Chapter 80

After lunch, the village head went back, the other families had to go to work, and Xu Ran was going to town to get medicine for Liu Tong. After borrowing the carriage of Wu Mei’s family, he put more than ten bamboo tubes of seafood chili paste into his pack basket, then put the pack basket on the carriage, and drove it to town.

During the New Year holiday, the price of the lot for parking ox-carts had increased. In the past, the fee was ten cents for a day and five cents for half a day, but now the price was eight cents for a day. It was expensive indeed.

Xu Ran wanted to save time, so he didn’t care about these few cents and went to Mr. Chen’s  restaurant with the pack basket on his back.

When Xu Ran arrived, Mr. Chen was using an abacus to do accounts, looking happy. It seemed that the business here was quite good.

Carrying his pack basket, Xu Ran went over to say New Year’s greetings to Mr. Chen. “Mr. Chen, Happy New Year! May your business boom! May you have plenty of money!”

Looking up, Mr. Chen saw Xu Ran and greeted him back with a smile, “Happy New Year! What good things are there in your pack basket, Xu Ran? You have to replenish the chili paste for me. I’ll have nothing to sell after the New Year holiday.”

Xu Ran put down his pack basket, took out the chili paste, and said, “Mr. Chen, I’ve brought it to you, haven’t I? But I changed its taste this time. It’s easy to be fed up with a single taste. Do you want to have a try?” Xu Ran said as he handed a piece of bamboo in his hand to Mr. Chen.

No doubt, Mr. Chen would try it. He asked the waiter to fetch a pair of chopsticks. After tasting it, he said to Xu Ran, “This taste is good. It tastes very fresh, better than the previous one. Xu Ran, you are going to sell this to me with the previous price, right?” Mr. Chen asked Xu Ran with a little uncertainty.

Xu Ran clapped his hands and said, “Of course. Mr. Chen, our cooperation is a long-term cooperation, so there is no such thing that I ask for a higher price just because the taste has been changed. I haven’t brought much here today. You can sell it and see the result first.”

Xu Ran passed his pack basket to the waiter, asking him to put away the chili paste, and he began to settle accounts with Mr. Chen.

Mr. Chen not only paid the money for Xu Ran’s chili paste but also gave him a red envelope.

Holding the red envelope in his hand, Xu Ran looked at Mr. Chen in confusion and asked, “What do you want by doing so, Mr. Chen?”

“You just take it as my gift for thanking you. Last year, it was you who helped me. Without your chili paste and chestnuts as well as the idea you came up with, I wouldn’t have done such a good business so easily! This is just a show of my little gratitude. Please don’t refuse it.”

Since Mr. Chen spoke so sincerely, it was unsuitable for Xu Ran to continue saying anything. He took the money pouch, put it somewhere on himself, carried the pack basket taken out by the waiter, and said, “Mr. Chen, I’m leaving now. My spouse is injured, and I have to go and buy him medicine.”

“Why is your spouse injured, Xu Ran? This is the New Year holiday.”

“It’s not a big deal. Just a small injury. I’ll talk with you next time,” Xu Ran said as he left hurriedly.

Mr. Chen bit his tongue upon hearing that.

After thinking about it for a while, Mr. Chen asked the waiter to come over, handed him a teal of silver, and said, “Buy some tonics and send them to the person who came to deliver goods just now. You know him, right? Just tell him that it’s a show of my little solicitude and let him accept them.

“OK, don’t worry, Mr. Chen!” The waiter took the silver and went out immediately.

Xu Ran was worried about Liu Tong’s injury and was also worried that the Xu Family would come to make trouble again when he was not at home, so he walked extremely fast. First, he took the prescription Doctor Liu provided to the pharmacy, and then he went to the place where meat was sold hurriedly after buying the medicine.

He wanted to buy some pig livers to enrich Liu Tong’s blood, but unfortunately, he didn’t know where he could find red jujubes. It would be better if he could get red jujubes and Chinese wolfberries and make soup with them.

