The autumn is getting deeper, the evening breeze is mixed with coolness, and the red clouds are rolling all over the sky. Cheng Yaoyao is sitting in the yard swinging on the swing, her long satin-like hair is loose, her skirt is flying, revealing her jade-like smooth ankles.
The half-closed iron door was pushed open with a creak.
The swing gradually slowed down, and Cheng Yaoyao glared at the person who walked in leisurely: "Get out."
"So fierce." Lu Qingtang was wearing a neat military uniform and took off his military cap, revealing a pair of smiling peach blossom eyes, like a fox.
Cheng Yaoyao raised his chin arrogantly: "What are you doing here?"
The two little cats rushed over one after the other. Nao Nao looked up at the person who came with curiosity, then stubbornly and unceremoniously grabbed the long leg and started tearing it apart.
Lu Qingtang seemed oblivious and bowed politely, holding a basket of fresh grapes in his hands: "I ate your cake last time, so I came here to return the gift. I also want to explain the misunderstanding last time."
"A return gift three months later?" Cheng Yaoyao sneered.
Lu Qingtang was still smiling, and using his height advantage he looked into the yard.
Cheng Yaoyao blocked his line of sight and said, "Xiao Fei is not at home. Xie Zhao is inside. He will rush out and beat you up if I yell."
Lu Qingtang laughed out loud and said bluntly: "Don't be nervous. Xiao Fei has been avoiding me these days, I just want to know why."
Cheng Yaoyao asked curiously, "Xiao Fei must have her reasons for not seeing you. Why are you asking me?"
Lu Qingtang said: "Xiao Fei listens to you in everything. But you seem to dislike me? Did I do something that dislikes you?"
Cheng Yaoyao said arrogantly: "Be more confident and remove the word 'seem'. Anyway, as long as I'm here, you can't get close to Xiao Fei!"
Lu Qingtang was born with a smiling face and a suave demeanor, so it was hard for him to arouse others' dislike. Unfortunately, as soon as he opened his mouth, Cheng Yaoyao got angry: "Cheng Yaoyao, do you know something?"
The smile in those peach blossom eyes turned into sharp arrows that shot out, and Cheng Yaoyao suddenly shivered in the warm late summer.
She raised her eyes to look at him, a stunning face glowing in the setting sun, even though Lu Qingtang had someone in her heart, she couldn't help but be distracted.
Lu Qingtang chanted Xie Fei's name to resist the temptation, and endured Cheng Yaoyao's scrutiny with a slight smile: "Why are you panicking?"
Cheng Yaoyao gripped the swing rope tightly with his fingernails and suddenly said angrily, "Why are you smiling so lewdly?"
Lu Qingtang's smile froze, "What did you say about me?"
Cheng Yaoyao continued with red lips and white teeth: "I will tell Xiao Fei that you seduced me."
Lu Qingtang stared at her for a long while, raised the corners of his lips again and leaned closer: "You won't. Cheng Yaoyao, you..."
Cheng Yaoyao screamed: "Xie Zhao! There are hooligans!"
Before he finished speaking, a grey shadow rushed out of the room, and before Lu Qingtang could even open his mouth, he was punched hard in the face.
Cheng Yaoyao jumped down from the swing and landed in Xie Zhaohuai's arms, where he rubbed her up and down: "Are you scared?"
Xie Fei also ran over and whispered, "Sister Yaoyao, are you okay?"
Cheng Yaoyao shook his head.
Xie Zhao let go of Cheng Yaoyao, walked over, grabbed Lu Qingtang's collar, waved his hand and punched him again.
Lu Qingtang did not resist. The corners of her beautiful lips broke and blood flowed out, which made her look even more terrifying against her fair skin.
Xie Fei screamed in fear.
Lu Qingtang raised the corners of his lips and smiled: "Xiao Fei, don't be afraid, I'm fine."
"Stop pretending to be pitiful!" Cheng Yaoyao covered Xie Fei's eyes and rushed over to pull Xie Zhao: "Stop fighting, the guards will be here soon."
Xie Zhao looked back at her, took a breath, gradually loosened his fists, and dropped Lu Qingtang to the ground.
"Touch my sister again, try it."
Lu Qingtang staggered to his feet, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and smiled indifferently: "This is a matter between Xiao Fei and me. You are too authoritarian."
Xie Zhao didn't even look at Xie Fei and said coldly, "I'm her brother. I can make the decision on this matter."
Lu Qingtang straightened his messy collar and said politely, "Feudal autocracy must be overthrown."
Xie Zhao clenched his fists again. Cheng Yaoyao stepped forward and said angrily, "You, the rascal, are the one who needs to be beaten! Xiao Fei, ignore this playboy. He has deceived countless good girls!"
Xie Fei's face turned pale instantly!
Lu Qingtang also changed color and said: "Ms. Cheng, you are slandering me!"
Xie Zhao said angrily: "Shut up!"
Cheng Yaoyao grabbed Xie Zhao and said, "How did I slander you? You have a bad reputation and everyone knows it!"
