Chapter Fourteen
The sound of the bed collapsing wasn't quiet, especially on a still winter night.
The Zhou family members, who had not yet gone to bed, were startled by the commotion. They grabbed the wooden sticks kept in the house, got up, and went outside to see what was going on.
"Big brother, what's wrong?"
Zhou Sili lived closest to Zhou Lin and Mu Jin's house, so she knew the commotion was coming from their room.
Mu Jin blushed deeply, her earlobes looked like they were about to bleed, her eyes were slightly red, and she glared at Zhou Lin angrily.
"Cough, nothing, the bed..."
Before she could finish speaking, Mu Jin pinched her arm hard from under the covers.
If word gets out that the bed collapsed in the middle of the night, he'll never be able to leave the house again.
"Ouch, it's nothing, it's nothing, I just bumped into the table by accident."
Zhou Lin, that blockhead, finally had a moment of inspiration.
Could bumping into a table really cause such a commotion? The crowd was skeptical, but given the cold night, unless it was a thief, they had no interest in braving the chill to get involved in Zhou Lin's affairs.
Zhou Siyi, being an unmarried young man, naturally couldn't have imagined that.
Hearing this, he felt relieved and went back inside.
The courtyard quieted down, and Mu Jin, with her head buried in the blanket, let out a deep sigh of relief.
Zhou Lin got up, and Zhou Wu Shi naturally wouldn't let Zhou Lin use such an expensive thing as an oil lamp.
Only Zhou Laosan and Zhou Qiang in the Zhou family had oil lamps in their rooms.
The room was pitch black, and even with the faint moonlight, one couldn't see clearly.
Zhou Lin sighed, "Perhaps the bed leg broke. This bed was probably slept in by my grandparents before. It was kept in the woodshed. Later, when we were separated into different rooms, my mother found it and gave it to me."
Hibiscus: "..."
That's quite an old item; it's really impressive that it's lasted this long.
"How about tonight, sleeping at an angle?"
It was only a short time after nightfall, and since many people in the family were still awake, Zhou Lin said, "I'll go to my parents' room to get an oil lamp and take a look."
"No, what will you say if you go?"
Zhou Lin scratched his head, speechless.
"Fine, I'll just have to make do with sleeping here tonight."
"How can you sleep well if you're sleeping diagonally?" Zhou Lin thought for a moment and said, "Fine, I'll remove all the bed legs and lay them horizontally. I'll sleep on the bed board tonight."
Zhou Lin was familiar with the house, and in the dark he found the four bed legs and pried them off with all his might.
Farmers have plenty of strength and skill.
It's fortunate that the bed legs are old; otherwise, we really would have had to use an axe.
After removing the bed boards, to prevent cold air from entering the body, the removed bed legs were placed under the boards to provide some insulation from the ground.
Zhou Lin's palms were bright red, unseen by either of them, and he wiped his hands with a cloth from the room.
He lay obediently on the bed next to Mu Jin, not daring to move.
Mu Jin wanted to laugh, her tone slightly amused, "Sleeping like this isn't a good solution either."
Zhou Lin deeply agreed. Putting aside everything else, it would greatly affect his serious business of making babies with his husband at night.
"Tomorrow I'll go find Uncle Heng and ask him to make a bed for me. Beds are easy to make, and I can move it home in a couple of days."
Zhou Lin was referring to a bed made of wooden planks and a few legs, which naturally required little effort.
However, Mu Jin had other ideas.
“Ah Lin, we don’t have much money at home. If we go directly to Uncle Heng to buy a bed, Mother will definitely not agree. I think it’s not difficult to make a bed. When spring comes, you can go to the mountains to find a good piece of wood and take it to Uncle Heng’s house. That way, we can save some money. Just make it like a Luohan bed, with four sticks on top. When summer comes, there will be many mosquitoes, so we can make a curtain.”
Upon hearing that they would have to wait until spring, Zhou Lin was immediately displeased.
Mu Jin didn't hear an echo and was a little confused, so she turned her head to look at Zhou Lin.
