Chapter 44: Taking Little Tangyuan to Meet His Grandparents

The brief moment at the door wasn’t worth mentioning to Fu Zhengtu.

He didn’t ask, and Su Taotao naturally didn’t bring it up. It was as if Xia Xiyin had never come by.

Chen Chen had just eaten a little at the restaurant, and now he was feeling a bit sleepy. Fu Zhengtu carried him to the room to sleep.

Fu Zhengtu noticed how long the little one’s eyelashes were, especially when his eyes were closed—two rows of dense little fans covering his lower eyelids. His chubby face was soft and tender, and when he slept, his little hands were raised next to his round little face. His pink lips would occasionally twitch, looking both beautiful and adorable. Fu Zhengtu could still see some resemblance to his mother in the child.

She used to look like this when she slept.

Fu Zhengtu gently scratched the child’s face with his long index finger, feeling his heart soften.

When he came out of the room, Su Taotao was in the kitchen tending to the fire.

Starting a fire didn’t seem to be her strong suit. While arranging the firewood, she puffed up her cheeks and blew air into the stove. Her chubby little cheeks puffed out, looking exactly like Chen Chen. The entire kitchen was filled with smoke, and the fire still hadn’t caught.

“I’ll do it.” Fu Zhengtu took the blower from her hands.

Su Taotao’s throat was full of smoke, making her eyes water and her nose run. She angrily ran to the door to get some fresh air, coughing for a while before she could recover. She muttered, “This stove always picks on me. It lights up so easily for Xiao Hang, but I can never get it to catch after trying for so long.”

Fu Zhengtu quickly got the fire started, opened the window to its maximum, and used a fan to blow the smoke out. Only when the smoke in the kitchen had dissipated did he say, “Come in.”

Su Taotao wrinkled her nose, unwillingly walking back into the kitchen. The worst thing about this era was the lack of natural gas and the absence of a range hood. She liked to cook, but it wasn’t even summer yet, and cooking a meal felt like swimming. She couldn’t imagine how she’d handle it in the summer.

“Come here.” Fu Zhengtu said again.

“What for?” The space between the stove and the wall was only a little over a meter wide, and with Fu Zhengtu standing in it, the whole place seemed cramped.

Fu Zhengtu leaned against the wall, making space, and motioned to the small stool by the stove. “I’ll teach you how to start the fire.”

Su Taotao walked over and sat on the only small stool.

Fu Zhengtu bent down, almost enclosing her in his arms.

He demonstrated at another stove: “First, clean out the ash in the stove. Arrange the firewood in a grid pattern, and place a handful of pine needles in the middle. Then, put the fire starter underneath the pine needles, and it will automatically catch fire after a while.”

His breath was right next to Su Taotao’s ear, and because he had smoked a few puffs outside the restaurant, his usually crisp scent now had a hint of smoke—pleasant and subtly intimate.

Su Taotao’s ears tingled and warmed up. After a couple of days without the usual intimacy in their married life, her emotions were easily stirred.

She quietly moved the stool a little to the side.

“Got it?” His steady and clear voice sounded.

Fu Zhengtu turned his head to look over, just as Su Taotao also turned hers in his direction. The distance between their lips was less than a centimeter—almost close enough to kiss…

Su Taotao instinctively leaned her head back. The little stool she sat on was unstable, and she was about to fall when Fu Zhengtu reached under her arms and wrapped an arm around her slim waist, pulling her back—so naturally that their lips met in the process.

Su Taotao was startled and tried to pull away.

But Fu Zhengtu’s arm tightened around her waist by reflex, holding her in place as he leaned down and captured her breath in a kiss.

Su Taotao could only close her eyes and lift her chin, letting it happen.

In the cramped space, their breaths mingled as they kissed. The crackling sparks in the stove seemed to cheer them on, celebrating the unexpected moment of intimacy.

Fu Zhengtu kept things measured; the kiss didn’t last too long. When their lips finally parted, his breathing was still relatively steady, but Su Taotao had already gone limp in his arms. She rubbed her neck with one hand, not caring about appearing shy or embarrassed, and glared at him, “My neck is sore.”

Her voice was sweet and soft like water.

To Fu Zhengtu, that glare was full of charm. Unable to resist, he lowered his head and pecked the corner of her lips, then silently replaced her hand and began massaging her neck for her.

It was a rare moment of tenderness. Neither of them said anything. Even though both were drenched in sweat, they didn’t want to leave the tight space. When her neck finally felt better, Su Taotao began ordering him around.

