WRA CH77

Zhou Sicheng had been exploiting him to wash the dishes all along.

From Dou Manning’s perspective, Xiang Zhen’s husband worked tirelessly every day delivering dozens of cups of coffee, which meant Shen Ku was absolutely not allowed to complain.

Zhou Sicheng’s deliveries were fake; Shen Ku’s dishwashing was painfully real.

Because Dou Manning had to wake up at five in the morning to brew coffee, he went to bed by eight-thirty every evening.

Shen Ku had privately suggested to Zhou Sicheng that they close shop for a couple of days or take down the “Little Sunflower Pack” camera above his head, but Zhou Sicheng played dumb every time.

Salesman Zhou went all out expanding his wife’s grand enterprise, all while sanctimoniously claiming he had to take responsibility for his employees’ food safety.

Left with no choice, Shen Ku had to scrub the dishes according to the most rigorous standards—after all, it would be humiliating to have the Little Sunflower Pack constantly call him out for slacking off, especially when Manning was listening the whole time.

Now that Zhou Sicheng’s cover was blown, the in-company coffee delivery business was naturally put on hold.

Yet Shen Ku couldn’t find it in himself to be happy.

The Manning Coffee Shop could close down, but under no circumstances could it be over class conflict.

He racked his brain, utterly bewildered as to how Zhou Sicheng could have botched things this badly.

He quietly erased his plan to “meet the parents” and observed the fallout on Zhou Sicheng’s end.

Zhou Sicheng seemed to be trying exposure therapy on his wife to desensitize him.

Judging from Manning’s daily updates, however, the treatment was only making things worse.

Shen Ku felt a pang of sympathy; Zhou Sicheng had already tried every solution he himself could think of. If he were in his shoes—

Shen Ku felt utterly tied down. On the surface, Dou Manning had agreed to let him pursue him, yet Shen Ku didn’t dare advance their relationship any further. If Dou Manning were to find out one day that he had unwittingly slept with the son of a capitalist, would he be disgusted to the point of vomiting?

Dou Manning had gone to visit Xiang Zhen and came back saying Xiang Zhen was currently in immense agony.

Whenever he mentioned his friend, a faint, melancholic shadow draped across his brow.

The truth was far too cruel for Manning.

Shen Ku could still cut his losses in time—for both of their sakes.

Dou Manning flipped a page in Das Kapital, reading with utmost earnestness.

Though it was somewhat dry, it was vastly more readable than Construction Engineering, and he read it with relish.

When Xiang Zhen reached the conclusion that he vomited upon seeing his husband because Zhou Sicheng was a capitalist, Dou Manning agreed with him entirely. After all, he had worked a single day on a construction site; when a laborer was exhausted to their absolute limit, just the sight of the lecturing foreman made them want to throw up.

Dou Manning turned another page, glancing at Shen Ku out of the corner of his eye—Shen Ku was still the best.

Hardworking, brave, and down-to-earth.

Zhenzhen was remarkably courageous, bridging the divide all for love. If spirits like them ever wanted to leave a person, they didn’t need any human transportation at all.

Yet Zhenzhen loved his husband so much that he chose to stay by Zhou Sicheng’s side even if it meant throwing up.

Dou Manning hoped Zhenzhen would overcome this psychological block soon.

[Xiang Zhen: Manning, I envy you so much for the husband you found, because yours is the most glorious worker of all.]

Dou Manning suddenly turned to Shen Ku and said, “Hubby, you are the most glorious worker.”

Shen Ku froze, a mix of joy and apprehension washing over him. Why had Manning suddenly called him “hubby”?

More importantly, that “hubby” came with a strict prerequisite: a worker.

Manning would only accept a laborer as a husband.

“Wife,” Shen Ku took a deep breath.

He accepted the title.

A real man stood tall between heaven and earth; how could he not even have the guts to claim his own wife?

By answering to “hubby” today, it meant he was merely Engineer Shen. From this moment on, he had severed all ties with Second Young Master Shen.

He sent a message into the family group chat:

[Dad, Mom, Bro: If you run into me on the street from now on, pretend you don’t know me.]

[Shen Mother: What happened, son? Is your father forcing you to take over the family business again? He’s losing his mind, just ignore him.]

