Chapter 105 – First Update

Chapter 105 - First Update

"Probably not..." Qin Yao chuckled, "We're all respectable people. At most, they'll join in for fun. Maybe Grandpa is just joking."

Gu Cheng stood with his arms crossed, looking down at her with a smile in his eyes that silently said, "You'll see for yourself when the time comes."

"You think too highly of your wife." Qin Yao smiled and stepped forward to take Gu Cheng's arm. "If everyone is vying for me to write, you'll have to rescue me, right? You can't just leave me in the wolf pack."

Gu Cheng smiled and grabbed her wrist. "When that time comes, just say you have to help me write. My past experiences are plenty; they're enough for you to write five to six million words. You could spend your whole life writing."

Qin Yao tilted her head and gave him a sideways glance. "Captain Gu, you sure know how to brag."

"The love poems I wrote for you could fill a book. These poems aren’t something we should share with others. We'll keep them for our descendants in the future."

"Rui Rui can give a few of his dad’s love poems, and Mingming can give a few, to help them win over girls in the future, so they won't end up like their father, finding a wife only when they've become middle-aged men." With that, Gu Cheng raised his chin and smiled, his lips pursed, like a simple and innocent young man in his twenties.

If at twenty-eight, Gu Cheng was unconsciously acting young, relying on his natural looks, now, nearing thirty-two, he was consciously doing so.

He appeared younger and more handsome than when he was Little Gu.

Qin Yao: "..."

"It's strange. Why aren't you oily at all? How can you look so smooth and young, like a kid?"

This is so unscientific!

The night wind brushed against Qin Yao's arms, cooling her. She found it odd that despite not getting uglier over the years, remaining fair and lovely, she was now a mature woman, her features striking and beautiful. Including the twenty-six years she lived before entering the novel, her actual age had crossed the thirty mark and wasn't much younger than Gu Cheng's.

With Gu Cheng acting so youthful before her, she genuinely felt like an older sister.

She admitted, the first time they met, she deliberately wanted to take advantage by calling herself his sister.

Now, she felt a slight crisis. How could this guy get younger as he lived?

"Don't you like me this way?" Gu Cheng reached up and tugged at her hair, not understanding the "little girl's" thoughts.

Even after nearly four years and being the mother of two children, in Gu Cheng's eyes, Qin Yao was still a somewhat mischievous little girl. The more he spent time with her, the younger he felt, and life became more exciting.

Back then, he wouldn’t have even considered using a baby stroller.

Qin Yao sighed, "Maybe I've fallen in love with two men, a childish you and a mature you."

"You just like my fresh face." Gu Cheng was open about it, knowing Qin Yao liked Little Gu's youthful looks and appreciated Captain Gu's style of doing things.

"Oily, oily." Qin Yao said coolly, "You just added three layers of oil to your face with that sentence."

"Little Gu, do you know the first rule of acting young? You can't be too narcissistic, sending signals everywhere: 'Look how fresh I am'—when you do that, you become oily, with the smell of an older man."

"Oh no, I'm most afraid of older men trying to act young." Qin Yao shrugged and shook her head.

Gu Cheng’s face remained blank as he muttered, "Actions speak louder than words." He quickly kissed his wife's cheek. "Your body says otherwise."

"Without you saying it, I know that as a beautiful woman in her early thirties, you like an older man who’s ten years older and often acts young—your taste is pretty intense!"

Qin Yao was left speechless. When men don’t care about their image, they really don’t care. In the past, Gu Cheng would be rendered speechless by her words, but now he had found a counterattack, calling her "heavy taste."

It wasn't wrong to say that maybe she had liked "older men acting young" from the start.

A true naive young man, even if he likes someone’s face, would still find it hard to get along with them.

Or perhaps, a naive young man doesn’t have the mature and composed demeanor that Captain Gu possesses, the kind of look that says, “I’ll just watch you cause trouble.”

"Yeah, I’ve got a strong taste, which is why I like you, my spicy cucumber."

Gu Cheng calmly replied, "Big cucumber," referring to Qin Yao’s playful nickname.

Qin Yao kicked him. "You’re so slick, I’m going to squeeze the oil out of you."

“Are you praising me? Isn’t being slick a good thing? Which household doesn’t need oil? With a slick husband like me, you won’t lack oil for the rest of your life.”

Qin Yao: “……”

This wasn’t just a generation gap, but a "chasm of eras." In this era, some men proudly claimed the title of "Smooth Talker" and were quite pleased with themselves.

The most expensive meat is pork belly; who wouldn’t want hundreds of pounds of lard at home?

“With a father like you, I’m worried our son will have trouble finding a wife in the future.”

Can’t take it, can’t take it. The kids are exposed to this environment, and who knows what kind of little ones they’ll become.

In January 1976, Qin Yao and Gu Cheng took the two children back to the capital, along with Shen Guixiang. The third brother and his wife stayed on the island. The state-run hotel was busy during the Lunar New Year, and the third brother couldn’t leave his job. His rank and salary had just been raised, and with a wife and daughter, his drive to strive had surged.

After returning to the capital this time, Shen Guixiang wouldn’t come back to the island. Instead, she would stay in the courtyard house and live with her husband. On this day of parting and returning home, Shen Guixiang felt quite reluctant, unwilling to leave her son, daughter, grandson, and granddaughter.

Qin Chuanrong lived alone in the courtyard house, quite pitiful.

“Living on the island has been too carefree, it feels a bit unfair to your father.” Shen Guixiang sighed and shed a few crocodile tears.

If it weren’t for Qin Chuanrong’s fervent pleas over the phone, Shen Guixiang really wouldn’t want to go back. The long winter in the north was too cold, living in the large courtyard, having to share the toilet, and emptying the night pot—it wasn’t as comfortable as spending the winter on the island.

