Chapter 183: Gu Tingxiao Departs
Gu Tingxiao woke up at five o’clock the next morning. He quietly cleaned the house, walked down to the base cafeteria to fetch a hot breakfast, and set her portion neatly on the dining table.
Before his deployment, he filled both of the large earthenware water reservoirs, thoroughly soaked the backyard vegetable patch, and trekked down to the foothills to gather a final load of kindling. He split the heavy logs with practiced ease, stacking the firewood into a pristine, geometric pile inside the woodshed.
Tasks complete, he returned to the bedroom and sat softly on the edge of the kang. Gazing down at his wife, who was still fast asleep under the quilt, he leaned forward to plant a gentle kiss on her forehead. Then, gathering his packed rucksack and military gear, he slipped out into the dawn.
He didn’t make a single sound as he left, moving with absolute, disciplined quiet.
The moment the front gate clicked shut, Sheng Wanyan opened her eyes and stared silently up at the ceiling. She had slept fitfully all night, terrified that she would blink and find him already gone.
In truth, she had been aware of his every movement from the moment he stood up at dawn. She simply hadn’t possessed the courage to bid him a proper farewell face-to-face; she refused to let him see her tears or carry the heavy burden of her worry while he was executing a dangerous mission in the field.
As long as he focused entirely on his duties and returned home to her safely, she would be content.
Unable to drift back to sleep, Wanyan reluctantly climbed out of bed to eat her breakfast. By then, Gu Tingxiao and his comrades had already boarded the transport trucks, rolling past the main gates and out of the military perimeter.
A crowd of military wives had gathered at the boundary lines to see the convoy off. Nearly every woman held red, tear-rimmed eyes, watching the vehicles depart with a mixture of raw reluctance and deep-seated dread. In the face of national duty, the private love between young men and women always had to take a back seat.
Just as Wanyan finished the last bite of her breakfast, a firm knock echoed from the front gate. She walked across the courtyard to unbolt it, revealing Aunt Xie standing on the threshold, her face etched with a lingering, motherly worry.
“Auntie, what brings you over so early?”
“Let’s talk inside, child.”
Aunt Xie studied her face closely, noting that Wanyan looked visibly less energetic than usual. It was a natural reaction; any young bride would feel hollowed out the morning her husband deployed on a major mission.
“Wanyan, are you holding up alright?” Aunt Xie asked gently as they stepped into the living room.
Wanyan offered a soft smile, shaking her head. “I’m perfectly fine, Auntie. Truly.”
“I know you two are still newlyweds, but Captain Gu is a soldier, and executing these orders is his sacred duty,” Aunt Xie coaxed, placing a comforting hand over hers. “As the women standing behind them, we have to practice absolute understanding!”
Political Commissar Xie had been deeply concerned that Wanyan, given her pampered city upbringing, would resent Tingxiao’s sudden deployment, causing a rift in their marriage. He had specifically tasked his wife with making a domestic visit to have a proper heart-to-heart with the young bride.
“I understand completely, Auntie,” Wanyan reassured her.
“Really?” Aunt Xie looked at her, her expression a mix of belief and lingering doubt. Still, out of genuine affection, she continued her motherly lecture. “It isn’t easy for the men out there either. If you feel any bitterness or resentment, you just tuck it away and take it out on Captain Gu the exact moment he rolls back through that gate! A married couple always bickers at the head of the bed and reconciles at the foot of it. Our only job as military wives is to anchor the home front perfectly so they can serve the country without a single shred of domestic anxiety.”
Wanyan nodded obediently, pouring a fresh glass of water and sliding it across the table with a warm smile. “Auntie, from the very moment I resolved to marry him, I was fully prepared for this life. I truly appreciate your and the political commissar’s kindness. Now that Tingxiao is away, my responsibility is to manage our home flawlessly and live a good life.”
Aunt Xie nodded approvingly, though a subtle detail in Wanyan’s response gave her pause. She turned the words over and over in her mind but couldn’t quite put her finger on what felt off.
“Exactly. When the men are away, we have to hold down the fort ourselves,” Aunt Xie agreed.
But that phrase… ‘live a good life’? How could any military wife talk about living well when her heart was continuously consumed by raw anxiety and terror over her husband’s survival?
What Aunt Xie didn’t anticipate was that Sheng Wanyan fully intended to live an incredibly comfortable, lavish life during the deployment.
Now that her own husband, Old Xie, had transitioned into a desk role at headquarters, he no longer faced active deployment. But back when they were young and he marched off to the front lines, Aunt Xie had been utterly unable to eat or sleep, completely paralyzed by the continuous fear that he would never return. This was Wanyan’s first time enduring the separation, and she worried the girl would grow to resent Captain Gu. Her husband had stressed that Gu Tingxiao possessed a brilliant, historic future within the ranks, and they couldn’t afford to let a domestic fire break out at home and derail his focus.
