Chapter 114 Attempting to Draw a Tiger but Ending Up with a Dog...
In the northern part of the city in November, it gets dark very early. By the time we finished dinner, it was not even seven o'clock, and the sky was already completely covered by twilight, which enveloped the entire courtyard.
The two children had been talking about it for a long time and finally got to eat their father's cooking. They ate so much that they collapsed on the recliner, too lazy to move.
"Mom, I'm going to check on Shuai Shuai."
Seeing that it was still early, Chen Yun packed out the things he had specially prepared for Ruanqiu and her son, intending to deliver them to the neighbor next door later.
"I'll go too!" Gao Nianping twisted his body, trying to stand up.
Dong Qiaoying put down the dining table she was clearing and walked towards Chen Yun while taking something out of her pocket: "Take the money to Ruanqiu and tell her to buy some nutritional supplements for the child."
Looking down, he saw only two coins in his open palm, and hurriedly told Chen Yun to wait.
“Shuai Shuai has suffered a lot. Tell Ruan Qiu not to hesitate to buy him nutritional supplements. Your mother and I don’t know what the child can and cannot eat, so it’s more convenient to just give him money…” Gao Tiejun looked up from the pile of parts on the ground, his hands covered in black machine oil.
Although he appears to be helping out at Gaolan Restaurant, Gao Tiejun has not actually given up on auto repair and spends his spare time learning at the vehicle repair department.
Gao Ming and Gao Lan let Gao Tiejun do whatever he wanted. Anyway, as long as the old man said so, the auto repair shop could always find room for him.
"Shirley." Gao Yi suddenly spoke up from under the eaves by the parts: "Have your second aunt take the money we prepared for Shuai Shuai with her."
At home they are grandfather and grandson, but in the world of auto repair, it's the other way around. Gao Yi is a senior engineer at the High-Speed Railway Corps, and at the dinner table, you can only hear the two of them discussing specialized car repair terminology.
Chen Yun couldn't get a word in edgewise, and Gao Ming could only occasionally play the role of a supporting character who echoed her.
"Second Aunt, you see, I'm pregnant and it's not convenient for me to visit the baby." Wang Xueli handed the prepared envelope to Chen Yun: "It's just a small token of my appreciation, please tell Aunt Ruanqiu not to mind."
Chen Yun glanced down at Wang Xueli's prominently protruding belly. If the couple hadn't returned from their checkup and said everything was normal, Chen Yun, as a doctor, would definitely have suspected they were twins.
With a six-month pregnancy, Chen Yun felt much more at ease after going through all her medical reports that afternoon.
"Don't just lie there after eating. Take a walk around in the yard. It'll help you give birth later," Chen Yun gently advised in the tone of an elder.
Although the examination report showed no major problems, excessive supplementation can cause suffering for the mother during childbirth.
"I know, Second Aunt!" Wang Xueli answered readily, but her smiling eyes made it impossible to tell whether she had truly taken the words to heart.
"This is a cotton hat I sewed for Shuai Shuai. The weather is getting colder, so make sure he wears it so he doesn't catch a cold."
Dong Qiaoying kept talking in her ear about everything, big and small, and soon stuffed Chen Yun's arms full of things she had prepared for the child.
"So much stuff!" Chen Yun even stuffed two pairs of cotton insoles into her pockets, and in the end, she couldn't carry it all, so she had to hand it over to Gao Nianping to hold.
“Your father and I have a lot of minor health issues. We’re afraid that if we go and see the child, it will damage Shuai Shuai’s… well… immunity. We’ve been saying for days that we haven’t dared to go to deliver things,” Dong Qiaoying sighed.
Wang Xueli was worried about affecting the baby in her womb, while the elderly couple were concerned about affecting Shuai Shuai.
"Shuai Shuai is still in the recovery period, so we have to be careful." Chen Yun folded the two envelopes and stuffed them into her cotton shoes. She then said something to Gao Ming before walking to the next room.
