Soon the car bypassed the two buildings and headed towards the back of them. A little distance away from the buildings, we saw a series of independent courtyards.
These courtyards all looked about the same size, with only slight differences. Liu Mingfeng drove everyone to the fifth courtyard from the building and parked right at the entrance.
After he parked the car, the people in the small courtyards on both sides heard the sound and came out to see what was going on. They were a little surprised to see Liu Mingfeng with so many people. Besides Liu Mingfeng, the two young men and two young women who got out of the car, as well as the four children, were also a little surprised. After all, they didn't think the two young women were married and had children. The two older ones were almost ten years old. How could these two women be the kind of people who could have given birth to ten-year-old children? So one of the middle-aged women on the right asked Liu Mingfeng.
"Battalion Commander Liu, you've brought your family back. By the way, which of these two women is your wife?"
Liu Mingfeng had already gotten out of the driver's seat and walked to Wu Qiaoqiao's side. He was about to lead them through the gate into the house when he saw the two families from the next two houses coming out. He was about to introduce them to his wife and the other two when he heard the inquiry. So he introduced his wife to the two families from the next house.
"Qiaoqiao, this is Sister Nie, the wife of our political commissar Sun Wenzhong. Behind Sister Nie are their children, who live to our right. And living to our left is the family of Zhou Wu, the battalion commander of the first battalion. This is Chen Mei, the battalion commander's wife, and Zhou Da Niang, the battalion commander's mother, and their children."
Liu Mingfeng introduced the neighbors of both families to Wu Qiaoqiao and her family, and then introduced all the people from both families. After Wu Qiaoqiao and her family had called their relatives, he began to introduce Wu Qiaoqiao to the neighbors.
“Aunt Zhou, Sister-in-law Zhou, Sister-in-law Nie, this is my wife Wu Qiaoqiao, this is my cousin Feng Mingyue, this is my cousin Feng Mingran, this is my cousin's husband Tan Jing, these four children are all my children, two pairs of twins, the older pair Xiang Jun and Xiang Qin are nine years old this year, and the younger pair Xiang Dang and Xiang Guo are four years old this year.”
When Aunt Zhou and the others heard Liu Mingfeng introduce the four children as theirs, and that the eldest was already nine years old, they were quite surprised, since the couple themselves didn't look very old.
Because she was the oldest among them, Aunt Zhou asked Liu Mingfeng. Although Liu Mingfeng was the battalion commander of the Third Battalion, because of his age, the families of the battalion commanders who worked with him all called him Little Liu.
"Xiao Liu, are these two sets of twins really your children? You two don't look like you have nine-year-old children."
Upon hearing Aunt Zhou's question, Liu Mingfeng and Wu Qiaoqiao exchanged a glance. They didn't intend to say anything more, as they didn't want others to know that Liu Xiangjun and Liu Xiangqin weren't their biological children. However, when Aunt Zhou asked the question, Liu Xiangjun and Liu Xiangqin's expressions changed slightly. Before they could react further, Liu Mingfeng spoke up.
“Look at what you’re saying, Auntie. Don’t you think the two children look like us? We got married early, and my wife isn’t young either. It’s just that she looks young. She looked like this when we got married, and she’s had children and we’ve been married for almost ten years now, and she still looks the same.”
Hearing Liu Mingfeng's words, Liu Xiangjun and Liu Xiangqin's expressions immediately calmed down. Feng Mingyue and the others exchanged glances, knowing that this was for the children's good, and didn't say anything more. Hearing Liu Mingfeng's words and seeing the tired faces of the adults and children, Aunt Zhou and the others knew they were tired from their journey and didn't want to keep them talking. They said goodbye to Liu Mingfeng and the others, and after exchanging farewells, Liu Mingfeng opened the courtyard gate and led everyone inside.
After everyone entered the courtyard, they closed the gate. Only through Wu Qiaoqiao and Liu Mingfeng's earrings could they faintly hear the conversations of the two families outside.
"Xiao Liu and his wife are really lucky. Judging from the size of their twins, they must have been pregnant right after they got married, and then had another pair of twins. Xiao Liu must have gotten pregnant again when she went back to visit her family."
"Xiao Liu is lucky, but his wife suffers. He's probably never home when she's pregnant. I heard that carrying twins is especially difficult."
"Yes, I heard it from my husband, Lao Sun. Xiao Liu has no parents. I imagine his wife suffered a lot during her pregnancy, since she had no parents to help her and her husband wasn't around."
When Wu Qiaoqiao and Liu Mingfeng heard this last sentence, they knew it was spoken by Sister-in-law Nie Ying, the wife of Political Commissar Sun. It seemed that Political Commissar Sun had not told his family all of Liu Mingfeng's situation. After all, when Liu Mingfeng was transferred here, Political Commissar Sun and the regimental commander knew his information clearly.
When Liu Mingfeng was transferred here and learned that he could accompany his troops, he asked the regimental commander and political commissar not to reveal his children's situation. He didn't want others to talk about two big things. After the regimental commander and political commissar learned of Liu Mingfeng's reasons, they patted him on the shoulder and praised him, promising not to disclose these things. So now, only the regimental commander, political commissar, and higher-ups know that Liu Xiangjun and Liu Xiangqin are not Liu Mingfeng and Wu Qiaoqiao's biological children.
After shutting out the conversations outside, Liu Mingfeng took his wife, children, and his three younger siblings for a walk around the courtyard. Their courtyard was built by the military, and all the buildings from the same batch were about the same size, only occasionally differing in size.
Upon entering the courtyard, one could see a house, quite large in size, with a kitchen on one side and a washroom and toilet on the other. In a corner of the courtyard, there was also a small millstone, similar to those in his hometown, and a fairly large oven. Liu Mingfeng had prepared all of this over the past six months. He then pointed out the directions to the kitchen, toilet, and washroom, indicating that those who needed to use the toilet should go there, given that they had already traveled for two hours.
So those who needed to use the toilet started lining up to go. After everyone finished, Liu Mingyi opened the front door of the house. Seeing everyone come out, Liu Mingfeng took Wu Qiaoqiao's hand and led everyone on a general tour.
The house contains a room for the couple, a room for their son and daughter, and a separate study because these prisoners had some military belongings to deal with that they couldn't let their families know about. Of course, in addition to these, a main room was also essential.
Of course, they couldn't show everyone their own room, so Liu Mingfeng gave everyone a tour of the two rooms prepared for the children. Since he was transferred here in the latter half of last year, he had been tidying up the courtyard. After all, he had to make furniture, beds, and do renovations. He had already received word that he would be staying here for quite some time, so it was a home he would be living in for several years or even more than a decade, and it naturally needed to be kept as comfortable as possible.
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