Gu Mingyan, on the other hand, had been alone until last year. Forget children, he hadn’t even found a wife. As his mother, it was impossible for her not to worry.
“Hehe,” Gu Minghua chuckled softly. When it came to having children, all his brothers had surpassed Gu Mingyan. He flatteringly pounded Xu Xianglian’s back. “Mom, let me congratulate you. Your youngest daughter-in-law is pregnant again, almost three months along. Our family is going to have… Little Nine!”
The reason Gu Mingyan and Jiang Lizhu hadn’t seen them in Fenzhou was that his wife had taken their children back to her mother’s house to nurture the pregnancy. It wasn’t convenient to bring them back to Qiaoguan Village at the moment.
The main issue was that the village was in the middle of the harvest rush. Even if his wife and children came back, Xu Xianglian wouldn’t have time to look after them.
Xu Xianglian leaned away from him disdainfully for a moment, then said, “Take one of the chickens from home to your mother-in-law’s place when you go back.”
No matter how nicely Gu Minghua phrased it, Xu Xianglian knew perfectly well that his wife didn’t like coming back to Qiaoguan Village with him. On the few occasions she had returned, she’d found fault with one thing or another.
If it weren’t for the Gu family having a more accomplished son serving in the military, that daughter-in-law would probably have shown her displeasure right to Xu Xianglian’s face.
But in these times, a city job was incredibly hard to come by. City people themselves fought tooth and nail for them. How could Gu Minghua get a permanent position through his father-in-law’s connections without paying some price?
Over the years, aside from the five yuan he mailed back each month, Gu Minghua had basically become a live-in son-in-law for his wife’s family in the city.
Gu Mingyan’s previous leaves had been infrequent. Excluding travel time, the days he could actually spend in the village were few. So far, he had never officially met Gu Minghua’s wife, whom he had married years ago.
But Gu Mingyan knew Gu Minghua’s situation. He had married a high school classmate; it was a case of “buying the ticket after boarding the train.” They had scrambled to hold a wedding banquet only after the pregnancy couldn’t be hidden anymore.
For that, Gu Mingyan had once physically disciplined Gu Minghua, but still had to step in to help clean up the mess afterwards.
After the wedding, relying on his father-in-law’s connections and help from Gu Mingyan’s comrades in Fenzhou, Gu Minghua secured a permanent job at a furniture factory in Fenzhou, and his life got on track.
After that, Gu Mingyan hadn’t paid him much attention.
They lived far apart, were both adults with their own pursuits and choices, and ultimately couldn’t control each other’s lives too much.
“Congratulations,” Gu Mingyan offered to his youngest brother, then looked back at Xu Xianglian.
“Mom, I understand your thoughts. But I wrote to tell you I was married. Why would I lie to you about something like that…” Gu Mingyan couldn’t forget the scolding Xu Xianglian had unleashed on him not long ago, nor Jiang Lizhu’s stifled laughter as she hid behind him.
Of course, Gu Mingyan also knew that not being able to return home on leave last year had raised his family’s hopes only to dash them.
But in years further past, he had also postponed or cut short his home leave multiple times due to missions, and Xu Xianglian and the rest of the family had accepted it fairly well.
Hearing this, Xu Xianglian’s eyes widened in anger, and she retorted loudly, “You dare mention the letter! Why couldn’t you write a couple more sentences about your wife’s situation? You didn’t say anything, how was I supposed to believe you!”
Xu Xianglian felt wronged too. Gu Mingyan’s letter had simply stated that through a leader’s introduction, he had submitted a report and gotten married, without a single concrete detail about the woman. The more she thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed.
“Last year when I asked you to bring her home for New Year’s, you refused again. How could I not be even more suspicious?” Xu Xianglian wasn’t satisfied with just glaring; she reached out and thumped him. “And you feel wronged? I made a huge fool of myself in front of my daughter-in-law. Who do I complain to about feeling wronged?”
Of course, before today, Xu Xianglian had her own ideas and opinions about Gu Mingyan’s marriage. She didn’t want him to find another city wife like the fourth daughter-in-law.
