Gao Haiyue saw the calculation in her sister-in-law's eyes, and she asked Gu Qingqing with a smile, "Qingqing, what are you and Adai planning?"
"Ah?" Gu Qingqing was confused for a moment. "What do you mean, little aunt?"
"Child." Shi Rushuang reminded in a low voice.
Gu Qingqing's fingertips, which were teasing her little cousin, seemed to be on fire, as if they were burned by something. She withdrew her hand, her face as red as it could be in the light of the fire, "It's still too early..." she muttered.
"It's too late, girl," Shi Rushuang couldn't help but stir the firewood in the stove to make it burn more vigorously. "You will be eighteen in a few days. When mother was your age, she was already pregnant with your two brothers."
He Qiushui came over with the candied persimmon cake and put it on the stove. "That's right, my dear. You are now at a good age to have children. When your child grows up, you will be only 28 or 29. It will be very relaxing. It's just that it's too far away for us to help."
After hearing her mention this, Shi Rushuang remained silent.
What she was most worried about was that her daughter would follow her son-in-law to live on an island, a desolate place where she heard there was not even any fresh water to drink and they had to rely on the supplies shipped over every month.
"It's better to give birth later," she suddenly changed her mind. There was no one to take care of her on the island, and giving birth would be dangerous. "Qingqing is still young, there's no rush."
I heard that the stay on the island is five to seven years. After five years, Qingqing will only be 23 and Adai will be 26, which is not particularly old.
While they were whispering to each other, Chu Dai took out cigarettes from his pocket and passed them to his eldest and second uncles.
Shi Lianyun shook his head and said, "No one in our family smokes, put it away, kid." Since he didn't have the financial means to smoke, he couldn't afford it and had never touched it.
Shi Ji was an educated man in his early years. Unlike Gu Tiezhu, he did not smoke dry tobacco. He was also strict with his two sons, and no one in the Shi family smoked.
Chu Dai nodded, put the cigarette back in his pocket, and listened to how his father-in-law chatted with his father-in-law and brothers-in-law.
See if you can learn something useful.
Dinner was served after one o'clock. The food at the Shi family was not as good as that at the Gu family, but there were plenty of seasonal vegetables. The juicy green Chinese cabbage was very delicious and was very popular with the Gu family.
I've been eating too much meat and fish lately and I'm sick of it.
Seeing that they were all eating vegetables and not meat, Zhou Man felt distressed. "Qingqing, eat some meat. Don't save it for grandma. We don't need it during the New Year."
Gu Qingqing hummed in her mouth, and quickly picked up a piece of pork belly and put it into Chu Dai's bowl, "Stir-fried pork belly with garlic sprouts and green peppers, it's so fragrant, you try it."
Chu Dai silently picked up the pork belly in the bowl, took a bite, and ate it with rice.
Gu Qinglie was not so polite when eating. He kept changing bowls with his chopsticks. His favorite was still fried meat with dried beans. Fried meat with bamboo shoots was also okay. He liked them all and never got tired of them.
Shi Ji's eyes fell on his eldest grandson's face, and he couldn't help but say to his wife, "Canyang has become more and more taciturn. I don't know who he resembles. His father is just a little bit silly. Our daughter is not that kind of taciturn either. Why are these two brothers so different?"
Zhou Man looked at her grandson who ate with such a swagger that she couldn't help but laugh, "It's good to alternate between active and quiet. If everyone was as noisy as Qing Lie, my head would be buzzing all the time and I wouldn't have a moment of peace."
Shi Ji nodded: "That's right."
In the afternoon, Rushuang helped to wash the dishes. Gu Qingqing was a little dozed off and warmed herself by the stove. Gao Haiyue took the child into the house and went to sleep. He Qiu Shui also went to the main room to talk to her uncle and others.
"Qingqing, if you get hungry later, find something to eat by yourself. I'm going to your uncles' homes in the village and take a look around." Shi Rushuang wiped the water off her hands and said to the girl.
"Okay, I understand."
The door creaked shut, and they were the only two people left in the kitchen.
Gu Qingqing placed her leg against the man's left leg and asked him, "Are you sleepy?"
Chu Dai shook his head and added firewood to the stove with tongs in his hand: "What did mother and aunt say to you?"
When he was making tea earlier, he glanced at his wife and found that her expression looked particularly unnatural.
"Nothing," Gu Qingqing said shyly, sighing, "Just asking me when I plan to have a child."
Chu Dai paused for a moment while adding firewood. Thinking of what Zhao Ze said, that it was inconvenient to produce on the island, he felt a little headache. "Maybe later."
Gu Qingqing was stunned for a moment, the smile on her face faded a little, she lowered her eyes to look at the ashes under her feet, and withdrew her legs that were leaning against him.
The strange atmosphere between the two continued until the evening, and Shi Rushuang was the first to notice that something was wrong with the young lady.
She usually sticks very close to A-Dai, but now she doesn't want to sit next to him during meals and runs to sit next to her older brother.
Gu Canyang silently pulled out a chair for her and served her food.
Gu Qingqing took the bowl and didn't even look at Chu Dai. She just lowered her head and ate. She didn't even hear her mother calling her several times.
After dinner, Chu Dai helped to clear the table. She stood up and walked past him from the other side to the kitchen.
