Chapter 11

Shi Tingyu, for the sake of convenience, didn’t wear a skirt but opted for a white blouse and black pants, paired with black Mary Jane shoes.

The only standout item was a small white handbag she had brought back from abroad.

Although she looked quite ordinary apart from the bag, with her twin braids hairstyle matching other women, Lu Weiguo found her more attractive than the rest.

Standing at 1.68 meters, Shi Tingyu wasn’t short, but she still seemed petite next to Lu Weiguo, who was nearly 1.90 meters tall.

As the tall and short figures appeared at the entrance of the family quarters, they attracted some discreet glances.

Military wives and soldiers on leave passing through the area cast curious looks at them.

The wives who hadn’t seen Lu Weiguo before were startled by his appearance, while those who knew him instinctively kept their distance.

Previously, Lu Weiguo had lived in the barracks and not in the family quarters, so many of the military wives hadn’t seen him before.

The soldier on duty had seen Lu Weiguo but had never seen him so close to a woman.

He stood still, but his eyes followed the pair’s movements.

The excitement within him was barely contained.

He wanted to say something, but discipline prevented him, causing his face to flush red.

“Damn, isn’t that the Demon King from the First Battalion?”

“Is the woman next to him his girlfriend or sister?”

“Neither, I think. With the First Battalion Commander’s looks, his sister wouldn’t be that pretty. And a girlfriend? Impossible. His fierce appearance and notorious reputation in the battalion have ruined all his matchmaking attempts.”

“Ah, I’m so curious! I want to move closer!”

However, the pair bypassed him, registered their entry, and went inside.

Fortunately, it was a time when most people were at work, so there weren’t many people around the family quarters. After passing the entrance, they didn’t see many others.

The family quarters initially consisted of houses with small courtyards near the entrance. Later, a second batch of similar houses was built in the middle, and the newest apartments were at the innermost part.

Lu Weiguo’s small courtyard house was in the middle of the family quarters, close to the eastern side, with only one neighbor to the west. There was some distance between the two courtyards, and it was part of the second batch of houses, about seventy to eighty percent new.

When Shi Tingyu and Lu Weiguo arrived at the entrance, the wooden doors were securely locked.

Lu Weiguo took out a brass key and unlocked the door.

He pushed the two doors open to reveal the entire small courtyard.

The courtyard was almost square-shaped, with a stone path in the middle leading to the main room.

On the right side of the courtyard was the kitchen, and diagonally opposite to the kitchen on the left was the bathroom, located in the corner near the outer wall to ensure that any odors wouldn’t enter the house.

The rest of the area was unpaved dirt ground.

In front of the main room and the adjoining rooms was a corridor about two meters wide, running the entire width of the courtyard, supported by wooden columns.

During rainy days, items from the courtyard could be moved into the corridor without worrying about them getting wet.

The door to the main room was red, and the interior was empty.

On either side of the main room were two rooms, also empty, waiting to be furnished.

Shi Tingyu looked at the floor and saw that the main room and the bedrooms had cement floors, which was better than she had expected.

Having surveyed the courtyard, Shi Tingyu was quite satisfied, especially since the courtyard seemed to have been cleaned up, with no weeds in sight.

“Shall we go buy some furniture now?” Lu Weiguo asked, seeing her satisfaction.

Shi Tingyu nodded but didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she took out paper and pen from her bag, spread her feet apart, and pressed the paper against one of the corridor’s cement columns to jot down a list of items they needed to buy.

Besides furniture, the light bulbs in the rooms needed replacing. Lu Weiguo had noticed that the bulbs weren’t working.

They also needed to buy pots, pans, and other kitchen utensils.

The kitchen had a traditional stove, but they would need to buy a modern stove. It wasn’t easy to get straw and firewood around here, and she wasn’t very good at using a traditional stove.

When cooking alone, she would have to tend to both the fire and the food, a skill she had yet to master.

She also wanted to plant some vegetables in the courtyard, so they needed to buy some basic farming tools.

Additionally, they needed to buy a ladder. The roof of the corridor was flat and could be used to dry items.

Other essentials included toilet paper, brooms, dustpans, tongs, a water tank, and a dipper.

As Shi Tingyu wrote down everything, she realized that one sheet of paper was completely filled.

She looked up at Lu Weiguo.

The man was standing next to her, and with her legs spread apart in that position, her already short stature seemed even shorter in front of him.

She immediately pulled her legs back together.

“Ouch! Oh, oh, oh!”

As she moved her legs, a sharp, tingling pain spread from her feet upward, causing her to lift her leg involuntarily, not daring to put it down.

With a pen and paper in her hands, she was in an unstable position and couldn’t help but sway.

At that moment, a pair of strong hands steadied her.

After ensuring she was stable, Lu Weiguo silently withdrew his hands.

He clasped the hand that had just supported her behind his back, his fingers twitching slightly.

She looked quite thin, but her arm felt soft. Even through her shirt sleeve, it felt like he was gripping dough.

It was a softness he had never experienced before.

“Numb legs?” Lu Weiguo asked calmly, suppressing the strange feeling inside.

Shi Tingyu nodded, struggling to maintain her composure.

Lu Weiguo squatted down and massaged her calf, “Lift your leg and relax a bit.”

When he was a rookie, his legs often went numb while standing guard. Massaging helped, or moving slowly could alleviate it.

The moment his hand touched her leg, Shi Tingyu almost dropped her pen.

She nervously held onto a column with one hand while the other, holding the paper, instinctively grasped Lu Weiguo’s shoulder.

Even squatting, Lu Weiguo was tall enough, like a bear, and her hand rested perfectly on his shoulder.

As soon as her delicate hand gripped the paper tightly on his shoulder, Lu Weiguo’s body stiffened, and his massaging stopped.

His shoulder, where she touched, felt like it was on fire, the heat spreading up his neck, turning his skin a deep red.

Shi Tingyu, whose calf was being massaged, was also uncomfortable.

Each press made her want to cry out, but she felt it was inappropriate, so she bit her lip to hold back.

However, not crying out didn’t mean she made no sound.

Her soft, stifled gasps were like feathers tickling Lu Weiguo’s heart.

He felt an itch that made him want to pat and rub his chest.

Sweat began to appear on his face.

The massage was working, and Shi Tingyu’s leg felt much better.

“I-I’m much better now.”

She tried to say this calmly, but it came out stuttered.

Taking a deep breath, she silently looked away.

Lu Weiguo’s low voice sounded, “Hold on, I’ll do the other leg.”

Shi Tingyu obediently complied.

The massage on the other leg was faster since it had already been resting.

When he finished, Lu Weiguo stood up slowly, and Shi Tingyu noticed a thin layer of sweat on his forehead.

Shi Tingyu thought to herself, “Being tall must be tough; squatting must be really tiring.”