Zhao Jinge insisted on staying awake that night. When there was no longer any movement from his parents, he got up secretly and went to Jiang Zhen’s place.

He has been to Jiang Zhen’s house several times in the evening, which was not strange, but today, after approaching it, Zhao Jinge unexpectedly heard a voice that didn’t belong to Jiang Zhen. 

Is there someone else in Jiang Zhen’s house? 

After Zhao Jinge came home today, he was too embarrassed to look at Jiang Zhen because his parents were nearby. He didn’t know about Wang Haisheng’s family moving in. At this moment, he was a bit confused. Standing there stunned, he didn’t know what to do.

In the village, he was always rejected by the others. There was no uglier ger or woman in their whole village. Since his engagement got annulled in his teens, the others always looked at him with eyes full of sympathy. 

People like him must be unlikable. Jiang Zhen . . . was he bored with him?

Zhao Jinge felt butterflies in his stomach and was very uneasy, while Jiang Zhen was really a bit annoyed at that moment. 

The mud walls in the countryside were thick and soundproof, but the doors and windows in the countryside were not soundproof, so even if there was a small movement next door, he could hear everything.

Although Wang Haisheng tried to keep his voice as low as possible when he took care of Sun Xiaoshan, he had good ears and could hear everything. Because the voice was low, he subconsciously listened to it and could fall asleep even harder…

Someone was whispering over there, which was definitely more annoying than the meaningless chirping of cicadas and frogs!

Jiang Zhen was willing to help others as much as he could. The education he received in modern times made it difficult for him not to starve to death. So before crossing here, he accidentally received a new life by saving others. But he was still very unhappy because it was too noisy to sleep at the moment.

Hurry up tomorrow! He must quickly build a house for Wang Haisheng and let him move out! 

Unable to sleep, Jiang Zhen simply left the house and went to Zhao Jinge. Although Zhao Jinge has usually fallen asleep by this time, he might not have slept yet, right?

Jiang Zhen quietly went out of his house. Just as he walked a few steps out, he saw Zhao Jinge standing there motionless.

“Jinge?” Jiang Zhen looked at him with a bit of surprise. “You’ve come to me?”

Zhao Jinge stood there, hesitating as to whether he should take a look, when he saw Jiang Zhen come out. He was overjoyed for a moment. “Jiang Zhen!” 

Zhao Jinge seldom called Jiang Zhen’s name directly, so it made Jiang Zhen’s heart itch. He went forward and kissed Zhao Jinge’s face directly. “Why didn’t you go to bed early but came to see me so late?” 

Zhao Jinge took a deep breath to try and calm down his heart from the joy of seeing Jiang Zhen. “My mother said she saw you last night . . . You came to see me last night? I didn’t even know.” When he finished speaking, he felt a bit upset.

“Weren’t you asleep? Unlike me you work so hard every day. You should sleep more,” Jiang Zhen said. He especially liked people like Zhao Jinge. He was a bit shy, but he would also express his feelings clearly when he should and would reciprocate the feelings he has received. 

Zhao Jinge was happy to hear that Jiang Zhen cared about him and felt guilty about his misunderstanding of Jiang Zhen. After thinking about it, he simply asked, “You . . . how come there seems to be someone else living there?“

“I’ve lent the empty house to someone else,” Jiang Zhen said. It was too dark, and he couldn’t see Zhao Jinge’s expression clearly, but he could still hear something strange in Zhao Jinge’s voice. “Because someone is here, you didn’t want to come inside and just stood here?”

“Well . . .” Zhao Jinge responded.

“It’s really annoying to let them live here. I will make them move out soon,” Jiang Zhen said. “There has been a lot of noise over there today, and I couldn’t sleep.”

“Then what?” Zhao Jinge frowned. “Can’t they be quiet?”

“There is an ill person there, so they can’t be quiet,” Jiang Zhen said, dragging Zhao Jinge to the secret place nearby. Then he told him about Wang Haisheng’s family.

Zhao Jinge had also experienced illness in his family with no money for medical treatment. He felt guilty about his previous thoughts, and was now more certain that Jiang Zhen was a good man.