She would have preferred Gu Mingyan find someone in the village. Xu Xianglian always felt village girls were more suitable for a family like theirs. They’d have things in common, and even arguments wouldn’t be too severe.
Now… Xu Xianglian could only swallow all her various plans back down and pretend she’d never had them.
In truth, Xu Xianglian herself knew that Gu Mingyan was the child she could least control or manage.
“It’s my fault,” Gu Mingyan didn’t try to explain the special circumstances surrounding his and Jiang Lizhu’s marriage. He had been too caught up in his own perspective. He shouldn’t argue about right and wrong with his mother, who was, after all, a woman.
If he had even a little fault, it was basically all his fault.
“Mom, I remember the family has a palm fiber mat. Is it still there?” Gu Mingyan immediately shifted to the safest, most uncontroversial topic.
His room had looked dusty and cluttered, but it was actually just dust. Now that the miscellaneous items had been removed, the dust swept away, and everything carefully wiped down three times, it was basically clean.
But with this hard-packed earth bed in the room, Gu Mingyan knew without asking that Jiang Lizhu and the baby wouldn’t be comfortable.
“It’s there, but in this heat, do you need it?” Xu Xianglian looked at Gu Mingyan doubtfully. That mat was usually used in late autumn, before it was time to heat the bed.
Now, during these hot days and nights, people wished they could sleep in water. Who would want to put down a mat?
“Alright, alright, I’ll get it.” Xu Xianglian didn’t argue further. She went back to the master bedroom, rummaged through the trunk, and pulled out the palm fiber mat stored at the bottom.
No mildew, no odor. It had been used infrequently and stored well, so it was still usable.
After a quick cleaning, Gu Mingyan first wrapped the palm fiber mat in an old blanket from home, then spread it on the earthen bed. Finally, he laid out the sheets they had brought from Suzhou.
For the little baby’s sleeping spot against the wall, he needed to add a small mattress with a waterproof layer. If a diaper wasn’t wrapped properly and it got wet, washing a small mattress was much simpler than washing the whole sheet and drying the mattress pad.
After that, with Gu Minghua’s help, Gu Mingyan hung up the mosquito net. Both the sheets and the mosquito net were on the larger side, sufficient for the two-meter-wide kang bed.
Gu Mingyan then pulled two pillowcases and two quilts covers, one large and one small, from their luggage. One was Jiang Lizhu’s, the other was for the little baby.
Gu Mingyan rarely managed to stay under the covers at night. The quilt cover Jiang Lizhu had originally prepared for him had long been sent to the military family quarters along with everything else.
“Oh my, it really looks different after this setup. What material is this sheet? It feels cool and smooth.”
While Gu Mingyan worked on making the bed, Xu Xianglian hovered nearby, looking and touching everything, fascinated by each item Gu Mingyan pulled from their luggage.
“The pattern and color are beautiful too. I haven’t seen this in the city supply and marketing cooperative,” Gu Lanlan chimed in with her opinion.
“These are things Lizhu has always used in Suzhou. I don’t know the details. You can ask her later,” Gu Mingyan, clueless about fabrics, couldn’t answer Xu Xianglian and Gu Lanlan’s questions.
Xu Xianglian actually wanted to say that using such nice material for sheets and quilt covers was too luxurious; they would be better off saving it to make clothes.
But since Gu Mingyan had said these were all things his wife Jiang Lizhu had acquired herself and had little to do with him, she felt even less qualified to comment.
“Alright, Lanlan, go pick some vegetables from the private plot. Minghua, go to the fields and help your father and eldest brother. Remember to come back as soon as it gets dark, no matter what Second Uncle says.”
Finally, Xu Xianglian looked at Gu Mingyan. “You, take good care of your wife and son. No need for you to worry about anything else.”
Xu Xianglian deeply felt that Gu Mingyan was lucky to have found a wife, and she shouldn’t make things difficult for him. For now, she would treat Jiang Lizhu like she treated her youngest daughter-in-law from Fenzhou City.
Gu Lanlan and Gu Minghua dared not object. Hearing their instructions, they left Gu Mingyan’s room.
