The whole drive home was super quiet. Shen Nan kept a smile on his face the entire time — that smile was deep and meaningful. Zhou Zuizui didn’t even want to think too much about what it meant.
She focused on driving and stared straight at the big road ahead.
It was midday, so there weren’t many people walking around. Plus, today was already a working weekday.
The one good thing was that the weather these past few days had gotten much nicer — it felt comfortable to look at. Zhou Zuizui felt the same. She had been back here for quite a while now, but only at this moment did she finally start feeling a bit more at ease.
There was sunshine now. Even though it wasn’t the same as the sunshine back in the old town, it still made her heart feel lighter and more relaxed.
When they were almost home, Shen Nan suddenly spoke.
“Mom called me.”
Zhou Zuizui’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. She gave a small “Oh.”
Shen Nan glanced sideways at her: “She wants us to go home for dinner tonight. Do you want to go?”
Zhou Zuizui was quiet for a few seconds. “Yeah, let’s go.”
They were already back — if they didn’t go, it would look really bad. Besides, Shen Nan’s mom and family had never done anything wrong to her. If anything, she was the one who had done wrong. After marrying Shen Nan, she left without looking back and stayed away for two whole years. Now that she was finally back, she hadn’t even gone to see them once.
“Okay.”
Shen Nan lowered his head and sent a quick message to his mom.
Zhou Zuizui glanced at the supermarket on the side, turned the wheel, and drove straight into the parking lot.
They got out of the car. She pressed her lips together and said, “Let’s buy some fruit.”
Shen Nan gave a small laugh and hummed in agreement: “Sure, let’s buy.”
The two of them walked through the supermarket one after the other. Considering Shen Nan’s health condition, Zhou Zuizui pushed the cart alone, slowly looking around. Truth was, she wasn’t very good at picking fruit, and she had no idea what kind Shen Nan’s mom and family liked. So when she stood in front of the huge colorful display of fruit, she just froze.
Shen Nan walked over and saw exactly that scene.
He looked at the woman standing straight and stiff, noticed the lost look in her eyes, and let out a low chuckle. “What’s wrong?”
“What fruit does your mom and them like?”
Shen Nan lowered his head, scanned once around, then directly grabbed some apples and put them in the cart. After that he took a whole box of strawberries, some oranges… he just kept throwing in a whole bunch of random fruit.
Zhou Zuizui: “……”
Was Shen Nan planning to move the whole fruit section home or what?
After buying the fruit, they drove back.
Once home, Shen Nan carried the strawberries straight into the kitchen and started washing them.
Zhou Zuizui’s eyebrow twitched. She looked at the man and said, “The strawberries you bought… aren’t they supposed to be for bringing to your parents’ house?”
Shen Nan stood in the kitchen, tall and straight-backed. He turned his head and looked at her. “No.”
“……”
Zhou Zuizui let out an “Oh” and turned around to leave the kitchen.
She went to the living room to pack up the things they would bring to Shen Nan’s family home. For some reason, she suddenly felt nervous — like she was about to go into battle.
She had met Shen Nan’s mom many times before. Honestly, his mom and family didn’t have a very good impression of her. Because when she married Shen Nan… it was mainly because her own parents wanted to climb up the social ladder by connecting with his family. And the only reason she even met Shen Nan was because of her grandma.
Zhou Zuizui’s grandma knew Shen Nan’s grandpa. At that time, Zhou Zuizui was being forced by her family to go on blind date after blind date. On Shen Nan’s side, he was also at the age where they wanted him to get married. His grandpa (being from a military family) kept pushing him to settle down — after all, being a soldier was very dangerous. The family hoped that if he got married early, at least he would calm down a bit and maybe switch to a civilian job.
But who would have thought — after marrying Zhou Zuizui, Shen Nan still didn’t leave the military. Instead, he got transferred even farther away. You are reading on novelping(.)com, the official source.
Thinking about it, she couldn’t help but laugh a little.
Shen Nan’s mom and family probably blamed her quite a lot. Back then they only agreed to the marriage because Shen Nan finally said yes to getting married. Even though they weren’t that happy with Zhou Zuizui as their daughter-in-law, they figured it was better than nothing.
But they never expected—
While she was smiling to herself, Shen Nan came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of strawberries and put it down on the coffee table in front of her.
“What are you laughing about?”
Zhou Zuizui raised an eyebrow and looked at Shen Nan. “Laughing about what happened before. Your mom and dad must really resent me… because I didn’t hold you back and make you leave the military.”
Shen Nan went quiet for a moment. He didn’t say anything.
The two of them stayed like that — one standing, one sitting — for a long while. Finally Shen Nan pointed at the fruit in front of her.
“Eat the strawberries.”
Zhou Zuizui looked down. The strawberries were bright red, super fresh, and looked so juicy and tempting. For some reason her heart felt strangely touched.
She paused, then still reached out and picked one up to eat.
Shen Nan casually sat down next to her — not too close, but close enough that they could hear each other’s breathing clearly. She nibbled the strawberry in tiny bites, feeling an indescribable nervousness.
“You… don’t have anything to do?”
Shen Nan looked at her lazily. “I do.”
