Chapter 22 Mrs. Changfeng, are you coming home for dinner tonight?
In the dimly lit bedroom, Jiang Mingxue was suddenly lifted into the air and carried away. Just as Xing Kaiyu had described before, Rong Chengzhou carried her as easily as lifting a chick, and she fell into his arms without any resistance.
Behind her was a man's solid chest, and even through two layers of thick fabric, she could still feel the intense heat emanating from him.
He, he, he...
Jiang Mingxue opened her eyes wide in the darkness, her tongue almost tied in knots.
Fortunately, I reacted quickly and recovered after taking two deep breaths.
“I don’t move around much when I sleep, so I won’t fall off,” she said, trying to keep her tone calm. “Besides, there’s a carpet on the floor, so even if I fall, I won’t be hurt…”
Even though he could only see the back of her head, Rong Chengzhou could imagine her feigned composure.
His hand, which he had originally intended to move away from, suddenly didn't want to leave, so he gently placed it on her waist: "Go to sleep."
Jiang Mingxue: "......"
How is she supposed to sleep?
She opened her mouth, wanting Rong Chengzhou to move his hand away so she wouldn't sleep on the edge of the bed anymore.
But when the words are about to come out, I'm afraid they might hurt someone.
She decided to give up and wait until he fell asleep before quietly pushing him away.
The area around her waist that he was covering was getting hotter and hotter, and Jiang Mingxue could no longer ignore the presence of that hand.
The two lay on their sides, embracing each other, one falling asleep easily, the other with eyes wide open.
Jiang Mingxue played the role of a wooden doll for a while until she heard the man's steady, shallow breathing above her head. Only then did she move her waist, trying to roll over and break free, only to find—
I can't flip through it.
She forgot that Rong Chengzhou's hand was used to lift 40kg dumbbells, and the difference in strength was immeasurable. She didn't dare to make too much noise, so she had no way to lift his hand.
Finally, I resigned myself to my fate and lay back down.
never mind.
Since things have come to this, let's go to sleep.
They slept in each other's arms all night.
When I woke up the next day, the person next to me was empty.
The faint sound of water could be heard from the bathroom. Jiang Mingxue blinked, becoming more alert, and glanced at the time on her phone; it was only 6:30.
She usually gets up at 6:40, so there are still 10 minutes left.
I turned off my phone and went back to sleep.
Ten minutes later, Jiang Mingxue got up on time to wash up and change her clothes.
When I came out of the bedroom, Aunt Lian had already prepared breakfast, and Rong Chengzhou was sitting in the living room watching military news on TV.
Seeing her come out, he stood up and pulled out a chair from the side.
After she sat down, I sat down opposite her.
Jiang Mingxue picked up a small piece of corn with a fork, noticed his half-dry hair, and asked in confusion, "Do you also have to get up early to train even on your day off?"
Rong Chengzhou nodded slightly: "Mm."
The military has regular morning training, and he usually gets up at five o'clock every day to run for half an hour. If there is no morning training, he runs for an hour; this is his personal habit.
Jiang Mingxue nodded knowingly: "You are very self-disciplined."
Rong Chengzhou lowered his eyes and cut the sandwich without saying a word.
He used to be very self-disciplined.
But he didn't sleep well last night, and today was the first time in his thirteen years of military service that he broke his biological clock, waking up half an hour later than usual.
After breakfast, Rong Chengzhou drove Jiang Mingxue to the clinic.
The bridal suite was close to the clinic, with little traffic congestion along the way; it only took ten minutes to drive there, and we arrived at the clinic at 7:20.
Before the patients arrived, she first boiled a pot of tea, then did a set of Baduanjin exercises in the spacious backyard before going to the clinic to receive patients.
Since taking over Yuanhe Medical Clinic, she has rarely had time to practice Baduanjin exercises, to the point that yesterday she couldn't even lift one of Rong Chengzhou's arms. She deeply realized the importance of physical fitness and resolved to be as self-disciplined as Rong Chengzhou in the future.
On the other side, after dropping off Jiang Mingxue, Rong Chengzhou drove directly to the military compound and turned into a small villa at the very back.
The houses in military compounds are generally residential buildings or courtyard houses, and only a very few families of high-ranking military personnel can be allocated villas. The Rong family, with two generals and one colonel, naturally enjoyed such special treatment.
Today is the weekend, and General Rong and his wife are at home, waiting for Rong Chengzhou to return for a reunion.
Since he returned from the army the day before yesterday afternoon, he has basically not been home. He either takes a shower to pick up his wife or goes with his wife to see his father-in-law. General Rong has not yet had a chance to meet him.
As Rong Chengzhou entered and changed his shoes, he heard General Rong ask, "Didn't Mingxue come back with you?"