Xu Xianglian followed them out and immediately spotted Jiang Lizhu chatting with Gu Xiaoliu in the yard. She paused for a moment before hurrying towards the kitchen.
“Each and every one of them, their hearts are set too high…”
Xu Xianglian muttered under her breath. She had thought her fourth son was ambitious enough, but her third son was even more so, bringing home a wife who looked like a fairy.
Gu Mingyan pretended not to hear his mother’s muttering. He first went to the water vat outside the kitchen, scooped water to wash his face and hands, took off his jacket, and then approached Jiang Lizhu.
“The room is ready. I’ll take the baby inside to sleep. I boiled a pot of water in the kitchen. Do you want to wash your hair and take a bath?”
“Yes!” Jiang Lizhu looked up, her eyes instantly lighting up, her drowsiness gone. “Comrade Old Gu, love you!”
She had originally thought she’d have to endure until dark before she could wash her hair and bathe.
Gu Mingyan smiled slightly, took the baby from Jiang Lizhu’s arms, and walked briskly towards the room.
Jiang Lizhu followed closely and quickly gathered her shampoo, soap, and change of clothes.
“The family usually bathes in the woodshed. I’ll be right outside the door. If you need more hot water, just tell me,” Gu Mingyan said, going in and out a few times to prepare a basin of hot water and a bucket of water inside the woodshed for Jiang Lizhu.
“Okay,” Jiang Lizhu’s eyes curved into crescents. She grabbed Gu Mingyan by the collar, pulled his head down, stood on her tiptoes, and gave him a smacking kiss on the lips.
“Thanks, mm—”
Jiang Lizhu’s thanks weren’t fully out before Gu Mingyan silenced her, sealing her lips with his own. He channeled the pent-up frustration of the past several days back to the “culprit,” Jiang Lizhu.
After kissing Jiang Lizhu until she was dizzy, Gu Mingyan hastily ended the lingering, passionate kiss. He rubbed the back of her neck, quickly turned, and left the woodshed, conscientiously closing the door behind him.
Jiang Lizhu remained dazed for a moment longer before coming to her senses. She let out a very, very soft squeak. “Ah! So pathetic!”
Why was she always the one left dizzy from kissing? It must be because of the angle today, constantly having to tilt her head back, which really affected her performance!
Grumbling to herself, Jiang Lizhu undid the fishtail braid on the side.
Lifting the slightly warm water, Jiang Lizhu washed her hair thoroughly twice before calling Gu Mingyan in to change the water for her. Then she took a hot bath.
Jiang Lizhu’s hair was thick and dark. When it hung loose naturally, it retained a slight wave from being braided for so long, making her fair, delicate, and beautifully featured face appear even smaller.
Since she would be meeting more of Gu Mingyan’s family later, Jiang Lizhu changed into her favorite long purple dress with small white floral print.
As the saying goes, fine feathers make fine birds. One’s attire could convey a lot of unspoken information – for instance, that she, Jiang Lizhu, had money, background, and wasn’t to be trifled with.
Jiang Lizhu put her changed clothes in a plastic basin and brought it out. “Where do you do laundry?”
“I’ll put it back in the room for now, and take it to the stream to wash later,” Gu Mingyan said, looking at Jiang Lizhu, fresh from her bath, emanating a delicate and spirited radiance from head to toe. His Adam’s apple bobbed unconsciously.
Gu Mingyan tried to rein in his wandering thoughts. Understanding her concern, he nodded affirmatively. “Don’t worry, my mother won’t interfere with us in these matters.”
Even if Xu Xianglian had opinions, she wouldn’t voice them directly to Jiang Lizhu or him. And as long as she didn’t, they, who would be returning to the military unit soon, didn’t need to worry too much about it.
“Alright, I’ll leave it to you then,” Jiang Lizhu had only been asking anyway. She glanced down at her plastic slippers. “I’ll go back to the room with you to change my shoes.”
She still needed to put on her stockings and leather shoes. The stockings were to prevent mosquito bites, the leather shoes purely to match the dress nicely.
“Very beautiful,” Gu Mingyan genuinely felt Jiang Lizhu was beautiful enough without any adornment. With just a little effort, he found it very difficult to tear his gaze away from her.