Chapter 46
On April 18th, Zhou Yuan brought Chen Qing back to his parents' home. Although the two families lived very close to each other and treated each other like family, Zhou Yuan did not skimp on the proper etiquette.
"When did you prepare all this?" Chen Qing asked, looking at the large and small bags in Zhou Yuan's hands.
"It was prepared when we were getting ready for the wedding." Zhou Yuan helped him up. "Can you walk? If not, I'll carry you."
Chen Qing raised his hand and slapped his arm, ignoring him, and walked straight ahead. Zhou Yuan followed behind him, smiling as he kept up with his pace.
"Don't be angry. I listened to you last night." Since they had just broken their vows, Zhou Yuan stared intently at Chen Qing that evening.
The night of their wedding left a deep shadow on Chen Qing. Every night, Chen Qing would watch him warily. Zhou Yuan, of course, didn't go so far as to disregard Chen Qing's wishes. He just found it amusing to tease him until he was blushing before turning off the lights and holding him as they fell asleep.
Chen Qing walked a little faster. Grandma Sun was already waiting by the door. The yard had been swept early in the morning. Seeing them coming over, laughing and joking, she smiled and said, "You're back, so what are you bringing?"
Zhou Yuan put the things down before saying, "Mother, we still need to be polite."
His calling her "Mother" startled Aunt Sun, and it took her a while to come to her senses: "Alright, alright, what would you like to eat for lunch?"
Zhou Yuan didn't stand on ceremony with her: "How about we make some chicken soup? To help Aqing recover."
Chen Qing's eyes widened in disbelief. He hadn't expected Zhou Yuan to be so brazen as to say he wanted chicken soup, and even use him as a cover.
Seeing that Chen Qing indeed looked very weak, and not having seen him leave the house since the second day of their marriage, and looking at Zhou Yuan, such a vigorous young man, Grandma Sun knew why Chen Qing was so weak.
Without saying a word, she went to the chicken coop and grabbed a chicken. Chen Qing quickly went over and said there was no need to kill the chicken, as he had just seen Zhou Yuan bring over a piece of meat.
But Aunt Sun wouldn't listen: "You really need to take good care of yourself."
The aroma of chicken soup filled the entire courtyard, and Chen Qing was so ashamed that he wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground.
Zhou Yuan helped Grandma Sun tend the fire, saying as he did so, "Mom, I also want to buy chicks to raise, but I don't have anywhere to feed them there. Why don't you raise them here with me?"
"Keep them here with me?" Grandma Sun looked at him, then remembered something, "Your little pig is still with me, and you want to keep the chickens here too?"
Zhou Yuan then said, "I will raise my child here with you from now on."
Chen Qing happened to walk in from outside. Hearing Zhou Yuan talking about the child, he tried to run away again, but was spotted by Aunt Sun with sharp eyes: "Aqing, you two shouldn't stay in the kitchen. Go inside and sit for a while, and see if there's anything else that hasn't been packed up."
Chen Qing then led Zhou Yuan to his room. Seeing that the traces of his previous life here had not disappeared, Chen Qing felt somewhat at ease.
This was the second time Zhou Yuan had openly entered Chen Qing's room; the first time, he had taken Chen Qing away from here.
He sat on the edge of the bed, watching Chen Qing tidy up the almost empty cabinet. After a while, he stopped and turned to Zhou Yuan: "Let's leave these things here?"
Zhou Yuan raised an eyebrow at him: "If I make you angry, you'll go back to your parents' house?"
"No," Chen Qing said seriously. "I don't want my mother to be too lonely. My things are still here, so they can keep her company."
Zhou Yuan pulled him over: "Stay here." He found it a little funny, "It's not like I'm not letting you come back. You can come back here during the day to keep Mom company, and if I go out, you can come back here to sleep at night."
Chen Qing looked up: "Are you going out again?"
Zhou Yuan nodded: "We can't just sit at home and live off our savings, right? Once everything is back on track, I'd like to take you out for a walk."
Chen Qing's mind went blank for a moment. He looked at Zhou Yuan, somewhat puzzled.
