“Old flame?” Lu Huaizhou choked a little at those two words, as if he had just heard the biggest joke in the world—or as if some hidden thought of his had been poked.
He lifted his head and looked into Su Hongxia’s clear, curious eyes. For a moment, he didn’t know how to answer.
In Su Hongxia’s simple worldview, “old flame” might just be a neutral term—someone who used to be a very good friend.But to him, the word carried a different flavor, something ambiguous and suggestive.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”He took the photo frame from her hand and, without even looking at it, turned to bring it back into the house.
“But she’s not as pretty as me,” Su Hongxia insisted, following behind him and giving a very serious evaluation. “Her face is too sharp. Her chin is like a cone—no good fortune in that. And she doesn’t look like the type who knows how to cook braised pork.”
Lu Huaizhou paused. The hand holding the photo frame froze, and his footsteps stopped.
He turned around and, under the dim yellow light of the courtyard, looked again at this “silly” wife of his.
Her logic was strange. Her standard for judging someone was whether they could cook braised pork.
Yet somehow, what she said eased the irritation in his heart that had risen at the mention of Lin Wan’er’s name.
“Don’t mention her again,” Lu Huaizhou finally said in a low voice.
Then he walked into the house and stuffed the photo frame into the very bottom of an old wooden box, as if sealing away a piece of the past.
Su Hongxia shrugged and didn’t ask any more questions.
To her, whoever Lin Wan’er or Wang Wan’er was didn’t matter nearly as much as the reaction she had felt earlier in Lu Huaizhou’s leg tonight.
When she had been massaging him just now, she clearly felt that at the most blocked part of the meridians in his leg, a warm current produced by the medicine had managed—though faintly—to break through.
That meant her method was correct.
His leg could be saved!
The thought energized Su Hongxia.
If she could heal Lu Huaizhou’s leg, not only would her “long-term meal ticket” become more secure, but it would also silence the gossip in the compound.
A healthy war hero and a disabled retired officer carried completely different weight.
However, while Su Hongxia was full of motivation, Lu Huaizhou’s suspicion had already reached its peak.
After his comrades left, he lay in bed tossing and turning, his mind in a tangled mess.
A girl who had never left her village and was famous there for being “slow”—how could she possess such extraordinary cooking skills?
Nine-Turned Intestines was a famous Shandong dish. Braised pork required delicate control of heat. These were not things someone could easily learn on a rural stove.
And then there was her massage technique—accurate acupuncture points and a strange strength—actually making the leg that even the military region’s best doctors couldn’t treat regain sensation.
There was also the iron pipe she bent on the train, her calm ruthlessness when facing his parents, and the clever calculation she used when dealing with that jar of lard…
One by one, when pieced together, they pointed to a single conclusion:
She wasn’t stupid at all.
She had been pretending.
But why? What was she after?
Lu Huaizhou couldn’t figure it out.
If she wasn’t stupid, with her looks and those skills, marrying into a good family wouldn’t be difficult. Why follow him, a “cripple” with an uncertain future?
The mystery scratched at his heart like a kitten, making him restless.
He decided he had to test her.
..
The next morning, Su Hongxia prepared breakfast as usual.
The millet porridge was golden and soft, paired with scallion pancakes she had made herself—crispy and fragrant.
While eating, Lu Huaizhou casually picked up yesterday’s military newspaper.
“Today’s paper published an editorial about strengthening cultural development in the army. It’s well written,” he said, pointing to a paragraph.“Look here—‘…we must eradicate ideological chronic illnesses, reform the old and usher in the new, not cling to outdated traditions or be satisfied with the status quo…’”
He deliberately chose several difficult words, reading them aloud while secretly observing Su Hongxia from the corner of his eye.
A rural girl who might not even be able to write her own name completely couldn’t possibly recognize words like “chronic malady” or “reform the old and bring forth the new.”
If she showed even a hint of confusion, it would prove that her education matched the image of a “simple-minded country girl.”
Su Hongxia was chewing on a scallion pancake. Hearing him, she raised her head and leaned closer with wide eyes.
She stared at the dark square characters on the paper for a moment. Then she pointed her slightly oily finger at the words “chronic illness.”
