Wang Xiaohong and her brother were standing at the door looking around. When they saw the beam of a flashlight coming this way, they quickly trotted over to meet it.
"Sister-in-law! You're finally back. Nothing happened, did it?" Wang Xiaohong grabbed Chuntao's hand.
Zhou Zhijun handed the flour bag on his shoulder to Wang Xiaoming, turned his head and said to Chuntao, "My mother saved some soup for you, it's still warm, go drink some!"
"The food is also warming in our pot, I'll go heat it up for my sister-in-law!" Wang Xiaohong said, turning and running toward the kitchen.
Tonight Wang Xiaohong had made sesame leaf bean noodles. There were few noodles, mostly broth and soft-boiled sesame leaves.
She and Wang Xiaoming only drank two bowls of thin soup, gave Wang Jieshi a bowl of thicker soup, and saved a bowl of thick soup for Chuntao.
Cold and hungry, Chuntao held the heated noodles and slurped them into her mouth.
After she had only taken a few sips, Zhou Zhijun brought over a large bowl of scallion noodles, with many slices of marbled meat in it.
Aunt Zhou had boiled meat today, and Zhou Zhijun had specially cut a piece and mixed it into the noodles. The noodles were thick, with almost no broth.
"Drink this bowl first!" Zhou Zhijun handed the bowl to Chuntao.
The smell of meat entered her nose, but Chuntao didn't take it, still keeping her head down to drink her own sesame leaf bean noodles.
Seeing this, Zhou Zhijun simply reached out and snatched the coarse porcelain bowl from her hand, forcing the scallion noodles into her hand.
Wang Xiaohong came back from the pigsty carrying a slop bucket, and Chuntao quickly caught the bowl of thick noodles.
Wang Xiaohong pulled a vegetable bun out of the big pot and handed it over, "Sister-in-law, this is the bun Grandma steamed, it's still warm, eat one while it's hot!"
She caught a glimpse of the bland bowl of bean noodles from their own house on the stove, and then looked at the good noodles full of meat aroma in Chuntao's hand, and knew that Zhou Zhijun had brought them.
Aunt Zhou's family was really good to Chuntao, bringing both buns and noodles. Wang Xiaohong secretly rejoiced that it was a blessing from a past life that her sister-in-law could meet Zhou Zhijun's family.
Zhou Zhijun stood in the narrow kitchen, making the space seem even smaller.
Seeing him staring straight at Chuntao, Wang Xiaohong thought he was waiting to take the bowl, so she said, "Uncle Zhijun, it's awfully cold, you go back to sleep first, I'll bring the bowl to you tomorrow!"
Zhou Zhijun then snapped back to reality and waved his hand, "It's fine, I'll wait a bit, until your sister-in-law finishes drinking."
He turned his head and said to Wang Xiaohong, "It's cold, you hurry back to the room and warm up in bed too!"
In Wang Xiaohong's eyes, Zhou Zhijun was the most upright and honest man, and she didn't think anything else of it.
"Okay, then I'll go sit in bed first!" She urged Chuntao again, "Sister-in-law, hurry over after you finish drinking, don't freeze!"
"Mmhmm!" Chuntao replied.
As soon as Wang Xiaohong left, Zhou Zhijun reached behind him and closed the kitchen door.
Chuntao looked up at him, her eyes full of vigilance, "Why did you close the door?"
"It's warmer with the door closed!" Zhou Zhijun said, his eyes falling on her slightly red, frozen face.
Chuntao lowered her head, just focusing on drinking the noodles, and ignored him.
After finishing the noodles, she had just stood up to scoop water to wash the bowl when Zhou Zhijun reached out and took the bowl from her hand.
"You don't need to wash it!" He put the bowl on the stove, looked at Chuntao and said, "Close your eyes!"
Chuntao was startled, and her heart jumped into her throat. This man was like a hungry wolf, never up to any good, it definitely wasn't anything good! So she bit the bullet and said, "I won't close them!"
"What are you afraid of? I'm not going to eat you!" Zhou Zhijun's voice carried a bit of teasing.
Chuntao couldn't figure out what he was up to, so she stood up and said, "It's cold, I'm going to sleep!" She reached out to pull the door.
Zhou Zhijun gently hugged her from behind, his voice low, "Don't panic!"
"Silly girl..." He held her waist with one hand, and groped in his chest with the other, actually pulling out a red chiffon scarf, and wrapped it around her neck without any explanation.