When Xu Ran had made his purchase and hurried to the bull cart parking lot, someone suddenly came out from behind him, “Mr. Xu, Mr. Xu, wait.”

Xu Ran looked back and saw the waiter serving the guests at Mr. Chen’s luxurious restaurant. Since he had met him just now, he asked, “Is there anything I can do for you, young man?”

The waiter handed those paper bags in his hands to Xu Ran and said, “Mr. Xu, these are what our manager asked me to buy. He says that this is a show of his solicitude and hopes you accept them.”

Without giving Xu Ran a chance to refuse, he disappeared instantly.

“Hey, young man, young man, young man,” Xu Ran called out a few times from behind, but he was ignored, so he had to put the paper bags into his pack basket, thinking about thanking Mr. Chen next time.

Back at home, Xu Ran boiled the medicine for Liu Tong and also bought two old hens from a villager’s home, planning to cook chicken soup for him.

What the waiter gave him happened to contain the jujubes and Chinese wolfberries he wanted.

So he simply put them into the chicken soup.

The pig livers were fried to eat, but he dare not let Liu Tong eat chili, so he didn’t add much chili into it. Instead, he just put a little to get a taste.

Xu Ran had been busy until the evening since he came back from town so that he hadn’t even had a meal, which made Liu Tong feel quite guilty.

So, he spoke to himself in his mind that he should never get injured in the future.

During the days Liu Tong was injured, Xu Ran served him in the way of serving a woman who had just given birth.

…

As for Zhuo Yun, he accepted Xu Ran’s suggestion and took Qin Shuwen to his dad-in-law’s home on the eighth day of the lunar New Year.

Initially, Qin Shuwen refused to go, but Zhuo Yun said that he was pregnant and there was no elder in the family, so they had no idea about many things that needed their attention and it was better to go back and ask his daddy-in-law to give them a reminder.

Qin Shuwen said that some old nannies in the house had the experience of giving birth and it was enough to find some of them to take care of him, so why did they have to travel so far?

On hearing this, Zhuo Yun became a little angry and refuted, “No matter how good the old nannies in our home are, can they match your biological daddy? If these old nannies have a little bad intention, the child will be in danger. Will your daddy do harm to you? Have you ever thought about the child?”

Qin Shuwen was a little sad when hearing Zhuo Yun’s words and pouted, refusing to look at him, but he agreed to go home with Zhuo Yun.

No matter how Qin Shuwen was unwilling, he would not treat the child in his belly casually. Seeing that he agreed, Zhuo Yun then softened his attitude and apologized to him. Not until he had teased him for a long while did the latter finally choose to look at him.

Zhuo Yun felt that his life was really not easy.

But Qin Shuwen felt anxious when approaching his birthplace after many years of absence, so he dawdled at the door for a long time before getting out of the carriage.

Zhuo Yun had already sent a letter, but he asked his dad-in-law and daddy-in-law to pretend that they didn’t know their coming and waited for them to knock on the door.

Naturally, the person who knocked on the door was Zhuo Yun. In the past new years, Zhuo Yun would also come, but he would just send them some gifts and never stay for meals, and Qin Shuwen wouldn’t come with him.

The one who opened the door was Qin Shuwen’s eldest brother. When he saw Qin Shuwen, he couldn’t help being stunned and merely called “Younger brother” after a long time.

Qin Shuwen felt even sadder when seeing his eldest brother’s reaction.

He wanted to call him brother, but he didn’t know why he couldn’t open his mouth. Seeing this, Zhuo Yun came to ease the situation.

“Eldest Brother, I’ve brought Shuwen here to pay you New Year’s greetings. Happy New Year, Eldest Brother.”

“OK, come in first!” Qin Shuwu said.

Zhuo Yun nodded and walked inside while supporting Qin Shuwen.

For a few times, Qin Shuwen wanted to say something but finally swallowed his words.

