After they had gone up, Su Qingsang found Huo Jinyaoâs skin even more bruised.
Huo Jinyao had strong abdominal muscles, but the skin under his clothes was very fair. The bruises looked especially obvious on his fair skin.
âHow did you get bruised so badly?â asked Su Qingsang. Seeing the several bruises on Huo Jinyaoâs body, she wasnât only wearing a look of concern but also showed some discontent on her face. âYour uncle is so over the line, isnât he? He is a soldier. Heâs certainly stronger than you are. How can he hit you so hard?â
She knew that Huo Jinyao couldnât possibly win, but had still tried his best to hit him very hard. That produced outrageous consequences.
âDarling, Iâm fine.â Huo Jinyao liked to see Su Qingsang worry about him. âHe didnât take much advantage of me. Iâm telling you, heâs injured too.â
âHe canât be as injured as you are,â said Su Qingsang as she looked at the two bruises on Huo Jinyaoâs stomach. Her brows furrowed slightly. âGo and take a shower. Iâm going to get the ointment.â
âItâs okay,â said Huo Jinyao carelessly. âItâs nothing. The bruises will be gone tomorrow.â
âNo, they wonât.â Merely looking at those bruises made Su Qingsang suffer in agony. âGo and take a shower. Iâm going to ask Mr. Cheng to bring the ointment upstairs.â
Huo Jinyao had no other choice but to take a shower as his wife ordered him to. When he came out of the shower, Su Qingsang was already holding the ointment, waiting for him by the bedside.
After the shower, the bruise on his waist grew even darker. The worried look on Su Qingsangâs face became more and more obvious.
âWhy did you fight your uncle?â
âThat wasnât a fight. We were battling.â
Su Qingsang didnât want to argue with him. In her eyes, fighting and battling meant the same thing.
The thermostat was on. Huo Jinyao bared his upper body to let Su Qingsang apply the ointment for him.
Su Qingsang put the ointment on Huo Jinyaoâs skin. Huo Jinyao gasped in pain once her fingers touched his skin.
âIt hurts, it hurts.â
âYou deserve this,â said Su Qingsang as she gave him a piercing glare, but her movement became much gentler than before. âHopefully this will stop you from battling him again.â
âYou may not know this yet, but Yichen and I, weâre always like this.â
In front of Old Master Huo and the other elderships, Huo Jinyao called Zhang Yichen âuncleâ. In private, they were close to each other, so Huo Jinyao always called him by his name.
Huo Junyao knitted his brows and narrowed his eyes when Su Qingsang applied the ointment for him. Su Qingsang responded to him with a glare.
âSeriously.â
Huo Jinyao recalled the time he had spent in the army. âYou know what? I was once in the military camp that my great-aunt lived in. I was with my uncle back then. I admit that Iâm not as good a fighter as he is.ân/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Zhang Yichen practiced every single day. An ordinary person couldnât possibly become a senior colonel from a soldier within just about ten years as he had managed to.
âHe got another promotion when he made new merit, so darling, I lost the fight to him not because Iâm bad. Itâs because heâs too good.â
Su Qingsand realized that the relationship between people could be unpredictable. Old Master Huo wasnât the only one who liked Zhang Yichen very much. Huo Jinyao and he were close too. He was closer to Zhang Yichen than he was to Huo Yifan and his brother, and Wei Sihai and his sister.
âYeah, yeah.â Hearing him talking loquaciously even after getting injured, Su Qingsang couldnât help but rub the bruises on his skin even harder.
Watching Huo Jinyaoâs face twist, she said with satisfaction, âI know youâre good. You donât need to explain.â
She had seen some videos about how soldiers were trained. Someone who spent most of his days in the office like Huo Jinyao couldnât possibly be compared to the ones who were serving in the army.
âDarling,â said Huo Jinyao gently. He was really worried that his wife might consider him weak.
âIâm serious. Zhang Yichen is an outstanding fighter, but itâs because of his special family background. If I was in the army, I would definitely be a better fighter than he is. Do you believe me?â
âI do. I believe whatever you say.â
It sounded like she obviously didnât believe him. How could Huo Jinyao let his wife think of him like that?
As Su Qingsang finished applying the ointment for him, he took away the ointment bottle from her hand and put it aside. Then, he turned to press Su Qingsang down on the bed.
âDo you believe that Iâm better than him?â Huo Jinyao squinted at her in a very dangerous way.
âStop this. I havenât even washed my hands.â Her hands were covered in the ointment. It was very oily.
âWhy do you need to wash your hands? You can wipe it all over me.â
Su Qingsang almost laughed because of what Huo Jinyaoâs said. But soon, she wasnât laughing anymore.
...
In the morning, Su Qingsang woke up feeling tired. She wouldnât have left the bed if she didnât have to go to work.
Huo Jinyao got up early to exercise. Su Qingsang quickly put on her clothes and went downstairs. She had limited time, so she moved quickly, or else she could be late for work.
Just as she was around the corner of the staircase, Su Qingsang yawned and didnât pay attention to the stairs under her feet. As a result, she missed a step.
She gave a sudden movement as if going to slip, automatically reaching her hand towards the guardrail nearby.
However, there was some distance between her and the guardrail. Just as she thought she was going to fall off the stairs, a pair of strong hands held her waist and brought her body away from the edge of the stairstep. She was put in a wider area around the corner.
Su Qingsang patted her chest due to the lingering fear she had even after attaining a firm foothold. Only then did she realize what had happened. Her eyes landed on the muscular chest before her.
Huo Jinyao was in the gym, so who was the one holding her right now?
