Chapter 67: “eats So Well”
Lin Zhao shifted her body back, having a bad feeling. “Just say what you need to, don’t be like this, you’re making me uneasy.”
Li Fen grabbed her hand, her eyes burning. “Sister wants to ask you for a favor.”
“What favor?” Lin Zhao regretted not having any wool yarn on hand, otherwise she could have distracted herself. She said directly, “If I can help, I definitely will. If I can’t, then there’s nothing I can do.”
“It’s not something that will make things difficult for you,” Li Fen said quickly.
“I just want to ask you to keep an eye out for a suitable girl in the countryside.”
“?”
She was being asked to be a matchmaker?!
The thought popped into her mind, and Lin Zhao brought her bright and beautiful face in front of Li Fen. “Sister, look at me. Do I look like a matchmaker?”
Li Fen was momentarily stunned by her face, which was as bright as the moon.
She didn’t have much knowledge in her head, yet she felt an urge to recall a few lines of poetry.
It was like she was poisoned.
“Oh dear,” Li Fen patted her shoulder. “I’m not asking you to be a matchmaker, just to help keep an eye out. If there’s a good girl who is diligent, capable, has a good temperament, and no burdens at home, give me a heads-up, and I’ll have someone inquire.”
“Your family is in the brigade, so you should know the temperament of every girl. I’ll feel at ease entrusting this to you.”
That’s all.
No problem.
Lin Zhao asked, “You don’t mind that they don’t have a city household registration?”
“Mind what, mind what.” Li Fen didn’t care about that. She said sincerely, “As long as the person is diligent, doesn’t mind my brother’s injured leg, and is willing to settle down with him, it’s fine. I’m not asking for anything else, just for the person to be good.”
“Zhaozhao, I’ll tell you the truth, my family’s conditions aren’t bad, my brother earns quite a bit, and he’s a good person. If a girl marries into my family, she won’t be wronged.”
Lin Zhao believed this.
“Okay, I’ll go ask my mother when I get back.”
Li Fen asked mischievously, “Which mother?”
Lin Zhao smiled helplessly. “I’ll ask both mothers, alright?”
“I’m not a newlywed young girl anymore, your teasing is useless.”
She wanted to see her blush, but that was impossible.
“Yes, yes, yes, you’re not a newlywed young girl. Your eldest son and second son are already over five years old, and you can’t tell.” Li Fen muttered.
When she first found out, she was so shocked that she couldn’t come to her senses for a long time.
With that face, how could she look like someone who was married, let alone someone with children?!
Before Lin Zhao could reply, Song Yunjin strode into the supply and marketing cooperative.
Upon entering, he went straight to the counter.
“Sister, sister, your photography skills are amazing!” The youth gave a thumbs-up.
He handed the newly developed photos to Lin Zhao.
The photos were in a small paper packet, black and white, about the size of a palm.
Lin Zhao opened the partially sealed edge and poured out a few photos.
They were taken the night she won the camera.
–Pictures of the cubs sleeping.
The twins sleeping while hugging each other, like affectionate little siblings.
Er Zai’s right leg was domineeringly draped over his brother’s, his hands and feet embracing his brother, while his brother lay straight, a small frown on his face, looking both stern and adorable.
The unique traits of each cub were captured by her.
They were so cute they were breathtaking.
“It seems I’m quite talented at taking photos,” Lin Zhao boasted.
Song Yunjin wholeheartedly agreed, nodding. “Sister, you learn everything quickly. My dad said it was a great pity you didn’t go to university; he feels sad whenever he thinks about it.”
Lin Zhao’s hand paused as she touched the photos, then quickly returned to normal.
“What’s there to be sad about? If we couldn’t even eat enough, what talk was there of taking college entrance exams?” She was very pragmatic. In those circumstances, even with money, you couldn’t buy grain. It was like that in the countryside, and there were wild vegetables to forage. In the city, it was even harder. Going to university was all empty talk; filling your stomach was more important than anything.
