Chapter 39

After finishing the meal, everyone chatted for a bit before preparing to leave.

Aunt Lu brought out the celebratory eggs.

They were dyed completely red with pigment.

Each family received five eggs.

In the countryside, some customs involve giving an even number of eggs, while in some areas there’s a slight preference for boys, giving five red eggs to signify success for boys and three for girls, implying traditional virtues.

Upon receiving the red eggs, everyone said a few auspicious words.

Shi Tingyu was no exception.

Although she didn’t know this custom, she followed what others did and it worked out fine.

In the hot weather, the eggs needed to be eaten quickly.

Back home, Shi Tingyu peeled one to eat.

Before time traveling, being an orphan, she had no relatives and had never eaten red eggs. After time traveling, the original host lived abroad and had only returned in recent years, so she hadn’t eaten them either.

Peeling the red egg revealed white egg white with a few red streaks.

Shi Tingyu held up the egg and asked, “Weiguo, can we eat the red part?”

Lu Weiguo glanced at it, knowing she might not have had it before, and said, “Yes, it’s dyed with red yeast rice.”

Shi Tingyu wasn’t hungry, just curious. After confirming it was edible, she ate one egg but couldn’t eat more. The rest of the eggs went into Lu Weiguo’s stomach.

Looking at his flat stomach, Shi Tingyu instinctively pressed her hand against it, “Where did it all go?”

Her soft hand touched his abdomen through the thin summer clothing, causing Lu Weiguo to tense his muscles, freezing in place.

Shi Tingyu, unaware, rubbed his stomach a couple of times, feeling the hardness beneath her fingers.

Lu Weiguo exhaled deeply, grabbing her slender wrist.

His tanned, muscular hand held her fair wrist with a slight force to stop her from moving, the veins on his hand clearly visible.

“What’s wrong?” Confused by his sudden action, Shi Tingyu asked.

Lu Weiguo’s long, narrow eyes fixed on her bright ones, his Adam’s apple moving, his voice husky, “You can’t touch there.”

Only then did Shi Tingyu realize how touching a man’s stomach could be challenging for him. She couldn’t help but tease, “Is it like a tiger’s backside, untouchable?”

Lu Weiguo glanced at her and after a while said, “It’s not that…”

As he slightly loosened his grip on her wrist, her hand naturally fell onto his abs.

Feeling like she had touched something hot, Shi Tingyu quickly withdrew her hand.

Hiding her hand behind her back, she curled her fingers out of his sight.

Lu Weiguo’s eyes showed a hint of amusement, “Not touching anymore?”

Clearing her throat, Shi Tingyu turned towards the room, “Alright, alright, time to wash up and sleep.”

Lu Weiguo watched her retreating figure, following her into the room.

He felt that his wife was gradually lowering her guard around him, starting to have more intimate interactions, which was a good start.

After changing clothes, Lu Weiguo went to prepare bathwater for Shi Tingyu.

He knew her well; in this weather, she wished she could bathe three times a day.

After both had washed up, it was still early.

The room was stifling, so Lu Weiguo laid out a bamboo mat and a fan in the corridor.

“Come on, let’s go cool off outside.”

Shi Tingyu eagerly followed him out.

In an era without air conditioning, cooling off at night was essential to beat the summer heat.

The bamboo mat felt refreshing to lie on.

Lu Weiguo also lit a mosquito coil nearby.

Lying on the mat, Shi Tingyu sighed contentedly.

But it wasn’t long before the sound of buzzing mosquitoes filled the air.

Even though they had lit a mosquito coil, being outdoors meant it didn’t do much against the mosquitoes.

Seeing this, Lu Weiguo fanned her with a fan. With the combined effect of the fan and the mosquito coil, the mosquitoes didn’t bother her anymore.

Unconsciously, Shi Tingyu fell asleep.

Lu Weiguo glanced at his peacefully sleeping wife, then pulled over a blanket to cover her stomach.

Later in the night, as the temperature dropped, he touched Shi Tingyu’s exposed arm, feeling its cool smoothness.

Putting down the fan, he stretched his slightly sore arms, then bent down and gently lifted his sleeping wife.

Shi Tingyu moved uneasily, but Lu Weiguo placed his hand on her shoulder and neck, giving her some support. She quieted down, resting her head against his neck, still and peaceful.

Lu Weiguo was tall and strong, holding his wife like holding a pillow, effortlessly.

He placed her legs on the bed first, then freed a hand to carefully support her head on the pillow.

Shi Tingyu wore a long skirt-style nightgown. When he first lifted her, the skirt ruffled up slightly, revealing her fair and slender legs.

In the darkness, Lu Weiguo thought her legs seemed to glow with brightness.

He forced himself to look away and turned on the bedside lamp.

From the bamboo mat outside to the bed inside, Shi Tingyu continued to sleep soundly.

Lu Weiguo watched her for a moment, couldn’t help but reach out and touch her head gently, then used the fan to drive away a few mosquitoes, ensuring none were inside the mosquito net before he let it down.

For him, the weather was still hot. Although they had an electric fan at home, he didn’t turn it on.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but the noise from the electric fan was too loud, and the direct breeze could give people headaches.

Shi Tingyu sighed that if she had known earlier, she wouldn’t have bought an electric fan.

She had overestimated its performance.

Shi Tingyu had once asked Lu Weiguo to lay out the bamboo mat in the hall in front of the door to sleep, but he refused. Because of this, his mood had been low for a few days.

Heat was not an issue, but separate beds were Lu Weiguo’s bottom line.

Early the next morning, when Shi Tingyu got up, she found that Lu Weiguo had already gone for morning exercises.

She quickly got up, changed clothes, and then realized she hadn’t slept under the corridor last night.

She tried hard to recall how she had returned to bed last night.

But she guessed that Lu Weiguo had carried her back.

Thinking of this, a smile curled up at the corner of her lips, her eyes twinkling with amusement.

As usual, she went to the backyard vegetable garden to inspect it. Shi Tingyu found that the vegetables she had planted before were growing steadily. In a while, the cucumbers and luffa would be ready to climb.

What surprised her was that the cabbage planted later had also sprouted, looking lush and tender.

This cabbage was planted after seeing a strip of unused land in the yard, and she had asked Mrs. Zhang next door for the vegetable seeds.

However, the cabbage was a bit dense, so she could thin it out in the evening. A soup made from it would be absolutely fresh.

When she arrived in the kitchen, she found a pot of porridge warming on the coal stove.

Shi Tingyu took the pot off, opened the small door below the stove, and chopped some chili to fry with eggs.

After Lu Weiguo returned from morning exercises, he carried a enamel basin with several buns inside.

“You also fried some eggs?” Lu Weiguo asked, looking at the golden eggs.

Shi Tingyu replied, “Just frying some eggs to go with the porridge.”

With the buns, Shi Tingyu and Lu Weiguo had a satisfying meal.

It had to be said, the chef’s buns were really well-made.