“I’m not eating this! Mom, what is this thing you made? It looks like pig feed! I want meat buns! I want the kind of meat buns that Sister-in-law from the Lu family makes!”
Sister-in-law Wang’s face instantly darkened.
“What did you say?!” She had been adding firewood to the stove, but her hand froze mid-motion. Her soot-covered face was filled with shock.
She dug at her ear, suspecting she had misheard.
“I said the food you made is pig feed!” Wang Xiaohu repeated confidently, his chubby little face serious. “The meat buns Sister-in-law Lu makes have thin skin and lots of filling. When you bite them, juice even drips out! That’s real food! I’m not eating this!”
A surge of anger shot straight from Wang-sao’s feet to the top of her head.
She had worked so hard raising this son, always giving him the best food she could afford. And now he was saying her cooking was pig feed—because of that newly arrived “foolish” woman?
“You little brat! You’ve got some nerve!” She grabbed the feather duster from beside the stove and chased after him. “Pig feed, huh? Meat buns, huh? What kind of spell did that idiot woman cast on you?!”
The courtyard immediately erupted into chaos.
Meanwhile, the instigator of it all, Su Hongxia, was leisurely preparing ingredients in her kitchen.
Listening to the scolding, crying, and shouting from next door, the corners of her lips curved slightly.
This was only the beginning.
If she wanted to establish herself in this compound, relying solely on Lu Huaizhou’s protection wouldn’t be enough.
She needed her own weapon.
And food was her sharpest weapon.
..
That evening, Lu Huaizhou returned.
Not in Xiao Zhang’s car this time.
He came back alone, leaning on his crutch, slowly and painfully making his way from the gate of the compound step by step.
Su Hongxia was collecting laundry in the courtyard. When she saw him like this, her heart skipped.
His complexion looked worse than ever before. His usually stern face was now covered with a dull gray exhaustion.
With every step, the arm holding his crutch trembled slightly. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
“You’re back,” Su Hongxia said as she walked forward, naturally reaching out to support him.
“Don’t touch me.”
Lu Huaizhou’s voice was hoarse and cold as he turned his body away from her hand.
Instead of going inside, he walked to a stone bench in the courtyard and sat down. Stretching out his injured left leg, he stared blankly into the distant sky as if all the strength had been drained from him.
Su Hongxia didn’t insist. She silently finished collecting the clothes and went into the kitchen.
She knew immediately that the results of his medical checkup must not have been good.
From the first time she saw Lu Huaizhou and pointed out his “blocked meridians,” she had already judged—using the traditional dietary-therapy knowledge she possessed—that his injury was serious and had been neglected too long. Conventional Western treatment would likely struggle to fully heal it.
In the kitchen, she took out a small piece of beef bone she had bought yesterday.
She blanched the bone, skimmed off the foam, and placed it into a clay pot. Then she added a few plain herbs she had dug from a hillside: dipsacus root, eucommia bark, and a little wild ginger.
All of them were excellent for promoting blood circulation and strengthening bones and tendons.
She simmered it over a low flame.
Gradually, the rich aroma of bone broth filled the house.
Dinner was soon ready.
A pot of fragrant beef bone soup, a plate of stir-fried cabbage, and steamed white buns.
She placed the dishes on the stone table in the courtyard and softly said,
“Dinner’s ready.”
Lu Huaizhou didn’t respond. He remained motionless, staring ahead.
Su Hongxia didn’t urge him. She simply served herself a bowl of soup and rice, sat across from him, and ate quietly.
Night deepened.
The courtyard was filled only with the rustling sound of wind through the leaves and the faint sounds of her eating.
After a long time, Lu Huaizhou finally moved.
He turned his head and looked at the table, where the food was barely touched and the clay pot was nearly empty.
His voice carried a hint of self-mockery.
“Aren’t you afraid of me? Afraid that a cripple like me will drag you down in the future?”
At the hospital earlier that day, the military doctor’s words had cut into his heart like a dull knife.
“Commander Lu, the muscle atrophy in your leg is worse than we expected. Your nerve response is very slow. The recovery outlook is extremely poor.”
“We’ve done our best. In the future… you may need to prepare yourself for long-term wheelchair use, or even early retirement.”
Retirement.
Those two words were more terrifying to him than death.
He had joined the army at fifteen and devoted his youth and blood to the military.
If he could no longer wear that uniform, what meaning would his life have?
The “foolish” daughter from Su Commune had been sold to him by her parents for two hundred yuan—because of his officer’s salary and status.
But if he became a worthless cripple…
Would she abandon him just like her greedy parents would?
