The twins were making a racket until Yu Jingqiu took out a stack of photos of Mao Mao. The two exclaimed "Wow!" and huddled together to look at the photos, finally quieting down a bit.
Just like last year, they went back by horse-drawn carriage, but this time Li Yanzhong was the driver.
Yu Jingqiu answered the twins' questions from time to time until the two children got sleepy. She then took the blanket and covered them with it before sitting down next to Li Yanzhong.
In the freezing cold, the old horse walked slowly, and Li Yanzhong did not urge it on with his whip.
He held the reins and talked about what had happened in his village over the past two weeks, mentioning that Chen Yuexiang next door had divorced her husband and returned to her parents' home.
Yu Jingqiu turned her head to look at him and asked with a smile, "Did Chen Yuexiang come looking for you after she went back to her parents' home?"
Upon seeing her smile, Li Yanzhong immediately explained nervously, "I bumped into her on the way, but I ignored her."
"Why are you so nervous? I don't distrust you." Yu Jingqiu smiled gently and patted the man's hand reassuringly.
Li Yanzhong seized the opportunity to hold her hand and didn't let go for the rest of the way.
As they entered the village, they happened to run into Chen Yuexiang.
Seeing the two holding hands, Chen Yuexiang's expression changed, and finally she muttered "shameless" under her breath before turning and leaving.
The Li family was overjoyed at Yu Jingqiu's return. Her brothers and sisters-in-law were concerned about the three boys left on the island, and the elderly couple were concerned about their great-grandson.
Indeed, the Li family had already included Feng Mingshu and Zhou Jinshan as their own. When Yu Jingqiu left, the old lady took out a longevity lock for her to take to her great-grandson.
Although everyone was very welcoming, after dinner they let her go back to her room to rest and took the twins with them.
The kang (heated brick bed) inside the house had been lit early in the morning, and it was so warm that Yu Jingqiu took off her outer clothes as soon as she entered the room.
After washing up and soaking her feet, Yu Jingqiu climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed) and asked Li Yanzhong, who was busy at the foot of the bed, "Yanzhong, do you want a child?"
Li Yanzhong was stunned for a moment upon hearing this. He put down what he was holding, stood up, turned around and smiled, "Zhuzhu, Mingyu and Mingxue are my children."
Hearing this, Yu Jingqiu smiled slightly: "Don't bother, come up and sleep."
Li Yanzhong responded, got onto the kang (a heated brick bed), embraced his wife, and said gently, "Jingqiu, your body can't take any more strain. I'd be content if we just stayed together like this until we grow old."
When Yu Jingqiu saw the sincerity in Li Yanzhong's eyes, without a trace of pretense, her heart, which had been calm for many years, was suddenly stirred. She turned her head and said, "Let's blow out the lamp."
Li Yanzhong blew out the kerosene lamp and immediately felt his wife's passion, so he responded right away.
A heat wave rose inside, and the glass windows fogged up, blocking out the moonlight.
With Yu Jingqiu's return, the fur processing factory in Lijiatun resumed operations.
Initially, the quantity was small, but because of its good quality, both the commune and the county's purchasing stations were happy to buy it, and the prices they offered were fair.
Later, a state-owned garment factory in the city learned that the high-quality furs came from a processing plant in a village at the foot of the mountain, so they came directly to the factory.
The price offered was the same as that of the purchasing station, and the purchasing agent would come to pick up the goods. The village was naturally happy and immediately signed a contract.
As a result, Lijiatun became a hot spot because of this small processing plant.
Chen Yuexiang, who had just remarried at the beginning of the year, was filled with regret and wanted to move her household registration back to the village with her second husband, but she was opposed by village officials and villagers and ultimately failed.
Chen Yuexiang was furious and encouraged her mother to go to the processing plant to steal the technology. Old Mrs. Chen actually went, but was caught red-handed, which angered the whole village.
Finally, through a concerted effort, the Chen family was driven to the village where Chen Yuexiang had married.
Chen Yuexiang was still not convinced, so she got her village to build a processing plant, but the finished materials were rejected even by the purchasing station, let alone the state-owned garment factory.
After all this commotion, the Chen family was also shunned in their son-in-law's village and almost got kicked out again.
Yu Jingqiu didn't pay much attention to the Chen family, and even entrusted almost all the factory affairs to Li Yanzhong, because she discovered that she was pregnant.
The Li family was overjoyed when they heard the news, and the twins were happy too. Only Li Yanzhong didn't smile. Instead, he immediately borrowed the village's newly bought tractor and took his wife to the county hospital for a checkup.
After the examination, Yu Jingqiu held Li Yanzhong's hand and said, "Yanzhong, I want to keep this child."
"But your body..."
"I'm in good health, and the checkups showed nothing wrong, right?"
Yu Jingqiu eventually persuaded Li Yanzhong, and after the two returned to the village, life seemed no different from usual.
However, once the weather warmed up a bit, Li Yanzhong handed over most of the factory work to the deputy factory director, while he himself frequently went into the mountains with his three older brothers.
Not for hunting, but for gathering ginseng.
Therefore, he ventured deeper and deeper into the mountains, and his three older brothers' attempts to dissuade him were to no avail.
Fortunately, his efforts paid off, and six months later he found a ginseng that was a hundred years old.
When they arrived home, Yu Jingqiu was in labor. There wasn't even time to take her to the hospital. She was even breathing very weakly at one point. Li Yanzhong chewed up some freshly picked ginseng and fed it to her.
The medicinal power of the century-old ginseng was indeed strong, and in the end, both mother and daughter were safe.
After learning that her daughter-in-law had a mild heart condition, the old lady picked up her cane and beat Li Yanzhong. She then instructed her three sons that hunting in the mountains would be secondary, and gathering herbs would be their primary task.
The three Li brothers readily agreed. They had witnessed their fourth brother's frantic state during his sister-in-law's difficult childbirth, so protecting his sister-in-law meant protecting their fourth brother. How could they, as the older brothers, not care?
On the island, Feng Mingshu learned that she had a younger sister when the sister was already a month old.
It just so happened to be summer vacation, so she immediately packed her bags, took her one-and-a-half-year-old Mao Mao with her, and the three Li brothers along with her.
As they boarded the ferry, the three Li brothers waved vigorously to their cousin-in-law on the island and shouted, "Brother-in-law, don't worry, we will protect my sister and nephew!"
Zhou Jinshan looked at the three simple-minded boys with some unease, but his duty prevented him from leaving the island for long. He could only wave and watch the ferry sail further and further away.
With a whistle, the two ferries passed each other.
A young officer stood on the ferry to the island. He seemed to sense something and looked at another ferry, only to catch a fleeting glimpse of a slender figure, who appeared to be holding a child.
"Qingping, what are you looking at?"
A young woman approached the young officer and asked warily.
"I didn't see anything." The young officer suppressed his annoyance and walked to the other side.
Zhou Jinshan stood at the ferry dock for a while, preparing to leave, when a ferry pulled ashore. A young officer on board waved to him with delight and shouted, "Old Zhou, are you here to pick me up?"
Zhou Jinshan looked up in surprise: "Zhai Qingping, what are you doing here?"
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