You… why are you crying?”
Han Zecheng hadn’t expected Tang Tang to burst into tears the moment he finished speaking. He immediately panicked, his hands hovering awkwardly in the air as he had no idea what to do.
“Don’t—don’t cry.”
When he saw a tear slip from the corner of Tang Tang’s eye, his heart gave a sharp jolt. His emotional instincts finally kicked in, and he quickly cupped her face with one hand while wiping away the tear with the other.
“What’s wrong? Tell me.”
His voice had grown anxious. Han Zecheng had hardly spent any time around women since he was young. Although he had been married once before, that marriage had been a rushed affair. He had only been home for half a day before being urgently called back to his unit, and he hadn’t even had the chance to hold his wife’s hand.
He had then spent more than half a year away. By the time he returned, he learned that his wife had left…
After that, he went back to the army again. There were female soldiers in the unit, of course, but he deliberately kept his distance. Even when people tried to introduce him to someone, he refused.
Until this marriage, which had also been arranged by his family.
So when Tang Tang suddenly started crying, Han Zecheng was completely at a loss.
He held her face gently in both hands, utterly unsure of what he was supposed to do next.
“You don’t want me anymore.”
Tang Tang looked at him with a deeply aggrieved expression, tears streaming down her face as she pouted.
“I’m not abandoning you. I already told you—you’re my wife.”
Han Zecheng grew anxious at once and hurriedly explained.
“But you just said you were leaving! You’re going to leave me here all by myself!”
Tang Tang stared straight into his eyes and continued.
Oh. So that was what this was about.
Hearing that, Han Zecheng finally understood why his wife was crying, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m not abandoning you. I only got half a day’s leave, so I have to hurry back to my unit.”
He patiently explained the situation.
“What if you go back late?”
Tang Tang’s eyes shifted as she asked another question.
“If I go back late…”
Han Zecheng had never considered that possibility. He thought about it carefully before answering.
“Maybe…”
“Forget it. Don’t answer that. Let me ask you this instead. Didn’t you take marriage leave when you got married?”
Tang Tang didn’t want to hear his uncertain answer. She cut him off and asked another question.
“No.”
Han Zecheng shook his head. He had assumed this marriage would be handled the same way as his previous one…
“Then tell me, how many days of marriage leave do you have?”
“Ten days. Three days of regular marriage leave plus seven days of extended leave for getting married later in life.”
Han Zecheng answered truthfully at once.
He was twenty-six, which qualified as a late marriage.
When Tang Tang heard that he had ten days, she immediately knew what to do. Her tearful expression vanished in an instant. She sat down on the bed, swinging her legs as she smiled sweetly.
“Han Zecheng, I’m going to give you two choices.”
“Either you go back to your unit right now—but I’m going with you. If you dare leave me behind and go back by yourself, I’ll run away tomorrow and find another man to marry.”
Those words made Han Zecheng’s brows draw together, anger rising in his eyes.
“Or, you can send a telegram to your unit tomorrow and ask for ten days of marriage leave. Then you come up here and behave yourself.”
As she finished speaking, she patted the spot beside her. Her eyes shimmered with a teasing allure.
“…”
Han Zecheng felt that he ought to be angry. He ought to correct the way this girl was sitting. He ought to tell her to…
“What are you doing?!”
But somehow, those were the words that came out of his mouth.
Tang Tang paused in the middle of taking off her clothes and looked at him in surprise.
“What else would I be doing? Taking my clothes off and going to sleep.”
With that, she continued undressing as though the man standing there didn’t even exist.
Soon, the red wedding dress slipped halfway down, revealing her fair shoulders and neck, along with the equally red garment underneath, embroidered with mandarin ducks…
“What are you standing there for? Aren’t you coming up?”
Because it was summer, she was only wearing a single layer. Now it hung loosely around her wrists. Seeing that Han Zecheng was still standing there without moving, Tang Tang looked up at him and urged him over.
