Chapter 101 Old Stories "Did you and the doctor lie to me together...?"

Ji Yu had heard about Mu Mian's grandfather's good skills from Chen Mubai before.

But he didn't expect that the old man, who was almost seventy, still had such a strong grip.

He hadn't been inside and sat down for long when he was pulled to the wheat drying ground for a friendly competition.

After what happened upon entering, Ji Yu dared not be careless again. He concentrated and fought Lin Shanhu seriously for dozens of rounds before narrowly losing to him.

Lin Shanhu chuckled: "You little rascal, you're quite cunning."

He's so old, what doesn't he understand? Ji Yu is just letting him have his way and playing along.

However, his skills are indeed quite good; he could probably hold his own against Mu Bai.

"Alright, the tender walnuts at home are just ready to eat. They don't dare to climb the trees. Let me take you there."

Lin Shanhu casually picked up a bamboo pole, tossed it to Ji Yu, and walked towards the orchard.

On the way, he began to inquire about Ji Yu's teacher.

Ji Yu answered honestly, "I don't have a master."

"Then who taught you to fight so well?" Lin Shanhu asked curiously. Children from ordinary families could not learn such skills in a few years in the army.

Ji Yu recounted: "I grew up in the military family compound when I was a child, and I just ran around aimlessly every day. It wasn't until I joined the army that I started to formally learn combat skills."

The more Ji Yu said this, the more curious Lin Shanhu became. "Have you fought with Bai'er? Who won?"

"I've fought them, it's about 50/50," Ji Yu said with a wry smile. "But I haven't trained much since I was discharged from the army, so I definitely can't beat them now."

What's most amazing about Chen Mubai isn't his fighting ability, but that he almost never gets injured.

On the battlefield, as long as you don't get injured and can survive to the end, you're the winner.

Lin Shanhu patted his shoulder with admiration in his eyes and said proudly, "Bai'er has been practicing his kung fu with me since he was a child. It's already quite good that you can fight him to a draw."

"However, your natural talent is also very good. If you could have a mentor to guide you, your chances of winning would be even greater." Lin Shanhu was also someone who valued talent.

Hearing him say that, and remembering what Chen Mian had said in the car, Ji Yu had an idea and tentatively asked, "Grandpa, would you like to go for a walk outside?"

Lin Shanhu thought he wanted to go for a walk in the mountains. "I've been to those mountains countless times, they're no fun. You young people can go have fun by yourselves, I'm not going."

Ji Yu: "It's not in the mountains, it's even further out."

“Further out…” Lin Shanhu muttered to himself, stroking his white beard, and suddenly said, “I’ve been to your Xinjiang.”

When he was young, he followed his family in escorting goods and went to Xinjiang several times.

Back then, there were far fewer people in Xinjiang than there are now, and the area was vast. Without an experienced guide, one could easily get lost in the endless wilderness.

Later, he and his wife had two children, and with more family responsibilities, plus no one needed to do escort work anymore.

He stayed in the village, took on a few apprentices, and never went to Xinjiang again, except for occasionally helping out with short trips.

Lin Shanhu was lost in a long memory, his voice seeming to drift from afar, "Xinjiang is a wonderful place..."

"Forget about that, it's all in the past. Let's get to work."

Since following Chen Mian, Ji Yu has been very conscientious in helping with chores whenever she arrives at the Chen family home. She has harvested sunflowers, picked corn, and even plowed the fields.

Unexpectedly, my grandfather sent me to pick walnuts from the tree again.

Ji Yu: Anyone who sees this will praise me for being virtuous.

Perhaps because the Lin family took good care of them, the walnut trees grew particularly tall, estimated to be over five meters high.

The grayish-white bark is covered with cracks of varying depths, and the walnuts are tightly wrapped in dark green husks. They grow in small groups, and the branches are bent over under their weight.

Under one of the trees, a simple swing made of wooden planks was fixed with thick yellow hemp rope.

He walked closer and plucked a walnut leaf. A unique fragrance wafted over him, and the air was filled with the aroma of oil.

Lin Shanhu bent down and picked up a walnut that had already cracked open from the ground. He broke off the shell, crushed the kernel with his bare hands, and handed it to Ji Yu. "Want to try some?"

"Thank you, Grandpa." Ji Yu took the walnuts and carefully peeled off the skin from the kernels.

Beneath its yellowish-brown skin lies a snow-white kernel, which is sweet, crisp, and tender, and you'll never tire of it.

However, if you eat it with the skin on, it will be very bitter.

Once the walnuts are fully ripe and dried, the bitterness of the outer skin will gradually fade, and the taste will be closer to other types of nuts, full of oily aroma.

After Ji Yu finished eating the walnuts, she took a step forward, ready to climb the tree, but Lin Shanhu stopped her.

"You rascal, why are you so honest?" Lin Shanhu chuckled. "You brought these bamboo poles yourself, aren't you going to use them?"

Ji Yu stopped what she was doing and stared innocently at the bamboo pole on the ground next to her.

He knew, of course, that Lin Shanhu was doing it on purpose, but he couldn't openly embarrass him. In front of elders, it's always right to listen to them.

Only after Lin Shanhu nodded did Ji Yu pick up the bamboo pole from the ground again.

The two of them stepped back a few paces and knocked down a bunch of walnuts.

.

Three people stood in the Lin family's kitchen, which was neither too big nor too small.

Chen Mian sat on a small round stool in front of the stove, tending the fire with practiced ease. Lin Huijun was mixing cold dishes, while Yan Yuhua was stirring the chicken soup in the pot.

