However, when it was time for dinner, it wasn’t just Yi Bao, Er Bao, and Lin Xiaoshi who returned; Lin Xiaoshan also came back.

“Xiao Shan?” Seeing Lin Xiaoshan, Ning Shu was a bit surprised. But in just two days, he looked extremely tired, with his face sunken.

“Auntie…” Seeing Ning Shu, Lin Xiaoshan didn’t say anything and immediately knelt down, knocking his head three times before Ning Shu could react.

Seeing his brother kneeling down and knocking his head, Lin Xiaoshi followed suit.

Ning Shu was helpless. “Xiao Shan, Xiao Shi, get up quickly.” Lin Xiaoshan was a very straightforward child.

Lin Xiaoshan stood up with his younger brother. “Auntie, thank you for taking care of my brother. My mother has been discharged from the hospital, so this is the extra money.” He took out thirty yuan from his pocket and gave it to Ning Shu. “Can I use rice to offset the rest?” He was a bit nervous when he asked.

Ning Shu took twenty yuan and left ten yuan in his hand. “Although your mother has been discharged, you still need to keep some money for yourself. Rice can be used as payment, so don’t worry.”

She calculated that Lin Xiaoshan had 430 catties of rice here. In this era, rice with coupons cost 0.15 yuan per catty, and without coupons, it would be around 0.20 yuan.

Although she didn’t buy rice, theoretically, she could calculate it at 0.15 yuan per catty.

But considering that Lin Xiaoshan had sold her a lot of bamboo shoots, she calculated it at 0.20 yuan per catty, which amounted to 30 yuan, equal to 150 catties. So she said, “Xiaoshan, deducting the 30 yuan for rice, you still have 280 catties of rice with me, which is equivalent to another 56 yuan.”

She explained the calculation carefully to Lin Xiaoshan. Whether he understood or not was one thing, but whether he spoke or not was another.

“I understand. Thank you, Auntie.” Lin Xiaoshan was relieved to hear that he could still get 56 yuan.

Ning Shu looked at him, frowned, and didn’t know if she should say something. But after seeing Lin Xiaoshan willing to be beaten by his grandmother rather than reveal that he borrowed money from her yesterday, she thought this child would keep it a secret.

So after much thought, she said, “Xiaoshan, come to my room. I want to talk to you.”

Although Lin Xiaoshan didn’t understand, he obediently followed Ning Shu into the room.

“Xiaoshan, have you ever thought about splitting up?” Ning Shu asked without preamble.

“Auntie, I want to split up too, but it’s useless. My grandmother won’t agree.” Lin Xiaoshan certainly wanted to split up. For their family, if they split up, his mother’s work points could be exchanged for food and money for them to eat.

But if they didn’t split up, the amount of food they could exchange for would be very little, and the money they exchanged for would all be in his grandmother’s hands.

“I’ll teach you a way,” Ning Shu said, “but you can’t tell anyone. This is what I’m telling you.”

Lin Xiaoshan listened carefully. “Hmm, I’ll go back and tell my mother.”

Ning Shu added, “You need to understand, only if your mother is willing to let go, your family can split up.”

“Thank you, Auntie.” Lin Xiaoshan remembered these words and planned to tell his mother when he got home.

If their family could split up, he would bring his mother and younger brother to eat white rice every day.

The Next Day

Today was the third day Ning Shu took the three kids to the clothing factory, which was also the last day.

However, Ning Shu didn’t stay until three in the afternoon. She came back after lunch, carrying a bag of cotton.

The cotton was given by Director Wang as a reward. Ning Shu had been there for three days, and as a state-owned unit, they couldn’t take advantage of the people. So after considering it, Director Wang gave Ning Shu 10 catties of cotton as a reward, as their unit had a lot of cotton for making cotton-padded jackets, and it was winter.

It was only one o’clock in the afternoon when she got home, very early indeed. Seeing the brilliant afternoon sun, Ning Shu decided to clean the house thoroughly and wash the bed sheets and covers. These few days, she had been busy making camouflage uniforms and going to the clothing factory, neglecting the cleanliness of the house.

“Yibao, Erbao, put on your old clothes and clean the room. Clean your own cupboards and desks. I’ll wash the bed sheets and covers, and Sanbao will help his brother wring the cloth. Any questions?”

“No,” Yibao and Erbao said in unison.

“No,” Sanbao shouted with the air of a little soldier.

“Now, let’s get started,” Ning Shu said.

So, the three kids went to fetch water and get cloths to clean. They started in the study.

Ning Shu changed the bed sheets and covers and soaked the dirty ones in soapy water.

While the bed sheets and covers were soaking, she checked on the three kids cleaning the study. Sanbao was playing with water, while Yibao and Erbao were cleaning the wooden shelves.

Ning Shu took another cloth and joined them. The children cleaned the lower part of the wooden shelves, while she cleaned the higher parts.

There were only three wooden shelves, and the three of them worked together very quickly.

After cleaning the shelves, the two kids cleaned the straw mats while Ning Shu saw that the bed sheets and covers had soaked for a while, so she went to wash them.

