Seeing him grinning from ear to ear, Zhou Lian asked directly, "What about your mother? You didn't tell her?"
Li Xiu pouted and said gloomily, "How stupid would I have to be? If I told her, she'd take it all to raise her son and daughter."
Zhou Lian let out a dry laugh. 'In their last life, she did just that—sucked him dry to raise them. It was a good thing he hadn't mistreated their own children because of it, or I would've fought him to the death long ago.'
Seeing the scorn in Zhou Lian's eyes, Li Xiu knew she was thinking about their last life. He looked at her gently and said, "Wifey, listen to me. From now on, just ignore my mother. We've split from the family and we live far away anyway. Stay far away from her. No, stay far away from everyone in the old family house. Just let them be. It has nothing to do with us. I'll handle it if anything happens."
"That's your mother, your brother and sister. You're not going to take care of them?" Zhou Lian shot him a look. 'The great filial son has had a change of heart, has he!'
"Wifey, when we split from the family, we got just 250 yuan. No house, and we weren't even married yet. I worked my ass off for more than ten years, and in the end, I was left with almost nothing. I'd have to be an idiot to go on about 'blood ties' with them. I have a wife to support, and children to support in the future. You're the ones I care about. If I take care of them, who will take care of you? From now on, all the money I make is yours. You won't have to worry about a thing; you can do whatever you want. Oh, right, I have over 3,000 yuan on me. I'll bring it over to you in a couple of days," Li Xiu rambled, saying whatever popped into his head.
Zhou Lian stared at him as if he were an idiot. 'They weren't even married yet. Was it really okay for him to act like this? It was just as her granddaughter used to say: his IQ was in arrears.'
"Wifey, can you please stop looking at me like I'm an idiot? You're my wife. Who else would I give it to?" Li Xiu was truly frustrated. 'I'm not always going to be the same as an idiot in her eyes, am I?'
"But I haven't even married you yet. How can you say all this?" Zhou Lian forced a laugh, not wanting to look at his expression. 'He really has changed so much. How did I never realize he was so shrewd in our past life?'
"You're my wife even if you haven't married in yet. And it's happening soon—in another 23 days, you'll be walking through the door. It makes no difference." Zhou Lian ignored that and asked what was really on her mind. "What are we going to do about the people in the old house in the future? We can't just ignore them completely, can we?"
"Why not? Their parents brought them into this world, so their parents should raise them. It has nothing to do with us. At most, we'll give them a double-sized cash gift when they get married. For all other social obligations, we'll just reciprocate in kind. Anyway, our own children are our top priority. However they treat our kids is how we'll treat them back. There's nothing wrong with that."
'There's nothing wrong with that, sure. So why didn't he do it in their last life?' Zhou Lian glared at him resentfully.
Li Xiu pretended not to notice and continued, "As for my parents, they raised me when I was young, and I'll support them when they're old. That's it. Besides, they have five sons to provide for them in their old age. They must be thrilled. How wonderful, right? Five sons all taking care of them together."
Zhou Lian stared at him, speechless. 'Was he sure his parents would be happy? Those four younger brothers of his were a pack of ungrateful wolves, the kind who'd suck you dry to the bone. And they were supposed to take care of their parents? As if.'
"Don't worry, I've already figured it all out. When my parents get old, if my brothers refuse to support them, I'll sue them and make them pay. We can find someone in the village near the old house, pay them, and have them look after our parents. When the time comes, don't you get involved. You'll be very busy; you won't have time to look after them."
"Me, busy? With what?" Zhou Lian asked, confused. 'How would he know if I'll be busy in the future?'
"Of course you'll be busy," Li Xiu whispered, leaning close to her ear. "Busy taking care of our children... and taking care of me."
He glanced around and, seeing no one, quickly planted a kiss on her eye, which was peeking out from her scarf. 'I've wanted to do that for so long but never got the chance,' he thought.
"Are you crazy!" Zhou Lian was furious. 'This isn't the future, where nobody bats an eye at public displays of affection! It's only 1978! This man has to be insane!'
With one hand on the bicycle, Li Xiu wrapped his other arm around Zhou Lian's waist. He leaned down and kissed her again before saying, "I looked, nobody's here. Besides, whose business is it if I kiss my own wife?"
