Happy New Year melodies reverberated in the streets and alleys of Nebula City. Amidst the roar of celebration, people finally ushered in the most important festival of the year.

Crystal clear snowflakes floated across the courtyard wall and fell silently into the grounds of the Marshal’s mansion.

The entire mansion was decorated from the inside out, and even the two cats were dressed in holiday outfits.

Marshal Ling’s work is all arranged in the evening, so his daytime could be freely arranged. So, he slept in with Xu Xinghe for the first time in a while, dragging it out until slowly getting up from bed after nine o’clock.

After breakfast, the couple took a box of gifts and two cats, and headed back to their mother’s house early for New Year’s Eve.

Along the way, Marshal Ling held his optical brain terminal and browsed something seriously.

Xu Xinghe thought he still had work to do, so he deliberately avoided looking over and instead turned to look out the window with his chin in his hands. “Are you still coming over for dinner tonight?”

“En.” Ling Changfeng nodded, and looked away from the screen. “The New Year’s Eve live broadcast party starts at 8:00 p.m., and a car from the military department will pick me up at 7:15. Are you sure you don’t want to attend with me?”

Xu Xinghe waved his hands. “To be honest, I don’t really want to go. It’s not an occasion that requires me to attend together, and it’s not interesting to sit in the audience. Besides, this is the first time with my mother and siblings in the capital. I still want to spend more time with them over the new year.”

“Well, it’s up to you.” Ling Changfeng nodded.

Xu Xinghe asked again: “What time will you be back?”

Ling Changfeng replied: “After going to the military headquarters to deliver the New Year’s Eve speech, it will be almost one o’clock in the morning when I return. You don’t have to wait for me. If you are sleepy, go to bed early.”

After speaking, he turned his gaze back to the screen.

Seeing this, Xu Xinghe finally couldn’t help asking: “Do you still have work?”

Unexpectedly, Ling Changfeng shook his head. “It’s not work. I’m just making some preparations for today.”

“Huh?” Xu Xinghe then poked his head over and glanced at Marshal Ling’s terminal.

He saw a few browsing records floating on the screen—

“Five common ways of wrapping dumplings, you can learn it at once!”

“What should I pay attention to when I go to my partner’s house for the New Year for the first time?”

“Card playing skills that ordinary people don’t know! If you remember these tricks, you’ll be invincible at cards!”

Xu Xinghe: “…”

He raised his head with an indescribable expression. “You’ve been searching for this since this morning??”

Marshal Ling nodded. His tone was very calm, and he didn’t intend to deny it. “I think this is very helpful for today’s meeting.”

Xu Xinghe: “…”

Helpful, my ass!

He rubbed his temples dumbfounded. “It’s not like you haven’t met them before, just get along normally… Besides, these headlines don’t seem very reliable. You might as well ask me directly.”

Hearing what he said, Ling Changfeng finally let go of his terminal and looked up.

Xu Xinghe leaned over to tease him again: “Didn’t you use this kind of question to torment Major General Qin before? Why did you ‘condescend’ to search for it yourself?”

Ling Changfeng pursed his lips at the mention of his adjutant. “Qin Yuan is on strike.”

“Ah?” Xu Xinghe looked at him in surprise.

Marshal Ling said blankly: “He requested not to be disturbed by things other than work during this period, and I agreed.”

Xu Xinghe was stunned for two seconds, then suddenly burst out laughing.

“Hahahaha, it’s Major General Qin who has the foresight to strike first! Has he already blocked your private communication?”

Ling Changfeng’s eyes revealed a bit of pampering helplessness seeing his little spouse’s schadenfreude over his “misfortune”.

“Don’t worry, this is also my first New Year’s with mom and the others.” After Xu Xinghe finished laughing, he suddenly leaned over and took Ling Changfeng’s hand. “Believe me, they will definitely welcome us.”

While he was speaking, there was a vaguely sweet scent emanating from his body. It was peaceful and warm, like a summertime floral nectar in summer or the rising sun in winter, with the power to comfort people’s hearts.

Ling Changfeng watched the smile on his lover’s face, and silently held his hand back.

After a pause, he explained: “I’m not worried, it’s just… I’m not used to it.”

Xu Xinghe stroked the back of his hand with his thumb, and smiled lightly. “It’s okay, the first time is unfamiliar, but the second time will be better. The future is still long, and we will get used to it in the future.”

After finishing speaking, he changed the subject: “I was teasing you before. Mom and the others have a tradition of making dumplings during the New Year, so we’re just following suit to join in the fun. In fact, it doesn’t matter whether the dumplings are good or not, as long as the atmosphere is there. The same is true for playing cards. Yes, I heard from A Fei that mom likes to play cards very much, so she might pull us to play together. It doesn’t matter how good your card skills are, just have fun. However, if you really want to win—”

Xu Xinghe suddenly approached, blinked in front of Ling Changfeng, and smiled like a fox with malicious intentions. “You can bribe me now, so I’ll be merciful when the time comes, and feed you a few rounds.”

The warm and soft breath sprayed on his neck and ears, numb and itchy.

Gold and sapphire flickered.

A hot current suddenly rose from the bottom of his heart. The moment the thought emerged, it couldn’t be erased.

Ling Changfeng looked down at his lover, and asked in a low voice, “How do you want me to bribe you?”

