◎ Third update ◎ 

“Comrade Hong Saner, how are you?” Liang Baozhen made sure that her husband was safe before she remembered to check on the injured. 

Hong Saner, whose arm was wrapped in several layers of gauze by the nurse, had regained his composure and replied calmly, “I’m fine. It’s just a minor issue. Catching a thief is simple. Sister-in-law, don’t be fooled by how my arm looks; it’s really nothing. If the doctor hadn’t insisted on wrapping it this way, I could have gone out directly.” 

Liang Baozhen pretended not to hear the shouts earlier and nodded with a smile, “That’s good, then you should take good care of your injuries.” 

“Don’t worry! Contributing to the State Cotton Factory is my duty as a member of the factory!” 

Xu Shengjie was too lazy to pay attention to him. This man was simply asking for trouble. 

The two men worked the night shift and went out to relieve themselves at four in the morning today. As a result, Xu Shengjie quickly sensed something was wrong. In the darkness, he saw some people sneaking out of the building. One person had a backpack, which accidentally fell to the ground, revealing a stack of money! 

When he noticed the panic on their faces, he stopped them and asked what was happening. Just as he began to speak, he caught sight of a flash of cold light. 

The three men had knives in their hands! 

However, Xu Shengjie was a veteran who had been to the battlefield. Facing several men with knives, he told Hong Saner to stay away and be careful, and then went to deal with them. These people were just for show, so it didn’t take much effort to deal with them. He kicked one of them in the chest and grabbed the wrist of another one with one hand accurately and twisted it hard. All that was heard was the clinking sound of long knives falling to the ground. 

As for the third person, Hong Saner was unwilling to back down and wanted to help. He rushed forward and wanted to fight with him, but he was cut by the knife. Fortunately, Xu Shengjie acted quickly; otherwise, he would have been seriously injured. 

“I heard them say there was blood all over the floor, which scared me.” Liang Baozhen was still frightened, but now looking at Hong Saner, it didn’t seem that serious. 

“You know how rumors go—they get more exaggerated the more they spread!” Hong Saner had now regained his spirits and was boasting about his heroic deeds in front of Liang Baozhen. 

“You have no idea how dangerous it was at that moment, with such a long knife!” Hong Saner said while stretching his hands to show a distance of about a meter. Xu Shengjie coughed a few times, Hong Saner then realized, “Oh, it may not have been that long.”  

His hands instantly shortened the distance by half. “Anyway, it was about that long. Three knives! It was incredible. Luckily, Old Xu… cough cough, and I, fearless in the face of danger, fought fiercely to protect the State Cotton Factory’s safe.” 

“You’re really impressive.” Liang Baozhen praised him unemotionally, turning to look at Xu Shengjie with tenderness in her eyes. “But next time, don’t just rush in like that. You’re skilled, but they had knives! What if they really hurt you?” 

“I know. I didn’t think it through this time. Besides, I could tell those three weren’t skilled. Without a knife, they wouldn’t last two punches. Don’t worry; I’ll be fine.”  

Hong Saner listened to their conversation, feeling sour in his heart and sighing heavily. It seemed that it was time for him to find a wife! 

On the way back to the workshop, they overheard some of the workers discussing the incident. 

It was as if they were all there and were talking excitedly about what happened.

“You know how dangerous the situation was at that time. It was thanks to those two workers who stood up.” 

“I heard one person had their hand chopped off! It just dropped to the ground…” 

Hong San touched his own hand, thinking that it was a bit exaggerated! 

*** 

The factory security department interrogated the three thieves caught by Xu Shengjie and Hong Saner. Just as they were about to hand them over to the Public Security Bureau, they were stopped by Chen Yong’s secretary. 

“Director Pang, don’t hand these three people over to the Public Security Bureau yet. The factory director wants to personally interrogate them.” 

“Secretary Fang, the factory director wants to interrogate them?” The head of the security department, Pang Lin, was a bit confused. However, he thought that perhaps the factory director was taking the recent theft from the safe at the State Cotton Factory too seriously. “Alright, we’ll let the comrades from the Public Security Bureau know we’ll be there shortly; the factory director will question them first.” 

This theft had become a hot topic among both the factory officials and workers. After all, it was a rare and significant incident. 

Deputy Director Wu Bingnian was responsible for the follow-up work, focusing mainly on the security patrols of the factory by the Security Department, especially the night patrols. 

At the same time, the two workers who bravely acted were praised and rewarded. 

That afternoon, Liang Baozhen announced the financial security measures and the reward for bravery over the radio. 

