Tian Maizi spoke with full energy, “I’m not that weak. I got out of bed a long time ago.”
Li Yinglan nodded.
“You should get up, but don’t overdo it. Postpartum confinement still requires care, so you don’t harm your body.”
“I know.”
Tian Maizi gestured to the two of them to look at the children.
“These two little ones really troubled me. I thought I could carry them a few more months, but who knew they’d come early.”
Ruan Shujin gently touched the children’s faces, her entire demeanor softening.
Tian Maizi looked at both of them.
“My husband said, since you’re both military family members, this is quite the coincidence. Perhaps we’ll have a chance to meet again.”
Ruan Shujin smiled.
“No rush.”
Tian Maizi stared at Ruan Shujin, then after a moment, at Li Yinglan.
“Part of the Second Division may merge with the First. My father-in-law and husband are involved, and as for the other Second Division troops, they have a new division commander.”
Ruan Shujin frowned.
“Looking at Commander Song’s age… he’s no spring chicken!”
Tian Maizi smiled wryly. “Indeed, but we don’t know if things might turn around. I’ve heard that over at Mokou, food and water are scarce. You’ll have to be careful there. At night, prepare thick blankets and clothes, so the children won’t freeze getting up.”
Ruan Shujin held Tian Maizi’s hand.
“Don’t overthink. They have their plans; if you can avoid going, don’t go yet. These two little ones are too young. At Mokou, temperatures drop dozens of degrees below zero at night. They’d suffer.”
Tian Maizi controlled her expression.
“Okay, I’ll follow your advice. I won’t overthink. My task now is to take good care of my children.”
Li Yinglan also said loudly, “Right!”
Outside, the elderly woman looked at Commander Song in the distance, sighing. When they were young and arranged to marry, the matchmaker had called him a “mediocre man,” but she hadn’t minded at the time.
Xie Zheng stared at Song Renshu.
“Grandpa Song!”
Song Renshu immediately scolded Xie Zheng.
“You little brat, what are you thinking? You’ve been in the army all these years, not staying in the capital with your grandma, but coming here instead.”
“Grandpa Song, you’re over sixty, and you can come. I’m in my prime. Shouldn’t I come too?”
Xie Zheng didn’t intend to be disrespectful, but Grandpa Song was stubborn.
Song Renshu raised his hand.
“I know what you want to say. Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it.”
Xie Zheng wasn’t that obedient.
“I’m saying: back when you insisted on coming to Mengdu, my grandma didn’t want you to come, thinking of the family. You didn’t consider a thing. Now the whole family is here, and you want to go to Mokou. Your daughter-in-law just gave birth, and the kids are so small. Can you bear to take them there? The Second Division’s original station had better conditions, not so harsh.”
“Moreover, the higher-ups aren’t insisting you go. It’s purely because you’re stubborn.”
Song Renshu wanted to argue but only snorted at Xie Zheng.
In his eyes, every Xie family member could talk their way out of anything. As a rough man, he couldn’t win an argument.
Xie Zheng tried to say more, but Song Renshu interrupted with a hum.
“Alright, young man, why so talkative? I’ll talk to your uncle properly. I’ll listen and behave. I’m not alone anymore; my whole family is with him. If I don’t obey, he might send more people to bother me.”
Song Renshu tapped Xie Zheng with his cane.
“I won’t argue. I know you’re looking out for me. At 65, I should be retired, yet here I am in Mengdu. But Xie Zheng, you know, your grandma and I are from here. During the war, we fled. If you want me to stay in the capital for retirement, I wouldn’t. I want to work while I still can. When I truly can’t, rest assured, I’ll go back immediately.”
Xie Zheng nodded.
“You better. If you don’t listen, I’ll go find your sister.”
After saying that, he got a few taps on the leg.
Xie Zheng bounced to protect his leg, but Song Renshu was faster.
Inside the ward, while everyone was chatting happily, the children suddenly cried out, loud enough to almost shake the roof.
Tian Maizi acted quickly, feeding one child while soothing the other.
Ruan Shujin and Li Yinglan tried to calm the still-hungry child, but it wasn’t very effective.
Tian Maizi smiled and told them to set the children aside, pointing to the formula.
“Could you help prepare this? My milk hasn’t come in yet, so these few days they’ll have to drink formula.”
Li Yinglan hadn’t handled these things before, so she stayed aside, careful not to disrupt others.
Once fed, the children stopped crying.
Ruan Shujin looked at the two children.
“So adorable.”
Since getting married, Tian Maizi had been unusually talkative.
“You should have one too. Before I became a mother, I didn’t understand a mother’s feelings. Once I did, I wanted to slap my former self a few times.”
Ruan Shujin laughed at her words.
Li Yinglan looked at the swaddled children, thinking of Min Wazi as a baby. Back then, she held him day and night, never wanting to leave. Finally, she felt she had a family.
Tian Maizi sighed again, lost in thought.
“I just hope my milk comes in better. But I worry the pregnancies were too close, suppressing lactation. Even formula here is harsh. My two children might not get the full ration and will have to drink something else.”
Li Yinglan looked at Tian Maizi.
“For now, eat more foods that increase milk. Massage yourself. It might help. Close pregnancies don’t always suppress lactation. I’ve delivered many; some at the start of the year, some at the end, and milk was still fine.”
“That puts my mind at ease,” Tian Maizi said.
She thought for a moment.
“Can you leave me your names? We’re all in Mengdu anyway. Maybe we can write to each other.”
“You wouldn’t believe it, but I couldn’t read a single word before. For some reason, I was forced to learn, and now I can read many words, even if clumsily.”
“If we go to the First Division’s station at Mokou, we won’t need letters, but for now, I don’t know if we can go. It depends on my father-in-law.”
Ruan Shujin patted Tian Maizi’s hand.
“Maizi, I hope we can keep in touch by letters.”
Li Yinglan nodded.
“Yes. Family should be advised when needed. Sometimes, don’t be too stubborn. After marriage and with children, you have more to consider.”
Tian Maizi looked at her sleeping children and her eldest daughter nearby.
“Yes. In a few years, when the children are older, I’ll go to Mokou willingly.”