To make up for the debt owed to Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

Under Gu Juncheng's intense gaze, Lin Qingping quickly went upstairs.

Entering the room, her heart calmed down. She sat down at the table, where a round mirror reflected her tired face.

She rested her chin on her hand, looked at her reflection in the mirror, and fell into deep thought.

However, the deep, stern voice rang out again, "Go take a shower!"

Lin Qingping was utterly startled. "Are you a devil? Why are you pushing me so hard!"

"Okay, then I won't rush you." Without saying another word, Gu Juncheng went into the room, opened the wardrobe, and took out her clothes.

Lin Qingping stared at his own undergarments, clutching them in his hand. The sight was strangely striking—a small, white blob held in his dark, large hand…

"What...what are you doing?" she couldn't help but ask.

“I told you, if you don’t wash, I’ll wash for you.” He took her hand.

She pulled her hand away, grabbed her clothes, and ran off, shouting, "I'll wash them myself!"

Gu Juncheng watched her close the bathroom door before it was considered a done deal.

Gu Juncheng had actually come back from school after taking a shower, but it was hot and he still felt a bit sticky after eating. So he went downstairs to the yard, put on his clothes, and took a shower with cold water.

When he returned upstairs, Lin Qingping hadn't finished showering yet. He changed into some dry clothes, dried his hair, and waited for her in the room.

After waiting for another ten minutes or so, she returned.

She had taken a shower and washed her hair; her face was flushed, and she smelled wonderful.

Gu Juncheng glanced at her, took a deep breath, and got up to leave.

Lin Qingping didn't know where he had gone. She sat down, picked up a book at random, but was thinking about something. As she was thinking, she unconsciously lay down.

However, just as he lay down, Gu Juncheng's voice rang out again, "Get up first!"

"Huh?" Lin Qingping had been daydreaming all night, and Gu Juncheng had a naturally loud voice, so when he shouted at her, she jumped up.

Gu Juncheng had already walked up to her, holding an oversized towel in his hand, and hugged her as she jumped up with one hand.

"You're sleeping with your hair so wet? Aren't you afraid of getting sick?" He shoved a towel over her head and started drying her hair. "Sit down."

He pressed her back into the chair.

At that time, there were no hair dryers at home. After washing your hair, it would be left to air dry, or, if you were patient, you would rub it with a towel until it stopped dripping wet.

He was often not with her. In fact, if she wanted to wash her hair, she would wash it early and let it air dry. She wouldn't have the patience to dry her hair little by little.

She thought about it and realized that, whether in her past life or this one, this was the first time anyone other than a hairdresser had ever dried her hair.

"Gu Juncheng..." She was a little down today.

Since her rebirth, she has worked hard to live and always strived for improvement. The most difficult time was when she was in the provincial capital, when she wanted to let Gu Juncheng and his boss's daughter be together.

This is the second time.

"Hmm?" he murmured.

Lin Qingping leaned her head against him, and could even feel his chest tremble slightly because of that sound.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" He waited for a while, but when she didn't continue, he asked.

Lin Qingping didn't really have anything to say, but at this moment, she suddenly felt like calling him.

She thought he was really wiping her hair strand by strand. If he were a chatterbox, he might have talked to every single strand of her hair, but he wasn't. He was just wiping her wet hair little by little.

It took me a really, really long time to wipe it off...

She was a little tired, and leaning against him, she felt like she didn't want to care about anything anymore. She yawned, and her eyelids gradually became heavy.

Actually, she's been through enough today and is exhausted.

She didn't know when Gu Juncheng finished drying her hair, but she woke up groggily when Gu Juncheng picked her up.

She knew that Gu Juncheng had put her on the bed, and that he had lay down and put his arms around her.

She snuggled into his arms and heard him say, "Don't think about those messy things. Get some sleep, and you'll feel better after a good night's rest."

"Mmm." She didn't really know what he meant by all that nonsense, but she felt reassured by his words. After saying "Mmm," she fell into a deep sleep in his arms.

When Lin Qingping woke up the next day, she knew it was late.

Although the curtains were still closed, sunlight streamed through the small gaps in them, making it sparkle brightly; the brightness was at least nine o'clock.

Gu Juncheng was not by his side.

If she didn't clearly remember that Gu Juncheng had dried her hair last night, she would have doubted that Gu Juncheng had ever come back at all.

She knew he was an early riser, but there was no sound of him downstairs.

Zhiyuan said that Uncle Gu went out early in the morning without saying where he was going.

Lin Qingping thought he had gone to the store, but when she rushed there, he wasn't there.

Strange……

She muttered to herself, "It's Sunday today, so he doesn't have to go back to school so early. Where could he go?"

The shop was doing very well today, but Gu Youlian seemed a little uneasy. Lin Qingping guessed that she was frightened by the burly men who came to collect the debt yesterday.

After Gu Youlian broke two plates in a row, Lin Qingping went to comfort her.

Sure enough, this was what Gu Youlian was afraid of. "Pingzi, you have three days. You either hand over the person or you pay up. What should we do? Today is the second day!"

Lin Qingping told her not to worry, "We have no money and no people. If they dare to come, we'll call the police. We do business honestly, what are we afraid of?"

“But if we call the police, what if your brother does something wrong…” Gu Youlian lowered her voice, “…we’ll get implicated too, what then?”

"It should be done this way!" Lin Qingping will absolutely not spend money to fill the hole this time.

A dilapidated little house in the suburbs.

As dusk fell, in the dim light, an old woman quietly touched something tightly clutching in her arms and knocked on the door of the small house.

"Who is it?" came a tense voice from inside.

"It's me! I'm your mother, Jia Gui, open the door!"

Wu Axiu looked around to make sure no one was nearby.

The door opened from the inside, and Wu Axiu nimbly slipped inside, quickly closing the door behind her. She pulled a bundle wrapped in newspaper from her bosom, saying, "Quick, Mom got you something to eat, eat up!"

I opened the newspaper and found four or five steamed buns inside.

Lin Jiagui lost his appetite instantly upon seeing it.

Wu Axiu looked at Lin Jiagui with great heartache and urged, "Son, eat quickly, you've become so thin from hunger." As she spoke, she touched his face and neck with her hands.

Lin Jiagui turned his head away in annoyance. "At least bring a steamed bun! What's so good about this lousy steamed bun? I haven't smelled meat in days!"