Chapter 175 It’s Not Easy to Be Pregnant

Yun Tangyin was chewing the locust flower cake when she suddenly noticed the flour on Fu Yucheng's ear. When she reached out to brush it away for him, her fingertips touched his hot skin.

"What else did your sister-in-law teach you?" She teased him deliberately, watching the crumbs of powder on his eyelashes fall off. "Did you learn a lot secretly?"

Fu Yucheng added a piece of firewood to the stove, sparks flew up, and his cheeks flushed. "What are you talking about? My sister-in-law said you like sweet food, so she added a handful of osmanthus sugar."

He suddenly pulled out a clay pot from the cupboard. Inside was dried locust flowers, the yellow-brown petals wrapped in fine sand. "I picked these last fall and left them to dry for a full half month. They're very fragrant."

As he was speaking, Xiaolan's footsteps were heard outside the yard, like a little bird fluttering in. "Sister-in-law!"

She rushed into the house holding a cloth bag, with a snowflake wrapped around the red string on her braid. "My mother asked me to give her some freshly pickled radishes."

Seeing the cakes in the steamer, his eyes suddenly lit up, "Can you leave some for me too? Can I have some?"

Fu Yucheng stuffed the largest piece into her hand, and the brown sugar flowed into a small stream on the cake surface: "It's fresh out of the pot, eat slowly."

Xiaolan squatted in front of the stove door holding the cake, her mouth full, and said incoherently: "It's sweeter than the date cake my mother made!"

She suddenly pointed at Yun Tangyin's belly and said, "When the baby comes out, I will bring her locust flower cake every day."

Yun Tangyin touched her belly and smiled, when she suddenly heard the squeaking sound of a cart outside the yard.

Fu Yucheng lifted the curtain and saw Zhou Desheng carrying a bag of flour and walking towards him. His army green cotton jacket was covered with snow.

"Just got some fresh noodles from the canteen," he said, placing the noodle bag on the stove and catching sight of the cakes in the steamer. "Brother Fu, have you made something delicious for your sister-in-law again? Let me try some so I can learn from her. My wife's been nagging me about it for days."

Fu Yucheng slapped his hand away: "Go wash your hands!"

Zhou Desheng walked towards the water tank with a chuckle, his military boots leaving deep marks on the snow.

"Brother Fu is becoming more and more virtuous now," he said, shaking the water off his hands as he came in, grabbed a piece of cake and stuffed it into his mouth, "My wife can do nothing but sew shoe soles."

Yun Tangyin stuffed a piece of cake wrapped in oil paper into Zhou Desheng's hand and said, "Take it back and try it. Fu Yucheng said that fermented rice wine was added when the dough was fermented. You can try it too."

Zhou Desheng walked out with the cake in his pocket, and suddenly turned around and shouted, "The regiment headquarters is showing another year-end movie this afternoon, remember to grab a seat!"

Fu Yucheng was filling a jar with locust flower cakes. Upon hearing this, he turned around and smiled, "Got it. I'll save the front row for you."

He tied the jar tightly with red paper, tying the knot quickly and evenly. "This is for my second sister-in-law. She said she wanted to eat this yesterday."

Yun Tangyin looked at the flour stains on his army green cotton jacket, and suddenly remembered that when she first got married, he even needed her help to tie his shoelaces, and she couldn't help laughing.

On the way there, the snow was less than ankle-deep. Fu Yucheng protected Yun Tangyin on the inside, with half of his body exposed in the wind and snow.

"Walk slowly," he held her hand and put it in his arms. The calluses on his palms made her itch. "The road is slippery. Don't fall."

Yun Tangyin walked forward following his footprints and suddenly found that the heels of his military boots were polished to a shine.

Song Yushuang was also at Jiang Jianhua's place. When she opened the door, she was sewing a shoe sole in her hand. There was a pair of mandarin ducks embroidered on the blue cloth. The stitches were crooked but showed her seriousness.

"Why are you here?" Jiang Jianhua led the two into the house. The clay pot on the stove was bubbling, emitting the aroma of angelica. "I just made chicken soup to nourish Yinyin."

Fu Yucheng put the locust flower cake on the table. When he opened the lid of the jar, a sweet fragrance mixed with the aroma of medicine filled the air, like spring crashing into winter.

Song Yushuang picked up a piece of cake, and the brown sugar melted at her fingertips: "It's sweeter than last year. With your cooking skills, you can go to the cafeteria to be a chef."

