Back To The 80s

Qin Mei raised her eyebrows and laughed coldly, "I really didn’t misunderstand anything." Then she smiled at Gu Xiaobei and said, "Sister-in-law, my mother asked me to give you this package. She made some cotton clothes and shoes for the child when she had free time."

In the afternoon, when Gu Xiaobei went to Qin Li’s house, Zhang Yufen mentioned this, but they forgot about it when Gu Xiaobei left. They only remembered it again when Qin Mei and Qin Li came back, and asked Qin Mei to quickly deliver it downstairs.

Lu Zhanguo already had a big bag of items given by Zhuang Shuxian in his hands, and Shen Heng quickly extended his hand and said, "Here, give it to me, I’ll help you carry it."

Qin Mei glanced at him and said to Gu Xiaobei, "Sister-in-law, let me help you take it to the car."

Shen Heng’s hand froze in mid-air, and it took a while before he awkwardly retracted it and rubbed his nose in embarrassment.

The more Gu Xiaobei watched, the more it felt like a bickering couple. She smiled and let Qin Mei follow them to the car.

After Lu Zhanguo and Shen Heng’s cars drove out of the family compound, Gu Xiaobei happily said to Lu Zhanguo, "Shen Heng and Qin Mei are quite a good match."

Lu Zhanguo jokingly said, "Maybe we could take our baby to their wedding."

Gu Xiaobei laughed out loud, thinking about Qin Li’s stupid reaction. Then, she suddenly remembered that Lu Zhanguo, Shen Heng, and Qin Li had come back together.

"How did you run into Qin Li?" Gu Xiaobei asked curiously.

"We went to Canger Cliff," Lu Zhanguo said softly.

Gu Xiaobei responded with an "oh", then after a while, she said in a low voice, "Life is full of suffering. May we be reborn, and be delivered from all suffering." As someone who had experienced death once, she had a more open perspective on life and death. However, this made things difficult for Qin Li. But she believed that there must be a reason for such arrangements by Heaven.

Lu Zhanguo felt a jolt in his heart upon hearing Gu Xiaobei’s resigned remark about life and death. He stretched a hand out to hold Gu Xiaobei’s hand and said, "Don’t think too much, cover yourself up and get some sleep."

They were originally planning to have a prenatal checkup the next day, but because Lu Zhanguo suddenly had a meeting, they had to postpone it. Gu Xiaobei used the time to write at home. She knew that once the baby was born, she would have very little time to write each day, so she had to make use of this time to prepare more articles.

The crying from the child next door was so loud that it disrupted Gu Xiaobei’s concentration. Guo Huaqiang’s daughter was named Guo Xinxin, who was usually a well-behaved child and didn’t cry much. It was unclear what was wrong today, as she was crying so much she could hardly catch her breath.

Feeling frustrated, Gu Xiaobei put down her pen and decided to go out for a walk. As she passed by Guo Huaqiang’s house, she noticed that the door was wide open. She could hear the child’s crying, but there was no sign of Xiangmin soothing the baby.

Hearing the continued crying, Li Fengmei came out as well and walked over to peek into the room, "Where did Xiangmin go?"

Gu Xiaobei shrugged, "I just came out too. I was planning to go downstairs for a walk."

Li Fengmei stepped inside and saw a baby crying on the bed, kicking its legs. The blanket that covered the baby was kicked aside, and there was excrement underneath the baby. The baby was crying endlessly because of its discomfort.

"What sort of trouble has been caused here..." Li Fengmei said as she went over to replace the dirty diaper with a clean one, and wiped the baby clean. She then found a basin, filled it with warm water mixed with cold water, and gently washed the baby before patting it dry and rewrapping it with a clean blanket. Now that the baby was clean and comfortable, it stopped crying.

Gu Xiaobei just stood at the door, not entering the room. She didn’t want to potentially be accused by Xiangmin of doing something to their home.

