Chapter 5: The Self-Cultivation of a Cheap Husband

Jiang Ning couldn’t catch up. Seeing her meal ticket fly away, her heart sank.

Sigh, she thought, not catching up is not catching up. She was very dejected and bought two more steamed buns, a bowl of sweet soup, and half a pound of sesame cakes. She ate and drank her fill before slowly heading home.

As she reached the door, she thought she had gone to the wrong place. Why was there a light shining through the crack in the door?

Jiang Ning’s heart skipped a beat. She slowly opened the door.

Sure enough –

There were faint sounds coming from the bathroom, and a man’s coat was draped over the sofa.

Why was her cheap husband back so late at night?!

Didn’t he say he was always busy and lived at the factory, rarely coming home?

As she pondered, the small door of the bathroom creaked open, and a man emerged, holding a towel to wipe his face.

He glanced at Jiang Ning indifferently, acting as if nothing had happened. His voice was deep and low: “I’m back.”

Jiang Ning was stunned, then she smiled as if nothing had happened: “You’re back.”

Tsk, he truly embodied the self-cultivation of a former brother-in-law.

They had argued about divorce at noon, and in the evening, he saw his wife seemingly meeting with her lover. Yet, he could still greet each other calmly at night without batting an eye.

Jiang Ning breathed a sigh of relief. Although her cheap husband’s reaction and actions were different from the plot she had been transmitted, this kind of polite and distant couple was fine.

She had her meal ticket, and he didn’t lose face as a man. This life, living together, might not be strange in this era, and it was exactly what she wanted.

Lu Dingquan finished washing his face, hung the towel on the windowsill, raised his hand to unbutton the collar of his shirt, and asked casually: “Did you eat?”

Jiang Ning sat on the sofa, her eyes involuntarily following his back, and replied: “I did. I ate something on the way.”

She suspected that Lu Dingquan hadn’t seen her clearly at the time. After all, they were so far apart.

The next second, the man’s hand, which was unbuttoning his shirt, stopped there. He turned his head and met her gaze directly. His thin lips lifted slightly:

“The sesame cakes were quite good?”

Jiang Ning:…

“Why did you come back so soon? Didn’t you eat a few more?” He raised his eyebrows in confusion, then seemed to realize something. “Oh, did you run out of money?”

She watched as that big hand reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a black wallet. His long fingers easily pulled out four bills.

Lu Dingquan just looked at her lightly and casually, without saying who the money was for. A hint of coldness curled at the corner of his lips.

Jiang Ning wanted to pinch her thigh hard.

He must have seen everything, and he had misunderstood.

She immediately sat up straight, raised a smiling face, and quickly explained: “Sesame cakes… the sesame cakes were delicious, but unfortunately, I ran into someone who made me lose my appetite. No matter how delicious they were, I didn’t want to eat them anymore!”

“Oh, I just bought a sesame cake, who knew I would be so unlucky to bump into that guy… But I told him, my old Lu has a bad temper, and told him not to bother me, or else he’d be sorry! He wasn’t being stingy, he just wanted to mooch off my sesame cake! I really didn’t want to deal with him, really…”

Jiang Ning explained diligently.

This was about living expenses, and she couldn’t be vague.

She could always resume her spoiled persona after she got the money!

Lu Dingquan listened without any reaction. After a long time, he casually placed the money on the table, his face still icy, and went back to the bathroom to wash clothes.

The sound of scrubbing clothes was loud.

Old Lu?

Was he old?

She thought of the young and handsome intellectual youth.

The man’s brows furrowed coldly, then he relaxed as if nothing had happened.

.

Jiang Ning didn’t know what was going on in her cheap husband’s mind. She only felt that men in this era were quite good. They were quick and efficient, washing their own clothes. Listening to the sound of scrubbing, his movements were not at all sluggish.

She glanced at the bathroom, then quickly and happily put away the four large bills on the table.

Tsk tsk, what a good man!

He paid for the living expenses, the house was empty, and he could tolerate his wife having other men around. Except for giving money, he never showed up. What was the difference between this life and being a widow? It was simply too good to be true!

She put the money away, and she couldn’t help but scold the version of herself who had played the original character.

Bah, what a person, she really didn’t know how to cherish!

Jiang Ning thought that Lu Dingquan had come back tonight specifically to fulfill his husband’s duty and give her next month’s living expenses.

Her good mood lasted until she went to bed that night.

There wasn’t much daily entertainment in this era. The original character had a radio, but after fiddling with it for a while, she only heard the same channels. She didn’t want to study and improve her ideological consciousness late at night, so she simply turned it off, got up, and wanted to wash up and go to sleep.

Lu Dingquan came out from behind the curtain, and they almost bumped into each other.

Jiang Ning saw with sharp eyes that he was holding a set of clothes to change into. She politely smiled and asked tentatively: “Are you going to take a bath?”

The man’s tone was neither cold nor warm: “I’ll wash outside.”

He pushed the door open and went out, not forgetting to take a bar of soap with him.

The “outside” he referred to was the public bathroom at the end of the hallway. There were few households in this building that had their own bathrooms. Most people used the shared bathroom for daily washing, bathing, fetching water, using the toilet, etc.

Jiang Ning knew he was letting her use the bathroom at home. She felt a little grateful and quickly gathered her clothes to go in and take a bath.

The bathroom had two thermoses of hot water, which she poured into a large basin and mixed with cold water to wash.

As Jiang Ning washed, she thought, it’s still spring turning into summer, the weather isn’t too cold, but if it was autumn or winter, taking a bath would be very difficult…

But she could go to the public bathhouse outside then, right? She heard that they had masseuses who could help you scrub your back, hehe.

Lost in her thoughts, Jiang Ning finished washing and changed her clothes.

It was only when she opened the door to go out that she suddenly realized a very important question.

There was only one bed in this room…

So, what would she do at night?

With a small head and a big question, she pushed the door open and saw that Lu Dingquan had already come back after washing.

The man’s silhouette stood outside the curtain, his lean and strong upper body was bare.

His light wheat-colored body was tall and straight. His chest and abdomen were flat and firm, and the lean waistline visible in his silhouette was like a powerful and fierce blade, exuding an aura of invincibility, yet… it directly struck her vision.

“……!”