The door of the bathroom swung open, and the man walked out wearing a white athletic tank top. His entire body was packed with solid, robust muscle; his two thick, powerful arms looked like a pair of hefty drumsticks, and the six-pack abs across his lower abdomen were exceptionally striking.
Dressed simply in a pair of military-green loose shorts on his lower half, he still radiated that perfect physical proportion of broad shoulders and a narrow waist!
The man had very long legs with well-defined, balanced muscle tone, clearly the result of lifelong physical training. No wonder he had been able to toss and turn her about so wildly that night.
At that moment, Jiang Nuo felt that intimate spot starting to burn with a fiery heat, all thanks to the ointment she had just applied.
“All done applying it?” A trace of disappointment flickered across Chu Yanhan’s face. He had washed up quite quickly, yet he still hadn’t managed to catch the chance to apply the medicine for the young girl!
Jiang Nuo nodded repeatedly, terrified that he might insist on checking it anyway!
Sure enough, the man’s very next sentence was, “Let me take a look!”
With a swift spin, Jiang Nuo clamped her legs tightly together and waved her little hands frantically. “No, no need!”
Seeing her react like a startled little cat with a shy, flustered expression, Chu Yanhan twitched the corner of his mouth. “What if you didn’t apply it properly and it affects your recovery speed? If you get to the military region and find out you can’t start your job, the health station position might get snatched up by someone else. That would spell a lot of trouble!”
The moment she heard that her health station spot might be stolen by someone else, Jiang Nuo panicked. She stammered, “W-well, should you take a look then?”
Her absolute last straw of salvation right now was that job at the military region’s health station. If even that job slipped through her fingers, she couldn’t dare imagine what would happen—she would end up drifting like duckweed, with no telling where she might wash ashore!
If she went back to Gaojia Village, her parents wouldn’t tolerate her, her money would run out sooner or later, and they would just find another way to sell her off to someone else, possibly even that old Mr. Gao. The mere thought of that old man’s wrinkled face and the repulsive smell of old age clinging to him made her want to bang her head against a wall and die right then and there!
Seeing the young girl suddenly turn so obedient once again, Chu Yanhan had to fight back a grin. Being young meant she was just so easy to trick!
So this was why he had stayed single for so many years—he had simply been waiting for her. Waiting for this girl whom he was more than willing to spend his time and effort teasing and pampering.
Jiang Nuo’s skin was fair and delicate, radiant with the blossoming youth of an eighteen-year-old. Her whole body felt soft as velvet and carried the unique, fresh scent of a young maiden. Chu Yanhan, rugged brute that he was, stared at that familiar area, still feeling a lingering, insatiable craving.
On a night as dark as that, he had been so forceful, putting the poor young girl through such a punishing ordeal. Slap! He gave himself another hard smack across the face!
Jiang Nuo was dumbstruck. Why was this man so quick to hit people? Fortunately, every single time, he just ended up beating his own face!
“It’s fine, it’s fine! Didn’t we already put the medicine on? It should heal up nicely in a few days!”
She even tried to comfort him, terrified that he might snap and start raining blows on her face instead!
“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have been so impulsive back then!” As Chu Yanhan apologized, he looked down at her scrapes—and actual tears spilled from his eyes, landing warmly against Jiang Nuo’s thigh!
“Ah!!”
The woman beneath him shrieked again. Scrambling to wipe the tears off his face, Chu Yanhan asked anxiously, “What is it?”
The man’s fingers, rough with thick calluses, kept brushing back and forth across the woman’s thigh like coarse sandpaper, sending a sharp sting through Jiang Nuo!
“Are you done checking or not? Your fingertips are seriously scratchy!”
Hurriedly pulling his hand back, Chu Yanhan smoothed Jiang Nuo’s short skirt back down. “Checked! You applied it very evenly. It should show results by tomorrow morning!”
Jiang Nuo beamed foolishly, her mind already drifting off into fantasies of herself wearing the health station uniform and examining injuries for wounded soldiers!
