Chapter 20.2

In the evening, Zhou Jian and Aunt Wang came by as well, though they arrived separately.

Zhou Jian came first. He had tanned quite a bit after a few days, and according to Li Xiao, he had quit his security job and was now partnering with someone to sell fish and wild products from the countryside. He was making more money than before and had even met a very capable woman in the countryside.

Zhou Jian came directly from the vegetable market, carrying five lively crucian carp and a large bag of mountain goods. Seeing Li Xiao, he smiled and said, “I was worried you weren’t home, so I came straight over. My mom said my sister-in-law needed to drink more crucian carp soup, so I brought some. If it’s not enough, just ask me for more. There’s plenty of fish.”

He walked straight to Li Xiao, who was holding the baby and feeding her. The father and daughter were the picture of contentment.

In fact, Jiang Rou is very anxious now. It’s not good for the child to always drink formula milk, and the current formula milk isn’t as refined as it would be in later generations. In the future, formula milk would be divided according to the child’s age group, but at this time, there were only three types of formula: for children, adolescents, and middle-aged and elderly people.

When Jiang Rou bought it earlier, its main purpose was just a supplement in case her breast milk was insufficient; she never thought the child would drink it every time.

However, her body wasn’t in great condition. Even though Jiang Rou had been taking care of herself for a while, her foundation was still weak. The first pregnant woman in the ward said that she had milk right after giving birth, just like her sister-in-law before, but Jiang Rou didn’t have a drop.

So, she could only think of getting Li Xiao to make more foods that would help with milk production.

As soon as Zhou Jian walked closer, Li Xiao smelled the fishy odor on him and wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Stay back a bit; I don’t want you to transfer the smell to my daughter.”

As he said, he turned his body to the side.

Zhou Jian was thick-skinned and didn’t feel embarrassed when he was told that. However, he did stop moving forward, only craning his neck to look at the little one swaddled in Li Xiao’s arms. Seeing the little one quietly drinking milk, he felt a surge of envy and said, “Wow, she’s so tiny, but she’s really cute.”

His lips curled upwards—Li Xiao couldn’t help but smile at this comment.

He also thought his daughter was cute.

Jiang Rou, on the other hand, laughed from the side. “Don’t listen to him; An’an is especially well-behaved. Come closer; it won’t bother her.”

Zhou Jian felt happy to hear this. He didn’t care much about what his boss said, but he did care if his sister-in-law disliked him. Even so, he laughed and shook his head. “I do smell a bit.”

Then he asked Jiang Rou, “Is the baby’s name An’an? It sounds nice.”

Jiang Rou told him the full name: “Her full name is Li Qingshu. ‘Qing’ as in clear, and ‘Shu’ as in beautiful, with the female radical. Your brother originally wanted to name her Li Ping’an, but I thought it was too common, so I decided to call her An’an as her nickname.”

Zhou Jian now had a very good impression of Jiang Rou and felt that his boss was very lucky to marry her, so he said without thinking, “My sister-in-law is still well-educated; the names she chose are nice and unique. Don’t listen to the boss; Wang Tao’s son’s name was also his idea—Wang Dazhi. It sounds like the name of a thirty-something-year-old, not nice at all.”

“…”

Jiang Rou’s mouth twitched. She couldn’t understand why Wang Tao would let Li Xiao pick the name; how could he be so unwise?

Zhou Jian still looked a little shy. “Sister-in-law, when I have a child in the future, you can help me think of a name.”

He genuinely thought the name was great. He bet there wasn’t another like it in the entire county.

Jiang Rou agreed immediately, “Sure.”

Unable to resist, she asked Zhou Jina about his situation. When she asked Li Xiao, he only said that the other person was a woman, and when asked for more details, he knew nothing.

Zhou Jian did not hide anything and told his story directly: “Her family is poor. She has an older brother, and she was married once before. But less than a year after the wedding, her husband was hit by a car and died. Her mother-in-law and brother-in-law kicked her out of her parents’ house for the compensation money. Now she’s collecting wild goods with her brother in the countryside. Her parents are a bit clueless, but her brother and sister-in-law are decent people. Oh, and she has a three-year-old son.” 

After a pause, he added: “Her brother said that if we got together, he would raise the child. But I thought, if I married her, the child would call me dad, and it’s just an extra mouth to feed, no big deal. What do you think, sister-in-law?”

He had never thought about getting married before. He thought that as long as he fed his mother and himself, he didn’t have to worry about anything.

Why marry a wife? Like Wang Tao’s wife, she is always fussy and empties the family’s pocket to fill her parents’ home. Or Zhu Qiang’s woman, with a temper as big as a mountain—how could anyone live like that?

But seeing his brother’s life getting better and better, he started to have other thoughts. His brother used to be worse off than him. At least he didn’t have to do his own laundry or cooking. But now, his brother wore clean new clothes and had meat at every meal, and his wife wasn’t harsh but cared about him instead. Now, they even have a child.

He envied him from the bottom of his heart.

He didn’t know if it was his illusion, but he even thought his brother’s temper had improved recently.

His mother always said, “Marry a virtuous wife,” and he thought it made sense. Wang Yan wasn’t particularly pretty; she was a widow and had a three-year-old son. If it were a daughter, it would be better since she could bring in a bride price when she grew up. But a son? That was a losing deal, so even the old bachelors in the village didn’t want to marry her.

Zhou Jian had hesitated at first too. His family wasn’t well-off; they were genuinely poor. Without a father to help and with his mother in poor health, they had just managed to pay off their debts after years of struggle, but they had no savings.

It wasn’t that he looked down on her; he just felt the pressure. But seeing her work even harder than a man, even daring to fish in the river on a rainy day when her brother wouldn’t, he felt sorry for her.

At that moment, he thought that life was always hard, but if the two of them worked harder, they could always live a good life.

“She was only two years older than me and was a really nice person. When others sold things to me, they would either mix good and bad items or cheat by giving less. But she was always straightforward and honest; she never played tricks with me. My mother also thought she was great—capable and kind-hearted.”

Jiang Rou nodded repeatedly, feeling that both of them were excellent people. She seriously reminded him, “You should treat her well; it’s not easy to find someone like her.”

Zhou Jian felt relieved. Zhu Qiang and his girlfriend knew about this matter, as Zhu Qiang’s girlfriend and Wang Yan were from the neighboring village and were naturally aware of Wang Yan’s situation.

They both thought he was crazy, disdaining Wang Yan for being older, having been married before, and having a child, believing she was not worthy of him. This made him uncomfortable.

Only Jiang Rou encouraged him to treat her well, without any hint of disdain.

Zhou Jian scratched his head, looking a bit foolish. “I understand. We have already discussed it. We should be able to settle everything by early next year, and she will bring the child to live with us in the county town.”

Jiang Rou smiled. “When I am out of confinement, you can bring her to our house for a meal. Your brother treats you like his own brother, and as your sister-in-law, I should also fulfill my role and make sure she’s not wronged.”

Although Jiang Rou and Li Xiao had been ignorant back then, Jiang Rou was aware that before marriage, the couple still needed to observe each other. She knew Zhou Jian’s mother was in poor health, with a soft temperament, and unable to do heavy work. Some things were more convenient for her and Li Xiao to handle.

Hearing this, Zhou Jian felt warm and a bit emotional, thinking that although his family couldn’t offer much support, he still had his big brother and sister-in-law, which was not worse than anyone else.

He couldn’t help but glance at Li Xiao beside him. Li Xiao seemed to sense his gaze, looked up, and calmly said, “Listen to your sister-in-law.”

“Mm.”

Zhou Jian responded with a choked voice.

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