It hadn’t been many years since the famine, and everyone vividly remembered that terrible experience.
“That’s true,” Song Yunjin said.
Thinking of something, his eyes lit up, and his tone was full of excitement. “Perhaps in the future, my sister and I can take the college entrance exam together.”
Lin Zhao looked at him and chuckled, “Are you planning to carry my schoolbag for me?”
Song Yunjin patted his chest, “Sure, I’ll carry water and buy food, I’ll handle it all.”
“If that day ever comes, I want to go to the capital. You’ll have to work hard,” Lin Zhao said casually.
“Ha…” Song Yunjin laughed out loud. After receiving a cold glance from his sister, he tried hard to stifle his laughter. “Sister, you graduated years ago. You’ve probably forgotten all your textbook knowledge. I won’t start high school until next year. I’ll remember knowledge better than you. Are you sure it’s me who needs to work hard, not you?”
“Of course it’s you who needs to work hard,” Lin Zhao said matter-of-factly.
Some people are naturally good at learning, and she happened to be one of them.
Song Yunjin didn’t argue further. “Okay, I’ll work hard.”
“Sister, are you going home this weekend?” he asked again, confirming. He said “going home,” not “visiting.”
Lin Zhao’s eyes and brows were full of smiles. “Yes, I’m bringing the four cubs back.”
Song Yunjin grinned from ear to ear.
“Sister, you’re busy. I’m going home to get a beating.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he strode away with his long legs.
Lin Zhao: “?”
Guessing what was happening, her eyes filled with blessings.
Wishing you good luck, young classmate Song.
Li Fen and Wang Ju heard about some photos from afar. Seeing Song Yunjin was there, they felt too shy to come closer.
After he left, they tacitly stepped forward.
Lin Zhao tilted her head slightly, meeting two pairs of eyes that couldn’t hide their curiosity.
“……What happened?”
Before Li Fen could speak, Wang Ju extended her index finger and lightly tapped the small paper packet in her hand.
Her eyes lit up, and a shy smile appeared on her face.
The meaning was clear.
They wanted to see.
“If you want to see, just say so. What’s the big deal?” Lin Zhao smiled, poured out the photos, and showed them to colleagues she was on good terms with.
Wang Ju carefully picked up one of them; it was of the dragon-phoenix twins.
The young brother and sister were at the age where they made people want to have children. They were small, curled up on the straw mat, with faint imprints on their cheeks from the mat, looking soft and as if they would cry if held too tightly.
Their eyelashes were long and very curled.
Their cheeks were plump and looked kissable.
“Their eyelashes are so long,” Wang Ju whispered.
Li Fen hadn’t noticed before. She looked again and said with a smile, “They really are. Zhaozhao, all four of your children are beautiful and look well-behaved. You are blessed.”
“They are indeed well-behaved,” Lin Zhao readily agreed.
Li Fen paused for a moment, then burst into laughter, “Can’t you be a little more modest?”
“I’m just telling the truth. My children are more well-behaved than one another,” Lin Zhao said with pride, her tone quite sincere.
Li Fen shook her head inwardly. Children who are a little over five and a little over two years old are usually a handful; how could any be well-behaved?
“The heads of your four children are all nicely shaped. How did you manage that?” she asked enviously.
Her son’s head was flattened from sleeping, and that was that for life, but she still had grandchildren, so she needed to learn in advance!
Lin Zhao shook her head, “I don’t know. This is the ‘Grandmother’s Head Shape’ method; you’ll have to ask their paternal grandmother.”
When the children were just born, even their bones were soft. She didn’t even dare to hold them. If someone asked her how to raise children, she really wouldn’t know what to say.
Li Fen immediately gave her an envious and complex look.
“The way you live your life…”
Lin Zhao lowered her gaze and put the photos back into the small paper packet.
The two returned to their respective counters. Li Fen didn’t forget to say to Wang Ju, “When you get married in the future, you must find a family like this for a husband. You’ll live a comfortable life.”
