Chapter 67

“Early the next morning, Shi Tingyu woke up feeling sore all over.

By now, Lu Weiguo had already gone for morning drills.

She really couldn’t understand one thing—clearly the man exerted himself at night, so why was it always the woman who couldn’t get up in the end?

Previously hearing the phrase ‘maidservant supports the delicate and weak, beginning to enjoy new favor,’ she thought it was an exaggeration. But experiencing it firsthand, she knew the bliss of soreness.

For a woman inexperienced with a man’s tools, it truly was suffering at first and sweetness later.

At the training ground, Lu Weiguo, leading the drills, ran like lightning with his long legs, quickly leaving the others behind.

Captain Li looked at his battalion commander in surprise. Had he taken something? He’s so vigorous this early in the morning.

After the morning drills ended, Lu Weiguo hurried to the mess hall.

His wife wasn’t up to cooking this morning, so he fetched breakfast for her from the mess hall.

When Lu Weiguo returned, Shi Tingyu was lying in bed like a corpse.

Seeing Lu Weiguo come in, she glared at him.

Though she was glaring, the charm of her eyes, experiencing intimacy for the first time, couldn’t be hidden. With just that glare, Lu Weiguo felt half-melted.

He sat down beside the bed and asked her, ‘Feeling better?’ He hadn’t forgotten her calling him a beast last night.

‘My back is sore, and my legs too…’

Lu Weiguo reached over to massage her lower back.

Shi Tingyu found lying on her side uncomfortable, so she turned onto her stomach.

Lu Weiguo diligently massaged her, and every now and then, she hummed a bit, which fired him up, and his hands started to wander.

Blushing slightly, Shi Tingyu slapped his hand, ‘I’m hungry.’

Withdrawing his hand, Lu Weiguo took a deep breath, got up, and went outside to get breakfast.

Shi Tingyu watched him walk away a bit awkwardly, burying her head in her arms, giggling.

Once Lu Weiguo settled down and brought breakfast in, Shi Tingyu had already adjusted her expression.

Originally, Lu Weiguo intended for Shi Tingyu to eat in bed, but just as she was about to start, Shi Tingyu remembered she hadn’t washed up yet.

Without another word, she slipped on slippers and went to freshen up.

After washing up, she sat back on the bed, and once she finished breakfast, she planned to bathe with the spritual spring water, feeling more comfortable afterwards.

Lu Weiguo watched as she finished every last bit of food, feeling relieved.

Normally, she didn’t eat much, so now he was pleased she ate more.

With limited time in the morning, after breakfast, Lu Weiguo only managed to wash the dishes.

After finishing her breakfast and bathing, Shi Tingyu continued to sleep, finally waking up around eleven o’clock.

She made herself and Lijian some food, then sat in the room drawing her picture book.

By mid-afternoon, the first story of the ‘Loyal Dog’ picture book was complete, and she stretched her stiff body from sitting for so long.

Suddenly, she remembered the incident with the bat last time. At that time, she was so scared that her mind went blank, leaving only instinctive reactions. She almost forgot she had her space to use.

But gathering things into the space required them to be within a two-meter range. Since bats moved, she couldn’t guarantee the bat was exactly within range, and she didn’t know if the space could contain living things.

Thinking this through, Shi Tingyu went outside and approached the blooming rose bushes, finally finding a small bee on a newly blossomed flower.

She concentrated and used her mind to bring the bee into the space.

Hastily returning to her room, she used her consciousness to check on the bee’s condition inside the space.

Inside the space, everything was as usual. Recently, the vegetables she had put in had blossomed again, and the small bee, eager as if starved, was focused on gathering nectar from the flowers.

Its spirit seemed quite vigorous.

She wondered if bringing more bees into her space would cause them to produce honey there.

If they could produce honey, how would the quality compare to that outside?

All of this would require step-by-step experimentation.”

“Having already entered the space, Shi Tingyu didn’t come out empty-handed. She picked some vegetables that were ready to eat and mixed them with those from the garden outside.

Luckily, she hadn’t planted much in the space initially; otherwise, the vegetables inside would have been overwhelming by now.

She could sell these vegetables if she wanted to, but she didn’t want to do so right now. She planned to wait a few more years until reform and opening up policies were more established. She couldn’t guarantee that running a business with space-grown vegetables wouldn’t get her into trouble and possibly implicate Lu Weiguo.

Moreover, she was someone whose parents had been sent down to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.

After confirming that the space could contain living things, Shi Tingyu exited the space, with freshly picked vegetables by her side.

During her tests, she also discovered another function of the space—preservation. It was something she stumbled upon accidentally. Previously, she had dropped a vegetable on the ground while picking them, and when she checked inside the space days later, it was still as fresh as when she had just picked it.

This discovery pleasantly surprised her.

In this scorching summer, refrigerators weren’t yet common here. With the space, she could secretly buy some fish or meat and store them inside, saving herself trips to town whenever she craved meat.

But her current priority was to catch some bees into the space, hoping they would produce honey.

In her own yard, she had only managed to catch a few kittens. Taking advantage of the cooler afternoon, she went to the foot of the nearby mountain.

She remembered there was a patch of wildflowers there, likely with beehives nearby.

Shi Tingyu retrieved a long-sleeved shirt and pants she had worn to the movies last time from the wardrobe and also grabbed a basket.

The camp itself was located in the outskirts, not far from the mountain. She probably arrived at the foot of the mountain in less than twenty minutes.

With the clear sky and broad daylight, she wasn’t afraid to enter the mountain, as long as she didn’t venture too deep.

The shade of trees on the mountain was cooler than in the family compound. She even thought about coming here to sketch in the future if she had the chance.

On the way up the mountain, besides keeping an eye out for beehives, she would dig up some known wild vegetables to cover her tracks.

Her body hadn’t exercised for a long time, and she was already a little out of breath after a short while.

Sitting down in front of a tree root, she wiped the sweat off her face and drank some spritual spring water from the space to refresh herself.

It was then that she heard a few voices talking nearby.

She was startled. Who would be up the mountain at this time?

Fortunately, when she used the space, she would pay attention to the surroundings in advance, and even if no one was there, she would try to be discreet. She wasn’t worried about being discovered.

At this moment, the voices came again from that direction, and this time, prepared, Shi Tingyu could hear them more clearly.

However, the other party seemed to be speaking in a dialect she didn’t quite understand.

Leaning against the tree trunk, she glanced over and saw a man of average height dressed in military attire from the camp on one side. On the other side was a thin middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man had a large flat-top haircut and was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and long pants.

Just as Shi Tingyu was staring absent-mindedly, a wild rabbit darted out from the grass behind her.

The soldier suddenly turned around, his voice urgent, ‘Who’s there?’

This was followed by footsteps getting closer and closer.

The middle-aged man followed him slowly.

Their movements startled the naturally timid rabbit, which instantly fled farther away.

The middle-aged man said, ‘You’re making a fuss over nothing; it’s just a rabbit.’

The soldier replied solemnly, ‘Be cautious for a thousand days just to be safe.’

Meanwhile, Shi Tingyu was inside the space, listening to the commotion outside.

When the soldier shouted in Mandarin asking who was there, she had already entered the space.

The soldier’s words didn’t sound like something a regular soldier would say, and she was glad she had entered the space. Later on, although the two continued speaking in dialects, because they were close, she could hear them more clearly. While she couldn’t understand everything, she got the gist of it.

Their conversation clearly wasn’t normal; their tones sounded more like the cautious reactions of someone caught in some kind of secret meeting or deal.”