Being so cherished by her husband, An Jing felt even happier and exclaimed, "It feels so good to be back home."
Every plant and tree in their home felt like their own, unlike in the Imperial Palace, where it always felt a bit lacking in warmth.
Fortunately, the Emperor of Xiyun and Su Chengyu were both trying hard to provide warmth for her husband, and she also benefited a great deal from this, making her visit to the Capital a time without any grievances.
Xiao Changyi didn’t speak, but just kept massaging An Jing’s legs.
When An Jing felt it was enough, she wouldn’t let Xiao Changyi massage any longer. She lifted her leg off Xiao Changyi’s lap, stood up to stretch her legs a bit, and then walked behind Xiao Changyi to massage his shoulders.
Xiao Changyi turned to glance at An Jing but didn’t stop her from massaging his shoulders. Just like she once said, she wanted to be good to him too.
While massaging Xiao Changyi’s shoulders, An Jing said, "We’ve been traveling for such a long time, let’s rest for two days before going to town to see Youbao. Wuyu sent me a letter; I should give it to him."
"Mm," Xiao Changyi had no objections.
An Jing continued, "While we’re in town, we should buy some stuff. It’s already the fifth day of the new year’s festive period, and the new year is approaching fast. If there are any supplies we can prepare beforehand, let’s do that, to avoid bad weather later that might prevent us from even going to town."
"Although our child is not yet born, it’s already in my belly. This year our child will be celebrating the new year with us, and we need to make it more lively and festive. Naturally, we should prepare more supplies."
"Changyi, I want to eat sweet potatoes; it’s really been a long time since we last had them. Let’s have baked sweet potatoes tonight. And steam a few too—the taste of steamed is different from baked." The sweet potatoes from their own field had already been harvested by Meng Lanqing’s people and were kept in the kitchen—a big pile of them, with the smallest twice the size of last year’s small potatoes.
"Alright, I’m done massaging." An Jing suddenly cheerfully patted Xiao Changyi’s shoulder, then affectionately hugged his neck, resting her chin on his shoulder and gently rubbing her cheek against his, "Changyi, does it feel good?"
With a slight upturn of his lips, Xiao Changyi raised his hand to touch her face and said, "Comfortable."
An Jing immediately turned her head and planted a kiss on Xiao Changyi’s cheek.
Xiao Changyi also turned, and then, after exchanging a kiss, An Jing walked to sit in front of Xiao Changyi, sitting on his lap with both arms still around his neck.
Xiao Changyi wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her, so she could sit more steadily on his lap.
"Do you feel any discomfort?" Xiao Changyi asked as he looked at her slightly rounded belly.
An Jing shook her head and smiled, "No, how could I feel uncomfortable when you take such good care of me?"
Despite what she said, Xiao Changyi still admonished her, "If you ever feel uncomfortable, you must tell me."
After being affectionate for a while, Xiao Changyi went into the kitchen to boil water. After stuffing enough firewood into the stove to last a while, Xiao Changyi washed the pork bones they had bought in town at noon.
He planned to make a soup with the big bones and braise the ribs.
His wife particularly loved these two dishes.
Even before An Jing was pregnant, Xiao Changyi wouldn’t let her touch cold water in cold weather, fearing she might catch cold. Now that An Jing was pregnant, Xiao Changyi was naturally even more careful about not letting her touch cold water.
An Jing didn’t touch it either, letting Xiao Changyi wash the bones by himself while she silently sat by the kitchen door to tend to the fire. She also tossed a couple of sweet potatoes into the stove to bake in advance.