“You go wash the pork intestines.” Su Taotao loved eating pork offal but hated cleaning it. Usually, Zhou Linglan handled it.

She thought Fu Zhengtu would refuse, but surprisingly, he didn’t say a word and went straight to wash it.

Su Taotao stuffed a garlic clove into the intestines and instructed, “Don’t wash out the powder inside, just flush it through. Then cut it the length of your finger, make a decorative cut on the back side, but don’t cut through the fatty layer. Can you do that?”

In the future, once they were at the base, it would be just the two of them as adults. Fu Yuanhang was capable, but he still had school and helped look after Chen Chen. If all the housework fell on her, she’d be exhausted. So she had to make Fu Zhengtu understand that this home belonged to both of them. Even if he earned the money, he couldn’t come home acting like a lord and doing nothing.

Luckily, despite his aloof appearance, Fu Zhengtu was excellent at doing chores.

After washing the intestines, he cut them even more precisely than the cooks at the state-run restaurant—proving with actions that he could handle it.

Su Taotao was actually more nervous than he was watching him handle the knife with those distinct, veined hands. She couldn’t help but remind him, “Those hands are for doing experiments. Be careful using knives—don’t hurt yourself.”

Fu Zhengtu nodded. “I will.”

From then on, it all went smoothly. Su Taotao had him running around: blanching meat, stir-frying, chopping scallions and garlic… She mostly sat with her fan, giving instructions, while Fu Zhengtu did all the hard work.

Even so, she still ended up sweating like crazy.

While fanning herself, Su Taotao asked, “Is it hot at the base? Do you have electric fans?”

Fu Zhengtu thought for a moment. “It’s surrounded by sea on three sides and rains often. It’s not as hot as here. There are electric fans in the lab, but not at home.”

Su Taotao asked again, “Then can we buy one for home? I really can’t take the heat.”

There was no electricity in the countryside, but the base had power. She wasn’t about to suffer needlessly.

Fu Zhengtu nodded. “There should be a fan voucher in the tickets I gave you. If not, we can trade for one. We can buy it.”

Su Taotao smiled with curved eyes. “I’m starting to look forward to life at the base. So besides clothes and bedding, what else should we bring?”

Fu Zhengtu replied, “Just clothes. Bring bedding only for Yuanhang. We can buy the rest when we get there.”

Su Taotao couldn’t agree more and nodded enthusiastically. “The quilts here are hard and heavy—I find them annoying too. But since we have a car, it’s still convenient, right?”

Fu Zhengtu said, “We’ll have to return the car in the city and take the train from there.”

“Ahhh—” Su Taotao bit her lip. “I thought we could drive all the way to the base. Then we really have to pack light.”

She started counting on her fingers. “The tickets you gave me include one for formula. I was thinking of buying some to take with us—good thing I didn’t. I also wanted to bring some of Mom’s dried goods and her pickled vegetables—they’re so good, but I guess we can’t bring those either.

We can’t bring Chen Chen’s rocking horse, but we have to bring his little blanket. He needs it to sleep or he’ll cry. We can’t bring all the storybooks either. Let’s leave the ones Xiao Hang has memorized…”

As she rambled on, Zhou Linglan and Fu Yuanhang came home.

Su Taotao told Fu Yuanhang to wake Chen Chen for dinner.

Even during dinner, she kept discussing with the kids what they could and couldn’t bring to the base.

Zhou Linglan occasionally chimed in with suggestions.

Fu Zhengtu quietly ate the delicious food, listening to his wife’s chatter and the soft voices of his family, and felt a growing sense of anticipation for their new life.

As dinner was winding down, Fu Zhengtu suddenly said, “Mom, please prepare more dried goods. We’ll stop by and let Chen Chen meet his maternal grandparents on the way.”

Su Taotao didn’t immediately register who he meant by “maternal grandparents.”

Zhou Linglan looked thrilled and asked, “Taotao, should we call ahead and let your family know?”

After all, her daughter-in-law hadn’t returned home once in the past few years since marrying in. Even if she never spoke about it, Zhou Linglan could guess there had been a falling out. A city girl marrying into rural hardship—any family that cared about their daughter would feel something. Her son had never met his in-laws, and Chen Chen had never seen his maternal grandparents either. Zhou Linglan couldn’t help but be excited.

Su Taotao bit her chopsticks, blinking.

Stop by? Grandparents? Call who again?