Chapter 007

“It wasn’t like that. My wife made the chicken stew for our daughter, and buying the bicycle was also a well-thought-out decision.”

He couldn’t mention that in the morning, she had also made him an egg pancake with several eggs. When he said this, his colleagues still thought that his wife had done something wrong.

Teacher Zhou firmly believed it was nothing. The other three teachers exchanged glances, shook their heads, and continued eating.

Teacher Zhou’s wife was really something. She had a firm hold on Teacher Zhou and he was obedient to her.

This little episode didn’t affect Zhou Chengning’s appetite. When he returned home from work in the afternoon, he was always in a lighthearted mood.

Zhou Chengning taught Chinese to three classes of third-year middle school students and two classes of second-year middle school students. According to his daily schedule, he would finish work when the last class ended.

The earliest he finished was at three o’clock, and the latest was at five. Today, he finished at five.

As soon as he got home, he smelled the delicious fragrance. Zhou Chengning’s stomach growled, so he quickly washed his hands and went to see what was for dinner.

Dinner was still served in the outer room. As soon as Zhou Chengning entered, Guagua was holding a steamed bun shaped like a rabbit. “Dad, eat rabbit, it’s delicious, sweet.”

Zhou Chengning took the bun from his daughter and bit into it. It wasn’t hot anymore, but it still tasted sweet. He finished the bun in a few bites and went to grab another one.

Xu Xiangjuan was using the rabbit-shaped steamed bun to tease their son, who had just woken up and wasn’t ready to sleep despite being full. The two-month-old baby waved his soft, weak little arms but couldn’t grasp the bun.

Xu Xiangjuan didn’t let her son hold the bun. Even if he could grab it, babies at that age liked to put things in their mouths. It would be fine if he couldn’t get it in, as he didn’t have teeth yet, but if he managed to get it in, that would be a problem. So, she was just teasing him.

“The chicken drumsticks are made into spicy chicken. Guagua ate a few bites and then stopped. The rest is for you to eat. You can put it in a lunchbox tonight. I only made the steamed buns today, and tomorrow I’ll pack them for school.”

In the afternoon, Xu Xiangjuan had taken some steamed buns and two bunches of cowpeas to her mother, and on her way back, she had picked cucumbers from her parents’ garden.

Her family’s vegetable garden was different from her parents’ garden. Every season, she would discuss with her mother what to plant to avoid overlap, so they grew different vegetables and had a wider variety of foods to eat.

At this time, the cucumbers were still curved, not as large as the ones that would come later, and not as glossy green, but they still tasted good. They were refreshing and sweet. She diced some of the cucumbers and added them to the spicy chicken. The rest of the cucumber she used to make a cold salad. The spicy chicken was too hot for Guagua to eat, so the cold cucumber salad became her favorite dish of the night.

Before Dad came home, she had already eaten half a rabbit-shaped bun. When she heard the sound of Dad coming home, she even specially grabbed a rabbit bun to give to him.

The spicy chicken was both hot and fragrant. If it were eaten in the summer, it would surely make one sweat profusely.

Her husband wasn’t afraid of spice, and in fact, he even liked it a bit, though he never said so.

He placed himself too low, never expressing his desires or what he wanted to eat, unlike Guagua who would say what she wanted. If she didn’t agree, Guagua would come up with some clever idea on her own. But her Ah Ning wouldn’t even speak up.

When he was sick, there were signs before it showed, but he kept it to himself. He endured the discomfort until she finally noticed.

It had been the same in their previous life. At first, he was weak and ill. She wanted to take him to see a doctor, but he refused. It wasn’t because he was unwilling to seek treatment, but because he didn’t want to burden the family. Seeing a doctor cost money, and he believed the illness was minor and would go away on its own. She was persuaded by him, thinking the small illness would pass by itself. Later, when he had a high fever, she realized her husband and their two little children were just as worrying.

She couldn’t bear to scold him, nor could she bring herself to punish him.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love Zhou Chengning. It was just that after having children in her previous life, she naturally tilted the balance in favor of the children. Children needed protection and care… This time, she understood. The man she thought could be trusted to ease her worries was actually the one who caused the most concern.

With the spicy chicken, Zhou Chengning didn’t know how many steamed buns he had eaten until Xu Xiangjuan reminded him not to eat any more. If he did, there wouldn’t be any left for school tomorrow. She had only made one chicken drumstick for dinner, and only then did Zhou Chengning switch his chopsticks to the cold cucumber salad.

The cold cucumber salad, compared to the fiery spicy chicken, was quite refreshing. It was crisp and tangy, with just the right amount of sourness.

“I’ll heat up the steamed buns for you tomorrow morning. I won’t put them in the lunchbox, so they won’t get squashed. It wouldn’t taste good if I steamed them with the spicy chicken,” she said. Steamed dishes like the spicy chicken didn’t taste as good as braised dishes when steamed.

“Alright, I’ll eat whatever you make. What did you have for lunch today, Juan?”

