When Lu Cheng was entrusted to his aunt, she welcomed him wholeheartedly.

Indeed, during the years he spent with her, he lived very well.

His aunt treated him like her own son, and his uncle was a good and honest man.

As for his uncle’s relatives, they were particularly courteous to him due to the inheritance left by his mother.

However, Lu Cheng always felt like a person without a home since his mother passed away.

In 1956, Lu Cheng graduated from military school and reported directly to the army.

As a military academy graduate, he had military status and had to report to the army.

Once in the army, he started as a deputy battalion commander.

Two years later, in 1958, he was promoted to battalion commander for his outstanding achievements.

By 1961, he had risen to the position of deputy regiment commander.

Lu Cheng worked very hard on his missions because there was nothing in this world worth remembering for him.

He devoted his life to the country.

Later, when Lu Haici was born, he became even more cautious during missions because he now had something to care for.

Yet, even so, he never felt he had a home.

No one had ever left a light on for him.

Until this moment, when he walked to the front of the courtyard and saw the warm yellow light in the hall.

After he had showered, it was still light outside, so the lights in the hall hadn’t been turned on.

This light could only have been turned on by Lin Qingqing.

Lu Cheng opened the door and quietly entered the hall.

The lights of this era were not bright compared to later times; the bulb cast a yellowish glow, but it still illuminated Lu Cheng’s heart.

As he approached the bedroom door, he moved even more quietly.

He pushed the door open, and the room was dark, but with the light from the hall, he could see inside.

Lu Cheng gently turned on the light, not wanting to wake the mother and child sleeping in the bed, but fearing that if he entered in the dark, he might scare them if they woke up unexpectedly.

However, the moment the light turned on, the scene on the bed became clear.

Two people who had no blood relation and had known each other for less than a month were sleeping in each other’s embrace.

The child lay dependently in the adult’s arms, with a tuft of hair sticking up.

The adult tightly hugged the child, burying their face in the child’s hair.

What struck Lu Cheng most was that Lin Qingqing was wearing his training outfit at that moment.

His heart was suddenly filled.

This was a scene he never would have imagined just half a month ago.

Even half a month earlier, when Lu Haici asked him, “Dad, is my stepmother my mom?” he hadn’t dared to answer with a no, fearing it would hurt the child.

But now, he was immensely glad that he had answered with certainty back then.

Looking at how they embraced each other, who could say they weren’t mother and son?

Lu Cheng truly did not expect that this girl, whom he had previously rejected but who had still pressured him into marriage with such conditions, would be so good to Lu Haici.

At this moment, he also remembered his mother.

His mother once told him that the greatest sorrow for a woman is to fall in love with a man who does not love her back.

So, Lin Qingqing must have fallen for a man who did not love her.

Is she also feeling a sense of sorrow?

His mother had once told him, when he was young, that a woman could like a man who didn’t like her back, but she could never love a man who had another woman in his heart—that would be unfair to herself.

This was why his mother agreed to the divorce at that time and logically proposed the most advantageous conditions for herself: the child and the wealth.

At that moment, Lu Cheng didn’t want Lin Qingqing to feel sad.

He thought maybe they could give it a try.

Perhaps marriage wasn’t as bad as he had imagined.

He turned off the lights in the living room and made his way to the bedroom.

There was a switch on the wall beside the bed.

After lying down, he stretched out his long arm and switched it off.

Listening to the even breathing of the two people next to him, Lu Cheng quickly fell asleep.

The Next Day

Whoo…

Lin Qingqing opened her eyes as the wake-up call sounded.

She yawned.

The military wake-up call sounded at 6:30 a.m. every day, and she hadn’t expected to sleep until that late today.

After all, she had woken up yesterday before six.

She raised her head to look at the other side of the bed, feeling relieved.

Although there were traces of someone having slept there, it was now empty; Lu Cheng had already gotten up.

That was great—she had avoided an awkward situation.

Unbeknownst to her, Lu Cheng was currently thinking about how to live a good life with her.

Lin Qingqing carefully got out of bed to avoid waking the sleepy little kid.

She changed into her clothes and walked out of the room.

To save time, she planned to wash up while making breakfast, so she headed straight to the kitchen.

For breakfast, she prepared to make wheat rolls and sweet potato porridge.

Wheat rolls and sweet potato porridge were specialties of Ninghai.

In fact, she decided to make those because she ran out of dough for the dumplings.

She first lit the stove under the iron pot. Once the fire was burning, she added water to the pot.

Then she took out two sweet potatoes, peeled them, and cut them into small pieces before putting them in the pot.

After that, she washed half a bowl of rice and added it to the pot.

Actually, sweet potato porridge should be made with both sweet potatoes and glutinous rice, which gives the porridge a sticky texture, but they didn’t have glutinous rice at home, so she had to make do with regular rice.

The sweet potato porridge wouldn’t cook quickly, so while waiting, Lin Qingqing washed up.

After washing, she drank a glass of warm water, applied some moisturizer, and then started making the wheat rolls.