[Shen Elder Brother: Understood. Are you being hunted down by Zhou Sicheng? Do you need a newspaper announcement disowning you?]

Zhou Sicheng was already too busy putting out his own fires.

Shen Ku gave a brief explanation: he had a wife now—not Zhou Sicheng’s wife—and his wife hated capitalists, so he was going to live as a construction site couple with him.

[Shen Elder Brother: ?]

[Father Shen: @Shen Elder Brother, did you set him up for this? You’ve had this filthy, money-grubbing streak ever since you were a kid.]

[Shen Elder Brother: ?]

[Shen Elder Brother: No sane person could come up with a trap like this.]

[Shen Ku: Regrettably, I can’t bring my wife to meet you. Here is a photo of him. He has incredible poise, doesn’t he?]

[Shen Mother: Good heavens! A daughter-in-law from a scholarly, prestigious family! Such a precious soul is well worth enduring hardship for! Can Mama rent a dingy, broken-down flat to meet her?]

[Shen Ku: My wife is a man.]

The group fell into dead silence.

Father Shen erupted in a furious roar: [@Shen Elder Brother, and you still dare claim you didn’t orchestrate this?!!]

Shen Ku locked his phone. Now that they were no longer brewing coffee, Dou Manning had found a job at a bookstore. Shen Ku was freed from washing dishes at night, giving them wonderful time alone together.

Since they were going to be together, they needed to talk about their families.

Dou Manning said, “I have a mother in the countryside.”

Shen Ku said, “I have a mother too.”

His father and brother would never agree to play along, so he might as well pretend they didn’t exist for now.

Once they spoke, neither asked if the other had any siblings, preserving a tacit understanding between husbands.

Lately, Dou Manning worked at the bookstore, handling checkout at the front counter. Since few people bought books these days, it was a relaxed job.

He would grab a book off the shelf to read. Occasionally, middle-school students came to pay, mostly buying danmei novels.

As he scanned the barcodes, customers would whisper among themselves, saying he looked just like the protagonist on the cover.

Dou Manning looked at the book cover: a fair-skinned beauty with long golden hair, and a muscular miner with bulging sinews.

The blond hair is Zhenzhen, not me.

Dou Manning grew curious about the book’s contents, but the copies in the store were wrapped in plastic, so he searched for the text online.

Why is it smut?

After reading it, Dou Manning felt deeply uneasy. Worried that the bookstore was selling obscene materials, he wondered if he would be dragged off by the police as an accomplice.

The Adult Guide explicitly stated that spirits should avoid dealings with the police, as their testimonies sounded too uncanny and were easily mistaken for lies.

Dou Manning asked, “Shen Ku, did you switch construction sites?”

The previous residential construction site had been relatively close; Shen Ku used to head out at seven-thirty. Lately, he was leaving at seven sharp, adding half an hour to his commute.

Shen Ku replied, “Yeah, I only took over that last one temporarily. Right now, I’m mainly stationed at the new high-speed railway station project.”

The high-speed rail station? That was quite far, and it sounded like a massive project. Shen Ku couldn’t possibly drive an hour and a half there and back every single day.

Dou Manning said, “I don’t want to work at the bookstore anymore. I’ll go to the construction site with you.”

Shen Ku was startled. It was one thing for him to suffer in the dust-filled air of a construction site, but who wouldn’t want their wife relaxing in the air-conditioned comfort of a state-owned bookstore in the city center, reading books in peace? “Why do you suddenly want to quit?”

Dou Manning said, “Because the bookstore sells pornographic materials. Sooner or later, parents are going to file a complaint, and I don’t want to run into the police.”

Shen Ku frowned. To think this bookstore dared to pull something like that—it was completely unregulated. It would indeed be better to keep his wife by his side.

An idea struck him: “There are lots of technicians at the high-speed rail station. You can sell coffee just like you used to. I can contract a stall for you in the cafeteria.”

Shen Ku emphasized, “We’ll only sell straight Americanos. People on construction sites love that.”

Dou Manning didn’t want to wash cups either; Shen Ku truly understood him, proving their souls were in sync. Overjoyed, he leaned in and pecked Shen Ku gently on the corner of his lips: “That’s right, we’ll only sell Americanos.”

