Zhan Mingkang had gone down to the countryside, while her biological younger brother, Zhan Mingzhao, had left the army and entered the local import-export branch. In reality, he was working at the tea factory. As soon as Zhan Mingzhao came out of the army, it was as if he had been released from prison. He was so happy he could hardly contain himself.
He had also tanned quite a bit. His skin was now wheat-coloured, sunny and healthy-looking. His teeth were white, and when he smiled, girls liked him very much. This made Gu Xiangyi wildly jealous.
Gu Xiangyi said to Zhan Aiping, “If he dares flirt with other women, Sister-in-law, you must help me teach him a lesson!”
Zhan Aiping laughed. “He wouldn’t dare.”
After leaving the army, Zhan Mingzhao had more free time on ordinary days. He had good relationships with people, got off work early, and the uncles and aunties at his workplace all doted on him. Zhan Aiping gave the family’s Phoenix-brand bicycle to Zhan Mingzhao and made him a slightly loose sun-protection jacket. On his days off, Zhan Mingzhao would wear a wide-brimmed straw hat, ride the bicycle, hold a blade of grass in his mouth, and ring-ring-ring his way through the mountain roads.
He often went to the military hospital to visit Gu Xiangyi, bringing her food and keeping her company as they chatted, making Gu Xiangyi’s colleagues extremely envious.
Zhan Mingzhao’s cooking skills could not compare with his brother-in-law Gu Sheng’s, but he was very good at making soup. In summer, there were many mushrooms in the mountains. He went up the mountain and gathered quite a few wild mushrooms, then made mushroom chicken soup and brought it to Gu Xiangyi.
Gu Xiangyi said, “I must have been blind. If only I’d made you my partner earlier. We grew up together. By now, we’d already have three children.”
Zhan Mingzhao was so startled that the blade of grass in his mouth fell out. “…Three?”
He blinked. “We don’t need that many, do we?”
“Children are noisy.”
Gu Xiangyi said, “Youyou and Yuanyuan aren’t noisy.”
Zhan Mingzhao: “…” But that did not mean their own children would not be noisy.
Gu Xiangyi worked as a nurse and was busy with work. When it came time to raise children… wouldn’t he be the one taking care of them?
Zhan Mingzhao said, “Let’s just have one. Family planning is being promoted now.”
Gu Xiangyi said, “Two. Like Sister-in-law’s family. It’s lively.”
Zhan Mingzhao said, “I’m just afraid the children will be too rowdy and we won’t be able to control them.”
Gu Xiangyi said, “My little brother is here too. A mother’s brother holds great authority. The children will have to listen to their uncle too.”
Zhan Mingzhao: “…The eldest aunt’s husband?”
Gu Xiangyi: “…”
“Let’s not talk about this for now. Pregnancy is very hard. I’ll go see my sister later.” Every time Zhan Mingzhao came to see Gu Xiangyi, he would also stop by to visit his own biological sister, Zhan Aiping. Zhan Aiping’s body was getting heavier and heavier, and seeing it made his heart ache.
Recently, the more Zhan Mingzhao looked at Gu Sheng, this brother-in-law of his, the more displeased he became.
Gu Sheng was a soldier and was usually busy with work. He spent little time at home. No matter how considerate he was, the household chores still fell on Zhan Aiping. For someone like Zhan Aiping, who had joined her husband at the station, it was still alright. As for other military wives who lived apart from their husbands in different places, how was that any different from being widowed?
This was also why Zhan Mingzhao did not want to remain in the army. He was more willing to take care of the family.
Fortunately, there were still two children keeping his sister company, and the children were obedient and sensible.
Zhan Aiping’s body was inconvenient now, so Zhan Mingzhao often came to keep her company and help her with heavy work around the house. Although soldiers would come to help with heavy work she could not do, there was still a difference between relatives doing it and outsiders doing it.
“Uncle! Uncle! Little Uncle!” Guobaorou and Little Tangyuan were always happy whenever they saw their uncle. It was not only old people who liked liveliness; children also liked having many people around.
Zhan Mingzhao said, “You two go play by yourselves first.”
He went to help wash clothes and cook. At first, Zhan Aiping politely refused a couple of times, but later, when she realised her younger brother really had come wholeheartedly to help her wash clothes, cook, and watch the children, she let him do as he liked.
Zhan Aiping said, “When your brother-in-law sees you like this, he’ll feel reassured marrying his younger sister to you.”
Zhan Mingzhao said, “When I see him like that, I don’t feel reassured about marrying my sister to him.”
“Marry anyone but a soldier. Good men don’t become soldiers.”
“He’s made you suffer!”
Zhan Aiping: “…Actually, his salary and allowances are quite high, and he hands all of it over to me to manage.”
Zhan Mingzhao said, “That’s his only use. Sis, don’t be polite with him. Eat well and dress well. Don’t save money.”
“Don’t make clothes for him. That’s just wasting fabric. Let him wear military uniforms all year round. Save the fabric to make clothes for you and the children.”
Zhan Aiping could not help laughing. “Alright, alright. When you wash clothes, teach Youyou and Yuanyuan too.”
The weather here was hot, and the clothes were thin and easy to wash. Children could play with water and wash clothes without worrying about catching a cold, fever, or chill.
Synthetic fabric did not wear out easily, while cotton tore more easily. Zhan Mingzhao also helped mend clothes. His brother-in-law did not use the sewing machine, but he had become very skilled with it.
Zhan Aiping looked numb as she watched her younger brother mend clothes for the two children. Children were naughty, and Zhan Aiping only dressed them in cotton, so their clothes tore easily and always needed patching. She was pregnant and could not conveniently use the sewing machine. Now the family sewing machine had also become her younger brother Zhan Mingzhao’s.