Squatting to wash clothes was indeed tiring. After scrubbing for a while, she felt sore in her waist.

When she stood up to rest, she heard a loud bang from behind, followed by Yibao’s loud cry, “Mom… Mom, you’re bleeding, wuwuwu… Mom, you’re bleeding…” Yibao cried as if he had lost his mother, sounding extremely miserable.

Ning Shu turned around at Yibao’s cry and saw the wooden basin had fallen to the ground.

Yibao was staring at himself in horror. She was puzzled, “Why is Yibao crying? Where am I bleeding?”

Yibao ran over in a panic, “Mom, are you bleeding from behind? So much blood, wuwuwu…” He even had a more terrifying thought, would his mom die from losing so much blood? The thought made his tears flow even more uncontrollably.

Bleeding from behind? Ning Shu turned around to check but didn’t see anything. Suddenly, she remembered something and said to Yibao, “Don’t cry, Yibao, I’m fine.” She ran into the room.

It was probably her period.

When she took off her pants and checked, she saw that it was indeed her period. She had been so busy these days that she forgot to keep track of the dates.

The main reason was that her body didn’t react to her period. In her past life, she would feel a bit bloated or have swollen breasts when she had her period, but this body didn’t have those symptoms, so she forgot.

“Mom, are you really okay?” Yibao, standing at the door, asked anxiously. He had stopped crying, but he was still sobbing.

Ning Shu laid down some thick grass paper. She wanted to take a shower immediately. “I’m fine, I’ll just take a shower.”

She opened the door and saw Yibao’s tear-streaked face. Ning Shu squatted down and kissed Yibao’s cheek.

“Yibao, I’m fine. When a woman is tired, her body will bleed, once a month, just like how you pee. When the body is not tired, it will get better.”

She didn’t know how to explain menstruation to a five-year-old. “I’m going to take a shower now, don’t cry.”

Yibao was stunned. He… had just been kissed by his mom.

He didn’t react until Ning Shu went into the kitchen to heat up some water.

“Brother, you’re so embarrassing, crying like a baby,” Erbao came to tease his brother. He had heard that Mom was okay.

Yibao felt a bit embarrassed and angry. He had cried, and he had been kissed by Mom.

He glanced at his brother and said with authority, “Mom is tired and can’t wash things. Let’s go wash the bed sheets.”

“Okay.” Although Erbao teased his brother, he still listened to him.

When Ning Shu came out with the hot water, ready to get changed in the room, she saw the two kids scrubbing the bed sheets.

They had already washed them once because Erbao had wet the bed. This time, they were more experienced.

Ning Shu thought that in a few years, when the two kids turned eight, they could take care of all the household chores. Yes, having someone take care of the household chores would probably be a very happy thing.

After taking a refreshing shower, Ning Shu washed her blood-stained pants in the bathroom before coming out.

As soon as she emerged, Yibao and Erbao looked up at her. Yibao said, “Mom, you’re tired. Rest for a bit. Erbao and I can wash.”

Ning Shu didn’t refuse. “Okay then.” She didn’t want to wash things in cold water when she was menstruating, and the hot water wasn’t ready yet, so she decided to wait.

After hanging up her pants to dry, Ning Shu took out the straw mats from the study and brought out a low table. She planned to sunbathe while watching her sons wash.

But her sunbathing companions were melon seeds and walnuts. So she prepared a plate of melon seeds and walnuts and grabbed a few egg tarts.

She also fetched some strawberries. The two kids volunteered to wash the bed sheets and covers, so she wanted to reward them.

Once everything was set on the low table, Ning Shu turned to Sanbao, who was causing trouble next to his brother, and said, “Sanbao, come here and massage my legs.”

Sanbao didn’t need to be called twice and came over happily. “Mom…”

Sanbao called sweetly.

Ning Shu stretched out her legs. “Sanbao, be good and massage.”

“Massage,” Sanbao understood what massaging meant from his previous experience.

So he sat on the straw mat and used all his strength, as if he were drinking milk, to massage his mom’s legs.

“Sanbao…”

“Ah…” Sanbao opened his mouth.

Ning Shu fed him a strawberry. Sanbao took a small bite with his baby teeth. “Mom, it’s delicious.”

“Then keep massaging. You’ll get more later.” Ning Shu put down the half-eaten strawberry and started to shell melon seeds.

At the same time, she didn’t forget to say to Yibao and Erbao, “Yibao, Erbao, take your time washing. When you’re done, there will be strawberries for you too.”

Erbao said, “Mom, I’ll definitely wash faster. I want to eat them sooner.”

Ning Shu was speechless.

Yibao was speechless.

Erbao was such a rebbilious child.

At the village entrance, a tall man was walking briskly towards the village.

The closer he got to the village, the more nervous he became.

His face became increasingly tense, almost cold, due to his anxious mood.

The man in military uniform stood out wherever he went, especially in the village.

Some people in the fields couldn’t help but ask those around them, “Who is this?”

The person asked took a look. “Can’t see who it is… Looks like a soldier. Coming to our village again. Could it be Ning Zhiqing’s family?”

“It’s possible.”

“If it’s Guo Dong, he’s definitely here to discipline Ning Zhiqing.”