“The ill person wanted to be quiet . . . But you can’t sleep well—” Zhao Jinge was about to ask Jiang Zhen if he could sleep on the boat or not, when Jiang Zhen suddenly interrupted him.

“Jinge, in fact, there is a solution,” Jiang Zhen said, and then told Zhao Jinge about spending twenty silver. Zhao Jinge didn’t care about it, which surprised him a little and improved his mood for the better.

When he was so happy, he couldn’t help trying to tease Zhao Jinge.

“How come?” Zhao Jinge asked.

“I’ll sleep in your room. I’ll climb through the window and leave early tomorrow. I won’t let anyone know.” Jiang Zhen laughed. 

Zhao Jinge was confused again. At this time, he should push away Jiang Zhen who was standing very close to him. But somehow, he did not do it. He even considered the feasibility of letting Jiang Zhen sleep with him.

“Alright. I won’t tease you anymore.” Jiang Zhen kissed Zhao Jinge on the cheek again. Isn’t it just a little noise? It’s not that I can’t sleep. 

“In fact, it’s OK,” Zhao Jinge suddenly said, clenching his teeth.

This time, it was Jiang Zhen who was startled by him. “Jinge?”

“You can sleep on the bed, and I’ll sleep on the bamboo couch. There is a bamboo couch in my room,” Zhao Jinge said. The so-called bamboo couch was a bed made entirely of bamboo. It was three or four feet wide. It was very cool to sleep on it. People here liked to sleep on a bamboo couch in summer.

The bamboo bed in his house was bought by his father when he and his brother were young. In the summer, they would move the bamboo bed outside the house for half a night after dinner, and then go inside the house after midnight.

Sometimes, when he and his brother fell asleep there, his father would not even wake them up. His parents would move the bamboo couch inside the house and let them continue to sleep in the house. 

Later, his brother was gone, and his family was not in the mood to enjoy the coolness outside every day. The bamboo couch was put in his room, usually used to put things on.

After Zhao Jinge said those words, his hands trembled uncontrollably. Only after a while did he calm down again. 

Jiang Zhen was the best person to him besides his parents and brother. He was also the first and only man to express his affection for him. He had actually already made up his mind to follow Jiang Zhen since then. That being the case, it was nothing.

Jiang Zhen was both surprised and delighted. 

Zhao Jinge had always been very conservative, and he was aware of it, so it was enough to kiss occasionally. Although he already said that he would climb the window, he didn’t really mean to do that.

Jiang Zhen always knew the right thing to do. As a result, Zhao Jinge was willing to sleep with him. 

“Jinge, you must like me very much.” Jiang Zhen held Zhao Jinge’s hand. He knew that Zhao Jinge should like him very much, but at that moment, he became aware of it once again.

Zhao Jinge froze up again when he heard Jiang Zhen say “like”. He really liked Jiang Zhen and wanted to hold on to him. He had never had such emotions before, and they had never been stronger than at this moment.

“I like you too.” Jiang Zhen kissed Zhao Jinge again. He would never lose Zhao Jinge in his life.

Zhao Jinge’s heart jumped, and his face became hot again. “I’m so ugly . . .”

“Where are you ugly?” Jiang Zhen asked. “I think you look great.”

Zhao Jinge only felt that Jiang Zhen was lying to him with his eyes wide open, but he was still very happy, which made Jiang Zhen also very happy. In the end, both men stood silently in the dark for a long time.

Finally, Jiang Zhen said, “It’s time to go to bed.” He was an adult man who had lived for 30 years, yet he was as stupid as those little boys when he fell in love . . . He despised himself a little.

“Um.” Zhao Jinge nodded and headed for his house. He and Jiang Zhen were still holding hands as Jiang Zhen followed him back.

He should be afraid of his parents bumping into him, but for some reason, Zhao Jinge was not afraid at all but felt even a little eager. Unfortunately, Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu slept very well and didn’t get up at all.

When Zhao Jinge had gone out, he had left the door open. He entered his house as Jiang Zhen followed him. Then, Zhao Jinge became stiff again.

“Sleep. I won’t touch you.” Jiang Zhen touched Zhao Jinge’s head.

