Chapter 11 Shen Xingjiang joins the army

It was late at night and I didn't know whose dog was barking.

The gate of the Shen family's courtyard was closed. Firecrackers were set off during the day, and the faint smell of firecrackers could be smelled at night. Liu Yeju got up to urinate at night, walked out of the toilet, holding her trouser rope and tying a knot. She saw out of the corner of her eye that the light was still on in the third room.

The dim lights swayed, and combined with the big red wedding characters posted on the windows, there was an inexplicable sense of taboo in the dark night.

Liu Yeju swallowed, walked lightly, and walked to the window of the third room like a cat.

"Xingjiang...husband...good husband, please forgive me..."

Jiang Wanwan's voice is softer than a cat's.

Just hearing this one sentence made Liu Yeju's body surge with evil fire. A woman's legs go weak after hearing this. How can the man on the kang hold on?

Liu Yeju didn't dare to eavesdrop anymore. She slapped her face hard. The pain made her sober up a little, and she tiptoed back to the second room.

Liu Yeju crawled into bed, with Jiang Wanwan's voice in her mind.

She spat in disgust in her heart: She is a reincarnated vixen, she has no self-control when it comes to pestering men at night, all the good men will be wasted on her.

"What a jerk! The kids are asleep."

Shen Erzhu hugged her from behind and lifted the clothes around her waist with his hands.

Liu Yeju held down her clothes, slapped Shen Erzhu's hand away, and sternly scolded: "You should be more restrained, save your strength to work in the fields, and earn more work points for the family. If you keep thinking about that kind of thing, the whole family will blame me if you become useless in the future!"

Shen Erzhu was turned away, and he had no place to vent his anger. He was afraid of disturbing the children, so he turned over and faced the wall angrily: "Why are you so strange today?"

Liu Yeju gritted her teeth and muttered in a low voice: "What's wrong with me? I have ideological awareness!"

She doesn't want to be a woman who clings to men.

Shen Erzhu: “…”

…

The noise in the three houses did not stop until early morning.

Jiang Wanwan fell asleep as soon as she touched the pillow. There were traces of tears on her face and fingerprints on her fair skin. Shen Xingjiang tucked the quilt tightly to make sure it was not drafty. He got up, put on his clothes, opened the door and went out.

In early autumn, the weather was cold in the morning and evening, and there was a light layer of frost on the kitchen window. Shen Xingjiang's tall and straight body passed under the window and entered the kitchen. Soon, the sound of firewood was heard in the kitchen, and bursts of mist came out.

Old Mrs. Shen had waited until the time came for her to sit on the kang and command her daughters-in-law. The cooking work at home was done by her daughters-in-law and granddaughters-in-law. Early in the morning, the women in the eldest wife, Wei Shuxiang and Xu Lan, got up early to cook.

Wei Shufen looked at the heat in the kitchen and asked curiously, "Is your second aunt up to cook?"

Xu Lan smiled: "How is that possible?"

Making breakfast is the job of the eldest wife. The sun rises from the west, and the women in the second wife will not be kind enough to help them share the burden.

Wei Shufen thought about it and agreed.

"Who else could it be?"

Xu Lan was also curious, so she walked over and opened the kitchen door. The kitchen window was not big and the light inside was dim. Shen Xingjiang, the fourth son of the Shen family, was sitting on a small stool in front of the stove, pulling the bellows with his hands. Steam was coming out of the big pot, and no one knew what was cooking.

Xu Lan thought for a moment, then smiled and said hello: "The fourth brother is boiling water for his wife to take a bath."

She was not more than twenty years old, but a few years older than Shen Xingjiang, and she usually looked after Shen Xingjiang as if he were her own brother.

Compared to his sharp words to Liu Yeju, Shen Xingjiang had a good attitude towards his sister-in-law: “Yeah.”

The water boiled, and he filled a bucket with warm water and carried it to the door, saying to Xu Lan, "There is still some left, sister-in-law, you can take it and use it to wash Sui Sui and Guo Guo's face."

Xu Lan resisted the urge to tease him: "I've thanked their fourth uncle on behalf of Sui Sui and Guo Guo."

After Shen Xingjiang left, Xu Lan said to her mother-in-law, “Old Fourth’s wife is a little more humane than usual.”

