Chapter 25

The next morning, Qiao Wei woke up and tried to turn, but there was an arm around her waist.

As she attempted to get up, the arm tightened, pulling her back.

The man’s kisses landed on her shoulder.

Qiao Wei, still half asleep, patted the hand around her waist and said, “No need to make breakfast today…”

“It’s okay. I’ll eat at the camp canteen. You can go to the courtyard canteen.” The man didn’t mind.

Qiao Wei mumbled, about to go back to sleep, when suddenly her mind cleared. She slapped his hand. “Quick, let go! I need to change the cloth, or else the sheets will be stained with blood!”

Qiao Wei could accept even a dry toilet, but she was defeated by feminine hygiene products.

No sanitary napkins—none!

Feminine hygiene products were long, rectangular pieces of paper resembling tissues, in pink. Qiao Wei didn’t sleep well because she instinctively woke up twice during the night, realizing she needed to change the cloth, forcing her to get up. Her sleep was fragmented, and she couldn’t get up in the morning.

After getting up and putting on her clothes, she turned around to see what was spread on the bed. “Huh? What’s this?”

She almost asked what it was.

Life details are ingrained in a person’s bodily memory and don’t need to be consciously remembered. Therefore, memories of life details aren’t easily triggered and are slower to recall than memories of significant events.

Luckily, she activated it in time. What was spread on the bed was a small pad, specifically for use during menstruation, to prevent staining the sheets. Cleaning sheets, especially the large mattress beneath them, was troublesome if they got dirty. These small pads were relatively easy to wash.

“I wondered why I felt something last night,” Qiao Wei muttered.

She didn’t turn on the bedroom light at night; she had switched on a desk lamp in the study to change the paper and turned off the light before entering the bedroom. Indeed, she vaguely felt something spread on the bed.

But it wasn’t her doing. When she went to bed yesterday, there was only a mat.

“I spread it for you,” Yan Lei said as he sat up, looking for his clothes.

In the past few days, he has been sleeping in a tank top. Last night, Qiao Wei took it off, and he slept shirtless. Getting up, his well-defined muscles were evident.

Qiao Wei’s gaze circled around the man’s narrow waist, and after putting on her clothes, she leaned over and quickly kissed his cheek. “Thanks.”

After the kiss, feeling like she might bleed to death, she hurriedly left.

Yan Lei propped himself up on the kang, leaned back, and watched her disappear.

Even now, he feels like he was dreaming about last night.

In his lifetime, he had never had such an experience—a groundbreaking occurrence.

He was already a mature man, having experienced poverty, hunger, been on the battlefield, carried cannons, and faced gunfire, and yet, last night, he couldn’t control his fiery emotions like a young boy.

But… This was his wife; even if he lost control in front of her, so what?

Yan Lei smiled, rubbed his face, and got out of bed.

Opening the door to the courtyard, his mood was as fresh and bright as the morning light.

However, Qiao Wei felt anything but bright and fresh. The experience of using the pink paper was terrible. She had stacked it thickly. The menstrual pads were even more uncomfortable.

It was frustrating.

Yan Lei washed his face, wiped it with water, and asked concernedly, “What’s wrong? Is your stomach hurting?”

Female soldiers in the army, like female workers, enjoyed menstrual leave. Yes, the reason menstruation is called “menstrual leave” is that working women can enjoy a three-day break during menstruation. This break is called “menstrual leave.”

There were female soldiers in the army, and female soldiers also had times when their stomachs hurt. Their faces would turn pale when they asked for leave. Yan Lei, as a leader, knew about it.

“It’s not hurting that much,” Qiao Wei sighed. “It’s just uncomfortable.”

Yan Lei had also seen menstrual pads and paper before; anyone would find it uncomfortable to wear such things. However, he couldn’t do anything about it and could only comfort her by saying, “If you’re uncomfortable, go lie down in the room.”

After thinking for a moment, he added, “Don’t cook today. Go to the canteen for meals. Don’t cook in the evening either; I’ll bring food back from the canteen for you.”

During her period, Qiao Wei didn’t want to do these chores at all. In her previous world, she could have just ordered takeout. There was no takeout here, but fortunately, there was the existence of the canteen.