Zhao Jinge was twenty-five. He himself was twenty-six. If it was in modern times, he would definitely break his word now. It was not a big deal for two people to roll between the sheets. But it’s in ancient times, it was better to put up with it for now.

I’ve endured it for so many years, and it’s not that long any more. 

Zhao Jinge’s brain was still a bit muddled at the moment, so he really went to bed like he was.

Jiang Zhen noticed this, and found it a kind of funny. He closed the door and the window first and then lay down beside Zhao Jinge. He took Zhao Jinge’s quilt cover and slept with him under the same quilt.

Although he can’t do anything, he really doesn’t want to leave at this moment.

Zhao Jinge’s room was clean and smelled good. He and Zhao Jinge lay on the bed side by side, and Jiang Zhen had a reaction almost immediately, but he didn’t do anything except hold Zhao Jinge’s hand. He didn’t even relieve himself.

A man should endure when he should. If their wife wanted to do it, as soon as she lay next to them, sooner or later, perseverance would become useless. 

Jiang Zhen admonished himself and began to rejoice that the aesthetic standards of the people from that time were all different from his own.

Zhao Jinge was really too gullible. If someone with the same aesthetic value as him had taken a fancy to Zhao Jinge early on, Zhao Jinge would have been deceived by this person long ago, and he wouldn’t have had a chance at all. Now, of course, he didn’t have to worry about that.

Jiang Zhen felt that Zhao Jinge was very persistent in some aspects. Since he had chosen him, he would not be with others in the future.

As long as Zhao Jinge was consistent, he would never do anything to betray him.

Jiang Zhen thought about it a lot. When he came to his senses, he found that Zhao Jinge had already fallen asleep and his breathing was very stable.

Should he be better than an animal now or should he be worse than an animal?

With a light chuckle, Jiang Zhen took Zhao Jinge in his arms, reached inside his clothes and touched him.

Zhao Jinge’s body was not nice to touch because of his poor living conditions and his skin was not very smooth, but he just felt that this person was particularly comfortable to touch.

There was another person beside him, but Zhao Jinge slept very well that night. When he got up in the morning, he discovered that he and Jiang Zhen were hugging each other. Apart from being a bit embarrassed, he accepted it very quickly.

He had made up his mind to be with Jiang Zhen anyway, hadn’t he? He didn’t know when Jiang Zhen would come to propose marriage.

Zhao Jinge woke up very early that morning, but at night, he was being secretly taken advantage of by the other. He was also proud to discover that Jiang Zhen, who was bigger than him, was unable to get up.

“I should have gotten up earlier.” The sound of Zhao Jinge getting up woke Jiang Zhen, who couldn’t help sighing.

Last night he had promised to get up and leave secretly in the early hours of the morning, but he didn’t wake up. Or he didn’t want to leave until he woke up naturally.

“My mother won’t come to my room. You can sleep a little longer.” Zhao Jinge looked just like a regular male, so Zhao Liu couldn’t treat him as intimately as a daughter, let alone enter his house for no reason. 

“Um.” Jiang Zhen nodded and didn’t get up from the bed; he just watched as Zhao Jinge tidied up his clothes.

Zhao Jinge didn’t take off his clothes when he went to bed last night. His clothes were a bit wrinkled, so he stretched out his hand and pulled at them. As a result, Jiang Zhen stared at him as if he was going to take his clothes off . . .

He ran out of the house almost immediately.

Jiang Zhen watched him leave and listened to the movements from outside. After confirming that Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui were in their own quarters, he quietly climbed the window and left.

Although Jiang Zhen got up later than usual today, it was still only dawn. Nowadays, people went to sleep so early that they couldn’t sleep until the morning.

When he returned to his residence, Jiang Zhen saw that Wang Haisheng had also gotten up and was busy cooking, while his two children were helping him.

“You’re up!” Wang Haisheng greeted Jiang Zhen. He didn’t know that Jiang Zhen hadn’t returned all night. He just thought that he had gone out early.

Jiang Zhen nodded at him; then suddenly, he was not in a hurry to let him move out.

Edited by : Faro

Proofreader: Taalia

Support translation: