Chapter 47: He Wants Her — Washed Clean Before Eating?

Chu Yue used a soft towel to gently rub Lu Yuanbao’s little head, drying his short, black hair. Then she wrapped him up in the towel like a wet little puppy and carried him out of the bathroom.

They entered a small room that had already been prepared.

Chu Yue first stuffed Lu Yuanbao into the bed, tucking him in tightly. Only then did she start asking for the thermal underwear she needed him to wear.

Lu Yuanbao, now wrapped snugly in the soft, warm quilt, had just his round little head poking out. He looked around at this unfamiliar room and asked,
“Am I sleeping here tonight?”

“Mhm, this is your room. You’ll sleep here. The quilt is stuffed with sun-dried cotton, I’ve laid down two blankets, and the sheets are freshly washed. Smell it—doesn’t it have a nice scent?”

Normally, if Chu Yue said something like this, Lu Yuanbao would wag his little nose like a puppy and sniff the sheets happily.

But right now, he just raised his chin slightly and stared straight at Chu Yue with his big, shiny eyes—a clear look of reluctant sadness in his gaze.

From the moment Lu Yuanbao met Chu Yue, they had been sharing a bed — at the Jiang family’s house, on the train, and now here in the compound.

Though only a few days had passed, Lu Yuanbao had already gotten used to sleeping beside Chu Yue. Being told to sleep alone now made him feel… abandoned.

He couldn’t argue against Chu Yue’s decision, but his little eyebrows furrowed tightly, showing his quiet grievance.

After helping him get dressed, Chu Yue asked gently,
“Are you scared to sleep alone?”

“No.” Lu Yuanbao shook his head, though his eyes stung slightly. He blinked hard and said in a small voice,
“I can sleep by myself.”

After his biological mother died, Lu Yuanbao had spent a long time sleeping alone in a broken-down shack. Back then, he didn’t even have a quilt, and the wind blew through the cracks in the walls. Still, he had survived.

Now he had a clean room, a warm bed, and Chu Yue was just in the next room.
There was nothing to be afraid of.

He just… wasn’t used to it.

Chu Yue looked into those dark, shining eyes and felt a twinge of sorrow in her heart.

But tonight was different — Lu Zhanlin was home for the night. Since they were husband and wife now, she had to be mentally prepared for certain unspeakable things.

Besides, sharing a bed with a man like Lu Zhanlin… it wasn’t exactly a bad deal.

If she thought this way, Lu Zhanlin surely did too.
After all — what man wouldn’t take a bite of meat served right to his lips?

If she were to bring Lu Yuanbao into their room now, it would feel like an excuse — a way of avoiding intimacy with Lu Zhanlin. And that, in turn, might make him find the boy annoying.

After some deliberation, Chu Yue reached out and stroked Lu Yuanbao’s forehead, then asked,
“I bought a storybook at Huahua Bookstore today. Want to hear a story?”

“Yes!” Lu Yuanbao answered quickly.

Chu Yue took out the storybook she had bought earlier that morning, picked a fable from ancient China, and began reading it out loud — vivid, lively, and full of animation.

Her voice was soft and gentle, with a natural calming effect. Under the warm glow of the lamp, it became the perfect lullaby.

…

After Lu Yuanbao fell asleep, Chu Yue turned off the light and walked out of the little room.

To her surprise, the once messy bathroom was now spotless.

The clothes Lu Yuanbao had tossed in the washbasin earlier — along with the ones soiled with mud — were all freshly cleaned and hung neatly on the drying rack.

Did he wash them?

There were only three people in the house. If Chu Yue hadn’t done it, then there was only one possibility—

Lu Zhanlin had done the laundry.

Lu Zhanlin not only did the laundry, he also boiled another pot of hot water.

There was a public bathhouse in the compound, and if Chu Yue were willing to go there, she wouldn’t need the trouble of heating water at home—but Lu Zhanlin had never even considered that.

He poured the freshly boiled water into thermos flasks and brought them to Chu Yue.

“There wasn’t enough hot water, so I boiled more. You can bathe now.”

“Okay.”

Chu Yue took her clothes and went into the bathroom, only to see three thermos flasks filled to the brim…

Was the man trying to say—she should wash thoroughly before eating?

At that thought, Chu Yue suddenly felt nervous. Images flashed chaotically in her mind, and her cheeks flushed without her even realizing.

---

Later that night.

After bathing, Chu Yue lay on the bed in soft cotton pajamas. The room was dark, lit only by faint moonlight seeping in through the window. It was dim, but silhouettes were still visible.

She had been lying there for over ten minutes but didn’t feel the slightest hint of sleepiness. All her attention was on the sounds outside the room.

Thanks to the spiritual spring water’s nourishment, Chu Yue’s senses were more acute than normal, and she could hear the water running in the bathroom, the sound of a door opening, and the footsteps of Lu Zhanlin returning.

Chu Yue closed her eyes to fake sleep. But when she sensed that Lu Zhanlin hadn’t turned on the lights after entering, it gave her the courage to sneak a peek at him.

In the dim moonlight, Lu Zhanlin’s tall figure looked even larger and more imposing, casting a heavy shadow.

His body radiated heat—he didn’t seem to fear the cold at all. He was wearing a dark short-sleeved shirt on top, and loose shorts similar to beachwear below, with a towel in hand, vigorously drying his short-cropped hair.

The military haircut was short and harsh, a style that only truly suited someone with Lu Zhanlin’s sharp and defined features.

In no time, he had dried his hair and casually tossed the towel aside. Then he lifted the quilt and climbed into bed.

At first, Lu Zhanlin’s body gave off a slight damp coolness from his recent bath.

But after a while, the man’s robust body heat started to radiate, turning him into something like a furnace. The space under the quilt grew warm and steamy.

Chu Yue had been working on nurturing the original host’s frail body, but the original health was truly poor—years of sleeping on a cold, damp kitchen floor had left behind deep-seated coldness. Her hands and feet were often icy.

In recent nights, she would always enter the spiritual treasure space before sleeping to soak in the spring water and warm up.

But now that Lu Zhanlin was sleeping beside her, she didn’t dare enter the space. As a result, the warm heat radiating from his body became especially attractive.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, waiting and waiting… and waiting… but Lu Zhanlin never made a move.

Instead, her own anticipation slowly turned into sleepiness, until she drifted into a daze.

Chu Yue struggled to keep her heavy eyelids open and glanced sideways at the man lying stiff and upright beside her.
Wasn’t that gesture with the hot water supposed to mean… that?

She’d lived through two lifetimes already, technically older than Lu Zhanlin—she couldn’t be expected to pounce on him like a starving tiger, could she?

Eventually, Chu Yue gave up trying to figure it out. Her long lashes fluttered closed, and she finally decided to just sleep comfortably.

As her breathing evened out and she slipped into slumber—

Beside her, Lu Zhanlin’s eyes suddenly opened in the dark.

His gaze was deep and unreadable, full of suppressed emotion, and he let out a long, quiet breath.

This was the first time the dignified and commanding Commander Lu had shared a bed with a woman. Ever since dinner, he had been quietly psyching himself up.

Chu Yue was so small, so delicate…
What if his rough hands and brute strength ended up hurting her?