Lu Qingtang's chest rose and fell, his expression changed drastically, and he spoke word by word: "In my life, except for Xiao Fei, I have never been intimate with any woman. Xiao Fei, please believe me."
Xie Fei was stared at by his burning gaze, and her slender body swayed, like a dodder that could not withstand the wind and rain.
Seeing this, Xie Zhao was about to step forward to protect his sister, but was stopped by Cheng Yaoyao: "Let Xiao Fei talk to him himself."
The eyes of the three people present all fell on Xie Fei.
She clutched her collar, slowly raised her head and looked at Lu Qingtang, saying, "It's me who doesn't want to see you."
Lu Qingtang's smile faded a little: "Why? Do you have any misunderstanding about me? Or did I do something wrong?"
Xie Fei said, "I know everything about you having someone arrest my brother."
Lu Qingtang asked in confusion: "What are you talking about?"
"You're still pretending!" Cheng Yaoyao was so angry that he blurted out all of Xu Nanfang's words, "I thought it was Xu Nanfang who did it, but it turns out you're the mastermind behind it!"
In the original book, Xie Zhao's imprisonment disaster was caused by Lu Qingtang. Cheng Yaoyao always thought he could escape it in this life, but it turned out that it had been arranged last year.
Lu Qingtang was so smart that he understood it in an instant: "I don't know. Xiao Fei, I was just doing a small favor for a friend and didn't know that man was your brother. We didn't even know each other at that time..."
Xie Fei interrupted him and said, "Can you slander someone and ruin his future just to do a small favor for your friend?"
The tears in those little deer eyes hurt Lu Qingtang's eyes so much that he felt Xie Fei's words were childish and ridiculous. However, he couldn't laugh at that moment.
He felt as if he was standing on the edge of a cliff and was weightless. He said softly, "Xiao Fei, I'm sorry. I will make it up to you."
Xie Fei had a small voice, and no matter how angry she was, she would never raise her voice. But her words carried the stubbornness of the Xie family: "No need. I look down on people like you. Don't come to me again."
"Look down on me?" Lu Qingtang repeated these four words in a low voice, his face a little dazed.
"I'll give this back to you." Xie Fei held back her tears, threw something over, turned around and ran into the house.
Lu Qingtang stared at her back, and she didn't turn around.
Lu Qingtang half-knelt down and groped on the grass inch by inch. His short hair was messy, his cheek was bruised, and the playboyish air on his body faded, unexpectedly revealing a youthful look.
Xie Zhao frowned and said in a deep voice: "As a grown man, you don't have to act like this even if you're heartbroken."
Lu Qingtang pulled the corners of his cracked lips and said, "How are you any better than me? Let me give you a piece of advice: beauty is a recipe for disaster."
Lu Qingtang glanced at Cheng Yaoyao's face with a hint of meaning. Xie Zhao pulled Cheng Yaoyao behind him and said coldly, "If you say another word, I'll let you walk out horizontally."
Lu Qingtang closed his mouth. In the peripheral vision, he saw a glimmer of something shiny. He reached out and picked it up. It was a pearl hairpin, still warm.
Lu Qingtang held the hairpin in his palm and stood up: "Can you tell Xiao Fei a message for me?"
Xie Zhao said, "Okay."
After waiting for a while, Lu Qingtang shook his head and said, "Forget it."
He picked up his dusty military cap and turned away.
The iron door creaked shut, and Xie Zhao locked it. The red grapes that Lu Qingtang brought were all over the floor, trampled to pieces, and the bright red juice was particularly glaring on the green grass. The orange-white fat cat licked them.
Xie Zhao picked up Jianjian and said, "Don't eat anything careless."
He licked his lips stubbornly, waved his paws in the air, and slapped him in the face.
Cheng Yaoyao looked at Lu Qingtang's back as he left in the sunset and said to Xie Zhao, "Why do I feel that he is a little pitiful... Actually, he didn't really do anything rude to me."
Xie Zhao put aside his stubbornness and looked at Cheng Yaoyao with narrowed eyes.
Cheng Yaoyao snuggled into Xie Zhaohuai like a kitten that had made a mistake: "But he scared me."
"I know." Xie Zhao gently followed Cheng Yaoyao's instructions: "Otherwise I wouldn't let him go like this."
Cheng Yaoyao recalled what Lu Qingtang had just said, and a vague guess flashed through his mind. Lu Qingtang wouldn't...
Xie Zhao's deep voice interrupted Cheng Yaoyao's wild thoughts: "Go check on Xiao Fei. ... Make her something delicious."
Cheng Yaoyao took Xie Zhao's hand and dragged him into the house: "As a brother, you have to go and comfort her. You made Xiao Fei so angry that day."
The shadows of the two people were stretched out by the setting sun, and they looked very close. The orange and white fat cat chased after them and followed them into the house.
Lu Qingtang returned home alone and ran into Lu Changgong.
When he went out, he was still wearing a neat military uniform, looking extremely handsome. But now his face was bruised, his uniform was crumpled, and blood was dripping from his collar.
