Chapter 12

“Pfft… cough cough cough… What did you just say?”

Geng Ailing sprayed out all the pastries in her mouth from Fan Hua’s unexpected words.

Fan Hua quickly patted Geng Ailing’s back to help her recover, then continued, “Sister-in-law Geng, don’t get too worked up. What I meant is that I’m pregnant now. But don’t worry—once the baby is born, I’ll cover most of the rent. I won’t let you suffer any loss.”

“You silly girl, is this about rent? You’re not even married! Whose baby is it?”

Seeing how agitated Geng Ailing was, and remembering that she had promised to be sincere, Fan Hua explained what had happened back in the village.

After hearing the story, Geng Ailing’s expression shifted through a thousand emotions.

“So, you’ve decided to have the baby and raise it on your own?”

Fan Hua nodded firmly. “Since they’re already in my belly, then it’s fate—we have a bond as mother and child. I won’t abandon them.”

“Them?”

“Mm-hmm. Yes, twins. Remember before we left, I suddenly ran out of the inn in a rush? That was to go to the hospital for a checkup. The doctor said it’s twins.”

“…Then why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Geng Ailing was at a loss for words.

“If you had told me sooner, I would’ve taken better care of you this whole trip. I wouldn’t have let you sleep on the floor last night either. No wonder you always covered your mouth and nose around people who were smoking and looked so nauseous—I thought you just didn’t like the smell. Turns out, you’re pregnant!”

Seeing Geng Ailing’s genuine concern, Fan Hua finally relaxed. Not only did she not judge her, she even wanted to take extra care of her.

In this era, getting pregnant before marriage was heavily criticized. If Geng Ailing couldn’t accept her situation, it was better they addressed it early. That’s why Fan Hua decided to tell her now.

Geng Ailing’s attitude had its own reasons. She had only been married to Li Dazhu for less than a year when he accidentally fell to his death from a mountain. Many people in the village urged her to remarry while she was still young. But only she knew her heart still belonged to Li Dazhu.

After experiencing the kindness of someone like him, she couldn’t care about anyone else. Rather than marry someone she didn’t love, she preferred to live alone.

She regretted not having any children with Li Dazhu—she dreamed of having a child of theirs.

Her decision to come south wasn’t just about making money. Her mother had been urging her to remarry and setting up blind dates. But as someone who had been married, the matches were all widowers or older men—she couldn’t accept that.

While worrying about her future, she got a letter from her cousin and decided to head south, both to escape and to earn a living.

Now learning that Fan Hua was pregnant made her truly envious. She felt an urge to look after her, to help welcome this new life into the world—and to fill the void of not having children herself.

“How are you feeling now? You’ve been on the train for so long—are you okay? Want to go inside and rest first?” Geng Ailing asked anxiously.

“I’m fine, really! They’re tough little ones! Sister-in-law, let’s go shopping. The sooner we get things settled, the sooner we can rest!”

Geng Ailing nodded in agreement but suddenly paused, “Oh right—did Comrade Zheng give you any coal ration tickets? I saw a stove in the kitchen. I heard that in the city, they don’t burn firewood, they use coal briquettes or honeycomb briquettes. If we have tickets, we should buy some coal—it’ll make cooking and boiling water easier!”

Fan Hua pulled out the stack of ration coupons, and sure enough, there were coal tickets.

“Yes! He gave a pretty complete set. There’s coal tickets, even cotton and fabric ones!” she said, holding them up.

“Wow, that’s great! With the ones I brought from home, we’ve got national coupons—living won’t be a problem! The Zheng family are really good people. We were lucky to meet them on the train,” Geng Ailing said emotionally.

Fan Hua felt the same. She considered herself very lucky. In just a few days since arriving in this era, she’d met Geng Ailing at the inn, then Zhao Yilu and Zheng Zening’s family on the train. She came to Guangzhou with just four yuan and twenty-five cents, and now she had a place to stay.

Thinking of all this, Fan Hua grew even more hopeful about her future.

The two of them put down their luggage, happily grabbed money and coupons, and headed out.

They asked around and went to the supply and marketing cooperative, buying all kinds of daily necessities. Then, after getting directions to a coal yard, they bought some honeycomb briquettes and borrowed a cart to bring them home. Geng Ailing was afraid Fan Hua would tire herself out, so she handled the heavy lifting, deeply moving Fan Hua.

“Sister-in-law Geng, we’ve worked hard enough today. Let’s not cook tonight. Let’s go eat at the state-run restaurant—my treat!”

Geng Ailing quickly waved her hands. “No, no, no—you already said it. For us to get along long-term, we need to split expenses equally.”

Fan Hua chuckled, “You’re such a straightforward person. I meant for big expenses, we’ll keep track. But for little things like this, no need to be so strict. Otherwise, it’ll feel too formal.

You did all the heavy work today—it’s only right that I treat you to dinner. In the future, you’ll buy groceries one day, I’ll buy meat the next. We won’t be able to keep track of everything. As long as we’re both looking out for each other and not calculating too much, we’ll definitely get along!”

Geng Ailing fully understood then and felt very comfortable around Fan Hua.

“Lihua, I didn’t expect you to be younger than me but so wise! Those rumors in the village were all nonsense—you’re truly a wonderful girl!”

Fan Hua just smiled and said nothing more, then took Geng Ailing downstairs for dinner. The apartment was in a great location—there was a state-run restaurant right downstairs. Eating out in the future would be convenient.

They went in, ordered two bowls of rice and a plate of braised pork, and happily began to eat.