Knowing that her daughter and son-in-law were coming back, she instructed her son to go to the chicken farm to collect a large bucket of clean chicken blood and steam two full steamers of chicken blood noodles in advance.

I just went to the chicken coop and caught two old hens, killed them, and made soup.

The delicious and rich chicken soup, tender and juicy chicken meat, paired with chewy and springy chicken blood noodles, and sprinkled with chopped green onions and chili oil, instantly bring out the full aroma.

Lin Huijun's cold dishes were also ready: smashed cucumber, cold noodles, cold shredded vegetables, and a plate of fried peanuts.

When her grandson-in-law visited for the first time, Yan Yuhua was thinking of cooking a few more dishes.

Chen Mian: "Grandma, I've praised your chicken blood noodles to Ji Yu many times before we came. We want to eat this today and don't want anything else."

"And I've been craving it for so long," she said, clinging to her grandmother's arm. "Grandma, you don't know, my mom's cooking just doesn't taste like yours at all."

Yan Yuhua joked with a smile, "That's because your grandma spoiled your mom too much when she was little, and didn't pass on all her cooking skills to her."

"That's not true at all. Grandma's cooking just tastes different." Chen Mian held her bowl, secretly tasted a sip of chicken soup, and her eyes lit up.

"Grandma, please come back to Xinjiang with us."

Chen Mian put down her bowl, grabbed Yan Yuhua's arm and shook it back and forth, "I want to keep eating your cooking."

"Moreover, Xinjiang has many delicious fruits, including the flat peaches I grow, which you haven't tried yet."

Transporting peaches is inherently difficult, and Fengxi is too far from Wumu City, so even if she wanted to send them back, she couldn't.

I had no choice but to make some dried fruit and bring it back for my grandparents to try.

Yan Yuhua also wanted to visit her granddaughter, but she had a lot of things to take care of at home, so she couldn't just leave whenever she wanted.

Chen Mian looked at her pleadingly: "Grandma, please come with me. Uncle and Aunt can take care of things at home."

"What about your grandfather?"

“Bring Grandpa along too.”

He Maimiao played mahjong at Old Zhao's house at the village entrance all day, losing several tens of yuan. He was preoccupied with how to turn the tables in the next round.

When her husband forcibly dragged her back, she was always unhappy, her eyebrows drooping.

As she entered and smelled the delicious aroma, she had just lifted the kitchen curtain when she heard something about bringing or not bringing. She instantly perked up, her eyes darting around.

"Mom, are you going out to play? Where are you going? Can you take Junhui and me with you?"

Yan Yuhua was annoyed when she saw her daughter-in-law's behavior and said sternly, "Mianmian and the others came back from Xinjiang, and you didn't even ask how Qiaofang was doing. All you were thinking about was going out to play?"

He Maimiao shrank back after being scolded by her mother-in-law, and said meekly with her head down, "I know I was wrong, Mom."

"Did Qiaofang come back too? I didn't see her." She looked up and surveyed the surroundings.

Chen Mian explained, "Qiaofang's school started, and she had to go to school, so she didn't come back with her."

"Going to school? Where did she go to school?" He Maimiao's voice was already loud, and it became even louder when she got excited.

"I think this girl has really gone wild and doesn't want to come back."

Yan Yuhua couldn't stand her daughter-in-law saying such things, so she grabbed a fire poker and hit her.

"How can you, as a mother, be so heartless and say such hurtful things? I wonder who was secretly crying on the bed in the middle of the night the other day, saying she missed her daughter."

He Maimiao was surprised that her mother-in-law knew about this, and her face turned red, slowing down her movements as she dodged the stick.

"Hiss... Stop hitting me, Mom." He Maimiao changed direction and continued to dodge.

Chen Mian leaned against her mother and chuckled to herself. She could never get tired of watching her grandmother and aunt's drama.

Yan Yuhua said with exasperation, "You only have one daughter, and you don't even take good care of her. What will you do when you get old?"

“People say raising children is for old age security, and I would like to have children, but Junhui has damaged his health and can’t have any more,” He Maimiao muttered irritably.

Despite saying that, she never actually considered divorcing her husband and finding another man to have a son.

She and her husband have a great relationship, and her in-laws don't mind that she doesn't have a grandson. Only a fool would get a divorce.

Yan Yuhua suddenly put down the stick in her hand and called her name seriously, "Maimiao, do you really think it's because my son can't have children?"

He Maimiao was startled and slowly straightened up.

Yan Yuhua: "Just a few months after you gave birth to Qiaofang, you got pregnant again, but then you accidentally fell and lost the baby."

He Maimiao remembered this incident. At the time, she was in poor health and stayed in the hospital for a month, which cost the Lin family a lot of money.

At the end of the year, my husband and father-in-law went hunting in the mountains, and he fell down a slope, severely damaging his health.

For several years afterward, she was unable to conceive again. When she went to the hospital to see a doctor, the doctor said that her husband had suffered an injury and it would be difficult for him to have children again.

She even made a scene at the Lin family home because of this. Lin Junhui spent a lot of time coaxing her and promised that he wouldn't let her be looked down upon by others because she didn't have a son.

That matter was considered over. To the outside world, they only said that the two had a good relationship and that Lin Junhui couldn't bear to see her suffer and didn't want to have any more children.

He Maimiao asked in a daze, "Did you and the doctor lie to me together?"

Could it be that she is the one who truly cannot have more children...?

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Author's Note: Persistence is key to victory! Just hang in there until November, get a badge, and the story will be finished!!!