“I think that during those years you were wandering, you must not have really appreciated the scenery around you, and you must have been living in fear every day. So I want you to come with me again. Do you want to go back to your hometown to see it?”
Chen Qing never thought about going back; ever since he sold himself, he never imagined he could go back.
"Don't you want to bring your father and stepfather here? Just like I brought my grandmother back."
Chen Qing looked up at him: "But I'm afraid..."
“I’m here, don’t be afraid,” Zhou Yuan told him firmly.
However, it's too early to talk about this now. After all, Zhou Yuan's escort agency is still in its infancy. He can only take Chen Qing back after everything is on track.
They talked for a while longer, and then Aunt Sun called them from outside to eat. Zhou Yuan helped Chen Qing out, and the air was filled with the rich aroma of chicken soup.
Grandma Sun gave Chen Qingsheng a bowl, sprinkled some scallions and cilantro on top, and also put a chicken leg in his bowl.
Chen Qing was a little embarrassed, so Aunt Sun said, "Don't worry about it. I'll go to the village in a few days and bring back some chicks to raise together. We can come back and kill them whenever we want to eat them."
He glanced at Zhou Yuan and knew it was Zhou Yuan's idea. He wasn't ungrateful, so he picked up the bowl and started drinking the chicken soup.
Grandma Sun is a very good cook, but Chen Qing doesn't want her to be too tired, so he always volunteers to cook.
"When are we going to the Li family?" Aunt Sun asked.
"I'm thinking of going tomorrow," Zhou Yuan said. "The results will be announced in a few days, and if Shuning passes, we'll have to hold a banquet."
They didn't understand anything about scientific expeditions; they had only heard about it briefly.
By the time their wedding was over, the wheat harvest was complete and the corn had all been planted. This was the first time Chen Qing had spent such a leisurely time, but he still couldn't stay idle and would occasionally go to the fields to check on things.
The family that helped them with the work this time had moved to Luohe Village a year earlier than Zhou Yuan. Because they were refugees, they were not allocated land in Luohe Village. Their livelihood depended on the men of the family doing odd jobs to barely make ends meet.
Because of the wedding, Zhou Yuan asked the village chief to find someone to help with the harvest. Although he wasn't there to supervise, he knew that the person he found would work quickly and well.
When it was time for bed, Chen Qing sat on the bed wiping his feet. Zhou Yuan went to pour out the foot bath water. After he came back, he hugged Chen Qing. After the lights were turned off, there was moonlight outside, and a layer of frost was sprinkled into the room.
As soon as he leaned in, Chen Qing instinctively felt a pain in his back. He tried to dodge but was held down: "I have something to tell you."
Chen Qing stopped moving, letting him hold him: "What is it?"
“This time, I asked the villagers to help with the wheat harvest. I saw that the family was quite diligent, so I simply rented out my land to them to farm.”
Chen Qing hummed in agreement, seemingly lost in thought.
“I have to go out. It’s too hard for you and Mom to work so hard farming so much land.” Zhou Yuan placed a hand on his hair. “I’ve seen them working. They are quite diligent and honest people.”
"Okay." Chen Qing looked at him. "It's up to you to decide."
Zhou Yuan frowned, sat up, and pulled Chen Qing to his side again: "What do you mean by 'it's up to me to decide'? Isn't this your home? These things are your family matters too."
Chen Qing scratched his head, then realized he seemed to have said something wrong: "I... I didn't react for a moment..."
Zhou Yuan ignored him and just stared at him intently.
He knew Zhou Yuan was angry because he hadn't realized they were already family and there was no need to be so clear about everything. But he really hadn't realized it. During his first year living in the Meng family, he had to watch Sun Da Niang's expression before he could even eat a meal.
It was only in the following years that he gradually came to regard the Meng family as his own. Now that he has moved to a different place, it is understandable that he cannot adjust to the change in time. Thinking about it this way, Chen Qing felt a little aggrieved.
"Don't be angry." Chen Qing awkwardly moved closer to him, then, suppressing her shyness, kissed him on the chin.