Caught completely unprepared by the sudden intoxicating scent, Shen Ku nearly got a nosebleed. He reached out with his large palm to rub Manning’s neck: “Wife, I’m going to take a shower.”

“Okay.”

Dou Manning watched Shen Ku’s retreating figure with flickering eyes. Shen Ku was so strange; the protagonist in that smut novel had zero self-control around long-haired beauties.

Dou Manning pulled out his phone and messaged Xiang Zhen: Are you and your husband platonic?

Xiang Zhen: We are right now.

Dou Manning: You weren’t before?

Speaking of this, Xiang Zhen briefly forgot the misery of his husband being away on a business trip. Just as he was about to have an in-depth chat with Dou Manning, his stomach flared up with discomfort again, so he could only reply: Do you have questions about your sex life? Download a Little Sunflower Pack app and ask it.

Dou Manning downloaded the Little Sunflower Pack.

He typed into the app: My husband works on a construction site. The first time he came over, coffee accidentally spilled on him, and back then there was a bit of a charged, flirtatious reaction. But before anything could happen, the police knocked on the door. Ever since then, my husband has been practically ascetic.

[Little Sunflower Pack: In cases like this, he may have been spooked by the police, leaving psychological trauma tied to your home environment. We recommend changing the setting—book a couples’ hotel, set a romantic pink ambiance, enjoy a candlelight dinner, and test whether he can perform.]

Just then, another message arrived from Xiang Zhen.

[Xiang Zhen: If the Little Sunflower Pack claims your husband has erectile dysfunction, don’t believe it. It always underestimates humans; they usually don’t have ED.]

Because Dou Manning was a slow typist, he anxiously used voice input to clarify: “The Little Sunflower Pack didn’t say my husband has ED, it said Shen Ku was spooked by the police.”

Shen Ku, catching snippets of the audio: “?”

What ED? Who got spooked?

“Manning, what are you talking about?”

Dou Manning turned his head to look at Shen Ku. After a brief pause, he asked, “Did you get ED from the shock when the police suddenly showed up last time?”

Shen Ku froze for a moment, then walked up behind him. “Manning, I am perfectly functional.”

Dou Manning felt something pressing against his back. He had been sitting on the bed, and instinctively bent forward.

His slender waist and abdomen pressed against his thighs, arched like an undrawn bow.

Taking advantage of the angle, Shen Ku leaned down and wrapped his arms around him, scooping beneath Manning’s knees to pull him entirely into his embrace.

“Let me help you bathe.”

Shen Ku had originally intended to give his wife a proper bath before taking things to the bed. But his resolve was fragile; the moment Dou Manning turned his back to strip off his shirt, Shen Ku turned into a ferocious tiger that had caught the scent of blood.

He pinned him firmly against the wall, gnawing at his fair nape as if marking his territory.

Here lay the bitter richness of coffee and the mellow sweetness of ripe berries, blending into an intoxicating fragrance belonging solely to his beauty of a wife. Aside from being a handsome facial feature, a prominent, high-bridged nose possessed an irreplaceable purpose in bed.

Shen Ku’s palms were thick with calluses, brushing like the barbs on a tiger’s tongue over every inch his mouth couldn’t reach.

Dou Manning closed his eyes, a soft, low whimper escaping his throat: “Shen Ku… is it bitter?”

Not bitter. Not bitter in the slightest.

Engineer Shen was fiercer than a tiger.

…

Late at night.

Shen Ku carefully settled the sleeping beauty into bed and headed to the bathroom to clean up the aftermath.

The apartment had clearly been remodeled by Zhou Sicheng for his own use, filled with high-end appliances.

Even the toilet was a smart toilet worth tens of thousands of yuan.

In a sense, President Zhou was quite generous, considering that during the month he lived in Room 1620 with Xiang Zhen, they had still used the original, standard flush toilet.

Even after trying so hard to adapt to the local customs, Zhou Sicheng still couldn’t scrub off the capitalist label pinned to his back.

After this intimate exchange with his proletarian wife, Shen Ku was all the more determined to remain Engineer Shen and never return to being a capitalist’s son.

Looking at the smart toilet, Shen Ku suddenly felt a wave of unease.

Was Engineer Shen even worthy of using something like this?

No. He hadn’t endured enough hardship yet.