NOVPUB
Chapter 186: Chapter 179 Yearning
Shen Yunfang’s overly blunt words had led to another unhappy parting between the two. Shen Yunfang herself didn’t take it to heart; she preferred to live her own life and not meddle in the affairs of other families. Besides, Shen Dafu’s family were no good; if she took them seriously, who knows how people might gossip about her, for good or ill.
As for Shen Yingxue, who had been rejected, how she felt was not something Shen Yunfang needed to consider.
At night, Shen Yunfang lay on the kang and pulled out the letters Li Hongjun had written to her. Illuminated by the oil lamp, she flipped through them one by one. Even though they were already married, Li Hongjun’s letters were still so serious, a world apart from his demeanor on the kang.
During the day she was too busy to have any thoughts, but at night, when all was quiet, she would think about the times Li Hongjun was home. She always felt the kang was too big no matter how she slept on it. These days, her determination to stay here had begun to waver. If it weren’t for the livestock on the mountain weighing her down, she might have followed right after Li Hongjun left.
Since she had taken Li Hongjun’s words to heart, she had decided not to use the space to sell vegetables and meat for the next few years. It was unnecessary for her to farm so much land or raise so many pigs on her own. With the current inventory in her space, the three of them could eat for three to five years without running out. In this case, she could wait until the land was available to lease before continuing with the breeding.
However, this year’s wheat had already been sown, and the pigs on the mountain had grown to eighty or ninety pounds. She had to at least wait until the harvest was in and the pigs were ready for market before considering other things.
While Shen Yunfang lay awake flipping through Li Hongjun’s letters, Li Hongjun was doing the same.
He tossed and turned restlessly in bed until he finally got up, turned on the light, and sat at the desk to carefully reread the letters his wife had written to him.
As he read, he visualized his wife in his mind: her appearance in the morning, the way she cooked for him, her figure in bed at night.
Unable to contain himself, Li Hongjun picked up the tea mug and gulped down half of the tea, which had already gone cold, to calm the heat in his heart.
However, he thought it wasn’t a solution to always be like this. Li Hongjun sat down, took out a piece of paper, and began to write a letter to his wife, determined to convince her to change her mind and join the army with him as soon as possible.
The next day, Shen Yunfang got up and went about her work as usual.
In the morning she went to feed the pigs on the mountain, at noon she checked the crops in the fields, in the afternoon she dug wild vegetables on the mountain, and when the end-of-work gong sounded, she began to sit in the grass shed and shoot sparrows with a slingshot.
From afar, Dashuan’s wife, carrying Xiaohu and leading Xiaojuan, came over.
Shen Yunfang had just scared away a flock of sparrows. She smiled at the approaching group and said, "Oh, why have you come now? Watch out for mosquitoes." There were plenty of mosquitoes, especially when it was about to get dark; they would swarm over people en masse.
From a distance, Xiaojuan saw Aunt Yunfang shoot down two sparrows with her slingshot and excitedly wriggled free from her mother’s hand, hurrying over to Shen Yunfang.
"Aunt Yunfang, I’m here! I want to shoot sparrows too; I want to eat roasted sparrows."
"Hehe, our Xiaojuan is such a little glutton," Shen Yunfang said, handing over the slingshot to Xiaojuan. If the child wanted to play, let her play; it wasn’t anything precious. "Here you go, try to shoot some. If you can’t, go pick up the ones in the field. There are eighteen sparrows there. If you can collect them all, I’ll roast them for you to eat."
Xiaojuan happily clutched the slingshot and nodded vigorously.
Dashuan’s wife couldn’t help but gently tap her daughter’s forehead with her finger, "Look at you, so shameless."
Xiaojuan didn’t care; she turned around and started looking for sparrows with the slingshot in hand.
"Does Xiaohu want some too?" Shen Yunfang then teased Dashuan’s wife’s little one.
The little one, just over a year old, who was still learning to speak, repeated after her: "Hungry~ Hungry~"
Dashuan’s wife gave their son a gentle swat on the butt and laughed, scolding, "This one’s no good either."
Xiaohu couldn’t tell good from bad and thought his mother was playing with him, so he started jumping up and down in her arms.
"Little ancestor, you better not jiggle around too much, or you might fall and hurt yourself," Dashuan’s wife struggled to control her son.
"Don’t hold him anymore, let him play by himself inside," Shen Yunfang gestured for Dashuan’s wife to carry the child into the shed, "There are too many mosquitoes outside, why did you bring the child out here?"
They had lit some grass in the shed for mosquito repelling, so there weren’t many mosquitoes inside.
Dashuan’s wife put her son on a simple bed, letting him crawl and play while freeing herself to chat with Yunfang.
"If I didn’t come here, I wouldn’t even catch a glimpse of you. Ever since you started working in the fields, I hardly see you anymore."
Indeed, except for mornings, Shen Yunfang’s schedule was the opposite of everyone else’s. To have a chat with her, one really needed to come out to the fields.
"Hey, I heard that Liu Zhaozhi’s daughter came to see you again yesterday?" Dashuan’s wife asked eagerly, full of curiosity.
"Yeah, she did," Shen Yunfang nodded, rescuing a sparrow from Xiaohu’s grasp.
"What did she come for, what did she say?" Dashuan’s wife pressed on.
"What’s the matter?" Shen Yunfang immediately sensed something was off. There must be some news.
"Oh, don’t ask me yet, just tell me what she wanted with you," Dashuan’s wife urged anxiously.
"Nothing much. She just said she found a match and they’re having a meeting at her house today. Since I’m married, she thought I had experience and asked me to have a look," Shen Yunfang honestly repeated the purpose of Shen Yingxue’s visit.
"Pah, don’t listen to her talk. What look-over? She’s clearly here to propose. I reckon she just wants to show off in front of you," Dashuan’s wife analyzed Shen Yingxue’s intention as soon as she heard it.
Catching interest, Shen Yunfang replied, "Really? Does the match she found have some status?" She knew if someone wanted to show off, they must be in a good condition.
Dashuan’s wife looked around then whispered, "Let me tell you, I heard that the match Shen Yingxue found is the second son of the Vice Chairman of the County Revolutionary Committee." 𝚗ov𝚙𝚞𝚋.c𝚘m
Shen Yunfang was slightly startled; the Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee was a big official in those days. But considering Shen Yingxue’s connections, it wouldn’t have been easy to meet such a person. It seemed her tactics were formidable.
"I never would have guessed; is she really that capable, finding such a connection on her own?"
"No way, I heard it was your cousin who introduced them," Dashuan’s wife revealed.
"My cousin? Shen Yunfeng?" Shen Yunfang was truly surprised now. She didn’t know Shen Yunfeng that well, but from the few interactions they had, she had a pretty good idea of what kind of person she was. Carved from the same mold as her mother, neither of them did anything without the promise of profit. She wouldn’t set someone up for nothing – it seemed Shen Yingxue must have paid a hefty price.
"Who else but her? Liu Zhaozhi even went to your Uncle Er’s place this noon, asking your aunt and uncle to come over for dinner this afternoon. They’re thanking the matchmaker," Dashuan’s wife explained.
