The tender atmosphere lingered for a good while.
Until—
“Gurgle…”
A clear, undeniably present sound of a stomach growling echoed straight from Shen Qianqian’s belly. In the quiet room, it sounded remarkably loud.
Shen Qianqian’s face turned beet red all the way to her ears.
She only then remembered that she hadn’t swallowed a single grain of rice since morning.
“Huo Xiangbei!”
She gave the solid chest of the man pinning her a gentle push, her voice still coated with post-coital hoarseness and a weak, trembling edge.
“I’m hungry… I haven’t eaten all day.”
That was the absolute truth.
She had slept in past noon, headed outside the educated youth point to meet up with Xu Yanqing to discuss returning to the city, got carried back by Huo Xiangbei, and then weathered this exhaustive, strength-draining session of intimacy—her stomach was thoroughly, hollowly empty.
Huo Xiangbei’s expression darkened. The lingering warmth and heat rapidly faded, replaced by a deep, brooding fury.
Instantly, Shen Qianqian clearly “heard” the explosion of thoughts inside his head:
[She hasn’t eaten all day?!] [Just to figure out how to elope with that pretty-boy, she wouldn’t even eat?!] [Xu Yanqing, you bastard…] [I can’t let my wife starve.]
He took a deep breath, heavy and ragged, as if using every ounce of his willpower to keep himself under control.
The next second, he rolled off her body with a swift movement that kicked up a sudden gust of air.
The sudden lightness, the disappearance of that scorching, heavy pressure, actually made Shen Qianqian feel a momentary, instinctive sense of… emptiness.
She immediately shoved that thought down, her cheeks growing even hotter.
She saw Huo Xiangbei standing shirtless by the edge of the Kang with his back to her, the muscle lines across his broad shoulders braced tight. Several fresh scratch marks stood out clearly across his back—left behind by her unconscious fingers during moments of peak passion, adding a touch of undeniable intimacy.
His spine held rigid as he neatly grabbed the military-green trousers draped over the head of the Kang and pulled them on.
“Wait here.”
He tossed the two hoarse words over his shoulder without looking back, and strode straight out of the bedroom.
The moment Huo Xiangbei stepped into the kitchen, a firm slap landed squarely on his shoulder.
“You little rascal! You don’t know the meaning of moderation at all!”
Mother Huo kept her voice low, torn between deep heartache and exasperation.
“Look at that big frame of yours, and then look at your wife’s build!” “In broad daylight, tossing her around for this long!” “Even an ox wouldn’t be worked this hard! Don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again, you hear me?”
Earlier that afternoon in the fields, Mother Huo had overheard people gossiping that Third Brother had hauled his wife back home with a face as dark as thunder. Her heart had dropped into her stomach. She immediately dropped her tools and hurried back, only to walk right into the courtyard and be greeted by those heart-fluttering noises echoing from the house…
The sounds had come in intermittent waves, refusing to stop at all.
As the sun slanted toward the west, with the farmwork light that week and everyone heading back early from the fields, those sounds were still going strong!
The courtyard full of adults had exchanged awkward glances, too mortified to find a place to stand. With no other choice, someone took the lead, and they all silently picked up the hoes they had just put down, their faces burning bright red. Dragging and carrying confused, wide-eyed children along with them, they simply retreated right back to the safety of the fields.
As his mother, even just listening to it had made her ears burn; sitting or standing inside the house felt like sitting on pins and needles.
She had no choice but to find an excuse, grab a vegetable basket, and flee hurriedly to the garden, where she dragged her feet and dawdled over picking vegetables for half the afternoon.
When she finally returned with a full basket of greens, she actually found her own courtyard surrounded three layers deep by neighbors “eavesdropping on the wall,” each one holding their breath with expressions of rich fascination.
Mother Huo’s face had burned hot with a mix of embarrassment and anger, forcing her to harden her expression and shoo everyone away.
Even when things finally quieted down, the knot in her chest didn’t loosen. She could only prick up her ears to monitor the noises from that direction, her heart hanging anxiously by a thread.
