1970s: My childhood sweetheart ran away, and I turned around and married the wildest chief.

He happily cupped Qiao Wanqing's face in his hands and gave her a big kiss.

"You have such a sweet tongue, wait for me a moment!"

After saying that, he handed the towel back to her, took off his coat, and started looking around for clothes. "Honey, where are my change of clothes? I'm going to take a shower too, can you find them for me?"

After saying that, she ran to the bathroom.

Qiao Wanqing: "..."

isn't it?

Did she overstimulate him? Did she make him act strangely in broad daylight?

This is my hometown, and there's a bunch of people downstairs. In broad daylight, really? It can't be what she thinks, can it?

She went to find Lu Mingzhou's clothes and handed them to him. Lu Mingzhou takes a quick shower. He usually showers at home, and he doesn't need to shower every day in the middle of winter. It's just that when he goes on a long trip, he feels unclean if he doesn't shower.

Even though he has a special status and sits in a private carriage, not having to squeeze in with ordinary people, there's no way around it. His wife is very clean, so when he's with her, Lu Mingzhou respects Qiao Wanqing's lifestyle and always keeps himself very clean.

He came out of the bathroom a short while later, changed into comfortable pajamas, dried his hair, and carried his wife to the bed, startling Qiao Wanqing. "Hey, hey, what are you doing? It's broad daylight, and there are so many people downstairs, you...you let go..."

Lu Mingzhou was speechless. "What are you thinking? I just wanted to hold you and sleep for a while. What are you thinking?"

Qiao Wanqing: "..."

Seeing that his wife was silent, Lu Mingzhou was overjoyed and happily hugged her as they lay down on the bed.

Miao Cuiying had put a lot of thought into preparing the bed; she had bought only the best things, and it was very soft. The room was also warm. Lu Mingzhou held his wife and quickly fell asleep.

Both of them were high-energy people, and they woke up after sleeping for a short while. However, it was still early outside, so they lay in bed for a while, chatting and the time passed quickly.

"Did your older brother... say what he's coming back for this time?" Qiao Wanqing asked.

Lu Mingzhou leaned against the headboard, playing with his wife's fingers. Hearing this, he curled up the corner of his mouth with a smug look of complete control. "Don't worry, I know what his purpose is."

"Hmm? What's the purpose?"

"A scam."

"Huh?" Qiao Wanqing's eyes widened. "Scamming? Coming back to scam money from your family?"

Lu Mingzhou nodded. "Yes! He hasn't been doing very well these past few years. His father-in-law, Xu Sheng, has been in decline for many years. To protect his son, he sometimes even tries to steal his credit. He didn't lay a solid foundation when he should have, and only thought about taking shortcuts by relying on his father-in-law. So once he lost his father-in-law's support, he couldn't make it."

"He didn't cultivate his own network well. Although Xu Sheng is no longer successful, he is still an old man and much stronger than him. He can't do anything about Xu Sheng taking credit for him. Over the years, Xu Sheng's career has been getting worse and worse, and he has already changed careers."

Qiao Wanqing was taken aback. "Transfer to civilian work? He said so himself?"

Lu Mingzhou chuckled lightly, "How could that be? His family doesn't even know about his situation yet, and he's deliberately keeping it a secret. Everyone still thinks he's a high-ranking officer in the army, doing very well! He's intentionally conveying this idea to everyone so he can come back and scam one last sum of money."

"He hasn't helped the family all these years. Now that he's been transferred to civilian work, he didn't choose to come back to his hometown. It must be because the Xu family made a deal with him. He chose to go to another place, within the Xu family's sphere of influence. For our Lu family, this son is like a waste of our time. If the elders find out, not only will they not give him a single penny, but they will also give him a severe scolding."

"He knows this situation himself, which is why he doesn't dare to say it. He is short of money. The Xu family and he himself have huge expenses, but there are no ways to make money. He knows that his hometown has become rich in recent years with our support and has opened several factories. So he thought that while everyone is still unaware of his situation, he would come back and swindle some money to leave."

Qiao Wanqing: "..."

She didn't know what to say!

"Your older brother... a college student from the 1950s or 60s, how did he end up like this?"

Lu Mingzhou curled his lips into a disdainful smile. "He was originally quite talented, but unfortunately he was unwilling to be down-to-earth. He was too scheming when he was young and took shortcuts, which backfired on him. But he had already gotten used to this path, and his heart could no longer settle down."

"Like now, even though he knows the Xu family has given up on him, even though he knows the Xu family is no longer what it used to be, he still chooses to get close to the Xu family. I can understand why he didn't choose our hometown, after all, many of my connections are here. He can't compete with me here, he could choose another place to develop properly, but he still wants to rely on the Xu family, even going so far as to come back to his hometown to extort money and pay tribute to the Xu family. Even at this point, he still can't bear to give up the Xu family's remaining power. What future can a person like this have?"

Lu Mingzhou held Qiao Wanqing in his arms, casually playing with a strand of her long hair as he spoke to her, but a deep coldness lingered in his eyes.

Lu Minghui only mentioned the surface purpose of his return; there was an even more important purpose he didn't say.

Lu Minghui has fallen to such a state that his mind has long been twisted. How could it be as simple as just extorting a sum of money?

However, he didn't care. After all, he had been prepared, and it was best for him to take action this time to completely eliminate him.

After waiting for so many years, he has finally gotten this opportunity!

With a quick change of heart, Lu Mingzhou's voice softened again, as if the ruthlessness in his heart had never existed. "Are you hungry? It should be almost dinner time. Do you want to get up?"

Lu Mingzhou was always very gentle with his wife and children. No matter how dangerous things were at work, he would never bring them home. Qiao Wanqing listened to Lu Mingzhou's gentle voice, which sounded a little languid, like a lullaby, and was extremely pleasant to hear.

"Hmm... I don't want to think about it for now..."

It was the dead of winter. During the day, when the sun was shining, it was still warm, but now that it was evening, the sun had set, and the weather had changed. The north wind was howling outside. Lying in bed, nestled in a warm embrace, Qiao Wanqing felt very comfortable and didn't want to get up at all.

Seeing her slumped around like a cat, Lu Mingzhou smiled and said, "Then sleep a little longer and get up when Mom comes to wake you."

The two of them stayed in bed until Miao Cuiying came to call them for dinner, by which time it was completely dark.

After sleeping for several hours, dinner was actually prepared long ago, but Miao Cuiying couldn't bear to come and call them. She thought her daughter-in-law was exhausted from the long car ride with the child, and her son was also exhausted from dealing with those people, so she simply let them sleep. She didn't come and call them until it was completely dark. There was no other way; if they didn't eat soon, the food would get cold!