◎ First update ◎ 

It was already late afternoon when everyone in the courtyard learned about Zhou Guoping causing trouble. As they returned with New Year’s goods, they heard several children chattering about it as soon as they entered the courtyard. 

This kind of thing couldn’t be hidden, and in no time, it spread to every household. 

Cheng Caili was breastfeeding her daughter when she heard about it and immediately cursed, “What kind of person is Zhou Guoping! How dare he come back! He should be beaten up and thrown out!” 

Her little daughter, Chu Chu, startled by her mother’s outburst, was drinking milk when she felt her mother’s chest rise with emotion, which seemed quite frightening. 

“Wah!” Chu Chu pouted her little mouth in grievance and was about to cry. 

“Oh, Mother wasn’t scolding you.” Cheng Caili quickly softened her expression, and coaxed her patiently, “Let’s keep drinking milk.” 

When Lu Yuan heard his daughter crying, he felt even more distressed and helped to comfort her until she calmed down. 

“Isn’t our daughter a bit too timid?” 

“How is she timid! I just spoke too loudly earlier. I’ll be more careful next time.”  

Cheng Caili looked at her daughter, a delicate and beautiful little baby, who was perfect in every way. How could she have any flaws! 

Xu Shengjie also helped the pregnant Liang Baozhen back to their room. Liu Nianhua had solved a big problem this time. To express her gratitude, she specially brought New Year gifts and sent cakes to both Zhang Rong’s family and their family. 

“It’s really not easy for Sister Hua to raise her children alone.” Liang Baozhen sat down with her big belly. She was really uncomfortable after standing for so long today. 

“Yes, that’s right.” Zhou Yun recalled her own struggles when she was in the same situation before. Fortunately, most of the neighbors in the courtyard were good people who could lend a hand to one another. 

“Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?” Xu Shengjie asked, looking at his wife’s growing belly, worried she might be feeling unwell.  

Fortunately, the recent hospital checkups showed that both the mother and the baby were healthy. 

“I’m fine as long as I don’t stand for too long.” Liang Baozhen knew he was worried so she reassured him. “Don’t worry. I knew what to do when things got out of hand today. I stood a little further away and made sure to send the three kids to notify someone.” 

“Good thinking.” Xu Shengjie was genuinely concerned that she might have rushed forward carelessly. Any bump or fall would have been a disaster.  

Zhou Yun smiled at the couple’s exchange. “If Baozhen had tried to go up, Grandma would’ve held her back for sure.” 

The disgraceful event from before the New Year was blown away along with the fireworks of New Year’s Eve; the crackling sounds welcomed the arrival of a new year. 

Early in the morning on the first day of the New Year, Xu Shengwei and Xu Shengya paid New Year’s greetings to their grandmother and brother and sister-in-law as usual. Each of them received a red envelope of New Year’s money and went out happily. 

Some people visited relatives, while others dropped by neighbors’ houses. Fortunately, the sun came out on this first day of the New Year. Although it wasn’t very warm, the sunshine lifted everyone’s spirits. 

The sunlight glistened on the thick snow, making it look as if a layer of gold had been spread over the white snow. 

Liang Baozhen was wearing a thick red cotton-padded jacket. She had delicate features, a plumper figure, and a bulging belly. She was standing at the entrance of the alley, watching the children playing snowball fights. 

This year, she couldn’t travel far for the New Year and couldn’t even return to her parents’ home. Song Chunhua asked her second brother to send some eggs, and somehow, he managed to get his hands on a leg of lamb, saying it was to help strengthen her body. 

They cooked a pot of soup with it last night. After eating it, she felt warm all over, and her hands and feet were no longer cold.  

“Ha!” Xu Shengya was tired from playing. She and several girls in the courtyard had just teamed up against a group of boys and now everyone’s cotton-padded jacket was covered with scattered snow from the snowballs that hit them. Despite the winter cold, she had worked up a thin layer of sweat, her fair cheeks flushed red. 

“Sister-in-law, when will the baby come out?” 

They were having a break in the middle of the snowball fight, since they needed to take a break to catch their breath. Xu Shengya sat down next to her sister-in-law and looked at her big belly. She knew that her little nephew or niece was inside. 

“There are still three months left.” Liang Baozhen was excited to give birth soon. Once the baby was born, she’d feel light on her feet again and be able to walk with ease! 

Unlike now, where everything was inconvenient. 

“Oh, that’s still a long time!” 

“Aunt Baozhen, is it a little brother or a little sister in there?” Song Xinhong, the eldest daughter of Widow Chen, asked, joining the conversation. 

“I don’t know either. We’ll know after the baby is born.” 

“I hope it’s a sister.” Song Xinmiao whispered as she sat next to her sister. 

Qin Xiaoyue asked her, “Why?” 

“That way we’ll have more people playing snowball fights!” 

“That makes sense! Then it should be a sister!” 

A group of little girls reached an agreement. After all, the number of boys and girls is not equal when playing snowball fights! 

There were five boys and only four girls in the courtyard, and even if Chu Chu, who was still nursing in Cheng Caili’s arms, joined, it would barely even out. Their goal was to surpass the number of boys, hoping that the baby in Liang Baozhen’s belly would be a girl so she could join their future snowball army. 

Liang Baozhen was at a loss for words about this. Is this how the gender of her child is determined? 

The reasoning is really simple. 

“Xu Shengya, have you guys rested enough? Hurry up!” Xu Shengwei waved towards this side. “Hurry up, hurry up!” 

“Coming!” 

