Chapter 115: Chapter 115: Harmonious Marital Life
The next day.
The sky was just turning a hazy gray.
Wen Ci stood by the bed in the downstairs guest room, reached out to pinch Wen Yaozu’s ear, and said flatly, "Still lazing in bed? Can’t you hear the bugle call from the base next door?"
Wen Yaozu showed no reaction at all.
Wen Ci applied a bit of pressure, and Wen Yaozu, startled from his sleep, yelped, "OWW!" He clutched his ear, his voice thick with annoyance.
"What are you doing? Ruining a guy’s good dream this early in the morning."
"Get up now."
"For real?" Wen Yaozu frowned. He had thought his sister was just joking, but his eyes met Wen Ci’s serious expression.
Wen Ci said coolly, "What do you think?"
Wen Yaozu felt his sister had changed a lot since getting married. After some careful thought, he dragged his heavy body unwillingly out of bed and rubbed his stomach. "I’m hungry."
"Run first, eat later."
In the early morning of Beijing, the dew was heavy and the air was misty.
Wen Ci carried a stool out of the house and sat on the front steps, saying in an unhurried tone, "It’s your first day, so I’ll let you take it easy to get used to it. Ten laps."
Wen Yaozu’s eyes went wide. "Ten laps? Sis, are you trying to kill me?"
Wen Ci snorted. Ten laps might sound like a lot, but running around the courtyard was only a few hundred meters in total—not even half the length of the training field at the military base.
"Or I could take you to the base’s training field. You’d only have to run one lap there."
Hearing this, a fleshy grin spread across Wen Yaozu’s face. He chuckled. "Then I’ll stick with ten laps. It’s not for any reason other than I just love to challenge myself."
Wen Ci was speechless.
It was just six-thirty.
Wen Ci planned to supervise Wen Yaozu’s workout before heading to the hospital to visit Huo Jingyuan.
Five minutes later.
Wen Ci watched his slow running form, completely exasperated. He should have finished in a few minutes, but after five minutes, he had only completed a lap and a half.
It was less like running and more like a leisurely stroll.
Wen Ci knitted her brows. "I told you to run, not take a walk."
"I am running," Wen Yaozu lied with a straight face, even faking a panting sound. "Sis, you can’t just make things up."
’Between the two of us, who was really making things up?’
Suddenly, she remembered the Yellow Willow in the upstairs closet. Huo Jingyuan had once told her that his maternal grandfather was from the Sichuan and Chongqing Region, where they had a tradition.
When moving to a new home, they would gather Yellow Willow branches from the mountains to bring with them.
Yellow Willow held a double meaning. Its name was a homophone for "yellow gold," symbolizing bringing wealth home.
At the same time, there was an old saying in the Sichuan and Chongqing Region: "Good people are made under the Yellow Willow switch."
Wen Ci stood up from the stool and went upstairs.
The moment his sister was gone, Wen Yaozu stopped walking altogether. He stood in place, leisurely stretching and muttering under his breath, "Making someone run this early in the morning. How am I supposed to live?"
The sound of marching feet from the adjacent military camp was perfectly synchronized.
"The military base is insane. They have to get up for morning drills before the sun is even up."
Just as he finished complaining, Wen Yaozu vaguely saw his sister’s figure coming back downstairs. He started moving again, faking a couple of running steps and panting, "Sis, I’ve already run two laps."
"Heh, two laps."
Wen Ci slowly approached, a long, thin Yellow Willow branch in her hand. She had deliberately picked the slenderest one from the wardrobe; it would sting more satisfyingly when it hit.
Wen Yaozu caught a glimpse of the stick in Wen Ci’s hand out of the corner of his eye. His eyes widened in alarm. "Sis, what are you doing? We don’t have to resort to violence, do we?"
As he spoke, he picked up his pace.
He was terrified that if he ran too slowly, he would anger his sister and she would actually hit him.
Growing up, he had rarely been hit, but he always felt a mix of dread and a strange sense of anticipation whenever he watched his underlings get disciplined.
Spurred on by the Yellow Willow switch, Wen Yaozu finished the remaining eight laps in five minutes. He propped his hands on his knees, panting heavily.
Wen Ci said calmly, "You can go back to bed for a bit, and I’ll bring you breakfast. Or should I take you to eat now, and you can come back and sleep after?"
"You... you... you bring it..."
He was so exhausted he would rather starve than take another step out of the courtyard. All he wanted was to lie back down in bed and pray this had all been a nightmare.
"Fine."
·
Wen Ci arrived at the hospital.
Downstairs, she ran into Huo Jingyuan’s attending doctor, who greeted her. "Mr. Huo’s wife, could you come to my office for a moment?"
"What’s wrong?"
Alarm bells immediately went off in Wen Ci’s head.
’Hadn’t they said Huo Jingyuan would be transferred to a regular ward in another week, where he could be visited anytime?’
Sensing her distress, the doctor quickly reassured her, "Mr. Huo is fine, don’t worry. I just wanted to talk to you about the extent of his recovery."
Wen Ci breathed a sigh of relief.
In the office, the doctor poured Wen Ci a cup of hot water and said calmly, "Based on Mr. Huo’s current condition, he could be discharged very soon. However, the higher-ups require him to stay in the hospital for at least a month and then recuperate in Beijing for over six months."
Wen Ci’s eyes widened.
"He can be discharged that soon?"
The attending doctor nodded. "Mr. Huo is young and strong. His body is recovering faster than we expected. His stitches can be removed in two or three days."
"However," the doctor continued, "yesterday afternoon, after Mr. Huo learned his stitches could come out soon, he started talking about going back to the Northwest to recover."
"So, the leadership would like you to persuade Mr. Huo. The medical facilities in the Northwest are simply no match for those in Beijing. If his recovery isn’t complete, it could lead to latent injuries."
Wen Ci nodded in solemn agreement.
"I’ll talk to him."
"The orders from above are to have Mr. Huo stay in Beijing for at least six months. After that, we’ll test his physical condition to see if there are any latent injuries."
Wen Ci thought for a moment and asked, "So you’re saying, he can be discharged from the hospital?"
"Yes. After his discharge, Mr. Huo can live in the Beijing Military District Family Courtyard. It’s very close to the military region’s affiliated hospital, so it’ll be convenient if anything comes up."
A smile touched the corners of Wen Ci’s eyes. "Okay, I’ll convince him."
After finishing her chat with the doctor, Wen Ci went upstairs to the ward to visit.
The man was looking out the window. A tree in the courtyard stood three stories tall, its lush green leaves brushing against the window in the breeze. He heard the door open.
The man slowly turned his head toward Wen Ci, his eyes as deep and dark as ink, their depths carrying another emotion entirely. "My wife, you’re here."
My wife.
The two words made Wen Ci’s ears flush instantly. It was the first time she had heard this from his lips. During their most intimate moments, he would at most call her ’wifey’.
The two words, "my wife," felt strangely official.
But she could hear the longing in his tone.
Wen Ci walked to Huo Jingyuan’s side. "You want to be discharged?"
"Yeah."
Wen Ci had originally planned to persuade Huo Jingyuan with earnest words, but suddenly, an idea struck her. Her gaze swept toward a certain spot as she asked with feigned concern, "Are you hurt?"
She didn’t specify where.
But her eyes and her tone said it all.
Huo Jingyuan’s brow furrowed, his gaze deep and intense as he stared at her. "Mr. Wen, are you worried this will affect our future marital harmony?"