When Lu Changgong saw him like this, he said angrily: "You just put on your military uniform and went out to show off, and then you went to fight with others? With your character, you are not worthy of being a soldier, nor worthy of being on the battlefield!"
Ge Jihong hurriedly said, "Hey, Lao Lu, didn't you take a special leave today to go home and do good things for Qingtang? Don't be angry, Qingtang, just apologize to your dad. Look, Auntie has prepared a table of delicious dishes for you."
Lu Qingtang was impatient and no longer wanted to play along with them. He sneered, "I am not worthy of being a soldier. Are you? A soldier who cut off his relationship with his original wife and let a ragtag woman into his house?"
Lu Changgong's face suddenly changed! He overturned the dining table, and all the food that Ge Jihong had worked hard to prepare all day fell to the ground.
Lu Qingping, who had been gloating over the misfortune, also stood up and clung closely to her mother, not daring to utter a word, feeling humiliated and angry.
The father and son stared at each other.
Lu Changgong didn't make a move, he just pointed at the door and said, "Get lost! Don't let me see you again!"
Lu Qingtang smiled nonchalantly and pointed at his temple: "Don't worry. Guns and cannons are blind on the battlefield. You never know when a bullet will fly over and whoosh - you'll get what you want."
Lu Qingtang smiled slyly and cruelly, taking in every change of expression on Lu Changgong's face, but he did not feel happy. He put his hands in his pockets and turned to walk out.
The young lion cub is full of sharp claws and fangs, and can't wait to challenge the majesty of his father and rush to a new world. However, the male lion grows old and begins to miss his family.
Lu Changgong slumped down in his chair, staring blankly at his son's tall, young figure disappearing through the door.
The guard chased after him, carrying a bag: "Qingtang, take your luggage! We're leaving tomorrow, you...don't be angry with the chief, he cares about you very much."
Lu Qingtang didn't answer: "No one cares about me."
The guard didn't hear clearly: "What?"
The sarcasm-like words disappeared in the evening breeze. Lu Qingtang took the bag and said, "Tell the old man that I'm leaving. If I really can't come back, I'll leave all my things to a girl named Xie Fei. Remember that."
The autumn of that year came suddenly, just like the sudden outbreak of war. Newspapers published news of the war every day, and an excited atmosphere hovered over the university campus, with all kinds of slogans posted all over the campus.
Xie Zhao donated a large sum of money and materials, and also obtained a lot of Western medicine from overseas through his own connections. Cheng Yaoyao's garment factory also vacated the workshop to produce a large amount of thick military fabrics. Everyone was doing their part.
Cheng Yaoyao had learned about this war in history books. It was a long and bitter victory. But now that China's economy has developed a year ahead of schedule and has sufficient reserves, coupled with support from all walks of life and overseas, the war situation is much better than Cheng Yaoyao knew.
However, this does not seem to affect the lives of ordinary people.
Tiao Tiao's new season of winter clothes has been launched. These designs, which embody Xie Fei's painstaking efforts, have been very popular, and Tiao Tiao's business has ushered in a new round of peak.
The wind outside the window was cold, but the room was warm like spring. Cheng Yaoyao leaned against the head of the bed and flipped through the financial report: "The profit of winter clothing is very high. Xiao Fei is really capable."
Cheng Yaoyao completely handed over Tiaotiao's business to Xie Fei. It took her less than half a year to go from being at a loss in the beginning to being able to take charge of her business now.
The bathroom door opened, and Xie Zhao came out with a towel tied around his waist, water drops rolling on his strong muscles. Hearing this, he asked, "How is Xiao Fei feeling these days?"
"It's still the same. She has a lot of suitors, but she doesn't seem to be interested." Cheng Yaoyao looked up at him.
Xie Zhao frowned and said, "Xiao Fei is still young, there is no rush."
The seductive masculine energy evaporated with the heat from Xie Zhao's body, and Cheng Yaoyao couldn't help but open her arms to him. Xie Zhao sat on the bed, took her into his arms, and rubbed her like a doll.
"What's wrong?" Cheng Yaoyao kissed his chin, "What are you thinking about?"
Xie Zhao said in a deep voice: "I want to donate the family prescription."
"Hmm?" Cheng Yaoyao tilted her head, her curled eyelashes looking like a fluttering butterfly in the light.
Xie Zhao couldn't help kissing her eyelashes and explained, "Medicine is always in short supply on the front line. Instead of letting these secret recipes gather dust, it's better to donate them to the country."
Cheng Yaoyao was a little worried: "These are secret recipes passed down from our ancestors. Grandma is very fond of them. What's more, our family was..."
Xie Zhao said: "This is a righteous cause, and grandma will agree with it."
"Okay." Cheng Yaoyao knelt up and held Xie Zhao's face: "Comrade Xie Zhao is broad-minded and selfless. I will give you the award."
Cheng Yaoyao's kiss carried the sweet scent of roses, gently falling on Xie Zhao's resolute brows, then on his tall nose, and then on his cheeks. It was as if tiny sparks had fallen on the places he touched, and the shivers at the nerve endings resonated all the way to the depths of his soul.
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