Chapter 50.2

She worked at the supply and marketing cooperative, and her mother used to help with the grandchild during the day. But now her mother was busy as her sister-in-law had just had another baby, which made her mother smile constantly these days.

Fortunately, she had passed the exam. Otherwise, finding someone to take care of her son would have been a huge problem. Her mother would be willing to help, but managing two kids, one just born and taking care of her sister-in-law, would be too overwhelming. She felt sorry for her mother’s hard work.

Her sister-in-law had some complaints about her staying at her parents’ house after marriage. Her sister-in-law was already upset with her from before.

Jiang Suihan smiled faintly, thinking Dai Jia’s temper seemed a bit short. She was curious about how Dai Jia and Zhang Xiangqian managed their daily interactions, given his gossipy nature.

“It’s not too bad now. You’ve changed to a new job, and the elementary school is close to the army base. It should be manageable to take Youyou to school during the day.”

Dai Jia couldn’t help but complain, “It’s unavoidable. My mother-in-law can’t come from our hometown, and my mom is too busy. I had to come myself. Luckily, I got through the first two years. Otherwise, it would have been even more challenging.”

Her mother had helped a lot when she first had the baby, otherwise, she might have been overwhelmed. Zhang Xiangqian was away on a mission at that time and couldn’t help at all.

Jiang Suihan said, “Yes, being a military wife isn’t easy.”

That night, when she asked Xu Zhao about having a baby, he was silent for a while.

Jiang Suihan stared at him, feeling a bit angry. “What do you mean? Do you not want children?”

She didn’t understand why he needed so much time to think, making it seem like she was pressuring him.

Xu Zhao quickly explained, “Having a child is a very tough job, and being a mother isn’t easy. We’re still young, so there’s no rush. If you want to have a child, we can. If not, we can wait. It doesn’t matter what others think. I’ll follow your lead.”

He actually didn’t mind having a child. It was just that he preferred things to happen naturally. There was no need to rush.

Moreover, he sometimes had missions and couldn’t be by her side all the time. With only a seven-year-old at home, it was hard to relax, and his mother had not retired yet and couldn’t come to help.

Jiang Suihan asked him, “Do you want children?”

Xu Zhao nodded. “Yes.”

This was his true feeling. Who doesn’t want a child after getting married?

Jiang Suihan nibbled on her right-hand fingernail, a habit she had when she was indecisive. Xu Zhao couldn’t stand it and pulled her hand away.

She would turn twenty at the end of the year, which was a good age for having a child. Being young and healthy, she would recover quickly after giving birth.

Xu Zhao’s parents didn’t pressure them about having children, but Xu Zhao himself was twenty-five now. Zhang Xiangqian’s son was already born at this age, and Xu Zhao didn’t want to fall behind too much.

Xu Zhao looked at Jiang Suihan, his eyes rolling thoughtfully. “What are you thinking about?”

Jiang Suihan candidly replied, “Thinking about having a baby.”

Xu Zhao was caught off guard by her directness. “Do you want one?”

He had thought she might not be very interested, given that young women often value their freedom and may not want to be tied down by children.

Jiang Suihan lay on the bed, absentmindedly pulling at the blanket. “It’s fine. Like you said, if we have a child, we’ll have it. If not, we can wait. After all, we’re still young.”

She is very open-minded and lets things take their own course, believing that the baby will come naturally when the time comes.

She turned over and changed her position, put the pillow under her body, and began to chatter: “It’s not easy to give birth to a child, and it’s even harder to raise a child. It takes ten months of pregnancy for the baby to mature, and you have to suffer too much in the meantime. It’s not easy to be a woman, and it’s even harder to be a mother. After you give birth, you have to raise the child. It’s not as simple as just feeding and clothing a child, you also have to teach him.”

“Children’s thinking is different from that of adults. They are like a blank sheet of paper and know nothing. If they are taught badly, they will become parasites in society and endanger society. If you want to teach them well, you have to work hard and put in all kinds of effort. It takes a lot of time, energy and money, and you may not be able to teach them well.”

Jiang Suihan sighed quietly: “It’s so hard for me.”

The corners of Xu Zhao’s mouth twitched involuntarily. She spoke so affectionately, as if she had already planted jade in Lantian and had a child.

“You are worrying for no reason. The thing hasn’t even happened yet, but you are already worrying. Raising a child is indeed not easy, but it’s not as scary as you say. My parents gave birth to three of us siblings. They were busy with work before and didn’t have much time to take care of us, but we siblings still got through it.”

He pinched Jiang Suihan’s nose, leaned over, looked at her, and chuckled: “Want to have a baby?”

The warm breath sprayed on her face, and Jiang Huihan’s face turned red. She secretly despised herself. They had obviously done more intimate things before, but now facing his sudden intimacy, she still blushed and her heart beat faster.

She inexplicably felt a sense of victory and defeat, and she put her arms around his neck, blew gently into his ear with malicious intent, and said in a soft and delicate voice: “What if I say yes?”

Then it was visible that Xu Zhao’s ears turned red at an extremely fast speed. He was shy.

Jiang Suihan was so happy that her shoulders trembled: “Your ears are so red.”

Xu Zhao pretended to be calm and looked at her with gritted teeth: “Very happy?”

Jiang Suihan smiled and nodded: “Happy.”

It’s a rare opportunity to see his shy side, how can I not be happy?

Xu Zhao smiled brightly, and a small dimple suddenly appeared on his right cheek.

Jiang Suihan also saw it for the first time, and couldn’t help but reach out and poke it, saying with great sorrow: “You actually have dimples, you should smile more, how can you bear to hide such beautiful dimples.”