That night, the two of them lay side by side on the guesthouse bed. Chu Yanhan talked in detail about his family background, explaining that his father worked as a factory accountant, his mother worked in the factory cafeteria, and he had an older sister who was already married and rarely came home.
Jiang Nuo offered only perfunctory, distracted nods; she didn’t care to know any of that. Just from seeing Mother Jiang’s attitude earlier today, she could tell the woman was a domineering tyrant who would be an absolute nightmare to live with!
Fortunately, she had no intention of making Chu Yanhan take responsibility, and marrying him was completely out of the question.
As Chu Yanhan kept talking, he suddenly noticed that the person beside him had lapsed into a steady, even rhythm of breathing!
“Nuo’nuo?” His voice was low and deeply magnetic.
Jiang Nuo didn’t give any reaction at all; she must have fallen fast asleep.
Chu Yanhan’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. He reached out to hook her hand, his index finger tangling with hers! Slowly creeping closer, he found her delicate little hand as soft as a lump of dough, and he began gently kneading it!
Even that didn’t seem quite enough to quench the restless fire rising inside his chest.
Rolling over on top of her, Chu Yanhan looked down, thoroughly studying every inch of Jiang Nuo’s sleeping face from top to bottom. The sleeping girl’s soft, pink lips seemed to possess a magnetic pull, making it impossible for him to resist pressing his thin lips against them like a passing dragonfly.
He kept peppering her lips with light pecks—soft, sweet, and utterly addictive. Meanwhile, his hands weren’t idle either, gently slipping inside the hem of her clothes!
Completely exhausted from riding the long-distance bus all day, Jiang Nuo was fast asleep, wandering through a dream filled with adorable little puppies that kept licking her face with their wet tongues as she chased after them back and forth in her dream!
Seeing the woman beneath him smiling broadly in her sleep startled Chu Yanhan so much that he quickly jerked his hand back out from inside her clothes!
Getting to his feet, he decided he needed to head straight to the bathroom for a cold shower before he completely lost his mind—his body simply couldn’t hold back much longer!
Right at that exact moment, a sharp knock echoed against the room door.
Assuming it was hotel staff, Chu Yanhan didn’t think twice and pulled the door open.
Before he could even speak, a familiar figure outside tried to barge right past him into the room.
“Yanhan, didn’t you say you were dropping little Jiang off at the guesthouse? How come you still haven’t settled things after all this time?” Mother Jiang demanded as she attempted to storm inside.
Blocking her path right at the doorway, Chu Yanhan stopped her. “Mom, what are you doing? Didn’t I already tell you? I am going to marry her, and she isn’t ‘little Jiang’—her name is Nuo’nuo.”
Mother Jiang reacted as if she had just heard the most absurd joke in the world. In the past, her son had never cared about any woman whatsoever, let alone bothered explaining himself to anyone. “That girl is completely unworthy of you! Why are you being so stubborn? Could your own mother possibly try to trick you?”
When Jiang Nuo had first appeared at the Chu household earlier that day, the clothes she wore were shabby and crude; as someone who frequently shopped at the department store, Mother Jiang naturally recognized clothing brands and qualities.
She would never, under any circumstances, allow her son to tie himself down to someone of such poor background. So what if she had a job at the military region? At the end of the day, she still came from a destitute peasant family. She would rather see Chu Yanhan stay a bachelor for the rest of his life than accept a girl like that!
Not to mention, Niu Yingying—the section chief’s precious, only daughter—was more than willing to wait for her son!
Chu Yanhan had originally intended to take Jiang Nuo straight back to the military region first, and only return to force a fait accompli on his mother once things were finalized. He had never expected that Mother Jiang wouldn’t even give him that window of opportunity!
“Mom, it’s already too late. I’ve already slept with her. For all I know, she might already be carrying my child right this second!”
Chu Yanhan was telling the truth, and he had no choice left but to force the cards onto the table; he didn’t want Mother Jiang holding onto any more unrealistic hopes.