The scarf was soft and smooth, with a bit of body heat, warmly wrapping around her neck. But Chuntao's heart tightened, and she reached out to pull it off, "I don't want it!"
Zhou Zhijun turned her body around and ordered, "It's not okay not to want it!"
In these times, a man giving a woman something was no small matter. Although Zhou Zhijun was her godbrother, how could he casually give her such a personal item as a scarf?
Chuntao lowered her voice, "Are you afraid others won't know about us?"
"What about us?" Zhou Zhijun asked, knowing the answer.
"What do you think?" Chuntao's cheeks felt a little hot.
"My mother asked me to give this to you. It's the new year, isn't it right for a godmother to buy a scarf for her goddaughter?"
Zhou Zhijun's words were half true and half false. Today he went to the market on the street, saw this red scarf at the supply and marketing cooperative, thought it suited Chuntao, and paid for it.
When he came back and told Aunt Zhou, Aunt Zhou also agreed, "Okay, you boy, you're more careful than your mother!"
Chuntao didn't believe his nonsense. This man was full of crooked ideas. She pulled the scarf off and stuffed it back into his hand, "I can't take it, if others ask, I can't explain!"
"Just say the godmother bought it for the goddaughter, who can gossip?"
Zhou Zhijun wrapped the scarf around her neck again, held her shoulders with both hands, looked straight at her, and the corners of his mouth lifted, "So pretty, like a new bride!"
Chuntao's face instantly turned completely red, and she quickly turned her face away.
Her nose tingled, and she pushed him, "Let's go, I'm going to sleep!"
"Okay, sleep early, don't freeze!" Zhou Zhijun bent down and gathered the scarf around her neck again, "I'm leaving!"
As soon as Zhou Zhijun left, Chuntao quickly took off the scarf and rubbed it in her hand.
The fabric was soft, and the hard shell she had put up in her heart was suddenly pierced by this softness.
Zhou Zhijun had domineeringly "bullied" her, but he was also the only one who would protect her like this and give her the warmth that others couldn't give.
The things of the past flashed through her mind like a movie.
He wasn't a completely bad person, and she didn't have the confidence to reject him stiffly.
But the unclear entanglement between them, if it were known by others, the consequences were something she didn't even dare to think about, and even less could she bear.
Chuntao folded the scarf neatly, stuffed it into her inner pocket, and turned to walk to the main room.
In the main room, Wang Xiaohong wasn't asleep yet, sitting in bed knitting a sweater.
The yarn was bought by Aunt Zhou for Chuntao when they recognized each other as relatives. Chuntao was busy with work and didn't have time to knit, so Wang Xiaohong volunteered to do it.
Ever since Zhou Zhijun helped make the new bed, Wang Xiaohong had moved to sleep in Chuntao's bed, moving her broken bed into Wang Jieshi's room for Wang Xiaoming to sleep in.
"Sister-in-law!" Seeing Chuntao come in, Wang Xiaohong shrank back in bed to make room for her.
There were few quilts at home, so Chuntao and Wang Xiaohong slept foot-to-foot.
Just as she was about to get into bed, Wang Xiaohong suddenly lowered her voice and said, "Sister-in-law, Wang Haichao came today, acting all sneaky. He muttered with my brother in his room for a while and then left. I don't know what they were talking about!"
Wang Haichao was up to no good. He had tried to take advantage of her twice before and failed.
Hearing Wang Xiaohong say this, Chuntao immediately thought of the person she met on the road today, and the dodging looks of the Wang Haihu brothers, and her heart skipped a beat.
Could that person really be related to Wang Haichao?
What did he come to talk to Wang Jieshi about? Was Wang Jieshi involved in what happened on the road today?
Did Wang Jieshi suspect her and Zhou Zhijun, deliberately using such a despicable trick to get back at her?
Impossible! No matter what, she was still Wang Jieshi's wife, and he was the one who had wronged her first. Even if he was furious, he wouldn't stoop to something so underhanded, would he?
Chuntao didn't want to assume the worst of people, but how else was she supposed to explain everything that had happened today?
Her mind was a chaotic mess, like a tangled knot of yarn that could neither be cut nor unraveled.
Seeing her dazed and lost in thought, Wang Xiaohong suddenly seemed to remember something. She pulled an object from under the pillow and held it out to Chuntao. "Sister-in-law, look at this. I found it under the bed when I was cleaning the room today!"
When Chuntao clearly saw the object in her hand, her pupils contracted sharply, and all the color drained from her face—
