Just as she was about to snap, Zhou Yinghuai patted her back gently and murmured, “Go back to sleep, I’ll check it out.”
That was what he said, but how could she possibly sleep through the disturbance? Frustrated, she ruffled her hair until it resembled a bird’s nest, then reached out from beneath the covers, grabbing the watch on the bedside table.
Upon seeing the time, she barely restrained herself from cursing outright. Lowering her voice in a furious whisper, she hissed, “It’s not even seven yet! Who the hell is knocking this early?”
Zhou Yinghuai wasn’t in the best mood either. His features darkened with cold irritation as he swiftly put on his clothes, his mind racing to recall who it could be. In the end, he shook his head.
“No idea.”
He had only recently moved in and wasn’t familiar with the neighbors. There shouldn’t be anyone who would visit this early in the morning.
Worried that it might be something urgent from work, Zhou Yinghuai quickened his pace, finishing dressing and striding out of the bedroom. Before leaving, he thoughtfully closed the door behind him.
Cheng Fangqiu, on the other hand, remained sprawled on the pillow, half-asleep.
In her dazed state, she vaguely heard the bedroom door open. Thinking it was Zhou Yinghuai returning, she instinctively reached out with one arm, seeking a hug.
“Husband.”
When she didn’t receive an immediate response, a strange sense of unease crept up her spine. She abruptly opened her eyes—
And was met with a pair of wrinkled, aged eyes.
It was Zhang Guixiang!
“Ah!”
Cheng Fangqiu shrieked in terror, clutching the blanket tightly around her body. Fury surged within her as she snapped, “Are you insane?! Shut the door! Shut it!”
“We’re both women. What’s there to be shy about?”
Zhang Guixiang clicked her tongue dismissively, her gaze lingering on Cheng Fangqiu. She had clearly seen it—this girl’s body was covered in traces of last night’s activities. The dense scatter of love marks across her skin made it obvious how much she and her husband had indulged.
“Tsk.” Zhang Guixiang clicked her tongue in surprise. She had always thought Zhou Yinghuai was a cold and ascetic man, but behind closed doors, he turned out to be so wild.
Actually, it wasn’t surprising. His wife looked just like a fox spirit, with her fair and tender skin, curvaceous body, and seductive charm. Which man could possibly resist that?
Zhang Guixiang inwardly cursed her as a shameless little vixen.
Her eyes darted around the room, greedily scanning every corner. When she got a clear look, she couldn’t help but click her tongue again. “You two really know how to spend money. Did you change all the furniture? Young people should be more frugal…”
“None of your damn business. Get out.”
If she weren’t stark naked under the covers, Cheng Fangqiu would have slapped her across the face. What kind of person is this? No sense of boundaries at all.
Also, how did she even get in here? Where the hell is Zhou Yinghuai?
Realizing this, Cheng Fangqiu immediately called out loudly: “Zhou Yinghuai! Zhou Yinghuai!”
“How can you talk to your elders like that?”
Hearing Cheng Fangqiu’s crude words, Zhang Guixiang was displeased. In her mind, she was decades older than Cheng Fangqiu, so giving her a lecture was only natural. The younger generation should listen respectfully, not yell and curse at their elders.
Besides, she had missed out on watching them move furniture yesterday and had also been absent when Cheng Fangqiu handed out food to the neighbors. She had regretted it bitterly. Now that she finally had a chance, of course, she wanted to take a good look at the changes in the Zhou household. Maybe she could even snag something to eat.
But after circling the living room, she found nothing—not even a single crumb.
If there was no food in the living room, then it had to be in the bedroom. That was why she had come over and opened the door. Who would have thought that at this hour, the newlywed bride would still be sleeping in? She was probably taking advantage of the fact that her mother-in-law wasn’t around to laze about without restraint.
Hmph! If she had married into our Ma family, we would’ve straightened her out properly!
