Ning Shu didn’t reject Lin’s mother’s kindness outright: “Let’s first see what the situation is like at the police station. If we need Mom’s help, then we’ll trouble Mom to come over.”

Although Lin’s mother meant well, she would have to collect things afterward.

There were quite a few dried bamboo shoots from the mountains, and her spinach needed to be harvested.

Some foods, although she could pretend to have bought them in the county town or from the state-owned restaurant, would only deceive the children. Once discovered by Lin’s mother, it wouldn’t be good.

“Alright then.” Lin’s mother didn’t say much more. “I’ll go over first, remember to come over for lunch.”

“I’ll come.” Ning Shu went to the Zhuang family to check on the situation with the fish slices.

When she returned, she just finished cooking sour cabbage fish.

Sour cabbage fish, cold tossed lettuce stem strips, and oil-braised bamboo shoots, three dishes in total, using two pots together, would take about 30 minutes, mainly because the cold tossed lettuce stem strips didn’t take much time.

While the sour cabbage fish and the oil-braised bamboo shoots were cooking in two pots, she had time to cut the lettuce stems into strips and toss them with seasoning.

After preparing the lettuce stem strips, Ning Shu went to see Sanbao, only to find them playing with a cloth ball in the yard.

She didn’t have to worry about Sanbao, but she worried that Yibao and Erbao would be affected by the Zhuang family’s situation.

In fact, Erbao was easygoing and didn’t really mind, mainly it’s Yibao.

Yibao was precocious, good at thinking, and sensitive.

Ning Shu was most worried about him.

But seeing the children playing well, she felt relieved.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine.” Lin Guodong thought she was worried that the Zhuang family would cause trouble later and came to comfort her.

Before he went to the army, he had definitely sorted out the Zhuang family’s affairs.

Otherwise, leaving them as orphans and widows in the village, he wouldn’t feel at ease.

Ning Shu nodded. “I’m not worried about Xiaopang’s Grandpa and Grandma, I’m just worried about Yinao.

He’s sensitive, and I’m afraid this incident will affect him.” Xiaopang’s Grandpa and Grandma were not on her radar at all.

She felt she could deal with them.

She was just worried about her son’s mental state.

Lin Guodong hadn’t considered this issue, but hearing Ning Shu say this, he became attentive. “I’ll pay attention to him during this time.”

“Mm.” Compared to her own one-sided worries, Ning Shu still believed in Lin Guodong’s observations.

After all, when it came to observing people, he was a professional.

“Mom, what secret are you and Dad whispering about?” Er Bao saw his parents sitting together and shouted loudly.

Lin Guodong: “…”

Ning Shu: “…Play on your own. Adults have secrets that children shouldn’t hear.”

Yibao turned to look at his parents, then pursed his lips and chuckled. Silly Er Bao, he would get a spanking from Mom sooner or later.

Sanbao seemed to have just learned a new word and happily echoed, “Whisper… whisper… hehehe…”

“I don’t know whose character he inherited.” Ning Shu was really helpless.

Er Bao, if placed in modern times, would definitely be a social cow, a socialite.

Lin Guodong thought for a moment. “He didn’t inherit from me, nor from you.” Both of them were serious people.

“If he didn’t look exactly like Yibao, I would have thought I had picked up the wrong baby in the hospital when I gave birth.” Speaking of giving birth back then, one month before giving birth, she took Lin’s mother to stay in the county guesthouse.

After all, it was twins, and she didn’t want anything to go wrong.

Even if she knew she would die five years later, she didn’t want to die early, let alone anything happen to the children during childbirth.

Staying in the guesthouse for a month in a row really worried Lin’s mother.

Later, in the hospital, she took care of everything.

When she returned to the village, Lin’s mother said she had given birth to twins and wanted to do the traditional two-month postpartum confinement, so she did the same.

Now thinking back, not to mention a mother-in-law, even a biological mother might not have done as much.

Little Lin Er Bao didn’t know that he had almost become the fake young master in The Fake and the Fortune Hunter.

Of course, with his parents’ current conditions, he couldn’t become a young master yet.

But after the reform and opening up, his mother would definitely make him a rich second generation.

“…You really dare to think.” Suddenly, Lin Guodong felt that Er Bao’s character might have taken after his wife.

Er Bao’s sometimes whimsical ideas were a lot like his wife’s daring thoughts, weren’t they?

Ning Shu wasn’t just daring to think.

After all, there have been cases of swapping babies reported on the modern internet.

Looking at the people in the Lin family, if Er Bao’s character wasn’t like Lin Guodong’s, it might be a case of skipped-generation inheritance.

But his character wasn’t like Lin’s father’s either. Even Lin Guofeng and Lin Guoliang were relatively reserved people.

So Er Bao’s character was an exception in the Lin family.

Er Bao didn’t know his parents were talking about him.

When he saw his mother looking at him, he flashed a toothy smile, looking silly and innocent.

Like he would even help someone count money that was taken from him in the first place if they asked.

However, it was also possible that he could deceive a swindler and outsmart them. Like the policeman today, wasn’t that the case?

Ning Shu didn’t want to look at her silly son anymore.

She got up and went to the kitchen, checked the oil-braised bamboo shoots a few times, then checked the sour cabbage fish. After waiting for a minute or two, she served the two dishes.

