Chapter 11: A Disobedient Wife Deserves Punishment

Chapter 11: The Disobedient Wife Needs Punishing

Chu Lanting didn't have much time to make the little paper slips.

He had just finished cutting the paper into uniform pieces, a thick stack, and before he could even write on them, he heard a frantic, uneasy call from behind him.

"Wife? Wife, where are you? Wife, are you abandoning me?"

Like a big abandoned dog.

The smile that had just formed on Chu Lanting's lips froze as he remembered what had happened earlier.

Pushing down the weird feeling in his chest, he carefully tidied up the things in his hands and placed them in a small iron box. Before he could turn around, a warm body pressed up against him from behind.

Strong arms wrapped around his waist again, and the guy even rested his head on his shoulder.

Catching a whiff of strong pheromones mixed with a hint of woodsy cologne and jasmine, Chu Lanting's face heated up, and he instinctively tried to pull away from the guy's touch.

"You're awake. Does anything on you hurt? Let go of me first, let me take a look at you, okay?"

"No. If I let go, my wife will disappear again."

A childish, whiny voice sounded right by his ear.

Chu Lanting's brows furrowed in helplessness: "I didn't disappear. I've been home this whole time and haven't gone anywhere."

"But when I just woke up and looked for you, you weren't there. Wife, don't abandon me."

Feeling the arms around his waist squeeze tighter, Chu Lanting raised his hand and patted his arm: "Relax a little, careful not to tear your wound open again."

This time, Pei Du actually listened and loosened his arms a little.

But only a tiny bit.

Noticing that, Chu Lanting let out a helpless chuckle. Thinking about how the guy looked right now, he said in a low voice: "Do you remember what happened just now?"

It wasn't that Chu Lanting hadn't noticed Pei Du's two sides.

It was just that this version of Pei Du was a real handful—if he didn't handle him right, the guy would definitely start crying again.

He wasn't great at soothing people, and there wasn't even any candy or anything to calm him down with. He could only fall back on clunky tactics like changing the subject to "soothe" him.

Luckily, Pei Du was easy to soothe.

"I remember! You went out, came home, had dinner with me, put medicine on me, and hugged me."

"Babe, I like hugging you."

You're soft and you smell nice.

Pei Du didn't dare say the rest out loud—his wife didn't like hearing that kind of stuff.

So soft, so sweet-smelling, so pretty. His wife was perfect in every way, so why couldn't he say it?

His sharp brows furrowed, his lips parted slightly, but in the end, he just couldn't bring himself to say those compliments out loud.

Chu Lanting was being held from behind, so he couldn't see the guy's expression or the conflict written all over his face.

Hearing him recap what had happened tonight, Chu Lanting didn't relax. His expression turned serious in the dim light.

"And then what?"

"Then I went to sleep. Why did I pass out so fast? Babe, when I woke up and you weren't there, I got scared."

A grown man over six-foot-three, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and toned muscles, was going around saying he was scared.

Chu Lanting didn't even want to think about how shocked Pei Du's people would be if they saw him like this.

"Did you have any dreams while you were asleep?"

There were too many unknowns with Pei Du—he was like a ticking time bomb.

Chu Lanting wasn't sure why the guy had suddenly switched up like that earlier, but if he was sleepwalking...

"Yeah! I dreamed that you kissed me."

The blunt words echoed through the small room.

There wasn't even a single cricket chirping outside, so Pei Du's voice rang out crystal clear.

Chu Lanting was so caught off guard by the guy's blunt words that he forgot how to speak.

Because they had, in fact, kissed.

Though it was just a peck on the cheek...

He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but when he'd reacted to the kiss earlier, he hadn't felt much of anything.

But now, hearing those words come out of Pei Du's mouth, the spot where they'd accidentally touched felt like it was burning, leaving him with a feeling he couldn't quite name.

"What were you doing just now?"

The subject changed, and Chu Lanting let out a quiet sigh of relief.

He opened the iron box and showed the guy the paper inside: "The kids here don't seem to have any chance to learn how to read. I want to try teaching them."

Luckily, the characters he'd read in the magazines Uncle Tian was looking at were the same ones he'd been studying for over twenty years.

Otherwise, he really didn't know if he could handle that kind of responsibility.

When Pei Du heard he wanted to teach the kids to read, his face lit up with surprise: "Babe, you're amazing."

Chu Lanting, who had literally done nothing but tear up two pieces of paper and talk about his future plans, and was already getting praised: "...I'm really not that amazing."

"You're amazing! Lots of kids in the slums never get the chance to learn to read. Huh? How do I know that?"

Unlike last time, when being questioned by Chu Lanting had set off a whole chain of bad reactions, Pei Du had now learned to question himself.

Taking advantage of the guy letting go with one hand to knock on his own head, Chu Lanting immediately slipped out of his arms.

Pretending not to see the hurt look on the guy's face, he lowered his head and closed the iron box again: "Maybe it's a memory thing."

"You used to be a really capable guy too. Because you knew a lot about stuff on different planets, it just comes out naturally."

Chu Lanting looked up and gave him a small smile: "That's a good sign. It means you're not fighting the memory recovery. I'm sure it won't be long before everything comes back."

"Really?" Pei Du looked at his wife smiling at him, and his heart started racing: "If I'm a capable guy, then I can take care of my wife."

"From now on, you don't have to go to work. I'll go to work and make money to take care of you!"

Seeing that he seemed to have a slight misunderstanding of the word "amazing," Chu Lanting didn't bother arguing with him.

Now that he wasn't rejecting his own memories, he'd gradually get them back over time.

If he "reminded" him like before, it might backfire.

However, when he heard him talk about going to work and earning money while telling him to stay home, Chu Lanting couldn't help but laugh.

"And what am I supposed to do staying home?"

"Stay home and hug me! I love hugging my wife!"

As he spoke, he spread his arms wide again, trying to pull his wife, who'd just slipped out of his arms, back into them.

Unfortunately, Chu Lanting didn't let him have his way. He tapped the iron box against his palm and said with a smile, "Go inside and get some rest. It's late."

It was indeed very late.

Once night fell on Planet 207, no one had anything else to do for fun—some slept, and some "slept."

No one kept their lights on, except for Chu Lanting's household.

Just as Chu Lanting finished speaking, Pei Du didn't shake his head in refusal. Instead, he hugged the iron box to his chest, reached out to grab the former's slender wrist, and walked toward the bedroom.

"My wife tells me to sleep but doesn't sleep herself. My wife isn't obedient at all."

"A wife who isn't obedient has to be punished."