NOVPUB
Chapter 351: Chapter 341 Difficult Waiting
The days waiting for the admission notice were extremely difficult to endure. Although Shen Yunfang knew she had done quite well on the exam and was confident in herself, anything could happen at this time. Without receiving the notice, her heart couldn’t truly settle down.
However, because her participation in the college entrance exam had caused some stir in the staff residential area, during the period after the exam, despite her anxiety, she didn’t go to the mailroom daily to see if the notice had come, like others did. Instead, she watched over Manman as she played at home by herself.
"Baby, if Mommy takes you to school with her in the future, you have to be obedient, okay?" Shen Yunfang lay on the kang, speaking to her little girl who was playing with her own feet.
"Ah, ah..."
"You promised, huh? You have to keep your word. If you are naughty by then, Mommy will have to spank you." Shen Yunfang interpreted her little girl’s humming as agreement, and playfully threatened by gently patting her little girl’s behind.
Manman was already nine months old, but her temperament was the complete opposite of Pangpang’s. She was inactive, preferring to lie down rather than sit up. While Pangpang would have been crawling all over the kang at this age, Manman would lie there quietly, blowing bubbles, seemingly never bored.
There was a time when Shen Yunfang suspected her child’s health, but subsequent tests proved that Manman was healthy in every respect; her condition could only be attributed to one word: laziness.
With such a lazy little girl, Shen Yunfang didn’t know what to do, except talk to her more when she was free, hoping to make the child more lively. But so far, it had little effect.
"Yunfang, are you at home? I’m coming in."
Sister Wu’s voice rang from outside the door.
"Yes, come in, Sister," Shen Yunfang quickly sat up and covered her daughter with a small blanket. It was freezing cold outside, and the kang inside was warm, so she had only dressed her child in a thin layer; she was afraid that the cold air would rush in when the door opened.
Sister Wu pushed the door and came in, seeing mother and daughter both staring at her with the same round eyes, she couldn’t help a chuckle.
"Oh my, you two really are mother and daughter, the resemblance is uncanny."
Shen Yunfang looked back at her daughter and laughed as well. Manman really did look a lot like her, especially the eyes and mouth, which made Li Hongjun adore her to no end. Once he was home, the girl was always in his arms, leaving Pangpang to stand aside.
"Sit down, Sister, how is Tingting doing? Has her fever gone down?" Shen Yunfang shifted further in, making room on the edge of the kang.
Because of the recent weather changes, Tingting had unfortunately caught a cold and had even developed a fever, so she hadn’t gone to kindergarten for the past few days. Sister Wu had been looking after her at home and also had to take her to the clinic for injections. She must have had something important to discuss coming over today.
"It’s gone down since last night; she’s stopped running a fever. Her dad insists on her resting at home and doesn’t want her to go to kindergarten. I took care of her this morning; she’s playing by herself at home right now," Sister Wu complained, but her face was brimming with smiles.
Wu Guoqiang, like Li Hongjun, loved his children, although not as dramatically, but he was also very affectionate towards his little girl. Could a mother be upset or unhappy seeing the father doting on their child?
"Let Tingting play at home for a few more days, alright? There’s a lot of the kids getting colds now. We can’t send Tingting to kindergarten at this time, or else if she gets cross-infected, it would be a big trouble." She knew several children who had already caught colds and fevers, so at this time, children with low immunity shouldn’t go to crowded places.
"Haha, that’s exactly what I was thinking." Mrs. Wu didn’t fully understand what cross-infection meant, but she could grasp the general idea. Educated people really spoke differently, making one ponder their words for quite a while. "Your Pangpang is still going to the daycare, isn’t he? Aren’t you worried he might catch something too?"
Mrs. Wu saw only Manman on the kang bed and knew that Pangpang must have gone to the daycare.
"I don’t want him to go either, but that little guy just won’t sit still for a minute. He insists on going to the daycare to play with his friends; I can’t hold him back even if I pull on him from behind," Shen Yunfang said, looking as if there was nothing she could do.
"Hehe, little boys are always so lively, and that’s a good thing. You don’t need to worry since Pangpang is so full of energy," Mrs. Wu said with a slight bias towards boys, as she fancied robust little lads.
Shen Yunfang nodded in agreement, thinking that her child really was full of vim and vigor lately. If she hadn’t been keeping him in check, he would have probably torn the roof off the house by now. Of course, this was an exaggeration, considering Pangpang was only three years old, by the traditional counting.
Mrs. Wu remembered that her visit today was with a purpose, and after pondering for a moment, she said, "Yunfang, you’re so young and already have both a son and a daughter; that’s sure to make a bunch of people jealous."
Shen Yunfang cracked a small smile, but this was not exactly a compliment to her. If she did the math, she was only twenty this year yet already had two children. She did not feel particularly proud of this fact.
"Plus, our Hongjun knows how to pamper people. For us women, having a complete life like this is all we could ask for," Mrs. Wu said, in a supportive sisterly tone.
Shen Yunfang nodded. This was indeed the aspiration of many hardworking women of her time: a warm home, a loving husband, and a few well-behaved children. With those, life held no further desires.
In fact, Shen Yunfang shared these aspirations and felt content with the happiness her family brought her. However, as a mother who knew about social developments in future generations, she also understood how different living environments could greatly impact her children’s futures.
She wanted to ensure a better future for her kids without completely losing her sense of self. That’s why she was so determined to take the college entrance examinations. She longed to become a university student and achieve something on her own, thus creating a more favorable environment for her children’s upbringing.
Of course, favorable conditions did not mean being wealthy enough to let her children idle. Rather, it meant providing a nurturing environment where, whenever the children wanted to learn a special skill, they as parents could afford the tuition fees or hire a teacher for English lessons, if needed.
"So what I’m saying is, there are some things you don’t have to force. What’s meant to be will come, and what isn’t can’t be forced," Mrs. Wu uttered these words of wisdom.
Huh? What did she mean by that? Shen Yunfang quickly grasped the implication. It seemed Mrs. Wu had come to comfort her today, but the way she said it was rather disconcerting.
"Hehe, sister, I get your point. I’m not fixated on going to university. If I get in, that’s great; I’d happily go to school. And if I don’t, it’s no big deal. Our Li Hongjun can provide for us, and I’ll carry on with life just the same," Shen Yunfang reassured Mrs. Wu in turn.
"Knowing you think like this puts my mind at ease," Mrs. Wu consoled, patting Shen Yunfang’s hand. "Ah, it’s just that fate isn’t always fair. Look at your soft hands, so delicate that it seems as if you could squeeze water out of them. They ought to belong to a city-dweller. Having such hands in our village is just a waste." In her heart, she was envious of Shen Yunfang, thinking that any woman with such tender hands had to be indulged at home, something numerous women could only dream of.
That was a difficult compliment to respond to; her hands, pristine as a lady’s and completely unmarred by manual labor, were indeed out of place for a woman from the countryside. There was nothing she could do about it; back when she was in Gaijiatun, she had done her fair share of raising chickens, ducks, and farming, but her hands never grew rough, and there was simply no helping it.