It seemed like the food his wife made was always for Guagua and him. Last night, they had egg drop soup, but tonight, she hadn’t eaten anything.

“I had steamed buns. In the afternoon, I also drank fish soup at my mom’s place.” The fish soup was truly without salt or oil, and it still had a fishy smell. She had to tell her mother how to cook fish properly so that it wouldn’t smell.

After hearing this, Zhou Chengning felt relieved. He now recalled what his colleagues had said during the day. He didn’t think his wife had wasted money. After all, the family didn’t have much money. What he feared was that his wife might decide she didn’t want him anymore and was only being kind to him because of that.

His wife was certainly good to him. This courtyard also belonged to her, with a vegetable garden at the back, pear trees, and peach trees in the courtyard, all very neat and orderly. Every day, he had three meals prepared by her, unlike when he was single, when he had to buy rice and flour himself, and cook it himself. When he was in college, he could buy from the school canteen. But now, working here, he had to do everything himself, and sometimes the food wasn’t cooked properly, yet he had to force himself to eat it, so as not to waste it.

Guagua’s love for her parents was certain. Although Guagua loved to eat, she was small and didn’t eat as much as Dad. Moreover, she could speak, and she knew how to coax Mom.

After dinner, as usual, Guagua stayed in the kitchen with Dad to help clean the dishes. Guagua mostly came to wash her face and soak her feet. All the work was done by Zhou Chengning.

“Guagua, has Mom mentioned to you that she’s going somewhere recently?”

“Yes, to the city.” Guagua was stepping in the foot basin, and when she heard Dad’s question, she could understand it and responded.

Mom said she was going to the city to buy a car and would take her along. Niuniu would be left at Grandma’s house.

When Zhou Chengning heard this, his heart churned. Was his wife really going to leave him?

Why else would she want to go to the city? She definitely didn’t want him anymore.

Guagua didn’t understand her dad’s inner thoughts. After she had finished soaking her feet, she sat on a little stool, wanting Dad to dry her feet.

Once her little feet were dried, Guagua put on her slippers and went into the inner room.

During the day, Xu Xiangjuan had some free time and tore a page from Zhou Chengning’s notebook. Using his pencil, she drew a little wooden bed on a piece of wood she found at home. She labeled it with “Company Commander” and “Carpenter Chen” so that they could understand it.

At first, she didn’t think it was necessary to make a bed for the child, but now she realized it was important. What would happen if the adult wasn’t careful and ended up crushing the child while sleeping?

Although Niuniu and Guagua had both grown up healthy without any incidents, she really didn’t want to be restricted in her sleep because of the child.

With Niuniu by her side, she was afraid of crushing the baby or stealing the child’s blanket during sleep.

Children were born to demand attention.

When she married Zhou Chengning, she learned from Aunt Qian that he was a graduate of Tsinghua University, a college graduate, well above high school level, and someone worthy of her.

But later, she truly understood the significance of Tsinghua University. It was a top university. Even twenty or thirty years from now, Tsinghua University would still be at the pinnacle. Graduates from Tsinghua University were like gold.

She had always thought that graduating from high school was already an impressive achievement. She never really expected to get into college, and indeed, she didn’t. But just graduating from high school was quite an accomplishment. How many people in the village had even finished middle school?

What she thought were lofty aspirations were, in fact, quite shallow. Her husband had graduated from a top university and was so humble about it.

Initially, she thought being a teacher at the town’s middle school was already quite good. Although teachers were once looked down upon, things were improving, and teachers were becoming more stable. It wasn’t as hard as being a common laborer or a street vendor.

Her husband’s parents and siblings were truly odd, so odd that they could drive her mad. In her previous life, she had thought it was nice not having to deal with her in-laws, especially since even when her husband visited, no one from his family came to see them. She didn’t think much of it at the time. But later, while cleaning up her husband’s belongings, she found his diary.

Her husband had been a lecturer at Renmin University. Although Renmin University was not as famous as Tsinghua University, it was still a prestigious institution. He had worked there for six months before his family forced him to return. They threatened to report him for poor character and lack of filial piety if he didn’t come back.

He didn’t have much contact with his biological parents and was pressured by them to return. He ended up teaching at Dezao Town Middle School. His parents and grandparents lived in Hongshan Town, but he didn’t want to go back there, so he taught in a neighboring town instead.

Xu Xiangjuan could understand him. She had seen parents who didn’t want the best for their children. After living in the mud for so long, they didn’t want their children to fly away from it.

There weren’t many mentions of his parents in the diary, but his grandfather was mentioned several times. His grandfather was an enlightened man, a scholar from the old days, though his family had been poor farmers for generations. When he was a child, he had worked as a companion reader for a young master from a landlord’s family.

Fortunately, his family had been poor farmers, which meant they hadn’t been caught up in the turmoil of the past.

His grandfather had passed away in May of the following year, and Xu Xiangjuan remembered it well.