Li Tingyun called out, “Dabao!”
Hearing her voice, Dabao immediately ran over and clung to her leg, sweetly calling her “Mother,” so adorably that Li Tingyun’s heart nearly melted.
She gently touched the two little buns tied on top of Dabao’s head and said, “Come on, let’s go home.”
Second Treasure was still having fun and didn’t want to leave. “Mom, I still want to dig for worms!”
Li Tingyun looked at his little hands, covered in dirt. In the mud wriggled several tiny pink earthworms.
Her scalp tingled just from looking at them. She really couldn’t understand why children liked digging up worms. Seeing them alone made her feel suffocated.
She was genuinely terrified of boneless creatures.
The weather was getting hotter and hotter, and she worried the two children—who had finally become a little fairer after much effort—would get tanned again. So Li Tingyun brought out her ultimate weapon:
“If you come home now, there’ll be something delicious to eat.”
“There’s food?!” Second Treasure instantly grinned excitedly. “I want food! I want to eat lots and lots of food!”
The snacks he’d eaten over the past few days had thoroughly awakened his taste buds. Now, whenever he heard there were snacks, he ran faster than anyone else.
Second Treasure loved eating, and his cravings were immediately hooked. He gave up digging for worms and obediently followed Li Tingyun home.
After returning home, she told the two children to wash their hands themselves, then took several bananas out from her space and placed them on the table.
Once Dabao and Second Treasure finished washing up and came inside, they spotted the bananas immediately. Without needing to be told, they each grabbed one and started eating.
Third Treasure had a share too. Li Tingyun held a spoon and scraped tiny bits off the banana to feed him little by little.
After they finished eating, she stopped the two children, who were already trying to run outside again, and said, “You’re growing up now, so you should learn how to write your own names.”
Studying was boring. Dabao was older and could sit still.
Second Treasure, however, was completely different. After awkwardly tracing the strokes Li Tingyun had written in the notebook a few times, he started looking around restlessly, unable to sit still at all, as if there were nails sticking out of the stool.
Third Treasure had fallen asleep after eating his fill, and Li Tingyun didn’t bother with Second Treasure. She simply continued doing her own chores.
They had only just started learning, and she didn’t want to pressure him too much for fear of triggering a rebellious streak.
After sweeping the dust and trash from the yard, Li Tingyun thought about going to the lotus pond at noon to catch a perch to improve the children’s meals. Just then, she heard footsteps outside, followed by knocking on the door.
Li Tingyun raised an eyebrow, thinking how popular this courtyard had suddenly become. In the past, no one visited for half a year at a time, yet today alone people had already come twice in one morning.
Though she thought that, she still put down the broom and went to open the door.
When she saw who it was, she couldn’t help smiling. “You came to pay me back?”
Lin Sufen froze for a moment, not expecting Li Tingyun’s first words to be asking for repayment.
After calculating carefully, today really was the day Li Tingyun had told her to return the money. But that wasn’t why she had come.
“Ayun… I don’t have any money,” Lin Sufen said awkwardly.
“No money?” Li Tingyun repeated in surprise. “Didn’t I tell you to pay me back after three days? If you don’t have money, how dare you come to my house?”
Lin Sufen twisted the corner of her clothes in her fingers and softly said, “I really don’t have any money.”
“If you don’t have money, why come here? Why aren’t you out finding a way to repay me?” Li Tingyun asked.
After hearing those words, Lin Sufen stayed silent for quite a while.
Finally, she said, “I really don’t have any money. I might need some more time before I can repay you.”
Li Tingyun quietly stared at her.
After hesitating, Lin Sufen continued, “Ayun… I’ve already finished the malted milk powder.”
Li Tingyun still didn’t respond.
Seeing that Li Tingyun clearly had no intention of helping, Lin Sufen clenched her teeth and said, “Ayun, could you lend me a little more money this time so I can buy more malted milk powder? I need proper nutrition if I’m going to have a chance at getting pregnant. My mother-in-law said if I still can’t conceive this year, she’ll make my husband divorce me.”
Although Lin Sufen sounded pitiful, Li Tingyun still didn’t want to get involved.
Pointing at her own forehead, Li Tingyun asked with a half-smile, “Take a good look at me. Do the words ‘easy sucker’ look like they’re written on my forehead?”
Lin Sufen’s face flushed red as she shook her head. “Ayun, that’s not what I mean. I’ll definitely repay your money. Just lend it to me this once more. Once I get through this difficult time, I’ll pay you back, alright?”
“No,” Li Tingyun rejected her decisively. “I don’t have money. Neither I nor my children have ever even tasted something as luxurious as malted milk powder. Why should I prioritize you instead of my own children?”
In other words: who do you think you are?
Seeing Li Tingyun refuse to budge, Lin Sufen became anxious.
“Ayun, I really came to beg you because I’m desperate. If it weren’t for wanting a child, would I bother you like this?”
Li Tingyun scoffed. “I’m raising children myself, yet I’ve never even been willing to buy malted milk powder. How do you even have the nerve to trouble me? Every time you need to buy malted milk powder, you come asking me for money. Do you think my money blows in on the wind? Do you have any shame at all?”
Malted milk powder was considered a highly nutritious supplement in this era. For the past two years, Lin Sufen had never gone without it, and the money to buy it had all come from Li Tingyun.
Whenever she needed money, she remembered Li Tingyun. But after buying it, she conveniently forgot about her. Whenever she passed by Li Tingyun’s house, Lin Sufen wouldn’t even glance inside.
A textbook case of crossing the river and then tearing down the bridge behind her.
The original owner had always thought of them as fellow educated youths and companions, so she had willingly lent Lin Sufen money every time.
But now she was Li Tingyun, and she had no intention of being the kind fool who fed meat buns to a dog—giving things away with no hope of getting them back.
She waved her hand dismissively and said, “Hurry up and leave. Go find a way to gather the money. I expect to see you return what you owe me this afternoon.”
Lin Sufen remained rooted in place for a long time, looking at Li Tingyun as though she wanted to speak but couldn’t.
In the end, she left reluctantly.
Watching Lin Sufen’s departing figure, Li Tingyun sighed softly.
Whether someone had children or not really depended on fate. Lin Sufen and her husband had a good relationship, yet after three years of marriage, she still hadn’t conceived.
Li Tingyun herself had been single her whole life before suddenly transmigrating here and instantly becoming the mother of three children. If that wasn’t fate, what was?
Lin Sufen’s inability to have children had little to do with whether she drank malted milk powder or not. It was more about whether she had fate with children.
At noon, she cooked several simple home-style dishes. After the afternoon nap, Dabao and Second Treasure both ran off to play again.
Li Tingyun took Third Treasure into her space to soak in the spiritual spring water. After soaking comfortably, she slowly got up.
Then she brought Third Treasure along to find the older two children, while also inviting Father Yi and Mother Yi over for dinner.
Today’s old hen soup had been a gift from Mother Yi, so she wanted them both to taste the soup made from the chicken she had brought.
The day after tomorrow, she planned to go to the county town again, and she wanted to ask Mother Yi during dinner if she could come over early that morning to watch the children.