A delicate beauty takes a place in a marriage, while a cold, rough man seduces her every night.

"Why isn't he a proper cousin?" Qingyan folded the letter after reading it. "My brother and I grew up together, he's a really good guy."

"How good is it?" Xiao Jingye asked.

"Anyway, it's better than you, you filthy scoundrel!"

Qingyan opened the package that had been mailed with the letter and found that it contained some trinkets from her school days.

"This is my hair tie!"

"These are the hawthorn sticks I especially loved to eat when I was in school!"

"These are colored pencils my brother bought for me."

......

The package was basically full of her childhood memories.

"I didn't expect my brother to have kept these things so well." Qingyan opened a small white sketchbook, which contained some drawings she had scribbled when she was in school.

"Your brother's a pervert," Xiao Jingye raised an eyebrow meaningfully, "Why would he collect so many things from a girl?"

Qingyan closed the picture book and glared at him playfully: "You're the pervert!"

"How am I a pervert?"

Qingyan blushed and didn't respond.

The sound of ducks quacking came from the yard.

Seeing her silence, Xiao Jingye raised his hand and pinched her cheek with the base of his thumb: "Hey, why aren't you saying anything?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Her face was still flushed, and her eyes darted around a few times.

Xiao Jingye seemed to have guessed what she was thinking, and couldn't help but lower his head and kiss her lips, whispering wickedly in her ear:

"Just because it's sweet, does that make you a pervert? I haven't even done anything more perverted yet."

Qingyan's ears immediately turned bright red. She stomped her foot angrily, grabbed the bag of packages and letters, and strode into the house.

Xiao Jingye stood there for a moment, savoring the moment, then chuckled to himself before following him inside: "I have to go into town tomorrow."

Qingyan stuffed those things into the cabinet: "You go ahead and do your thing."

Hurry up and leave, lest you keep pestering her on the kang (heated brick bed) to try "that" thing.

"I don't want to be separated from my wife." He hugged her from behind, leaned down slightly, rested his chin gently on her shoulder, and kissed her fair neck.

A slightly tingling and itchy sensation gently spread.

Qingyan shrank her neck: "Don't exert yourself too much when you're carrying things. Your leg has just healed. The doctor said you have to be very careful."

"Okay." He lightly kissed her sensitive neck a few times. "I have something for you."

A moment later, an exquisite jewelry box was handed to her.

Qingyan opened it, and inside was a beautiful pearl necklace, each pearl full and lustrous, which looked expensive.

When did you buy it?

"Before you left home."

Qingyan understood. The two of them had a quarrel that day, and he went into the city. Later, he probably bought this necklace and wanted to come back to coax her.

He was surprised to find his wife missing when he got home, and thought she had abandoned him.

Although Qingyan didn't see it, she now thinks he was a bit pitiful, like an abandoned puppy.

When the necklace from the box was transferred to her beautifully shaped neck, it added even more elegance to her already pretty and delicate appearance.

Zeng Yumei happened to walk in, and upon seeing her, immediately exclaimed, "Oh my, she looks like a celestial maiden descended to earth!"

Qingyan was a little embarrassed, lowered her head, and gently stroked the beads with her fingers.

She raised her beautiful eyes slightly and said "thank you" to Xiao Jingye.

That evening, after being coaxed and tricked by someone, the young couple began another round of trying.

"Honey, relax, don't be nervous."

"I'm scared..."

"Don't worry, I'll be gentle."

"Ugh...no, no—"

After a while, Xiao Jingye lay back on the kang (a heated brick bed), staring at the dark air with an expression of utter despair.

Qingyan gently covered half of her face with the blanket and whispered, "I told you it wouldn't work, we're not a good match."

Xiao Jingye was breathing heavily, his arm with its veins bulging as he rested on his forehead, too angry to speak.

Qingyan knew he was suffering, so she gently placed her soft hand on his chest and kindly asked, "Can I help you with something else?"

Xiao Jingye's Adam's apple bobbed. "Why not take it? Only a fool would refuse."

