Li Chengxi came here after having lunch in the army cafeteria. He was thinking about Lin Tao and the test results.

When he got home, he found Lin Tao sleeping on the bed. Li Chengxi walked to the bed, stretched out his arms to hug Lin Tao, and asked softly: "Have you been to the hospital? What did the doctor say?"

Lin Tao had a light sleep and woke up the moment Li Chengxi entered the room.

The reason why he didn't get up was because he knew the person coming was Li Chengxi.

She took out the list from under her pillow and handed it to Li Chengxi. Because she had just slept for a while, she spoke with a nasal tone when she woke up. She said, "The doctor said she's pregnant. It's been more than a month."

Li Chengxi took the list and took a look at it. When he heard Lin Tao's words, his joy almost overflowed from his chest. He wanted to pick her up. But he was afraid that he would accidentally touch Lin Tao's belly, so he moved very carefully.

Lin Tao was helped by Li Chengxi to sit up on the bed, and then she saw Li Chengxi put his ear to Lin Tao's flat belly to listen for any movement.

Lin Tao was amused by Li Chengxi's actions and said, "It's still very small now, only as big as a finger, how can it move?"

Only then did Li Chengxi sit up straight and laugh.

Lin Tao actually felt that Li Chengxi's smile was a little silly this time. Perhaps it was because he knew he was going to be a father and was too happy, and his whole aura dropped.

Li Chengxi stayed with Lin Tao for a while, touching her belly several times. When he saw that it was almost time, he returned to the group.

When I arrived at the regiment, I heard Wang Yuanliang bragging to a few of his close comrades: "This baby of mine is definitely a boy. The fetal movement is very strong."

"What? You keep talking about your son all the time. Are you unhappy if your sister-in-law gives birth to a concubine?"

"I don't like my girl? Don't say that there is a girl, even if there is a meatball, it is my heart. The first child has a son, and then a daughter will be regenerated so that my brother can protect the sister. If you dare to bully my daughter, my son will beat the wife at first glance, and you have no experience!"

“…”

As Wang Yuanliang was speaking, he saw Li Chengxi coming. He quickly walked over and started showing off in front of Li Chengxi again.

Wang Yuanliang: "Captain, when are you and your sister-in-law going to have a baby? You can't fall behind for too long, or you won't be able to catch up with us."

Li Chengxi glanced at him and said calmly, "Don't worry about this, your sister-in-law is already pregnant."

"My sister-in-law is pregnant?" Wang Yuanliang showed a surprised expression, and then laughed heartily, "Captain, you are really amazing!"

Li Chengxi's mouth curled up slightly. He was obviously happy in his heart, but his expression didn't show it. He said calmly, "It's just okay. Counting the days, it's only one and a half years faster than you."

This time it was Wang Yuanliang's turn to be unhappy. He nudged Li Chengxi with his elbow and said, "That's enough. This is boring."

After thinking for a while, he said, "Our two children will be born in a few months. When they are born, we can arrange a baby marriage."

In return, Li Chengxi gave him a cold glance: "Don't think too much."

Wang Yuanliang was not convinced: "Why, my child is not worthy of your child? Look around the island yourself, besides your family, is there anyone else on the island who is as good-looking as my family?"

Li Chengxi said: "There are none on the island, and there are none outside the island?"

Wang Yuanliang muttered quietly, "I'm afraid that when my sister-in-law gives birth to a daughter, you will be reluctant to marry your daughter off to a foreigner."

The two chatted and laughed as they walked forward.

*****************************

When they returned home in the evening, Lin Tao had just finished cooking, but before she put the dishes on the table, Li Chengxi quickly asked Lin Tao to sit down and put the dishes on the table.

While busying herself, she said, "Why don't we eat in the cafeteria from now on? I'll go get food every morning, noon and evening so you don't have to cook, which is too tiring."

Lin Tao found it funny and said, "It's winter vacation now and I have nothing to do. It's not tiring to cook. Besides, the food in the cafeteria is not good. I won't be able to eat anything then."

What Lin Tao said made sense, so Li Chengxi didn't say anything.

After dinner, Li Chengxi said while washing dishes: "Let's write a letter to Shanghai and Xiangcheng and tell them the news so that they can be happy too."

Lin Tao said, "Do you really need to tell me this? I wrote the letter this afternoon when I had nothing to do."

Li Chengxi nodded: "Okay, I'll take it over and mail it tomorrow."

The temperature has dropped now, and no one goes out for a walk after dinner, let alone someone like Lin Tao who is afraid of the cold. But in order to help digestion, she walks back and forth in the living room after dinner. Walking a few more laps is not much different from going out for a walk, and both can help digestion.

