Chapter 4

Zhao Cuilan put the food in the warming pot, thinking she would wait until Lei Dashu and Lei Jun returned before starting the meal. Just as she was about to go to the main hall, she heard movement coming from the courtyard.

“They’re back, time to start the meal.”

Lei Jun looked at his mother and, smiling, lifted the basket. “Mom, we had a good harvest today.”

Zhao Cuilan clapped her hands excitedly and asked: “Really?”

“Of course.”

“Alright then, keep your voice down. Eldest, hurry and clean the fish so your mother can stew them.”

“Okay.”

…………………………………………

Five minutes later.

Lei Jun brought the cleaned fish into the kitchen and handed them to his mother. Zhao Cuilan took the fish and put them in the pot to make soup. Lei Laodie, who was sitting in front of the stove, looked at his eldest son and spoke.

“After the meal, go to the team leader’s house and ask for leave so he can write you an introduction letter. Tomorrow morning, take some money and coupons to the supply and marketing cooperative,

see if you can buy some malted milk powder. If they don’t have any, go to Zhenzhen and see if she can help you get some to stock up. The two kids at home don’t have enough to eat.”

“I understand, Dad.”

“Eldest, go to your second brother’s room and call your wife and kids, and the third one too, for dinner.”

“Alright.”

Lei Jun nodded and went to the outside of his second brother’s room and knocked on the door. “Guihua, call the kids, it’s time to eat.”

“Okay, coming.”

Hearing his wife respond, Lei Jun then went to call people in the third brother’s room.

When Zhang Guihua came out with the children, the in-laws had already brought the food to the table. Seeing them come out, they quickly called everyone to eat.

“Hurry up, sit down and eat.”

The children obediently sat in their seats, waiting for their grandmother to distribute the food. Each got a bowl of thin sweet potato porridge, which they ate with the pickles and wild vegetables on the table.

Lei Qingyun twitched his small nose, catching a drifting scent with a hint of fishiness. “Sister, do you smell something? Smells good…”

Lei Jun looked at his younger son. “Eat up now.”

Zhang Guihua moved her lips, but in the end said nothing. She knew that was the food ration for Second Brother’s children.

Zhao Cuilan picked up a few chopsticks’ worth of pickles and slurped down the porridge in her bowl in two or three gulps, finishing it clean. Then she stood up and went to the kitchen to check the soup.

She sat on a small stool and let out a gentle sigh.

After a long while, Zhao Cuilan opened the pot lid. Looking at the milky-white thick soup, she used a large ladle to scoop out two big spoonfuls of soup and half a fish into a basin and brought it out.

“Just a little for each person to get a taste.”

“Mom?”

“Eat. It’s been days since the house had any meat or fish smell. Yueyue needs nourishment, and so do you laborers and the children…”

Zhao Cuilan used her hands to personally give each person a small spoonful. The children even got a few pieces of fish meat.

“Mom…”

“Hurry and eat, it’ll lose its flavor once it cools. There’s still more in the pot, that’s all saved for Yueyue. Don’t think about it anymore.”

Lei Dashu picked up his own bowl and poured half of it into Zhao Cuilan’s bowl. Then he looked at the family and spoke. “Eat.”

Lei Yu silently pulled back his own bowl. Originally, he had also planned to pour some into his mother’s bowl, but he hadn’t expected his father to beat him to it.

The three children, seeing that Grandpa and Grandma were letting them eat, instinctively looked over at their mother.

Zhang Guihua wiped the corners of her eyes. “Eat.”

She felt deeply fortunate to have married into the Lei Family—no wicked mother-in-law tormenting her, harmonious relationships between the sisters-in-law, and children who were sensible and hardworking. There was no better family than this.

Unable to hold back his words, Lei Qingyun scooped up some fish with his spoon, tugged at his sister beside him, and said: “Sister, sister, it’s fish!”

After saying that, he didn’t care whether his sister responded or not. He immediately began eating the fish in small bites.

“Tastes so good~”

These days had been nothing but pickles and wild vegetables. It was rare for the children to eat meat, so that night, the little ones all dreamed about eating meat in their sleep.

While the family was eating, Si Yueyue once again checked her rented space.

She went into the bathroom, picked up her phone, and tried to see if she could contact her friends. But unexpectedly, it showed “No Service.”

She tried going online to shop for items again, but the address just wouldn’t display. In the end, she entered Dudu, and surprisingly, that was the only app that still worked.

“Alright then, as long as I can look things up, that’s good enough. Can’t be too demanding.”

Si Yueyue also checked all her other smart devices, but the problem was the same—they couldn’t connect to the outside world.

She even tried opening the door of the rental room. Unexpectedly, the door did open, but outside was a wall.

“Alright, alright, I’ll just stay put obediently then.”