After a few rustling sounds, when the air fell silent again, both of them were covered in a thin layer of sweat.

Qingyan was a little tired. She stretched her sore wrists and quickly fell asleep, resting her head on his arm.

There was only one unsatisfied man, holding his soft and fragrant wife, sighing helplessly in the dead of night.

-

Time flew by and it was almost the end of August.

Xiao Jinye's business of selling mountain products is booming, and he runs back and forth between the city and his home every day.

Qingyan's school hasn't started yet, and worried that he'd be too tired from traveling every day, she went to the warehouse they rented in the city to tidy up his resting place.

We added mattresses and bought some other household items.

"Don't go home every day. Sometimes it gets dark, and the roads are dangerous. If it's too late, just sleep in the city."

Xiao Jingye ignored these instructions, letting them go in one ear and out the other.

The happiest thing for me every day is coming home after a busy day and seeing my wife, and then sleeping in my sweet and soft arms at night.

Anyway, he's not going to live in the city.

Inside the warehouse, Chun Ya is helping to sort the goods.

She was knowledgeable about mountain products and quick-witted, which helped them a lot. Xiao Jingye paid her a considerable salary every month, and Chun Ya worked very hard.

Although Fang Zhijie was always being a jerk and provoking her, she was not one to be trifled with, and she usually came out on top when the two of them argued.

Xiao Jingye treated the four young people to lunch at a restaurant in the city.

We ordered five or six dishes: stir-fried pork slices, dry-fried pork kidney, braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens...

Qingyan rested her elbows on the table, drank some wine, and a blush rose to her cheeks.

I squinted as Fang Zhijie exaggeratedly recounted the amusing stories they encountered while collecting mountain goods.

"That young widow has taken a liking to Jinye. Every time she goes to their house to buy mountain produce, she throws flirty glances at him. Oh my god, it's hilarious... I feel like she wants to eat him up."

"And then there's the daughter of the village secretary from Wangzhuang, her name is... I think it's Xiuyu or something. The moment she saw him, her face turned bright red, like a monkey's bottom... and she said in a high-pitched voice, 'Brother Xiao, when are you coming next time?'"

Fang Zhijie's imitation was so lifelike that Qingyan laughed so hard she almost fell over.

Xiao Jingye took a sip of wine, his face a little somber. He held his chopsticks with his long, slender fingers and silently served food to the girl beside him.

Under the table, Chun Ya gently kicked Fang Zhijie's foot, signaling him to stop talking.

Fang Zhijie didn't react at first and continued talking non-stop.

Chun Ya was kicked in the leg again, but he still didn't react.

When he spoke again, Chun Ya couldn't help but pinch his thigh hard, causing Fang Zhijie to yell and almost jump up: "Wang Chun Ya, why are you pinching me?"

Chun Ya rolled her eyes, put a piece of meat on his plate, and said with a forced smile, "Eat more vegetables and talk less."

Qingyan asked Zhijie with a smile, "So many people like him, how come he's still single at 24?"

"That's because—" Fang Zhijie interrupted instinctively, glancing at Xiao Jingye's face before choking back a sob.

The second half was swallowed back down into the stomach.

On the way home, Qingyan leaned against Xiao Jingye's broad back, feeling dizzy, as the motorcycle sped through houses, fields, and woods.

A man's fresh and pleasant scent wafted in the wind.

She always felt safe with him around.

Qingyan wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, closed her eyes, and fell asleep on his back.

Halfway there, Xiao Jingye felt her arm slip and immediately slowed down.

Afraid that she might fall off while dazed, I gripped her wrists tightly around my waist with my left hand, and held the handlebars with my right hand, riding forward smoothly.

He deliberately arched his back slightly in an uncomfortable position, trying to make her more comfortable.

Through the thin black T-shirt, the girl's even, warm breaths traveled to his skin, and Xiao Jingye's heart gradually felt soothed and warmed.

Such days are beautiful, something he had never dared to dream of for so many years.