Look at him. His face had turned red again, and his Adam’s apple kept bobbing as he stared at her, completely transfixed.
Hmph. And he still wanted to leave?
She had barely finished thinking when she was suddenly knocked backward onto the bed. Her body sank into the soft mattress beneath her, and the suddenness of it made Tang Tang let out a startled cry.
“What are you doing?”
She pushed against the man on top of her and complained.
Han Zecheng watched her lips move as she chattered away. His throat tightened as his gaze lingered on those red lips, and when he spoke, his voice was low and hoarse.
“Weren’t you the one who told me to come up?”
“I’ve decided. I choose the second option. I’m not leaving.”
With that, he immediately lowered his head and kissed her tempting lips.
The room fell silent.
After a while, a small sound broke the silence.
“You bumped my teeth.”
“Sorry. It’s my first time, so I’m not very good at this. Give me another chance.”
The room fell silent again.
As they continued kissing, their clothes gradually ended up scattered across the floor. Han Zecheng reached over and switched off the light, leaving the intimacy of the room hidden in darkness.
Only the moonlight outside the window bore witness to the fact that the night was still a long way from over.
In the main room next door.
Wang Guijuan woke from her sleep. She had been disturbed by a noise. At first, she thought it was her husband snoring, but after listening for a while, she realized that wasn’t it.
So she listened more carefully.
Her face immediately darkened.
The sound was coming from next door—and next door happened to be Han Zecheng’s room.
Then that sound meant…
Wang Guijuan’s expression turned grim. She refused to think about it any further, grabbed the towel beside her, and covered her ears, forcing herself to go back to sleep.
However, the noises from next door continued, one after another, growing louder and louder. They were so irritating that she became restless and couldn’t fall asleep at all.
“Damn it, is this some kind of show of defiance?!”
Wang Guijuan tossed and turned on the bed, grinding her teeth in anger, yet there was nothing she could do.
She was forced to listen for nearly the entire night. In the end, she could only lie there with her eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling and praying for it to end soon.
Fortunately, the sounds finally stopped just before dawn…
At long last, she could sleep.
But because she had gone to bed so late, she also woke up late.
Ever since marrying into the Han family, Wang Guijuan had never once slept in after the second day she moved in. Yet that record was broken on the second day after the new bride arrived!
This was humiliating!
Wang Guijuan shot upright in bed. Her husband, Han Yougen, had already gone out to the fields, and the house was completely quiet.
She quickly slipped on her shoes, opened the door, and walked outside.
The moment she stepped out, she ran into Han Meifeng, who was looking at her with an aggrieved expression.
“Mom, what happened to you today? Why did you sleep so late?”
“I had to make breakfast for Dad and the others myself.”
Han Meifeng looked utterly wronged. She had been so angry the night before that she hadn’t fallen asleep until very late. When she got up this morning and wanted something to eat, she discovered that her mother hadn’t gotten up at all.
So she had been forced to make breakfast herself.
She had never had to do that before, okay?
Even though all she had done was reheat yesterday’s food, Han Yougen had still scolded her for it.
“Mom, why are your dark circles so bad? Your eyes are all bloodshot, too. Did you not sleep well last night?”
Han Meifeng leaned closer and took a look at her mother before suddenly asking.
The moment she heard that, Wang Guijuan inevitably remembered everything that had happened the night before. Her face immediately darkened.
“What time is it?”
She didn’t even look at her daughter. Instead, she glanced toward the tightly closed door across from them and asked.
Before Han Meifeng could answer, the sound of music suddenly came from the radio outside.
There was no need for an answer.
It was already eleven o’clock.
Wang Guijuan’s expression darkened even further. She stared fiercely at the door in front of her, anger bubbling inside her.
She had never heard of any family where a new bride slept this late. Not only had she failed to get up and prepare breakfast for the whole family, she had slept until eleven in the morning!
They hadn’t married a daughter-in-law.
They had brought home an ancestor to worship!