She happily agreed, “Okay.”

She even actively prepared lunch boxes. Aluminum lunch boxes were found in every household. Taking them out, she used a net bag to carry them for Yan Lei. “Separate the rice and dishes.”

Yan Lei said, “Got it,” and walked away carrying the net bag.

At the intersection where they boarded the car, Captain Zhao also arrived.

He saw Yan Lei carrying several lunch boxes and asked, “What’s this for?”

Yan Lei said, “I’m not cooking tonight. I’ll bring food back from the canteen for them.”

After being reminded by his uncle, Lin Xixi didn’t dare to come out to bring breakfast to Yan Lei again today. But Captain Zhao still had this matter on his mind.

He deliberately asked, “Have you had breakfast?”

When Yan Lei said, “Not yet, going to the canteen,” Captain Zhao immediately said, “See, when I leave, your sister-in-law still cares, afraid that little Yan hasn’t had breakfast. It’s my fault; I said Captain Yan’s wife is here; no need for you to worry. If I knew, I would have brought something for you.”

Regardless of what his niece said, he had to help solidify the idea that it was Sister Yang caring for Yan Lei, not Lin Xixi. This was to avoid affecting the reputation of his niece.

In fact, Yan Lei didn’t think too much about it. He and Captain Zhao were comrades, and he called Sister Yang his sister-in-law. In Yan Lei’s eyes, their niece Lin Xixi was just a junior.

He considered himself a senior.

He smiled and declined. “Sister-in-law, you don’t need to worry about me. I’m not without a wife. My wife isn’t feeling well today, so I didn’t let her make breakfast.”

Captain Zhao thought, “You’re just putting on a show; who doesn’t know that your wife is a lazy woman, always making you eat at the canteen, living like a bachelor?”

But don’t hit people in the face; don’t expose their shortcomings, especially when he was making up stories for his niece. He quickly followed Yan Lei’s words: “Exactly. Old women love to meddle. Making Little Qiao lose face. I’ll talk to her later.”

Once Captain Zhao said this, the others all turned their eyes towards Yan Lei quite naturally.

Before, others had said similar things to Yan Lei, and he would usually stay silent or smile it off. Qiao Wei’s reputation among military families wasn’t good, and her social connections weren’t great either. It was an objective fact that had been going on for a while.

But last night, Yan Lei and the newlywed Qiao Wei entered a completely new stage. The memories of their intimate moments and entangled lips and teeth were still fresh in his mind.

He deeply felt that Qiao Wei had truly changed this time, sincerely wanting to live a good life with her. Hearing others belittle Qiao Wei, Yan Lei resisted, unwilling to let others view her in such a way.

“Sister-in-law is good everywhere,” he said. “Just a bit meddlesome. My wife is indeed a bit delicate; she’s from the city, after all. Whether she has a face or not doesn’t matter. Since she followed me, I promised not to let her suffer. Whether she cooks or not is not a big deal; we can always eat at the canteen.”

Although Yan Lei spoke with a smile, Captain Zhao and the others heard a subtle difference in his tone compared to before.

A subtle difference.

Yan Lei was the youngest among the captains, but he had left home at the age of fourteen, and his life experience was not much less than that of Captain Zhao and Captain Ma. Moreover, they were of the same rank, and his rank was higher than the two company commanders.

Although Captain Zhao and Captain Ma would address him as “Little Yan” due to his youth, no one really saw him as an inexperienced young man.

It was strange. Everyone knew that Yan Lei and his wife didn’t have a good relationship, so why did he suddenly become protective?

Captain Zhao couldn’t say much more. He was already feeling guilty because of Lin Xixi’s ambiguous behavior. He could only confirm his wife’s tendency to “meddle in others’ affairs,” saying, “That’s right, that’s right. I’ll talk to her later.”

The men boarded the Jeep one by one, just like any other morning.

However, as soon as Zhang, the driver, released the clutch and stepped on the gas to start, he glanced in the rearview mirror and suddenly said, “Captain Zhao, is that your niece?”

“What?” Captain Zhao stretched his neck to look. “Where is she? Where did she go?”

