When She Stops Being Dramatic

Chapter 72: Chapter 45: The Scorned Wife of the 50s (45)

”Honey, you’re my standard,” Chu Shenyu said with a smile. He then glanced at the group of somewhat infatuated women and stated coolly, ”Things like a ’generation gap’ are just excuses. Comrades, don’t be so naive. All those reasons are just justifications. The real reason is simple—there’s just no spark!”

”This is my wife, and she doesn’t need your approval. And frankly, I’d rather other people not see how wonderful she is.” After speaking, he handed Zhu Yun a chocolate popsicle. ”It’s a little warm with so many people in the house. Honey, have this to cool down. We’ll be heading to the cafeteria for dinner soon.”

He was making his disdain for them clear in every way possible. The group of women was so utterly rebuffed they wanted to cover their faces and flee.

Whatever lingering hopes they had were instantly extinguished by his words. ’How could there be a man so completely devoid of chivalry?’

Zhu Yun, however, just smiled and accepted the popsicle. She turned to the young women, who were now staring at the ground, and said, ”Don’t you want to try one of the popsicles I made? In the future, you might not be able to get one even if you have the tickets for it.”

Spurned in their romantic pursuits, the women had no choice but to channel their sorrow into their appetites. Without ceremony, each took a popsicle, and the first taste brought a wave of delight to their tongues.

’Alright,’ they had to admit, ’having a sister-in-law who was beautiful and a fantastic cook wasn’t such a terrible thing after all.’

Zhu Yun met his older sister and brother-in-law, his younger brother and sister-in-law, and the three youngest members of the family. They were all very easy to get along with. His older sister had a ten-year-old boy, a seven-year-old girl, and a three-year-old son.

His younger brother had a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy.

She happened to have bought a few extra longevity locks when she had taken on apprentices, so she secretly slipped one to each of the children, along with one hundred yuan in cash.

The Chu family was very low-key. No one knew that Mrs. Chu, the dean of discipline famously nicknamed the ”Wolf Grandmother,” was descended from a great Confucian merchant family in the south. Though the family’s influence had waned after they moved to the Capital City, they had managed to bring their entire hidden fortune with them.

A gift of a few hundred yuan was merely a token of her goodwill.

After a lively meal and seeing off the guests, it was already past two in the afternoon. Chu Shenyu announced with a smile that he was taking his wife shopping and would see the family again soon. With that, he whisked Zhu Yun away to the car and they drove off.

He left so quickly that even Mrs. Chu didn’t have a chance to give them their wedding gift money.

Even within the same city, the wheat harvest happened at different times. It was just getting started in the factory district, but in West City, some grain had already been harvested and set out to dry.

Their clothes and the vintage car drew a lot of attention.

One of them wanted to fulfill his wife’s childhood dream of secretly building a private food cache, and both were worried about drawing unwanted attention if a famine hit. Thus, they mutually decided to park the car in a remote area and change their outfits.

Zhu Yun even took out a few items and began to work on their faces and any exposed skin.

Chu Shenyu’s head was spinning as he watched his fair, beautiful, dewy-skinned wife transform into a coarse, sallow-faced woman. ”Is this the Disguise Technique?”

Zhu Yun pursed her lips in a smile. ”It’s just my advanced makeup skills. I use light, shadow, and pigments to trick the eye. Isn’t there a saying? What you see isn’t always what’s real.”

Chu Shenyu froze, his expression turning thoughtful as countless ideas flashed through his mind. ’If these concepts could be put into practice,’ he thought, ’it would lead to a monumental breakthrough.’

After changing their clothes, the two looked no different from anyone else. They took a bus out to the suburbs.

Grain yields in the Capital City were higher than elsewhere, and the varieties were more diverse. This was because the area had many research labs, and numerous communes maintained experimental fields. Whenever a crop produced a high yield, the farmers would expand its cultivation the following year.

As a result, the farmers here had a surplus of grain. Every year, after fulfilling their public grain quotas, they would set aside enough for their own families and sell the rest.

Zhu Yun and Chu Shenyu didn’t buy much, just one burlap sack of grain each. Then they blended in with the passengers on a bus heading back into the city.

By the time they returned to the factory district, the sky had already grown dark. Chu Shenyu drove their car right up to the small courtyard house.

Hearing the noise, Sister-in-law Tan pushed open the courtyard gate and smiled. ”Shen Yu, Yun, what brings you here at this hour? Have you eaten?”

Behind her, four little heads popped into view, one after another, with Mr. Tan appearing above them.

Zhu Yun couldn’t help but laugh. She waved at the little ones and presented them with a large box of candy and pastries.

”Oh, Yun, what are you doing?” Sister-in-law Tan said, exasperated, as she tried to hold her children back. ”If you keep spoiling them like this, they’ll forget who their own parents are and do nothing but run over to your house.”

Zhu Yun walked right past her and handed the box to the youngest child. The heavy box made the little one stagger.