“Cripple?” Su Hongxia swallowed the last bite of her bun and looked at him seriously. “You’re not a cripple. You’re a hero. Everyone on the train said so.”
Her eyes were clear and pure.
There was no trace of pity or sympathy—she was simply stating a fact.
Lu Huaizhou’s heart felt as if something had gently struck it.
“And besides,” she pointed at his leg, “Doctor Li the Barefoot Doctor said your leg just needs more massage and medicine baths. Once the blood circulation opens up, it’ll get better.”
She brought up that mysterious “Barefoot Doctor Li” again.
Lu Huaizhou originally wanted to scold her nonsense, but seeing her serious expression, the words died in his throat.
Maybe… talking with a fool wasn’t so bad. It made the heaviness in his chest feel a little lighter.
“Eat. The soup will get cold,” Su Hongxia said, serving him a big bowl of beef bone soup.
The broth was milky white with green scallions floating on top, and the aroma was rich.
Lu Huaizhou silently accepted it and took a sip.
The warm liquid slid down his throat, and its deep savory flavor instantly chased away some of the coldness in his heart.
He didn’t know what she had added, but a warm current seemed to flow down his esophagus into his stomach, spreading comfort through his body.
He finished the bowl in one go.
Su Hongxia immediately refilled it.
The meal ended in silence.
While she cleaned up, Lu Huaizhou suddenly said hoarsely,
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You’re my man—of course I should cook for you,” Su Hongxia replied matter-of-factly.
Lu Huaizhou nearly choked on the words “my man.”
The tips of his ears began heating again.
..
That night, after washing up, they lay down as usual—he on the inner side of the bed, she on the outer side.
Lu Huaizhou couldn’t sleep.
The doctor’s words and his bleak future weighed on him like two mountains.
Just as he tossed restlessly, Su Hongxia suddenly turned to face him in the darkness.
“Lu Huaizhou,” she whispered, “let me massage your leg.”
Before he could respond, she had already sat up, lifted the thin blanket covering his leg, and placed her warm palm on his cold left leg.
“What are you doing?!” Lu Huaizhou stiffened and instinctively tried to pull his leg away.
“Don’t move.” Her tone carried an unquestionable firmness as she pressed down slightly to stop him.
“Doctor Li said this spot—” her finger pressed precisely below his knee “—is called Zusanli. Massaging it is good for the leg.”
Her fingers were slender, but the pressure was strong.
A dull soreness spread through the point she pressed.
Lu Huaizhou stopped resisting.
Maybe… he would just let her try. Like treating a dead horse as if it were alive.
Her hands were warm.
Through the thin fabric of his pants, that warmth seemed to seep into his bones.
Her technique was unusual. Instead of random kneading, she pressed and pushed specific points with her fingers and palms.
Gradually, Lu Huaizhou felt something strange.
In the left leg that had almost gone numb, a faint sensation began to appear.
A tiny warm current flowed from where she pressed, like a small snake slowly moving through his blocked meridians.
Wherever it passed, the previously stiff, cold muscles softened slightly.
What… what is this?
Lu Huaizhou stared in shock at the woman massaging his leg in the darkness.
Was this really something she learned from a village barefoot doctor?
Her technique looked more professional than the therapists at the military hospital.
Of course, Su Hongxia would never tell him that she had learned this massage technique from a national-treasure-level traditional medicine master in her previous life while studying dietary therapy.
Combined with her food remedies, it was extremely effective at promoting circulation and clearing meridians.
As time passed, the warm current grew stronger and began striking the most blocked areas in his leg.
A wave of intense numbness and aching surged through him.
“Mm—”
Caught off guard, Lu Huaizhou let out a suppressed groan from his throat. It carried both pain and an indescribable sense of relief.
At that moment, laughter and footsteps suddenly came from outside the courtyard gate.
“Old Lu! You asleep yet? The guys came to check on you!” a loud voice called out.
Then the door creaked open.
“Old Lu, we heard you went for a checkup today, so we thought—”
The man froze at the doorway.
It was Zhang Yuan, Lu Huaizhou’s deputy commander and good friend.
His eyes widened in shock, his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.
In the dim room, Lu Huaizhou was half-lying on the bed, clothes slightly disheveled, his face flushed an unusual red, strange sounds escaping his mouth.
And his newly married “foolish” wife…
was on top of him, her hands moving over his body.
What… what was going on?!
Zhang Yuan’s mind exploded with wild misunderstandings.
The soldiers behind him peeked in and saw the scene as well. Each one wore a shocked yet awkwardly amused expression.
“Um… maybe… maybe we came at the wrong time?” Zhang Yuan stammered, his face turning bright red. “You two… continue… continue…”
As he spoke, he hurriedly tried to pull the others away.