Husband, Let Me Touch Your Abs - Chapter 5

There was no way Lu Yao could admit that the original host had taken his life out of love; what did the sins of the original host have to do with him?

Lu Yao pretended to be timid and pitiful, clutching his chest and coughing lightly. “I heard he has a violent temper. I’m not in good health and can’t handle being hit or scolded. When I heard that Father was marrying me off to someone like him, I just couldn’t bear it…”

Yesterday, Aunt Zhao had mentioned that Zhao Beichuan had once broken someone’s arm, so this excuse wasn’t too far-fetched.

Madam Tian gave a knowing look. “Don’t worry. Da Chuan isn’t the unreasonable type. Just live your life in peace, and don’t ever think about doing something like that again.”

“Alright.”

After seeing Madam Tian off, Lu Yao’s stomach began to growl. He had been too busy in the morning borrowing money from his family to buy a pot and hadn’t had time to eat, and now he was starving.

Taking advantage of the fire still burning in the stove, he put millet into the pot to cook.

Zhao Xiaonian and Zhao Xiaodou came back all sweaty. After spending the morning together, they had grown much more familiar with Lu Yao and were no longer as shy as before.

“Are you cooking?”

“Yeah, I’m making millet porridge. It’ll be ready soon.”

Zhao Xiaonian squatted down beside him, hesitating before speaking. “Can I… can I call you sister-in-law?”

Lu Yao smiled. “Of course, call me whatever you like.”

“Sister-in-law!” Zhao Xiaonian’s black-and-red little face lit up with a bright smile.

Behind her, Zhao Xiaodou shyly whispered, “Sister-in-law.”

Lu Yao found these two kids amusing and couldn’t help but chat with them. “So, you’re not afraid of me anymore?”

“A little, but Zhao Grandma told us yesterday that you’re a person, not a ghost. Plus, you helped us wash our hair today, so we’re not as scared anymore.”

Lu Yao reached out and ruffled Zhao Xiaonian’s hair, the fluffy texture reminding him of a small animal. “What are your names? How old are you two?”

“My name is Zhao Xiaonian, because I was born on the Xiao Nian festival,” she said, pulling her brother closer. “His name is Zhao Xiaodou. My brother said he was named Xiaodou because he was born when the beans were ripe.”

“I’m seven, and Xiaodou is five.”

“What about your older brother?” Lu Yao asked as he carefully moved the firewood away from the bottom of the pot, still cautious after having burned one pot already.

“My brother’s name is Zhao Beichuan. Grandma Zhao said it’s because when my mom gave birth to him, they were fleeing north, and he was born by a river, so they named him Beichuan.”

Lu Yao couldn’t help but think to himself, *The Zhao family sure is casual when it comes to naming.* But considering that people in this era struggled just to survive, names were merely labels. The fact that they weren’t named something like “Little Cat” or “Little Dog” was already a blessing.

“Sister-in-law, you’re really pretty,” Zhao Xiaonian said, resting her chin in her hands and staring at him without blinking. Sister-in-law was even prettier than the most beautiful young men and women in the village!

Lu Yao was indeed good-looking, and this body looked almost exactly like his in his previous life.

Back then, many people had pursued him, and now, being over ten years younger, his skin was even fairer, his features delicate, and his lips rosy. His long, jet-black hair draped over his shoulders. It wasn’t just kids who liked him—even adults would be charmed.

Lu Yao blushed at the compliment. Actually, both Xiaonian and Xiaodou weren’t bad-looking either—they were just tanned dark from the sun. If they were properly cared for, they would grow into two handsome children.

When the porridge was ready, Zhao Xiaonian perceptively fetched the bowls and chopsticks.

The three of them sat by the stove and ate all the porridge, not even wasting the little bit of rice soup at the bottom of the pot. Their bellies were round and full.

After eating, Lu Yao took the two kids to the courtyard to pick lice. The two had even more lice in their hair than he did. Besides the black lice crawling all over their heads, there was another type of white lice that didn’t move.