"It's...it's...tonight..."
Mu Jin immediately understood, her face flushed slightly, her complexion like a peach blossom, but unfortunately Zhou Lin couldn't see it.
Thinking back to the picture album that Ximo brought him when he got married, he glanced at it and his face turned even redder.
She tugged at Zhou Lin and whispered something in his ear, her voice barely audible.
Zhou Lin's eyes lit up, "It can be like this?!"
Hibiscus buried herself under the covers again.
Zhou Lin gently turned over, recalling that when he got married, Zhou Wushi hadn't given him any picture books; he only managed to consummate the marriage through instinct and Mu Jin's guidance.
"Ah Jin, where is that picture book?"
He wanted to learn from him. Mu Sheng had often told him that if he could please his husband in bed, his husband would be more devoted to him.
If he learns from the picture book, his husband might like him even more.
Hibiscus punched him from under the covers, never realizing that this blockhead was such a blockhead.
Zhou Lin was determined to learn, and after much persuasion from Mu Jin, she finally relented and told him to find it himself in the chest tomorrow.
"By the way, once the bed is finished, remember to tell Uncle Heng that you're telling Mom that it's a wedding gift from Uncle Heng."
Otherwise, the bed might not have made it into their room.
Zhou Lin, his mind filled with images from various picture books, didn't think much of what was said and simply nodded.
As the night passed and dawn broke, it was the third day of the Lunar New Year. No need to visit relatives, and no relatives came to see us.
After Zhou Lin finished breakfast, he went back to his room, with Mu Jin following behind, shaking her head.
This piece of wood is also a bad piece of wood.
Upon opening the chest and cabinet, Mu Jin immediately noticed signs that it had been rummaged through.
The mockery in his eyes deepened; his mother-in-law was exactly as he had predicted.
The cotton fabric that Mu Nianjun gave her, when Mu Jin was at home, she made a little outfit for her nephew.
When Zhou Lin delivered the wood carving to him, he measured Zhou Lin's shoulder width and body length and made a spring garment for both Zhou Lin and himself.
Sure enough, the new clothes were gone.
Without making a sound, Mu Jin called Zhou Si to the room and whispered a few words in his ear.
"Okay, big brother, don't worry."
He then went out of the house.
While Zhou Wushi was being entangled by Zhou Si, Zhou Laosan went out to wander around the fields and quietly went to Zhou Wushi's house.
Zhou Wushi guessed that she wasn't afraid of Mu Jin causing trouble, since the fabric wouldn't call out and wasn't hidden very well.
Little did they know, Mu Jin had already secretly embroidered his and Zhou Lin's names on her clothes with a hidden thread.
Mu Jin didn't take it; she put the clothes in the closet, having already made up her mind.
He wouldn't let Zhou Wu's dirty tricks go to waste; he was determined to make her pay the price.
When Mu Jin returned to the room, Zhou Lin looked through countless pages of the picture book, his gaze towards Mu Jin deep and unfathomable.
Tents were being set up in places where it shouldn't have been during the day.
Mu Jin retorted angrily, "Serves you right, for proclaiming that thing in broad daylight."
Zhou Lin knew he was being too hasty; he was indeed stirred by his husband's words, which made him eager to try something.
After putting the picture album under the bedding, Zhou Lin got up and said, "I'll go outside and find some stones to use as mattress pads."
I'll go outside, get some fresh air, and calm down.
Mu Jin chuckled, ignoring him, and tidied up the bedding, taking it outside to air it out.
Zhou Si was helping him beat the mattress with a stick in the yard when she saw Zhou Lin carrying a stone home, and she was puzzled.
"Brother, what are you doing bringing those stones back?"
Zhou Lin put down the stone, took a breath, and said, "The bed legs in the room are not sturdy, so I took them off and replaced them with a few stones to put under them for now."
Mu Qing and Zhou Ming were sunbathing in the courtyard when they heard this. They glanced at Zhou Lin and thought about the noise from yesterday. After all, he was a man who had experienced such things, and he immediately understood.
