Chapter 333

Chapter 333

I'll Settle the Bill

Dust-covered and noticeably thinner than before, his eyes were now even more resolute, making anyone who met them shudder.

After completing his mission, he was heading back to his quarters when he ran into Ah Si along the way.

"Commander Lu, your wife is here. She’s arranged new quarters for you—let me take you there!" Ah Si said.

"Who’s here?" Lu Hang thought he misheard and asked in confusion.

Ah Si laughed. "Your wife! She’s been here for days!"

Lu Hang froze for a moment before his face lit up with pure joy. "You mean my wife—Lin Nannan?"

"Yes, she’s been here for several days, always asking when you’d return. Since I didn’t know when your mission would end, I couldn’t give her a clear answer," Ah Si explained while leading the way.

The moment Lu Hang heard that Lin Nannan had come, his usual composure vanished. His face was alight with unrestrained happiness—after all, his wife was usually so busy that he rarely got to see her even when he went home. Now that she was here, though curious, he was eager to see her and urged Ah Si to hurry up, forcing Ah Si into a sprint to avoid being punished with laps for being too slow...

In the courtyard, several women were doing laundry and chores. When they saw Lu Hang return, quite a few exchanged glances, eager for some excitement.

Once he learned which house was his, Lu Hang strode straight to the door and knocked, calling out, "Nannan, open up! I’m back!"

But after knocking for a while, the door remained shut, leaving Lu Hang puzzled.

"Looks like she's out!" he muttered, noticing the lock on the door.

Ah Si quickly leaned in and asked the neighbors, "Anyone seen the commander’s wife?"

"I saw her leave earlier with a basket—no clue where she was headed," someone downstairs replied.

"She went out?" Ah Si turned to Lu Hang. "Commander Lu, there’s a spare key for your place. Let me fetch it for you. You can wait inside—your wife should be back soon."

Lu Hang nodded. Knowing Lin Nannan’s toughness, he wasn’t worried about her safety and figured he’d clean up before looking for her.

While waiting for Ah Si to retrieve the key, someone called out, "Commander Lu, ever since your wife arrived, she’s been eating at the mess hall every day—putting it all on your tab!"

Lu Hang replied without hesitation, "Right. I’ll go settle up at the mess hall later."

He assumed it was just a friendly reminder and didn’t think much of it, but the people downstairs exchanged confused glances—this wasn’t the reaction they’d expected.

"Commander Lu, your wife eats quite a lot..." someone offered kindly, hinting that a man like him should marry someone thrifty rather than some lazy freeloader.

Considering how much Lin Nannan could eat and how different the mess hall food must be from what she was used to, Lu Hang smiled. "My wife doesn’t cook, and she has a big appetite, so she probably eats a lot. Don’t worry—she won’t eat you out of house and home."

His response shut everyone up.

Turns out their gossip had been all wrong—Lin Nannan’s boldness was simply because Commander Lu doted on her!

"Hey now, we weren’t implying anything—just wanted to make sure you knew," someone chuckled awkwardly.

Lu Hang rarely interacted with the military wives. If anything, it was just the rare dinner invitation, so he remained oblivious to their gossip and focused solely on defending his wife.

"No worries. Now that I’m back, I’ll do the cooking, so she won’t need to go to the mess hall anymore," he said casually, breaking the military wives’ assumptions.

Some rumors they turned out to be—that he disliked women, or that his country wife was neglected by Commander Lu. Was this what "not favored" looked like?

It was the first time they’d seen Lu Hang grinning from ear to ear.

He must’ve been over the moon!

The military wives who had once looked down on Lin Nannan were now seething with jealousy.

How could she be so lucky?!

Lazy and spoiled, yet Lu Hang dotes on her—meanwhile, if they dared to eat an extra bite, their elders would nag them to death…

Life just isn’t fair!

Little did Lin Nannan know, Lu Hang’s few words had turned her from the most disliked woman in the barracks to the most envied.

Already roaming freely through the mountains, Lin Nannan had no idea the person she’d been longing for had returned.

She wasn’t familiar with the area, but that didn’t stop her from loving the scent of the forest—especially after her spiritual energy had returned. She found that the air deep in the mountains helped stabilize her spiritual energy even more.

She ventured into the mountains without a care, but for the hidden soldiers, this posed a bit of a dilemma.

At first, Lin Nannan didn’t notice anything unusual, but after walking quite a distance, she picked up on something strange.

Initially, she thought there might be danger, but upon spotting the uniforms of the concealed figures, she recalled what Lu Hang had mentioned before. Without giving them away, she pretended not to notice and continued forward…

However, after she passed, one of the concealed troops blurted out, "I feel like she noticed me…"

"Same, she glanced right at me just now!" another replied.

"Me too!"

All three hidden soldiers shared the same feeling—and they also recognized her as the most notorious military wife in the barracks recently.

"Why did she come into the mountains?" one of them asked, eyeing the forest. "We may have swept the area, but there’s no guarantee some large animal won’t appear. If she runs into one, she’d be in real trouble!"

"Probably not. She’s likely just foraging or something."

"Don’t worry, there are more people deeper inside. If anything happens, they’ve got her back!"

They were stationed at the outermost perimeter today, with many more soldiers further in. So with that thought, they dismissed their concerns and resumed their training.

Lin Nannan, single-minded about her hunt, ignored the hidden soldiers after spotting them and instead chased after a wild rabbit…

When she suddenly appeared, the concealed soldiers exchanged glances, unsure what she was doing—until they saw her take down the fleeing rabbit in one clean move. They exchanged stunned glances.

Commander Lu’s wife… had skills!

Lin Nannan didn’t care what they thought—she was just sick of going hungry.

Her hunting speed was fast, bagging small game effortlessly. In no time, she had bagged two hares and a grouse. Deciding that was enough, she stopped.

But after stopping, she realized she didn’t know the area well and had no idea where to find water. Instead of going back to ask for help, she simply looked up at the soldiers hidden in the trees and called out, "Comrades, excuse me—where can I find water around here?"

The soldiers, who had thought they were perfectly concealed, were stunned.

"Ma’am, you knew we were here all along?" one asked from the tree.

"Yep!" Lin Nannan nodded. "You hid well, but you guys aren’t exactly subtle."

Hearing this, they had no choice but to reveal themselves and stood up one by one.

"How is that possible? Our camouflage’s never failed before!"