Chapter 53 - The Grand Finale
The two then spent over half a month in this shameless manner. Two rooms, a study, and even once in the kitchen…
Just thinking about her pinned against the wall, covering her mouth tightly and not daring to make a sound...
Ning Yao slapped her forehead hard, trying to banish all those strange images.
Feeling guilty, she secretly glanced at the people on the street, checking if anyone was giving her strange looks.
Ning Yao got up early today, went to the Chunqiu Newspaper Office, collected her payment for her article, and is on her way home.
She was walking rather slowly, struggling with a problem.
Ning Yao was thinking about how to tell Ning Ge when she got back that she still wanted to go to the battlefield to take pictures and continue working as a war correspondent.
After all, the two had been reunited after a long separation and had even gotten married. She hesitated, wondering if she could no longer be so willful and disregard her own life.
But if she didn't go... Ning Yao felt that she would still feel regretful.
Hesitating like this, Ning Yao returned home.
"You're back? Why did it take so long?" Ning Yiwen heard the sound of the door opening from the kitchen, came out, and saw Ning Yao enter. He said softly, "Dinner is ready."
"Mmm," Ning Yao replied softly, watching Ning Yiwen bring out the prepared food and place it under the osmanthus tree, but she hesitated to walk to the table.
"What's wrong?" Ning Yiwen looked up at her.
"No," Ning Yao took a deep breath, raised the corners of her mouth, and smiled, "I went to the newspaper office today, guess how much I got paid for my article?"
Ning Yiwen raised an eyebrow: "Guess? Is there a prize for guessing correctly?"
The words "Guess correctly and win a prize... Prize..." were so prominent that they reminded Ning Yao of how he had so despicably devoured the "prize" a few nights ago.
He quickly shook his head. "No need to guess, I'll tell you myself."
She went to the kitchen, got a bowl, filled two bowls with rice, sat down to eat with him, and never mentioned the royalties again.
However, aside from mentioning royalties, other things could still be brought up. Ning Yao glanced at him and asked, "Brother Ning, have you thought about what you want to do next?"
She planned to play it safe and test the waters first.
Ning Yiwen's brows relaxed, and he nodded, saying, "Yes. I've thought it through."
Since Ning Yao successfully comforted him and he let go of his inner turmoil, he has thought about many things.
His greatest strength is his ability to foresee the future. Therefore, the best approach is to subtly and gradually convey this through writing.
Besides this, he could also learn about many future battles and relatively safe areas. This was also a good thing for their safety.
In the time following his decision, he spent some time on serious matters.
Ning Yao: "?"
She gestured for him to continue.
Ning Yiwen: "I submitted several articles to several different newspapers using a new pen name, Yu Sansi. I will continue to use this pen name to write articles, and strive to make the pen name Yu Sansi resound throughout the country in my limited life."
He paused for a moment, then added, "As for the royalties I earn using this pen name, I've already thought about it."
A few days ago I visited St. Andrew's Hospital. The number of war wounded there is increasing, and they've also been treating many people accidentally injured by stray bullets. I plan to donate most of my royalties to their relief fund.
However, if they donated too much of the royalties, their quality of life could decline at any time. Therefore, Ning Yiwen was still hesitant about how much to donate.
Upon hearing this, Ning Yao's eyes widened, and she exclaimed, "Great! Let's donate them all!"
Ning Yiwen: ? ? ?
He stopped eating and looked at Ning Yao in confusion, "You donated everything? If you donated everything, what will we eat?"
Ning Yao patted her chest and said, "I'll take care of you."
As she spoke, she put down her chopsticks, moved to a different spot from opposite Ning Yiwen to next to him, and blinked her eyes as she said, "Brother Ning, let me tell you, I've realized these past few years that people don't need that much money to live! It's just food and drink, and since you've already bought the little courtyard we live in, we don't even need to worry about where to live. We have enough money, so we can just donate the rest."
“Donate it all. You’re living off your meager royalties…” Ning Yiwen said, then suddenly stopped.
