Chapter 156: Attracted by Beauty
Gu Tingxiao was reporting back for duty the next morning, so Sheng Wanyan wanted to prepare a truly spectacular meal today. It would give him a proper send-off to start his work week on a strong note…
Or rather, it would fuel him up to go back to the base and grind away.
Glancing at the dense, low thicket bordering the path, Wanyan decided this was the perfect opportunity to release a pheasant from her pocket dimension. Acting on the thought, she watched Gu Tingxiao as he squatted on the ground, entirely focused on binding the bamboo stalks. While his back was turned, she quickly pulled three live pheasants from her space and slipped them quietly into the brush.
“Tingxiao…”
At the sound of her voice, Gu Tingxiao instantly raised his head and locked his gaze onto her. Seeing her cautious, tense expression, his heart skipped a beat. His immediate thought was that she had been bitten by a hidden snake.
“Wife, what’s wrong?”
Dropping his work, he strode over in a few large steps, catching her by the shoulders as his eyes swept over her anxiously to check for injuries.
Wanyan gently patted his reassuring hands and pointed toward the thicket. Gu Tingxiao followed her line of sight and spotted three plump pheasants pecking around the undergrowth, entirely oblivious.
He immediately pivoted and crept toward the brush, moving with such light, practiced stealth that he didn’t make a sound. Before the birds could even sense his presence, his large hands shot out, pinning their wings securely in one swift motion.
“Got them.”
The three pheasants flapped frantically, but trapped in his iron grip, they stood absolutely no chance of breaking free. Wanyan watched as Tingxiao expertly gathered some flexible willow twigs, binding the birds’ feet and wings tightly together. Within moments, they were rendered completely helpless, practically waiting for the pot.
Sheng Wanyan: “…”
There’s really no need to be quite so precise about it, she thought, amused.
Gu Tingxiao placed his trophies on the ground a cautious distance away from her, careful not to startle her. “Wife, you have an incredible eye.” He looked at her with genuine admiration. Out of all the wild brush on this mountain, she had somehow managed to spot them.
“I was just letting my mind wander and happened to glance over,” Wanyan lied smoothly, her face perfectly clear and free of guilt.
“My wife is amazing,” Tingxiao praised, his voice brimming with uncharacteristic pride. He had certainly never met another officer whose wife treated him to wild meat on their first day out. His wife had done it, so how could he not boast?
“Stop trying to flatter me. Let’s just head home once you’re done packing up.” Wanyan couldn’t quite handle his sudden shift into a doting husband who thought his wife could do no wrong. She liked being praised as much as the next person, but what if all this inflating her ego actually made her arrogant? That wouldn’t do. She needed to nip his flattery in the bud, or else dealing with his constant adoring compliments every single day would leave her completely flustered.
“Alright,” he agreed obediently. He returned to bundling the stalks, packing them precisely ten to a bundle so they would be easier to haul down the mountain trail.
When they set off, Gu Tingxiao hoisted a heavy bundle of bamboo effortlessly onto one shoulder and gripped the bound pheasants in his free hand, completely monopolizing the load. Wanyan tried to reach for the birds. “Let me carry the pheasants.”
“I’ve got it, wife. Just stay right behind me.”
Wanyan truly wanted to help. He had been performing backbreaking labor all morning, and as his wife, she felt a bit guilty doing nothing but enjoying the fresh mountain air. “Let me take them.”
Seeing the stubborn determination written all over her face, Tingxiao felt a sweetness like honey flood his chest. How could he not be thrilled that his wife cared so much about his stamina?
“Wife, the birds are muddy and they’ll ruin your nice clothes,” he reasoned gently, offering a compromise. “How about you head back first and get the water boiling? That way, I can take a bath and dress the meat the moment I get down.”
He assigned her the task intentionally, knowing she would feel left out or frustrated if she didn’t have a sense of purpose in their shared chores.
Sure enough, the moment she received her assignment, Wanyan perked up, her energy returning instantly. Clutching the courtyard keys, she began to jog down the path toward home.
Gu Tingxiao watched her retreat, calling out anxiously, “Watch your step! Don’t rush!”
“I know!” she called back, her voice trailing off as her figure disappeared around the bend.
