When Ding Qiunan came out of the bathroom, Li Chu was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring intently at the two sleeping babies.
Every now and then, I would reach out and touch their little hands, which were clenched into fists and sticking out from under the quilt.
He felt a soft, delicate body press against him from behind, and she wrapped her arms tightly around him.
Li Chu sat up straight, slowly turned around and hugged Ding Qiunan in his arms, only then noticing that there were still tears on her face.
"What's wrong? Are you still feeling unwell?" Li Chu reached out and cupped her small face.
Ding Qiunan shook her head without saying a word, but pressed her face back against Li Chu's chest.
Seeing that she didn't seem to want to talk, Li Chu didn't ask anything more. He simply put his arm around her body and gently patted her back.
The room fell silent for a moment, with only the panting of Xiao Hei with its tongue sticking out.
After a while, Ding Qiunan raised her head to look at Li Chu, her eyes filled with tenderness, and kissed Li Chu's lips deeply.
After a long while, their lips parted.
"Li Chu, let's be together in the next life, okay?"
Without saying a word, Li Chu whispered a few lines of lyrics in her ear.
"Because I don't know if I will meet you again in the next life, that's why I try so hard in this life to give you the best."
"Ugh, can't you just comfort me?" Ding Qiunan reached out and patted his chest.
"Wife, the next life is too far away for us. We are only in our twenties. In this life, I will love you and cherish you."
"Me too!" Ding Qiunan snuggled back into his arms and hugged him tightly.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Chu heard the breathing in his arms gradually become calmer. Looking down, he saw that Ding Qiunan had fallen asleep in his arms.
I carefully placed her on the bed, then pulled up the blanket to cover her, and covered the light bulb with newspaper before going to the bathroom to wash up.
After washing up, I stood by the bed and looked at the mother and her two children, who were sleeping soundly side by side.
Li Chu felt a sharp pang in the softest part of his heart.
At that moment, he felt that his heart could hold nothing else but to stay with them, take good care of them, and prevent them from suffering any harm.
One downside of having twins is that if one cries, the other will definitely wake up and cry too.
Li Chu barely slept tonight, while Ding Qiunan managed to sleep for more than two hours at first.
The two little ones cried when they were hungry, cried when they wet themselves, and cried when they pooped.
By the time everything finally calmed down, it was already dawn.
Li Chu heated up the leftover millet porridge from last night and steamed a bowl of egg custard for her. After she had eaten and drunk her fill, he told her to go to sleep quickly.
As for himself, well, he doesn't need to sleep anyway. One or two nights without sleep is nothing to him given his current physical condition.
Li Chu walked out of the house and went straight to the boiler room.
He cleaned up the boiler thoroughly and prepared to start using it today.
The daytime temperature has been okay these past few days, but it's still a bit chilly at night. I'm worried he'll catch a cold when I wash his bottom at night.
After the boiler is lit, the fire can be turned down during the day to keep it warm at night.
After cleaning up the boiler, I checked the coal in the coal shed. The coal left over from last winter was enough to burn for a while.
I need to tell my brother-in-law later and ask him to ask his friend at the Materials Bureau to issue me another coal ticket.
Now everything is too troublesome, and you can't buy things even if you have money.
Not to mention that now you need industrial vouchers; you need them even to buy a towel.
When did these gas cylinders first come out?
Li Chu's mind raced again. If there were a gas cylinder, wouldn't cooking and boiling water be much more convenient?
I don't know when it came out, but I haven't seen it in Beijing yet.
But he had seen it in the newspaper; it seemed that it already existed in Shanghai and the Northeast.
My mind was wandering, but my hands didn't stop.
The boiler was already filled with water. He picked up firewood from the ground and stuffed it into the furnace, then poured some kerosene on it. He lit a piece of paper to ignite the firewood, and once it was burning, he took a shovel and slowly added coal into the furnace.
Footsteps sounded behind him, but Li Chu didn't pay attention; he was staring into the furnace.
"Xiao Chu, why are you starting the boiler now?"
The person who came was Li Chu's mother-in-law. When she saw Li Chu starting to light the boiler, she asked him a question.
“Mom, it’s still a bit chilly at night. I’m worried that Qiu Nan will catch a cold when she gets up to breastfeed and clean the baby’s bottom.”
After hearing Li Chu's words, Ding's mother felt a little incredulous. "It's because your family has the means. What about other families who don't?"
No more births in winter? Everyone's choosing to give birth in summer?
"Xiao Chu, aren't you being a bit too wasteful?"
Hearing his mother-in-law's words, Li Chu turned around and looked at her, saying, "No way, Mom, we have the means, why should we suffer instead?"
Well, after Li Chu said that, Ding's mother was completely at a loss for words.
They're right. If you have the means to enjoy life, who would choose to suffer?
Besides, they were only thinking of her daughter.
She had also heard Ding's father tell her that her son-in-law earned almost as much in a month as many people earn in a year.
Once Ding Ma understood this, she stopped nagging.
"Alright, you can burn it then, I'll go make breakfast for us."
"Mom, don't bother making breakfast."
Li Chu pulled out a handful of loose change from his pocket without counting it, then pulled out a few grain coupons and handed them all to Aunt Ding.
"Go to that restaurant outside the alley and buy some steamed buns, and bring back a few bowls of tofu pudding. There are a lot of people and time is tight in the morning, so you can just buy them from outside."
Looking at the money and food coupons in her hand, Ding Ma said, "This is too much."
"Take this first, I think we don't have much food left. Go to the market tomorrow morning and buy some more. Qiu Nan needs to eat more fresh vegetables. I'll get you some meat coupons later."
After shoveling in another shovelful of coal, he continued, "Tomorrow, please cut some more meat, but no fatty meat, and more lean meat. Qiu Nan can't eat lard or fatty meat right now."
Listening to her son-in-law's explanations, all of which revolved around her daughter, Ding's mother didn't know whether to laugh or not.
Before my daughter got married, I was afraid she wouldn't find a good husband, but now I'm not worried about mother-in-law/daughter-in-law issues.
But isn't the son-in-law spoiling his daughter a bit too much?
Ding's mother felt that even she couldn't stand it anymore.
"Xiao Chu, I'm really happy that you're so good to Nan Nan, but you can't go too far. You'll spoil her rotten."
Li Chu put down the shovel, turned around and smiled at Ding Ma, saying, "Mom, what are you saying? If I don't spoil my wife, who will?"
"Hey Chu, let me make this clear: I don't offer returns or exchanges here!"
Ding's mother was genuinely happy that her daughter had married such a man, and she even joked about it.
"Don't worry, Mom, it's impossible in this lifetime."
"Alright, alright, this is your young people's business. I'm too old to understand. You guys go ahead and do your thing. I'm going to buy some food."
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