NOVPUB
Chapter 169: Chapter 162 Secrets Revealed (Part 1)
Comfortable and contented days always seem to pass so quickly. After Shen Yunfang and Li Hongjun returned to Gaijiatun and hosted a belated wedding banquet, the days flowed by like water, and before they knew it, the first month of the new year had ended.
The production team had also started spring farming.
Shen Yunfang, having been stripped of her role as the shepherd, was to start working in the team alongside everyone else from this year on.
However, with Li Hongjun, the good son-in-law of Gaijiatun, by her side, her tasks were relatively easy.
In March, when the earth had not yet fully thawed and the strong laborers still had a while to go flipping the soil, it was time for the women to start raising seedlings. Yunfang wasn’t skilled in this, and besides, she had a sick person at home to care for, so she directly approached Shen Da and told him that she wouldn’t be working for the time being. She would wait until Hongjun was mostly recovered and there was work she could do, then she would return to work.
Under Hongjun’s subtle hints, Shen Da understood the couple’s intention. As long as Yunfang made enough work points to cover her year’s rations (even if it meant paying some money back), that was enough; she didn’t need to earn money. After all, wasn’t Hongjun there?
Although Shen Da did not entirely agree, the life was theirs to live and he had no place to say anything. Besides, there was enough labor in the village, and there were other women who stayed at home and didn’t work (their husbands and sons were all strong laborers), so Yunfang’s situation was not unique. Consequently, Shen Da turned a blind eye.
At home, Shen Yunfang kept herself busy with continuing to grow their wealth.
But before she could make big strides, her secret of having a space was discovered by Li Hongjun, and he had found out on his own.
During the first month, Yunfang was thinking of adding more nutrition to Hongjun’s diet, so every day she came up with different delicacies to cook at home, serving chicken or meat every day. Knowing Hongjun enjoyed eating goose, one day she stewed a whole goose.
Li Hongjun lay on the kang, smelling the fragrance of meat wafting from the main room, took a deep breath, and then exhaled heavily, sighing in the process.
He had concluded that his young wife had a secret after observing her multiple times.
An innate instinct of a scout, he carefully observed his surroundings in every new place he went to. He had thoroughly scoped out his little home, confident that he knew exactly where everything was kept.
Thus, he noticed several inconsistencies.
For one thing, he never saw at home the items he had seen at the collection station. Not to mention the books—there were hardly any at home.
Another thing was his wife serving him chicken so often, yet the chickens and ducks were all in the backyard, never missing one. So where did she get these things?
Lastly, the meat she took out was always fresh, not frozen. With the current weather, only freshly slaughtered pigs had fresh meat, but since the New Year, aside from Old Wang’s family slaughtering once, no one else in Gaijiatun had done so.
Li Hongjun got up from the kang and walked slowly to the main room with the help of his crutches, watching his wife cooking.
"Where did you freeze the goose?" he asked suddenly after watching for a while. He was certain that they did not have one at home.
Without thinking, Shen Yunfang replied offhandedly, "I froze it outside in a pile of snow." This was the explanation she had bluffed her way through at the collection station last time.
Li Hongjun looked at Shen Yunfang with a meaningful gaze for a long while, then slowly said, "I shoveled that pile of snow this morning."
Shen Yunfang didn’t understand at first, and it took her a good while to grasp what he meant. By then, cold sweat had broken out on her.
Li Hongjun didn’t pursue the matter further, acting as if nothing had happened, and returned to his room with his crutches.
Now it was Yunfang’s turn to feel restless. As she cooked, she knocked on her head, castigating herself for trying to outsmart a scout and realizing she might just get played in the end.
That very night, Shen Yunfang couldn’t stand the uneasy feeling any longer. Lying in Li Hongjun’s arms, she nervously spilled the beans about having her own space.
Li Hongjun listened for a long while without uttering a word. He had heard of some peculiar people with special abilities in the army, but it had never crossed his mind that his wife was one of them.
"Why aren’t you saying anything?" Yunfang timidly asked in his embrace.
"I don’t know what to say. My luck is just too good, even marrying a wife randomly, I end up with a capable one." Li Hongjun knew his wife was nervous, so he said it jokingly.
Ever since Li Hongjun arrived in Gaijiatun, the stern and taciturn shell on his face began to crack. The two of them would often end up silently gazing at each other as they talked, and after a little while, they would both come back to their senses and, embarrassed, turn away, pretending nothing happened and continue chatting.
Shen Yunfang didn’t appreciate that comment, "What do you mean by marrying a wife ’randomly’?" She didn’t see herself as someone who had just casually married him.
"Hehe, I’m just teasing you. You are my wife, the one I carefully chose." Li Hongjun said, lifting the little head in his arms and leaning down to kiss her.
Since there was still plaster on her leg, the young couple hadn’t quite reached the heart of marital bliss yet. At night, they would just fondly touch and kiss each other, both feeling a burning passion.
After a long kiss, Yunfang lay blushing in his arms and asked with bright, shining eyes, "Knowing such a big secret, don’t you feel anything? Don’t you have anything to say to me?"
"Yes, a lot. But all of it boils down to one thing: you need to be smarter from now on. Always be aware of your surroundings, think things through before you act, and make sure nobody discovers your secret. If possible, it’d be best to use your ability less often. And don’t trust anyone too easily." Li Hongjun stroked her head as he spoke.
Yunfang blinked with wide eyes, then suddenly rolled back into her own blanket.
Li Hongjun reached out and pulled her back onto himself, "Let me tell you about some things I’ve heard."
He slowly began to tell his wife about the ways the nation dealt with people with special abilities. Essentially, it amounted to two options: to be used as a lab rat, contributing to the evolution of mankind, or to serve others forever, constantly being monitored, with no private life whatsoever.
Yunfang listened in silence.
"I know that you wouldn’t want either outcome, so you must listen to me and take this matter seriously," Li Hongjun said solemnly. This was no trivial matter; being discovered could destroy their whole family.
"Mm, I’ve thought of all that. I’m usually very careful. It’s just that I never saw you as an outsider," Yunfang said, sounding a bit muffled.
"Mm, I know. You may seem tough and shrewd on the outside, but you can be quite naive inside, and you’re tender-hearted. Especially towards those you are close to," Li Hongjun saw right through her.
"I am not," she retorted, her voice delicate. She wouldn’t admit it.
"Of course you are, if you weren’t tender-hearted, when my mother refused to give you money for meat, you wouldn’t have said you’d buy it with your own money and not share it with anyone else. But not long after you went out, you came back and had forgotten all about it." That day she only brought back a small bowl of meat scraps.
"And what about your second aunt? Would you have begged people to let her stay in the village if you weren’t tender-hearted?"
Shen Yunfang fell silent.
"Wife, I really like how loyal and righteous you are, but given that you have such a big secret, I hope you’ll protect yourself well. Think about it, if you had carelessly revealed anything in front of others today, what would the consequences be?" Li Hongjun slowly analyzed for her.
"Take your granduncle, for instance. He’s a very honest person, very trustworthy, and he’s your relative, your granduncle, arguably the closest person to you aside from your parents. But what if he discovered your secret? He wouldn’t do anything for his own sake, but he has his own children, his own grandchildren. His closest are his children. If one day his children were in danger and the only way to save them was to betray you, what do you think he would do?"
Shen Yunfang closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about this problem.