Since Li Zhong passed away, the Li family has never again seen the sight of walking birds and fighting crickets.
The other two families in the courtyard either moved out or died, and even when Li Huguo moved back home with Hu Yue'e, things didn't get lively again.
It was dinnertime, but there was no sign of cooking in the courtyard.
"Ruanqiu?"
The east wing was originally Li Yi's house. Now, the second room is occupied by Ruanqiu and her son, while the first room has been converted into a kitchen.
Through the dim light shining from the room, I could see Ruanqiu sitting alone in front of a small clay stove, the aroma of chicken soup wafting from the clay pot.
The bubbling sound of the chicken soup became the only noise in the courtyard.
Ruanqiu was startled, and just then, a burst of fire shot up from the palm-leaf fan, startling Chen Yun as well.
"Throw it away! What are you still holding it for!"
"Don't use your hands... use your feet... I'll do it!"
Pulling the flustered Ruanqiu aside, Chen Yun rushed forward and stomped out the fire with a few kicks: "What are you thinking? Trying to grab the fire with your hands."
Ruanqiu, clearly distracted, looked away.
"Go sit over there." Chen Yun sighed and first stuffed the things in his arms into Ruan Qiu's arms: "I'll start the fire."
"Nianping, wash your hands and change your clothes before entering the house."
"I'm done washing!"
While the two adults were frantically putting out the fire, Gao Nianping had already washed his hands with soap and even taken off his coat and hung it on a nail by the door.
"Shuai Shuai hasn't recovered yet, so you can just talk to each other and don't go running around," Chen Yun instructed again.
"Brother Nianping, hurry up and go inside." Li Shuaishuai was already urging impatiently from inside the house.
Confined at home every day to take medicine and rest, Li Shuaishuai looked forward to Gao Nianping's arrival the most each day. He would be happy even if Gao Nianping just talked about the weather.
Laughter soon filled the room.
Chen Yun sighed, lifted the lid of the pot and stirred it a few times before asking, "Tell me! What's wrong?"
"I'm just exhausted." Ruanqiu looked up and forced a smile that looked worse than a grimace. "Shuai Shuai's health is getting better and better, so I've suddenly lost all my energy and am now incredibly tired."
From the day she learned that her son was sick, Ruanqiu was constantly on edge, waking up several times at night to check on her child's breathing.
I never felt tired while in the hospital. I would give my life for my child's treatment.
The moment the hospital announced that the child could be discharged, the tightly held string suddenly snapped.
However, Chen Yun only believed half of it.
"If you're tired, go to sleep!" Chen Yun picked up the fire tongs and removed two pieces of overly hot charcoal. "I'll watch over Shuai Shuai tonight."
"I……"
"I think being tired is only one aspect. Is there something on your mind that you can't get over?" Chen Yun turned his head, his eyes light and casual, but Ruan Qiu sighed repeatedly in her heart.
"You understand me best."
"Tell me about it?"
"Actually, it's not a big deal." Ruanqiu suddenly stretched out her body and slowly leaned against the wall behind her. "It's just that I see Li Huguo every day, and it makes me feel suffocated."
Ruanqiu and her son lived in the east wing, while Li Huguo and Hu Yue'e lived in the west wing. She could hear them even if they spoke loudly across from each other.
Unable to change the current frustrating situation, every encounter with Li Huguo only amplified his frustration, and the pent-up anger, with nowhere to vent, eventually turned into weariness.
"You're absolutely right, I know you too well." Chen Yun gestured with her chin toward Li Huguo and his wife's house. "It's not as simple as the annoyance of living under the same roof as your ex-husband. I think you're just angry at yourself for being useless and forgiving Li Huguo so quickly!"
"..."
Ruanqiu pursed her lips, a bitter taste spreading through her mouth.
She wanted to deny it, to retort loudly, but her mouth was as if glued shut.
Because... Chen Yun spoke to her heart.
