Chapter 76
Old Mrs. Li was eager to return home. It just so happened that there was a car going to the city that night. Disregarding Li Hanxing and Li Jinfeng’s pleas, she packed her bags and hitched a ride to Wushi.
By the time Ye Qingzhi and Yang Xiaorou heard the news, Old Mrs. Li was already on the train back to her hometown.
“Jinfeng, why didn’t you tell us your mother-in-law was leaving? We should have at least seen her off,” Yang Xiaorou said, patting Li Jinfeng’s arm unhappily.
“My mother-in-law didn’t let me say,” Li Jinfeng said, holding Yang Xiaorou’s hand and linking her arm with hers. “My mother-in-law is just like that. Hey, how about we have hot pot for lunch? The vegetables are ready, and I still have some cured meat.”
Li Jinfeng swallowed as she spoke.
Ever since she had given birth, the food Old Mrs. Li had made for her had been very light. This was a real torment for the heavy-flavored Li Jinfeng. Now that Old Mrs. Li was not here, Li Jinfeng immediately thought of hot pot.
“We can have hot pot, but you can’t eat too heavy. Old Mrs. Li repeatedly told us to watch you,” Ye Qingzhi said, looking at Li Jinfeng with amusement.
Sure enough, Old Mrs. Li knew Li Jinfeng well. She knew that as soon as she left, Li Jinfeng would definitely feign compliance. So she had asked Ye Qingzhi and Yang Xiaorou for help early on.
But she probably hadn’t expected that Li Jinfeng would instigate Ye Qingzhi and the others to eat hot pot on the second day after she left.
“I didn’t want to eat too heavy, just a little stronger flavor. You don’t know how light the food my mother-in-law made for me was. My mouth is about to taste like a bird,” Li Jinfeng said with a long face.
Just in time, when she had her full-month celebration, neither Ye Qingzhi nor Yang Xiaorou had attended. At that time, they had said they would cook a table just for themselves. Why not today?
Li Jinfeng had her own vegetables and also provided a piece of cured meat. Ye Qingzhi brought some dried kelp, Gu Yao brought eggs, and Yang Xiaorou brought two sausages.
When the children came home from school and He Qiming and the others got off work, a group of people gathered around the pot to eat. It was more lively than the New Year.
“Why the sudden craving for hot pot?” Shen Qingyuan asked Yang Xiaorou in a low voice.
“We eat it when we want to. Why so many questions?” Yang Xiaorou asked, noticing that Li Jinfeng was secretly adding chili to her bowl. She immediately tapped her chopsticks with her own. “Your Tingting is prone to internal heat, and you still have to breastfeed. It’s better not to eat chili.”
Li Jinfeng awkwardly put the chili in Li Hanxing’s bowl. “I was getting it for Hanxing.”
Worried that Yang Xiaorou was being too direct and would hurt Li Jinfeng’s pride, Shen Qingyuan quickly changed the subject. “Old He, that comrade of yours in Dong Province, what happened? He sent you another telegram today.”
Dong Province? Hearing this place name, He Jingyan’s gaze flickered.
“It’s nothing serious. It’s already been resolved,” He Qiming said indifferently.
“Then what about your hometown’s matter? If you need any help, just let me know,” Shen Qingyuan said sincerely.
Not to mention that he and He Qiming had a good relationship, just with Yang Xiaorou and Ye Qingzhi’s closeness, if he, as her husband, could help, he of course had to.
“Of course. When I need to trouble you, I will definitely not be polite,” He Qiming said with a smile, picking up his cup and clinking it with his.
After a full meal, the men went to work, and the children went to school. Only Yangyang and Haohao, the two little rascals, were left playing in the yard.
“The Dr. Chu you asked me to inquire about, I’ve already inquired. His father is an engineer, and his mother is a teacher at a technical secondary school. He has an older sister who is a year older than him and is already married. His qualifications are not bad,” Yang Xiaorou said as she cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, telling Ye Qingzhi the news she had gathered.