“At 4 a.m. today, a safe theft occurred in our factory. Three suspects broke into the State Cotton Factory with knives and pried open the safe to steal some valuable things. This was an extreme offense. Fortunately, two workers in our factory’s cotton cleaning workshop bravely fought with the three suspects without fear of danger and eventually successfully subdued them and saving our factory from significant losses.” 

“Listen to that!” When Hong Saner and Xu Shengjie returned to the workshop, everyone praised and supported them. The workshop director initially wanted to grant Hong Saner some leave, but he was fired up and refused to go back, insisting on working despite his injuries. 

How could he not enjoy this honor? It would be a shame to go home now! 

Especially since there’s a loudspeaker broadcasting the news to the whole factory; it is so impressive! 

“Don’t get too carried away; be careful your hand doesn’t start bleeding again,” Xu Shengjie had made military achievements before, so he seemed particularly calm about the commendation from the State Cotton Factory. However, these announcements were being announced by his wife! 

It seems pretty good! 

“After the investigation and discussion by Factory Director Chen Yong and the leadership team, the security department will enhance its inspection and management of safety for people and property in the factory going forward. This incident must not happen again.” 

“At the same time, the factory decided to reward Comrade Xu Shengjie and Comrade Hong Saner with one hundred yuan each for their heroic actions.” 

One hundred yuan! Hong Saner excitedly pulled Xu Shengjie’s arm. “Did you hear that?” 

“I heard it.” Xu Shengjie had a smile on his face, noticing that his wife seemed to pause slightly when mentioning his name. 

*** 

When they got home, Xu Shengwei and Xu Shengya looked at their older brother with shining eyes after hearing about how he bravely fought off the thieves. 

“Brother, you have to tell us what happened! Did you take them down with just a few punches?” Xu Shengwei clenched his fists, wanting to fight bad people too! 

“Brother you’re so impressive.” The person Xu Shengya admires most is her older brother. 

Xu Shengjie was holding a spoon and was skimming the oil foam floating on the top of the chicken soup bowl and serving the soup to his wife. 

Liang Baozhen can’t eat anything too oily; otherwise, she will feel uncomfortable. 

“Eat your meal properly.” Xu Shengjie handed the soup bowl to his wife and then glanced at his younger siblings, “Why are you two talking away during dinner?” 

Xu Shengya was busy eating a slice of pumpkin. She was currently tasked with writing an article for her assignment and had been struggling to come up with a topic. But now, this was perfect material! 

“Brother, I need to write an article about my family. I’ll write about you. You can tell me what happened. The title of the essay will be ‘My Most Impressive Brother.'” 

Xu Shengjie shook his head and refused. “Pick someone else to write about; write about Grandma or your sister-in-law.” 

“No, there’s nothing for an old woman like me to write about.”  

“I’m even less interesting.” 

Xu Shengjie looked at the last person in the room, “How about Xiao Wei? Forget it; he doesn’t have anything interesting to write about either.” 

“Of course I do!” Xu Shengwei retorted, feeling anxious. He had his own achievements, especially since the preliminary selection for his upcoming table tennis competition was coming up. “Xiao Ya, just write about me. Change the title to ‘My Impressive Second Brother!'” 

Xu Shengya hesitated, wondering if her second brother could pass the preliminary selection, but she didn’t want to discourage him. “Okay, if you pass the preliminary selection, I’ll write you an article.” 

“Good!” 

Xu Shengwei went to the city’s Dongshan Sports Stadium with full confidence to participate in the preliminary round of the youth table tennis competition. 

That day was a Sunday, so everyone at home stayed behind because Dongshan Sports Stadium was far from Crescent Alley. Xu Shengjie took him, but unfortunately, not every family member could enter to watch the preliminaries; only one parent could accompany the player inside while everyone else had to wait outside. 

The preliminaries lacked the formality of official matches. Rows of table tennis tables were set up, and the young participants were competing against each other in a draw format, and a ‘referee’ standing nearby was keeping score. Due to the large number of people and multiple games being played at the same time, the eliminated participants also came to help as referees and keep score. 

Xu Shengjie looked at the field and estimated that there were dozens of participants, and the other half had not yet entered the stadium. 

“Don’t get nervous out there,” Xu Shengjie patted his brother’s head, suddenly realizing he had grown taller. He used to have to reach down more to pat him, but now it was easy; he barely had to lower his hand. 

“I’ll be fine, brother. Just watch! Don’t lose focus!” 

“I know. Go ahead.” 

This was the first time Xu Shengjie watched people play table tennis seriously. He didn’t expect that this group of half-grown children would play table tennis so well. Each of them was very serious and had no intention of making trouble at all. 