It wasn’t until the sun completely dipped below the horizon and dusk crept in layer by layer that she saw the door to Third Brother’s main room finally open.
Mother Huo popped out of her own room immediately, cornering her son to give him a piece of her mind.
Taking the slap from his mother without flinching, Huo Xiangbei simply replied in a low voice, “Mom, Qianqian hasn’t eaten all day. Is there anything left in the house to eat?”
“What? She hasn’t eaten all day?”
Mother Huo’s voice spiked, her eyes widening in disbelief. “You carried her back, put her through all that tossing and turning until now, and didn’t even feed her?!” “You… you, you, you… child, how can you be so terrible at taking care of your own wife?!”
Mother Huo felt a sharp pang in her chest from anger, her trembling fingertip pointing right at her son.
How could she, as a mother, not feel for her?
She had four children: the eldest, Xiangdong; the second, Xiangnan; the third, Xiangbei; and her youngest daughter, Xiangxi.
Times had been tough when they were young, and when Third Brother came of age, he gritted his teeth and signed up for the army—a line of work where you practically carried your head on your belt.
Fortunately, the boy had applied himself, earned merits, rose to become an officer, and started sending regular stipends back home.
That was how the family slowly got back on their feet, eventually saving up enough to build this grey-brick courtyard where each child had their own room. Third Brother’s room was tucked away at the very end, with a small inner parlor partitioned off outside and fitted with its own door, finally giving the young couple a bit of privacy.
Third Brother spent most of the year in the military, barely making it home twice a year. She spent day and night worrying, praying for him to return safe and sound in one piece.
Now he was finally back, but look at the kind of stunt he pulled!
Furious and anxious, she raised her hand to strike him again, but catching sight of his tanned, sharp-angled face, she ultimately couldn’t bring herself to let the blow fall.
The boy had been hardened by military training; he probably never considered these delicate details.
With a heavy sigh, all her jittery frustration dissolved into a mixture of guilt and heartache for Shen Qianqian inside the house.
“You!”
In the end, she merely gave Huo Xiangbei’s forehead a hard poke, whirled around, and rushed over to rummage through the pots and pans on the stove, muttering a continuous stream of complaints under her breath.
Her heart was churning like a pot of boiling water.
What a sin, truly a sin… I hope the poor girl isn’t starved half to death…
Who knew whose stubborn streak this Third Boy had inherited? Ever since he was a kid, he was as stubborn as ten mules pulled together—once he set his mind on something, he wouldn’t turn back even if it meant death!
Back then, no matter how much she nagged or how many sensible, capable, good-natured girls she introduced to him, he wouldn’t even deign to lift an eyelid.
Yet he had stubbornly locked his sights on that educated youth from Beijing, Shen Qianqian, refusing to turn back even after crashing headfirst into a brick wall.
The girl’s looks were top-tier, and her family background was supposedly extraordinary, too.
But her nose was stuck up in the air; she refused to work the fields for work points, spent her time flirting with that male educated youth surnamed Xu, and got played around in circles by that female educated youth surnamed Lin!
Anyone with eyes in the village could see that Xu and Lin weren’t clean; they had teamed up to fleece her foolish daughter-in-law of her money and grain coupons!
Third Brother’s wife received thirty yuan from home like clockwork every single month.
Aside from sending ten yuan back to his family, Third Brother regularly mailed another seventy yuan to her himself.
That added up to a full hundred yuan a month!
And what came of it?
Most of that money wound up in the pockets of those two scumbags!
She and the old man had tried to talk some sense into Third Brother behind closed doors countless times, telling him to keep his wits about him and hold onto his own money.
Yet Third Brother would just keep his mouth shut and send the exact same amount next time anyway.
One was willing to beat, and the other was willing to take the beating; if she and her old man spoke up too much, they’d just end up looking like villains on both sides.
While Mother Huo’s mouth hurled harsh reprimands, her hands never slowed down for a second.