“Of course there should be punishment for doing something wrong.” Zhou Yuan remained unmoved. “A kiss won’t solve the problem.”
Chen Qing hung his head dejectedly and muttered to himself, "You have to give me some time, right?"
Zhou Yuan kissed his forehead: "It's been so long, from when I told you my thoughts to now, it's been three days since we got married, and you still haven't gotten used to it?" As he spoke, he even sounded a little more aggrieved than Chen Qing.
Chen Qing couldn't bear to see him like this and felt somewhat at a loss.
"Then you need to do something to make up for it, right?"
Chen Qing felt his ears burning. For no reason, he thought of the pamphlets he had read with Li Xin. If he were to do what the pamphlets described, he would never want to face anyone again.
"I……"
Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Yuan said, "I'm going to town tomorrow, but I told Zhang Xu's family to come over and discuss the land lease."
Zhang Xu was the family that helped them harvest wheat this time.
"I don't have time tomorrow, so you'll have to go and talk to them yourself."
Chen Qing didn't quite understand what he meant: "Huh?"
He then realized that he had misunderstood. The compensation Zhou Yuan mentioned was not what he had imagined. Chen Qing blushed deeply.
Zhou Yuan glanced at the bedside curtains, not noticing Chen Qing's expression. He pulled Chen Qing over and said, "We don't need too much rent. The income from the land has already been used to pay taxes, so taking another 20% is enough. We don't need much; we're all poor people."
“But, but…” Chen Qing wanted to say something more, “I can’t.”
"You haven't even done it yet, how can you think you can't do it?" Zhou Yuan grabbed his hand and kissed it. "Just tell them our requirements. If they have any objections, you don't have to agree. We can discuss it again when I get back."
Chen Qing felt a chill run down his spine at the thought of discussing these things with strangers: "Oh, I'll give it a try."
Since they were sharing a bed, Chen Qing knew what he was thinking the moment he moved his eyes: "Don't think about asking your mother for help. I'll talk to her about it."
Chen Qing's plan backfired. He got out of Zhou Yuan's arms and went to sleep in the corner of the bed, leaving only the back of his head for Zhou Yuan to see.
Zhou Yuan leaned closer, and by the moonlight he could only see Chen Qing's reddened earlobes. He didn't know why Chen Qing had suddenly turned red again, but after recalling their conversation, he quickly understood everything.
He chuckled, turned off the light, and pressed himself against Chen Qing. Chen Qing tried to struggle, but Zhou Yuan's voice turned deep: "What were you thinking just now?"
Chen Qing ignored him, so Zhou Yuan pressed closer and gently bit his earlobe. His hot breath fell on Chen Qing's neck. Chen Qing had already run to a corner, but Zhou Yuan still caught him.
Fortunately, Zhou Yuan knew his limits and didn't let Chen Qing faint like he did on their wedding night. After fetching water to wipe Chen Qing's body, he hugged Chen Qing tightly. Chen Qing's hand touched the bruises on his chest and back, which were old wounds from years ago.
Chen Qing raised his head and looked at Zhou Yuan's body. There were many such marks on Zhou Yuan's body, and Chen Qing felt that each one was shocking.
Zhou Yuan held his hand: "Don't touch me like that."
Chen Qing then asked, "Did it hurt at the time?"
"I'd forgotten." Zhou Yuan kissed his hand again. "If you still don't want to sleep, how about we do it again?"
Chen Qing immediately stopped. He was still not used to having someone share a bed with him. When he slept with Li Xin before, he always slept very lightly, partly because Li Xin was a restless sleeper.
Now, sleeping with Zhou Yuan, who is very tall and almost takes up the entire bed, Chen Qing has been consciously sleeping with his whole body on top of Zhou Yuan almost every morning when he wakes up.
"I won't touch you, go to sleep." Zhou Yuan gently patted Chen Qing's back with his large hands. Chen Qing quickly became drowsy, and after he fell into a deep sleep, Zhou Yuan pulled him into his arms.
Chen Qing is short, so no matter how you arrange things, you can fill the space around him.
He soon had a good night's sleep.
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