This was their competition! 

Sometimes, he thought kids just played around and didn’t take things seriously. Xu Shengjie didn’t pay much attention to his younger brother’s daily obsession with table tennis. He believed it might be a passing interest, just like his earlier interests in marbles and trading cards. But now, seeing it firsthand, it felt different. 

Xu Shengwei is quite capable and is considered to be the best among the many participants who came to experience the competition. He easily won two rounds and passed the preliminary selection and will be able to participate in the official competition at the end of the month. 

When he got home, he excitedly told his sister about every details of the competition, wanting her to write down every actions and thoughts he had during the matches. 

“Xiao Wei, you’re really good!” Liang Baozhen, who was snacking on sunflower seeds. She listened intently, wishing she could be there in person. “It sounds like a great event. Winning against so many students is really impressive!”

“Sister-in-law, you can go in and watch the official match.” Xu Shengwei really wanted everyone in the family to watch, but he hesitated when he saw his sister-in-law’s big belly. “I just don’t know if you can go in?” 

“I should be able to. The baby wants to see it too! To watch Uncle, play in the match!” Liang Baozhen felt quite restricted during her pregnancy. There were many places she couldn’t go, and going out with a big belly was inconvenient for her but also made her family members cautious. Because of this, she hadn’t gone too far in the last few months. 

Seeing his grandson’s excitement after winning the game, Zhou Yun encouraged and reminded him. “Xiaowei, don’t be proud. You need to stay steady and make solid progress.” 

“I understand, Grandma. I’ve got it all figured out.”

Xu Shengwei felt like he was shining today; he still needed to go tell Biaozi and the others about it, so he couldn’t miss this opportunity. 

“Xiao Ya, hurry up and write it down. Remember to make me sound impressive, like the score in the first game, 21 to 11, can be written as 21 to 1.” 

“No!” Xu Shengya firmly disagreed. “Second brother, whatever score you get is what it is. How can you change it like that?” 

“Okay, then just write it as it is. Just remember to write a lot. Do you have enough paper for your article? If not, I have some.” 

“That’s enough, that’s enough. Just 800 words; how much more do you want?” Xu Shengya felt that her second brother was too annoying. 

“Only eight hundred?!” Xu Shengwei had forgotten the struggle of writing an article and was now a bit dissatisfied. 

That night, Xu Shengya hurriedly finished her article, but she slightly changed the title to “My Second Brother, Who is Quite Impressive Yet a Little Stupid.” 

*** 

Lying in bed at night, Liang Baozhen anxiously touched Xu Shengjie again, worried that he might have been injured somewhere and he didn’t even notice it. 

She had always been like this. Sometimes she would inexplicably find a small scratch on her arm that didn’t hurt, unsure of where it had come from. Other times, when she was helping to harvest wheat and walking in the fields, she would pass through various bushes and get small scratches on her legs, but she didn’t feel anything and didn’t notice it until later. 

“You’re really not hurt, right?” 

After all, there were three of them, and they were armed with knives. Liang Baozhen still felt afraid when she thought about it. Desperate dogs can jump over walls. Who knows what these people might do? 

“If you feel uncomfortable anywhere, remember to tell me. Don’t be embarrassed. I know you were a soldier, but there are so many of them. It’s normal to have some bumps and bruises.” 

“I’m really fine.” Xu Shengjie grabbed the hands that were touching everywhere. Her hands were touching his body for a while now Xu Shengjie, and he felt hot all over. 

The two of them had rarely been intimate since Liang Baozhen became pregnant, fearing that they might hurt the child. But Xu Shengjie was at the age full of vigor and vitality, so how could he withstand such teasing from his wife, even though she didn’t realize it and was looking at him with concern. 

“But you know what? I do feel a bit uncomfortable.” 

“I knew it!” Liang Baozhen felt something was wrong. This person was just careless. “Where do you feel uncomfortable? Let me see; do we need to go find a doctor?” 

“No need for a doctor; just seeing you is enough.” Xu Shengjie tilted his head and leaned closer, taking in her breath and the light fragrance of her body—a fresh, clean scent like peach blossoms in spring, making him crave more. 

“Me?” Liang Baozhen smiled. “I’m not a doctor… um…” 

Before she could finish, her soft, red lips were kissed. Xu Shengjie savored his wife’s sweet taste, rolling her lips over and over until he heard her soft moans. 

When Xu Shengjie finally released those delicate red lips, Liang Baozhen was panting, then she heard her husband beside her laugh softly, “It’s all better now.”