Chapter 62: How Did Commander Zhou Become the ‘Tianluo Guniang’?

 Two days passed.

Su Yi couldn’t shake off a nagging feeling of unease.

She kept replaying in her mind the strange way Zhou Jinchuan had suddenly asked for her keys that night.

She had his keys because she occasionally came over to help look after the two kids.

Even though he said he needed them to move things into the house, she still felt something was off.

But Zhou Jinchuan was a man of good character, someone she trusted.

So, after a few days, she gradually forgot about it.

That day, after work, Su Yi and Xu Xiaoqin rehearsed twice more. Seeing the sudden strong wind outside, they knew it was about to rain.

They hurried back.

When they opened the door to the dormitory, they suddenly saw that the room had changed, with many more things appearing!

Su Yi turned her head and glanced out, only to see a neat row of beehive briquettes at the end of the corridor.

To prevent them from getting wet in the rain, they were all covered with tarpaulin.

Su Yi was completely confused. She quickly closed the door and went inside to examine everything carefully.

She then discovered a low table and two stools.

On the table were two cans of brand new malted milk!

Next to the table was the stove they bought last time, with the charcoal burning red-hot inside!

No wonder she felt the room suddenly warmer.

Not only that, the kettle sitting on top of the stove was also brand new, filled with water.

Su Yi immediately thought that only Zhou Jinchuan have a spare key, so these must have been sent by him!

Su Yi was both surprised and quickly put on a padded jacket and went outside.

When she reached the courtyard, the two children were already asleep, leaving only Zhou Jinchuan reading a book in his study.

Hearing footsteps, Zhou Jinchuan finally looked up, “Why are you here?”

Su Yi hummed, “I just saw it when I went back to the dormitory. How come Commander Zhou suddenly became a ‘Tianluo Guniang’?” ^[1]‘Tianluo Guniang’ or “Snail Girl” refers to a character from Chinese folklore, where a magical snail transforms into a girl to help with household chores, often without the … Continue reading

Zhou Jinchuan was puzzled, “What ‘Tianluo Guniang?”

Seeing that he wouldn’t admit it, Su Yi directly clarified, “It’s those things you put in my room, they are too valuable. I can’t accept them without doing anything in return.”

Zhou Jinchuan nodded, “You mean those? I bought them for the two children.”

Su Yi looked at him, confused.

Then she heard him continue, “It’s getting cold, and the two children like to run into your room. Having a low table there is more convenient.”

“It’s cold, and they don’t like to drink water. You kindly make some malted milk for them to drink, well, you can have some yourself too. If it runs out, I’ll get more for you all.”

Su Yi found it hard to come up with a reason to refuse as he spoke so candidly.

[Could it be that I was overthinking?]

[Could it be that he really is just concerned about the two children—well, that makes sense too!]

Su Yi hesitated for a moment before pursing her lips and saying, “Commander Zhou, have you used the key already?”

Zhou Jinchuan nodded, “I left it on the living room table. I was planning to have Xiao Wu bring it to you tomorrow. Don’t forget to take it when you leave later.”

Su Yi: Alright! She really did overthink!

As Su Yi turned to leave, she suddenly heard Zhou Jinchuan behind her say, “By the way, your dormitory is sealed up tightly. Make sure to extinguish the stove before going to bed at night. Carbon monoxide poisoning is no joke.”

Su Yi quickly nodded in thanks, grabbed the key, and slipped away.

After everyone left, Zhou Jinchuan finally put down the book on military strategy in his hand and quietly got up to lock the door.

…

With the stove in the dormitory, Su Yi felt that the quality of her life had greatly improved.

It wasn’t just the house that became much warmer.

When wanting hot water, there was no need to run outside to the hot water room to fetch water anymore.

Besides boiling water, Su Yi also bought a small pot. After work, she would simmer sweet soup or eight-treasure porridge in the house.

She also bought wine yeast and made a big pot of sweet rice wine, and even gave some to Aunt Yao and Aunt Zheng.

Sweet rice wine paired with perfectly cooked poached eggs was a perfect match. Drinking a bowl in winter not only warmed you up from head to toe, but was also the most nourishing for blood.

Sometimes, Su Yi didn’t want to make breakfast and would just eat a bowl of this.

With all the sweet things she was eating, her life also became sweeter, so comfortable that she didn’t even want to go out.

Ye Xiaowu and Ye Nuannuan liked to come over whenever they had free time.

However, the two kids didn’t really like the malt milk powder that Zhou Jinchuan bought.

They preferred what Su Yi cooked.

In the end, most of it ended up in her stomach.

As the weather got colder, Su Yi’s sweaters were also finished.

The only thing left were the simplest scarves.

Su Yi planned to knit red ones for herself and the two children, adding a touch of brightness to the northwest winter.

Ye Xiaowu saw that she had knitted three, with no intention of knitting one for Uncle Zhou.

But he took the initiative to learn how to knit.

Su Yi was puzzled, “Why are you learning this?”

Ye Xiaowu looked pitiful, “We’re all going to have new scarves soon, but only Uncle Zhou doesn’t have one. He feels so pitiful, I want to knit one for him too.”

Su Yi hadn’t considered that, “Will Commander Zhou know how to wear it?”

Every time she saw him, he wore very little, as if he wasn’t afraid of the cold at all.

It was hard to imagine him wearing a big scarf.

But it was rare for the child to be so “filial,” so Su Yi very supportively found knitting needles and yarn for him.

She also patiently taught him how to knit.

To avoid the awkwardness of using the same color, Su Yi specially gave Ye Xiaowu the remaining ball of gray yarn from her sweater.

After all, her sweater was worn underneath, so he wouldn’t have a chance to see it.

There wouldn’t be any awkwardness.

Ye Xiaowu took the two knitting needles and started knitting with great enthusiasm.

However, no matter how Su Yi taught him, he either knitted it crooked or so tightly that it all curled up.

Seeing him take it apart twice, Su Yi couldn’t bear it anymore.

“Forget it, Xiaowu, just leave it. I’ll help you knit it when I’m done with mine. Then you can just say you made it, the intention is the same.”

Ye Xiaowu had already given up.

Seeing that Su Yi agreed, he happily unraveled everything he had knitted in one breath.

…

Time flew by and it was the day before New Year’s Day.

The military base had been decorated early, full of festive cheer.

The much-anticipated military gala was finally about to begin.

Before it even got dark, many people had already finished dinner and headed to the auditorium.

Su Yi also took the two children with her, following Aunt Zheng and Aunt Yao and their children to the auditorium.

This was Su Yi’s first time here, and it was much grander than she imagined.

It was still early, and since Su Yi’s performance was the second to last, she wasn’t in a hurry to go on stage.

So Su Yi calmly sat with her two children, watching others perform first.

Just before the show started, Commander Zhou and Commander Lu rushed in and sat in the front row.

Originally, there was some distance between them.

Unexpectedly, Ye Nuannuan was too excited and stood up, shouting, “Uncle Zhou!”

Commander Zhou looked over as soon as he heard it.

Su Yi had to quickly pick up Nuannuan and awkwardly smiled at him.

Fortunately, the show started soon after.

The audience’s attention was quickly drawn to the stage.

However, Su Yi was starting to get anxious. The show had already started, why hadn’t Xu Xiaoqin arrived yet?

Could it be that this girl had chickened out at the last minute?