Zhou Lian could only scoff. 'Just a couple of years ago, a married couple could be accused of indecency just for the wife holding onto her husband's shirt while riding on the back of his bike. Where did he get this kind of nerve?'
"Wifey, nobody cares about this anymore. Don't worry!"
Not wanting to deal with him, Zhou Lian jumped off the bike, sat on the rear rack, and said, "Let's go. After we buy what we need, take me to the salvage yard."
Seeing that she wasn't angry, Li Xiu propped up the bicycle, pulled down her scarf, and pressed his lips to hers. With one arm around her waist and the other hand cupping the back of her head, he kissed her until she was breathless. Even after pulling back, he continued to pepper her lips with soft pecks. Zhou Lian was completely stunned.
Even though Zhou Lian had lived a whole other lifetime, she had left with her daughter before she even turned forty in her past life. After that, she and Li Xiu had never been together again.
After a long moment, she finally came to her senses and pushed at him. Li Xiu just held her tighter, resting his head on her shoulder and whispering, "Let me just... let me calm down." 'He was in the prime of his youth, and in his past life, he'd spent decades apart from his wife. He was finding it hard to control himself.'
From the first moment he saw her after being reborn, he had been holding back, afraid of scaring her, or he would have lost control long ago. He took a deep breath, inhaling her scent, then lifted his head and couldn't resist another kiss. Seeing her glistening eyes go wide, Li Xiu couldn't help but chuckle. "You glare at me, I'll kiss you again!"
Zhou Lian was truly exasperated. 'How did this man get so bold? Had she just never truly understood him in their past life, or was she doing this whole rebirth thing wrong?' "Where did you learn to do all this?" she asked calmly. 'He wasn't like this in our last life. Something is wrong; he doesn't seem like himself at all.'
"You can learn things anywhere. Behind haystacks, in the cornfields, in the woods," Li Xiu said nonchalantly as he helped her fix her scarf.
'In their past life, during the two years she was away, their son had been boarding at his high school, leaving him alone in the village. Plenty of the local women had tried to come on to him, but he never took the bait. That was because he cared about her.'
'He knew his wife too well. She had a gentle demeanor but a kind heart, was virtuous and capable, decisive and efficient. If he ever dared to cheat, even in thought, she would slap the divorce papers right in his face without a second thought. Their daughter had once told him how her mother warned her: "If a man is unfaithful once, he's never to be trusted again." There were some mistakes a woman's husband simply could not make, and if he did, that man was no longer worth keeping.'
"Why would you go peeking in cornfields and woods, anyway?" 'This man must have too much time on his hands, going around watching such messy affairs.' "Who goes looking for that stuff on purpose? I just happened to run into it," Li Xiu retorted. "Let's go, stop dawdling!" Zhou Lian gave him a push. 'If he didn't have the exact same face, she'd swear he was a different person.'
Li Xiu pedaled the bicycle with triumphant speed, his wife's arms wrapped around his waist from behind. He felt utterly content. For the past few months, he had been suppressing his emotions and his temper, feeling terribly stifled. If not for the occasional chance to see her, he might have gone mad. Now, he felt refreshed and invigorated. 'It's true what they say,' he thought. 'Once you have your wife, you have everything.'
Zhou Lian sat on the back of the bike, her thoughts a tangled mess. 'Is this still the same man?'
'He was different. His temper, his personality—it was all different. Then again, she had never really understood him in their past life. They had only met five times before their wedding, and she'd gotten pregnant almost immediately. After that, her life had become a blur of raising children, earning money, working the fields, and caring for his mother and grandmother. Then came the arguments, followed by silence. The moment their daughter left for university at sixteen, she had gone with her.'
After that, they had rarely met. All she could recall was his short temper, his blind filial piety, and his stubbornness. Besides that... he was fiercely protective of his children. And beyond that... there wasn't much else she remembered about him.
She remembered when Fifth Sister, who was their matchmaker, had come to her home to put her family at ease. She'd said Li Xiu was short-tempered but reasonable, magnanimous and measured in his actions, stubborn but capable, and protective of his own. Some of it sounded like him, but some of it didn't. 'Oh, whatever,' she thought with a sigh. 'I'll just let things be. If it goes well, we'll live a good life. If not... well, the worst that can happen is a repeat of my last life!'