The handsome guy next door loves to flirt.

Mingkun, holding Yunshu's hand, said guiltily, "Yunshu, I was planning to treat you to a nice meal tonight, but I didn't expect to scare you. I'm sorry!"

"Why apologize? The food was really delicious! Besides, those kinds of things are unpredictable, so how can I blame you? I was genuinely scared at first, worried you'd get hurt, but seeing so many people helping you, I'm not worried at all. Speaking of which, Mingkun, I've noticed you have a lot of friends, and you seem to get along well everywhere you go," Yun Shu said with genuine admiration.

He knows people everywhere he goes, and he gets along well with everyone. Everyone who has interacted with him says he's a very good person. Yun Shu thinks he has a lot of personal charm and is born to be a leader or a businessman. He's smart, loyal, and has many friends. No wonder he has his own business after returning from retirement for a few years. It seems like he's more suited to business.

Mingkun smiled before saying, "When I came back from my military service, I really didn't know what I wanted to do. Later, I joined a group called 'Veterans' and met many people, which is how I ended up with so many friends. Actually, people who serve in the military, especially those who have been in the army for several years, often find themselves out of touch with reality and unable to keep up with the development of society. Many people can't find jobs and don't know what they want to do. They are lost for a long time. I guess I'm lucky."

Thinking back to his first year after retiring from the military, he was met with strange looks from others and constant worry from his parents. Mingkun was determined to do whatever he did well, to show everyone that he, Xiao Mingkun, was not only good at being a soldier, but also had business acumen. He remembered that for the first two months after starting his company, he lived and worked at the company. Apart from a few hours of sleep, he spent all his time working. After a year of hard work, his company gradually took off and started to make a profit, and only then did he dare to take a break.

Yun Shu looked at the man beside her. Many people his age, if they didn't rely on their families, would still be working honestly and struggling with the decision of buying a house and a car. But he no longer worried about such things. He started from scratch and didn't rely on his family. She thought he was very impressive.

"Mingkun, why did you retire before?" Yun Shu had never really understood why Mingkun retired. His sister Minmin had mentioned it before, and it seemed to be related to her sister. But even though they were so close, she had never said it to him.

“When it’s time to retire, I will retire. There’s nothing to say. My parents are getting old and I can’t take care of them while I’m in the army. Besides, my sister’s condition wasn’t good at that time…” Mingkun recalled those difficult days when his whole family was very pessimistic. He had no choice but to retire then.

Yun Shu could hear the deep sorrow in his voice. She didn't know what had happened to the Xiao family back then. If it weren't for that tragedy, he would probably still be living a tense but simple life in the army. He probably actually liked military life; he would freeze up whenever he saw soldiers on the street, especially when he saw their uniforms.

"Mingkun, will you go back to serve in the army?"

“We’ve all retired, how can we go back? Don’t overthink it. Now that I have you, I have too many things to worry about, and I can’t be a good soldier anymore. Sometimes I just think about my days in the army, and it feels like a dream. Life is long. Even if you don’t serve, you can do other things; you still have to live. So when we came back from our military service, we faced the same problems, and we got along very well. We became good friends after spending a lot of time together. That’s when I met Da Long and the others. Actually, I didn’t serve in the same type of military service as them, but we all served. We learned cooking together, but later I didn’t want to be stuck in the kitchen cooking, so I left after a few days of learning, and that’s how I became who I am today. Da Long worked as a chef, but once his boss cheated him out of his wages, so we opened this food stall. Now they’re quite happy.” Ming Kun recounted in detail that soldiers are very pure and don’t have high expectations. Da Long got married not long after opening the food stall, so now his son is three years old. He doesn’t know when Yun Shu will give birth to his son.

"I can tell, I don't think Brother Da Long used to be this fat." Everyone says that most chefs are fat, but thankfully Ming Kun isn't.

"Hmm! It must be because he's easygoing and has a good physique. Da Long used to be very thin. Of course, he never had a body like yours."

"Tsk tsk, how can you not be ashamed at all? Look at those models, they have much better figures than you."

A lingerie store next door had mannequins wearing only underwear in front of it, and their figures were exceptionally good.

"Don't look, none of them are as good as your man's. If you want to see, I'll take my clothes off when we get back so you can examine him closely."

"You're being a pervert again. It's just a sculpture, why are you jealous? Aren't you ashamed! You're an old man, what's so interesting about it?"

"Then why do I remember why you stared at me for so long the first time we met?" Mingkun said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Their first meeting was when Yun Shu's house lost power, and she went to find Mingkun, who happened to be coming out of the bathroom.

"Xiao Mingkun! Shameless!" Yun Shu was so embarrassed by what he said that she couldn't get angry, so she kicked his shin.

"Haha, Yun Shu, you're so easy to tease! Okay, I won't tease you anymore." Looking at Yun Shu, she was so petite and charming, which was more like Yun Shu at her age, instead of her usual listless older sister persona.

Looking at Mingkun's arrogant demeanor, Yun Shu cursed inwardly: "You damn man, you don't care about your girlfriend's feelings at all! Humph! I won't go out to eat with him tomorrow, I'll ignore him for a few days as punishment."

After that, Yun Shu kept a straight face and didn't want to talk to him much, so the two of them didn't continue shopping and went straight home. It was hot, and after eating, they felt uncomfortable because they had sweated.

Seeing Yun Shu's tense face, Ming Kun touched his nose and sighed that women shouldn't be messed with. He had just shot himself in the foot, making Yun Shu ignore him. Well, serves him right! He'd have to figure out how to atone for his mistake tomorrow so that his little woman wouldn't be angry with him.

Yun Shu went inside to take a shower first. Xu Ya was feeding the cat. The cat had meowed several times the previous night, and Xu Ya couldn't stand it, so she sent it back to Grandma Jin's. But these past two days, it had been craving cats again and brought the cat back to live with her, which left Yun Shu speechless. However, she did think Xu Ya was quite kind-hearted. She really liked cats and dogs and didn't mind the dirt. Whenever there were leftovers from cooking, she would take them downstairs to feed the stray cats.

Days passed by like this. At the end of the month, Mingkun was going home. He usually only went back to his hometown once every few months. In the past few months, his mother's health had been poor, so he went back more often.

Yun Shu ignored Ming Kun for two days, then he took her to see a construction project they were about to start. Seeing how hard he worked every day, Yun Shu forgave him, and the two of them were as close as before.

Seeing that he was going home again the next day, the two of them took a walk outside in the evening. Mingkun was coaxing her to go to his home in the countryside with him in a week.

Yun Shu was initially hesitant, but she couldn't resist Ming Kun's combination of persuasion and coercion, and finally agreed to go back to his hometown with him.