Chapter 130
Gu Xi reached out and hugged him.
She couldn't express the fear in her heart, the fear that her existence would change his fate.
Especially when she saw the injury on his arm, she couldn't help but wonder, was he injured at this time in her past life? Could this injury be because she survived this life and interfered in his life?
"Xi Xi!"
Shen Mingzheng sensed something, forcefully lifted her face, and saw the confusion and bewilderment in her eyes.
His heart softened instantly, and he felt incredibly guilty, thinking that his injury had frightened her. He lowered his head, gently stroking her neck, and said in an extremely tender voice, "Xixi, I'm so sorry for making you worry."
Gu Xi leaned against him, her heart softening at the apology in his voice. She quickly blinked away the tears in her eyes and said, "Big brother, you don't need to apologize to me. You didn't do anything wrong."
He was a soldier loyal to his country and his people, and he never failed to live up to the uniform he wore.
He did nothing wrong and doesn't need to apologize.
"It's my fault for making you worry," Shen Mingzheng said gently. "I'll be more careful next time."
Gu Xi paused for a moment, then reached out and gently stroked his injured arm, asking, "How did you get hurt here?"
"...I was injured while rescuing someone."
Gu Xi gave an "oh" and didn't ask any more questions. She held his injured hand and seemed a little lost in thought.
Shen Mingzheng's eyes darkened slightly as he lowered his head to kiss her. When her unfocused eyes focused and she could only look at him, he took advantage of the situation and deepened the kiss.
"Big brother..."
Gu Xi was only dazed for a moment before she immediately remembered his arm injury. How could she let him act recklessly? She hurriedly pushed him away, but she was afraid of hurting his arm injury as she did so. She was so flustered that she had no time to think about anything else and focused all her attention on him.
"Are you alright? Don't do anything reckless..." she warned fiercely.
Shen Mingzheng let her push him away, a smile unconsciously appearing on his face.
She was beautiful, with bright eyes and white teeth, giving off a well-behaved and delicate impression. Even when she was fierce, she wasn't intimidating at all; instead, she looked like a little rabbit deliberately baring its teeth, leaving only cuteness.
"You're still laughing!" Gu Xi was angered by his attitude. She glared at him, then carefully looked at his arm and breathed a sigh of relief when she found that the gauze was not bleeding.
"It's nothing, just a superficial injury, it will heal quickly," Shen Mingzheng assured with a smile.
Gu Xi persisted: "How fast is 'soon'?"
"Hmm...it'll only be a few days."
Just as he was about to lean closer, Gu Xi took a deep breath, reached out and placed her hand on his chin, straightened his clothes, then straightened her own clothes, and then pulled him out the door.
He's been sleeping for most of the day, so he must be hungry. We need to get him something to eat.
Just as I went outside, I saw Xu Yuansheng pushing his bicycle in. There was a chicken coop tied to the back of the bicycle, with two chickens inside.
"Brother-in-law, you're awake!"
Seeing Shen Mingzheng wake up, Xu Yuansheng called out happily, turned around and took the chickens out of the coop, stuffing one into the chicken coop and carrying the other to the kitchen to kill and make soup later.
Gu Xi took out the lunch that she had left for Shen Mingzheng from the pot, and said, "We didn't know when you would wake up, so we left some food for you... Brother, how long has it been since you slept? Yuansheng said you came back this morning. You didn't sleep at all last night, did you? You seemed to be sleeping very soundly. I didn't see you wake up when I went in."
He was always very alert; whenever she entered the room, he would immediately open his eyes, whether he was asleep or not.
But when she went into his room at noon today to wake him up for lunch, she found him fast asleep and didn't want to wake him, so she let him continue sleeping.
Shen Mingzheng mumbled, "Actually, I dozed off for a while in the car on the way back last night..."
In the past, when I had a mission, it was common to go for days without sleep, and even when I did sleep, it was just a short nap.
However, it's best not to tell her these things, lest she feel upset again, especially since you still have an injury on your hand, which could easily make her cry.
Shen Mingzheng was also hungry, so he sat at the small table in the kitchen to eat. Gu Xi sat next to him to talk and boil water so that they could kill the chicken and scald it later.
Xu Yuansheng bought the chicken from villagers in a nearby village, mainly to help Shen Mingzheng recover. He needed to eat more nutritious food to help his injuries heal faster.
At dinner, Xu Yuansheng ladled a large bowl of chicken soup in front of Shen Mingzheng, which also contained a large chicken leg, clearly meant for him.
Shen Mingzheng was somewhat amused and exasperated, and said, "You all eat too, there's no need for this."
"Eat as much as you like, we have some too. We'll kill another one tomorrow," Xu Yuansheng said generously. "I'll go to the market in town to buy more the day after tomorrow."