Before going to bed at night, Lin Tao handed the knitted sweater to Li Chengxi and asked him to try it on to see if it fit him.

Li Chengxi took the sweater and tried it on. It fit him perfectly and he looked very energetic in it.

Lin Tao nodded with satisfaction and said, "I'll make you another sweater after I finish making the one for Dad."

She discovered this when she was cleaning Li Chengxi's clothes. Li Chengxi didn't have a sweater, and now she only had the one she knitted for her. She could knit another one later so that she could have them to change into.

Li Chengxi took off his sweater and turned his hands over a few times, folding the sweater into a tofu block.

Lin Tao had seen her father folding clothes and quilts at home, just like Li Chengxi, folding them neatly, so she was no longer surprised.

Putting the sweater into the closet, Li Chengxi said, "Well, there's no rush for mine. I'll knit it for my dad first. But don't get too tired. Take care of your own body first."

Lin Tao nodded and said, "Captain Li, I think you are too nervous about me now. It's not tiring to knit a sweater. You are so nervous that I am worried about something unexpected. In fact, in my hometown, many people work in the fields with big bellies, and some even work until the day before giving birth..."

As Lin Tao spoke, she felt that they were working too hard.

It's okay to meet a man who knows how to care for them, but some men don't care for them at all. When Lin Tao was in Taohua Village, she felt sorry for those women when she saw them.

She was still young at that time, but she was thinking silently that if she got married in the future and her man treated her like their men, she would never give birth to a child for him. Or she could just not get married from the beginning, and live comfortably by herself without having to endure the anger of others!

But she was lucky. Despite her identity as a "coffin-maker", she married Li Chengxi and was spoiled by him to the extent that she is now. This was something she had never dared to imagine at the beginning.

Li Chengxi lifted the quilt and got on the bed, lying down next to Lin Tao, saying, "I can't control what others do, all I can do is be myself."

He will treat his cousin well.

*****************************

The next day, Lin Tao, Xu Yuting and Chen Shuifen got together to knit sweaters.

Xu Yuting was the slowest knitter. Lin Tao had already finished one, and Chen Shuifen had also knitted one for Zheng Hongxing. This was when she had to take care of the children and work every day. When it was Xu Yuting's turn, she had only finished half of the sweater.

But Xu Yuting was not in a hurry. She would weave for a while when she had free time. If she was really sleepy, she would put down her work and go to sleep.

Xu Yuting has been pregnant for almost five months, and her belly is a little bigger than before.

Chen Shuifen looked at Xu Yuting's belly and said, "Teacher Xu, this baby might be a son."

Xu Yuting asked: "Can you see this?"

When Lin Tao was in Taohua Village, she had heard some opinions about how to determine whether to have a son or a daughter, but these opinions were not particularly accurate.

Lin Tao thinks that this is a matter of probability. Anyway, the probability of having a boy or a girl is half each. If you guess right, then it is accurate; if you guess wrong, then it is inaccurate. Each has its own opinion.

Chen Shuifen said, "Yes, I can tell. I'm the best at reading bellies. When I was in the countryside, I could guess at least eight out of ten bellies correctly."

Xu Yuting was frightened and looked at her belly again, pouted and said, "I don't believe it, and don't you say that you can also guess wrong sometimes? Anyway, I think I'm pregnant with a girl..."

She likes daughters and wants to have one.

Chen Shuifen was puzzled: "Isn't it good to have a son? If you give birth to a son as the first child, and then give birth to a daughter, your mother-in-law and others will have nothing to say."

Xu Yuting said, "Wang Yuanliang has two younger brothers, and their families are not waiting for me to give birth to a son, so it doesn't matter what I give birth to."

At that time, the Xu family saved Wang's mother's life. Not only did they save her life, they also funded Wang Yuanliang's studies. This is how they were able to produce a military officer like Wang Yuanliang from their poor family.

The Wang family is not the kind of people who are ungrateful. When the Xu family got into trouble, Wang Yuanliang married Xu Yuting at the risk of being repercussions, and the Wang family all agreed.

Wang's mother was still worried that those red armbands would cause trouble for Xu Yuting, so she planned to take Xu Yuting to their village to live for a while, and then go to the island after the storm died down. But Wang Yuanliang assured her that the island was not as chaotic as the outside world, and even if Xu Yuting went to the island, nothing would happen, so Wang's mother gave up.

They also specifically warned Wang Yuanliang that he must be nice to Xu Yuting, and if he dared to bully her, no one in their family would forgive him.

Wang Yuanliang was quite helpless. He felt like he was raised by a stepmother and Xu Yuting was his biological daughter.

Chen Shuifen couldn't help but sigh after hearing this: "You are so lucky, you and Teacher Lin are both lucky."

Lin Tao and Xu Yuting looked at each other and said nothing.