Zhang Guixiang was about to say more when suddenly, someone yanked her arm forcefully.
“Bang!”
The door slammed shut in her face.
The person who pulled her didn’t hold back in the slightest. Zhang Guixiang, an old woman with aging bones, felt like she was about to fall apart from the impact.
Grimacing in pain, she turned around furiously, ready to curse—
Only to meet a pair of pitch-black eyes filled with anger and menace.
The man standing before her wore a black shirt and black pants, his expression dark and unreadable. His usual composed demeanor was now gone, replaced by a chilling, suffocating aura. He looked like the god of death, standing solemnly at the doorway.
“Zhou Comrade…”
Zhang Guixiang’s arrogance instantly deflated. She hesitated and instinctively took a step back.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the spilled brown sugar on the floor and immediately felt distressed. She smacked her thigh in frustration and moved forward, intending to pick it up.
“Aiya, how careless! What a waste!”
Zhou Yinghuai furrowed his brows. With a single long stride, he blocked her path. His voice was laced with fury:
“Who allowed you to come in?”
Hearing this, Zhang Guixiang waved her hand dismissively. “The door was open, so I came in. You’ve decorated so nicely—I can’t even take a look?”
As she spoke, she tried to plaster on a friendly smile. “They say distant relatives aren’t as good as close neighbors. We live right across from each other; we should help each other out. No need to be so stingy, refusing to even let me look around.”
“Get. Out.”
Zhou Yinghuai’s lips curled into a mirthless smile, his eyes glinting with icy rage.
When he had first opened the door and seen Zhang Guixiang standing there, his initial thought had been to shut the door and go back to sleep. After all, the incident on the staircase had left a bad taste in his mouth—especially the way Ma Shugen had looked at him. That disgusting gaze was still fresh in his memory.
From that moment on, he had no intention of getting along with this family.
But Zhang Guixiang had claimed that her child was sick and that she needed to borrow some sugar.
A sick child was innocent, and he couldn’t bear to turn her away empty-handed.
So, he relented.
However, he distinctly remembered that when he went to the kitchen to fetch the sugar, he had only left the door slightly ajar, not fully open. He had done this out of basic courtesy—he didn’t want to make someone wait outside with the door slammed in their face.
But he never expected her to brazenly walk in without permission, shamelessly snoop around their house, and even have the audacity to barge into the bedroom.
No one knew just how panicked Zhou Yinghuai had been when he heard Cheng Fangqiu’s frightened scream from the kitchen.
At that moment, he had genuinely wanted to kill this old hag standing before him. So why would he bother speaking nicely?
Since she had no respect for him, there was no need for him to give her any face.
Zhang Guixiang never expected Zhou Yinghuai to be so ruthless with his words, not following the usual playbook at all. For a moment, she was at a complete loss for how to respond.
Just then, voices came from outside the door.
“What’s all this noise so early in the morning?”
“What happened?”
Several figures appeared at the doorway, their clothes slightly disheveled—clearly, they had rushed over upon hearing the commotion.
Seeing more people arrive, Zhang Guixiang immediately put on a pitiful expression, wiping her face as though she had suffered a great grievance.
“I had no choice, truly! My second son has a cold and refuses to take his medicine. The doctor said to mix it with some sugar water and force it down, but we happened to run out of sugar at home. So, I thought I’d ask Comrade Zhou for a little bit. Who would’ve thought that he’d tell me to get lost!”
The moment her words fell, an eerie silence enveloped the scene.
“That doesn’t sound right. Comrade Zhou isn’t that kind of person.”
“But we did hear him say ‘get out’ just now.”
“Maybe there’s been some misunderstanding? What really happened?”
After a long pause, someone finally spoke, but it was clear they were leaning toward Zhou Yinghuai’s side.
Zhang Guixiang was dumbfounded. Weren’t things supposed to go her way?
These days, while people were generally warm-hearted, they weren’t fools.
