"Huanwu, come here for a moment."

The firewood crackled and popped, and smoke filled the pot. Zhou Jiuzhen subtly tugged at Ling Huanwu's sleeve, his voice as serious as a regimental commander's.

Ling Huanwu turned her head and glanced at him, not wanting to pay him any attention.

He gave her the cold shoulder this morning, saying he didn't like touching her.

She's not easily intimidated. Does that mean she can't even say she's uncomfortable in bed?

When she ignored him, he stood there and wouldn't leave. Wherever she went, he would stick to her side like a little shadow.

Finally, Ling Huanwu couldn't stand it anymore and dragged him to a secluded corner.

The two people, one squatting and one standing, on the southeast side followed Ling Huanwu with their eyes. They watched as Ling Huanwu pulled their men to a corner, and they craned their necks to see what was going on. They were eager to follow and see what the two of them were doing in the corner.

Behind the neat row of stone houses in the production brigade, Ling Huanwu stood with her head held high and a stern face, her tone icy, "What's wrong? You've been following me around like this, hoping I'll give you meat?"

"Meat?"

Zhou Jiuzhen pressed down the corners of his lips, as if he was thinking.

"I don't want to eat meat. In the early years when we were fighting, we ate grass roots. It didn't matter whether there was meat or not."

Ling Huanwu felt a headache coming on and was momentarily speechless with anger. "Hmm, you're so high and mighty. So what if you've eaten grass roots?"

"Then let me ask you, why is our aloof Commander Zhou following me around the stove all this time?"

"Well... our unit's medic just gave each of us a bottle of iodine and some liniment. I don't have anywhere to put it on me, so I'll leave it with you for now."

Zhou Jiuzhen glanced at the bruises on Ling Huanwu's wrist and the abrasions on her arm, then handed her the iodine and liniment before awkwardly turning away and walking away with his hands and feet clasped together.

Ling Huanwu stared at the two bottles of medicine in her hand, feeling both annoyed and amused.

If this man wanted to give her medicine, he should have just said so. Why did he have to be so stubborn and say that the medicine was issued to everyone in the army?

"He didn't even apply the medicine himself before leaving; what a boor!"

She mumbled as she opened the medicine and applied it to herself, not even noticing the uncontrollable upward curve of her lips.

When we returned to the drying ground, the communal meal was already prepared.

Everyone was given two pieces of meat and a small bowl of cabbage, which they ate while squatting on the ground with sweet potatoes.

The guard captain, who had just been chopping wood most diligently, wolfed down his cabbage, finishing off the unusually oily dish in his bowl in no time.

You see, he used to follow Qin Jinshen just so he could eat meat every meal. Now that he hasn't eaten meat for a month, he's really craving it.

He wiped his mouth, still not satisfied, and turned to look at Qin Jinshen beside him, who was holding a bowl but hadn't eaten. He muttered to himself that this pampered young master was just picky and had a lot of problems with his food.

She smiled humbly and asked him respectfully, "Sir, you probably can't eat this time either, so how about I help you eat again?"

To everyone's surprise, he, who usually dislikes country food, clutched the meat, vegetables, and sweet potatoes in his bowl tightly, glaring at him fiercely, "Who told you to covet my things!"

You should know that Ling Huanwu cut the meat, washed the vegetables, and even picked out the sweet potatoes one by one from the steaming pot.

Every dish of food was filled with her flavor, and he couldn't bear to eat them!

Qin Jinshen picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly. The rich, smoky aroma of the meat exploded in his mouth, leaving a lingering fragrance on his lips and teeth.

Through the moving crowd, he looked at Ling Huanwu, who was standing and eating with a bowl in her hand, and his eyes suddenly reddened.

He had eaten countless delicacies since childhood, and he felt that this meal was the most delicious he had ever eaten.

Qin Jinshen looked at Ling Huanwu, picking at the cabbage in his bowl that he used to hate the most, and found it tasted especially sweet.

Watching her take small bites of the food, he felt a deep sense of happiness.

Then she glanced at Zhou Jiuzhen next to her, who was also wolfing down his food, swallowing the bowl whole in one gulp, and his face was full of disgust.

Suddenly, Ling Huanwu, who was eating her vegetables in small bites, picked up the meat from the bottom of her bowl and shyly threw it into Zhou Jiuzhen's bowl next to her. Two blushes, like clouds, appeared on her fair cheeks.

In an instant, Qin Jinshen felt as if he had been hit on the head with a dull thud, and his ears were ringing.

"Hey, Shuyao, how did you break the chopsticks? Your hand is bleeding!"

All I could hear was Song Yaoyao's panicked cries.

Qin Jinshen turned around and saw Zhou Shuyao staring intently at Ling Huanwu, his hand pricked by the broken chopsticks, yet he seemed oblivious. He couldn't help but sneer.

Zhou Shuyao is already so concerned about his wife from his previous life even before he's been reborn. If he were reborn and found out that his wife married his brother, wouldn't he go crazy?

What a spineless man!

Qin Jin felt a deep sense of sneer. He turned back to look at the two people opposite him who were eating a piece of meat and tossing it around as if they didn't know anything about the world. He was so angry that his forehead throbbed. He gripped the rim of the bowl tightly and pulled it as if it were Zhou Jiuzhen.

With a "crack," the porcelain bowl shattered.

Captain Ma quickly stretched out his arm, grabbed the bowl, and caught the meat and vegetables that had fallen from the broken bowl in the man's hand. He then happily shoveled them all down in one go...

＊

night.

Ling Huanwu pretended to be reading a book as if nothing was wrong, but her heart was already in turmoil, wondering whether she should speak up to break the deadlock between her and Zhou Jiuzhen.

After all, if she couldn't save him in a year or so, he wouldn't have much time left.

Since every meeting is one less opportunity for the two of them, they should be even more honest with each other.

Zhou Jiuzhen, who was taking a shower behind the curtain, brushed his teeth for half an hour without even noticing that his gums were bleeding, and he was constantly annoyed with himself.

For the first time, he realized that his strength was a big problem.

That night, he somehow lost control and left her covered in bruises.

Some things you won't want to try until you've tasted them.

Once you try it, you can't stop.

After another month of not seeing each other, he became a bit harsher.

Afterwards, he was filled with remorse when he saw the injuries on her body, but he stubbornly insisted that he didn't like matters between men and women, trying to cover up his panic, which was utterly ridiculous.

His wife had just put some meat on his plate, but he stubbornly insisted that he didn't like meat and awkwardly tossed it around. In the end, his childhood sweetheart, Zhao Ergou's, uncle, got to eat it.

I wanted to apologize to my wife properly, and I also wanted to be like Zhou Shuyao, able to act coquettishly with my mother and say whatever I wanted.

But when he got to the point of speaking, he backed down and claimed that the medicine he had gone to great lengths to obtain for reconciliation was something someone else had shared.

Zhou Jiuzhen put down his toothbrush, took a deep breath, and decided that he would have to admit his mistake to his wife later, no matter what.

He walked to the bedside and had just opened his mouth when Ling Huanwu also spoke at the same time.

"Wife, actually I lied..."

"Jiuzhen, I have something to tell you..."

The two stopped abruptly, both seeing the caution in each other's eyes.

Ling Huanwu suddenly laughed and teased him, "What lie did you tell?"

“I… I lied and said I didn’t like meat,” Zhou Jiuzhen murmured, his tanned face flushed, “I also lied that I didn’t want to… didn’t want to…”

He stammered, too embarrassed to say it aloud, but Ling Huanwu knew exactly what he meant. She quickly tiptoed and kissed his lips, swallowing his words.