Xu Xinghe didn’t realize that the danger was approaching. Instead he drew a circle on his palm playfully. “You want me to teach you? Hmm… let’s hear some nice words first?”

Ling Changfeng pursed his lips, his eyes gradually became deep.

A trace of pheromone filled with a sense of aggression coiled up and covered the back of his lover’s neck…

Xu Xinghe suddenly shrank back.

Aside from this blatant pheromone, he is too familiar with Marshal Ling’s eyes at this moment.

But such a gaze usually only appears at night.

He glanced at the bright sunlight outside and the bustling scene of people coming and going under the empty track. Retreating silently, he warned: “No messing around! It’s daytime now, and you still have work tonight…”

“It doesn’t matter, the glass is one-way.” Although Ling Changfeng said this, he still raised his hand to turn the windows dark. In this way, a dark and secret closed space was formed in the car.

“You promised last night.” Marshal Ling looked at his young spouse who kept shrinking back, and brought up the old matter again.

“I promised tonight! Not during the day!”

“I have work tonight.”

“Then let’s talk about it tomorrow… um!”

Xu Xinghe’s hand tightly grasped the thin blanket beside him, then slowly let go, and hooked his lover’s neck instead…

Outside the window, the flying snow is shining brightly under the rays of the sun.

In the compartment, emotions mingled, filling the space with indescribable fragrance…

As a result, the two people’s original plan of “arriving at ten o’clock in the morning” directly turned into arriving at lunchtime.

At twelve noon, a military vehicle landed slowly in the courtyard. Ling Changfeng got out of the car first, and opened the door for Xu Xinghe.

The latter’s face was suspiciously red, and his heartbeat was still calming down, when suddenly a hand was stretched out in front of his eyes.

Xu Xinghe straightened his collar, gave his lover a light look, but still placed his hand in his.

“Brother Xinghe! Happy New Year!” Lily, wearing a little red dress, rushed over like a little butterfly.

Xu Xinghe hugged his younger sister and held her up high. “Happy New Year! Has our little Lily grown taller again?”

The girl is no longer as thin and small as she was when he first met her on Pelpa Star. Her face filled out, and she’s very cute bouncing around.

Chu Yufei followed behind his younger sister, and just as he was about to say hello, he was overwhelmed by a certain aura coming towards him, and the “Happy New Year” on his lips was forgotten,

In a daze, he seemed to see an ocean in front of him. Flowers bloomed on the surface of the ocean, growing freely under the sun.

The stretch of flowers and the sea rushing towards him couldn’t mask the deep love and joy.

He knew that he couldn’t perceive his brother’s pheromone, so, it can’t be that such an affectionate and unbearable feeling came from Marshal Ling?!

Chu Yufei couldn’t believe it.

He looked at his elder brother, then at his marshal “sister-in-law”, and felt that these two must have been engaging in some inappropriate activities recently.

The ambiguous sentiment in the air made the young man blush. After finally stammering ‘Happy New Year’, he turned around and bade the two of them to enter the house.

Mother Xu had already prepared a large table for lunch, and greeted them while taking off her apron.

“Happy New Year, mom! Changfeng and I are back.”

“Happy New Year, are you hungry? Eat quickly.”

Since getting rid of the illness, Mother Xu has been adjusting at home with peace of mind. Now she looks very good and looks younger.

She gave birth to Xu Xinghe early, and her age was actually about the same as Ling Changfeng, so it was difficult for Ling Changfeng to treat this lady like an “elder”.

However, on such a day and such an occasion, when facing his lover’s biological mother, Marshal Ling still showed a kindness he had not even shown when seeing other marshals at the Supreme Military Council meeting.

Mother Xu’s attitude was equally polite, but she was a little more kind and easy-going. She very naturally greeted them to sit down, and the family started the lunch talking and laughing.

Xiaoqi was excited to return to her long-lost former residence, and started to run around the room with her limbs.

As soon as Lily saw the cats, her eyes shone, chasing after it with small dried fish snacks.

Aaron jumped onto the tallest cabinet in the house, sat upright, and looked down at everything in the house, but his gaze was always on Xiaoqi.

Ling Changfeng is taciturn by nature, he never talks too much at dinner parties, and only answers a few questions when others ask him.

Fortunately, there were many people in the family, and with the shouting of the two young ones, the scene was full of life.

Xu Xinghe was also beside him chatting with him from time to time, so after a meal, the atmosphere was very festive.

After lunch, Xu Xinghe rejected Mother Xu’s suggestion to go upstairs to take a nap, saying that he was not sleepy at all.

In fact, it wasn’t that he wasn’t sleepy, but he vaguely felt that Ling Changfeng hadn’t fully enjoyed himself in the car just now. If the two of them lay down on the bed again, it might cause a fire to start.

So he proposed to play a few rounds of cards.

This is exactly what Mother Xu wanted. Her friendly and gentle image at the dinner table changed in the blink of an eye, as she rolled up her sleeves to play cards.

Because Lily is too young, she lay on the sidelines watching the battle with her small head exposed.

Marshal Ling went to the table obliged to join the battle with his lover.

The four of them played a card game from Mother Xu’s hometown, which was new for both Xu Xinghe and Ling Changfeng.

Fortunately, both of them have enough brains, and they learned while playing. After a few rounds, they gradually became familiar with the strategies.

The resulting outcome was interesting.

Ah, cards. I wanna play cards now.

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