Wang Ju’s face turned bright red, too embarrassed to look up. She quickened her pace, trying to find something to do to ease her embarrassment.
“……” Li Fen found it both funny and exasperating.
It was strange, really. She was the daughter of the factory director, so why was she so timid?
That’s right, Wang Ju was the biggest connected person at the supply and marketing cooperative. Her biological father was the head of a large factory. It was rumored that he sent her there to build her courage.
In the afternoon, there weren’t many customers at the supply and marketing cooperative; only one or two occasionally.
When there was no one around, Li Fen sat at the counter making shoes for her younger brother, Wang Ju dozed with her arm under her head, and Liu Chunhong was whispering with another person.
Lin Zhao rested her head against the corner of the counter, a small notebook on her lap, writing something with her head slightly bowed.
Anyone entering the supply and marketing cooperative could see her dark, thick hair and fair nape of her neck with a quick glance.
A military green figure appeared for a moment, looked intently at a certain spot, and then turned away in an instant.
“Ah!” Li Fen exclaimed, seeing the young man who had briefly appeared and disappeared.
Lin Zhao looked up, followed her gaze to the door, but saw nothing.
“What is it?” she asked.
“What a handsome young man!” Li Fen thought of the person she had just seen, her eyes lighting up, and gestured with her hand, “He was wearing a military uniform, very tall, half a head taller than your two cousins, and his face was handsome too. In all my life, I’ve never seen a young man more handsome than him.”
However, his features looked a little familiar.
Where had she seen him before?
It shouldn’t be.
With a face like that, who could forget him after seeing him once?!
In Lin Zhao’s heart, her child’s father was the most handsome; she didn’t accept any arguments. Other handsome men were mere fleeting clouds to her.
“No one is more handsome than my Comrade Gu.”
Li Fen felt a pang of envy.
The hands on the wall clock pointed to 14:55.
“Sister Fen, can you watch the counter for me? I need to go out for a bit,” Lin Zhao said.
Li Fen waved her hand.
With only five minutes left until closing, the salespersons at the supply and marketing cooperative were starting to pack up.
Before long, Lin Zhao returned with wet hands.
Several clanging sounds could be heard.
It was closing time.
She left with her backpack.
The supply and marketing cooperative closed early. Not many people were out and about at this hour. The sun was at its hottest and most scorching, making the ground seem to smoke.
Lin Zhao stepped off the blue brick stairs, her hand shading her forehead to block the blinding light. As she looked up, she caught sight of a familiar, tall figure not far away.
She froze, blinking in disbelief.
The figure was still there.
Dressed in a crisp military uniform, his posture was as upright as a pine tree, standing tall and distinguished. His military cap partially concealed his sharp brow bone, lending him a heroic and imposing presence.
As if sensing something, he raised his eyes, his gaze deep like a pool. Upon seeing that delicate and beautiful face, his dark eyes crinkled in a smile.
The young officer walked slowly forward.
Every step was as if measured by a ruler, with steady and firm strides.
Seeing the familiar figure getting closer and closer, Lin Zhao ran towards her.
In an instant, it stopped two meters away from the man.
“Gu Chenghuai?” she called out uncertainly.
Gu Chenghuai’s eyes deepened with a smile, a gentle, intoxicating one. “It’s me.”
Lin Zhao suddenly smiled, visibly happy, her eyes sparkling as if holding countless stars.
“Gu Chenghuai!” she called joyfully.
The moment the words fell, she rushed up and hugged the man, her small body sinking into his chest, her smile dazzlingly bright.
In the corner, Li Fen murmured, “…Zhaozhao is right, her man is indeed handsome.”
It’s so good to eat.
What a good life!!
Wang Ju nodded quickly, her eyes much brighter than usual, trying to shrink her presence but unable to pull her gaze away.
They are truly a perfect match.
Gu Chenghuai noticed the two gazes, his deep, dark eyes looked over, sharp as a knife.
Li Fen felt her body stiffen, and pulling along Wang Ju, who only realized what was happening later, she quickly ran.
