Chapter 518: Chapter 354 Yiyi

The second watch arrived.

————-

This man must be considered a prime example of this era, right? Chuxia shot Zhou Mikang an exasperated look, then decided to stomp on his other foot and roll her eyes with a snort before scampering home—of course, to the Zhou family’s residence.

Zhou Mikang just chuckled and quickened his pace, but after only a few steps, he abruptly halted, frowning toward the corner; “Come out! Don’t make me come and get you.”

“Third Brother, we’re heading home now. We’ll come see you in the morning, ha ha ha…” Zhou Xiangping’s voice echoed over, followed by the “thump, thump, thump” of fading footsteps.

“Regimental Commander,” Jiang Qi emerged from the shadows, his expression solemn, but the twitching corners of his mouth gave him away. Zhou Mikang rubbed his forehead, “Didn’t I say that you don’t have to follow me when I’m at home?”

After all, he had let himself get carried away just now, which is why he teased his little wife like that. It caused quite a stir… luckily, his little wife wasn’t there, otherwise, how could he save face? However, hiding this also didn’t seem right…

Jiang Qi spoke earnestly, “To get a jump start on adjusting, we officially began our duties today. We didn’t expect, that…”

“You didn’t expect to overhear our private conversation?” Zhou Mikang looked at him expressionlessly, “Can you claim that this wasn’t orchestrated by Ma Chao, that he deliberately chose to start today?”

“Regimental Commander, it’s a misunderstanding. It truly wasn’t my idea. It was Ma Chao’s. He wanted to start a day earlier to get a feel for things,” said Jiang Qi, pleading his case.

“Really?”

“Really,” Jiang Qi quickly nodded.

“Did you know that Xiao Si and your brother-in-law were hiding here?”

After a slight hesitation: “… Yes.” Jiang Qi wanted to say he didn’t know, but with his abilities, if he dared claim he hadn’t noticed Xiao Si and Liao Hui, the Regimental Commander would have swung him around and thrown him over the wall.

“I’ll remember this,” Zhou Mikang nodded and turned to head home.

Jiang Qi suddenly felt uneasy, quickly stepping forward to grab the Regimental Commander’s sleeve, affecting a coquettish, shy wife’s demeanor: “Regimental Commander…” Coming face to face with Ma Chao, Jiang Qi shivered, realizing he hadn’t known about this side of Jiang Qi. Cough, he’d have to keep his distance from him in the future, especially when sleeping.

“Get lost!” Zhou Mikang kicked him away and when he saw him getting up to come back over, he pointed a finger, “Come over here again and see what happens.”

Jiang Qi took a quick step back in fear: “Regimental Commander, I was wrong.”

“Regimental Commander, it wasn’t on purpose. I was just worried about making a mistake in tomorrow’s assignment, so I came today to adapt in advance,” Ma Chao explained to Zhou Mikang earnestly, confirming Jiang Qi’s earlier statement.

“Enough,” Zhou Mikang said, “Her safety is in your hands now. Let’s leave today’s incident at that. If anyone lays a finger on her before I return… the two of you…”

“Will answer with our heads!” Both replied in unison.

“As if you’d have the ability…” Zhou Mikang glanced at their faces and snorted coldly, “Otherwise, show me by bringing one over now.”

“Regimental Commander…”

Both of them immediately made faces as sour as bitter melons. Boss, how can you take a figure of speech literally?

Zhou Mikang became serious, “Chuxia’s safety outside the home is now in your hands. If anything were to happen to me before she has a real protector, you guys have to take care of her for me.”

“Regimental Commander!”

“Regimental Commander!”

Both of them grew serious, their expressions clearly disapproving.

“Not speaking of certain things doesn’t mean they won’t be seen. I’m talking about ‘just in case,’ not ‘for certain.’ So, do you promise or not?”

The two looked at each other, stood side by side, heels clicked together, and gave a crisp military salute: “Reporting to the Regimental Commander, we guarantee to complete the mission!”

“Thank you,” Zhou Mikang smiled at them, “I appreciate what you’ve done tonight. You can head back and rest now. There’s no need to adjust. Chuxia won’t go out at night anyway, do you think she’s a night owl or what?”

“Heh heh…” Jiang Qi gave an awkward chuckle, “Regimental Commander, I admit my faults. What Ma Chao thought was indeed about getting acclimated in advance, and my thoughts were, well… heh heh…”

Zhou Mikang looked at him with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, “I know exactly where you’re trying to drag your shit. Did you really think you could fool me?”

“A moment of spring night is worth a thousand gold pieces, Regimental Commander, we won’t hold you up any longer.” As Jiang Qi spoke, he backed away, taking off at a run before Zhou Mikang could settle the score with him.

“Regimental Commander…” Ma Chao touched his head, looking confused and uneasy. He felt extremely embarrassed for eavesdropping on the Regimental Commander and the Regimental Commander’s Wife’s private conversation. He wanted to apologize but felt too ashamed, yet not apologizing also made him uneasy. In short, he was just embarrassed in every sense of the word…

Zhou Mikang patted his shoulder, “It’s okay, Chuxia isn’t petty. Jiang Qi is waiting for you—go on, head back home to rest. You really have to start work officially tomorrow; you all have worked hard.”

