Chapter 6 Zhao Wenchang, I'm cold
"As long as you can do it! As long as you can do it!"
She patted Jiang Wanqiu's hand happily. As long as the two children hit it off, that's better than anything else!
When it was time to go to bed at night, another problem arose.
The Zhao family only had two main rooms; one was for the elderly couple, and the other for Zhao Wenchang.
There's a small house to the east; we can't let people sleep in that run-down place as soon as they arrive.
The elderly couple discussed it for a long time, but in the end, it was Zhao's father-in-law who made the final decision.
"Alright, I'll tell you a way. Wenchang, go and make a makeshift bed on the ground. Wanqiu is a young lady, she can sleep on the kang (heated brick bed)."
This is the best arrangement at the moment.
Inside the room, the dim yellow light flickered, casting long shadows.
Zhao Wenchang quickly laid out a mattress on the ground.
Jiang Wanqiu pulled out a silk nightgown from her luggage, which she had brought specially.
Having suffered enough in her past life, she didn't want to wrong herself again in this one.
When Zhao Wenchang turned around, he saw the piece of fabric in her hand that was as thin as a cicada's wing.
"Aren't you afraid of the cold?" Zhao Wenchang raised a single eyebrow.
Jiang Wanqiu waved her hand dismissively: "How cold can it be? It's only early autumn."
Zhao Wenchang just chuckled softly and didn't stop him.
As a girl from the South, I had no idea how cold the nights could be in Northeast China.
"It's alright, it's quite warm on the kang (heated brick bed)," Jiang Wanqiu added after getting into bed.
midnight.
Jiang Wanqiu was woken up by being frozen to death.
The chill of the North is the kind of cold that seeps into your bones.
Even though the earthen bed beneath them was warm, the thin blanket covering them was no match for the drafts seeping in through the cracks in the doors and windows.
Achoo—!
She couldn't help but sneeze loudly.
Achoo! Achoo!
Several in a row, and I just couldn't stop them.
In the darkness, the man on the floor was startled awake by the noise and sat up abruptly.
"What's wrong?"
Zhao Wenchang's voice was hoarse from just waking up.
Jiang Wanqiu sniffed, but before she could speak, a large, hot hand reached out and placed on her forehead without any hesitation.
"No fever..."
The man muttered something under his breath, seemingly relieved.
Jiang Wanqiu shuddered from the heat of his palm; the heat seemed to burn directly into her bones through her skin.
This man is like a furnace, inside and out.
Without thinking, she grabbed his wrist as he tried to pull away.
"cold……"
She spoke pitifully, her voice trembling uncontrollably and thick with a nasal tone.
"Zhao Wenchang, I'm cold."
In the darkness, he didn't speak, but Jiang Wanqiu could feel his unfathomable eyes staring intently at her.
The air seemed to freeze.
Taking advantage of the darkness, where no one could see anyone else, Jiang Wanqiu grew bolder and dared to move further into the kang (a heated brick bed), patting the empty space next to her.
"There's so much space on the kang (heated brick bed), why don't you... come up and sleep with me?"
In the silence, only a very soft chuckle could be heard from the man, a laugh that seemed to roll out from his chest, carrying an indescribable wildness.
"Jiang Wanqiu, you've got some nerve."
He called her by her full name, his tone revealing neither joy nor anger, yet it made Jiang Wanqiu's heart skip a beat.
"In the dead of night, a man and a woman alone, you want me to come upstairs?" he asked again, his voice even lower, as if interrogating or seducing.
Jiang Wanqiu's face flushed instantly; she was no longer cold.
Only then did she belatedly realize the blunder she had said, and she quickly tried to cover it up: "I...I didn't mean that! I was just really cold, I didn't mean anything else..."
"Oh?" The man's voice held a hint of amusement. "What do you mean by that?"
Before she could figure it out, the earthen bed beneath her suddenly sank, and Zhao Wenchang actually climbed up!
He didn't lie down; he just propped himself up on one leg, looking down at her like a wolf surveying its prey.
"Move a little further in."
Jiang Wanqiu shuddered and instinctively shrank into the innermost corner of the wall.
The man's tall body then lay down. Instead of covering her with her thin blanket, he pulled up his thick cotton quilt from the floor and covered both the woman and himself.
A faint scent of soap and a masculine aroma instantly enveloped her, domineeringly leaving no gaps.
Jiang Wanqiu felt a little stiff all over and carefully moved further in, trying to create some distance between herself and the man.
"Aren't you cold?" Zhao Wenchang turned to the side, his hot breath brushing against her earlobe. "Why are you hiding?"
"I... I'm not cold anymore."
The man laughed again, his laughter filled with undisguised mockery.
"It's too late."
No sooner had she finished speaking than a long, iron-like arm suddenly reached out, grabbed her waist, and pulled her into its embrace without any resistance.
"Ah!" Jiang Wanqiu exclaimed in surprise.
Her gossamer-thin nightgown was utterly useless against the man's rough fabric and burning chest. She could clearly feel the contours of his chest muscles, hard as stone, and the steady, powerful thumping of his heart.
“A girl from the south, daring to come to the Great Northern Wilderness alone, how could she survive without some guts?” Zhao Wenchang held her tightly in his arms, his chin resting on the top of her head. “But if you’re too bold, you’re easy prey for wolves.”
