half a step forward:

  "Here, your cut from today."

  "No need, just keep it with you as starting capital for the investment." Elena waved her hand, not only didn't chase him, but also made a gesture of invitation. "Mr. Roan, would you like to have dinner here?"

  "..."

  Roan shook his head, and quickly left.