Zhou Zuizui gave him a confused look, as if saying: Then why aren’t you doing it… why are you sitting here next to me?
The next second, Shen Nan answered her question.
“You.”
“Huh?”
She looked at Shen Nan in a daze, not understanding what he meant… or maybe she didn’t dare to think about the meaning her heart was guessing.
“What do you mean ‘you’?”
Shen Nan lifted his eyelids and stared straight at her. He gave a soft laugh, the corner of his mouth curling up.
“My business.”
Put together, the full sentence was —
My business is you.
It’s about you.
Zhou Zuizui heard it and froze for a second. She instinctively turned her head to look at him, finding it hard to believe. “You’re looking for me? You have something to say?”
Shen Nan tugged at his lips. His eyes burned as he looked at her.
“Zhou Zuizui.”
“……”
His voice was soft, impossible to read any emotion from it. But for some reason, Zhou Zuizui felt huge pressure. She had a strong feeling that whatever Shen Nan was about to say next… was something she didn’t want to hear, or didn’t want to answer.
Shen Nan stared at her quietly for two seconds, then picked up a strawberry and stuffed it straight into her mouth. He asked slowly and deliberately, “Are you really not getting it, or just pretending not to understand?”
Zhou Zuizui: “……”
She swallowed the whole strawberry in one gulp and stood up wanting to leave. But right after standing, she thought — why should I run? What do I have to be scared of? The one who gets scared isn’t Zhou Zuizui!
She lowered her head, looked at the man sitting on the sofa, raised an eyebrow and said, “Who are you saying doesn’t understand?”
Zhou Zuizui gave a mocking laugh, bent down close to Shen Nan and reminded him: “Captain Shen, it’s you who didn’t explain clearly.”
He wasn’t blind — he knew Zhou Zuizui’s personality and how sharp she was. Looking at her right now, she didn’t look like someone who didn’t understand at all, nor did she look like she hadn’t heard what he said. He let out a light scoff, then directly pulled her down closer to him: “Zhou Zuizui.”
Zhou Zuizui hooked her lips into a smile, raised her eyebrow and slapped his hand away. “There’s one more thing. If you want to talk about what happened at the hospital just now, no need.”
She shrugged, acting all cool and casual: “Even if you’re my husband with zero feelings, if other women are eyeing you, I’ll still warn them off. And it’s not just those two little nurses.”
“It’s definitely not jealousy.”
She sounded like she was trying way too hard to cover it up.
“Is that so.” Shen Nan’s tone was very flat.
“No feelings?”
“……Yeah.” Zhou Zuizui raised her eyebrow, eyes full of teasing laughter as she shot back: “Isn’t that right?”
In Shen Nan’s dark pupils reflected the woman in front of him. Her face was covered in smiles, looking cute and charming, but Shen Nan knew right now, deep inside, this woman’s heart was full of naughty tricks and bad ideas.
He narrowed his eyes, sizing her up. Just as he was about to speak, Zhou Zuizui’s phone rang first, breaking the tense moment.
Zhou Zuizui paused, looked at Shen Nan: “I’ll take this call.”
She said that and walked straight into her own bedroom.
Shen Nan watched her go, tugged at his lips and laughed in frustration.
No feelings?
The call was from Qiuqiu. She was chattering to Zhou Zuizui about things at the tavern. Almost every day at noon, Qiuqiu would call Zhou Zuizui, and the two of them would ramble on about all kinds of random stuff.
Qiuqiu depended on Zhou Zuizui a lot — really a lot. She was the little girl Zhou Zuizui had rescued from a “cage.”
“Sister! Have you eaten yet?”
Zhou Zuizui laughed, glanced at the time: “It’s only eleven, not yet. You?”
“Me neither.” Qiuqiu sounded down: “Sister, when are you coming back? I miss you so much.”
Zhou Zuizui froze for a second, then suddenly asked: “Qiuqiu, do you want to come play in the big city?”
Qiuqiu paused. Hearing the sounds around Zhou Zuizui, she sounded super shocked: “I can go to the big city too?”
Zhou Zuizui smiled, sat down on the small chair on the balcony and hummed: “Why not? The tavern shouldn’t be busy right now. If you want to come, sister will buy your plane ticket.”
Qiuqiu felt a bit torn.
She really wanted to go. She had never left the old town before. She was actually very curious about the outside world. Before coming to the old town, Qiuqiu lived in a very remote mountain village. It was Zhou Zuizui who met her while traveling, brought her out, and let her live in the old town.
“Come on.” Zhou Zuizui gave a soft laugh: “Sister might not be able to go back for a while. Don’t you miss sister?”
She was deliberately using reverse psychology!
“Just leave the tavern to Lin Mu and the others. Come play for a few days and then go back.” She spoke gently: “Sister will take you to Disneyland — the one you’ve always dreamed about.”
Qiuqiu was only eighteen. Her biggest dream was to go to Disneyland one day and be a little princess for once.
“Okay!” Qiuqiu answered excitedly.
After hanging up, Zhou Zuizui checked with the group chat about the situation, then bought Qiuqiu’s plane ticket on the app. She also messaged her other employees, asking them to take Qiuqiu to the airport.
The ticket was for a few days later.
……