Wei Shufen prepared steamed bread for breakfast: "The fourth brother's wife is young, so it's only natural for him to take care of her. After she marries, your grandmother will definitely arrange some work for her. As the eldest sister-in-law, you should help her more."

Xu Lan prepared the water for washing her face: "Don't worry, Mom. I feel sorry for her because she is a sent-down youth and her parents are not around. I will definitely help her more."

On the other side, Shen Xingjiang used warm water to wipe off the marks he left on Jiang Wanwan. During the scrubbing process, he became impulsive several times and wanted to get into the bed and make her cry, but he still held back.

After wiping it clean, Shen Xingjiang took out a set of pink pajamas from her closet for her to change into and covered her with a blanket.

Shen Xingjiang sat by the kang and looked at her for a long time, engraving her in his mind.

He thought he would be satisfied after a while, but after looking for a full half hour, he was still reluctant to leave.

But there were more important things waiting for him to do, and he couldn't just sit on the kang and stare at her.

Shen Xingjiang forced himself to look away and went out with the bucket.

After pouring out the dirty water, Shen Xingjiang went to Old Lady Shen’s room: “Grandma, I’m going out.”

Old Mrs. Shen's gray hair was neatly combed into a bun at the back of her head.

She sat there with great momentum: "Where are you going?"

Shen Xingjiang: “Wuhuashan Military Region.”

"There is a regiment commander named Cheng who wants to recruit me into the army. He is very optimistic about me and said that he will train and promote me after I join the army."

Old Mrs. Shen smiled, but her smile was cold.

"Your mother left you and ran away. Since then, you have hated Han Chinese the most and have not spoken Chinese since you were a child. Since your wife came to our production team, you have stayed up late to learn Chinese. Now you are going to join the army. I didn't even know that our Shen family has such a romantic person like you."

Mr. Shen was sitting next to him, and he coughed indifferently: "I am also a romantic."

Old Mrs. Shen glared at him and said, "Shut up."

Mr. Shen shut up.

What Old Mrs. Shen hated was that everyone in her family spoke Chinese, but this stubborn guy didn't speak Chinese.

Just don't say it. Now, for a woman, he stayed up late for several months to learn Chinese. He was afraid that his words would sound bad, so he never dared to speak in front of Jiang Wanwan. I heard that the educated youth team thought he was a mute!

She was so angry that she snorted: "If you want to learn Chinese and join the army, I won't stop you, but you are not allowed to mess up things for your wife again!"

On the night before the engagement, this bastard actually told her that he couldn't help himself and forced Jiang Wanwan. Old Mrs. Shen was so angry that she scolded him for a long time, beat him dozens of times with a rattan stick, and made him kneel in front of the ancestral tablets to reflect on himself.

She said, how could a good educated youth marry into their family?

It turns out that he had occupied it!

Old Mrs. Shen did not like Jiang Wanwan, but her grandson had done something worse than an animal, so what right did she have to find fault?

Shen Xingjiang lowered his head and said nothing.

Old Lady Shen knew that he had heard her: "Go ahead, but you have to pay the money for joining the army."

Shen Xingjiang frowned: "No, I can pay half, and the remaining half will be left for my wife, she wants to eat well and wear good clothes."

Old Lady Shen thought of the "bullying" Jiang Wanwan had suffered, and put up with this stubborn guy: "Okay."

After telling his family where he was going, Shen Xingjiang went out. It was more than ten kilometers from the production team to Wuhuashan Farm, but thinking of his soft and delicate wife sleeping on the kang, this distance was nothing.

Jiang Wanwan had no idea that Shen Xingjiang had joined the army for her.

She slept until the afternoon, and when she woke up she was alone in the bed. Jiang Wanwan frowned, feeling as if she had a bad cold. Her throat was hoarse, her whole body ached, and she felt uncomfortable everywhere.

I don’t know what time it is, why didn’t Shen Xingjiang call her, if she gets up late, the Shen family will definitely have opinions.

Jiang Wanwan propped herself up with her arms and sat up, rubbing her neck. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the clothes placed next to her: a light yellow sweater and blue pants, neatly folded.

She picked up her clothes and put them on, and sensitively found that her body was clean and refreshed, as if she had taken a shower.