He glanced at Zhou Ming with a mocking expression and said in a low voice, "Your older brother is surprisingly strong."
Zhou Ming glanced at Mu Jin, who was patting the bedding. It was no wonder her husband was acting this way.
Turning to Mu Qing, "Am I weak?"
Mu Qing nudged him with her elbow, her face flushed, "You shameless bastard."
"Go and bring the bedding out of our room to air it out." If we're counting on Mulan's help, he'll probably be gone by noon.
As soon as Zhou Wu locked the cupboard and came out of the kitchen, she acted as if she hadn't heard anything and went straight out to chat with someone.
All that remained was the sentence, "Bring out the bedding from my and your father's room to air it out too."
Mu Jin remained silent, just like her, pretending not to hear.
They never even considered paying for a new bed for Zhou Lin.
Zhou Lin made four trips back and forth, searching for stones that were roughly the same size.
The hibiscus had been padded with some tattered cloth strips to seal the gaps, so it seemed it could last for a while.
Zhou Wushi chatted to her heart's content, but when she returned home, she couldn't find her bedding on the clothesline, and her good mood vanished instantly.
"Elder sister, I thought you weren't that old, how come you went deaf so quickly? I asked you to air out the bedding when I went out, and you just ignored me?!"
Mu Jin looked on in surprise. "Mother, when did you go out? Did you speak to me?"
Zhou Wu was so angry she wanted to scream at Zhou Lin inside the house.
"Eldest son, look at the good husband you married! He's exhausted just helping our parents hang out the quilts to dry! Our Zhou family can't afford such a lazy and wicked boy. You should divorce him right now!"
Mu Jin didn't care about any of that. There were so many people in the courtyard at the time, but no one made a move, yet they only bothered him. They really thought he was an easy target.
He even wrote a letter of divorce? Who does he think he's scaring?!
"Mother, what you're saying is really hurtful. I was busy and didn't hear you at the time. How did it become that I was lazy and slacking off?"
After saying that, she went back into the house with tears in her eyes.
Zhou Lin ignored Zhou Wushi in the courtyard and hurriedly started to coax her inside the house.
Zhou Qiang came out of the house, still half asleep, and yawned.
"Mom, what's all this noise about in broad daylight? I stayed up late reading yesterday and didn't get any rest, and you're waking me up."
Zhou Wu immediately forgot about the bedding and hurriedly coaxed, "My little one, you must be tired from studying. Are you hungry? You haven't had breakfast yet. I've kept some food warm for you in the pot. Eat something first, then go back to your room and sleep for a while."
Zhou Qiang was indeed a bit hungry. He rubbed his stomach and followed Zhou Wushi to the kitchen.
Hearing Zhou Qiang's voice from inside the house, Mu Jin remembered that she had gone back to her parents' home yesterday and that Mu Zhou had taken the imperial examination in the spring.
It would have been better to take the book Zhou Qiang had back with him earlier and show it to Mu Zhou.
While Zhou Wu was coaxing Zhou Qiang to eat, she didn't see Mu Jin, so she had to call Zhou Si to move the bedding out of her room.
This time, Zhou Si couldn't pretend he hadn't heard it. He sighed inwardly, as if he was the only other living person left in the family besides his older brother.
During lunch, Zhou Wushi looked at Mu Jin with disdain, finding her appearance and appearance completely inappropriate.
Mu Jin pretended not to see anything, obediently served them soup, set out the bowls and chopsticks, and looked very docile.
Zhou Wushi assumed he was afraid of being divorced, and felt somewhat relieved, realizing she had grasped his biggest fear.
When the sun wasn't so strong, Mu Jin carried the warm, soft bedding back into the house.
Zhou Si, true to her word, took the opportunity to collect Zhou Wu's bedding as well when she collected her own.
That evening, before Mu Jin could even get into her warm bed, Zhou Lin dragged her to practice what he had learned from the picture book.
Exhausted, I barely had time to enjoy the comfort of the bed before falling into a deep sleep.
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