Jiang Wanqiu froze completely, her mind going blank.
The embrace was scalding hot, yet so warm that she couldn't bear to push it away.
“Now,” the man said in a commanding tone, his hot chest pressed against her back, “go to sleep.”
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Jiang Wanqiu woke up.
She was woken up by the heat.
The moment she opened her eyes, she was met with a pair of deep, dark eyes. Zhao Wenchang had woken up sometime earlier and was staring at her intently.
His arm was still wrapped around her waist like an iron band, a posture that was both domineering and intimate.
Jiang Wanqiu's face flushed crimson, almost to the point of bleeding. She struggled to get up, but the man held her down even tighter.
"Why are you running?" His voice was hoarse, with a hint of mockery. "Didn't you invite me up here last night?"
"I, I..."
Seeing that the woman was too embarrassed to speak, he released her, got off the ground, and quickly put on his clothes.
At the breakfast table, Zhao Xiaohua served Jiang Wanqiu a bowl of hot millet porridge, smiling broadly.
"Wanqiu, look, about this matter between you and Wenchang... how about we pick a date and get it done? I think the eighth day of next month would be good, it's an auspicious day!"
Jiang Wanqiu glanced at him, feeling both ashamed and angry as she recalled what happened last night, but still replied, "I'm fine with anything."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the courtyard gate was slammed open with a loud bang.
A boy, barely out of his teens, stumbled and crawled in, panting heavily.
"Auntie! Auntie, something terrible has happened!"
"Your family's Ping An... Your family's Ping An got into a fight with Wang Dazhuang from the east end of the village!! Oh my god, there's blood! Nobody can separate them!"
Zhao Wenchang slammed down the bowl in his hand, his brows furrowing instantly.
"Where?!"
"Right there, right on the ridge between the fields at the edge of the village!"
Before he finished speaking, Zhao Wenchang had already rushed out like a gust of wind.
Zhao Xiaohua and her grandmother panicked, muttering "this little devil" as they hurriedly followed.
Jiang Wanqiu looked on with curiosity.
Peace? Who is at peace?
She ran over with the crowd.
Before we even reached the field, we could see a group of people gathered around the edge of the field, pointing and gesturing.
In the center of the crowd, two small figures were wrestling and rolling around on the ground, raising clouds of dust.
"Stop hitting! Stop it now!"
"Oh dear, why are these two kids so stubborn!"
A group of adults surrounded the person, but they couldn't pull them apart for a long time.
Zhao Wenchang pushed through the crowd, strode forward, and without saying a word, grabbed one of the thin figures by the back of the neck and lifted him up like a chick.
Jiang Wanqiu took a closer look and recognized him instantly.
Isn't this the little boy who was sneaking around spying on her yesterday?
Then look at the one on the ground. He was tall and strong, but his face was bruised. When the adults helped him up, he was still howling at the top of his lungs.
"Wow—he hit me! Zhao Ping'an hit me!"
Zhao Ping'an, who was as skinny as a monkey, actually managed to overpower and beat up a fat guy!
Zhao Wenchang's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. He asked in a deep voice, "Zhao Ping'an, what happened?"
The mother of the chubby boy nicknamed "Dazhuang" immediately jumped out and started cursing at Zhao Ping'an.
"What's going on? I was leading my Dazhuang to pull weeds in the field, and this little wild child of yours came up and started hitting us! Wild animals are unruly when no one is watching them, just like a wolf cub!"
Zhao Wenchang's expression turned somewhat grim.
He looked down at Zhao Ping'an, whom he was holding, his smile fading, and his tone became stern.
"Is what she said true? Explain it yourself!"
Zhao Ping'an's eyes were red, and he stubbornly turned his head to the side, his lips pressed tightly together, not saying a word.
Wang Dazhuang, relying on the support of adults, cried even louder, his cries tinged with defiance.
"I wasn't wrong! He's an unwanted bastard!"
"His mother is dead! Now his father has found a new woman! Soon no one will want him!"
These words were like a knife, piercing Zhao Ping'an's heart.
He was about to rush forward again like a madman, but was stopped by Zhao Wenchang's angry shout.
"Zhao Ping'an! You stop right there!" Zhao Wenchang pulled the man back to his side. "When did I ever say I didn't want you?!"
Jiang Wanqiu, standing to the side, understood everything now.
Her heart skipped a beat; she was utterly shocked.
Zhao Wenchang...has children?
Such a big thing, how come her sister Jiang Wanxia didn't mention a single word to her?!
Zhao Xiaohua was also anxious because this child wasn't from Wenchang at all, but before she could explain...
At this moment, a man watching the commotion spoke up in a sarcastic tone.
"Oh, Wenchang, that's a nice way to put it."
"If you want to go home, why won't this child even go home? He stayed at his uncle's house all day yesterday and refused to leave!"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Ping'an's neck stiffened even more. He hastily wiped his face with his dirty sleeve, forcing back his tears.
Jiang Wanqiu turned her head and looked directly at Zhao Xiaohua, who had followed her.
"Auntie, what exactly is going on?"
Why didn't your family mention Ping An to me from the beginning?
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