“Getting up so soon?”

After it ended, He Jianqiu saw her scrambling to get dressed and helplessly tried to grab her waist: “You finally seem to have gained some weight lately… looks like working for the boss really does take good care of people.”

“Because you told the boss I like cream, so the boss is very generous with spending money on me. As repayment, tonight’s dumplings are my treat for the boss. It seems like because Xiao Wang and the others tipped off the boss, he’s been bringing up the dumpling matter with me constantly.”

In the blink of an eye, Lei Hong had already put on her shoes, not even giving her ex-husband a chance to help button up her clothes from behind.

She stood up: “Don’t dawdle up there too long. I bought a lot of dumpling wrappers – I can’t finish wrapping them all by myself. I’m planning to send the extras to the station tonight to share with your team.”

“And tell them we’re getting remarried while you’re at it?”

Looking at the brilliant ring on Lei Hong’s left ring finger, Ghost’s Bane felt like his smile tonight simply couldn’t be contained.

Lei Hong gave him a sideways glance: “Hurry up and get dressed. When I’m treating people to dinner, I can’t make the guests wrap dumplings.”

Just like that, as if the previous physical exertion had all been a dream, Lei Hong bounced downstairs light as a feather. Hearing footsteps, the chatting on the first floor instantly died down. Bai Yang stared at her in shock: “Sister… Sister-in-law, how come you came down first? Where’s Captain He?”

Lei Hong had worked in technical investigation after all, and could tell what they were thinking just from their expressions. She gave Bai Yang and Song Nanshi standing beside him a meaningful look: “Boss, you really need to start dating. You watch too many TV shows and movies – buying two big boxes like that, do you think he’s made of iron? Besides, if you really don’t want to waste them, what about dinner?”

In an instant, not only did Song Nanshi’s face turn bright red, but Bai Yang’s eyes began wandering too. Compared to these young people with minds full of nonsense, having lived with a narcotics officer for so many years, Lei Hong had long cultivated an unflappable heart.

Seeing this, she smiled faintly: “But still, thank you all. This is the most satisfying undercover assignment he’s taken in all this time. I never expected this kind of outcome… it’s equally good for both him and me.”

After speaking, she walked into the kitchen and efficiently began chopping filling.

Dinner was cabbage and pork, chive and pork, and three-fresh dumplings.

In the past at the He household, dumplings were the most frequently appearing staple food at the dinner table, not only because He Jianqiu’s parents liked them, but also because from childhood to adulthood, dumplings had always been a hidden thorn in Lei Hong’s heart.

More than ten years ago, on the eve of the winter solstice, Lei Hong’s parents died in a traffic accident. After that, she could only wrap dumplings for herself to eat, until she met another very important baby-faced person in her life.

He Jianqiu’s assignments always came urgently, with uncertain return times. Several times he would even disappear for months without any news, then suddenly return home one deep night, covered in half-healed injuries of various sizes, sitting pitifully at the table looking at her like a lost puppy that had finally found its way home.

In the early days when Lei Hong hadn’t resigned yet, she would always leave some extra dumplings in the freezer, so that no matter what time her husband came home, at least he wouldn’t go to bed hungry.

This habit she kept up all along. Even later when she resigned and had more time to revolve around pots and pans, every time she asked Captain He what he wanted to eat, the answer was always the same.

Lei Hong had always known – he just didn’t want to trouble her more.

Lei Hong chopped the meat filling, spread it flat, then brought it together. Hearing footsteps on the stairs, soon there were another pair of hands around her waist.

Her soon-to-be-remarried husband said in her ear: “I’m here to help… can’t let you work alone.”

Lei Hong felt him trying to take her cleaver and couldn’t help sighing helplessly: “How did I not know you were so clingy before, Captain He? Or are you at your age still having this kind of fetish where you must show affection in front of young people and let them laugh at you?”

“Let me chop the filling. Wasn’t this kind of physical work always my job before?”

Captain He eventually snatched the cleaver from her hands, wanting her to go sit for a while, but Lei Hong showed no intention of moving. After a long moment, she suddenly said softly: “I actually don’t find being a full-time housewife for you particularly difficult.”

