That night was the first time since Qin Yuanzheng got married that he did not engage in intimacy.
The couple simply held the quilt and chatted.
Qiao Lanshu whispered, "If I had been picked up by that man this time and locked in a cave dwelling, we wouldn't have met, let alone gotten married. Brother Zheng, would you have married another woman?"
Qin Yuanzheng said with a firm tone, "No."
If Qin Yuanzheng were the type of person willing to settle, he would have married long ago and definitely wouldn't have waited until now.
After all, with his qualifications, even if he suffered from infertility, there would still be girls willing to marry him.
But, how should one put it? When he went on blind dates and talked with those girls, he always felt they weren't quite right for him.
Perhaps it was because he hadn't found a girl who caught his eye.
He held Qiao Lanshu, kissed her on the cheek, and whispered, "I just like you the way you are. If you hadn't come along, I would definitely have remained a bachelor for the rest of my life."
Qiao Lanshu thought back to when she had just been reborn and saw Qin Yuanzheng walking with Wang Huiping and her son, thinking he was already married with a child.
At that time, she was not only sad but even a little angry.
She had thought that the Qin Yuanzheng of her past life was lying to her when he said he was forty and had never been married.
The sense of helplessness and panic Qiao Lanshu felt after her nightmare was finally soothed by Qin Yuanzheng's gentle and comforting words.
Qin Yuanzheng was bare-chested, wearing only a pair of shorts, and his body was practically like a furnace.
Even though it was snowing outside the window, their heated brick bed was very warm.
Qiao Lanshu lay in Qin Yuanzheng's arms, feeling drowsy.
Seeing that she no longer seemed sad, Qin Yuanzheng silently breathed a sigh of relief. He held Qiao Lanshu and whispered, "Go to sleep, wifey. I'll hold you while you sleep."
...
Early the next morning, the snow had stopped. Looking out the window, everything was a vast expanse of white.
Qin Yuanzheng brought out the cooked millet and pumpkin porridge. Looking at his little wife coming out of the room in a daze, his heart filled with immense fondness.
He couldn't help but step forward, suddenly pulling Qiao Lanshu into his arms and pressing her against the wall. He whispered, "Are you awake? It snowed outside. It's your first time seeing snow, do you want to go out and play?"
Bright and early, Qin Yuanzheng was full of vigor again. Pinned against the wall, Qiao Lanshu could feel his...
Blushing, she said, "I still have to go to work, and the snow is too freezing, so I won't go play."
To Qiao Lanshu, snow was really not a novelty anymore.
Qin Yuanzheng hadn't had any intimacy last night. He had just hugged his fragrant, soft little wife under the covers and simply slept through the night.
Now he was feeling somewhat uncomfortably pent-up.
It was truly strange. When he was single and alone in the past, he never had these thoughts at all.
Why was it that after getting married and having a little wife, he started losing control of himself every day?
Unable to hold back, he pressed Qiao Lanshu down and kissed her for a long time, feeling his trousers becoming impossibly tight.
He whispered, "It snowed today, and it will probably snow again tonight. Wait for me in the guard room at the entrance after work, and I will come pick you up, understand?"
Qiao Lanshu was left speechless by him now, so she could only nod to show she understood.
Although Qin Yuanzheng was very fierce and cold in front of outsiders, only Qiao Lanshu knew that in private, he was incredibly clingy.
He was truly exceptionally clingy.
When they were outside, he would restrain himself a bit, but once the two of them were alone or back home.
He would start sticking to her body, and he often didn't like to wear clothes either.
Qiao Lanshu found it sweet, but sometimes, she also found it a bit overwhelming.
Qin Yuanzheng said to Qiao Lanshu, "Go drink some porridge and eat some steamed buns. I need to go to the washroom."
Qiao Lanshu was just about to ask him why he wasn't eating with her.
As a result, she saw Qin Yuanzheng close the washroom door, and then, she heard certain noises.
Qiao Lanshu's face instantly turned red again.
What a vigorous and robust man.
When the two finally came out of the house, Battalion Commander Zhao Jiannong from next door happened to be coming out of his house as well.