âThank you. Iâm good,â she said awkwardly, looking at Zhang Yichenâs large eyes and dark brows.
Zhang Yichen looked at Su Qingsang, slowly retracting his hands. He was as tall as Luo Jinyao. Realizing that Su Qingsangâs had a pale face because of what happened earlier on, he felt that he should have taken his hands off her sooner.
âWatch your step next time.â
Su Qingsang pressed her lips together, feeling uneasy upon hearing that.
She had never made such mistakes before. This was the first accident.
She took a step backward, preparing to keep going downstairs.
Zhang Yichen held her again and said, âbe careful.â
The stairs were right behind her. She could fall again if she stepped further backward.
âThank you.â Su Qingsang dropped her head and thanked him. Then, made a step sideways to make sure that she didnât fall again. She also wanted to free herself from his grip.
Zhang Yichenâs hand had been on her waist just a few seconds ago but now, it was untouched.
He automatically made a fist with his hand, his eyes still fixed on Su Qingsangâs face. âBe careful,â he said.
âI will, thank you.â Su Qingsang had nothing more to say to him. She turned and kept going down the stairs. This time, she had her head lowered, eyes on the stairs.
Zhang Yichen was going downstairs too. He followed closely behind Su Qingsang.
Su Qingsang wanted to move faster, but that would have been too obvious, so she maintained her original pace.
Since she was focusing on the stairs, she didnât realize that the tall Zhang Yichen who was walking behind her could easily see the marks on her neck.
Zhang Yichen wasnât very experienced in the area of love. Nevertheless, he recognized those love bites. The one who had left those marks on the back of her neck could only be Huo Jinyao.
That displeasing discovery dimmed the glow in Zhang Yichenâs eyes again.
Around the corner of the stairs on the second floor, Liu Tongjia witnessed everything that had happened just now. She clenched her fist so hard that her fingers turned pale.
...
Zhang Yichen was going to stay in Rong City for three days. He would be living in the family house during those three days.
For that reason, Huo Jinyao drove to pick Su Qingsang up from work every day and then brought her back to the family house.
The third day was a Saturday. Su Qingsang didnât need to work that day, so she got up early to play Taiji together with Old Master Huo.
She had learned some actual Taiji skills in the past but still lacked strength. Old Master Huo believed that it was because she ate like a bird, so he often told her to eat more.
âGrandpa, Iâm a woman. Please stop saying that I eat like a bird. I have a big appetite compared to the other girls.â
âYouâre skinny. You need to gain some weight.â
Old Master Huo had been a little unhappy before because Huo Jinyao and Su Qingsang lied to him about wanting to have children. However, after listening to his grandsonâs explanation, he wasnât angry anymore.
He knew that Huo Jinyao was in a strained relationship with his mother. Thus, Huo Jinyao didnât want children yet, but Liu Tongjia blamed Su Qingsang for it.
All Old Master Huo wanted was his family to be in peace and filled with happiness. He didnât want to be worrying about small things like that.
Before Su Qingsang could say anything, she heard someone call âGrandpaâ from under the eave from a distance away.
It was the parrot. The bird refused to talk at first, but in the last two days, it had become rather talkative as no one had been paying any attention to it.
âWhat a noisy bird,â Old Master Huo laughed.
He never thought that Su Qingsang would buy him a bird. It was a unique gift.
âItâs noisy indeed.â
Earlier, Su Qingsang had thought that the man who sold her the bird might have lied to her. However, it turned out that she was wrong.
âUncle.â
The smile on Su Qingsangâs face grew smaller when she heard that voice.
âUncle,â she said as she turned and nodded slightly to Zhang Yichen.
Seeing Huo Jinyao standing by his side, she immediately grinned again, made a step forward and put her arm around his.
âHave you finished exercising?â
âYes,â Huo Jinyao nodded and looked at Su Qingsang affectionately.
Zhang Yichen stood on the side, watching the sweet interaction between the young couple. It bothered him that she called him âUncleâ. Clearly, in the family, he and the couple didnât even belong to the same generation.
âErm,â said Zhang Yichen as he quickly glanced at Su Qingsang, then turned to Old Master Huo. âUncle, what were you two talking about? You sounded quite happy.â
âWe were talking about the bird. I said that itâs noisy.â Old Master Huo now found the parrot rather interesting.
âYouâre noisy! Youâre noisy!â
The bird had lived in a flower and bird store before. It was well-trained by its previous owners. At that moment, it even picked an oral fight with Old Master Huo.
Su Qingsang wanted to laugh, but she only gave a small smile, as Zhang Yichen was standing right beside her.
âIs it fighting with Grandpa now?â asked Huo Jinyao as he rubbed the top of her head.
âI donât know.â Su Qingsang looked at the bird under the eave, also finding it interesting. âHe never talks to me, but he gets excited every time it hears someone say something bad about him.â
âSo itâs probably a stupid bird.â Huo Jinyao glared at the bird while saying, âstupid bird.â
As expected, the parrot was instantly irritated. It flapped its wings in the cage, screaming, âyouâre stupid! Youâre stupid!â
âHaha!â Both Old Master Huo and Huo Jinyao burst out in laughter.
Zhang Yichen also turned the corners of his mouth up. He turned, glanced at Su Qingsang and said, âuncle, Youâll never feel lonely again as you have the bird now. My niece-in-law has given you such a wonderful gift.â
The words âniece-in-lawâ sounded weird, coming out of his mouth. Thinking about the brief meetings she had had with him earlier, Qu Qingsang had a feeling that there were some hidden meanings behind the words he had spoken.