Liang Baozhen has been bored recently. It was a rare day off on the first day of the new year, so she watched a group of children playing snowballs with great interest. She didn’t even notice that Xu Shengjie had returned. 

When she noticed a tall figure beside her, she was almost scared! 

Liang Baozhen fell back slightly and put her hand on her chest. “You’re back? You scared me.” 

Xu Shengjie patted her on the back and smiled at her flustered expression. His eyes were sparkling like a little deer. “I called you; didn’t you hear me?” 

“Did you call me?” Liang Baozhen was probably so engrossed in watching the children playing snowballs that she didn’t notice at all. She pulled Xu Shengjie’s arm, “Look at Xiao Wei and Xiao Ya; they are having so much fun.” 

“Two little rascals.” Xu Shengjie looked forward along the direction Liang Baozhen was looking and saw a group of children making a lot of noise. 

It wasn’t until the family called everyone back for dinner that the game ended. 

Liang Baozhen was itching to join in but couldn’t. With her big belly, it was difficult for her to even bend over. She looked at the thick snow on the ground and felt envious. 

“Want to play?” 

“Hmm~” Hearing this, Liang Baozhen had a hunch that Xu Shengjie would come up with a solution for her; otherwise, he wouldn’t have asked! 

Sure enough, the man beside her bent down, scooped up some snow, and expertly formed a snowball with his hands. In no time, he had shaped it into a perfectly round, smooth snowball, even rounder than the ones the kids had made earlier. 

“Here, play with this.” Xu Shengjie handed the snowball to his wife, feeling like he’d completed his task. 

Liang Baozhen was holding a cool, round snowball in her hand and was speechless for a moment. “Is this how I’m supposed to play?” 

She had thought there would at least be a snowball fight involved. 

“Is it not big enough or not round enough?” Xu Shengjie noticed that his wife was not satisfied, so he leaned over and made another snowball and placed it into her hand again. “Now you can play with two.” 

Liang Baozhen went home with two round snowballs in her hands, but she didn’t know what to do with them! 

During dinner, the family sat around the square table, with the two snowballs placed in an enamel bowl. By the time they finished eating, the snowballs had already begun to melt a bit. 

Liang Baozhen decided to merge the two snowballs into one and played with it while bouncing it between her hands, soaking her feet at the same time. 

Surprisingly, it was actually quite fun!  

*** 

The Spring Festival gradually passed, and the admission letters for the college entrance examination before the New Year flew into everyone’s hands. The admission rate for this college entrance examination was low. Many people from the State Cotton Factory participated, but only three received the admission letters. 

Liang Baozhen closed the window of the factory office to block out the cold wind outside. She turned around and heard Huang Cuie talking about the postman delivering the admission letters to the factory. 

“There are three people in our factory who passed the exam, which is quite impressive.” 

“Which three? Do we know them?” 

“One is Liu Fengxian from the Finance Department, one is Fang Chongguang from the spinning workshop, and one is Qin Qin from the Logistics Department.” Huang Cuie is well-connected since every new employee had to undergo her ideological training. 

“I only know Liu Fengxian.” There were several thousand people in the State Cotton Factory, and Liang Baozhen estimated that she only knew a small half of them. She knew Liu Fengxian, an employee who was responsible for paying the salary every month! 

“I know her, too.” Zhu Jinyu can’t help but voice her concern about the salary issue. “Who will be responsible for the salary after she leaves?” 

“You’re still worried about that?” Song Ming laughed. “Don’t worry, the factory won’t forget about it.”  

“That’s right!” 

“I’ve got to go to the radio station now.” It was time for the afternoon broadcast, so Liang Baozhen grabbed the scripts, which included quotes from great leaders and the daily news, and slowly made her way to the station.  

Ever since her belly got bigger, she would start off a little earlier and walk slowly so she wouldn’t be in a hurry. 

“Hello, everyone, I’m your broadcaster, Liang Baozhen. Today’s broadcast includes quotes from great leaders…” 

“Lastly, I would like to inform you that the 16th Spring Sports Meeting of the State Cotton Factory will be held on April 7 and 8. We welcome all employees to sign up, show enthusiasm, and compete with determination.” 

While working in the workshop, Xu Shengjie couldn’t help but smile when he heard his wife’s voice. She had a good job—he got to hear her gentle voice reciting quotes every day. 

“Old Xu, what do you think?” 

Hong Saner also heard the broadcast that the spring sports meeting was coming, which was a good opportunity to show off his skills. The State Cotton Factory, like other state-owned factories, used to hold sports meetings every year, but it didn’t happen in the past two years because the factory director Chen Yong was busy with production and construction. He often asked the workers to work overtime, which led to the event being canceled. 

Now that it was coming back, how can everyone not be excited? 

The most important thing was that winning in the sports event came with prizes! Two years ago, the first prizes included a radio and meat and grain tickets, which were quite generous. Who wouldn’t be tempted? 

“What do you mean?” Xu Shengjie was wiping the equipment. 

“Are you not going to show up for the sport meeting? With your physique as a veteran soldier, you can easily win.” Hong Saner was already imagining a bright future. If he won the first prize, he would get a meat ticket and could also have a good meal in a state-owned restaurant.  

Xu Shengjie shook his head. “I’m not going. You can go.” 

He wasn’t interested in showing off, and more importantly, by then, his wife Baozhen would be close to giving birth. As a soon-to-be father, how could he allow himself to be distracted? 

 The author has something to say:  

A father’s sense of responsibility means you can’t be distracted when you are a father. 🥹