Looking at Qin Yuanzheng, who had his arm around Qiao Lanshu and was even wrapping her in his own overcoat, Zhao Jiannong simply didn't know what to say.
He also absolutely never expected that after getting married, Qin Yuanzheng would dote on his wife as if she were his own life.
Seeing this clinginess, he suspected that if possible, Qin Yuanzheng would love to tie his little wife to his belt and take her to work with him every day.
Zhao Jiannong coughed and said, "Morning, Regiment Commander Qin, morning, Comrade Xiao Qiao."
Qiao Lanshu quickly escaped from Qin Yuanzheng's embrace and responded somewhat awkwardly, "Good morning, Battalion Commander Zhao."
Qin Yuanzheng's expression was not very pleasant; he cast a glance at Zhao Jiannong.
Zhao Jiannong hurriedly said, "Ah, I'm in a rush, I'll be going first."
With that, he quickened his pace and ran out of the corridor.
Qin Yuanzheng hooked his arm and pulled Qiao Lanshu back into his embrace, saying, "It's so cold, why did you run?"
Qiao Lanshu: "..."
Qin Yuanzheng escorted Qiao Lanshu to the food factory and said to her reluctantly, "Remember to wait for me in the guard room this afternoon. I'll come pick you up."
Qiao Lanshu nodded, "Okay, I know."
Watching Qin Yuanzheng leave, Qiao Lanshu finally went to work.
Deng Weijun came over as usual to help her fetch water and brought her another dark, frozen pear.
Qiao Lanshu placed the two frozen pears side by side on the desk and then began organizing the warehouse's inbound and outbound records.
There were quite a few people coming to pick up goods in the morning. Du Erniu also came. This time, he politely handed the pick-up slip in his hand to Qiao Lanshu and said very cautiously, "Storekeeper, this is the pick-up slip. Please sign here."
After the fried dough twist incident, the factory investigated and discovered that Sun Mingyong had previously relied on this method to resell quite a few things.
Therefore, the factory's inbound and outbound warehouse management began to become stricter.
What Du Erniu brought over was no longer called a pick-up slip, but a delivery slip.
The slip was in triplicate, bearing the signatures of the supervisor, the delivery person, the receiver, and, of course, the storekeeper.
Qiao Lanshu took the slip, opened the warehouse door to get the goods for him, then signed her name. She kept one copy of the slip for herself and returned the remaining two to Du Erniu.
Du Erniu took the slips and the goods, ready to leave.
However, before leaving, he brought down two cans of mandarin oranges from the truck and placed them on Qiao Lanshu's windowsill. He said somewhat shyly, "I, uh, don't like eating these canned fruits. You can have them."
With that, he ran off in a hurry.
Qiao Lanshu: "..."
Du Erniu was also doing this to thank Qiao Lanshu. After all, last time, if Qiao Lanshu hadn't gone to the state-run restaurant and gotten the slip from Purchaser Liu.
The loss of those hundreds of catties of fried dough twists would probably have been blamed on him.
After all, he was the driver and the deliveryman. So many fried dough twists were sent out, but the state-run restaurant only received half. Where was the remaining half?
Where did it go?
As the delivery person, it certainly wouldn't have been so easy for him to clear his name.
Fortunately, Qiao Lanshu had exposed Purchaser Liu, and Purchaser Liu in turn confessed about Wei Zhengye and Sun Mingyong.
Anyway, the whole situation was quite complicated. Du Erniu firmly believed that Qiao Lanshu had helped him, so he kept thinking about getting her a little something in return.
He spent some money on two canned goods and brought them over.
Looking at the cans on the windowsill, Qiao Lanshu found it rather amusing.
Just then, a salesman from the food factory's business department walked over and said, "Oh, what is our Comrade Warehouse Keeper smiling about? Did you run into some happy news?"
Qiao Lanshu looked up, and the smile on her face instantly vanished.
She stared at the three men following behind the salesman, her face turning slightly pale.
The salesman said, "Oh, they are from the supply and marketing cooperative's transport fleet. They are here to pick up some goods today."