After cleaning up, Li Fengmei still didn’t see Xiangmin return. She said to Gu Xiaobei, "Where did Xiangmin go? She’s so unreliable. Let’s take the baby downstairs and see."

Gu Xiaobei followed Li Fengmei downstairs and didn’t see Xiangmin anywhere. They went to check Wang Ping’s house, but she wasn’t there either. Gu Xiaobei was puzzled, where could she have gone?

Wang Ping suggested, "Could she have gone to the vegetable field? Hasn’t she been busy tending to the field these past few days?"

Li Fengmei scoffed, "She’s never been that diligent." But despite her doubts, she still headed towards the vegetable field. When they got to the intersection, they saw that the field was empty.

Li Fengmei said to Wang Ping, "You go call the instructor from the camp. We won’t be able to handle this mess."

Gu Xiaobei had a suspicion that Xiangmin might have run away from home.

As it turned out, Gu Xiaobei was once again right about the dramatic turn of events. After feeding the baby in the morning, Xiangmin tidied up her things and left on foot without taking the army’s supply vehicle. She even took the last two hundred yuan from the house.

When Guo Huaqiang came back with an ashen face and saw the mess left by the baby on the bed, he was furious and punched the wall.

Hearing the news, Qu Yan rushed over and said, "Brother-in-law, what happened?" As she spoke, she began tidying up the bed. In her mind, however, she was secretly pleased. Now that she had an excuse to come-over daily, she would have a chance to see Lu Zhanguo.

Seeing Qu Yan arrive, Li Fengmei took Gu Xiaobei back to the main house. She didn’t like Qu Yan. The woman’s eyes were too cunning, and with what Sun Aiqin had said, it seemed best to keep a distance from such women. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Why do you think Xiangmin left? She left such a small child behind." Li Fengmei couldn’t comprehend it, how could a mother be so heartless?

Gu Xiaobei just smiled and didn’t say anything. People have already left, and talking about it now was meaningless. Xiangmin probably left because she couldn’t stand the lack of compassion in her family, and Guo Huaqiang’s attitude towards her and his mother.

"This Qu Yan is strange. She’s so eager to come over, I wonder if Xiangyang would have any objections," Li Fengmei changed the subject back to Qu Yan.

Gu Xiaobei was puzzled, "Why would Xiangyang object?"

Li Fengmei whispered, "Xiangyang is Xiangmin’s brother after all, he’ll naturally take his sister’s side. This Qu Yan is so eager, you’ll see, there will be trouble."

"Perhaps Qu Yan just feels sorry for the baby and wants to help. Let’s not overthink it." Gu Xiaobei thought that Qu Yan was so keen probably because of Lu Zhanguo.

"That’s where you’re mistaken. Qu Yan and Guo Huaqiang are relatives who try to avoid each other when they meet. If a sister-in-law speaks to her brother-in-law too much, it won’t sound good if word gets out." Li Fengmei knew too well about people who liked to gossip. Making something out of nothing was not all they could do; they could even turn a dead situation into a living one, complete with eyes and nose.

Gu Xiaobei just laughed. She didn’t care if they had any issues as long it didn’t involve her family.

That night, when Lu Zhanguo returned, he took out two bruised apples from his pocket and gave them to Gu Xiaobei. In this season, when green fruit hasn’t ripened yet, apples were rare treasures.

"Where did you get these?" Gu Xiaobei was delighted to receive the apples, her eyes almost glistening. During her craving spells, she wanted to eat apples but there were none, so she could only nibble on some radishes to satisfy her cravings.

Seeing Gu Xiaobei’s excitement, Lu Zhanguo was in high spirits, "They were brought by a soldier who went home."

Actually, when the volunteer soldier who went home brought the two apples, both Lu Zhanguo and another staff officer were present.

As soon as the soldier left, Lu Zhanguo stood up and put the two apples directly into his pocket, leaving a stunned staff officer sitting there.