“Sister Fen, why are you running?” Wang Ju’s reluctant voice rang out.
“……” A little girl like her, why is she so insensitive?
Over there.
“Gu Chenghuai, did you really come back?!” Lin Zhao still felt dazed.
“When did you get back, and why didn’t you tell me in advance?”
Gu Chenghuai looked at her, his dark eyes reflecting his daughter-in-law’s image, and said in a deep voice, “I was originally going to tell you, but you hung up the phone so quickly that I didn’t have time.”
Lin Zhao looked up at the young man, a head shorter than him, but with a much more imposing presence.
“What do you mean? We just met, and you’re already blaming me.” She retorted, her voice clear and crisp.
She gently poked Gu Chenghuai’s chest with her slender, pretty fingers and hummed, “Gu Chenghuai, what did you say when you begged me to marry you?”
“You said you’d be good to me forever, that you’d keep me in the tip of your heart, and wouldn’t make me angry. What are you doing now? Have you forgotten after only a few years of marriage…”
Gu Chenghuai listened to these rebukes without getting angry, the corners of his mouth involuntarily curling into a smile.
“My fault.” The voice, like cold jade, was enveloped in tenderness.
“I don’t blame you; it was my fault for not saying anything. I wanted to give you a surprise,” he said patiently.
Lin Zhao was instantly appeased, the corners of her mouth turning up.
“Daddy, pinch me, I still feel like I’m dreaming.”
Gu Chenghuai smiled and offered his hand, saying unhurriedly, “Bite me.”
His hands were well-defined with distinct knuckles, long and slender, so beautiful that Lin Zhao developed a habit of admiring hands.
She pulled the young man’s hand down and intertwined her fingers with his, looking down with eyes curved like crescent moons.
But her tone of voice wasn’t very good.
“Why would I bite you? I’m not Lu Baozhen.”
Gu Chenghuai held Lin Zhao’s hand and led her forward, “Who is Lu Baozhen?”
“Lu Yizhou’s biological daughter, have you forgotten?” Lin Zhao turned her head to look at him.
160 “Mm, I don’t really remember her. What about her?” Gu Chenghuai never remembered people who weren’t important. In his world, Zhaozhao was the most important, followed by his four cubs.
“She bit Er Zai, leaving a tooth mark the size of a bowl on Er Zai’s hand,” Lin Zhao said indignantly.
Gu Chenghuai almost laughed out loud.
Bowl-sized tooth marks.
If he remembered correctly, that little girl from the Lu family wasn’t even as old as the twins. How big would her mouth have to be to bite out a bowl-sized bun.
So cute.
The young officer, whose love brain was soothed by his daughter-in-law’s cuteness, solemnly agreed, “Indeed, it’s too much!”
“You think so, you think so,” Lin Zhao said repeatedly, worry showing in her eyes. “I’m really afraid the scar on Er Zai’s hand won’t fade.”
Gu Chenghuai calmly reassured, “Er Zai is a boy, does he have a scar…”
Before that “thing” could be said, it was held in place by Lin Zhao’s frowning expression.
“You don’t understand,” she sighed.
The scar isn’t the point; the point is that it’s a scar bitten by Lu Baozhen. Lin Zhao is afraid that because of that scar, Er Zai will develop a love brain.
Sigh.
Gu Chenghuai didn’t say anything further; he truly didn’t understand.
Remembering Zhaozhao’s head had been injured, he stopped and cupped her face, looking at her seriously.
“How is your head? Where are you injured?” He looked focused, his dark eyes full of warmth.
Lin Zhao pointed to her forehead with a wronged expression, “Here, here, I was hit and got a lump the size of a bowl. I fainted. Do you know what was even more outrageous? After she knocked me out, your sister ran away! She just ran away like that!”
“If it weren’t for Da Zai Er Zai, you’d be a widower by the time you came back, and you could even eat my funeral banquet…”
An extra update is here. Thank you, Treasured Ones, for your support. Please give me your votes~~