At first, Lu Yao found it disgusting, but after a while, picking lice became strangely satisfying. A gentle pinch between his fingernails, and with a “pop,” the lice were dead.

When he looked at the pile of lice corpses on his legs, Lu Yao shuddered. It was terrifying how quickly one could get used to something.

After finishing with the lice, the three of them took off their clothes to wash.

When Lu Yao had married, he had only brought the clothes on his back, along with two shirts and a cotton jacket.

Zhao Xiaonian and Zhao Xiaodou didn’t even have a change of clothes, so Lu Yao had no choice but to find two clean pieces of cloth from a chest and wrap them around the kids as makeshift clothing.

The weather was warm, so they weren’t cold dressed like this, and they could change back into their clothes once they dried.

—

In the afternoon, Lu Yao planned to clean up the vegetable garden behind the house.

Yesterday, when he went to the toilet, he noticed there was a small garden behind the house that had been left untended and was now overgrown.

Back when Father Zhao was still alive, this vegetable garden was planted with many crops. After he passed away, Zhao Beichuan had to take care of both children, tend to the crops in the fields, and hunt in the mountains to make ends meet. There was no time left to maintain the vegetable garden.

Usually, they would just pull some vegetables from Grandma Zhao’s garden and give her ten wen a month in return.

In this dynasty, the variety of vegetables common folk ate wasn’t vast. Cabbage, leeks, shepherd’s purse, radishes, and scallions were the main ones. Occasionally, they’d forage for some wild fiddlehead ferns and mushrooms. But the mountains in ancient times were nothing like the ones in modern times—they were untouched, dense forests full of wild beasts, poisonous snakes, and insects. Ordinary people wouldn’t dare venture there.

Nobles, however, had a greater variety of vegetables to choose from: eggplant, green beans, stem lettuce, yellow gourd, garlic, ginger, winter melon, gourd, yam, and more were all available to them.

It seems like every Chinese person has a natural instinct for farming. In his previous life, Lu Yao had loved growing vegetables. He grew a lot of them on his balcony. During the years of lockdowns caused by the pandemic, he was able to be completely self-sufficient. He even had enough surplus to share with his neighbors. So, even after traveling back in time, he was still quite adept at gardening.

First, he cleared the annoying weeds from the garden. These weeds were over a person’s height, tall and thick, blocking the sunlight so nothing else could grow.

Lu Yao asked Xiaonian to bring him a sickle, and they didn’t throw away the cut weeds. Instead, they left them to dry in place for use as kindling later on.

Though the vegetable garden didn’t look big, clearing it was quite exhausting. It was obvious that the original host had never done much hard labor; after cutting grass for a while, Lu Yao’s hands were red and sore.

However, it wasn’t all in vain. Lu Yao was pleasantly surprised to find a patch of decent-looking leeks under the weeds. He could stir-fry some leeks for dinner and improve their meal; after all, they’d had nothing but porridge, and his taste buds were growing dull.

By dusk, a few rain clouds drifted across the sky, and it quickly turned gloomy.

Lu Yao didn’t dare delay. There were still mats drying in the courtyard, and if they got soaked, there’d be nowhere to sleep tonight.

He hurried to bring the mats back inside, while the two children brought in the dry bedding and laid it out again.

“Sister-in-law, the bedding smells so nice, like it’s full of sunshine,” Zhao Xiaonian said as she and her brother rolled around on the kang bed.

“Pfft,” Lu Yao couldn’t help but laugh. He remembered hearing someone say in his past life that the so-called “smell of sunshine” was actually the scent of dust mites being killed by the sun. He decided against telling them that, though.

Outside, it grew darker, and soon the rumbling of thunder could be heard.

Zhao Xiaodou, trembling with fear, clung to his sister’s arm.

Zhao Xiaonian sang a lullaby to comfort her brother: “The wind blows strong, the rain pours down, a little boy steals millet from the south. I’m not afraid of the sky or the earth, just of Father’s big smack.”

