Hangover Soup

Tang Wulin half-coaxed, half-carried Gu Yue to the dining table. The scent of rice at her nose did indeed make her empty stomach cramp.

However, when Tang Wulin placed that small white porcelain bowl before her, an indescribable smell forcefully invaded her nostrils, instantly overwhelming the warm fragrance of the porridge.

It was a mixture of the excessive bitterness of dried tangerine peel, the overly sharp spice of ginger, and the stale, indescribable odor of some medicinal herb. In short, it was absolutely not what a normal bowl of hangover soup should smell like.

"Come on, drink it while it's hot. It'll cure your hangover." Tang Wulin spoke casually, even with a hint of smug confidence that said, "Leave it to me." He pushed the bowl closer.

Gu Yue shot him a suspicious glance, then looked down at the dark brown liquid with several questionable oil droplets floating on top. Hesitantly, she picked up the spoon, scooped up the tiniest amount, and put it into her mouth.

"Pfft—cough, cough, cough!"

After just one small sip, Gu Yue nearly put on a fountain show right there. The flavor was unbearably sour and astringent at first, followed by ginger heat shooting straight to the top of her head. What lingered at the back of her tongue was an indescribable strange taste, like expired medicinal herbs. Her stomach churned violently, and her hangover nausea was instantly amplified tenfold.

Worse still, that bizarre flavor slid down her esophagus as though it possessed some magical penetrating power. Her lower abdomen suddenly tightened, and she actually had a powerful illusion that she wanted to... relieve herself.

"Wh-what is this?" Gu Yue covered her mouth, tears of physiological irritation welling at the corners of her eyes. Even her voice had gone shrill. "Tang Wulin, what did you put in this? Uranium ore?"

Tang Wulin leaned in to smell it, and his brows furrowed as well. "No way? I clearly made it according to an 'Ancestral Hangover Remedy' I found online. Dried tangerine peel, ginger, kudzu root, kudzu flowers, and... a little Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid..."

"Huoxiang Zhengqi Liquid?!" Gu Yue nearly jumped up. She stared at the bowl of "poison" in horror. "You made me drink that? Is that something people are supposed to drink?!"

"It said it helped dispel dampness and wake up the spleen..." Tang Wulin's voice trailed off, clearly realizing that something might have gone wrong.

Gu Yue looked at the bowl of hangover soup that could practically be considered a biochemical weapon, and her anger flared up again. Her hangover headache, the frustration of being forcibly made to take leave, and the extreme torment her taste buds were suffering all made her vent everything on Tang Wulin at once. "Are you trying to poison me so you can inherit my Huabei debt? Is this even fit for human consumption? It tastes worse than horse piss! No, even horse piss doesn't stink this badly!"

She slammed the spoon heavily onto the table, making the brown liquid in the bowl slosh violently.

Tang Wulin shrank his neck after being scolded, but quickly straightened up again, wearing an expression that said, "I was wrong, but I meant well." "All right, all right, my cooking skills aren't up to par. But Gu Yue, look at yourself. Hangovers hurt both your stomach and liver. How can you not drink this? I got up early and stood over the stove making it. Do you think that was easy?"

After a pause, he played his trump card. "Besides, the medicinal ingredients weren't cheap. I specifically bought them from an old-established pharmacy."

Gu Yue glared at him, her chest rising and falling. Reason told her Tang Wulin truly meant well and had even put considerable time and effort into it. Emotionally, though, that bowl of soup was testing the very limits of her endurance. She even suspected that after drinking it, she might not need to go to work today after all—she might need to make a trip to the urology or gastroenterology department instead.

Yet when she saw the traces of medicinal dregs still stuck to Tang Wulin's callused hands, the dark stains splashed across his apron, and remembered all the humiliating incidents from her past that he had listed earlier, the anger filling her chest deflated like a balloon pricked by a needle.

She took a deep breath, then slowly let it out, the strange smell of the soup still clinging to her breath. Resigned, she picked up the spoon again, gritted her teeth, scooped up a full spoonful, closed her eyes, tilted back her head, and poured it down.

"Gulp."

Swallowing was anything but smooth. The strange flavor rampaged through her mouth and throat, scrunching her whole face into a knot and bringing out a fine cold sweat at her temples. That odd urgency in her lower abdomen grew even stronger.

"Drink slowly. Don't choke." Tang Wulin hurriedly handed her a cup of warm water.

Gu Yue ignored him. She took the warm water and gulped down several mouthfuls, barely suppressing the nausea in her throat. She glared viciously at Tang Wulin, her eyes full of accusation, but her body honestly scooped up another spoonful of soup.

