Chapter 18

Jiang Ling was certain in her heart that Song Guanshu would never agree, which was why she dared to tease him like that. His reaction genuinely caught her a bit off guard, but she wasn’t about to lose face.

She stepped forward to help him undress. Just as her hand touched his shirt buttons, Song Guanshu quickly stepped back two paces.

Jiang Ling pretended not to notice his guardedness. She blinked and asked innocently, “Aren’t we going to sleep together? You have to take your clothes off to sleep, you know.”

His fair neck flushed red. It was hard to tell whether it was from anger or anxiety.

“Don’t be shy,” Jiang Ling interpreted his reaction as embarrassment. “We’re legally married with a marriage certificate. Sharing a bed is the most reasonable thing in the world.”

Without saying a word, Song Guanshu began tidying up the bedding and made space for her.

So he admitted defeat just like that?

Jiang Ling pressed her advantage and said, “I want to sleep by the head of the bed.”

Without a word, Song Guanshu gave up the warmest spot on the kang to her.

In this unfamiliar place, even though she was lying beside someone as cold and secretive as Song Guanshu, the bed was warm. Jiang Ling slept soundly through the entire night.

She slept until broad daylight, but the same couldn’t be said for Song Guanshu. The soft sound of breathing beside him told him it was Jiang Ling, but since it was his first time sleeping so closely beside someone on the same kang, he felt uncomfortable and didn’t fall asleep the whole night, not even as the faint light of dawn crept in.

Perhaps he was used to staying up late, but there was no trace of exhaustion on Song Guanshu’s face. He looked no different from usual.

When Jiang Ling woke up, Song Guanshu had already prepared breakfast. But there was only one portion. He hadn’t made any for her.

Jiang Ling pretended not to notice that he hadn’t prepared breakfast for her. Like a starving tiger, she pounced and wolfed down the food in a flurry, even very considerately leaving him one egg.

“Next time, make a bit more breakfast. No matter how tough things are at home, you still have to eat your fill. I know you care about me, giving me all the best food at home. But don’t do that again, okay? I won’t allow you to mistreat your own body.”

She looked at Song Guanshu seriously as she said this.

Song Guanshu didn’t believe for a second that Jiang Ling hadn’t noticed there was no portion for her. She was really good at playing dumb.

He didn’t call her out on it. Instead, he ate the remaining boiled egg. Jiang Ling poured him a glass of hot water.

“Have some hot water to wash it down. Don’t choke. Take your time eating, I’m going to wash up. Let’s go to work together after that.”

She was worried that after eating, he would just ride off to work on his bicycle, leaving her with no choice but to walk to the daily chemical factory on her own two legs.

Not to mention she still wasn’t familiar with the route—just yesterday, even with Song Guanshu riding a bicycle, it had taken him half an hour. If she were to walk, it would take her at least an hour.

The steel factory and the daily chemical factory were quite far apart. For work that day, Song Guanshu still gave Jiang Ling a ride.

Jiang Ling had clearly overthought things. How could Song Guanshu possibly ride off to work on his own the day after their wedding and let his new bride walk to work?

Along the way, they passed many workers either walking or cycling to work. Everyone was full of energy and enthusiasm—except for Jiang Ling, who was groggy and sluggish from not getting enough sleep.

Following Song Guanshu’s schedule, they arrived at the office more than ten minutes earlier than Jiang Ling used to.

This time, she was the second worker to enter the Accounting Section office.

Yu Jiafeng, who had been unlocking the office door for the past ten years without fail, had already fetched hot water from the washroom. As Jiang Ling entered, wisps of steam were rising from the enamel mug.

Seeing the newlywed Jiang Ling, Yu Jiafeng couldn’t resist teasing, “Well now, Xiao Jiang, how come you’re at work so early today? Looks like getting married really makes a difference. Back when you were living in the staff dormitory, just five hundred meters from the factory, you always showed up right on time. Now that you live farther away, you’re arriving earlier than before.”

Jiang Ling gave a wry smile. Of course, she didn’t want to come in this early like Song Guanshu. Arriving early didn’t earn any bonuses.

But if she didn’t follow Song Guanshu’s schedule, and missed the “shuttle,” she’d have to walk to work herself.

Five more minutes of sleep versus walking an hour.

Jiang Ling wasn’t stupid—she knew exactly which to choose.

Still, that little calculation wasn’t something she needed to share with her coworkers. She simply said, “Yesterday I was truly moved by Director Ding’s speech during the wedding. The reason Song Guanshu and I are where we are today is all thanks to the factory. We must work hard and give back to the Daily Chemical Factory to live up to the support it has given us.”

Those words were so stirring that Yu Jiafeng felt like the temperature in the Accounting Section was warmer than usual that morning.

Li Chunjiao was in the corridor when she heard the lively chatter coming from the Accounting Section. She lifted the curtain and walked in, smiling as she asked, “What are you all talking about in here? Sounds like a heated discussion.”

She strode in with big steps and tossed the cloth bag she carried—filled with yarn and knitting needles—onto her desk.

Yu Jiafeng replied, “Xiao Jiang said she’s going to work hard from now on to repay the factory.”

Li Chunjiao said, “That’s great to hear. Next time I see Sister Ding, I’ll have to tell her. She’ll definitely be delighted when she hears that.”

One by one, the other clerks in the Accounting Section arrived at their posts before the work bell rang.

Everyone who saw Jiang Ling, the new bride, had to tease her a little.

Even though she had already gotten her marriage certificate some time ago, in everyone’s eyes, it wasn’t truly considered a marriage until the wedding ceremony had been held—no matter how big or small the wedding was.