“Let’s just watch the show.”

“Are you guys overthinking it? Guo Dong has been back before. If he wanted to discipline Ning Zhiqing, could Ning Zhiqing have lived so well all these years? Besides, it’s their family’s business. Why do you care so much?”

“Yeah, we’re just joking. What’s it to you?”

Lin Guodong naturally had no idea that there were people waiting for him to discipline Ning Shu.

He walked briskly and soon arrived home. However, when he stood at the gate of the courtyard and saw the situation inside clearly, his heart, which had been pounding with nervousness, suddenly calmed down.

What did he see?

He saw Yibao and Erbao, two small children, wearing washed-out white clothes washing bed sheets and covers.

He saw Ning Shu basking in the sun in a new cotton-padded jacket, eating melon seeds.

He saw a ragged child at her feet massaging her legs. Judging by his age, this should be Sanbao, right?

In an instant, a surge of anger rose within him.

He could give her money to spend; he was a man, and it was only right for him to give money to his woman.

He could also understand that it was hard for her, a woman, to raise children, so she might have a bit of a bad temper and be a bit delicate in character.

He didn’t even mind that the children were wearing old clothes. It was okay for boys to be rougher.

This was so they could endure hardship and develop a sense of responsibility in the future.

However, this did not mean that he approved of her mistreating the children.

Ning Shu was playing with Sanbao when she looked up and saw a tall man in military uniform standing at the gate of the courtyard.

He was very tall, probably around 185 cm, and looked even more imposing in his military uniform.

If he wasn’t glaring at her so coldly.

The man’s face was so familiar… it looked a lot like the husband from the original memories, whom she had only met a few times.

“Ning Shu…” Suddenly, the man walked up to Ning Shu in big strides, suppressing his voice as he asked, “I send you my salary every month, and this is how you take care of the children?”

His face was as dark as when Ning Shu had just met the three children.

Ning Shu still had melon seed shells in her mouth.

She tilted her head back, her fair and rosy face facing him.

She was about to spit out the melon seed shells to educate him, when a small figure opened its arms and stood in front of her.

He was like a small sapling in front of the man, like a tree in the mountains. But his small body stood straight and firm.

“You villain, what are you trying to do?” Erbao glared fiercely at the man in front of him. Facing a man much bigger than himself, there was fear in his eyes, but more than that, there was courage.

“You’re not allowed to bully my mom.” Yibao ran into the utility room, and when he came out, he was holding a stick.

He ran to Erbao, shielding his mother and brother behind him, the small wooden stick held firmly in front of his chest.

His hands were shaking a bit, but he held the stick firmly.

Ning Shu’s heart was pounding fiercely, as if it wanted to jump out of her body, sour and swollen. Her eyes involuntarily turned red.

“Bad man… bad man…” Sanbao climbed up from the ground and threw himself at the man, but he couldn’t knock the man down, and his body fell back.

Lin Guodong quickly grabbed his clothes. Only then did he realize that although the child’s outer clothes were very old, he was wearing thick clothes underneath.

Looking at the two children in front of him, although they were similarly dressed in shabby clothes, their chubby faces and lively spirits were evident.

At that moment, Lin Guodong realized that he had misunderstood.

He had misunderstood Ning Shu. He didn’t know how she would treat him now. So, Lin Guodong dared not look at Ning Shu.

He could only say to his two sons, who saw him as an enemy, “Yibao, Erbao, I’m your father. It’s only been a year since I’ve been back, and you don’t recognize me?”

Yibao didn’t have any impression of his father.

When he heard the man say this, he looked back at his mother, who nodded.

He dropped the small wooden stick in his hand with a bang, as if all his courage had been used up in that one action.

Then, he asked in a voice full of grievances, “You’ve been gone for a year, what right do you have to say that about my mom?”

Er Bao, seeing this, also angrily accused, “Yeah, do you know how hard it has been for my mom to raise me this past year? We need to eat lots and lots of meat, and my mom has to earn lots and lots of money, but you don’t give my mom lots and lots of money.”

Struggling San Bao also supported his two brothers with a milk-scented voice, “Bad man… beat bad man…”

Lin Guodong felt very aggrieved.

He didn’t mean that. He just wanted to ask Ning Shu.

But Lin Guodong squatted down, facing his three sons, “Yibao, Erbao, Sanbao, Dad wants to apologize to you. I’m sorry, I haven’t been there for you as you grew up. But Dad is very happy that you can protect your mom now, you have become men.”

His children were his pride where he couldn’t see.

Suddenly, Yibao and Erbao didn’t know what to do.

If this man was harsh, they could be harsh too, but he praised them.

They had a filter for their father, from listening to their grandmother talk about their father since they were young, the father they imagined was tall and could protect them.

Even though this man had scared them at first, at this moment, they were not afraid at all, because he was going to apologize to them.

San Bao, who didn’t know what to do, looked at Yibao, and Erbao, who didn’t know what to do, looked at his mother.

Following Yibao’s gaze, Lin Guodong also looked at Ning Shu.

Uh-oh… Lin Guodong’s mind went blank. Ning Shu… was crying!