Wu Guihua was overjoyed. She ran out to the vegetable garden, cut a bunch of chives, and pulled up quite a few weeds, carefully placing them in the storage room.
After waiting two days and going in and out more than a dozen times, the chives and weeds were indeed still exactly as they had been when she first laid her hands on them.
So, the plan to tidy up the house was postponed. Wu Guihua transformed into a busy little bee, happily harvesting all the ripe fruits and vegetables in the Spatial Dimension into the storage room.
In the end, she got thirty-two baskets of apples, thirteen baskets of snow pears, forty baskets of honey peaches, and over two hundred catties of dates. Plus over a hundred catties of chives, and a hundred catties of scallions and bok choy combined!
Only the medicinal herbs on the distant hillside, which had been growing for who knows how many years, remained.
In her previous life, Wu Guihua had often gone into the mountains to gather herbs to sell in order to support her family, but the varieties of medicinal herbs she recognized were still limited.
The herbs in the Spatial Dimension were precious. If she picked them improperly, it would be a terrible waste, so she could only wait a little longer.
However, she was very familiar with the large-leaved chrysanthemums with small white flowers at the foot of the mountain. When she had gone to the military district before, she had secretly given some to Wang Yun as a "welcome gift."
But when would Wang Yun ever discover this welcome gift?
She was still waiting for the big show to begin soon…
Wang Yun had just stepped into the family compound when she sneezed twice violently.
Although more than seven or eight days had passed and the swelling and bruising on her face had mostly subsided, the storm Wu Guihua had brought was still far from over.
The school had notified her to rest well and that it would be fine to return to work in a few months.
That sounded nice, but she knew very well that the school intended to fire her.
Wang Yun smoothed her disheveled hair, feeling that the spot on her scalp that had been pulled bald was a bit chilly.
A few young married women were gathered around the faucet washing clothes together. At this moment, they took the initiative to greet her.
"Oh, Teacher Wang is back. How's Xiaojun? Is he still running a fever?"
"Mm, he's a bit better."
Wang Yun gave a vague reply and hurried upstairs, but she still couldn't avoid the gossip that crept into her ears.
"If you ask me, some people are just too good at putting on airs. Usually they seem cultured and kind, but they're actually vicious at heart. The child had only been with her for a few days, and he ended up sick."
"Exactly. When Battalion Commander Li's wife left, she specifically told them to take good care of the child. But it seems they just let that go in one ear and out the other."
"Oh, you wouldn't know this, but she's busy at night. How would she have time to cover the child with a blanket!"
"Haha, right, exactly right. She's busy. Before, I always wondered why, being an old married couple, they were so clingy every day. Now I get it. The proper wife is never as exciting as the stolen one!"
Wang Yun slammed the door shut hard, raised the clothes in her hand as if to throw them down, but couldn't bear to.
After the house had been stripped bare, even though Li Hongyuan had urgently found some tables and benches from the logistics department, the things that were missing were still countless.
She hadn't changed her clothes in a long time. The outfit she was wearing was covered in stains, and even she could smell the odor on herself.
Yesterday, she had wanted to borrow a set of clothes from a colleague she had been close with before, but that person wouldn't even open the door for her!
All of this was already annoying enough, but on top of it, that little brat Wu Guihua had left behind was as fragile as paper. There were no quilts in the house, so at night she covered him with clothes, and by morning he had a fever.
Li Hongyuan wasn't on a mission, so he would see it when he came back at night. She couldn't just ignore it, so she had to take him to the hospital.
Most of the doctors and nurses at the hospital were also military family members, passing by the ward three times a day.
She had to put on a careful and attentive appearance, coaxing the little brat. By the end of the day, she was so exhausted she wanted to kill someone!
When Li Hongyuan came back and saw the young wives gathered in the courtyard chatting, he pulled down the brim of his cap to cover his bruised eye socket and hurried back into the house.
Wang Yun heard the commotion, quickly rubbed her eyes until they were red, and began to cry softly.
"Why are you crying again? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"
Li Hongyuan hugged Wang Yun, suppressing his irritation to comfort her.
"Don't worry. I just managed to scrape together some industrial coupons. Tomorrow I can buy back the pots, pans, and bowls for the house."
Wang Yun sobbed and leaned closer into his arms.
"Hongyuan, I'm not afraid of hardship. After all, when I followed you to the military, we had nothing then either, and we got through it. I just…
"I just feel sorry for you. You've risked your life for so many years, and you were finally about to get promoted. But just because Guihua came and made a scene, everything is gone."
These words struck a chord with Li Hongyuan, and he resented Wu Guihua even more.
Just now, the organization had talked to him again. The vacancy for deputy regiment commander had been filled by another battalion commander. His dream of promotion was completely shattered!
Commissar Huang had advised him to keep a low profile and that after a few years of enduring, he would still have a chance.
But he was unwilling to accept it, and he hated Wu Guihua even more.
No matter how aggrieved or dissatisfied he was, he had already held on for twenty years. Couldn't she have held on just a little longer?
He hadn't sent his allowance home, but it wasn't intentional. He was supporting his sister-in-law and two children, and he wasn't well-off either.
Besides, back home there was a house and land. She could have scraped together something to eat anywhere. How could she have gone hungry?
In the end, it was all because Wu Guihua didn't know how to be reasonable!
Wang Yun secretly watched Li Hongyuan's expression and wiped away her tears again.
"Guihua misunderstands us, and I understand that. After all, she hasn't lived here and doesn't know how hard you've had it. But how could she be so heartless toward Xiaojun, her own flesh and blood?
Even I, as his aunt, can't bear to watch such a little child burn with fever, calling out for his mother in a daze, with no appetite, looking thin and scrawny. It breaks my heart.
Tell me, should we find someone to send Xiaojun back? After all, a child grows best when he's with his own mother."
Li Hongyuan frowned, recalling Wu Guihua's fierce demeanor, and felt a twinge of fear.
"No, I promised Wu Guihua I'd raise Xiaojun. I can't go back on my word. I suspect Wu Guihua knew Xiaojun was in poor health and forced me to concede. Let's keep raising him for a while longer. It'll just mean more work for you, so please take extra care of him during this time.
Tomorrow, buy a can of malted milk and give him plenty of it. He'll recover soon enough."
Wang Yun gritted her teeth in resentment. A can of malted milk cost dozens of yuan—how could their family afford that now?
Even if they could afford it, she had her own children to think about. Why should she spend it on that little brat!
But she couldn't speak the truth, so she forced a smile, putting on the appearance of someone wholly devoted to Li Hongyuan's interests.
"Alright, we'll just scrimp and save a bit on our own meals. We must raise the child well, after all. Xiaojun is your blood after all…"
"Yun'er, I knew you were the most virtuous and kind-hearted woman."
Li Hongyuan was deeply moved, then sighed in complaint.
"It's all that shrew Wu Guihua's fault. When my elder brother passed away, it was Mother who agreed that I would serve both branches of the family. All these years, you've been here taking care of me and this household, saving Wu Guihua so much trouble, and she still isn't grateful!"
Wang Yun sighed, "If anyone's to blame, it's me, for having you in my heart. I knew that living with you wasn't proper or legitimate, yet I couldn't bear to leave. Otherwise, I could have endured more hardship with my children, rather than having people point fingers at us behind our backs."
Li Hongyuan felt even more protective of her. "Don't worry, those people outside are just meddling in others' business. They'll forget all about it in a few months."