"She has a patient today."
"Oh, then let's get together again when she has time." General Rong, though nearly ninety years old, was still in good spirits.
Rong Chengzhou nodded, chatted briefly with General Rong about the year's mission, and relayed a message from his old comrade-in-arms before going upstairs to find Madam Rong.
Besides taking a vacation, his most important task upon returning was to arrange the wedding.
Although Jiang Mingxue only needs a marriage certificate, as the groom, he cannot skip any of the necessary procedures.
Madam Rong was in the living room on the second floor choosing a wedding venue and wedding dress when she saw Rong Chengzhou come over and show them to him.
Rong Chengzhou flipped through the preview images on the tablet: "These ones you chose are all pretty good."
Madam Rong had already anticipated that he wouldn't be able to offer any suggestions, and she took the tablet back with a look of disdain: "The most important thing about a wedding is the bride. Your opinions are useless. I'll have a good discussion with Mingxue when she has time to come over."
Rong Chengzhou was used to his mother's dislike and calmly looked away.
Madam Rong has always been more concerned about his marriage than he is about his own, and he trusts that she can make proper arrangements for them.
"By the way, is Mingxue satisfied with the house?"
Rong Chengzhou frowned, but he didn't ask: "You should be satisfied."
"That's fine then." Madam Rong was relieved and sighed, "Mingxue will suffer if she marries into our family. I don't have anything else to give her. This house can only be considered a small compensation that our family owes her."
Rong Chengzhou nodded: "I'm often away from home, and I do owe her a lot."
Madam Rong glanced up at his expression and immediately knew that the two of them were not on the same wavelength.
Well, since her daughter-in-law didn't say anything, she won't expose her.
In truth, her mother deserves some credit for her son's connection with Mingxue, which allowed him to be so dull.
......
A year ago, Madam Rong went to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital to get a prescription from a doctor, and asked Rong Chengzhou to pick up the medicine on his way back, saying it was for her to regulate her body.
Rong Chengzhou had no doubts and did as he was told.
But in reality, this bag of medicine was specifically prescribed for him. She had always been worried about Rong Chengzhou's marriage; she had never seen someone who was thirty years old and had never been with a woman before.
Not only did he not have a girlfriend, he even turned down the blind dates she arranged for him. In order to avoid going home for blind dates, he even applied to his superiors to cancel his vacation.
Her sisters suggested she might have some hidden illness, so they gave her some advice and found a doctor to prescribe some traditional Chinese medicine. They told her it was for health maintenance, and that even if she wasn't sick, drinking some Chinese medicine wouldn't do any harm.
Unexpectedly, the medicine arrived, and they also brought back a marriage certificate.
She asked incredulously, "Whose daughter is she? Why didn't you bring her home to meet us before getting the marriage certificate? That's so rude!"
Rong Chengzhou strode upstairs: "The Jiang family in the north of the city."
"Huh?! Isn't that where I asked you to pick up your medicine today? Could it be Dr. Jiang? Do you two know each other?"
Rong Chengzhou, a man of few words, replied: "I don't know him."
"How could she have fallen for you?" Ren Rushuang couldn't understand.
Rong Chengzhou had already closed the door: "I'm going to sleep for a while."
"We haven't eaten yet, why are you already going to sleep?"
Ren Rushuang remembered something and knocked on the door. "Oh right, drink some medicine before you sleep. This medicine is for health, so I brought extra. Drink some."
"No need, I don't need it."
"...Don't say you don't need it. It won't hurt to take more health-preserving medicine."
No more sounds came from inside the room, probably because they didn't want to pay attention anymore.
Outside the door, Ren Rushuang and the housekeeper, Aunt Liu, exchanged a complicated glance: "This..."
Rong Chengzhou clearly wasn't buying it, and the plan failed.
She sighed outside the door and changed her question, "We should at least go and propose marriage and give a betrothal gift, shouldn't we?"
Rong Chengzhou was changing clothes inside the door, taking off his dark blue military uniform.
After a two-second silence, she replied, "No need, she's introverted, please don't bother her."
......
For a whole year afterward, Rong Chengzhou, now married, never returned home, which further convinced Ren Rushuang of her sisters' suspicions.
She wasn't sure if Mingxue knew about her son's situation. Over the past year, she had felt indebted to this daughter-in-law she had never met, but Rong Chengzhou wouldn't let her bother her. So she could only make amends in secret and overt ways.
This included finding excuses to visit Grandpa Jiang from time to time; stuffing tens of thousands of yuan in cash into packages air-freighted to Haining; and taking out the dowry prepared for her by her family to buy Jiang Mingxue an 800-square-meter private property. The interior design and study were arranged remotely by Rong Chengzhou, and she personally handled the arrangements.