Then, an idea popped into his mind. He narrowed his eyes, and looking at Ning Yao's appearance when she returned with her payment for her article, he frowned and said, "You still want to be a war correspondent?"
If Ning Yao were to submit articles, the remuneration for other types of articles would be very low. The only type of remuneration that could support the two of them would be that of war correspondents.
"Brother Ning, you're amazing! You guessed everything!" Ning Yao smiled obsequiously, wrapping her arms around his. "Is it okay, Brother Ning?"
Ning Yiwen fell silent, gazing quietly at Ning Yao.
When Ning Yao felt a chill run down her spine, Ning Yiwen calmly said, "What if I disagree?"
Ning Yao lowered her eyes, pursed her lips, and remained silent in her protest.
"If I still disagree in the end, will you secretly run away by yourself?" Ning Yiwen continued to ask.
"Of course not! What are you thinking!" Ning Yao quickly said, "I promised you... but I will continue. The book says, 'First cry, then make a scene, then threaten suicide,' and there's also Sun Tzu's Thirty-Six Stratagems. I thought, I'll try them all, and surely one of them will work."
Ning Yiwen laughed in anger, "You? You dare to play the 'crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide' game with me?"
Ning Yao gave an awkward, low laugh. "What else can I do? There's nothing I can do."
Ning Yiwen gave her a deep look, raised his chin, and said, "Sit back in your original seat and finish your meal first."
Ning Yao followed his instructions perfectly, returning to her seat, picking up her bowl and chopsticks, quickly finishing her meal, then sitting back down and tightly gripping his arm. "I'm done eating. So, will you agree?"
Ning Yiwen didn't turn to look at her, nor did she pull her arm back. She simply held her bowl quietly and ate all the food on the table, bite by bite.
Ning Yao watched him nervously until he finished his meal, then immediately swept up the plates and bowls on the table, saying, "I'll clean up."
"Put it down," Ning Yiwen said calmly.
Ning Yao: "..." She put the bowl and plate back on the table. She looked at him like a partridge.
A hint of amusement flashed in Ning Yiwen's eyes, but he didn't show it on his face. "Come with me."
He led her back to the study.
The mess in the study from yesterday had been completely cleaned up by this morning, and Ning Yao quietly followed behind him.
“Sit down,” Ning Yiwen said.
But Ning Yao was clearly taken aback when she heard this.
The study had long been restored to its state before Uncle Zhao left, with two desks facing each other and a whole wall of books in between.
At this moment, Ning Yiwen was sitting in the chair behind his own desk, the closest chair... Ning Yao looked up and saw that it was the chair behind her desk, which was opposite his own.
Wouldn't it be inconvenient to talk like that?
Ning Yao looked at Ning Yiwen with a question in her eyes.
Ning Yiwen smiled and said teasingly, "Where to sit? You decide."
With that expression and that tone, Ning Yao bit her lower lip and, without a moment's hesitation, plopped down on his lap.
With such unrestrained movements, Ning Yao naturally became less reserved as well. As soon as she sat down, she buried her face in Ning Yiwen's chest and said coquettishly, "Brother Ning, please let me go. I promise I'll come back safely."
"How can you guarantee it?" Ning Yiwen wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her chin with the other. Without looking at her, he brought his head close to her neck and sniffed lightly.
On the battlefield, bullets and blades have no eyes, and stray bullets can hit at any time. No one can guarantee that they will escape unscathed every time.
Ning Yao couldn't either; she got stuck.
"Tell me, what guarantees do you have?" Ning Yiwen said casually, his eyes fixed on her small earlobe.
Ning Yao thought a lot, but couldn't figure out what she could use to guarantee her personal safety. But if she couldn't guarantee it, how could she convince Brother Ning to let her do this job...?
Lost in thought, she suddenly felt her left earlobe being sucked. A shiver ran from the top of her head to her tailbone. She gasped, shrank her neck, and said timidly, "Brother Ning, we're talking about serious business..."
