Zhou Zhijun looked up and gazed around, but he did not see anyone.
"Do not move, I will go take a look!"
His rough, large hand stroked her head. He stood up abruptly, ran a few steps to the high bank, and craned his neck to look around.
Not far away, a man was standing with his back to him, taking a leak. After pulling up his pants, he did not come this way; instead, he walked toward the upper fields.
Zhou Zhijun's suspended heart settled. He took a few strides back to Chuntao's side. "Just a guy taking a piss. He is gone!"
Hearing this, the fear in Chuntao's heart dissipated a little. Coming to her senses, she struggled to get up, but Zhou Zhijun firmly held her down.
He scooped her up along with the coarse cloth jacket beneath her, walked a distance further away from the village, and found a flat patch of grass before setting her down.
At this moment, Zhou Zhijun's mind was solely focused on loving her, only thinking about that one thing.
In the distance, the wind blew through the wheat fields, rolling up waves of green.
A few sparrows landed on a nearby dirt ridge, paused to look around for a moment, and then hopped away before taking flight.
She hated him. She hated how he racked his brains, acting recklessly, hungering for her regardless of the occasion.
Yet within this hatred, there was a mixed-in warmth that made her yearn for and cherish him.
That warmth allowed her to see a trace of vitality in her bitter, medicine-like days, and that vitality made her heart flutter...
He was like a massive boulder crashing into the stagnant pool of her life, splashing up water and making it so she could never be at peace again.
Zhou Zhijun spoke with a gruff voice, "I really adore you. I only get like this when I see you!
From my younger days until now, it is not that women have not wanted to be with me, but I never cared for any of them. I could not even be bothered to bat an eye at them.
I know it is hard for you. If you do not want to leave with me right now, I will wait for you!
Even if I have to wait a lifetime, I am willing! I have to earn more money to buy you floral fabrics and nutritional supplements...
Whatever you want, as long as I can do it, I promise you..."
He gently helped her adjust her clothes, then pulled her tightly into his embrace again, his lips pressed against her smooth forehead.
"Tao, you really do not understand how much I adore you. I am just a rough man, and I do not know how to say pretty things.
The feeling is like a cat seeing a mouse... or maybe not, more like a mouse seeing rice...
Anyway, I just think about you every day. I think about you no matter what I am doing. When I cannot see you, it feels like my heart has been scooped out.
When I see you, I just want to hold you and never let you go..."
Hearing his words, Chuntao's small face flushed bright red, the color spreading all the way down her neck.
"Let go, it is already noon. I need to go home!"
"Let me hold you for just a little longer!" Zhou Zhijun hugged her even tighter.
The sun was directly overhead, and Chuntao was so anxious that she started crying again.
"Dropping golden beans again!" Zhou Zhijun used the rough back of his hand to wipe the tears from her face. "Promise me, and I will let you go!"
"Promise you what?"
"Promise me that in this life, you will only have my babies..."
Chuntao's face grew even redder, flushing all the way to the roots of her ears.
"What are you being shy for? Promise me!"
Chuntao could only bite her lip and nod, her eyes brimming with tears once more.
"I want to hear you say it yourself!" A roguish smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "If you do not say it, I will just keep holding you like this..."
"I prom... ise..."
"No, say 'I will only have your babies!'"
"I... only your... babies..." Driven into a corner, Chuntao intermittently squeezed the words out of her throat, her voice so small it was almost inaudible.
"Too quiet, I did not hear you! If you are shy, whisper it in my ear!"
"I... will only have... your... babies..."
Hearing this, Zhou Zhijun was so happy he almost shed a tear.
