Chapter 24: “Call me husband”

Liao Jun wakes up early. His biological clock is set for 6 a.m. At the club, he is the first one to wake up every day. While others wake up to practice boxing, he runs half the city.

He takes a cold shower and the grandmother, who is awake and burning fire in the adobe room, asks if he wants hot water. Liao Jun declines, takes a towel, and dries his hair with one hand while using the other to help grandmother with the fire using a tree branch.

The grandmother is old, hard of hearing, and has poor eyesight, but she likes to talk to people. She shares stories from the childhood of Chen Xiang and Chen Yang with Liao Jun, laughing as she tells them. Liao Jun listens quietly.

His grandmother passed away early, and his father and grandfather were cut from the same cloth. They were very strict with him, speaking to him harshly. Several of his peers in the family became prosecutors, lawyers, and professors. Only he opened a boxing club.

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His grandmother also laughed. 

“She wasn’t dumb. She just had a good temper and was easy to bully.”

Liao Jun sticks a few more branches into the fire. “Who bullied her?”

Chen Xiang slept until after ten o’clock before getting up. She was covered with a thin blanket and when she got up, she realized it was empty inside and she was completely naked. Her legs were sore and aching as she walked to her grandmother’s room. She found her own clothes in the old-fashioned wardrobe and changed into them.

As she came out, she saw Liao Jun climbing up to the roof on a ladder, holding a piece of tile to repair a hole on the roof. Chen Xiang was startled and supported the ladder, calling out to him, “Coach, come down, it’s dangerous up there.”

She was afraid he might fall. He was Chen Yang’s boss and coach, and he couldn’t afford to have an accident here.

Liao Jun was so pleased that Chen Xiang was worried about him that he smiled, showing his teeth, and said to her in a low voice, “Call me husband and I’ll come down.”

Chen Xiang never expected him to make such a request. Her face turned red and she lowered her head without saying anything. Her grandmother called her from the kitchen, saying that a chicken had been killed and she should stir-fry it for Liao Jun to eat. Chen Xiang wanted to go, but she was also afraid that Liao Jun might fall. While she was in this dilemma, Liao Jun had already repaired the tile and came down a few steps on the ladder. He then came over to Chen Xiang, hugged her and gave her a kiss.

Chen Xiang was shocked and her scalp tingled, but luckily her grandmother was still in the kitchen, busy with the fire, and didn’t see what had just happened.

Liao Jun had already let go of the ladder and returned it to the neighbor. He was only wearing a black tank top, with broad shoulders and a muscular body, his long arms holding the ladder as he walked out with a confident stride. If it weren’t for the slight smile on his face, someone who didn’t know him might have thought he was going to rob someone’s house.

Chen Xiang’s waist and legs were also sore. She stood there cutting the chicken into pieces, cleaning it up, and frying it in the pot. Her grandmother said beside her, “Don’t be stingy. After all, he is Yangyang’s coach. We can’t neglect him.”

“I know.” Chen Xiang nodded.

She didn’t even dare to tell her grandmother that Liao Jun had bought her a phone that cost over 10,000 yuan. One chicken was simply not enough to repay him.