Back To The 80s-Chapter 141: Series (Haha66 and Mr. Bi Reward Adds More)_1
After bidding Shen Heng goodbye, Lu Zhanguo drove off towards the provincial city like the wind.
Lu Zhanguo was going to the provincial city this time to find Liu Hongbing, with whom he had served in a reconnaissance company years ago; Lu had been the company commander and Liu had been his deputy.
Liu Hongbing had significant talents for cryptography and was later transferred to the Intelligence Department of the Provincial Military Region, directly under the control of the Third Department of the General Staff.
Lu Zhanguo was seeking his friend for two reasons; firstly, to confuse the mysterious White Fox who had been secretly monitoring him, and secondly, to ask Liu to investigate Guo Huaqiang. He hoped that Guo, a fellow veteran, was not what he suspected and that it was merely personal reasons behind his actions.
Having seen off Lu Zhanguo, Shen Heng headed to the hotel. Current investigations of Yuan Tan showed no problems at all. She had a respectable school and friends. Shen thought it was strange that she appeared almost too normal, which was abnormal in itself.
Returning to his room, Yuan Tan came looking for him: "Where is Brother Zhanguo?"
"He left." Shen Heng poured a basin of water to sit down, calmly looking at Yuan Tan.
"Has he gone back to the army? I was looking for him." she replied.
"Was it your idea for Auntie Lu to come?" Shen Heng sidestepped her question and asked one of his own.
"Why would you say it was my idea? I didn’t say anything." Yuan Tan replied, defiant.
"You can use some people, but not others. Otherwise, you will regret it in the end." Shen Heng said dismissively.
"What did you say? I don’t understand." Yuan Tan blinked her beautiful large eyes in confusion.
"Forget it, if you don’t understand, then pretend I didn’t say anything. I just wanted to tell you, Lu Zhanguo is married now, let it go." Shen Heng said deliberately.
"I haven’t done anything." Yuan Tan pouted in disagreement.
"How is your job hunting going?" Shen Heng changed the subject.
"It’s just as it is. There are only a few companies in T City. If I can’t find anything, I’ll just start a small business." Yuan Tan replied, somewhat frustrated.
"Starting a business? You’d better do that in the Capital City. There’s no business opportunity in T City."
"I like T City because Lu Zhanguo is here." Yuan Tan insisted.
Shen Heng sneered inwardly. It seemed that all her actions were simply a pretext to her liking for Lu Zhanguo. Yuan Tan was likely pretending to be naive.
Gu Xiaobei sought Li Fengmei’s help with the wool yarn, which was still in strands and had not yet been made into a ball. Someone needed to hold it while someone else rolled it up.
Li Fengmei helped him stretch the wool yarn while Gu Xiaobei rolled it up. After a while, she couldn’t help but say, "You’re winding the wool too tight, the yarn ball is too hard. You should loop your four fingers inside the yarn each time you wind it around. Fill it and then pull out your fingers. This makes the wool soft and fluffy without damaging the yarn."
Gu Xiaobei marveled to himself: there was knowledge everywhere in life. Following Li Fengmei’s instruction, the yarn ball he wound up was indeed fluffy and soft.
"Did you hear about Xiangmin, sister-in-law? A doctor checked her pulse and said that she is carrying twins, and both are boys," Li Fengmei started chatting as she saw Gu Xiaobei had gradually mastered the technique.
"Is that true?" Gu Xiaobei was a bit skeptical. It was the 21st century, and even ultrasound scans were sometimes incorrect. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"I’m not sure, but you should see Xiangmin now. She’s only three or four months along, but she’s already behaving like she’s about to give birth, always clutching her waist and moving slowly." Li Fengmei could not help but mimic Xiangmin’s movements while laughing, had she not been holding the yarn.
Gu Xiaobei chuckled, but he couldn’t help but gossip:
"This must make Old Guo’s life at home much harder now."
"It’s quite weird, you know. Having twins should be a joyous occasion, especially when they’re both boys. But Old Guo looks just miserable. My husband, Lijun, said that Guo has been distracted at work lately, not like his old self at all." Li Fengmei pointed out.
"Maybe Xiangmin is just driving him nuts." Gu Xiaobei joked.
"Oh, by the way, when are you and Lu planning to have a child? Lu isn’t getting any younger."
On hearing the word "child", Gu Xiaobei couldn’t help but creased his eyebrows. They hadn’t been using protection, and Lu Zhanguo had been diligently trying, and yet there were no signs of a baby. He sighed and said, "We’ve been trying, but I don’t know why I’m not pregnant yet."
"Don’t worry. Things like this happen when the time is right, when the bond between mother and child has formed." Li Fengmei comforted.
Gu Xiaobei knew there was no use trying to rush things, he could only let nature take its course. Besides, they didn’t have much money right now, and a baby would only create additional chaos.
While they were winding the wool, someone knocked on the door. Li Fengmei called out, "Come in, we’re home."
Seeing the person who entered, both Gu Xiaobei and Li Fengmei were taken aback. It was Xiangmin, clutching her waist at the door.
Li Fengmei wondered why Xiangmin had come over suddenly, considering their past interaction or lack thereof. Still, she courteously said, "Sister-in-law, come in and have a seat."
Xiangmin was clearly surprised to see Gu Xiaobei there, but quickly collected herself and smilingly said to Li Fengmei, "Fengmei, I was hoping to borrow your earthen pot. I want to boil some hawthorn sugar water."
Li Fengmei’s mother had bought an earthen pot to cook some traditional Chinese medicine when she felt ill during her last visit. It hadn’t been used since.
"Sure, just wait. I’ll get it for you. We haven’t used it since last spring when my mother made the medicine. It’s probably dusty now. You’ll need to give it a good wash." Li Fengmei, being very straightforward, carefully placed the wool aside and got up to fetch the earthen pot for Xiangmin.
Gu Xiaobei kept his head down and continued rolling the yarn. Since the two had already had a falling out, there was no need for him to make nice.
As Gu Xiaobei wound the yarn, he suddenly remembered how his coworker Julie from his past life almost had a miscarriage after eating a large piece of hawthorn cake when she was newly pregnant. An experienced coworker had said that pregnant women shouldn’t eat hawthorn or crab.
Pregnant women shouldn’t eat hawthorn? But Xiangmin was going to make hawthorn sugar water.
Gu Xiaobei pondered whether or not to speak up, then decided against it, thinking that it might lead to unpleasant exchanges.
After Xiangmin had left with the pot, Gu Xiaobei couldn’t hold back and asked Li Fengmei, "Can pregnant women eat hawthorn?"
"Should they?" Li Fengmei wasn’t sure and replied, "Don’t pregnant women prefer sour food since they don’t have much appetite? Hawthorn is sour and appetizing."
Gu Xiaobei then doubted whether his memory was correct. Perhaps Julie’s near-miscarriage hadn’t been caused by the hawthorn cake after all.
Once they finished winding the wool, Li Fengmei suggested picking all the autumn eggplants in the field, as the cold front could arrive after the National Day holiday.
Gu Xiaobei put the yarn ball back at home, picked up a basket, and headed to the vegetable field with Li Fengmei.
Just as they arrived at the entrance of the residential courtyard, they saw Sun Aiqin coming back with a vegetable basket, carrying her child on her back.
Gu Xiaobei took a peek at the veggies in her basket, half a basket of stale eggplants, and asked bitingly, "Whose vegetables have you picked again?"
Sun Aiqin seemed momentarily taken aback, but quickly recovered and laughed, "Sister-in-law, I was just about to tell you. I had run out of vegetables at home and your field had these stale eggplants lying around, so I took a few."