Her own biological younger brother actually sewed better than she did. He could even make clothes!!!
Not to mention, when there was a hole in the clothing, Zhan Mingzhao could patch on a little tiger or little rabbit design. That looked much better than an ordinary patch.
Guobaorou and Little Tangyuan both wore the pretty clothes their uncle had mended. The more they were patched, the prettier the clothes became.
Zhan Aiping thought, what on earth was going on with the men in their family? Why was Gu Sheng good at cooking, while her younger brother Zhan Mingzhao was better at sewing than women? The men in their family were truly so virtuous and domestic!
The men in their family were virtuous, and even their dog was virtuous.
The mixed-breed German shepherd, Little Zongzi, was now more like Big Zongzi. Gu Sheng had trained him to be very obedient. He did not make noise, did not bark randomly, and did not bite people. He could even watch children.
Little Tangyuan liked playing jump rope. Her older brother refused to lose and also played with her. When the two of them played jump rope at home, Zongzi could even act as a tool-dog. His two legs helped hold the elastic rope, and he was very steady — steadier than a stool. This made Shen Liqing’s Tangcuyu very envious, and she made a fuss about wanting a big dog too.
Shen Liqing was very helpless. “Mom is already tired enough raising you two. How could I afford to raise a dog too?”
Shen Liqing was a lazy person. Only after having two children did she become somewhat more diligent. In the past, when she had just married Wang Youli, if Wang Youli was not home, she was too lazy even to feed herself, let alone feed a dog or rabbits.
Any rabbits or dogs she raised would have to go hungry and full along with her.
Shen Liqing considered herself a responsible and dutiful good mother. At least she did not let her children go hungry. Sister-in-law Zhou’s family treated their son like a treasure, chasing after him to feed him. But Shen Liqing? If the children did not eat, then they did not eat. They could go hungry. She was too lazy even to feed herself, never mind feed the children.
The couple next door to Zhan Aiping, Regiment Commander Luo and his wife, also raised their only son in a spoiled manner.
“Sis, don’t do anything. I’ll cook later.”
Zhan Aiping said shamelessly, “Once you came, I had no intention of cooking myself.”
Although he could not compare to Gu Sheng, her younger brother’s cooking was also delicious. At the very least, it tasted better than hers, and certainly better than the big-pot meals in the canteen.
Little Tangyuan and Guobaorou were happy to see their uncle come partly because they wanted to eat the food he cooked.
Zhan Aiping did not stand on ceremony with him. “Go wash the vegetables and cook.”
Zhan Mingzhao: “…”
Little Brother Zhan obediently went to work.
Zhan Aiping looked at her younger brother’s tall, slender back, and a smile unconsciously appeared at the corner of her mouth. Although they were biological siblings, they had not spent much time together before. Now that her younger brother had left the army and often came to her house, the number of times they saw each other had increased.
She had studied at military school, and her younger brother had gone down to the countryside… They did not have many memories of being together in their youth. Now, seeing Zhan Mingzhao, what Zhan Aiping remembered were the memories from when they were children.
When they were little, Zhan Mingzhao had clung to her. If his sister left, he would cry. His short little legs would follow behind her. Wherever his sister went, he wanted to go too. Whatever his sister played, he wanted to play along. At that time, Zhan Aiping had disliked that he was small and ignorant and had not liked taking him along. She had always wanted to shake off the clingy younger brother at home and run outside to be the big sister of the group.
She had not been a very good older sister.
Gu Sheng had quite a few complaints about this. “You still say you’re not a good sister? You protect him in everything. Now he increasingly doesn’t put me in his eyes. Every day, he tries to sow discord in our marital relationship. It’s worrying.”
Every day, he said things like how one should not marry a soldier, that soldiers did not care for the family and made women suffer… If not for Gu Sheng protecting him, in this military family compound, Zhan Mingzhao would have been beaten to death.
Zhan Aiping: “…”
Every family had its own difficult scripture to recite. This brother-in-law and younger brother-in-law did not get along. Caught in the middle, she also felt uncomfortable.
Zhan Aiping sighed emotionally, thinking that she should not be someone who took advantage and then pretended to complain.
She was happy. Now, in this world, the men she cared about most were all by her side.
“Director Zhan, why are you sighing?” Ever since Zhan Aiping became director, Zhang Lirong next door had started calling her Director Zhan instead of Doctor Zhan.
Hearing Zhan Aiping sigh while touching her belly, Zhang Lirong guessed that she must be carrying a daughter. How disappointing.
Regiment Commander Luo was nervous about the family’s only precious seedling, which made Zhang Lirong extremely proud. She had even developed the feeling of being the mother of a crown prince. It gave her many privileges and made her start looking at problems from a man’s perspective. Now she liked staring at other people’s pregnant bellies and asking whether they were going to have a boy.
Zhang Lirong and Regiment Commander Luo guessed that the family next door already had a son and daughter but still wanted to keep having children, so they must want more boys. If Zhan Aiping gave birth to a daughter, she definitely would not be able to explain herself well. The couple were waiting to see Zhan Aiping give birth to a daughter and watch Gu Sheng’s expression change.
Zhan Aiping said, “It’s nothing. Just a bit of family disagreement. Every family has its own difficulties.”
Zhang Lirong: “…” Zhan Aiping saying it so frankly actually left Zhang Lirong momentarily unsure how to react.
But inside, she was extremely excited.
Zhan Aiping had family conflicts? If she brought over Director Li, who had given birth to four sons, would that stab Zhan Aiping’s heart even more?
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