Xu Zhao was silent for a moment, then instantly regained his expressionless face, and the dimple disappeared.

Jiang Suihan looked regretful: “Why don’t you smile anymore? I regret that we met too late. Let’s meet again soon.”

Xu Zhao grabbed her hands that were causing trouble and said helplessly, “Stop it.”

“Hey, why did you blow out the candle?” Jiang Suihan glared at Xu Zhao as everything in front of her was dark.

Xu Zhao put his arm around her waist and said, “Give birth to a child.”

Jiang Suihan was stunned and opened her mouth to speak, but he seized the opportunity and took advantage of her.

After a long time, everything returned to calm.

The quilt was suddenly pulled open, revealing her sweaty, red face. Xu Zhao grabbed the scattered clothes beside him and wiped the sweat off her face: “Do you want some water?”

Jiang Suihan’s voice was hoarse and she was very sleepy. She closed her eyes and mumbled, “Yes.”

Xu Zhao picked up the clothes on the ground and put them on. He picked up the thermos and poured half a cup of water into it. Fearing that it would be too hot, he poured in some boiled water that he had prepared that night.

He walked to the bed and sat down, half holding her in his arms, and carefully fed her water.

After drinking half a glass of water, the dry and itchy throat was relieved. Jiang Suihan turned her head away and refused to drink it. Xu Zhao raised his head and drank the rest of the glass.

Because she was worried about going to the school meeting in the morning, Jiang Suihan woke up before seven o’clock. She lay lazily in the bed and didn’t want to get up. She just wanted to sleep until the end of time.

Xu Zhao had gone to the army early. She slapped her forehead in annoyance. It was all his fault. She forgot to ask him if he was the one who did what Wang Lijuan did.

After lying in bed for several minutes, Jiang Huihan rubbed her sore waist and slowly got up. She didn’t know what she said last night that irritated him, and he pestered her for it several times.

The road was peaceful, and I didn’t run into any annoying people. When I arrived at the elementary school, I saw Dai Jia standing at the door holding her son. She held Youyou’s little hand and waved, “Say hello to Aunt Jiang.”

Youyou still remember that Jiang Suihan once gave him a delicious candy, and he said softly and obediently, “Hello, Aunt Jiang.”

Jiang Suihan searched her pockets but found nothing. Then she remembered that she had changed her coat and there was no candy in her pocket: “Good morning, Youyou.”

Youyou grinned and smiled at Jiang Suihan, no longer shy and timid as she was at the beginning.

Dai Jia put her son down and rubbed her wrists. The child was getting heavier and heavier, and her arms couldn’t bear it after holding him for too long.

“Youyou refused to stay in there, so I had to take him out. Principal Cai hasn’t come yet. Why don’t you go in and wait?”

As soon as I mentioned Principal Cai, she arrived.

Principal Cai saw the two of them, smiled slightly, and said in a gentle manner: “Since you are here, let’s go in.”

She walked into the classroom first, holding a notebook in her hand.

Another person who passed the exam was a military wife named Yao Hongxia. She was very thin and dark, and looked to be in her early thirties. Her clothes were a little whitish from being washed, but very clean.

Principal Cai stood in front and spoke: “First of all, congratulations to all three of you for passing the exam. From now on, you will be my colleagues. I am honored that the army trusts me and arranges me to be the principal. I feel very nervous and excited. This is also my first time as a principal. If you do something wrong, please tell me. The school belongs to everyone. Only when the school becomes better, our work become more meaningful.”

Clap, clap, clap. Jiang Suihan was the first to applaud. Seeing Principal Cai looking at her in surprise, she smiled brightly at her. Dai Jia and Yao Hongxia were stunned for a moment, then they realized it and started to applaud together.

Principal Cai stretched out her hand and pressed down, asking the three people to introduce themselves in turn.

Jiang Suihan wasn’t afraid at all. She spoke confidently while standing, and Dai Jia performed quite well. Having previously worked at a supply and marketing cooperative, she had dealt with many people and had developed a lot of courage. Yao Hongxia seemed a bit nervous and her voice was tense, but fortunately, nothing went wrong. When she came down, Jiang Suihan saw her visibly relieved.

Principal Cai was very practical and energetic, quickly moving on to assign tasks.

When Jiang Suihan learned she was responsible for teaching Chinese and Math to the fourth and fifth grades, she felt the workload was manageable. Principal Cai wanted her to teach music as well, but Jiang Suihan quickly declined, saying she had no musical talent and sang poorly, so she didn’t want to subject the students to that.

Principal Cai couldn’t help but smile slightly. The young woman was quite humorous, attractive, cultured, and poised. It seemed that Xu’s family had made a good choice in their daughter-in-law.

“Then Dai Jia will handle the music class. I’ll find someone else for physical education. For now, this is the arrangement. If you have any other ideas, feel free to come to me. Since this is our first time running a school, there are many unknowns. For now, it’s just us teachers. We’ll need to manage as best as we can. If we need more staff later, I’ll report it and hire more.”

Including Principal Cai, there were only four teachers in total, which was based on the number of students. Due to the limited educational background of some family members, they couldn’t recruit more.

Principal Cai called out to Jiang Suihan: “Xiao Jiang, could you stay for a moment? I need to talk to you.”

“I’ll head out first then,” said Dai Jia, not curious about why Principal Cai wanted to speak with Jiang Suihan, and said goodbye before leaving with her son.

Yao Hongxia glanced over unintentionally but noticed nothing and also left.