She poured chicken soup into Yun Tangyin's bowl. Oil floated on the surface of the soup like a thin layer of gold foil. "Drink more. This chicken is free-range in the mountains behind. It's more tender than the one in the cafeteria."

Yun Tangyin was drinking soup when she suddenly saw a red date at the bottom of the bowl, round and plump like a small red lantern.

When I got home, the snow had stopped and the sunlight made the snow look white.

The red lanterns outside the courtyard gate were still swaying, and the red silk surface looked even brighter against the snow.

Yun Tangyin heard the rabbit in the bamboo cage jumping around, and she peeked into the kitchen through the railing.

"Are you hungry?" She threw a piece of locust flower cake into the cage. The rabbit picked it up and turned around and ran away. Its round body hit the cage and made it creak.

Fu Yucheng squatted beside the cage and laughed: "This little thing is even greedier than you."

In the evening, Mrs. Li came with her child to borrow soy sauce. The child was holding a piece of locust flower cake in his hand, and his face was covered with sugar residue.

"The whole regiment's families know about your steamed cakes." She put a bowl of pickled vegetables on the stove. "I'll give you some freshly pickled mustard greens to go with the porridge."

The child suddenly pointed at Yun Tangyin's belly and shouted something incoherently.

Fu Yucheng stuffed a piece of freshly steamed cake into the child's hand, and watched the child giggle while holding the cake in his hand. He suddenly leaned towards Yun Tangyin.

Yun Tangyin added a piece of pine wood to the stove, and the flames leaped up, casting Fu Yucheng's shadow on the wall, and the outline of his army green cotton jacket flickered.

"Mrs. Li's child is really smart," she said, smiling as she poured millet porridge into a bowl. The rice oil on the porridge looked like a layer of shiny amber. "He's only a little over a year old, but he knows how to protect his food. He holds the cake like a treasure."

Fu Yucheng reached out and gathered the loose hair on her forehead. His fingertips were stained with some flour, leaving a white mark between her eyebrows.

Suddenly, the sound of a movie projector came from outside the yard, mixed with the laughter of the soldiers' families.

Mrs. Li’s voice was especially clear and resonant: “Yinyin! Hurry up and bring Yucheng over! Tunnel Warfare is about to begin!”

Just as Yun Tangyin was about to get up, Fu Yucheng had already found a thick cotton-padded jacket with a thick camel hair lining, which was sent by Song Yushuang a few days ago.

"Put this on," he helped her button up her cotton jacket, his fingertips brushing her red earlobes from the cold, "It's windy outside, don't let it give you a headache."

The rabbit in the bamboo cage probably heard the noise and suddenly scratched the bars with its front paws. Yun Tangyin threw a carrot into the cage and said with a smile, "Be good, we'll come back and give you more grass after we finish watching."

The screen in the center of the playground has been set up, and the white cloth is blown up by the wind, like a white bird spreading its wings.

Fu Yucheng found a clean wooden board for Yun Tangyin to sit on, and he squatted beside her, his military boots making a slight squeaking sound as he stepped on the snow.

Zhou Desheng's wife came over with a jar of pickled vegetables, her blue cloth jacket stained with frost. "I saved a piece of bacon for you. I'll stew it with cabbage tomorrow. It'll be perfect with your locust flower cake."

When the movie showed the Japanese invaders entering the village, the children suddenly shouted in unison, "Beat them! Beat them!", scaring Mrs. Li's child so much that he shrank into his mother's arms. The locust flower cake in his hand fell to the snow, and the red sugar grains mixed with the white snow looked like a handful of broken agate.

It was dark when the show ended. The moonlight made the snow look like it was covered with a layer of silver. Fu Yucheng walked home with Yun Tangyin in his arms. His military boots stepped on the snow, leaving a series of footprints of varying depths.

"Are you tired?" He lowered his head and asked, resting his chin on the top of her head, inhaling the scent of soapberry in her hair. "I should have let you rest in the house. Your hands and feet are freezing."

Yun Tangyin shrank into his neck, her laughter mixed with the wind and drifted far away: "I'm not tired, you're more beautiful than the movie."

As soon as I entered the yard, I heard the rabbit in the bamboo cage grunting. It was probably very hungry.

Fu Yucheng put Yun Tangyin on the small stool in front of the stove door and added a handful of alfalfa into the cage. The rabbit immediately pounced on it and chewed the grass with its three-lobed mouth, making a rustling sound.