“Then what was Cao Liyan so smug about?” Ye Qingzhi had thought she had found a family with a powerful background and wanted to use them to deal with them.
Yang Xiaorou shook her head. If she knew what Cao Liyan was thinking, then she would be the same as Cao Liyan.
He Qiming had also asked someone to inquire about Dr. Chu’s identity. The news he got was a little different from Yang Xiaorou’s.
Dr. Chu was not the biological child of his current parents, but the son of Engineer Chu’s good friend.
“Not biological?” Ye Qingzhi sat up with a whoosh. “Then who is his biological father?”
He couldn’t be the illegitimate son of some big shot, could he? That would be too dramatic.
“He was a very great scientist. I’m not sure who exactly. You shouldn’t inquire anymore in the future. Dr. Chu’s identity is not a problem,” He Qiming said. When he had found out that Dr. Chu was not Engineer Chu’s biological child, he had been warned.
If it weren’t for his clean family background and the many merits he had accumulated, he might have been taken for investigation.
Ye Qingzhi instantly understood what he meant. Dr. Chu’s father should be the kind of scientist who had hidden his identity. For this kind of person, Ye Qingzhi had sincere admiration.
“I know,” Ye Qingzhi nodded. Thinking of the telegram Zhang Qingyuan had mentioned at the dinner table, she asked casually.
“It was a telegram from Old Lin. It’s still about Zhang Xianjuan. She’s in the process of divorcing her current husband,” He Qiming said with a sarcastic look.
The man she had abandoned her husband and son to marry was now abandoning her for another woman.
“Are you saying that her current husband has gotten involved with someone else, and that woman is pregnant, so he wants to divorce Zhang Xianjuan?” Ye Qingzhi frowned. She didn’t care if Zhang Xianjuan was getting a divorce, she was just worried that she would affect He Jingyan.
“I know what you’re worried about,” He Qiming said, gently smoothing Ye Qingzhi’s brow. “With Old Lin watching, it’s impossible for Zhang Xianjuan to come over, and she wouldn’t dare to.”
What she had done back then was not just a moral issue. If it were pursued, it would be a crime, and she would have to go to jail.
Even though time had passed, with the army’s protective nature, it was impossible for them to let her bully the child of a martyr.
Hearing He Qiming’s explanation, Ye Qingzhi breathed a sigh of relief. He Jingyan was in the family compound. Even if Zhang Xianjuan came over, she wouldn’t be able to get close.
“That’s good. I really feel sorry for Jingyan. How could he have met such a mother?” Ye Qingzhi said, lowering her voice, worried that He Jingyan would hear. “Did your comrade say if they can get a divorce? After the divorce, what will happen to Zhang Xianjuan?”
“It’s ninety-nine percent certain they’ll get a divorce. Her husband’s mistress is already pregnant. If it gets out, that peddler’s job will be gone, and he might even have to be sent down for re-education,” He Qiming sneered. “You don’t have to worry about Zhang Xianjuan. She’s very capable. She definitely won’t suffer a loss.”
“Why would I worry about her? I’m just curious,” Ye Qingzhi said with a pout. How could she worry about Zhang Xianjuan?
Although Dr. Chu’s parents were great, Cao Liyan was still annoying. So Ye Qingzhi and Yang Xiaorou did not go to her wedding.
Li Jinfeng went for Jin Xiuli’s sake. When she came back, her face was full of faint envy.
“What, was Cao Liyan’s wedding very grand?” Yang Xiaorou asked with a smile.
“Not really. In this situation, who would dare to be grand? But Dr. Chu is really very thoughtful. He made a very large floral arch and also hung a lot of balloons at home. Tsk, tsk, my husband and I have been married for so many years, and he’s never even given me a flower,” Li Jinfeng said with a pout. “Have you seen Dr. Chu before? He’s very pretty, gentle and scholarly, like a scholar from the old days.”