Qin Shuwen hadn’t been home for five years. As soon as he entered the house, he saw his family members standing in the yard. When his daddy saw him, his eyes even turned red. “Shuwen, my child, you’re finally back.”

Standing beside his daddy, his dad looked at him excitedly.

In fact, he hated them in the beginning, but as time went by, his hatred turned into the feeling of missing them. He remembered his dad’s and his brothers’ good treatments of him, but the words he said in anger when he was married back then prevented him from setting foot in the house, the place where he was born and brought up, for five years.

It was unsure if it was because he was pregnant or he did miss them, his eyes also turned red, and he called “Daddy.” Then, he and his daddy embraced and shed tears.

His dad said beside them, “It’s good that you’re back. It’s good that you’re back. Zhuo Yun, why are you still standing in the yard? Go into the room now!”

Hearing Dad Qin’s words, Zhuo Yun realized it and said with a smile, “Dad-in-law, daddy-in-law, and brothers, I have good news to announce today.”

Zhuo Yun even kept them in suspense as he spoke. Not until his eldest brother-in-law urged him did he begin to say it.

“Ahem, ahem, the good news is that Shuwen has been pregnant for almost two months.”

Daddy Qin immediately let go of Qin Shuwen after hearing Zhuo Yun’s words and stared at Qin Shuwen’s belly. Then, Qin Shuwen felt that everyone was staring at his belly at this moment.

Daddy Qin was so excited that he cried and said, “My Ge’er Wen, you’re finally pregnant. You finally have a child. I’m so happy. I’m so happy for you!”

The other members of the Qin Family surrounded Qin Shuwen, showing joy on their faces. But Qin Shuwen never knew that his pregnancy was such a happy thing for his family.

The Ge’ers of the Qin Family were always pampered, including not only Qin Shuwen but also his brothers’ spouses. Qin Shuwen did not come back often, so no one had any objections against a Ge’er like him.

After learning that Qin Shuwen was pregnant, Daddy Qin asked others to take him back to his room.

The spouses of the Qin Family were busy in the kitchen while Zhuo Yun stayed with his dad-in-law and eldest brother-in-law. It was a happy scene.

At lunch, the whole family were together. Qin Shuwen’s brothers all had children. Zhuo Yun had prepared red envelopes for these nephews and gifts for the spouses of the Qin Family, making the whole family beam with joy.

All the spouses of the Qin Family told Qin Shuwen about the precautions of pregnancy, saying that he had to pay attention to eating, clothing, house living, and transportation.

Qin Shuwen listened attentively. At this moment, he wanted to give birth to the child because the family love he had lost for a long time made him so happy that he almost cried.

Zhuo Yun borrowed Xu Ran’s words and said, “People won’t go outdoors on the seventh day of the lunar New Year and won’t go home on the eighth day.” Then, they naturally spent a night in the Qin Family.

That night, Qin Shuwen and his daddy chatted throughout the night.

It was only after lunch on the ninth day that Zhuo Yun and Qin Shuwen went back home.

Qin Shuwen’s dad and daddy wanted them to stay for a few more days because this was a rare trip home, but this place was not their home after all. Since Qin Shuwen had not been back for so many years, it was inevitable that he felt a little estranged and insisted on going home.

Qin Shuwen had not been so happy for a long time, so he was quite reluctant to leave, and his daddy told him, again and again, to come back often.

On the way back to Zhuo Mansion, Qin Shuwen said to Zhuo Yun, “This is the sixth year after our marriage. This is the happiest year I have ever had. Thank you, Zhuo Yun.”

He still addressed Zhuo Yun with his name and surname, but these were the first words of gratitude Zhuo Yun had heard from him, and it was the most genuine gratitude.

Zhuo Yun said smilingly, “As long as you’re happy.”

After saying that, he turned around but couldn’t hide the bitterness in his eyes at all, thinking, “Could I still celebrate the New Year with you or go back to your parents’ home with you next year?”