Everyone else thought that this was the Rong family being very polite and sincere, in order to make up for Jiang Mingxue's frequent loneliness in her room, including Rong Chengzhou.
But only Madam Rong knew that all she did was to make her unfortunate daughter-in-law more comfortable in her home.
Of course, she hadn't told her son about these things. Men have pride, and it wasn't appropriate for her, as a mother, to interfere in these matters.
She no longer craves grandchildren; she's content as long as she and her husband are harmonious.
"Oh, right." Thinking of this, Ren Rushuang said, "Your aunt went back to China yesterday and had a few boxes of cookies she brought back from Europe delivered this morning. When Mingxue has time, you can take them to her for afternoon tea."
Rong Chengzhou nodded: "Okay."
After saying that, he took out his phone and sent a message to Jiang Mingxue:
[CZ]: Do you have time this afternoon?
After waiting a few minutes without receiving any messages, knowing she was seeing patients, I put my phone away. I then looked at the wedding venue with Madam Rong, and in the afternoon, I accompanied General Rong fishing by the lake in the compound.
By 5 p.m., I still hadn't received a message.
For the first time, Rong Chengzhou truly understood how Jiang Mingxue felt when he was unable to reply to messages while on a mission.
General Rong sat on a bench by the lake, holding a fishing rod, his eyes fixed straight ahead: "If you don't want to fish with me, then don't come. You didn't catch many fish all afternoon, and you even scared my fish away several times."
Rong Chengzhou had the same idea, so he put away his fishing rod and said, "You can fish at your leisure. I'm going to deliver something."
General Rong was taken aback: "You're really leaving!"
The tall reflection swayed in the water, and the small fish carrying the bait was instantly startled and darted to the center of the lake.
General Rong stomped his feet in anger: "My fish—!"
--
Jiang Mingxue had a heavy workload today. One doctor had to take leave due to a family emergency, so his patients were reassigned to other on-call doctors. However, there weren't many doctors on duty on weekends to begin with, and since Jiang Mingxue was the curator, she naturally had to take on more of the workload.
I've been in the consultation room all day since the clinic opened this morning. I only had a few bites of boxed lunch at noon. I didn't even have time for a lunch break, let alone look at my phone.
Fortunately, I slept well last night and brewed strong tea this morning, which helped me last until the afternoon.
At 5:30 p.m., Jiang Mingxue finally finished her work. She had just finished setting the bones for one patient and had just finished acupuncture for the rest. Her apprentices were still giving them moxibustion, so she was able to catch her breath.
Just as she was about to reach for her own cup to get some water, Yan Ze handed her a disposable cup filled with water: "Warm water, just filled."
Jiang Mingxue accepted the cup, thanked them, and drank most of it, feeling much better.
Holding a cup in her hand, she asked, "You were supposed to be off today, why are you at work?"
Yan Ze, dressed in a white medical gown, leaned against the wall and said calmly, "Xu Yan said that Dr. Fang took the day off today, and I guessed you would take over. I happened to have nothing to do today, so I came over."
Jiang Mingxue smiled knowingly: "Luckily, I have you and Ayan, otherwise I definitely wouldn't be able to handle it all today."
Yan Ze pursed his lips: "You're welcome."
Around seven o'clock, the last acupuncture patient had their needles removed and left.
Jiang Mingxue went to the lounge to change out of her medical gown. Yan Ze brought over a takeout box and placed it on the table: "You didn't eat much at noon, hurry up and eat something."
It was common knowledge that Jiang Mingxue often ate dinner at the clinic. As long as she wasn't finished by 6:30, Xu Yan would go out to get her food.
Today, Xu Yan was busy preparing medicine, so she handed this task over to Yan Ze.
It was not surprising that Yan Ze helped her get food, but what was strange was that the lunchbox he brought was packaged in a "Jinge" brand bag, which puzzled her.
The restaurant that the Jiang family had to move out of the queue for, which was only accessible to Old Master Jiang, somehow ended up like a small street-side eatery in the hands of Rong Chengzhou and Yan Ze, something anyone could easily buy.
Could it be that Jin Ge has fallen into decline because she's been away from Beicheng for a month?
Jiang Mingxue suppressed her confusion, glanced at the clock on the wall, and realized that it was indeed a bit late to go back to the bridal chamber for dinner at this time, especially since she still had medical records to process that night.
"Thanks."
She thanked him and was about to take the food from Yan Ze's hands.
A rhythmic knocking sounded suddenly at the open door of the lounge, followed by a familiar voice speaking calmly and deliberately:
"Mrs. Rong, are you coming home for dinner tonight?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