Wei Ming actually showed up to work on time today. Last night, he had been scolded by Ding Yan for his poor performance in bed.

His male pride had taken a hit, and he was already in a foul mood. When he walked into the Accounting Section and saw everyone gathered around Jiang Ling, who looked positively radiant, asking her this and that, his mood instantly sank to rock bottom.

He was upset, and he made sure to show it. If he wasn’t happy, no one else was allowed to be either.

Wei Ming gave a cold snort and said, “The work bell has already rung. Didn’t you hear it? Still chatting after the shift has started? Don’t you all have work to do?”

When Ding Yan wasn’t around, he was good at throwing his weight around and playing the part of a superior.

In the past, people used to treat him like Director Ding’s prized brother-in-law. But after Ding Yan had visited twice, everyone in the Accounting Section had figured out just how little he actually mattered in the Ding family.

Section Chief Tang smiled and tried to smooth things over. “They all know their priorities. In a couple of days, it’ll be payday, and then they’ll be too busy to lift their feet off the ground. Let them chat for now. It’s rare for something joyful to happen in our section.”

Wei Ming suddenly sensed that the way people in the section treated him had changed.

But exactly what had changed, he couldn’t quite put into words. It was one of those things that could only be sensed, not explained.

After Section Chief Tang finished speaking, everyone resumed their chatter with enthusiasm.

“Jiang Ling, come out for a moment, someone’s looking for you.” The ones who had come were Jiang Ling’s eldest sister, Jiang Lian, and second sister, Jiang He.

Jiang He wasn’t a worker at the Daily Chemical Factory, but her father-in-law worked there.

On Sunday, her parents-in-law had come to the factory canteen, hoping to enjoy a free wedding meal. When they saw the bride on stage, she looked more and more familiar.

The elderly couple quietly whispered to each other, “That girl really looks a lot like our Xiao He’s younger sister.”

The more they looked, the more it seemed true, but they never took it too seriously. After all, their family and the Jiang family were in-laws. If the Jiang family were marrying off a daughter, surely they would have been informed. So the old couple simply assumed it was someone who just happened to look similar.

It wasn’t until they heard Director Ding reading the names during the wedding speech that the elderly couple realized they hadn’t been mistaken—it really was their daughter-in-law’s younger sister.

In truth, they felt a little angry. The in-laws had something as joyous as a wedding and didn’t inform their side of the family. Was this a sign of cutting ties? Were they no longer interested in maintaining relations?

But then they thought about it more carefully and realized that even their own daughter-in-law probably hadn’t known about it. Their son and daughter-in-law, both rare to have a weekend off, were still at home catching up on sleep.

Her younger sister was getting married, and even the older sisters hadn’t been told.

The elderly couple considered confronting Sun Yilan, the in-law who was not far away at the time, but in the end decided it wouldn’t be appropriate. They went home and told their daughter-in-law Jiang He about the whole matter, leaving it to her to decide what to do.

Jiang He looked completely stunned. “You’re saying my little sister is already married?”

The elderly couple nodded.

Jiang He had a fiery temper. She rolled up her sleeves and was about to storm out. “I’m going to ask Jiang Ling what this is all about. Does she not see me as her second sister anymore? I knew it—this dead girl holds grudges. I took a floral dress from her when we were kids, and she’s held it against me ever since.”

Her in-laws quickly stopped their hot-tempered daughter-in-law, urging her to calm down. “The wedding is already over. Do you even know where that Xiao Song lives? Where would you go looking for her?”

Jiang He settled down and asked her parents-in-law, “Dad, Mom, tell me—what kind of person is this man Jiang Ling married?”

After all, as an older sister, she couldn’t pretend not to care about her younger sister’s lifelong happiness.

Her in-laws recalled, “He’s really good-looking, proper and refined, and he seems very polite—a nice young man who’s easy to get along with. But from what Director Ding said, this young fellow is an orphan, no father or mother, and won’t have in-laws to help out in the future.”

As elders, they placed a lot of importance on family background.

Listening to their description, Jiang He felt like there were cat claws scratching at her heart—she was itching to go interrogate Jiang Ling right away.

It wasn’t easy, but the next day finally came. Jiang He, who worked at the neighborhood committee, pedaled her bicycle there and asked for a leave of absence. Then she headed straight to the Daily Chemical Factory.

As a worker’s family member, Jiang He wasn’t stopped at the gate. The guard simply told her to find the person quickly and not to stay too long.

Jiang He agreed without issue. Halfway there, she paused to think for a moment, then decided not to go straight to the Accounting Section. Instead, she went upstairs to the second floor to look for her eldest sister, Jiang Lian.

As soon as she saw her eldest sister, she got straight to the point. “Did you know our little sister got married yesterday?”

Jiang Lian had only heard about it from a coworker that very morning. Her youngest daughter had been sick the day before, so she had taken her to the hospital for an IV. First thing in the morning, a colleague had asked her, “Your younger sister got married yesterday—how come you, as her elder sister, didn’t attend?”

Jiang Lian had been completely confused and only understood what had happened after someone explained it to her.

Of course, she had to cover for Jiang Ling. “My little girl had a fever yesterday, so I took her to the hospital.”

People immediately asked how the child was doing, and just like that, the topic shifted.

Jiang Lian was eager to know what had really happened, but she had to suppress her curiosity and planned to ask Jiang Ling during the lunch break.

Unexpectedly, her second sister, Jiang He—impatient as always—had already come looking for her.

After hearing her elder sister’s denial, Jiang He was finally satisfied. So it wasn’t about holding a grudge over that floral dress after all.

“Come on, let’s go ask her why she got married without telling us.”