“What?”

The cleaver stopped hitting the cutting board.

Lei Hong looked at her “ex-husband” with amusement: “So after going in circles, you still feel guilty about me, don’t you? When I cook, your face is written all over with guilt like you’ve committed some heinous crime, as if I was naturally never meant to enter the kitchen.”

Captain He was stunned: “Not to that extent… have I really become so relaxed that I can’t even control my expressions anymore?”

Lei Hong leaned against the stove watching him: “Do I need to look? I’ve been retired so long, yet you don’t even know how to order dishes with me. When you bought me the oven you were also trembling with fear. Are you so afraid I’ll think of myself as a full-time housewife? You feel like you’re burdening me just by letting me cook you one meal?”

He Jianqiu was left speechless by what she said, when suddenly he heard the kitchen door slam shut behind them – Bai Yang had kindly closed the door for them.

“We’re not in a hurry to eat, sister-in-law.”

That’s what the rascal outside the door said.

“I’m the one treating them to dinner, I can’t keep the boss waiting so long.” Lei Hong was amused. “Five minutes, quick battle – tell me why you always have to feel guilty about me?”

Even knowing the reason, Lei Hong wanted to hear him say it directly.

After so long, misunderstandings had fermented between them into countless times their original size, and the last spoiled bread they had split in half to finish eating together – Lei Hong didn’t want them to make another bad bread this time.

Captain He was silent for a while. Finally, he sighed: “You shouldn’t be a housewife. You had such good results in the police force before. If you had kept working at the bureau, your position now wouldn’t be lower than mine. If it weren’t for my family matters dragging you down, you should have…”

“So I finally pried the truth out of your mouth.”

Lei Hong interrupted him, crossing her arms like an interrogation expert in an interview room.

She smiled: “I remember, in the beginning you liked calling me ‘big brother,’ even when we were dating you called me that. Did you think I was better than you at everything and would definitely do better than your little brother in the future?”

He Jianqiu silently nodded in his heart, though for the sake of face he put it differently: “I thought you would have been an excellent police officer… the kind more excellent than most people.”

“Really? When you made this ‘decision’ for me, did you care about what I wanted to do?”

Lei Hong suddenly asked: “Did you ever think that I’m actually different from you – that I became a police officer out of necessity?”

“…What are you saying?”

He Jianqiu was now genuinely scared senseless.

Please, they had been married for ten years after all, and he was an experienced veteran police officer – surely he wouldn’t… wouldn’t lack understanding of his bedside companion to this extent?

Seeing him suddenly dumbstruck, Lei Hong laughed: “After my parents died in the car accident, for a while I felt the house was very big and empty, that accidents could happen at any time. So for some sense of security, I had no choice but to get good grades, had no choice but to do a tough job, had no choice but to be ‘big brother,’ because I was alone and couldn’t hope for anything else.”

Lei Hong walked up to He Jianqiu, looking directly into those eyes she had gazed at for so many years: “I later felt that being a police officer wasn’t bad because I like taking care of others – it made me feel like my family was still there, that I had people who needed my care, that I wasn’t alone. That’s all.”

At this moment, Shancheng’s Ghost’s Bane was no longer just worried.

He had gone completely stupid.

He Jianqiu looked at his “ex-wife” with a dry mouth: “So…”

“I want a family, Jianqiu. From the year I lost my parents, I’ve always hoped I could regain family members. And to make up for what I lost, I’m willing to take care of them every day, cook for them every day, revolve around pots and pans every day – these are all things I want to do. All this time I never felt there was anything wrong with resigning to be your housewife. You’re the one who insisted I hated doing these things.”

Lei Hong took the cleaver from his hands and chopped it down into the filling with a sharp sound, her keen eyes narrowing.

“Even now, you still won’t let me properly wrap you a meal of dumplings. Captain He, honestly, if you keep this up, I really can’t guarantee I’ll obediently go to the civil affairs bureau with you tomorrow morning.”