There was only a large bowl of oil-braised bamboo shoots, but there was a lot of sour cabbage fish.

She had made a pot of it and served one bowl, leaving the rest for the family to eat in the evening.

She packed two bowls to take away.

The basket wasn’t suitable for carrying dishes with soup, so Ning Shu found a wooden basin, put the two bowls of sour cabbage fish in it, covered them with a plate, and then put the oil-braised bamboo shoots and cold tossed lettuce stem strips in the basket.

Finally, she took out Sanbao’s bamboo tube fish slice porridge from the stove. “Comrade Lin Guodong, come in and help with the things.”

“Coming.” Lin Guodong walked into the kitchen. “This much?” He was a little surprised.

Ning Shu was speechless. “It’s not much. There are many people in the old house, plus the five of us in our family, so we need a lot.”

Lin Guodong just casually sighed.

His wife was filial to his parents and prepared a lot of food.

Of course, he was happy.

He picked up the wooden basin. “You’ll carry the basket?” If he carried the wooden basin and the basket, it would probably shake too much.

“Mm, I can carry the basket. Let’s go.” Ning Shu picked up the two baskets.

After the two of them left the kitchen, she locked the door and locked the other rooms as well before the whole family went to the old house.

On the way, someone greeted them warmly. “Guodong, what are you carrying to your mother’s house?” Looking at the wooden basin with two bowls, which were covered, it was unclear what was inside. Seeing Ning Shu carrying two baskets, it seemed like this family had prepared several dishes.

“Just two dishes.” Lin Guodong replied plainly.

He wasn’t good at chatting with the villagers.

After all, he had been away from home since junior high school.

He would come back to the village on rest days and holidays during junior high and high school, but he mostly stayed at home reading. It was even rarer for him to come back during college.

For Lin Guodong, most of the villagers were unfamiliar, except for those in the Lin family.

“Ning Zhiqing, what delicious food are you taking to your mother-in-law’s house? It’s a special day today. Surely there’s braised pork belly?” A woman interrupted Ning Shu.

Ning Shu smiled.

She smiled. “No, we don’t.”

“Our pork is all gone,” Er Bao said, bouncing around.

“What? Didn’t your family buy twenty catties of pork? How could it be gone so quickly?” The woman was astonished.

Twenty catties of pork gone? What kind of stomachs did they have? Pig stomachs?

Yibao explained, “Some of it is gone. The rest has been made into jerky to take away for my dad.”

Sanbao nodded and echoed his brothers, “Mm, jerky for Dad.”

Yibao praised his younger brother, “Sanbao is right, he’s really clever.”

Sanbao gave a shy smile.

Seeing the family walking by in harmony, several onlookers couldn’t help but smile knowingly.

Some sighed again, saying how fortunate Ning Shu was.

At the old house, Lin’s mother and the others had already prepared all the food, and they were just waiting for Ning Shu’s family of five to arrive.

With so many people at the old house, things were done quickly.

In previous years, when Ning Shu didn’t come to eat, only the three children would come over.

But this year, Ning Shu and Lin Guodong came, so the people at the old house were quite looking forward to it.

“Hai Cai, go and see why your third uncle’s family hasn’t come yet,” Lin’s mother said.

“Okay.” Lin Hai Cai ran outside.

As soon as he reached the door, he saw Yibao and the others.

He shouted loudly, “Yibao and Erbao!, hurry up, Grandma’s calling you.”

Yibao and Erbao led Sanbao and ran towards him.

The people in the yard naturally heard this. Lin’s mother said, “Don’t stand outside like door gods. Come in and get ready to eat.”

Everyone had been waiting for a while. When they heard Lin’s mother say this, they all rushed into the kitchen, leaving only Hai Cai waiting at the yard gate.

When the three brothers arrived at the yard gate, Hai Cai happily shouted, “Yibao , Erbao and Sanbao…”

“Okay…”

The two brothers responded happily.

Sanbao clenched his little fist and said, “Bro… brother…”

Hai Cai gave a shy smile. “Okay.”

The four children held hands and walked into the yard.

Ning Shu and Lin Guodong followed behind them, entering the kitchen together.

“We’ve been waiting for you. Adults at one table, children at another,” Lin’s mother said when she saw them.

Looking at Sanbao, she suddenly remembered something. “There’s no chair for Sanbao here. Could you go and get one from your place? That way, you can eat by yourselves and won’t have to look after him.”

Lin Guodong put down the wooden basin. “I’ll go.”

Ning Shu handed the basket to Lin’s mother. “Mom, add some dishes for everyone,” she said, then took out the keys from her pocket and gave them to Lin Guodong.

Lin’s mother took out the dishes from the basket, and everyone looked at them.

One was lettuce stem strips, and the other was bamboo shoots.

Especially the bamboo shoots, they could tell at a glance that a lot of oil had been used, and they looked delicious.

Zhang Qinfang pursed her lips.

Even though a lot of oil had been used, they were still vegetarian dishes.

They had bought twenty catties of meat that day, yet they didn’t bring a meat dish. How stingy.

Then, her gaze shifted to the wooden basin.

There were still two dishes in the wooden basin, so there should be meat, right?