“Don’t worry, Auntie. I promise I will take excellent care of myself,” Wanyan smiled.
“Good girl! If you ever run into any trouble at all, you march straight across the lane to my house,” Aunt Xie said, letting out a long sigh of relief as she realized the girl’s emotions were perfectly stable.
“I will. Take care on your way back, Auntie.”
Aunt Xie hurried back down the path, eager to report the successful update to her husband.
While Wanyan undeniably felt a deep sense of reluctance over Tingxiao’s departure, she possessed a sharp sense of priority. Private longing was entirely insignificant when measured against the weight of national defense. She shook her head firmly, refusing to let herself sink into the oppressive, low-pressure atmosphere left behind in the empty house.
She immediately manufactured a task to occupy her mind, preparing a fresh bowl of soft food for Maodou. The moment the puppy finished his meal, he became her permanent shadow, trotting stubbornly behind her heels.
Amused, Wanyan scooped him up, retrieved her latest bundle of translation documents from the bedroom, and settled into the shade of the outdoor pavilion. With Maodou curling into a warm ball across her lap, the woman and the dog spent a perfectly tranquil morning together.
Whenever she grew parched, she quietly summoned chilled juices from her pocket dimension; whenever hunger struck, she pulled out sweet, fresh fruits. Refusing to go through the hassle of lighting the stove for a solo lunch, she simply retrieved pre-cooked dishes from her space. Her dimension was stocked with a massive inventory of gourmet cold platters and deli sides she had hoarded from modern food courts in her previous life.
The July heat was oppressive, making a bowl of refreshing cold noodles paired with crisp, savory sides the ultimate comfort food. Furthermore, with Gu Tingxiao out of the house, she could openly retrieve her winter provisions and luxury items without having to coordinate a grueling, suspicious six-hour bicycle trek to the city every single time.
Following her lunch, Wanyan strapped on her woven basket and guided Maodou down toward the foothills to forage for extra firewood. Heating a brick kang through a northern winter consumed a staggering amount of fuel, meaning she needed to gather a massive backup stockpile long before the first frost arrived. Coming out to gather loose branches a little at a time was the smartest strategy.
Maodou, still a clumsy, uncoordinated pup, was entirely useless when it came to heavy labor. The moment they hit the grassy foothills, he let himself go completely, bounding through the underbrush and barking at insects until he utterly refused to turn back toward home.
“Maodou, let’s go,” Wanyan called out, laughing. She had gathered two substantial bundles of kindling, strapping the larger one securely to her back while hoisting the smaller bundle in her arms. Hearing her voice, the puppy trotted back over, reluctantly trailing behind her as they retraced their steps toward the compound.
“Be a good boy, and I’ll bring you out again tomorrow,” she promised. Maodou wagged his tail furiously, his ears perking up as if he understood her completely.
As they skirted the edge of the local river, she noticed a few of the compound wives wading near the shallows, trying to catch fish. Their yields were discouragingly small—nothing but tiny, bony minnows. Unless a household fried them to a crisp to serve as a meager savory snack alongside liquor, there was barely enough flesh on them to count as a meal.
The sight sparked an idea in Wanyan’s mind. She resolved to head back out to the river later that afternoon. Her objective, however, wasn’t to actually fish; she wanted to use the river as a flawless cover to openly bring fresh, plump fish out of her pocket dimension. While her husband was deployed, she intended to steadily and legally stock her household with high-quality ingredients. She planned to retrieve twenty large fish over the coming weeks, keeping them alive in her yard tanks to harvest slowly for her dinners. To avoid suspicion, she would simply bring back one or two at a time.
Returning to the courtyard, she dropped the wood and filled Maodou’s dish with premium modern kibble from her space. Her dimension held a virtually infinite library of supplies; she merely had to concentrate her thoughts, and the desired item would manifest instantly in her hands. While the puppy dug into his feast with absolute bliss, Wanyan grabbed a wooden bucket and marched back out toward the riverbanks.
When she arrived at the water’s edge, the neighboring wives looked up, surprised to see the refined bride joining them. Still, given the severe shortage of meat in the compound, they figured it was only natural for her to try and supplement her pantry.
Wanyan slipped off her cloth sneakers, rolled her trouser legs up past her knees, and stepped into the flowing water. The crisp, cool current against her skin felt incredibly refreshing under the baking sun.
Catching sight of her exposed calves—dazzlingly white, smooth, and as flawless as sculpted jade—the watching women felt an instant wave of deep envy. It was entirely obvious that Captain Gu’s wife had never endured a single day of grueling manual labor in her life; she looked like a pampered, delicate princess. What ordinary woman wouldn’t envy that kind of luck?
Ignoring the heavy stares, Wanyan bent her waist, trailing her fingers through the cool water. Spotting a flash of silver nearby, she made a show of reaching out to scoop it up, but the wild fish darted away instantly, leaving her fingers slicing through empty water.