To finish that bowl, Gu Yue had to summon nearly every ounce of willpower in her body. She took a sip, paused for several seconds, took deep breaths, then continued. Whenever she choked, she drank some warm water to recover. Throughout the process, her expression was as twisted as if she were undergoing torture, while Tang Wulin stood beside her, hardly daring to breathe, silently refilling her warm water.

At last, the bowl was empty. Gu Yue tossed the spoon into it and collapsed into her chair as though she had just run a marathon.

"Happy now?" she asked weakly, her voice carrying the frailty of someone who had survived a disaster.

Tang Wulin immediately beamed. He swiftly cleared away the bowl of "evidence," then brought over warm porridge and side dishes. "Happy, happy! My wife is amazing! Here, have some porridge to wash that taste down. This porridge is nice and light, good for your stomach."

Gu Yue mechanically opened her mouth and let Tang Wulin feed her spoonful after spoonful of porridge. The smooth rice porridge slid down her throat, finally offering some comfort to the taste buds and stomach ravaged by the "poison soup." Yet that strange, diuretic-like sensation still refused to fade.

She secretly glanced toward the bathroom and calculated to herself. After drinking that bowl of soup and all those cups of water earlier, in a little while, she was probably going to...

Sure enough, it did not take long before Gu Yue could no longer sit still. That familiar, urgent signal came from her lower abdomen. She rose to her feet and headed unsteadily toward the bathroom. Before going in, she did not forget to turn back and shoot Tang Wulin a fierce glare, silently mouthing three words: "It's all your fault!"

Tang Wulin touched his nose, revealing an innocent yet guilty smile.

After Gu Yue finished taking care of "a major matter of life," she felt much lighter overall. Still, the subtle embarrassment of being forcibly made to relieve herself kept her resentment toward Tang Wulin at a high level.

When she came out of the bathroom, she saw Tang Wulin standing at the kitchen entrance, poking his head out with a fawning yet cautious expression. "Um... want some more porridge?"

Gu Yue snorted irritably, walked over to the sofa, and threw herself onto it. She wrapped herself into a ball with the blanket. "No. Right now, I don't want to do anything except sleep. And if you dare make me drink something like that again next time, I'll divorce you and leave with nothing. You can spend the rest of your life with your 'Ancestral Hangover Remedy.'"

Tang Wulin immediately came over like a large dog, sitting beside her on the sofa and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Don't say that, honey. I was wrong. Next time, I'll definitely improve the recipe, or... just buy a ready-made one?"

"There won't be a next time!" Gu Yue declared firmly.

"Okay, okay, no next time." Tang Wulin readily agreed, his fingers gently massaging her temples. "Does your head still hurt badly?"

Gu Yue closed her eyes. The pressure from his fingertips was just right, and it truly eased the throbbing in her head. After the exhaustion of her hangover and the ordeal of drinking that "poison soup," an even deeper wave of drowsiness washed over her.

"...A little better," she mumbled, her voice growing softer and softer.

Tang Wulin said nothing more. He simply stayed quietly by her side, stroking her hair now and then. Afternoon sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains and fell right across Gu Yue's face, casting a soft, warm glow over her pale cheeks.

Curled up in the blanket, Gu Yue listened to the steady breathing of the person beside her and felt the comfort gradually settling in her stomach and lower abdomen, along with the dull ache in her head easing away.

Although that awful hangover soup might mean she would have to make frequent trips to the bathroom, although losing over two thousand yuan in wages still made her heart ache, although being forced to take leave still left her feeling strangely empty inside...

The feeling of being cared for so wholeheartedly by someone, even a little clumsily, seemed... not bad at all.

At the very least, this moment of tranquility was a luxury she had longed for but never possessed through countless days consumed by work.

She scooted closer to Tang Wulin, found a more comfortable position, and mumbled vaguely, "Tang Wulin, you'd better remember what you said. No next time."

"Okay, no next time," Tang Wulin answered softly, a gentle curve appearing at the corner of his lips.

Gu Yue closed her eyes. Under the combined effects of the medicine—or rather, the soup—and her exhaustion, her consciousness gradually blurred. In the second before she drifted into sleep, a thought flashed through her mind: Tomorrow... no, for the rest of today, there wouldn't be any more "surprises," right?

Hopefully not. Otherwise, in her current state, she might truly be unable to resist serving Tang Wulin a bowl made from the leftover hangover soup.

But that was tomorrow's problem. Right now, sleep came first.