It started raining outside the window sometime earlier.
Zhou Jiuzhen stared blankly at the woman's overly charming face, his clothes falling slowly like snowflakes.
Ling Huanwu fell into the bucket of water, and the warm, floating water instantly enveloped her.
Large raindrops pounded against the guesthouse window, splashing up a hazy trail of water, like ink of varying shades spreading across the glass.
The hot water in the bathtub emitted wisps of white steam, making the small space warm and cozy. Fine water droplets condensed on the edge of the wooden tub, dripping down the tub wall and leaving a small dark stain on the cement floor.
Amidst the pattering of raindrops outside.
The man's calloused hands stroked the woman's reddened shoulder with a gentle touch, as if he were handling a rare piece of porcelain.
The seaweed-like strands of hair floating on the water swirled with the ripples, sometimes loose and sometimes gathered, like black butterflies being chased by the wind.
The wooden planks at the bottom of the bucket were swollen from being soaked in water, occasionally emitting a faint creaking sound, which, mixed with the increasingly heavy rain outside the window, sounded like someone beating a muffled drum in the dark.
In the steam, the woman's hair clung to her neck, trembling gently from the man's breath, like willow branches wet with rain, entwining and hooking around his hand.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning cleaved through the clouds, instantly illuminating the overlapping figures inside the room, followed by a deafening clap of thunder, which startled the water in the bucket, causing it to shake violently.
The rain lasted for a long time, only gradually stopping when the sky began to lighten. The water in the bucket had long since cooled down.
Two intertwined red ropes floated in the bathtub, covered in moisture, like moonlight that had stayed up all night, finally exuding a damp tenderness in the morning light.
Ling Huanwu was wrapped up like a dumpling and placed back on the bed. Only then did Zhou Jiuzhen carefully and attentively help her get dressed.
Once everything was ready, the two, their faces flushed, exchanged a nervous glance and smiled.
"I... I should be able to succeed, right?"
Zhou Jiuzhen nodded and squeezed her hand. "I think it should be okay. You should take me into the space later too. I'm afraid you won't be able to get out later!"
Ling Huanwu was a little nervous; of course, she was also afraid.
She closed her eyes and tried several times.
I tried thinking, brainstorming, and even shouting "Open Sesame," but the space remained completely unresponsive.
Ling Huanwu was somewhat frustrated. "It's all my fault. I don't even know if they have anything to eat in there, since there isn't much food stored up inside."
Zhou Jiuzhen frowned and suggested, "How about we try again? Maybe I didn't perform well just now."
Ling Huanwu glanced out the window and glared at him speechlessly. "It's almost four o'clock. We need to take a boat to the dock. If we go too late, the ferry will have already left."
“You’re right,” Zhou Jiuzhen tightened his grip on her hand, his breath slightly unsteady. “Perhaps the location is wrong. If we go back to the village, the space will probably open.”
Ling Huanwu's face darkened; her back started hurting again for no apparent reason.
So she began to analyze the situation with him very seriously, saying, "I don't think it's a problem with the location. The space was built in Stone Village at the time, so there must be some details that we overlooked."
Zhou Jiuzhen frowned even more deeply after hearing her words. "We still have two hours before departure. Shall we discuss the details again?"
Ling Huanwu rubbed her aching back, glanced at the time on the wall, and finally quietly moved further into the bed to make room for her.
The entrance hallway.
Zhou Jiuzhen and Ling Huanwu's room was in the far corner, and the corridor was pitch black.
The guard, hidden in the darkness, pressed his stethoscope against the door, listening to the sounds inside. His face was terrifyingly grim.
Seeing that Guard Ma had thrown down his stethoscope and was about to kick the door open, Qin Jinshen hurriedly grabbed him from behind and dragged him into the public restroom. "What's wrong with you? I'm not angry, why are you?"
In a fit of rage, Guard Ma smashed things wildly in the public toilet, pulling out corn from his pocket and gnawing on it as he did so. The wooden bucket in the toilet trough was smashed to pieces. "Sir, I'm just not reconciled! We've suffered so much in prison for a whole year, while those two are living so comfortably. Why is that!"
Qin Jinshen found a spot where there was no excrement or urine, took out a cigarette and lit it. "It's alright, they won't be able to relax for long. Let's go back to Hong Kong first. Those old guys in the group will make a move in a few days, we have to go back immediately."
"As for your sister-in-law, she will come to me when she receives the news that the triplets are missing."
The note that was previously found in Wang Guihua's room was slipped there by them.
Qin Jinshen originally planned to have his men in Hong Kong kidnap Xiaobao and then tell Ling Huanwu, forcing her to go to Hong Kong to rescue the child.
But he forgot that Ling Huanwu in this life was no longer the biological mother of the triplets, and would not risk everything to save the children like she did in the previous life.
However, he believed that once she received the news that Xiao Bao was missing, she would eventually come to Hong Kong to find him for the sake of her mother-in-law!
Qin Jinshen, accompanied by his bodyguard Ma, stealthily slipped out of the guesthouse and disappeared completely into the darkness of the street.
*
Stone Village Cooperative.
The sewing machines inside the factory kept clicking away.
Ling Huanwu hadn't even put down her luggage when she returned to the village; the first thing she did was anxiously check the progress of the clothing production in the commune.
She looked at the finished clothes on the table and inspected them one by one before finally letting out a sigh of relief.
Lin Xiaoqin stared at Ling Huanwu's dark circles with a puzzled look. "Captain Xiaozi, what happened to you? Your dark circles are so heavy!"
Ling Huanwu rubbed her aching eyes, almost too sleepy to keep them open.
She can't exactly say that she hasn't had enough sleep every night for the past few days.
He could only wave his hand and make up an excuse, "It's nothing, it's just that Jiuzhen, that sickly fellow, is always feeling unwell, and I have to get up every night to take care of him!"
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