Lu Huaizhou’s heart lifted.
Su Hongxia frowned slightly as if thinking seriously. Then she looked up at him excitedly.
“Lu Huaizhou, I know! These two characters look just like the dried green beans we hang out to dry in our village!”
Then she pointed to “reform the old and bring forth the new.”
“And these ones look like the straw sandals my dad makes—grid by grid!”
As she spoke, she drew a crooked little square on the table with her finger.
Lu Huaizhou: “……”
All the follow-up tests he had prepared were completely blocked by her strange pictographic interpretation method.
Say she could read? She called “chronic illness” dried beans.Say she couldn’t? The comparison… oddly made sense.
Lu Huaizhou felt like he had punched a pile of cotton—his strength had nowhere to go.
Su Hongxia watched his frustrated expression and almost laughed out loud inside.
Trying to play this game with me? In my previous life I even studied oracle bone script just to research recipes!
But she also realized she had been a little too capable lately.
If a fool suddenly became too smart and too capable, suspicion was inevitable.
Lu Huaizhou’s test was a warning bell.
She needed a reasonable excuse for becoming “smarter.”
So she set down her pancake and leaned closer to him, lowering her voice mysteriously.
“Lu Huaizhou, I’ll tell you a secret.”
“What?”
“I feel like I’ve gotten a little smarter lately.” She raised her pinky finger to show a tiny bit. “Before, my brain was just a lump of mush, but sometimes now it suddenly becomes clear.”
Lu Huaizhou watched her calmly. “Oh? Why would that be?”
“I don’t know,” Su Hongxia said, shaking her head.
Suddenly her eyes lit up as if she had thought of something.
She pointed at him.
“I guess it must be because of you!”
“Because of me?” Lu Huaizhou was stunned.
“Of course!” she said seriously. “You’re a big hero. You have that… that yang energy! I stay with you every day, so I absorb some of your yang energy. The bad stuff in my head gets chased away, so I become smarter!”
Yang… energy?
Lu Huaizhou felt his temples throbbing.
What kind of crooked reasoning was that?
But seeing Su Hongxia’s utterly sincere face, he couldn’t refute it.
After all, there was no reasoning with a fool.
The explanation was ridiculous—but coming from a “fool,” it strangely sounded a little… plausible.
Lu Huaizhou’s mind became even more confused.
Now he couldn’t tell whether Su Hongxia was truly foolish or a master of disguise whose acting had reached perfection.
He decided to try another approach—something more direct.
After breakfast, Su Hongxia was about to wash the dishes when Lu Huaizhou suddenly grabbed her wrist from behind.
His palm was large and strong, rough with the texture of a soldier, radiating heat that made her skin tremble slightly.
She turned around and met his deep, unfathomable eyes.
Those eyes were no longer as cold as usual. Instead, they were filled with scrutiny, probing—and a trace of complicated emotion she couldn’t understand, like a vortex trying to pull her in.
Step by step, he pushed her toward the corner of the wall.
Her back touched the cold wall. There was nowhere left to retreat.
Lu Huaizhou’s tall figure completely enveloped her. The air around her was filled with the pleasant scent of soap and sunlight from his body.
The atmosphere instantly became dangerous… and ambiguous.
“Su Hongxia.”
He spoke, his voice low and hoarse, as if suppressing something.
“Who exactly are you?”
The question was like a sharp blade stabbing straight into the core of her disguise.
Su Hongxia’s heartbeat skipped.
She knew this was the final confrontation.
Her answer would determine the future of their relationship.
Would she keep pretending… or—
She looked at Lu Huaizhou’s face so close to hers, determination written across his handsome features.
She noticed his tense jaw. The slight movement of his Adam’s apple.
Suddenly, she smiled.
Under Lu Huaizhou’s stunned gaze, Su Hongxia did something that instantly made his brain freeze.
She stood on her tiptoes, raised her head, and with a slightly clumsy yet determined gesture, pressed her soft lips lightly against his tightly closed ones.
Just a brief touch—like a dragonfly skimming the water—before she pulled away.
Then she stepped back slightly, lifted her face, and looked at him with bright eyes.
In a tone both innocent and matter-of-fact, she said slowly:
“I’m your wife.” 💫