“Have you seen a scholar from the old days?” Yang Xiaorou asked her with a laugh.
“I’m just making a comparison,” Li Jinfeng said, pushing Yang Xiaorou’s arm. “It seems that being picky has its benefits. Just look at Cao Liyan. She really picked a good one.”
But Cao Liyan’s temper was really bad. Even though she was married now and had let Cao Liya attend her wedding, she still hadn’t forgiven her. In any case, the two sisters did not speak at the hospital.
This day, Yang Xiaorou said that Bai Xue had been having a stomachache recently and had not had much of an appetite. She didn’t know if it was from taking medicine.
“Could she be pregnant?” Ye Qingzhi had always felt that Bai Xue and Xu Kaisheng had not been pregnant because of genetic incompatibility.
And now, Xu Kaisheng and Zeng Huijun had gotten pregnant as soon as they got married. As for Bai Xue not being pregnant yet, it might be because the time was not right, or it might be because she had taken too much medicine in the past few years, which had caused some problems with her body.
Now that her body was conditioned, it was normal to get pregnant.
Obviously, Yang Xiaorou had never thought in this direction. Hearing Ye Qingzhi say that Bai Xue might be pregnant, she was taken aback for a moment and reflexively shook her head. “Impossible.”
“Why is it impossible?” Ye Qingzhi asked, looking at Yang Xiaorou in confusion. “Her body has always been very healthy, and her current husband’s body must also be fine. And with a doctor like Old Hu helping to condition her body, since that’s the case, isn’t it very normal to get pregnant? I think you should hurry up and take her to the hospital for a check-up. Don’t take medicine randomly anymore. What if she’s really pregnant and something happens?”
Yang Xiaorou stood up with a whoosh and quickly said to Ye Qingzhi, “I’ll go and find Bai Xue,” and ran off.
When she arrived at Bai Xue’s house, she happened to see her about to drink some medicine and quickly stopped her. “Wait a minute. Don’t drink it yet.”
“What’s wrong?” Bai Xue asked, looking at Yang Xiaorou in confusion.
“Xiaoxue, tell me your recent symptoms in detail again,” Yang Xiaorou said with a serious expression.
“It’s just that I feel nauseous and want to vomit when I brush my teeth in the morning. I don’t have much of an appetite, but I get hungry very quickly. And my heart is pounding. It should be a stomach problem. I took some stomach medicine that day, and it got a little better,” Bai Xue said, clutching her stomach.
The more Yang Xiaorou listened, the more it sounded like the symptoms of pregnancy. It was just that she hadn’t thought in this direction before. She seriously pulled Bai Xue. “Come on, let’s go to the hospital for a check-up.”
“Why go to the hospital? I just have an ordinary stomach problem. I’ll be fine after taking some medicine. I don’t need to go to the hospital,” Bai Xue said with a smile.
“Don’t you think your symptoms are very much like the reaction after pregnancy? In any case, you should go to the hospital with me for a check-up now,” Yang Xiaorou said, pulling Bai Xue again. She couldn’t move her. When she looked back and saw her standing there in a daze, she suddenly regretted it. What if she wasn’t pregnant? Bai Xue would definitely be very disappointed. “I’m just suspecting. Let’s go and have a check-up first.”
“Are you saying my symptoms are like pregnancy?” Bai Xue looked at Yang Xiaorou in a daze, then shook her head with a smile. “Impossible. If I were pregnant, how could I not feel it?”
“Aren’t these reactions of yours the reactions of pregnancy? Let’s go and have a check-up first. What if?” Yang Xiaorou pulled Bai Xue forward again. This time, she was able to pull her.
While waiting for the results at the hospital, the two of them were very nervous. It wasn’t until the results came out and they heard the doctor say that she was really pregnant that Bai Xue burst into tears, squatted on the ground, and wailed.