Witty Wife, Better Life

Chapter 304: Chapter 294 Incoming Letter

After cleaning the stove, Li Hongjun and his family finally settled in the military housing area.

Shen Yunfang, having a young child and not really fond of the other military wives with their sly thoughts, seldom went out. As spring plowing season approached, with nothing much to do, she began tidying up the plot of land in the backyard.

All in all, it was just over thirty square meters, nearly ten of which she had taken up by setting up a plastic shed, leaving even less space available. The plot could barely provide enough vegetables for the family during the summer, but it was virtually impossible to grow enough to dry and store for winter.

Thinking about expanding the planting area wasn’t feasible either. Although there were mountains nearby, she wasn’t familiar with them, and they were far from her home, so clearing new fields on the mountain was out of the question. Her only option was to improve the current land utilization and enhance soil fertility to increase the yield as much as possible.

Having moved here and farmed for several years, Shen Yunfang had gained some experience. To reduce pests and diseases, her first step was to deep plow the soil.

But as soon as she picked up the iron shovel, Li Hongjun shooed her aside. From then on, wherever Shen Yunfang pointed, Li Hongjun worked. Of course, plowing was done when Li Hongjun was off work and at home. Fortunately, the area wasn’t large. Completing both the front and backyards, which were less than forty square meters in total, took Li Hongjun leisurely two days.

To increase fertility, Shen Yunfang had Li Hongjun cycle to the mountain with a large basket to collect some dark soil from beneath the fallen leaves. Naturally, a basket of fertile soil wouldn’t solve the entire yard’s fertilizer needs. This was just a way for her to source some soil fertility from her own space—she mixed the dark soil Li Hongjun brought back with the one from her space and added some earthworm castings. They combined to make fertilizer, which Li Hongjun then spread evenly across the yard.

In early April, the weather was still quite cold, so Shen Yunfang started the seedlings indoors, ensuring a higher survival rate and earlier harvest.

At this time, the first batch of quail had hatched at her home. She had incubated one hundred quail eggs and ten chicken eggs this time.

With the quail’s shorter hatch time, they were the first to hatch—out of one hundred eggs, eighty-nine quails emerged. Shen Yunfang put them in a wooden box and raised them inside for two days to let them gain strength. Then, she transferred them to the plastic shed in the backyard.

Sister Wu often came to the house during this period, mainly to learn how to hatch quail from Shen Yunfang.

Shen Yunfang did not conceal anything and taught her everything she knew. In truth, it wasn’t difficult. As long as she grasped a few tricks and wasn’t afraid of failing a few times, she was sure to succeed eventually.

Sister Wu watched Shen Yunfang go through the entire process from start to finish, which was tantamount to learning it, except she still lacked the step of practicing it herself.

Shen Yunfang also looked forward to Sister Wu mastering the technique, so that in the future, someone could hatch the quails for her.

That day, Li Hongjun brought back two letters when he came home for lunch.

One was a letter from the Li Family in Taoshu Village for Li Hongjun, and the other was a letter for Shen Yunfang from Dashuan in Gaijiatun.

It was indeed a pleasant surprise to receive letters from good friends so soon.

Shen Yunfang picked up Dashuan’s letter and tore it open to read.

Just as she had expected, the letter was dictated by Dashuan’s wife and written by Dashuan himself. It mainly asked how she was doing over here, whether she had adapted well, and if not, that she could move back anytime since Gaijiatun would always be her home.

Deeply moved by the letter, Shen Yunfang felt that compared to her current neighbors, the bond she shared with Dashuan and his wife was purer and more sincere.

The letter went on to say that, seeing how her backyard and private plot lay idle, Dashuan’s wife had Dashuan plant soybeans there (they all thought Shen Yunfang was quite particular, preferring not to eat animal fat but to grow her own soybeans for oil, loving that bean scent). The backyard was just as she had left it, half planted with corn, and the other half with various vegetables. They asked Shen Yunfang to visit in August or September when the grains and vegetables were harvested so she could take some back with her, sparing her the trouble of finding fresh vegetables in the city.

Of course, they were much more circumspect in their wording. It wasn’t strange that they would think this way since when Shen Yunfang first got married and said she didn’t want to accompany her husband to the military, she often mentioned how difficult life was over there, that even with military accompaniment, the state wouldn’t provide much food. So in terms of food, they were not as well-off as in the village. Dashuan and his wife took this to heart and believed it. Seeing that Shen Yunfang had joined the military, they promptly took care of planting her land so that by autumn, there would be some yield to help Shen Yunfang and Li Hongjun out a bit.

Shen Yunfang read the letter from start to finish twice, calming the excitement in her heart, then said to her son lying on the kang bed, "Pangpang, your Uncle Dashuan has sent us a letter. He’s planted our land for us and wants us to go back in the fall. What do you think, should we go back or not?"

"Aaah..." Pangpang gurgled with his little mouth wide open.

Do I even need to be asked? Do I have a say in it? Isn’t it just a matter of you deciding where to go and then carrying me along? Why ask me?

"Ah, it seems that Pangpang also misses Auntie Dashuan and Sister Xiaojuan. Well then, how about we go play there for a couple of days when it’s warmer in summer?" Shen Yunfang took her son’s response as agreement.

Li Hongjun, who was sitting nearby, also finished reading the letter from Old Man Li. Since the family’s university student had already gone off to school, the remaining few had a lower educational level, making the letter somewhat difficult to understand, with a mix of Chinese characters and pinyin and some parts not quite coherent. Li Hongjun had to read between the lines and guess the actual meaning, so it took a bit longer. After reading, he couldn’t avoid feeling a bit heavy-hearted. But turning to see his wife and child playing happily on the kang, his mood suddenly brightened. He stuffed the letter back into the envelope and tossed it onto the kang before scooting over.

"What are you talking to my son about?" Li Hongjun gazed at his wife’s rosy cheeks, so love-struck he wanted to take a bite to sate his craving.

"I was discussing with our son about going to stay in Gaijiatun for a few days this summer," said Shen Yunfang with a smile, turning her head.

Li Hongjun instantly felt resentful again. How could this woman be so heartless? Just thinking of leaving like that, she wasn’t worried about him at all. If she and the child left, what would he do all by himself at home?

Angry, Li Hongjun suddenly wrapped his arms around Shen Yunfang’s waist and fiercely pressed his lips onto hers, the mouth that constantly frustrated him. They kissed deeply and endlessly.

Pangpang blinked his little eyes, watching his parents in front of him. What are they doing? Playing kiss? After about five minutes when Pangpang had concluded they were indeed kissing, he considerately started clapping his little hands to applaud his parents.

But ten minutes passed, then twenty, and the irresponsible parents were still glued together. Pangpang grunted twice in annoyance. The kissing couple were lost in their own world, completely forgetting their only child.

Bored, young Pangpang yawned, deciding to ignore them, thinking, let them kiss all they want, I’m going to sleep now.