Lu Chen returned home after training, carrying some food in his hand.

After placing the food on the table, I saw Shen Qiaoyue packing her luggage.

He grabbed Shen Qiaoyue from behind, pulled her close, and whispered, "So busy? You can pack tomorrow too?"

“It’s different. I wanted to pack up as soon as possible and see if I’d forgotten anything. I’ve been so forgetful lately since I gave birth!” Shen Qiaoyue turned to face Lu Chen, stared at him, and frowned slightly. “The children have been living in Beijing for the past two months. When I answered the phone just now, Xiao Nian said he missed me, and Danian was playing nearby and didn’t talk to me. Are the children not close to me anymore?”

Thinking about how long they had been apart, Shen Qiaoyue was heartbroken to hear Xiao Nian crying. Every time she answered the phone, she cried and asked for her mother.

"It's alright, it's just letting the child play over there. We'll bring her back soon." Lu Chen gently comforted Shen Qiaoyue. "Xiao Nian is a girl, it's good that she relies on you. She'll forget her worries soon, it'll be alright."

Shen Qiaoyue missed her daughter terribly.

Since waking up from her coma and regaining her memory, she hasn't spent much time with her daughter. To allow her to recuperate properly, her mother decided to take the child to live in the city of Beijing for a while.

"By the time the child comes back, he'll be old enough to go to daycare. If I leave him there, will he blame me?" Shen Qiaoyue thought about how she had to go to work and had no time to take care of her child, so she could only send him to daycare.

Lu Chen knew Shen Qiaoyue's worries.

"It's alright. The children at the military nursery are all familiar faces. Sister Shulan's Dou Dou is almost there too, and Sister Xu is also in the nursery. There won't be any problems. Every day is just like at home."

Lu Chen gently patted Shen Qiaoyue's back and lowered his head to kiss her lips.

It's so great that it's just the two of them at home, so they can say intimate things to each other anytime, anywhere.

After being kissed by Lu Chen, Shen Qiaoyue felt much better.

Looking up at Lu Chen, she said shyly, "That's all you do to comfort me. You never care about the children!"

“I worry about you, but I worry about you even more, and I feel sorry for you even more. For the past year or so, I’ve been in the north, and you’ve been taking care of the child all by yourself at home. Have you had a lot of arguments with your mother?” Lu Chen knew Shen Qiaoyue’s personality.

It's normal for two people to have different philosophies on childcare and education, and different methods of raising children.

Shen Qiaoyue avoided eye contact with Lu Chen. During the year Lu Chen was away from home, he did argue with his mother several times.

"It's strange, my sister-in-law and I rarely argue. It's only when I argue with my mother that my sister-in-law is the one who tries to mediate! Over the years, my sister-in-law must have suffered a lot of grievances at home."

Looking back now, Shen Qiaoyue realizes that her sister-in-law had always been the one silently enduring everything.

Chu Wanfang usually treats all children equally, but she simply cannot treat Shen Qiaoyue's two children equally.

The items are the same for one child and two children, but the quantity given is different.

"I bought Yuanyuan a warm sweater. This sweater is much warmer than the one I knitted myself. I've also prepared shoes!" It had been a while since they'd been apart, and Shen Qiaoyue finally had time to think about these things. "Brother Shen, how about we give Yuanyuan a really big red envelope this year, a hundred yuan?"

"So big?" Lu Chen raised an eyebrow and smiled, "This red envelope is more than a month's salary for you!"

“My sister-in-law has helped us a lot in the past, and it can’t be measured in money,” Shen Qiaoyue added.

Lu Chen pinched Shen Qiaoyue's nose and said, "I'll listen to you."

"You always say the same thing!" Shen Qiaoyue finally understood that Lu Chen only ever said this one thing to her.

Lu Chen replied with a smile, "People say that a good man is one who listens to his wife. I can't let my wife work so hard."

Shen Qiaoyue stared shyly at Lu Chen.

She angrily punched Lu Chen's shoulder and said shyly, "You're just being cheeky!"

"How am I being sarcastic? I'm just stating the facts!" Lu Chen said, then leaned in for another kiss.

"Stop kissing! After dinner, you still need to help slaughter the pig!" The New Year is just around the corner, and slaughtering a pig for the New Year is a tradition.

"Let's go out for dinner." Lu Chen led Shen Qiaoyue out by the hand.

He opened his lunchbox and said, "The cafeteria has braised pork ribs today, so I got a little extra."

When Shen Qiaoyue returned from washing her hands, the aroma of braised pork ribs made her mouth water.

"It's been so long since I've had meat!" Shen Qiaoyue swallowed hard as she looked at the meat.

Lu Chen handed chopsticks to Shen Qiaoyue and said, "I'll go slaughter a pig later and buy some meat to make you pork rib soup, braised pork ribs, and braised pork belly. I'll make sure you're happy."

"No, I'll buy some fatty pork and render some oil. We're out of oil at home. This time, the pork fat from the slaughtered pig will definitely be in high demand."

When there's no meat to eat, everyone likes to buy fatty meat to render the fat. Adding a little oil when stir-frying vegetables makes them really fragrant.

"I've ordered five catties of fatty meat, three catties of spare ribs, and three catties of pork belly from Comrade Dai Fenghe. We'll have a big meal before we go back to Beijing," Lu Chen said to Shen Qiaoyue.

"You ordered so many?" Shen Qiaoyue asked Lu Chen in surprise.

"There's not much left. We'll have Yao Yao come over for a meal, and there won't be much left!" Lu Chen thought of Jiang Jin Yao's appearance, which looked like a starving ghost reincarnated, but there was nothing he could do. She was his own sister, and he couldn't just ignore her.

"Two pigs will be slaughtered in this residential compound, and two pigs will be slaughtered in the neighboring residential compound. There are only a little over three pounds of meat, which is not much. We can't finish them, so we'll take them to Yao Yao. They'll stay here for the New Year, so there probably won't be much meat."

Lu Chen had already thought things through. Each person was only buying a small amount of meat, and the pigs raised in the family compound couldn't be bought in large quantities even with money.

“Okay.” Shen Qiaoyue didn’t say anything. There wasn’t much meat in the pig. After slaughtering the pig, Xu Miaoya would definitely keep most of it and sell some to the families in the family compound. They wouldn’t need tickets and would just give them a token amount of money.

Lately, there's a shortage of everything, and many people in the family compound haven't had meat in a long time.

"By the way, Grandma Zhao lives alone and has been sick a lot lately. When you buy some meat later, take some over." Shen Qiaoyue felt really sorry for Grandma Zhao, thinking about how she was spending another New Year alone.

Lu Chen nodded.

After dinner, Shen Qiaoyue washed the dishes in the kitchen.

Lu Chen was chopping firewood in the yard.

"Lu Chen, Grandma Zhao is dying and wants to see you?" Xu Qianli ran over and said to Lu Chen.

Upon hearing that Old Mrs. Zhao was in critical condition, Lu Chen hurriedly put down his axe and rushed to Old Mrs. Zhao's courtyard to check on her.

Upon hearing the news, Shen Qiaoyue came out of the kitchen and saw that Lu Chen had already left. She dried her hands and followed behind him.