When the town's market was mentioned, Gu Xi's expression shifted slightly, but with her two younger sisters present, she didn't ask any further questions.
Xu Huaisheng asked curiously, "Brother-in-law, have all the bad guys been caught?"
Shen Mingzheng hummed in agreement and gave a brief explanation without going into details. The Xu sisters, knowing better, didn't ask any further questions. They were happy as long as they knew that the criminal gang that trafficked women and children had been wiped out.
A little later, Gu Yuanyang and Ji Ya brought Gu Tuantuan over with a first-aid kit.
Ji Ya came to help Shen Mingzheng change his dressing, so he didn't need to go to the clinic to do it.
After Ji Ya changed the dressing, Gu Xi said gratefully, "Sister-in-law, thank you."
"No need to thank me, we're all family," Ji Ya said with a smile, then gave them some instructions, which Gu Xi and her sisters carefully noted down.
Gu Yuanyang also told Shen Mingzheng to take good care of himself, because his superiors had granted him a few days off to recuperate at home after his injury.
"Old Shen, please don't get hurt again in the future, so that Xixi won't worry."
He glanced at his sister who was talking to his wife, and remembered how Ji Ya's eyes were red when he came home injured before. He knew it was the same, and his sister would probably feel bad too when she saw Shen Mingzheng's injuries.
Shen Mingzheng agreed and whispered a few words to him.
Gu Yuanyang's expression immediately turned serious, and he said, "I will be careful."
He couldn't afford to be careless; it concerned his sister… Considering that the military had not only successfully dismantled a massive human trafficking ring but had even uncovered a spy lurking within the country…
Shen Mingzheng was indeed injured while saving someone.
It wasn't about rescuing people from criminal gangs, but from spies.
The other party had been lurking in the country for a long time and was said to have done many horrific things. They were the notorious spy "Red Fox" and even possessed sophisticated weapons. If Shen Mingzheng hadn't reacted quickly, the informant would probably have been killed by them...
Gu Yuanyang dared not underestimate the intelligence gathering abilities of those spies and agents. If they found out that the military's operation was caused by Gu Xi, Gu Xi would definitely be targeted.
Regardless, we still need to be careful.
**
Shen Mingzheng had an arm injury and didn't shower that night, only wiping his body with hot water.
Fortunately, the weather is cold now, so it's okay to go a day without showering.
As Gu Xi wiped his body, she frowned and said, "I heard you took a shower when you came back this morning. Why didn't you wake me up so I could help you wash? What if your wound got wet?"
Shen Mingzheng looked at her gently and said, "No need for that trouble, I can manage on my own. The wound hasn't come into contact with water."
She was still asleep, fast asleep, and he couldn't bear to wake her.
Getting injured was commonplace for him; he had long since learned how to take care of himself and knew how to avoid getting his wounds wet, so he didn't need her help.
Gu Xi glanced at him and couldn't help but snort, thinking that this man was just putting on a brave face.
She said unhappily, "Actually, you shouldn't have taken a bath. If you get hurt in the future, don't force yourself to take a bath." Of course, it's best not to get hurt in the first place.
"I haven't showered for days, I'm very dirty. If I don't wash myself clean, you won't let me sleep in bed." Shen Mingzheng knew she was a clean person, and if he came back all dirty and dared to lie down on the bed, she would definitely dislike him.
“You can sleep in the study,” Gu Xi said matter-of-factly. “I won’t mind if you sleep in the bed in the study. Just wash the sheets and blankets in the study afterwards.”
Shen Mingzheng: "...Okay, I'll sleep in the study from now on."
Anyway, she doesn't sleep in their room while waiting for him. Without a wife to hold him, he can sleep anywhere.
When Gu Xi wiped his body, she saw that he was covered with all kinds of wounds, including two very dangerous and fatal scars on his chest and abdomen. She could imagine how dangerous the situation must have been, and her heart couldn't help but feel heavy.
She didn't say anything. After wiping his body and helping him put on his clothes, she took the water out of the basin and poured it out.
When she returned to her room, she saw Shen Mingzheng sitting on the bed waiting for her.
She walked over slowly, not throwing herself at him as she usually did, and said, "You sleep inside tonight, and I'll sleep outside, so I won't hurt your injured hand." After thinking for a moment, she was still worried, "Never mind, I'll sleep in the study."
Upon hearing this, Shen Mingzheng reached out and pulled her onto the bed.
It's just a minor arm injury, why would we need to sleep in separate beds? It's not even close to the point of needing to sleep in separate beds!
He resolutely refused to sleep in a separate bed from his wife.
Afraid of accidentally hurting his injured hand, Gu Xi obediently let him pull her onto the bed, but still kept her distance from him, unlike before when she would lean against him to sleep.
As she lay down, she said, "You're not allowed to hug me tonight. Be careful of your arm injury."