"What's there to be ashamed of? After all, we've been married for over ten years, it's normal to be soft-hearted!" Chen Yun said.
“Recently… things have really turned upside down at home!” Ruanqiu said slowly.
The trigger for the uproar was Ruanqiu and her son.
Li Huguo and Fang Fang suggested that Shuai Shuai go home to recuperate, as having more people at home could help him out.
Hu Yue'e, who already considered herself the mistress of the Li family, naturally did not want Li Huguo's ex-wife to live under the same roof as them.
The conflict naturally erupted.
“Li Huguo is a scoundrel, but he’s incredibly kind to Shuai Shuai…” Ruan Qiu hesitated, glancing at Chen Yun with a hint of shame on her face: “I’m afraid you’ll think I’m a coward, that I’ve forgotten the hurt I caused you so quickly.”
"You... still like Li Huguo?" Chen Yun asked.
"How could that be!" Ruanqiu replied decisively, her face full of disgust: "If I really fall for Shuai Shuai just because he's nice to him, then I really should go to the hospital and get my brain checked."
"Then the problem is simple, isn't it? From now on, you'll treat Li Huguo as the father of your child, not your ex-husband!"
The child's father and ex-husband represent two completely different identities.
"The child's father... ex-husband..."
"Don't overthink it. You're only living under the same roof because of Shuai Shuai. Once that connection is removed, you have no relationship."
Ruanqiu nodded slowly.
Although Chen Yun's words sounded a bit roundabout, she figured out the answer!
Li Huguo is the father of the child, and that cannot be changed. Apart from that, Li Huguo and Ruanqiu have no other relationship.
She no longer hated Li Huguo simply because he was Shuai Shuai's father. The past was the past, and Ruanqiu's hatred was slowly soothed by time.
I no longer like them, nor do I hate them anymore... From now on, they are just strangers!
After figuring this out, Ruanqiu instantly felt a sense of peace throughout her body. When she looked at the dark window again, only a faint indifference remained in her heart.
"Have you figured it out?"
“I’ve figured it out! It’s really pointless to overthink things over a nobody like him.” Ruanqiu smiled, propped herself up on her knees as she stood up: “I’ll go get another palm-leaf fan.”
Why is there no one in the yard?
"Aunt Fang and Uncle Li went to a banquet. I don't know about Li Huguo... As for Hu Yue'e, she took her son out to a restaurant."
"Are you aware that Li Huguo's caravan has recently been involved in a major incident?"
"I heard Gao Ming mention it a few times, but it didn't have much to do with me, so I didn't ask any further questions."
The nearly extinguished charcoal fire quickly reignited under the breeze of the palm-leaf fan. Ruanqiu put the charcoal that Chen Yun had taken out back into the stove, her expressionless face flickering in and out of the firelight.
"Whether Li Huguo can pull through this time or not, don't lend any of your money!"
Ruanqiu's eyes flickered slightly, and after a long while, she slowly nodded.
Although he didn't ask in detail, since they lived under the same roof, he could get a general idea of Li Huguo's current situation.
With the vehicles impounded and unable to be redeemed, the transportation department's compensation for customer losses left Li Huguo in a state of panic, desperately trying to borrow money from all sides.
They want to learn from Gaoming and enter the agricultural and fruit industry, but they lack the capacity to build cold storage and other agricultural product insurance facilities. If any link in the chain goes wrong, the entire line will collapse.
But just when Li Huguo needed money, he discovered that Hu Yue'e had withdrawn all the money in the house and transferred it to her own bank account, claiming that she wanted to save some money for the future.
Thinking of this, Ruanqiu couldn't help but sneer inwardly.
Li Huguo's belief that if Gao Ming can do it, then he can too... is pure fantasy!
Both companies faced difficulties, but while one couple was able to overcome the crisis together, the other was surrounded by onlookers waiting to see what would happen.
This is what they call "trying to draw a tiger but ending up with a dog instead"!
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