Chapter 4: What Can Make a Man Suddenly Mature

After seeing Wu Bingzhong off, Ning Weidong returned from outside.

He couldn't help but look toward Bai Fengyu's home again, secretly calculating in his heart that this woman was no simple character.

Her husband running off to Hong Kong was no small matter; how would she cover it up with the Neighborhood Committee and the Street Office?

Furthermore, the Ma parents were still alive and living with their eldest son and eldest daughter-in-law.

The two rooms in the courtyard originally belonged to the old Ma couple; they only moved in with the eldest son when the younger son got married.

Now that Ma Liang had run off, the fact that Bai Fengyu could continue living there was exactly where this woman's prowess lay.

In his memory, Ma was not an easy person to deal with.

Ning Weidong returned to the earthquake shelter, lit the coal stove, and sat on the wooden bed.

This earthquake shelter was six square meters in total, and a wooden bed that could sleep two people took up more than half of it.

The walls were lined with yellowed old newspapers, a cast-iron stove for heating sat on the floor, and a rusted tin chimney extended outside through a vent reserved in the wall.

On the wall next to the stove hung a piece of wood with a patina, nailed to the wall to hang clothes so they wouldn't rub against the white lime on the wall.

Looking at the dancing flames in the stove, Ning Weidong felt a bit fortunate.

If he had transmigrated any later and given the money to Bai Fengyu, he would be in a real bind now.

He probably would have only been able to rely on Ning Weiguo and Wang Yuzhen for help.

In his memories, before the original owner went to the Northeast to join the production teams, his relationship with Wang Yuzhen had been quite good.

After he returned and met Bai Fengyu, Wang Yuzhen had warned him more than once to keep his distance from her, which was what had caused the conflict.

If Wang Yuzhen really knew that Bai Fengyu had almost taken three hundred yuan from his hands, she would definitely fly into a rage.

There would inevitably be a storm when that happened.

Ning Weidong wasn't afraid of making a scene, but he didn't want to solidify the impression of being "brainless" or "unpresentable" in Wang Yuzhen's eyes.

The stove gradually grew hot, so there was no need to huddle close to the fire.

Ning Weidong kicked off his cotton shoes, lay back on the bed with his hands behind his head, his thoughts chaotic like a wild horse off its tether—one moment it was memories from before he transmigrated, the next it was the experiences of the original owner...

Unknowingly, the mechanical alarm clock on the windowsill had reached three in the afternoon.

By custom, the three of them—Ning Weiguo's family—would go to visit Ning Lei's maternal grandparents and would definitely return after eating dinner.

Ning Weidong couldn't count on a ready-made meal and had to find his own way to eat.

There were two steamed buns made of mixed flour left over from the morning.

Ning Weidong was too lazy to start another fire, so he figured he would slice the buns, toast them on the stove, and dip them in some brown sugar...

Thinking of this made him even hungrier.

When he stepped out of the earthquake shelter, he didn't know when it had started snowing.

A white layer had accumulated on the ground, and there was no one else walking in the courtyard, only a trail of footprints leading from the Moon Gate to the door of Bai Fengyu's house.

Ning Weidong glanced at it.

They had parted in the morning, and Bai Fengyu hadn't come to pester him; he wondered what she was plotting.

Ning Weidong withdrew his gaze and suddenly felt someone watching him.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but after Ning Weidong transmigrated, besides his physique becoming stronger, his senses had also become exceptionally sharp.

At that moment, a flash of intuition struck him; he suddenly turned his head to look and saw half a face exposed next to a window of the west wing.

It was overcast outside and dim inside, so he could only see a vague outline. The person was startled and immediately shrank back.

Ning Weidong frowned; it didn't seem to be Bai Fengyu.

Bai Fengyu had no children after marriage, and after Ma Liang ran off, she was left all alone, yet there was actually another person in the room! That person shrank back and didn't show their face again, so Ning Weidong simply withdrew his gaze as well.

Entering the kitchen, the two remaining buns were sitting by the stove, covered with a steamer cloth.

They had been sitting for a day, so the skin was dry and hard as a rock when he squeezed them.

He used a kitchen knife to cut each one into four slices and found the brown sugar jar in the dish rack.

At this time, sugar in the country was still relatively precious.

Brown sugar tended to clump, so Ning Weidong took a rice bowl, used a spoon to chisel some out, and got a layer at the bottom of the bowl.

Returning to the earthquake shelter, he arranged the bun slices on the stove cover, and before long, a nutty, charred aroma wafted out.

Ning Weidong was starving, so he hurriedly used chopsticks to flip them over.

Once they were toasted enough, he picked one up to eat it plain first.

You have to say, the mixed-flour bun slices were actually quite tasty toasted; he chewed a few mouthfuls and swallowed, then went for one dipped in sugar...

With the two buns in his stomach and half a bowl of boiled water to wash down the sugar, Ning Weidong's stomach finally settled down.

It was still snowing outside, and it was dark before five o'clock.

Guessing that the family of three would be back soon, Ning Weidong went to the Upper Room ahead of time to light the stove.

Just as he was preparing to return to the earthquake shelter, there was movement outside.

He went out to look and saw Ning Weiguo and his wife parking their bicycles under the window of the earthquake shelter.

Ning Lei couldn't wait to pull off the wool hat covering his face; the breath he exhaled had formed a layer of frost where his mouth was, wet and cold, which was very uncomfortable.

"Big Brother, Sister-in-law," Ning Weidong said with a smile, "I figured you'd be back soon, so I already lit the stove in the Upper Room."

Ning Weiguo and his wife were stunned; the original owner had never helped them light the stove in advance.

What was going on today?

The sudden change made the two of them feel a bit unaccustomed.

When they got inside and saw that there was also a kettle sitting on the stove, it was clearly prepared for them as well.

The couple looked at each other, both seeing the confusion in the other's eyes.

"Weiguo, Third Brother is..." Wang Yuzhen hung her wool scarf on the coat rack, her tone filled with worry.

Ning Weiguo hung up his coat: "Don't overthink it, Weidong should be growing up."

Wang Yuzhen pursed her lips, still unable to help but speculate.

She clicked her tongue and frowned, saying, "Something's not right. I felt like something was off early this morning. Tell me... could it be that the third one and that Bai woman have rolled onto the kang together?"

"Sigh~ what are you imagining?" Ning Weiguo said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Yet the more Wang Yuzhen spoke, the more certain she became, as if she had seen through everything: "Tell me~ what kind of thing could make a man suddenly mature?"

Ning Weiguo also felt a bit more suspicious in his heart, but he said, "You can't just go around saying things like that. No matter how much you dislike Bai Fengyu, you can't joke about this. Gossip can drown a person!"

"I'm only saying this to you at home~" Wang Yuzhen replied.

(End of this chapter)