They didn't know much about what happened in Chen Shuifen's hometown, but from the few times Chen Shuifen mentioned things about her husband's family, they could tell that her mother-in-law was not a good person.

"Unlike me, I ended up with a wicked mother-in-law." Chen Shuifen said, "I am three years older than Xiangyang's father. We have a saying that goes 'a woman three years older than her husband is more likely to bring wealth'. But at that time, the Zheng family wanted to find a wife for Zheng Youde before he went to the army, so that they could carry on the family line. I didn't expect that when I married into the Zheng family, I happened to be seriously ill. I couldn't even walk, let alone have children."

"At that time, the people in his family disliked me as soon as they saw me. They disliked me for being a sickly person and why I didn't die earlier. Sometimes when I woke up, I could hear my mother-in-law scolding me at the door and she refused to give me food. Fortunately, Xiangyang's father was there. He would feed me first and then eat. When it was his turn to eat, there was only some soup left in the pot. During that period, he never had a full meal."

"At night, I heard his stomach growling. I asked him if he was hungry, but he said no, and told me to sleep well and not to worry about anything. He also threatened me that if I said anything again, he would throw me out of bed. I was so scared that I didn't dare to say anything. Thanks to him, I might have died a long time ago. I couldn't walk, so he carried me around everywhere. After I recovered from my illness, he went to join the army..."

After Chen Shuifen finished speaking, she saw that Lin Tao and Xu Yuting both looked in disbelief and couldn't help laughing.

"You must be thinking, you never knew Zheng Youde was so nice to me before, right? If I hadn't appreciated how good he was to me back then, I wouldn't have forgiven him for being so kind to me now!"

Lin Tao and Xu Yuting had never imagined that Chen Shuifen and Captain Zheng had actually experienced all of this.

It seems that Captain Zheng is a pretty nice guy.

However, Lin Tao still couldn't accept someone like Captain Zheng. Even if she was tired enough from training in the group, Chen Shuifen was not enjoying herself at home. She had to take care of the children and do housework. It was not easy for anyone.

Without further ado, just help take care of the kids and do some housework when you get home.

However, Lin Tao also understood that there were many men like Captain Zheng, but men like Li Chengxi and Wang Yuanliang were relatively rare.

Xu Yuting said, "Captain Zheng was a pretty good guy back then, but you can't keep harbouring him just because of what happened back then. You have to let him do his job."

Chen Shuifen started to curse whenever she mentioned this: "I've always called him. I've almost scolded him to death, but he always turned a deaf ear to my words. He even said that I don't have to do anything at home, just do some housework and take care of the kids. He's already tired outside all day, why do I still let him work? This man is annoying whenever I mention him."

Lin Tao gave an idea: "Sister, since Director Zheng thinks you have nothing to do at home, why don't we do this? Forget about it this year as the Chinese New Year is coming soon. When next spring comes, I will accompany you to find Director Yang and ask her if there is any job suitable for you. Then you can find a job. Anyway, Hongxing will be three years old next year and can let go."

In fact, Lin Tao is not the type of person who likes to meddle in other people's family affairs.

Even if this person was Chen Shuifen, with whom she had a good relationship, she was not willing to take the initiative to take care of these things. After all, Chen Shuifen had never taken the initiative to mention these things to her before, so she didn't know what to say.

Since Xu Yuting mentioned it this time, she might as well say a few words of her own thoughts.

Xu Yuting nodded and agreed, "Yes, didn't Captain Zheng say that you have nothing to do at home? Then you can go to work. Then there won't be only one person working at home. Let's see what Captain Zheng says."

Seeing that Lin Tao and Xu Yuting both supported her in finding a job next year, Chen Shuifen simply made up her mind and nodded: "Okay, then I'll talk to Director Yang in the spring of next year."

She is not like Lin Tao and Xu Yuting, who are educated and can teach.

When she was in the countryside, she didn't even graduate from elementary school and only knew some common words. She never thought about going to "work" or what kind of job she could take.

But now that two knowledgeable teachers, Lin Tao and Xu Yuting, support her, she dares to do it!

After they finished talking about this, the topic turned back to the child. After Chen Shuifen finished worrying about her own affairs, she started worrying about Lin Tao's affairs.

She glanced at Lin Tao's flat belly and said, "Teacher Lin, you and Captain Li should hurry up and get pregnant. When the baby is born next year, it will be autumn, neither too cold nor too hot. It will be comfortable for both you and the baby."

After saying that, Lin Tao smiled and said, "Don't hold on tight, I've already got it."

She originally wanted to find an opportunity to tell Chen Shuifen and Xu Yuting, but when she first arrived, Chen Shuifen mentioned Xu Yuting's matter, and Lin Tao hadn't found the opportunity yet.

