Shen Huai instinctively looked over.
“Auntie, were you talking to me?”
Shen Huai was completely unfamiliar with the neighbors on this street. He left early and returned late every day, so he had never had much opportunity to speak with them.
Auntie Mei quickly pulled Auntie Shiliu away.
“Sorry, we were just chatting among ourselves. We weren’t talking about you.”
After confirming that he had heard correctly, Shen Huai nodded and opened the door to go inside.
Lin Shu wasn’t pregnant, so they probably weren’t talking about him.
Perhaps that auntie’s hostility toward him had just been his imagination.
The next day.
Several children were playing with sand outside a family’s home where someone was repairing the courtyard wall. Their conversation was so amusing that the adults nearby couldn’t help laughing.
“My aunt had a baby! I’ll give you one little brother. You want one, right? Sister Keke wants one too, and Xiao Huan wants a little brother too. I’ll give all of you one.”
The adults sitting under the tree nearby laughed until their stomachs hurt.
“Nan-Nan, how many babies does your aunt have in her belly?”
Lin Xiaonan racked his brain for a long time before finally spreading out all his fingers.
“How do you know your aunt has a baby in her belly?”
Lin Xiaonan stood up, put his hands on his hips, and pulled Zheng Keke up with him.
“Sister Keke, you tell them. We know, don’t we?”
Zheng Keke tilted her head up.
“I’m not lying to you. Grandma Mei told Auntie Xiaojie!”
Sometimes, things said by children could actually be taken seriously.
After Auntie Mei finished breakfast that morning and tidied up her house, she went outside to chat with her old friends.
She had barely sat down when someone told her that Lin Shu was pregnant.
Auntie Mei looked at Auntie Shiliu, who was sitting opposite her.
Wang Shiliu quickly shook her head.
“It really wasn’t me who said it! I’m very good at keeping secrets. It definitely wasn’t me!”
Auntie Shiliu asked the others how they had found out.
As it turned out, every single one of them had heard it from the two little children, Lin Xiaonan and Zheng Keke.
Auntie Mei thought to herself, Oh no.
What if Jiang Jie thought she had been the one spreading the news? Wouldn’t that affect their relationship as neighbors?
“If Jiang Jie asks you about it later, you all have to tell her that those two little kids were the ones who said it!”
“People say you shouldn’t make a big deal about a pregnancy before three months. So everyone, stop talking about it. If something really happens later, I’m not taking responsibility if you get blamed for it.”
Auntie Mei felt a chill run down her back.
She didn’t even sit there for two minutes before finding an excuse to go home.
Auntie Mei’s intuition was actually quite accurate.
Jiang Jie was sitting secretly listening to them from the entrance of the front courtyard.
She had already heard most of the conversation.
Everything Auntie Mei had explained to her the day before was now completely useless. She simply didn’t believe it.
And now those two little troublemakers had caused her even more trouble.
She suddenly stood up.
“Everyone, stop chatting. Lin Shu is about to come out.”
Jiang Jie poked her head out, startling everyone.
As they were speaking, Lin Shu really did come outside and stood at the entrance of the house.
She could vaguely see the people outside.
“Sister-in-law, Nan-Nan is looking for you.”
“Coming.”
She glanced at the neighbors who were chatting, but said nothing and followed her son inside.
“I don’t think she looks pregnant.”
“Maybe it’s still too early. Didn’t Auntie Mei just say that you shouldn’t talk about it before three months?”
“That makes sense.”
The conversation quickly shifted to another topic, while Lin Shu remained completely unaware of what had been said.
After returning to the house, Lin Shu finally learned about it from her sister-in-law.
She clicked her tongue.
“No wonder. I noticed that none of them dared to look at me.”
“Let them talk. I’m not pregnant anyway. But if I don’t have a baby later, they’ll probably say I lost the baby without them even knowing.”
Jiang Jie smiled helplessly.
Only her sister-in-law could have such an attitude.
If it had been someone else, they probably would have already rushed outside to yell at those old women.
Just then, the telephone rang.
Lin Shu picked up the receiver. After hanging up, she hurried upstairs.
“Who was it, Xiaomei?”