Lu Yao found it amusing. He vaguely remembered that when he was little, his mother had sung him a similar lullaby. It seemed that lullabies to soothe children hadn’t changed much over the ages.

Gradually, the thunder quieted, and raindrops began to fall with a steady patter. The wooden windows couldn’t keep out the rain, and water seeped in through the gaps. The thatched roof also leaked, and drops of rain were soaking the bedding. The phrase “the roof leaks while there’s no dry spot on the bed” came to mind, perfectly describing the situation.

Lu Yao quickly grabbed wooden basins and clay jars to catch the rainwater. The two kids watched the water drip into the jars, finding it entertaining rather than a hardship.

The storm came as quickly as it left. After just fifteen minutes, it stopped. The sun peeked out from behind the clouds again, casting a fiery red glow over the sky. Tomorrow would surely be another scorching hot day.

In the evening, Lu Yao cut some leeks and simmered them with a spoonful of lard. The clay pot was unsuitable for stir-frying. The three of them ate the leeks with millet rice, and though they didn’t fill up completely, the children thoroughly enjoyed the meal. They had probably gone so long without any fat in their diet that they licked their bowls clean, not leaving a single drop of lard.

Lu Yao sighed and realized he really needed to find a way to make money. At the very least, he needed to raise some chickens. Stir-fried eggs with leeks would be much tastier.

After dinner, the sky was completely dark. Lu Yao lit an oil lamp and, by its dim light, began sorting through the old clothes in the chest.

During laundry at noon, he had already gone through the chest once. There were three old pieces of clothing—two for men and one for women. When Lu Yao asked Xiaonian where the clothes came from, she said they were likely left behind by their parents.

Although the clothes were worn, they were clean. Lu Yao planned to alter them for the two children so that they at least had something to change into.

“Sister-in-law, are you going to make us new clothes?!” Zhao Xiaonian asked, her eyes sparkling.

“Yes, but my sewing skills aren’t great. The clothes might not turn out very pretty.”

In his previous life, Lu Yao had done some cross-stitching. Don’t ask why a guy would be into that—it’s just a nostalgic memory of a bygone era.

Back then, cross-stitching was all the rage on campus. Not only girls, but boys also loved it. Designs like “If you love, love deeply,” “Cupid’s arrow,” and other small patterns, when put in a plastic cover and hung on a backpack, were the height of fashion.

Lu Yao once had a crush on a boy from the sports class. He spent a whole week stitching a picture of Hanamichi Sakuragi from *Slam Dunk*. In the end, he didn’t give it to him, and now, he couldn’t even remember what that sports boy looked like.

“It’s fine! As long as it’s made by you, we’ll love it!”

Such sweet words warmed Lu Yao’s heart.

“Who made the clothes you’re wearing now?”

At this, Zhao Xiaonian’s expression darkened a bit. “These were made by Aunt Tian from next door. Just thinking about them makes me angry.”

“What happened?”

The little girl pouted, “Big Brother bought eight feet of fabric and asked Aunt Tian to make new clothes for me and my brother, with the leftover fabric as her payment.”

“She agreed at first, but in the end, she made clothes for us that were too short and small, and used the leftover fabric to make a nice outfit for her son, Tian Dazhuang! His clothes look way better than ours!” Tian Dazhuang was Aunt Tian’s son, and he was eight years old.

Lu Yao chuckled, “I didn’t expect Aunt Tian to be like that.”

Zhao Xiaonian blushed and waved her hand, “Well… you can’t really say that. She may be a bit stingy, but she helps us out a lot. Big Brother says that, since it’s hard enough to find a neighbor willing to make us clothes, we shouldn’t nitpick over these small things.”

Lu Yao nodded, thinking that Beichuan was quite reasonable.

“That’s why I’ve always hoped that one day, we’d have a real sister-in-law to make us clothes!”