The ingredients for the wheat rolls included dough, shredded potatoes, shredded cucumber, and shredded eggs.

Lin Qingqing first rolled the leftover dough from yesterday into thin pancakes.

She had noticed two days ago that they had a rolling pin at home, which was probably left behind by Lu Cheng’s aunt.

She then washed the potatoes, cut them into strips, and stir-fried them in the clay pot.

After stir-frying the potato strips, she used the flat bottom of the pot to make an egg pancake, which she also cut into strips. Finally, she used the flat bottom of the pot to make some flatbreads.

In fact, using the flat bottom of the clay pot was quite convenient because, due to its material, the food wouldn’t stick to the bottom.

Once Lin Qingqing had made the flatbreads, she placed the potato strips, egg strips, and cucumber strips inside, rolled them up, and cut them in half.

In total, she made five flatbreads, resulting in ten mini wraps.

However, these wraps weren’t as large as the ones from Ninghai in the later years, as they were limited by the size of the flat bottom of the pot.

Just as she finished cutting the ten wraps, a voice came from the doorway: “Do you need any help?”

Hearing Lu Cheng’s voice, Lin Qingqing turned around: “No, it’s ready to eat. Go wake up Hai Ci.”

Since her expenses were all covered by Lu Cheng, she naturally wanted to be diligent.

Moreover, she enjoyed cooking.

Most importantly, because she loved good food, Lin Qingqing didn’t like having anyone around when she was preparing it.

In the past, when she cooked with her grandmother for live streams, they had always divided the tasks between them.

“Okay.” In fact, Lu Cheng didn’t know how to get along with Lin Qingqing.

Although he wanted to try and live well with her, he wasn’t sure where to start.

Lu Cheng went to wake up Lu Haici, while Lin Qingqing brought the finished wraps into the hall.

Hmm?

Lin Qingqing felt something was off and suddenly remembered that she had only washed clothes yesterday.

There should still be the sheets and quilt covers that she had changed in the corner of the hall. “Lu Cheng, where are the sheets and quilt covers I left in the corner?”

Lu Cheng was lifting Lu Haici when he heard her words.

His ears turned red, and he replied a bit nervously, “I washed them.”

He had been independent since he was little; having gone to military school at eighteen, he had always washed his own clothes and bedding.

So he didn’t have the notion that housework was something women should do.

Furthermore, given that Lin Qingqing had been sick for half a month and had just survived a near-death experience, he felt guilty.

Besides, since he decided to give it a try, he wanted to show that he could help out.

Upon hearing this, Lin Qingqing immediately felt happy: “Really? Thank you so much!”

Oh my gosh, he actually washed the sheets and quilt covers—that was amazing!

However, she also worried that he might not have washed them properly, so she went outside to check.

The result… made her blush.

She stared in shock at her underwear hanging out among the sheets… so conspicuous.

Oh, and there were also Lu Cheng’s tank top and underwear nearby.

Thump, thump, thump…

Lin Qingqing felt her heart racing as if it were going to leap out of her chest.

If someone were to ask her about the first time a man had done laundry for her…

What does it feel like to have someone wash your underwear? She would probably say, “I want to crawl into a hole.”

Lin Qingqing blushed and walked into the kitchen with a blank mind.

As for whether the sheets and pillowcases were clean, she didn’t want to check.

She didn’t even want to think about whether her own underwear was clean.

Lin Qingqing felt that she probably wouldn’t wear the underwear that Lu Cheng had washed, because just the thought of it made her feel flushed all over.

“Mom… I’m here…” Lu Haici bounced into the kitchen. “Mom, I woke up late today and didn’t do any housework. I’ll wash the dishes later.”

The little kid was quite good at expressing himself.

Lin Qingqing came back to her senses and gave him an approving look. “Haici is so good; then I’ll leave the dishwashing to you later.”

Her gaze accidentally met Lu Cheng’s, and her heart raced again.

She quickly averted her eyes.

“Okay.” Lu Haici responded loudly.

He then glanced at his dad, who was following him.

He thought Dad was really lazy, not even helping Mom.

No wonder Mom didn’t even look at him.

He walked over to his mom and continued to praise her, “Mom, you’re amazing! I can smell the delicious pancakes on the table; they must taste great.”

He certainly wouldn’t be as silly as Dad.

Lin Qingqing ruffled his hair. “Then you should eat a lot later. I also have sweet potato porridge here; it’s ready too, so you can have a bowl later.”

“Yeah, I’ll eat a lot! I’ll eat more than Dad!” Lu Haici promised.

He thought to himself that this way, Mom would know he liked her more than Dad did.

Eating more of her cooking was his way of showing his affection.

This was something the little kid had figured out on his own.

Lu Cheng stepped forward and picked him up from behind. “Want to eat more than I do? You’ll have to wait another twenty years for that.”

This little brat was only five years old and dared to imply something to him; did he think he couldn’t understand?

Growing up in someone else’s home, if he didn’t understand that, he might as well call this little kid “Dad.”