Lin Chuxia felt warmth in her heart.
She could shower directly in her space. When Qin Yang was not at home, she mostly showered in the villa within her space.
She had originally planned to go back and shower immediately, but now that Mrs. Qin was boiling water, she had to wait a bit longer.
Yet, she was willing to wait.
In her past life, no one had cared about her; she didn’t even know what it felt like to be cared about, which led her to treasure Li Guangyuan’s insincere gestures excessively when they first married.
Knowing that he was deceiving her, she still foolishly refused to face the reality.
In this life, whether it was Qin Yang or the Qin Family people, their sincere concern for her truly had her in their hearts.
Whether it was when she first entered the Qin Family or when she started her business, the care and protection she never had in her previous life, she had it all this time.
After Mrs. Qin had heated the water, she even delivered it to her room. Lin Chuxia quickly took it and asked, “Mom, did you have something you wanted to talk to me about just now?”
Mrs. Qin waved her hand, “Nothing much, you go ahead and take a shower. Oh, later I’ll be making dumplings with chive and egg filling, come and have them with your father and me.”
“Okay, thank you, Mom.”
“About that…” Mrs. Qin hesitated before saying, “Yangyang seems to have not written for a while now. I heard that your factory has a telephone installed. Has Yangyang called you?”
Because of business exchanges, a telephone was installed in the food factory shortly after its inception.
Installing a telephone nowadays is not easy; apart from the high cost, a connection point is also required.
Fortunately, Qin Family Village is an urban village. After getting the telephone, Lin Chuxia did write to Qin Yang to tell him the number, but most of the time she was not at the food factory and seldom called Qin Yang.
Lin Chuxia spoke honestly, she indeed hadn’t spoken to Qin Yang on the phone or written to him recently, she was busy here, and Qin Yang must be busy there as well.
Hearing this, Mrs. Qin’s expression became even more worried, “Then, when you have time, give Yangyang a call or write him a letter. Tell him that everyone at home misses him and ask him to write home more frequently.”
“Okay, I will.”
Seeing Lin Chuxia agree, Mrs. Qin closed the door for her and urged her to quickly take her shower.
Back in her room, she just sat on the edge of the kang bed and sighed heavily.
Mr. Qin, smoking his pipe, glanced at her, “I tell you, old woman, you worry too much. The kids are grown up; let them make their own way. What can you really help with, or control?”
“What do you know,” Mrs. Qin retorted, glancing at her husband, “Yangyang hasn’t written to us for a long time. His wife’s factory is growing bigger and bigger, everyone in our village praises how we’ve got a beautiful and capable daughter-in-law. Why can’t he be a bit more concerned?”
“How can he be more concerned? He works far away; he can’t just leave his job and come home to hover around his wife all day.”
“He could still write a letter or make a phone call from time to time. You know your son; once he gets busy with work, he neglects everything else. It’s hard enough for women to handle things, let alone without a partner to care and ask how one feels.”
There was still something she hadn’t mentioned. Watching Yangyang and his wife nearing a year of marriage, others who married around the same time had children or were pregnant.
The couple having no children still made them feel like something was missing.
The two living apart and without children, what if they grew tired of each other? Wouldn’t that lead to a simple breakup?
As a mother, Mrs. Qin knew Qin Yang truly liked his wife, but her youngest son was cool and distant, not knowing how to express his feelings.
Mr. Qin was open-minded, “The two children are now focused on their careers, surely that’s something they’ve discussed. Being young, shouldn’t they prioritize their careers? Don’t overthink it. Our Yangyang isn’t the type to betray and abandon. Our daughter-in-law takes care of the family and respects her elders. She looks after not only our Old Qin Family but also Qin Family Village. What do you think that’s for?”
It’s definitely because her son is from Qin Family Village. That’s called ’love me, love my dog.’
“If our son can’t care for her, let’s treat our daughter-in-law well ourselves. She has left the place where she grew up and her own family to join ours; it’s not like she came here out of charity.”
“Oh, you say that as if I don’t know. Isn’t everybody born to parents and doesn’t everyone owe respect to their elders? Being kind is mutual, I understand all that.”
Speaking to Mr. Qin, Mrs. Qin felt much relieved.
Looking up, she noticed Mr. Qin smoking again and quickly snatched it away.
“How are you smoking again? You’ve healed your wounds and forgotten your pain. Careful, or I’ll throw this in the stove and set it alight.”
“I just took a couple of puffs, don’t worry. I’m feeling perfectly fine nowadays. I just went to the food factory and saw those young lads lifting machinery, I even wanted to help out. When was the last time you heard me cough?”
“That still doesn’t make it okay. Smoking is bad for your health. If you have nothing else to do, come help me make dumplings, we’ll eat with our daughter-in-law in a bit.”
…
After bathing, Chuxia noticed that Mrs. Qin had already started boiling the dumplings.
Taking a hot shower followed by enjoying warm dumplings eased all the fatigue and the chill from being drenched in the afternoon rain.
After eating, while going back to her room, Chuxia remembered what Mrs. Qin had asked her earlier, and took out some stationery to start writing a letter to Qin Yang.
………
The night after the rain was exceptionally clear and bright, a crescent moon hung high in the sky, surrounded by twinkling stars that seemed more numerous than usual.
Li Guangyuan was pushing his bicycle, walking step by step toward his home, his look vacant, his mind still a mess.
Today he was indeed feeling down, especially after encountering Lin Chuxia. For some reason, those suppressed thoughts kept surfacing inexplicably.
He went to Tian Cuixia’s house only because he wanted a place to shelter from the rain, and as for Tian Cuixia asking him to stay for dumplings…
He often helped her at the market, so having a meal of her dumplings didn’t seem excessive.
Yes, what he did wasn’t excessive; it was all normal human relations…
Images of Tian Cuixia unbuttoning her blouse one by one in front of him, her seductive and enchanting demeanor, making him blush and fluster.
And her chest…
Women who’ve had children definitely aren’t the same as those who haven’t.
He must have been bewitched to carelessly embrace that body.
And that body turned out to be more tempting than he imagined, like a vine wrapping around him, clinging to him, trying to drain him dry.
That wild seductive force and that ultimate sensation, something he had never experienced with Lin Jiayi.
Li Guangyuan wiped his face with his hand, unable to shake off that image from his mind.
After struggling with that woman for a long time, he was still not satisfied.
He knew what he was doing was wrong, but could he really be blamed for all of it?