Although they didn’t know much about Zhou Yinghuai since he had just moved in, he was already a well-known figure at the factory. His name had been mentioned many times—an outstanding technician transferred from the Beijing Machinery Plant, highly capable, and a university graduate with a promising future ahead of him.
Even if he wasn’t perfect, he was at the very least an upright, respectable young man.
And as for Zhang Guixiang?
Pfft.
She was the infamous troublemaker of the family quarters.
Her love for taking advantage of others was tolerated, but her habit of stirring up drama and distorting the truth had long made people despise her.
So how could they just blindly take her side and help her go after Zhou Yinghuai?
Seeing that the situation wasn’t going in her favor, Zhang Guixiang switched tactics.
“Fine, if you don’t want to lend it, then don’t! But bullying an old woman—what kind of man does that make you?” she snapped before turning to leave.
However, when she glanced at the spilled brown sugar on the ground, she hesitated. Her lips twitched, and after a long internal struggle, she muttered, “Your sugar is already on the floor. If you’re just going to throw it away, why not give it to me? I’ll make sugar water for my child.”
At that moment, “Bang!”
The bedroom door was yanked open.
Cheng Fangqiu stormed out, her face flushed with fury. She charged forward, ready to slap Zhang Guixiang, but before she could, Zhou Yinghuai caught her by the waist and held her back.
“Let go!” Cheng Fangqiu glared at him, struggling in his grasp.
Zhou Yinghuai immediately tightened his hold, gently calling her name: “Qiuqiu.”
Their eyes met. Seeing the silent disapproval in his gaze, Cheng Fangqiu forced herself to calm down.
She couldn’t be impulsive.
A shameless troublemaker like Zhang Guixiang—if she actually laid a hand on her, that old woman would definitely play the victim and extort them.
If a dog bites you, you don’t bite it back—you make it pay the price instead.
“You actually wanted to hit me?” Zhang Guixiang flinched at Cheng Fangqiu’s intimidating aura, instinctively backing toward the door.
“Pfft, hitting you would only dirty my hands.” Cheng Fangqiu rolled her eyes before pointing at the spilled brown sugar on the ground.
“We were kind enough to lend you sugar, yet instead of thanking us, you turned around and tried to frame us. Do you even know how to be a decent person?”
“Also, you were the one who knocked over that sugar. Don’t even think about getting away with it—pay up.”
Hearing this, Zhang Guixiang exploded.
“Don’t you dare frame me! Zhou Comrade spilled it himself!” she yelled, stomping her feet in frustration.
“You won’t admit it? Then let’s go find the mediator.” Cheng Fangqiu declared, marching toward the door without hesitation.
Zhou Yinghuai was momentarily stunned by her decisiveness but did not object. He simply followed behind her, silent yet imposing.
Seeing how determined they were to go find the mediator, Zhang Guixiang was bewildered.
Did she really knock over the sugar?
But she hadn’t even touched the sugar jar!
Yet, if she hadn’t knocked it over, why were Cheng Fangqiu and Zhou Yinghuai both so certain?
“Wait!”
The moment those words left her mouth, the corners of Cheng Fangqiu’s lips curled up ever so slightly, but she kept her expression neutral.
Even upon hearing Zhang Guixiang’s voice, she did not stop walking.
It wasn’t until she was nearly out the door that another voice rang out behind her, this time stopping her in her tracks.
“Where are you two going?”
At that, Cheng Fangqiu finally halted.
And as soon as she stopped, Zhou Yinghuai followed suit without hesitation.
“It’s early in the morning, and everyone has things to do. Isn’t your granddaughter sick? Hurry up and compensate me with the money and ration tickets. Take the sugar and leave, and I’ll pretend this never happened. Otherwise, I will go to the mediator and talk to your son. Think it over for yourself.”
Cheng Fangqiu’s tone was impatient, and paired with her bold, striking beauty, she looked utterly unyielding and impossible to mess with.