Even Gu Qinglie, who was carefree, noticed something was wrong. He put his hand on the back of the chair and asked the man wiping the table, "Old Chu, did you have a fight this afternoon?"
"No." Chu Dai frowned, "You also think it's wrong?"
Gu Qinglie burst out laughing.
She stood up, patted his shoulder, and said, "You must have said something that offended her accidentally. It's okay. She's easy to please. She'll be very happy if she has something to eat."
Chu Dai frowned, "You think they all look like you."
Gu Qinglie was choked by him and said, "No, you should think about it carefully first, brother-in-law. I'm going back to my room to sleep."
He swaggered out of the main room. Chu Dai cleaned the table and thought of sending the rag to the kitchen to wash it, just to test her attitude.
As a result, when I arrived in the kitchen, there was nothing there.
After washing up and returning to the room, he saw the girl curled up on the bed with her head hidden in the quilt, and closed the door quietly.
Walking to the bed, he stood there looking at the arched mass for four or five minutes before he slowly unbuttoned his clothes, took off his shoes and got into bed.
The bed creaked, and Gu Qingqing shrank towards the wall again, looking as if she didn't want to be next to him.
Chu Dai sat on the bed, tilted his head to look at the group beside him, and recalled the last conversation in the afternoon.
So you're mad because he said he wanted to have kids later?
He leaned his head against the bed, staring at the dark ceiling. The only light in the room was the flickering red light from the charcoal stove beside the bed.
"Qingqing." The man's Adam's apple rolled.
Gu Qingqing blinked her eyes under the quilt, pretending not to hear.
Chu Dai reached out to grab her waist, but she didn't stop him, didn't say anything, and didn't respond.
The man lay down, resting his chin on her neck, and just held her without saying a word.
Gu Qingqing originally had a lot of questions to ask, such as whether she wanted to have a baby with me, or why she wanted to marry me in the first place, and whether it was because of my brother's words that she acted impulsively. Her mind was a mess, and at the end she couldn't help sobbing softly, and her shoulders shook.
"Qingqing? Wife?" Chu Dai was really panicked this time.
Gu Qingqing sobbed and ignored him. She cried so much that she was so sleepy that she fell asleep.
Chu Dai didn't hear her speak for a long time, and then he took a look at her.
Fell asleep.
He felt mixed emotions, sour and upset, and always felt that he had wronged her.
If they had not gone to the island, they could have had children normally. If they had a child on the island, there would be no one to take care of her. Zhao Ze also said that he had no experience in taking care of pregnant women. A military doctor who had been in the corps with those rough old men for many years was indeed not much better.
His thoughts were in a mess and he didn't sleep until the second half of the night.
Gu Qingqing ate too many oranges and got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. When she woke up in a daze and wanted to crawl over the man, she met his dark eyes.
I suddenly woke up from my sleepiness.
She wanted to ask him why he wasn't asleep yet, but when she thought about the two of them arguing, she moved away silently.
In the end, the man grabbed her wrist.
"Chat?"
Gu Qingqing closed her eyes, then opened them again, expressionless: "Let go."
It was the first time she spoke to Chu Dai in such an impatient tone. The man was stunned for a moment and let go of her hand.
Gu Qingqing quickly got out of bed, put on her shoes, and went to the toilet. Two minutes later, she slammed the door, climbed onto the bed, lifted the quilt, and crawled into the bed, all in one go.
Her pair of large, pitch-black eyes were exposed, clear and bright, with a hint of grievance.
"Let's talk."
Chu Dai sat up slightly and stared at her for a long time. When she felt unnatural and wanted to cover her eyes with the quilt, he stopped her.
"Here's what, you tell me why you're angry today, and then I'll give you an answer, okay?" He was still not sure if she felt wronged because of that incident.
Gu Qingqing's mouth twitched, and she was a little embarrassed to speak, but she couldn't help but asked, "Don't you want to marry me?"
"No," Chu Dai didn't know why she thought so, "I was the one who applied for the marriage, and I also arranged the marriage between the Corps and the Military Region. Or do you feel tired now and don't want to get married?"
As expected, as soon as he said this, Gu Qingqing immediately became anxious, "It's obvious that you don't want to marry me! I told you this afternoon that my mother asked us why we wanted to have a child, and you said it was too early."
"Then when do you think it's not too early? When I'm old?!"
Chu Dai sighed. It was indeed because of this incident.
He didn't want to hide it from her: "Zhao Ze said there are no female military doctors on the island. It would be very inconvenient if you were pregnant. I'm also afraid...what if something unexpected happens to you."
Gu Qingqing understood half of what he said, and tears rolled down her cheeks. "But I'm not afraid. Isn't Sister Anian pregnant too? Isn't she going to the island with Brother Zhao anyway?"
She leaned into his arms, and her hands couldn't help but reach under his clothes.
"Or you said you didn't respond to me and didn't want to touch me."
Chu Dai couldn't help but laugh and curse: "...Aren't you lying with your eyes open?"
Gu Qingqing rubbed her head against his chin and said in a muffled voice, "Brother, I'm not young anymore, I'm eighteen. Mother said that when she was this old, she was already pregnant with my brother. You can't not want to have a child with me just because you are going to the island. Brother Zhao dared to bring pregnant sister An Nian with him, why are you afraid?"
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