After finishing her exploration of the rental space, Si Yueyue began organizing her inventory. What she was most satisfied with about this rental was the small storage room.

Si Yueyue was a die-hard homebody. She rarely went out, but she loved online shopping and hoarding supplies…

So her house was always stocked with various items. Now that she looked, the shelves in the little storage room were pretty well-filled from bottom to top.

Si Yueyue knew how to cook. She didn’t like eating takeout, so food supplies took up half of her stock.

Ten bags of 10-jin rice, ten bags of 5-jin flour, ten bags of 5-jin cornmeal… There was a time when she read online that brown rice and whole grains were good for the stomach, so she had followed the trend and stocked up on several jin.

She also had cured meats, which she often used for clay pot rice—she had bought them after seeing an ad pop up while watching a drama.

There were also two large barrels of cooking oil, three jin of brown sugar, five jin of white sugar, and for late-night drama sessions, she had all kinds of biscuits, candy, and chips…

Si Yueyue sifted through her inventory and now had a rough idea of her supplies. Luckily, ever since the pandemic in 2020, she had developed the habit of stockpiling food. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have so many good things now.

With these materials, she could barely manage to raise the “cub” during this time. As for the future—she’d just take it one step at a time.

Just as Si Yueyue finished organizing her supplies and was about to leave the space, she caught a glimpse of the large machine in the corner of the storage room. It was an old-fashioned sewing machine, left behind by the daughter of the previous landlord.

Because it was part of the former landlady’s dowry, she hadn’t wanted to sell it, so it had been kept here all this time. A few years ago, after she passed away, the landlord’s daughter hadn’t wanted to lug around such a heavy item either, so she just left it here.

She still remembered how, a couple of years ago, she had been shopping online for clothes but couldn’t find anything she liked, so she had even hoarded some fabric, intending to make her own…

Now, looking at the pile of fabric, all she could say was that the thoughts of a homebody could truly be ever-changing.

With so many supplies, how was she going to bring them out? In the 1970s, besides doing labor, what else could earn her money and ration coupons?

Forget it, forget it—she’d think about it later.

Outside the house.

At this time, the whole family had already finished dinner. Lei Jun had gone to the team leader’s house to request leave and get an introduction letter. The children and their young uncle were playing in the courtyard.

After the kitchen was all cleaned up, Zhao Cuilan and Zhang Guihua went into the room to chat with Si Yueyue and help look after the two children, giving Si Yueyue a chance to rest her hands.

Zhang Guihua held a needle and thread, mending the children’s clothes. Suddenly, she thought of her younger sister-in-law giving birth and, puzzled, opened her mouth to ask.

“Yueyue, that day the child came so suddenly, I completely forgot to ask you—how did you find out about your younger brother…” Zhang Guihua really couldn’t bring herself to say the next two words.

When Zhao Cuilan heard her eldest daughter-in-law’s question, she stopped what she was doing and looked at Si Yueyue in surprise. “Yueyue… you already knew?”

“Mm, Mom, I knew.”

“How could you have known? We already…”

Zhang Guihua patted her sister-in-law’s hand and said: “You were heavily pregnant. We didn’t tell you because we were worried it would weigh too heavily on your mind.”

“I understand, Eldest Sister-in-law. I’m not blaming anyone. I know everyone meant well for me.”

“It’s good that you understand. But then, how did you find out?”

“Sigh~ It was Lin Mengling who told me. I was so devastated after hearing the news that my water broke.

When Mengling saw what was happening to me, she rushed off and said she was going to get someone to help. Didn’t you see her?”

Zhang Guihua looked at Si Yueyue in shock. “We were all working in the fields at the time. We didn’t see Educated Youth Lin at all. Even when Mom sent the aunt next door to call me, she wasn’t around.”

“Then how did Mom suddenly come back?”

Zhao Cuilan recalled the situation at the time, and even now, she still felt scared.

“Strangely enough, I felt really anxious all of a sudden. I thought I’d take a break and drink some water, but there wasn’t any left in the kettle, so I came home to fetch some.

Thank goodness… thank goodness I did. If I hadn’t come back then, you could have…”

When Zhao Cuilan stepped into the house and saw Si Yueyue lying on the floor, her heart nearly stopped. If she hadn’t made it back in time, the three lives—mother and children—could have been lost right then and there.

Si Yueyue looked at the two of them, her face filled with shock. “Mengling didn’t go get help? She… she wanted me dead…”

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law duo froze upon hearing that. Yes, Educated Youth Lin had tried to harm Yueyue. First, she told Yueyue that her husband had died, which caused the premature labor. Then she pretended to go find help…

“This won’t do. I’m going to confront that wretch right now. This is attempted murder! It’s illegal! She should eat peanuts!” Zhao Cuilan hurriedly got off the heated brick bed and stormed out.

“Mom…”