"You think about your important business, but this is important business for me too..." Ning Yiwen replied indistinctly, not only not letting go, but instead taking the small and cute earlobe deeper into his mouth and gently nibbling at it.
Ning Yao's mind went blank for a moment, and her whole body went limp. She could only lean weakly against him, her hands clutching the collar of the man in front of her.
Only the mouth remained, weakly resisting, "If you keep this up... I can't think straight..."
But when he spoke, his words were weak and listless, lacking any strength whatsoever.
Ning Yiwen chuckled, but ultimately stepped back, letting her off the hook for the time being. "Why are you still like this? You have no resistance at all."
Ning Yao's earlobe escaped unscathed, and her mind returned to normal. She didn't get up, but remained seated, pointing her index finger at his chest, and said playfully, "I just have no resistance to you! What's wrong with that?!"
Ning Yiwen raised his hand and grasped her index finger. "Okay, okay... but Ning Yao, do you really like this profession?"
Even now, he finds it hard to imagine that someone would enjoy watching the battlefield, a place of flowing blood and endless gunfire.
“I do like it,” Ning Yao sighed, then wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. “But I can’t say I like the place. It’s just, how should I put it, I just feel that I should risk my life to photograph these things, so that those who have never seen them and people in the future can see how cruel war is and how precious peace is.”
In fact, Ning Yao never thought that her behavior was a great one. She always felt that she was just an ordinary little person among the masses, who just happened to have enough camera sensitivity and writing skills.
She thought she should just follow her talents and do what she could.
"Archive history with a camera..." This phrase echoed in Ning Yiwen's mind.
He lowered his head and looked at the person leaning against him. The person was only five feet tall, yet he contained an energy that he could not imagine.
The study fell silent immediately.
Ning Yao waited silently for Ning Yiwen's reply, while Ning Yiwen was thinking about their future.
After a long silence, a clear voice echoed from the quiet study, "You can go. But..."
Before he could finish the word "but," Ning Yao, who had been listening intently, interrupted him with a scream: "Yay! Brother Ning, I love you so much! Haha..."
Ning Yao was overjoyed. She hugged Ning Yiwen's head and kissed him on the lips repeatedly, like a chick pecking at rice.
In the end, Ning Yiwen had no choice but to press down on her shoulder, "Alright. Let me finish."
Ning Yao nodded, "Go ahead! If you tell me to go east, I will never go west; if you tell me to hit a wall, I will never jump into the river."
Ning Yiwen: "..." Who told her to run into a wall? She paused for a moment, then deliberately said the opposite of what she meant, "What if I told you not to go?"
Ning Yao's eyes widened. "Didn't you already agree? How can you go back on your word!"
Ning Yiwen shook his head. "Forget it, I won't tease you anymore. My only condition is that I go with you."
Ning Yao was taken aback. "Going together? Why should we go together? What if something happens..."
Ning Yiwen interrupted her without hesitation, saying, "Then let's go together."
"But……"
"No buts."
Ning Yao pouted, "How can you be like this..." Her eyes were slightly red, and she turned her face away, not wanting to look at the person in front of her.
His actions stirred up waves of emotion within me.
She finally understood why Brother Ning had repeatedly opposed her going to the battlefield and becoming a war correspondent.
So this is what it feels like to be worried and fearful.
"What's wrong?" Ning Yiwen lifted her chin, forcing her to turn her head and meet his eyes. He was also taken aback when he saw her slightly red eyes.
He then smiled helplessly, wiping away the tears from the corner of her eyes with his thumb, and sighed, "What a crybaby. If I don't agree to your request, you cry to me. Now that I agree, you still cry to me. It seems you really are made of water."
Ning Yao knew he was deliberately teasing her, but she still couldn't help but retort, "I didn't cry."
Hearing this, Ning Yiwen raised an eyebrow and showed her his thumb, "Then tell me, where did this water come from?"
Ning Yao: "Maybe it was your thumb that cried."
Ning Yiwen clicked his tongue and didn't argue with her. "Fine, it was my thumb that cried. Then, Miss Ning Yao, would you agree to let me go with you to be a war correspondent?"