The only discomfort was the humid and hot weather; despite the strong wind and sun, everything was still damp.

Gao Jianguo and Chen Baozhen took their daughter back first. The five members of Qin Yao’s family left the island by boat.

For the two little ones, Rui Rui and Mingming, this was their first time leaving home and their first time taking a boat off the island. Held in their father’s arms, everything looked novel to them.

“These two children are so big, yet they’ve never seen snow or worn a big cotton coat. What a pity. This time, I’ll take you to see the snow.” Shen Guixiang pinched Rui Rui’s little face.

He looked like a little girl but lacked the plump and round appearance of Yaoyao when she was young. Rui Rui was a bit thin. Shen Guixiang wanted to fatten him up, but he was a picky eater. Qin Yao said Rui Rui looked like her in other aspects but took after his father in being a picky eater.

Mingming looked like Gu Cheng, wasn’t picky with food, loved to eat, was lively, talkative, and chubbier than his brother, walking like a fuzzy caterpillar, swinging as he moved.

Qin Yao really wanted to get this little guy a fluffy dinosaur pajama, but there was no chance to wear it on the island. Even now, there weren’t the material conditions for it.

“Mommy! Mommy!” A nearly two-year-old child was like a little engine, full of energy, running and walking non-stop. Their small bodies contained great energy, more lively and energetic than adults. They had only recently come into this world and were curious about everything in it.

“Let Daddy teach you to recognize fish, okay?” Qin Yao found a marine animal picture book and let Gu Cheng give the children a lesson. He had seen many fish with his own eyes—a living encyclopedia.

“No fish, no fish!”

Whether it was Rui Rui or Mingming, both little ones shook their heads vigorously.

Qin Yao: “Why?”

Rui Rui: “Daddy said these don’t taste good, and those don’t either.”

When it came to the evaluation of their fish catch, Captain Gu’s opinion was consistent.

"Eating fish makes you smart. Don't be like your dad; he's a picky eater. Mom will secretly tell you a little secret. Your dad pretends not to like fish, but actually, he secretly eats a lot of fish behind everyone's back... He eats a lot of fish and doesn't want you to know."

Qin Yao spoke vividly, as if she was really describing a huge secret. Even a two-year-old would enjoy hearing these "little-known secrets."

"He deliberately tells others that he doesn't like fish because he doesn't want people to know how smart he is."

Both Rui Rui and Mingming's little mouths formed an "O" shape, realizing that their dad had been secretly eating fish behind their backs.

Gu Cheng: "..."

Was his wife praising him or teasing him?

"Smart kids are more lovable, so eat more fish to become smart, okay?"

The two little ones nodded, seemingly understanding but not really.

Though they were young, they loved being treated as "adults" and chatting with their mom.

After all, kids are easy to please. They chatter away, feel satisfied, and soon forget.

"If you don't believe me, you can ask Dad if he ate fish."

Gu Cheng: "I did eat fish."

Gu Cheng, braving the sea breeze, played along with his wife to entertain the two little ones. If they weren't engaged in conversation, they'd be too restless to sit still.

Shen Guixiang, watching from the side, felt especially relieved. "Thankfully my son-in-law eats a lot of fish. My two grandsons are really smart."

In her eyes, these two grandsons were unusually bright. Some kids can't even dress or feed themselves until they're five or six. Of course, those cases were rare, and most children were just ordinarily smart.

Gu Cheng: "...Maybe I should eat more fish tomorrow?"

Shen Guixiang: "You should eat more; it's good for your brain."

Gu Cheng: "..."

It was the cold winter in the north, and the further north they went, the colder it became. The two little ones had never seen such a winter—but they weren't afraid of the cold at all. Every kid is like a little furnace, burning bright like fresh kindling.

Qin Yao and her mom, Shen Guixiang, felt the chill to the bone. Shen Guixiang found it strange. Why was it so cold? She didn't remember it ever being this cold before.

"Yao Yao, it feels especially cold this year." As they got off the train, Shen Guixiang rubbed her hands together, exhaling a puff of white air, trying to make small talk with her daughter.

Qin Yao nodded. "Maybe it's a once-in-a-decade cold winter." As a post-2000s generation, she often heard about once-in-a-decade or once-in-a-century natural disasters like snowstorms, droughts, or floods.

At that moment, someone nearby said, "It feels like a warm winter to me."

Shen Guixiang: "..."

Qin Yao: "..."

After getting off the train, they weren't in a hurry to go to the Gu family's home. They first returned to the Qin family's courtyard house. By now, only Qin Chuanrong lived in the large courtyard house. The families of the eldest and second sons had moved out, settling into apartment buildings. The fourth son worked at the zoo, leaving Qin Chuanrong as a lone commander.

The closer they got to the large courtyard house they had lived in for decades, the more complicated their feelings became. Shen Guixiang wiped away tears. After so many years together, it was rare for her to be apart from Qin Chuanrong for such a long time. Now that he lived alone in the large courtyard house, while other families were bustling with activity, he was all by himself, likely having a hard time.

"The person I feel most guilty about is your dad."

As they approached the courtyard house, someone called out, "Guixiang, you're back. It's been a long time."

"Yao Yao is back too. Wow, these two little ones look like lucky babies from New Year paintings."

...

By the time they reached the front door, Shen Guixiang sensed something was wrong. There were people inside, quite a few of them, and a smell of alcohol wafted out, accompanied by the sound of erhu music. When Shen Guixiang showed up, Qin Chuanrong stumbled back in shock.

The other men looked puzzled. "Old Qin, what’s going on?"

While his family was away, Qin Chuanrong had turned the house into a "middle-aged men's club," inviting friends over for drinks and good times.