“Not hard at all!” He saluted, and Ma Chao turned and strode away with a “thud thud” of his footsteps, but inside he was somewhat puzzled. The regimental commander said the regimental commander’s wife wasn’t petty,—could it be that he intended to tell the regimental commander’s wife what they had heard?

Even he, who couldn’t handle relationships and was straightforward by nature, felt that this wasn’t something they should tell the regimental commander’s wife… With this thought, he wanted to go back to remind the commander, but he found that the Zhou family’s front door was already tightly closed. He could only slap his own forehead and walk off gloomily toward the parking spot.

“Got scolded?” Jiang Qi, waiting beside the car, saw Ma Chao with his brows furrowed and couldn’t help asking curiously.

“No…” Ma Chao relayed his recent concerns to him, and Jiang Qi slapped him on the forehead, “You really are worrying about nothing. Is the commander’s family business something you can meddle in?”

“I wasn’t trying to meddle, I just didn’t want the regimental commander’s wife to feel uncomfortable seeing us in the future—if this gets out, won’t it just make it impossible for us to interact?”

“The commander was just pretending in front of you. You think he’d really tell? Fool!” Jiang Qi slapped him again, “I don’t even know what to say to you anymore. Can you be any dumber?”

Ma Chao pondered for a moment and then chuckled, “How could I forget about a man’s pride, heh heh…”

By the time Zhou Mikang got home, everyone had already returned to their rooms, and only the housekeeper Aunt Liu was left in the living room. Knowing that everyone was giving him no chance to dawdle, he shook his head amusedly and went upstairs.

Pushing open the bedroom door, the sound of running water from the bathroom made Zhou Mikang’s heart heat up…

When Chuxia came back, the elders had already returned to their rooms, so she went up to change her clothes and take a shower. Although she had initially opened the showerhead, thinking about Zhou Mikang’s annoying behavior made her fill the bathtub with water. She lay down comfortably, planning to slowly soak and drive a certain someone crazy.

As she was enjoying the bath, the bathroom door suddenly “snap!” opened, and she reflexively looked over to see the regimental commander, Tongzi, standing at the doorway wearing a big bathrobe, looking at her with a smirk.

“You, you, you…” Her speech was suddenly clumsy, and after a long while, she managed, “I locked the door just now. How can you just barge in? You hooligan!”

“When did I barge in? I came in normally.” Zhou Mikang closed the door properly, locked it tight, and in a few steps reached the bathtub, admiring the… bubbles… in the tub.

“Thinking about taking a mandarin duck bath?” Chuxia squinted her eyes at him, “You better think it through. The bathtub is so small—if you hurt or bump yourself, you’ll be responsible for it.”

Instead of seeing his little wife panic as expected, the look on Regimental Commander Tongzi’s face twitched. Seriously, couldn’t you show a little bit of shyness?

“Scared?” Chuxia’s lips curled, “Go take a shower, I won’t make fun of you.”

Zhou Mikang crouched down by the tub, his hand moving beneath the surface of the bubbles, wandering over her body: “Are you the one who’s scared? Thinking you can drive me away with this tactic?”

“No!” Her voice trembled, though she tried to keep up a nonchalant façade, “I come from the 21st century, would I be scared of you, an antique?”

“Really?” Zhou Mikang’s hand lingered on a pair of high mounds, gently wiping away the foam above them. Chuxia, startled, quickly shrank down; thinking better of it, she switched from lying down to prone. Though it was uncomfortable, at least she could stop him from getting fresh.

“So cooperative?” Zhou Mikang chuckled lightly, his large hand reaching for the waistband of his bathrobe, stripping it off—revealing nothing beneath!

Chuxia, curious, turned back to glance at him and saw what she didn’t want to see, instantly burying her face in the foam: “Pervert!”

“Trying to drown yourself?” Zhou Mikang scooped her up in one motion and embraced her as he lay down in the bathtub…

In the end, Chuxia was carried to the shower by someone, dried off, and placed onto the bed. As for when her hair was dried and when they went to sleep, she had no idea.

At least when she fell asleep, there was only one thought in her mind. Thank goodness he was going on a mission tomorrow; otherwise, she was certain he would torment her to death in bed…

At five o’clock in the early morning, Zhou Mikang got up. Chuxia turned over groggily and fell asleep again, and by the time he was ready, she was still sweetly sleeping like a baby.

After making sure everything was in order several times over, and finding no reason to delay, he crouched beside the bed, gazing at her for a long time. Finally, he gently kissed her forehead and quickly stood up to leave.

“Zhou Mikang!”

A soft call came from behind.

He froze, his eyes unexpectedly moistening.

“Come here, hold me again,” Chuxia sat up, her voice choked with emotion, “I don’t like goodbyes, so I wanted to pretend I didn’t know, but I just couldn’t do it.”

Zhou Mikang quickly turned back to the bed, wrapping her tightly in a blanket and hugging her close: “Chuxia, I will come back for you and I must come back. Besides, I have to come back before becoming a dad.”

“Of course you will, otherwise it wouldn’t be normal. I’m in the safe period; there’s no way you could unexpectedly become a dad.” Chuxia’s hand was trapped under the blanket, so she could only wiggle it a bit, “If you want to be a dad, you have to come back sooner.”

He didn’t ask any further but simply nodded eagerly: “Okay!” (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)