NOVPUB
Chapter 329: Chapter 319 Pregnant Again
Shen Yunfang rode the train all the way back to the provincial city with Pangpang. After she got off the train, she didn’t head straight back to the army base, but stayed in the city for one night and visited the hospital during the day.
She had her suspicions, but it wasn’t until she got confirmation from the doctor that she was indeed pregnant again that the corners of Shen Yunfang’s mouth couldn’t help curling upwards.
She rubbed her barely swollen belly all the way, counting the days on her fingers.
It was only three months now, with the due date next April. After giving birth, completing her confinement, and breastfeeding for half a year, she would be right on time for the college entrance exams—yes, the timing couldn’t be better.
In fact, after arriving in Gaijiatun, she began to feel certain physical reactions, like morning sickness and drowsiness. She had a remarkably fit body thanks to the Essence of Life, so even slight symptoms caught her attention.
But in this era, people weren’t overly sensitive. Even suspecting she might be pregnant, she still carried on with going up the mountains and working the fields. Her body was strong, and she didn’t feel strained, which is why she waited until her return to get checked. Sure enough, it was as she had expected—there was another baby growing inside her.
Shen Yunfang was delighted with the result. She knew that family planning would soon be implemented, and if she hadn’t gotten pregnant in these few months, it might have been that she would only ever have Pangpang as her child in this lifetime. The thought of having another child, boy or girl, made her happy.
A happy woman’s response is to shop, and taking advantage of her day in the city, Shen Yunfang, with her child in tow, visited the department store and bought lots of candy and biscuits to hand out to the neighborhood children.
By noon the next day, not knowing where to wait for the logistics truck from the army’s mess squad, Shen Yunfang could only stand at the road leading to the base from the provincial city, holding her child. Eventually, she and the child got a ride.
By the time they got home, it was already past one in the afternoon. Taxue heard the noise and dashed over from the backyard, whining at Shen Yunfang.
Looking at Taxue’s dirty coat, Shen Yunfang couldn’t bring herself to pet her and shooed her aside. She then used her key to open the door to her house. After entering, she felt something was amiss—the house was different from when she left. Frowning at the unmade bedding on the kang, she wondered if Li Hongjun had come back?
The child in her arms cooed, and she didn’t continue the thought, quickly shuffling the bedding to one side on the kang to clear a large enough space for Pangpang to crawl about. These past two days, Pangpang was teething. Perhaps his gums itched, making him cranky. He didn’t like being held and preferred to be left alone.
After settling the child, who was now quietly playing by himself on the kang, she started to tidy up the house.
But the more she cleaned, the more she felt something was off. As she folded the bedding, tobacco smoke clung to the quilt, and the pillow was stained dark, clearly from hair oil.
Although Li Hongjun smoked, he did so minimally and always through a filter, so the smell on him wasn’t strong. Shen Yunfang sniffed at the quilt, and, oh dear, that scent of dry tobacco was almost overpowering.
And the pillow—she and her husband always used pillowcases, so how could hair oil have rubbed onto the pillow itself?
She then checked the kitchen. Although there weren’t many traces to be found, someone had definitely been cooking in her house after she left. Every time she cooked, Shen Yunfang would wipe the stove clean, so it was always spotless, but now there was a thin layer of grime, not too obvious unless looked at from the side.
"Yunfang, are you back?" Aunt Wu had heard Taxue’s barking from her own house and quickly came over to see, and indeed Shen Yunfang had returned.
"Yes, Auntie, I’m back." Shen Yunfang looked up to see Aunt Wu coming in and hurriedly mustered a smile.
"When did you arrive? I didn’t hear you." Aunt Wu greeted her with a smile and made conversation.
"I just got here myself and was about to boil some water for the child to have a wash," Shen Yunfang pointed towards the stove.
"Then you better hurry up and boil it. Pangpang is inside, right? I’ll go check on the child," Sister Wu didn’t stand on ceremony and went inside to see the child.
Shen Yunfang couldn’t quite figure out what was happening at home, so she simply had to leave it and start boiling the water.
Once the water was ready, she mixed a basin of warm water, wet a towel, and washed herself a bit, then changed some water to go inside and wipe down the child.
"I see Pangpang is doing quite well. It seems your journey went smoothly. Why did you stay so long in your hometown?" Sister Wu helped Shen Yunfang hold Pangpang while Yunfang gently wiped the child’s little hands and feet with a towel.
"Hmm, the neighbors planted our reserved land and yard back home, and just when I got back it was almost time to harvest the corn and sweet potatoes. I felt too embarrassed to let them plant and then help me harvest as well. It wouldn’t have been right to just wait and take the crops without contributing, so I stayed a few extra days to do the harvesting myself. Sister, have Li Hongjun and the others returned from their mission? I mean, the man couldn’t even call or send me a telegram?" Shen Yunfang’s last remark was tinged with complaint.
"No, Li Hongjun and the others haven’t come back yet," Sister Wu was completely puzzled—the people hadn’t returned.
"Oh? But I saw the bedding was all pulled out, I thought Li Hongjun had come back," Yunfang did not mention the smell of smoke on the bed, just looked at Sister Wu with a surprised expression.
Since she had Taxue, sheep, and a few hundred quails to feed before she left, she asked Sister Wu to look after them while she was away, and gave Sister Wu a key to her house.
It was obvious someone had been in the house, and had even stayed there, and if it wasn’t Li Hongjun who had come back and she wasn’t home, then it could only have been Sister Wu who let someone in.
At this point, Shen Yunfang couldn’t outright ask Sister Wu—it’d be like questioning her—especially since she was the one asking for help. So she had to beat around the bush a bit.
"Oh my, I was just about to talk to you about this. What a coincidence, the second day after you went back to your hometown, your in-laws came over. Neither you nor Hongjun were home, and luckily I had your key, or it would have been quite the task to manage your in-laws’ visit," Sister Wu spoke cryptically. When Qiu Shuping found out Shen Yunfang had just left and wouldn’t return for some time, she started cursing at their doorstep, attracting quite an audience of army wives.
Now, Shen Yunfang was truly surprised, "What? My in-laws came?"
"Exactly, your in-laws arrived right after your departure. They couldn’t explain themselves at the gatekeeper’s station, so in the end, our regiment commander personally went to pick them up," Sister Wu explained.
Yunfang’s eyes widened, thinking it wasn’t that they couldn’t explain, but probably Qiu Shuping had made a fuss again.
"Even troubling the regiment commander, how embarrassing," she said.
"It’s nothing. Our commander thought since neither of you were at home, he’d arrange for your in-laws to stay at the guesthouse and eat in the cafeteria. But your father-in-law refused, saying he couldn’t take advantage of the state. Honestly, your father-in-law is such an old revolutionary," Sister Wu praised with her lips but sighed in her heart, not expecting Li Hongjun to have such troublesome parents. She looked at Shen Yunfang with a bit of sympathy.
"Hehe, he is indeed an old revolutionary," Shen Yunfang echoed.
"Later, seeing your father-in-law insisted on staying at your house, I opened the door for them."
"You have my thanks, Sister, not only for watching over my house, but I didn’t expect my in-laws to come without notice, and you had to take care of them too," Shen Yunfang said with gratitude.