Just as Chen Shuifen mentioned this matter, she took the opportunity to tell her the news.

As soon as these words were spoken, Xu Yuting became excited and quickly stood up and was about to rush to Lin Tao's side.

This action of hers frightened Lin Tao. Now that they were both pregnant, it would be bad if anyone got hit by accident. She hurriedly reminded him, "Yuting, be careful."

Xu Yuting walked over to Lin Tao, touched her belly, and said jokingly, "You are pregnant too? When were you pregnant? Why didn't you tell me?"

Lin Tao said helplessly: "I just found out about it yesterday. I've been pregnant for more than a month."

Lin Tao told them about her pregnancy and her menstrual period, and then said, "If I hadn't vomited suddenly after drinking the goat milk that Teacher Zhong gave me the day before yesterday, I would not have known about it."

"Some women seem to be like this. When I was pregnant with Xiangyang, I had periods for two consecutive months. My periods were irregular at the time, and no one told me about this. I didn't know anything at the time and was particularly stupid. Later, my belly got bigger, and I thought I was getting fatter. I didn't eat anything good, so why was there more and more fat on my belly? Later, the aunt next door noticed it and asked me to go to the barefoot doctor in the village for a check-up. Then I knew I was pregnant."

When Chen Shuifen talked about the past, she felt both sad and funny.

Xu Yuting was very happy about Lin Tao's pregnancy, and said that they could raise the child together in the future.

They talked about the children again. Lin Tao changed the subject silently and asked Chen Shuifen: "Sister, are you free in a couple of days? Can you take me to the village? I want to exchange some dried goods and special products and bring them back to Xiangcheng when I return to the New Year."

When she sent things home before, apart from the tickets, Lin Tao had to use the convenient mailing tools she bought from the food factory.

Lin Tao felt that the variety of products sold at the food factory was too limited, so she thought of going to the fishermen's homes to try and exchange them to see if she could get some good stuff.

Chen Shuifen focused on the fact that Lin Tao was going back to Xiangcheng for the New Year and asked, "You are going back to Xiangcheng for the New Year? Will Captain Li go with you?"

Lin Tao shook her head: "He won't go. He has already taken leave this year, and he probably won't be able to take leave to visit his family during the Chinese New Year. We agreed before that I will go back alone this year, and he will go back with me next year."

Although she had never tried taking a long-distance train alone, she had taken a long train with Li Chengxi last time, from Xiangcheng to here.

She had some experience and felt that it would be fine for her to go back.

When she mentioned this to Li Chengxi two months ago, Li Chengxi had no objection and suggested that Xiaoning could take her back to Xiangcheng. The two of them never discussed the specific method of departure again, and Lin Tao planned to mention this to Li Chengxi again when the time came.

There is still more than a month to the Chinese New Year, so she took this opportunity to finish knitting the sweater she planned to make for her father and bring it back home when the time comes. She also bought some local specialties and dried goods and brought them home together.

It's a pity that Lin Tao's plan was disrupted by Chen Shuifen's words although it was a good idea.

Chen Shuifen said, "That won't work. You're pregnant now, and it's not like before. By then, you won't even have made it through the first three months. During the first three months, the fetus isn't stable yet, so you can't run around everywhere. You'll have to take such a long train ride back to Xiangcheng, aren't you afraid that something might happen on the way? And Captain Li won't be by your side by then. If something really happens, you won't be able to rush..."

After a pause, Chen Shuifen noticed that Lin Tao's face looked a little bad, but for the sake of the child in her belly, she could only tell the truth and continued to give examples: "There was a person in our village who lost his child while riding in a car..."

Lin Tao was frightened by Chen Shuifen's words. Her face turned pale and her hands involuntarily covered her belly because she was nervous about the baby in her belly.

Just now when Chen Shuifen mentioned that her child was gone, her heart ached.

Xu Yuting was also frightened. She quickly grabbed Lin Tao's hand to comfort her and advised, "Tao, why don't you not go back for the time being? You can come back anytime. You don't have to go back during the Chinese New Year. And there are reasons for this. For the sake of the child, your uncle will definitely understand."

In fact, Lin Tao also understood that once the letter she wrote yesterday was sent to her father and Aunt Fang, even if she wanted to go back then, her father probably would not let her go back.

Before, she had not considered that she was pregnant. She just thought that this was something she had discussed with Li Chengxi a few months ago. In addition, she had been away from home for half a year and really missed her father, Aunt Fang and Lin Manman...

Now that she can't go back because of her pregnancy, Lin Tao feels a little depressed.

This depressed feeling made Lin Tao's joy about her pregnancy fade a little. When Li Chengxi came back in the evening, Lin Tao told him about this.