"Can I refuse?" Ning Yao glanced at him, but then softened her tone. "Brother Ning, am I being selfish?"
She frowned, thinking it over and over, and still felt that she might have been a little selfish.
Ning Yiwen shook his head and pulled her closer. "You and I are husband and wife. It's right for us to be of one mind. As for where our hearts go, they will naturally go where we both want them to. So there's no such thing as selfishness."
"If what I want to do isn't war correspondent, but stealing, robbing, kidnapping, or deceiving, would you still follow me?" Ning Yao suddenly asked.
"You? You think you can steal, rob, kidnap, cheat, and deceive?" Ning Yiwen laughed as if he had heard a joke.
He recalled the past and said with a smile, "Do you remember when you were twelve and working as a waiter? A customer left some money on the table for you. You didn't know it, so you took the money and chased after the customer for several blocks just to return it..."
"Alright, alright, stop talking." Ning Yao was embarrassed and raised her hand to cover his mouth.
She naturally remembered that incident. Leaving money on the table was a traditional tipping custom, but back then she was new and didn't understand these customs. She simply assumed the customer had left money behind and naturally chased after them.
In the end, the customer was both amused and exasperated. Seeing how she was chasing after him, sweating profusely, he gave her some more.
It made her think that she ran away not to return the money, but because she thought the money was too little and was chasing after her to ask for a little more.
The two finally opened up to each other. The sunlight outside the window was just right. Ning Yiwen looked at Ning Yao, raised his hand and touched the scar on her temple. He didn't tell her that he had actually met Sun He'an.
From Sun He'an, he learned that Sun He'an had worked with her as a war correspondent for a year, and that she had rejected Sun He'an.
He had actually thought about it since then. If he could find her one day, and if she was still determined to be a war correspondent, then he would also try to be with her, to live and die together, to support each other on the edge of life and death.
Thinking of this, he gently kissed her palm.
With a tingling sensation, Ning Yao jerked her hand back as if she had been electrocuted. When she looked up, she was met with his deep, dark eyes that sent chills down her spine. Alarm bells rang in her mind, and she immediately tried to get up.
But how could their movements be faster than Ning Yiwen, whose thieving intentions had already been aroused?
He raised his hand and locked Ning Yao's waist, then turned his head and took her earlobe, which he hadn't tasted before, into his mouth.
Ning Yao immediately went limp, as if a snake had been caught by its vital spot.
Finally, she was pinned down on the desk in the study, where Ning Yiwen feasted on her.
*
Later, when they weren't on the battlefield, the two would return to this small courtyard together, sharing meals and whispering sweet nothings. They would study and write together.
Sometimes they might argue, but for two people who are already deeply in love, bickering is just a fun part of married life. They always make up before they get out of bed.
Occasionally, Ning Yao would accompany Ning Yiwen to the St. Anne's Hospital on the outskirts of the city.
Initially, they went there simply to donate money and check on the situation at St. Andrew's Hospital. But later, as they became more familiar with the people at St. Andrew's Hospital, the two of them also began to help the doctors and nurses and treat the injured.
Over time, I actually learned quite a bit about medical first aid and nursing care. Later on, helping out at St. Andrew's Hospital became my main activity when I wasn't busy.
As a result, over time, she and Ning Yiwen often not only took photos on the battlefield with their cameras, but also helped clean up the battlefield and even provided emergency treatment to the wounded on the spot.
Their reputation gradually spread, and they became a well-known war couple.
Even later, during the warlord civil war, everyone tacitly avoided harming them. After all, they were fighting because of political differences, not because they were reckless.
Therefore, despite frequently entering and leaving the battlefield during this war-torn era, the two miraculously survived in their own way.
She has a son who will stay with her until old age.
(The Finale)
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Author's Note: Hehe, I like this ending. So happy! After reading, could you please give my new novel, "Legal Cohabitation," a little star? Thank you, readers. This story ends here. If there are any extra chapters, they will only be letters between the two of them; there shouldn't be any others.
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