NOVPUB
Chapter 432: 422
Shen Yunfang allowed herself to wallow in despondency for three days, but on the fourth day, she perked up and started to take her life seriously again.
This year was her sophomore year, and she had already started taking courses in her major. Because of Li Hongjun heading off to the battlefield, she had taken several days off already. In the experimental fields, the honeysuckle she had planted had been neglected for several days now, and she wondered whether these hardy wildflowers and weeds would become delicate once they entered the experimental fields.
After the start of school in March, there were some changes in the Agricultural University classrooms, moving from purely theoretical to a combination of theory and practice.
The school allocated each student of the agricultural science department a piece of experimental land, located in the suburbs of the Capital. In practice comes true knowledge, or so the school leaders believed, intending for these agricultural science students to gain real insight in the fields.
The teachers didn’t require the students to plant anything specific, only that they wanted to see their output by autumn.
So, the students of the agricultural science department all showed their prowess, planting a myriad of things in the experimental fields.
At the beginning of the semester, Shen Yunfang considered her options and eventually chose to propagate honeysuckle through cuttings.
She had several reasons for this decision. First, she wanted to go into breeding and planting in the future, and honeysuckle was one of the cash crops she planned to cultivate. However, she had never planted it before and lacked experience, so she wanted to use this opportunity to experiment and accumulate experience for her future agricultural development.
Second, she simply didn’t have the time, struggling every day with her two children and hardly able to keep up. Where would she find the time to squat in the experimental fields every day? So, she also chose honeysuckle because it was easy to grow and didn’t require much care.
Third, honeysuckle is a perennial shrub with a very high survival rate from cuttings. Once she managed to propagate successfully this year, she wouldn’t have to plant again for the next three years.
Her classmates were not optimistic about her choosing to plant honeysuckle, as no one saw its economic value. At a time when the struggle for food and clothing dominated, growing grains and vegetables was the mainstream.
After Li Hongjun left for the battlefield, Shen Yunfang had even less energy to take care of the fields, so she visited the experimental fields only twice a week, on Thursdays, and then took the children there on the weekends to water and fertilize the honeysuckle, treating it like a leisure activity with her children.
Shen Yunfang made time to buy a radio from the store so she could stay updated on news from the battlefield while at home. She kept the radio on whenever she was at home, but news about the Sino-Vietnamese War was scarce.
"Mommy, why hasn’t Daddy come home yet?" one weekend, Pangpang finally remembered that his dad had not been home for several weekends and curiously asked his mom.
"I want Daddy, Manman wants Daddy," Manman chimed in, demanding her dad upon hearing her brother mention him.
"Come here, sweeties, let me tell you, Daddy has gone to fight the bad guys, so he might not be able to come home to see us for a while," Shen Yunfang did not hide the truth and explained the Sino-Vietnamese War to her children in simple terms. Of course, in her story, Li Hongjun was a towering hero, fighting to protect mommy and his two treasures.
Pangpang’s eyes lit up as he listened, and he rushed back to his room, grabbed the plastic gun his father had bought him, and started to shoot pretend bullets at the doorway.
Manman didn’t yet understand these games and just followed her brother around, playing aimlessly.
Seeing the playful brother and sister, Shen Yunfang’s eyes reddened. If that bastard Li Hongjun didn’t come back, he would never get to see his adorable children again.
Time flew by, and before long, it was time for summer vacation.
To change the scenery and her mood, Shen Yunfang decided to take her two children back to her hometown to escape the summer heat.
The mother and her children, light on their feet and free of obligations, could come and go as they pleased.
However, the experimental field still needed someone to help water it from time to time, so she found the class monitor who had taken on the role of watering duty during the holiday. The class monitor, fearing the authority of the English teacher, agreed without a second thought and even promised to complete the task.
So, Shen Yunfang handed her house keys to the Ma Liguo couple and took her children back to her hometown.
After a long and bumpy journey, by the morning of the third day, Shen Yunfang finally stood at the entrance of Gaijiatun, a place she hadn’t been to in a long time, with her two children.
"Oh my, isn’t that Shen Lao San’s daughter? Didn’t she marry into the city? What brings her back at this time?"
"It’s Yunfang, isn’t it? You haven’t been back for several years, have you?"
"Hey, are these your kids? They sure are handsome. The older one must be three or four years old by now."
"Indeed, I remember when Yunfang left, she was still carrying this child. In the blink of an eye, they’ve grown so much."
It so happened that many people were outside when Shen Yunfang returned, so when they saw her come back with the children, they all gathered around to exchange a few words.
Shen Yunfang simply smiled in response and briefly shared her recent experiences with everyone, naturally choosing only the things she could discuss.
"What, Yunfang is back?" Shen Da Niang was at home when someone came to inform her.
"Indeed, she’s at the edge of the village with the children, talking to people."
Shen Da Niang hurriedly got off her kang, put on her shoes, and ran outside.
"Yunfang, Yunfang, you’re back!"
She started shouting from a distance. She couldn’t care less about losing face in front of her niece; her utmost concern was the situation of her own daughter in the Capital, and now that her niece had returned from the Capital, it was the perfect opportunity to get updates.
Shen Yunfang recognized that it was her aunt’s voice and thought to herself that this was probably the most genuine call she had ever heard from her. However, she still admired her aunt’s thick skin; their parting in the Capital had been anything but amicable, and when she went to see her off, her aunt had turned her head away, not exchanging a single word. Now, just a few months later, for the sake of her daughter, her aunt could act as if nothing had happened. She was truly an exceptional person.
"Hey, aunty, I’m back. Pangpang, Manman, hurry up and greet her," Shen Yunfang said, prompting her own children to greet their grandmother.
Pangpang still remembered this grandma who always insisted on giving him sweets and politely called out to her.
Manman followed her brother’s lead, calling out whenever her brother did.
Shen Da Niang let out a hasty acknowledgment, then clung to Shen Yunfang without letting go.
"Everyone, everyone, Yunfang just got back and must be tired. Let’s not chat now. When you have time, come to our house and we can talk." Shen Da Niang spoke briefly to the surrounding villagers and then led the group toward her house. "Yunfang, you must be tired from the journey. Let’s sit inside at home."
Shen Yunfang knew her aunt’s intention; it was inevitable sooner or later. She had anticipated this before coming back, so she didn’t resist and, with her two children in tow, followed her aunt home.
Once they arrived home, Shen Da Niang couldn’t wait to ask, "Yunfang, how is your sister Yunxiu doing now? Has her leg gotten better?" Ever since she heard from Yunxiu that she had fractured her leg and the Fang Family refused to pay for the treatment, she had been constantly concerned. If it weren’t for the old man saying that the round-trip train fare was too expensive and it was better to send all the money for her granddaughter’s treatment, she would have gone to the Capital to see her daughter long ago.
But these past few months, she had been agonizing over it. That stubborn child Yunxiu hadn’t even sent a letter home afterward; whether she was healed or what, she should at least send a message.
"Aunty, I haven’t seen Shen Yunxiu afterwards; however, I’ve heard she’s recovering quite well." She decided it was best not to mention the rebreaking of bones at the hospital. Such news would be too shocking for Shen Da Niang at her age.
"What, you didn’t go see Yunxiu? Didn’t you get a letter from your uncle? Why didn’t you go see her?" Shen Da Niang asked in astonishment.
"I received it, but I’m not familiar with the Fang Family. I was afraid it would be awkward to go. However, the matter between Yunxiu and her husband is well-known in that area, so I didn’t need to see for myself to know pretty well what was happening."