Lin Shu hurriedly said, “Sister-in-law, the school called and said Shen Huai rescued a child who ran into the road without looking and got hit by a vehicle. I’m going to the hospital to check on him.”
“Oh my! I’ll go with you!”
The sisters-in-law hurried out one after another. Jiang Jie directly picked up her son, who was still playing in the sand.
The two women squeezed onto a bus and headed to the military district hospital.
After giving Shen Huai’s name at the reception desk, a nurse immediately led them upstairs.
“You said Comrade Shen Huai is your husband?”
The young nurse asked with slight surprise.
“Yes. Does he have an old sweetheart at this hospital?” Lin Shu asked jokingly.
“No, no! I was just surprised. Before Deputy Company Commander Shen got married, he used getting married as an excuse to turn down all the young women at our hospital. I didn’t expect that after not seeing him for a while, he really got married.”
Lin Xiaonan’s eyes widened.
“Auntie Nurse, do a lot of people like my uncle?”
“Yes, little boy. Your uncle is the most famous combat hero in our military district. People used to call him ‘the fearless one.’ He’s been a regular at our hospital and has come here more than a dozen times for all kinds of injuries. But this is actually the first time in the past six months.”
Even though Lin Shu already knew that Shen Huai had repeatedly risked his life, she couldn’t help drawing in a sharp breath after hearing the actual number of times from the nurse.
No wonder he had become a deputy company commander at such a young age.
Jiang Jie smiled silently when she heard the nurse.
So he had finally developed some concerns after getting married.
It seemed her sister-in-law had chosen the right husband.
“Let’s go. Your brother-in-law must be waiting for you.”
Lin Shu thought that Shen Huai had been through these things many times already. Since the nurse said his injuries weren’t serious, it wasn’t nearly as bad as her sister-in-law had made it sound.
The young nurse led Lin Shu to the door.
Lin Shu looked at the room number again.
After confirming that this was indeed Shen Huai’s ward, she found herself face-to-face with a whole room full of people.
Her sister-in-law had been wrong.
Shen Huai certainly had plenty of people who cared about him. How could he possibly be waiting for her?
“Are you Lin Shu? Come in!”
An auntie Lin Shu had never seen before was wearing a military uniform.
Lin Shu guessed that she must be one of Shen Huai’s superiors.
Besides the familiar Staff Officer Wu, Shao Qin, Wu Ting, and Meng Fan and his wife, there were three or four other people she had never met.
“You can all leave now.”
The first thing Shen Huai said after seeing Lin Shu was this.
The man sitting beside the bed burst out laughing.
“You brat! The moment you see your wife, you forget about the rest of us, huh?”
Shen Huai didn’t answer.
His eyes remained fixed on Lin Shu.
Lin Shu greeted everyone one by one. For those she didn’t know, she simply said, “Hello, Leader.”
“Oh my! No wonder Shen Huai insisted on marrying Comrade Lin Shu even when he had to endure my displeasure. Now that I’ve finally met you, I can see why! Shen Huai was right. We won’t disturb the two of you anymore. Come visit our home when you have time!”
Bai Yihan spoke, and everyone in the ward began filing out.
Lin Shu thought that this auntie’s position had to be higher than Staff Officer Wu’s.
Once everyone had left, she asked curiously, “Was that auntie a high-ranking official? Why does even Staff Officer Wu listen to her?”
“No. She’s the director of the Logistics Department of our military district.”
Shen Huai never talked about the private affairs of his superiors behind their backs.
“Director Bai is the wife of the commander who was sitting in that chair just now. Her husband is the highest-ranking leader in our military district the military district commander.”
“No wonder. You really are something. So many people came to visit you the moment something happened. We probably shouldn’t have come.”
Lin Shu sat beside the bed and teased him.
The next second, he took her hand in his.
“They don’t have to come. You can’t.”
Jiang Jie immediately understood the situation and quietly slipped outside to get some hot water.
Lin Xiaonan innocently asked, “Why? Auntie isn’t a doctor. Even if Uncle dies, Auntie can’t cure him.”
“Quick, knock on wood! Don’t ever say that your uncle is going to die again!”
If Shen Huai died, her biggest source of support would be gone.