She was very confident in her sleeping posture, which was trained by her two younger sisters since she was a child. She could maintain one position until dawn and sleep peacefully. She was just afraid that he would ignore his hand injury and insist on coming over to hug her while she slept.
Shen Mingzheng responded readily, but after she lay down, he turned his body to face her.
Gu Xi looked nervously at his injured hand, afraid it would reach out.
However, it still reached out and placed itself on her, making her afraid to move.
"Xixi, I'm fine." Shen Mingzheng couldn't help but feel sorry for her when he saw her looking like she was facing a major crisis.
Gu Xi gave an "oh," not quite believing it. Looking at him under the bedside lamp, she noticed that he had lost a lot of weight since returning from his month-long trip. His features had become more defined and sculpted, and the extra weight he had gained recently was gone.
She reached out and touched his face, feeling the rough skin. So she got up, put on her clothes, and went to get some face cream to apply to his face.
She didn't care what he did to her when they were out, but now that they were home, she had to take care of his skin so that his face wouldn't crack when the weather got cold.
Last winter, she was the one who made him apply face cream to protect his skin, but he complained that the face cream smelled too good.
After applying the face cream, Gu Xi reached out to touch his waist, intending to pinch it to measure how much weight he had lost, but his body fat was too low to pinch any flesh at all.
They are completely different from me.
Shen Mingzheng felt a little agitated by her touching him, so he simply took her hand in his own.
Gu Xi paused for a moment. Although she had missed him a lot during this time, he was still injured. She told him to behave as an injured person and not to think about anything else.
She leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Brother, I heard that Uncle Qiu was reported for speculation and profiteering and was arrested by the police... Did you know about this? Was he part of a criminal gang or a spy?"
Shen Mingzheng's expression remained unchanged, and he took the opportunity to pull her closer to his arms: "He's in cahoots with those human trafficking gangs, but he's only responsible for keeping an eye on the military's movements and relaying messages to them to facilitate their actions..."
Gu Xi suddenly realized that those people often appeared at Uncle Qiu's house, so they must be connected.
She recalled how, when she bought meat from Uncle Qiu, he would casually strike up a conversation with her several times, and she would pretend to be a sent-down youth from the farm. Luckily, Cheng Yuanyuan had taken her there; Cheng Yuanyuan was also a sent-down youth, which served as proof of her identity, so she wasn't targeted at the time…
If they found out she was a military dependent, who knows what they would do.
"What are you thinking about?" Shen Mingzheng asked astutely.
Gu Xi obediently told him about the tests Qiu Sanshu had given her before. After hearing this, Shen Mingzheng was glad that she was clever and hadn't let anyone know that she was a military dependent.
"Brother, are there really spies in town? Are the spies connected to those people?" Gu Xi continued to ask, this question on her mind.
Shen Mingzheng was reluctant to discuss this with her, and vaguely said, "There are spies, and they do have connections with those criminal gangs. They're posing as members of human trafficking groups, taking advantage of their connections..."
Gu Xi finally realized.
That explains it. The military acted swiftly this time, catching Uncle Qiu off guard and capturing him. Naturally, the others were also exposed, leading to the discovery of the hidden spies...
"How's the situation in town now? Can I go to the market? I haven't been to the market in a month," Gu Xi asked him. "If it's inconvenient, I won't go to town this year."
Perhaps going to the county town would be a good alternative, although it would take longer to travel there, but that's not a big deal.
Shen Mingzheng said, "Go if you want. The town is very safe now."
"That's good!" Gu Xi immediately perked up. "Winter is almost here, and I need to start stocking up on food for the winter. If I can't go to the town market and Yuan Sheng has to go alone, she'll have a hard time... Big brother, actually, the training I've done over the past six months has been quite useful. I was able to take care of those who bullied Fang Suihua this time thanks to my stamina. It's a pity I didn't get to use the grappling techniques you taught me..."
She was so angry at the time that she didn't think of any grappling techniques; she just wanted to punch those people to pieces.
Fortunately, I was still rational enough to know not to use too much force, in case I killed someone...
She will definitely be traumatized.
Shen Mingzheng recalled the scene of the human traffickers they found tied up in the woods, and his expression became somewhat strange.
He turned to look at her and saw the pure joy on her face, her eyes crinkling into crescents as she smiled. It was hard to believe that the person who had so ruthlessly stripped the human traffickers naked, torn their clothes into strips, and tied them up was her.
When they saw the pitiful state of those people, everyone fell silent.
During this period, some people in the know looked at him with strange eyes.
"Big brother, what's wrong?"
This time it was Gu Xi's turn to be puzzled, wondering why he had drifted off into thought while they were talking.
Shen Mingzheng stroked her neck, then leaned in and kissed her.
Although his wife is somewhat ruthless, she is usually very quiet and well-behaved; this time was just an exception.
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