A rare, soft smile tugged at the corners of Gu Tingxiao’s mouth. A few soldiers who happened to be heading back to the barracks for their noon rest caught sight of his expression and nearly rubbed their eyes in disbelief. Had their notoriously cold-faced, iron-fisted commander just smiled? And he was smiling at an empty bend in the road, no less. It was completely bizarre.
“Captain! You’re back!” one called out.
“Captain, what’s got you smiling like that?” another chimed in curiously.
Hearing their voices, Gu Tingxiao instantly wiped the warmth from his face, turning a freezing, expressionless gaze on the gossiping subordinates. “If you lot have this much free time to stand around, get up the mountain and start hauling timber.” He gestured toward the tool shed. “Grab a couple of machetes. If I don’t see a hundred fresh stalks harvested by the end of the day, the whole squad is running ten kilometers tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, Captain!”
The terrified soldiers immediately scrambled up the mountain path, terrified he might add a physical reprimand if they lingered a second longer.
By the time Gu Tingxiao walked through the courtyard gates, his expression stern once more, Wanyan already had a massive fire roaring under the kitchen wok.
“Wife, should I dress all three pheasants?” he asked, setting the load down.
“Just kill one,” she directed from the kitchen. “The weather is too hot to keep the meat fresh for long. We’ll keep the other two penned up for now. Make sure you catch the blood in a basin.”
Receiving his orders, Tingxiao immediately set to work. He retrieved an aluminum basin they had purchased the day before, grabbed one of the birds, and swiftly dispatched it.
Wanyan intentionally turned her head away, realizing this was her first time watching a live animal being slaughtered up close. In her previous life, she had been a wealthy socialite with a staff of nannies and cooks who handled every meal; in this life, she usually processed livestock cleanly through the sheer willpower of her pocket dimension.
Once the kitchen wok reached a rolling boil, Wanyan ladled out half a bucket of steaming water for Tingxiao to use for his bath. Down in the yard, Tingxiao plunged the dressed bird into the hot water and began efficiently plucking the feathers.
Wanyan didn’t stay idle either, turning her attention to the dough she had kneaded for lunch. She covered the basin to let it rest, deciding they would have fresh handmade noodles. While the dough rested, she focused on lighting one of their new coal stoves, knowing it would take a few minutes for the briquettes to catch and heat properly.
“Wife, let me take over the heavy work,” Gu Tingxiao offered. He had finished plucking and cleaning the pheasant with remarkable speed, even meticulously rinsing out the giblets and kidneys. It was an explicit instruction from Wanyan; though he had no idea what his wife planned to do with the offal, he followed her wishes to the letter.
“Go take your shower first,” she replied, gesturing toward the bucket. “Lunch will be ready by the time you’re clean.”
Seeing that she had successfully kindled the coal stove, Tingxiao carried his bucket of hot water over to the well area in the yard. Wanyan stepped inside to drop the hand-pulled noodles into a ceramic pot. When she turned back around to reach for the spices, she was met with a striking view of raw, rugged masculinity.
Gu Tingxiao had stripped off his uniform shirt, wearing nothing but a pair of dark athletic shorts. He lifted a basin of fresh water and poured it directly over his head, the droplets cascading down his sculpted torso. His legs were long and powerfully built, every muscle showing perfect, athletic definition. The flawless, chiseled symmetry of his eight-pack abs and the sheer power in his shoulders and arms were a testament to years of rigorous military training. There wasn’t a single line of his physique that didn’t appeal to her aesthetic sensibilities.
Sensing the sudden heat of his wife’s gaze, Tingxiao wiped the water from his eyes and looked over.
Caught staring red-handed, Wanyan quickly snapped her head back toward the stove. She grabbed a bottle of soy sauce with exaggerated focus, pretending to be entirely absorbed in seasoning her broth.
Gu Tingxiao’s lips twitched upward. So, his wife liked looking at him.
Wanyan tried to focus on cooking the noodles, but her mind kept drifting, her eyes occasionally darting back out to the yard. Every time her gaze flickered over, Tingxiao knew it. A shower that normally took him five minutes stretched out to a leisurely half hour. Since his wife enjoyed the view, he was more than happy to give her an eye-full. If she was going to be captivated by a man’s body, it might as well be his.
When he finally walked into the bedroom to change into dry clothes, Wanyan’s eyes followed him unconsciously. Because his shorts were damp, the fabric clung tightly to his thighs, emphasizing his lean waist and broad hips. From behind, his sharp, classic inverted-triangle proportions were even more striking.
