Back To The 80s-Chapter 202: Worries (Seeking monthly passes)_1

Chapter 202: Chapter 202: Worries (Seeking monthly passes)_1

Gu Xiaobei was also concerned. Jiujiu was a thoughtful child and she definitely couldn’t be told about this directly. As for Zhuang Shuxian, she was now treating Jiujiu as an emotional crutch which might lead to greater disappointment as her hopeful expectations increase.

After seeing off Zhuang Shuxian and Qin Li, Gu Xiaobei went home for breakfast and felt her eyelids drooping with fatigue, deciding to catch some more sleep.

Gu Xiaobei slept deeply, dreaming of a dense fog. As the fog gradually dissipated, she was mesmerized by her surroundings, filled with an abundance of unknown trees. In the middle was a pool of turquoise water, with a smoke-like mist hovering above. The bank was covered in colorful flowers.

Standing barefoot on the grass, Gu Xiaobei delightedly took in the fairyland-like scenery, when she suddenly felt a chill on her legs. Looking down, she saw a small white snake and a small black snake wrapped around each of her legs, hissing with flickering red tongues.

This sight scared her out of her wits. She wanted to scream, but her voice was stuck in her throat. She knew she was dreaming, yet she couldn’t wake up. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she watched the two small snakes climb up her legs, too scared to move.

"How do you behave as daughter-in-law, you dare to disdain me..."

Gu Xiaobei was startled awake by the arguing voices outside her window. Sitting up and wiping the cold sweat from her forehead, she wondered why she would dream of snakes, an animal she feared the most.

The cursing continued from outside: "I came from afar to take care of you and you still show me your temper. When I was a daughter-in-law, if my mother-in-law coughed, I’d tremble in fear. Now, I’m at your service every day, and I have to watch your mood..." No doubt, it was the voice of Ding Guihua.

"When have I shown you any bad attitude? I just wanted to eat an apple and you blew up at me all morning. What’s wrong with eating an apple?" Xiangmin’s voice rose in annoyance. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"What’s wrong? Doesn’t it cost money? Isn’t two pieces of wool money? That radish, after washing it, is as crispy as an apple. Why can’t it be eaten? In our time, if we wanted to eat a radish, we had to ask our mother-in-law’s permission."

Gu Xiaobei figured that Ding Guihua was probably standing in the hallway nagging, her voice was so clear and strong.

Listening to the noise outside, Gu Xiaobei thought to herself: I hope my mother-in-law doesn’t act like this, it’s too mentally draining to deal with daily indirect conflicts and have to outwit her.

Then she heard Xiangmin’s impatient yell: "Alright, alright, I won’t eat, okay?"

Ding Guihua prattled on: "The radish I cut for you is on the table in the room. You can eat it, it’s crisp and sweet, so delicious."

When Gu Xiaobei opened the door, sure enough, Ding Guihua was standing there, puffing on a rolled-up cigarette.

"Did you just take another nap? Look how good your life is now. When we were young..."

Before Ding Guihua could finish, Gu Xiaobei quickly interrupted with pleading eyes, "I only get hungry when I wake up. When I’m asleep, I don’t feel hungry."

Ding Guihua nodded in agreement: "Well, yes, lying down you don’t feel hungry. After all, you have nothing to do every day, so sleeping is good." Then she fell silent.

Gu Xiaobei let out a sigh of relief. Living like this was so taxing on the mind.

Looking at the time, Gu Xiaobei planned to rise the dough to make some vegetarian buns for dinner, and for lunch, she would just eat some hot rice soup.

After Chen Gang and Jiujiu returned home, Chen Gang, upon hearing from Jiujiu about the plan to visit Chen’s Village on the coming Sunday, became excited: "Auntie, how about I arrange a donkey cart to pick you up early that day?"

Gu Xiaobei originally wanted to decline, but then considering Zhuang Shuxian’s health, she nodded, "Okay, we will count on you then."

"No trouble, no trouble, this is what I should do." Chen Gang, being thanked, felt a little embarrassed.

"How has your mother been recently?" Gu Xiaobei asked.

"It’s been the same, she can only eat soft food now, and is currently drinking the herbal medicine the village doctor prescribed." Chen Gang felt a little sad that despite his mother’s condition, there was nothing he could do.

Gu Xiaobei felt that the disease Chen’s mother had probably could only be treated in a large hospital, but that was hardly realistic considering Chen Gang’s family conditions.

In the afternoon, while Gu Xiaobei was kneading dough for the buns, Ding Guihua arrived. Seeing Gu Xiaobei making buns, she started nagging again about how the bun dough was too big, her method of wrapping was incorrect, and the creases on the buns were ugly.

Gu Xiaobei noticed that as long as she maintained a smile and did not argue with Ding Guihua’s nitpicking, Ding Guihua would stop on her own after awhile.

After Ding Guihua finished her nagging, she asked curiously, "You have been married to Zhanguo for so long, why don’t you have children?"

"We’re not in a hurry." Gu Xiaobei’s hands paused on the dough, she was getting really annoyed by this question.

Ding Guihua said in a secretive tone, "Do you have some sort of physical problem?"

"No, we just didn’t want to have one so early." Gu Xiaobei’s expression immediately soured.

"I heard from Xiangmin that you got pregnant once but couldn’t hold onto the fetus and had a miscarriage. I was wondering if you offended some sort of deity." Ding Guihua said, spreading the mystery.

Gu Xiaobei finally understood, Xiangmin really didn’t know how to quit. Even when she saw Gu Xiaobei was pregnant, she still ignored her and kept creating problems, letting her mother-in-law make life difficult for Gu Xiaobei. If she could make Xiangmin happy, then she wouldn’t be Gu Xiaobei.

As she thought about it, a smile appeared on her face, "Auntie, you say all these things that I don’t understand. But your daughter-in-law, Xiangmin is really blessed, she’s pregnant with twins..." Gu Xiaobei paused here and didn’t continue.

Ding Guihua was surprised, "What twins? How come I haven’t heard anything about it?"

Gu Xiaobei was certain that Guo Huaqiang only shared good news and not bad, because almost everyone living away from home instinctively only reports peace and doesn’t mention any discontent or grievances, in order to avoid causing worry at home.

"Ah, auntie, you didn’t know? I really spoke out of turn, I thought you already knew." Gu Xiaobei feigned surprise.

"Such a big happy event and they hid it from me, I just made one set of cotton-padded jacket." Ding Guihua said cheerfully.

"Wait, Auntie, I didn’t finish talking." Gu Xiaobei paused, acting as if she was struggling whether to speak or not.

"What happened? Isn’t this good news? What can’t you talk about?" Ding Guihua was still immersed in her joy.

"Xiangmin’s twins, she lost one, now only one is left." Gu Xiaobei said reluctantly.

"What? She lost one? Why?" Ding Guihua felt like she had been thrown from the clouds to the ground all of a sudden.

"I don’t know why, maybe she ate something bad." Gu Xiaobei tossed the final spark into the fire, thinking: Xiangmin, this is all your doing.

"That damn girl, always greedy for food, can only think of eating this and that. Wait until I go back and deal with her." Upon hearing that a child was lost due to eating something bad, Ding Guihua was fuming.

Birth control was very strict now, with only one child permitted per family. Those who dared to have another child on the sly would get caught and taken to the hospital to be forced into having an abortion.

It was such a good thing to have twins at one go, but Xiangmin lost one due to her greediness, and the more Ding Guihua thought about it, the angrier she got. After stewing in her anger for a while, she stomped off back home in a huff.

Gu Xiaobei knew that in the future, Xiangmin would hold a grudge against her over this matter.