Chapter 80: A Gentleman on the Beam

Chapter 80: A Gentleman on the Beam

After seeing the guests off and closing the door behind her, Su Zhaozhao entered the house and saw Gu Xiang rummaging through a bag of grain.

He was undoing the ropes that secured the bag and pulling out the grain inside to inspect it.

"What are you looking at?"

Gu Xiang held out his hand toward Su Zhaozhao, "Mom, look, these peanuts don’t seem like the ones we grew."

Su Zhaozhao leaned in for a closer look, "What’s different?" She couldn’t tell; weren’t they all just peanuts?

Gu Xiang reached in again and grabbed a handful of peanuts from a lower spot in the bag, "See, the peanuts from the top are good, but the ones from below are ours."

He was familiar with the peanuts they grew; he and his sister had cleaned and dried each one themselves.

Moreover, the knots on the bags were different too. He had tied all the bags and remembered them clearly.

It wasn’t that he intentionally memorized them; he was just afraid of going hungry after growing up with scarcity. Whether their household had more or less grain, every detail was etched in his mind and couldn’t be forgotten.

Upon closer inspection, Su Zhaozhao realized he was right. Their homegrown peanuts looked malnourished, dry, and shriveled. The ones in Gu Xiang’s other hand, although not as plump as the ones sold in modern supermarkets, were clearly selected.

"And the dried sweet potatoes, these are different too. When we dried ours, we cut them smaller; these are a bit larger." Gu Xiang pointed to another opened bag of grain.

This, Su Zhaozhao couldn’t tell. To her, they all looked the same.

The two children were more familiar with their household’s grain than she was.

If it were her, she definitely wouldn’t have noticed.

Su Zhaozhao couldn’t figure it out. Who had eaten from the bags and then refilled them?

She didn’t want to ask, fearing it would only make things awkward.

"Let’s leave it. Don’t tell anyone else."

The siblings both nodded.

Su Zhaozhao opened the dried sweet potatoes that Aunt Guo had sent via the driver. These were stir-fried with a pinch of salt, crispy and crunchy.

She couldn’t resist and ate several pieces at once.

The next day, when Gu Xiang and his sister went to school, Su Zhaozhao told them to grab a handful to put in their pockets, "If you get hungry during class, just chew on these to hold you over."

When she was young, she would get hungry by the second period in the morning.

These days, bringing biscuits or fried dough to school was too extravagant. The two kids didn’t want to bring any either. They would feel bad giving it to others, but if they didn’t give it, people would stare, so they simply didn’t bring any.

The stir-fried dried sweet potatoes were perfect. It wouldn’t hurt to give a small piece to someone else.

……

Gu Heng arrived home in the middle of the night.

The door was locked from the inside, and he couldn’t get in. Not wanting to knock and wake everyone up, he placed the things he brought back from Beijing by the door. He then walked to the wall, jumped up, and climbed over into the yard.

He carefully opened the door, picked up the things, and brought them inside.

The yard was quiet, and even the slightest sound seemed amplified—the rustling of his pants, the ‘tap-tap’ of his shoes on the bluestone slabs.

No matter how careful he was, he couldn’t avoid making some noise.

When he reached the main room door, he was stopped in his tracks. He had to go around to the window. The curtains were drawn, but the window was half-open. He could reach in and open the other half.

He hesitated between waking Su Zhaozhao and letting her sleep. Deciding not to wake her, just as he was about to climb through the window, ‘click’, the light in the room turned on.

Su Zhaozhao, in her pajamas, stood by the curtain with her arms crossed, looking at him with a half-smile, "Captain Gu is trying to be a gentleman on the beam?"

Gu Heng: "……"

He silently withdrew his hand from the windowsill, picked up the things from the floor, and passed them through the window. He placed them on the desk, straightened his uniform, and wore a particularly calm expression, "Let me in."

Su Zhaozhao, trying to hold back her laughter, opened the door for him.

Gu Heng came in, undid the top button of his uniform, "When did you wake up?"

"When you climbed over the wall." Su Zhaozhao poured him a glass of water and opened the cabinet to take out some fried dough, "Hungry? Have some to hold you over."

Gu Heng was indeed hungry and took a dough twist to eat.

After a couple of bites and a sip of water, he said, "Your alertness is very good. Keep it up."

Su Zhaozhao clasped her hands together, "Thank you for the compliment, Captain Gu."

She seemed to particularly enjoy calling him Captain Gu.

Gu Heng glanced up at her. She was leaning against the wall, her expression mischievous and her smile bright.

For a moment, he was taken aback, his eyes darted away, and he shifted his gaze.

"I didn’t want to wake you, so I climbed over the wall. If you’re sleeping alone at night, remember to lock the windows from the inside."

"This is the unit." She insisted on keeping the windows open at night; she found it stuffy otherwise.

"The village is right next to us. There are always people desperate enough to take risks."

Su Zhaozhao, with a mischievous tone, blurted out, "Then you should go out less and sleep with me!"

After a pause, she quickly corrected herself, "I mean, we could put some broken glass on the wall. That way, no one would dare to climb over."

Gu Heng wasn't deaf and had already heard her. "I am a soldier and must be on standby at all times. Sometimes, like now, I will suddenly leave home. There might be times when I don't even tell you where I've gone, or when I'll return. The house... might very well be left unattended."

Su Zhaozhao put away her playful smile. "I understand. As a military family member, I fully support you and feel truly honored! I just hope that no matter where you go or what mission you undertake, you'll remember to take good care of yourself."

There was one sentence that Su Zhaozhao remembered particularly clearly, one that applied no matter the era.

'There is no such thing as peaceful times; it's just that someone is carrying the burden for you.'

She had read history and knew that even after the country was founded, there had never been true peace. Foreign powers, border situations, and domestic issues—large and small conflicts, wars that never truly stopped.

In the original story, Gu Heng, as the male lead, had also participated in wars after marrying the female lead.

Now, she had become Gu Heng's family, a proud military family member, and of course, she would fully support him.

Su Zhaozhao's ideological awareness was also very high, deeply rooted and red!

Gu Heng smiled. "I know."

His heart swelled with warmth at her understanding.

"Go inside and sleep first. I'll come in after I finish washing up."

Su Zhaozhao nodded. "This twisted doughnut is really good. Have another one?" After saying that, she turned and went into the bedroom.

Shortly after she went inside, Gu Heng came in, grabbed his pajamas, and went out again.

Su Zhaozhao was almost asleep when she heard him come back in, turn off the light, and lie down beside her.

He must have been very tired because, in no time, the faint, steady sound of his snoring began.

Su Zhaozhao closed her eyes and soon fell asleep too.

The next day was Sunday. It was Su Zhaozhao's day off that week, and since she had woken up in the middle of the night the previous night, she got up quite late.

Gu Heng had already made breakfast and was in the yard teaching the two children some martial arts moves.