The Overlord Flower's Guide to Intercepting a Woman's Wife's Death and the Male Lead&

When Zhou Bingheng returned, he pushed the courtyard gate very gently.

Su Xingmian lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), the quilt covering her chin, without moving.

The footsteps bypassed the kitchen and stopped at the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed).

A hand reached out and pulled the blanket up a little, afraid she would get cold.

Su Xingmian closed her eyes, and her demonic power spread along her skin.

My heart rate is 76 beats per minute, which is on the fast side.

My breathing was a beat deeper than usual.

The muscles in my shoulders and neck were tense and not relaxed, and my back was stiff.

She could smell his scent.

The smell of smoke.

Zhou Bingheng does not smoke.

He would sit for hours on end in conversations with people at the regimental headquarters, not stopping them from smoking.

The smell of smoke clung to the military uniforms, carried back by the cold autumn winds of the Helan Mountains.

There's also a layer of astringent tea flavor.

He only brews strong tea when he's working late into the night on important official documents.

Su Xingmian gripped the corner of the blanket tightly.

The old fox was keeping something to himself, and he started coming home later and later.

Zhou Bingheng pulled over another blanket and lay down fully clothed.

Su Xingmian waited for three minutes.

He wasn't asleep; his breathing rate didn't slow down, and the muscles in the back of his neck remained tense.

She turned over and sat up.

Zhou Bingheng turned his head away.

Did I wake you up?

My voice is terribly hoarse.

"no."

Su Xingmian threw off the covers, got off the kang (heated brick bed), and slipped on her cotton shoes to go into the kitchen.

The water in the iron pot was still warm. She poured more than half a cup into the enamel mug, opened the cupboard, took out the honey jar, scooped out a spoonful, and stirred it in.

When the items were brought back, Zhou Bingheng had already sat up, and two buttons on his military uniform had been undone.

She shoved the enamel mug into his hand.

"Brother, drink some honey water."

Zhou Bingheng took it and glanced at it.

It was a gift from Liang Jin's wife; there was only about half a jar. He mixes a cup for her every morning and treats it like a treasure.

He asked Liang Jin, and the herdsmen still had some, but it would take some time before they could exchange them.

It was the first time he had ever tasted honey water; it was warm and sweet.

"Thank you, Mianmian."

Su Xingmian sat cross-legged opposite him, hugging her knees with both hands.

"Brother, you're acting very strange today."

Zhou Bingheng held the jar and rubbed his thumb against the jar's side.

"With the case closing, there's a bit more to do."

"Ho Yiu-cho's case?"

"Um."

He didn't elaborate, and Su Xingmian didn't press him for details.

There was a moment of silence.

The kettle spout made a gurgling sound in the kitchen, and the water boiled again.

Su Xingmian spoke slowly and deliberately.

"Brother, have you been to Pingxi Village with Grandpa before?"

Zhou Bingheng looked up.

"I went there, ten years ago, in the summer of 1960."

"Was that time when you went to see my grandma?"

"Um."

He held the honey water, his gaze fixed on the jar.

"I had just turned eighteen that year and walked with my grandfather for three days through the mountains. When we arrived at Pingxi Village, it was getting dark. The gate of the courtyard was open, and there were flowers planted all over the yard that I couldn't name, but I remember that those flowers were taller than me."

He paused.

"Grandma Su was waiting in the yard, with two bowls of noodles on the table. She wouldn't let Grandpa into the house, so she ate the two bowls of noodles on the stone table."

Su Xingmian rested her chin on her knees.

"And then?"

"After finishing the noodles, Grandma Su and Grandpa talked alone for a long time. I stayed in the yard by myself."

Zhou Bingheng put down the jar and leaned against the wall.

She handed me a glass of honey water.

He smiled and glanced at Su Xingmian.

"Let me water the roots of the biggest flower and say... flowers like sweets."

Su Xingmian's eyes crinkled with laughter.

At that time, she had only recently developed sentience and did not yet have sight or hearing; even her consciousness was in a state of chaos.

But the roots, soaked in the soil, will remember the taste of every drop of water that seeped in.

One summer evening, a cup of sweet-smelling water was poured over it.

All her roots converged in that direction, desperately sucking in the air.

That was the first sweet thing she had ever tasted since she became sentient.

She always thought it was her grandmother who watered it.

It was him.

Su Xingmian cupped her face in her hands, her voice softening.

"What a pity."

"Um?"

"Back then, I was still wandering around and hadn't been adopted by my grandmother yet."

She sighed, full of regret.

"If I had gotten to Grandma's yard sooner, I could have seen my brother sooner."

Zhou Bingheng reached out and ruffled her hair.

Su Xingmian nestled in his palm, behaving very obediently.

But secretly, I was laughing to myself.

Back then, I hadn't taken human form yet; I was just that flower.

Zhou Bingheng pulled her over and let her lean on his shoulder.

Su Xingmian placed her hand on his arm, channeling a wisp of demonic energy through him, gradually easing the taut fascia in his shoulder and neck along the muscle lines.

He let out a breath, and his shoulders slumped a little.

"elder brother."

"Um."

"My grandma used to tell me stories about her youth."

Su Xingmian's voice became very soft.

"She never married in her life, and everyone said she waited for her grandfather her whole life."

Zhou Bingheng didn't reply; he knew about it.

Grandma Su and Grandpa were originally a couple.

But war is merciless, and Grandpa went to the battlefield.

During a battle, Grandpa lost his memory due to injury and forgot Grandma Su.

Su Xingmian turned her head to look at him and continued speaking.

"My grandmother told me that when she was young, she not only treated patients in the village, but she also traveled across battlefields and through several provinces."

"To find my grandfather."

Zhou Bingheng's throat moved slightly.

Su Xingmian slowly uttered each word.

"She saved many people on the battlefield: wounded soldiers, civilians with burned legs, and cadres who had lost half their lives."

"There was a person she saved who later became a very high-ranking official."

Zhou Bingheng's fingers stopped.

Su Xingmian looked up, her tone calm and even.

"Grandma said that the man wanted to repay her kindness and wanted to give her a position so she could stay in the capital. Grandma refused and went back to her hometown."

"But that person's secretary comes to Pingxi Village to visit Grandma every year."

"I came every year, until the year my grandmother passed away."

The kettle in the kitchen made two hissing sounds as it boiled, but no one paid any attention.

Su Xingmian sensed it clearly; his heart rate jumped from seventy-six to ninety-one.

"My grandmother told me this before she passed away."

She sat up straight and placed her hands on her knees.

"If someone tries to bully me and I really can't run away, I can just say their name."

"Even the highest levels of government know where she lives."

"Her name is Su Yuanzhen."

After those three words were spoken, there was a three-second silence on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Zhou Bingheng did not move at all.

He Yaozu remained silent for seven days in the interrogation room, but suddenly broke down on the last day. However, instead of revealing military intelligence, he focused on Su Xingmian.

When the case file was sent to the division headquarters, the division's security department became uneasy and wanted to interrogate Su Xingmian.

For the past few days, he has been blocking the entrance of the security department, from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., dissecting, reattributing, and obfuscating all the anomalies pointing to Su Xingmian.

He convinced the security personnel, but there were still people at higher levels who hadn't given their approval.

He is already preparing a second plan.

The worst-case scenario.

And now the person sitting in front of him is telling him in the softest voice and the most ordinary tone.

Grandma Su saved a national leader, and the highest levels of government all know about her.

He always thought of her as a rootless duckweed, someone he was desperately protecting.

As it turned out, the cards she held were stronger than his entire deck of cards combined.