“Gone. I just saw her in the rearview mirror.” Zhang murmured. “Maybe I was mistaken.”

“Captain Zhao’s niece is quite pretty.” Captain Ma chuckled. “Is she engaged? Do you want to find a nephew-in-law in the military?”

“Yes, we do.” Captain Zhao handed out cigarettes to everyone. “Keep an eye out for me; if anyone has an outstanding young man, save him for my family.”

Everyone laughed, and even Zhang, the driver, chuckled.

The jeep, carrying the men, headed towards the camp.

Zhang hadn’t made a mistake; he had indeed seen Lin Xixi.

Lin Xixi peeked out again; the green Jeep was already far away. It was a close call; she almost got spotted by her uncle just now.

She looked at the departing car, biting her lip.

Although they lived close by, there weren’t many opportunities to see Yan Lei. How could she develop a relationship with him?

Thinking about what she had just seen, several men all wore green military uniforms, but Yan Lei was the tallest, the youngest, and the most handsome.

He was in his twenties and could drive a car like these middle-aged men. From Lin Xixi’s perspective of having lived through life once, she understood who among these men had the most promising future. Later events also confirmed this point.

Regretfully, when she was young and ignorant, she despised such a good marital opportunity, complaining that he was an older man with a second marriage.

Young people were truly foolish. Pursuing love or not, in the end, everyone would end up with a greasy and messy man. Without making much money, he would come home and lie down like a corpse, not doing any work.

Yan Lei, when he got old, had a dedicated car and security by his side, and what kind of status was that?

Thinking about how she was unwilling to come over for a blind date with Yan Lei in her previous life, not knowing who Yan Lei married in his second marriage, not knowing which woman took the position of the official wife, Lin Xixi’s eyes turned red.

How could she solve that damned but not dead, and possibly also reborn, Qiao Weiwei?

Lin Xixi hastily returned to Captain Zhao’s house.Sister Yang was questioning Yingzi, “Where is your sister?”

Just as she finished asking, she saw Lin Xixi coming back from outside.Sister Yang asked, “Where did you go?”

Lin Xixi remained calm, smiling as she hugged Sister Yang affectionately. “Auntie, I went to see the Jeep.”

She went on to say, “I noticed that the driver seemed quite young. Does Uncle and the others have that driver pick them up for work every day? What’s his last name?”

“Zhang,” Sister Yang replied. “He’s called Little Zhang. He’s quite promising and knows how to drive. Whether it’s for a promotion within the army or transitioning to civilian life, he’ll always have a job.”

“I see that the car picks up several people at once. Isn’t it used only by my uncle?”

“Of course, only division-level cadres have dedicated cars. Your uncle, who knows if he’ll ever get to sit in one?” Sister Yang clicked her tongue.

Who wouldn’t want to live a good life? Everyone aspired to climb higher.

Lin Xixi’s eyes flickered as she asked, “If my uncle wants to go to the provincial capital, how does he go? Can he use the government’s car?”

“He can, as long as he prepares a pack of cigarettes for Little Zhang,” Sister Yang advised her. “But keep it low-key. If you use it, just use it; don’t go around boasting.”

After a pause, she added, “Everyone is like this. It’s not just your uncle. The car is meant to serve everyone.”

Lin Xixi smiled and said, “I understand.”

She went into the kitchen to serve porridge for her younger cousins.

There might be several cars in the morning and evening, or perhaps one car making multiple trips to pick up and drop off the cadres. However, each driver had a fixed group of passengers they picked up, meaning that when Yan Lei went to the provincial capital to pick up Qiao Weiwei, he likely rode in Little Zhang’s car.

Little Zhang might know something.

If he could prove that Qiao Weiwei had eloped with someone, it would be great. She could find a way to publicize this matter. If everyone knew that Qiao Weiwei had cuckolded Yan Lei, how could men tolerate such a thing?

Surely, they would get a divorce.

Back then, when she returned to the city with her educated young husband, it was just a casual chat with the neighbors. She was labeled a homewrecker by her mother-in-law, and her husband slapped her, telling her to behave in the city.

She didn’t believe a man could tolerate such a thing.