Chapter 74

After finishing his talk with Qin Shuwen, Zhuo Yun immediately said to the butler who came back after seeing the doctor off, “Uncle Fu, reward, reward everyone with money.”

“Yes, Master.” Uncle Fu took the order and retired, and the others wisely did the same, leaving Zhuo Yun and Qin Shuwen behind.

“Shuwen, I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t held you last night… you wouldn’t have fainted today. Don’t worry. I won’t do it again. I promise.” Zhuo Yun was just like a little child at this moment.

But Qin Shuwen didn’t feel his heart. In his mind, he sneered, ‘Of course, you won’t do it again. I’m pregant with your child.’

Qin Shuwen had a prejudice against Zhuo Yun, so he thought that anything the Zhuo Yun did was for something profitable or with a bad intention, although the latter had never hurt him before.

It was just like what Xu Ran told Zhuo Yun. All this was caused by the poor young man’s case. No doubt, Zhuo Yun’s action was really unwise at that time.

Zhuo Yun insisted on staying at Qin Shuwen’s bedside. He asked him whether he wanted to eat this or that, or something sour or spicy, and so on.

Qin Shuwen was quite irritable. “Leave now. I want to sleep.”

His tone was a little cold and harsh, but it didn’t drain Zhuo Yun’s enthusiasm. He still said to Qin Shuwen, “Shuwen, I asked the doctor. He said that if you don’t give birth to the child now, you won’t be able to do it after the New Year. It will be dangerous then. Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of you and the child. You can sleep now. Let me ask someone to cook a delicious meal for you.”

Qin Shuwen became even more irritable, thinking, ‘Eat, eat, eat! You just know to eat!’

Even if Qin Shuwen kept a straight face, Zhuo Yun just pretended that he didn’t see it. Anyway, he was the only sufferer, so he was immediately relaxed after Zhuo Yun left the room, but he had to think more seriously about what Zhuo Yun said just now.

He was already twenty-five. In a few years, it would be really dangerous to give birth. He didn’t expect Zhuo Yun to consider this because even he himself had not thought of it.

It was not that he didn’t want children, but that he didn’t want to give birth to children for Zhuo Yun.

In fact, he had lost interest in that poor young man a long time ago. At that time, he was too young, and he had been spoiled since he was young, so he didn’t understand many things. But he had witnessed many things over the past few years. Naturally, his thoughts had changed. The reason why he still couldn’t forgive Zhuo Yun was that he just didn’t like his behavior of taking advantage of the man’s disadvantageous situation that year.

Now Zhuo Yun suddenly said that he would let him go after he gave birth. “Does it mean that he loves someone else? Otherwise why did he ask me to give birth?” Qin Shuwen couldn’t help thinking wildly about it.

When he came in again, Zhuo Yun held the chicken porridge that had just been cooked in the kitchen. But Qin Shuwen had already fallen asleep; he didn’t seem to sleep soundly because he frowned a bit as if he had dreamed of something unhappy.

Zhuo Yun put the porridge aside, sighed softly, eased Qin Shuwen’s knitted eyebrows with his hand, and said, “What should I do with you, Shuwen?”

It seemed that he was talking to Qin Shuwen, but it also seemed that he was talking to himself. After sitting by the bed for a while, he kissed Qin Shuwen gently on the forehead before leaving the room with the porridge.

This child came too soon and also too late. If he really did as he promised earlier that he would let Qin Shuwen leave after he gave birth, then he only had nine months left.

Zhuo Yun suddenly lost his confidence, thinking, “I haven’t moved him in the past five years. Can I really make it in just nine months?”

The heavy snow outside made his eyes lose focus. With the bowl of porridge in his hand, he stood in the heavy snow for a long time.

As a Chinese saying goes: One can’t escape from the sins he committed himself. That night, Zhuo Yun began to cough and even had a high fever.

So, he even less dared to enter Qin Shuwen’s room for fear that he would get him infected.

When Qin Shuwen woke up, it was already dark outside. He was awoken because he was hungry. After asking a young male servant to light the oil lamp, he then got out of bed to stretch his arms and legs.

After eating the porridge that had been warmed on the fire and drinking the medicine soup, he finally realized that he didn’t see Zhuo Yun.

Only after asking the young male servant did he know that Zhuo Yun caught a cold.

“Has a physician been invited?” Qin Shuwen asked.

“Lord, the butler has done it. The physician gave the medicine and said, “Master will be fine in a few days.”

It was the first time Qin Shuwen had had the idea of going to see Zhuo Yun. He did it as soon as he said it. He stood up and said to the servant behind him, “Let’s go! Take a look.”

The young male servant behind him couldn’t help being surprised, but he didn’t dare to ask anything about his lord’s business. He just followed Qin Shuwen while looking at him gingerly.

At this time, Zhuo Yun was lying in the guest room. Hearing that Qin Shuwen was coming, he was about to get up right now. But when he remembered that he should not get him infected because he was ill and Qin Shuwen was now pregnant, he said to the servant, “Ask your lord to go back and rest. I’m fine. I’m going to see him tomorrow.”

Before seeing the patient, Qin Shuwen had been asked to leave. It was the first time he had been treated like this. Naturally, he felt a little uncomfortable and went back to his room angrily.

Surely, Zhuo Yun did what he said. The following day he went to see Qin Shuwen as soon as he woke up, but the latter was still asleep, so he could only rub his nose and go back without getting anything done.

Although waves were stirred because of this kid, they had to continue their life as they should. In the blink of an eye, it was lunar December 29th. Every kitchen in every house began their busy time.

People began to boil rolls, fry New Year rice cakes, and burn incense sticks outside their gates from December 29th.

Liu Tong could not handle such things alone, so Xu Ran took the two kids to help him. However, Tangtang and Guoguo did nothing helpful but eat.

In the past years, the Xu Family also had such things, but they never had the chance to eat them. It would be good if they could have one mouthful or two on lunar December 30th.

This year was a luxury for them.

The money of the family was kept by Liu Tong, who had prepared the goods and gifts for the New Year. Xu Ran didn’t understand it or ask about it, for he believed that Liu Tong would handle it well.

The spring couplets were written by Xu Ran himself, who bought the red paper in the town and wrote according to his memory: The constant explosive happy sounds of fireworks see the old year off; Heaven and earth are teeming with the celebration of the new year.

Firecrackers had been bought and brought to their family, but unfortunately, there were no fireworks among them. Xu Ran thought that it was necessary to develop fireworks. After all, they were really nice to watch, especially with the flavor of the farmhouse.

December 29th was a transition. After this day, it would be the last day of the lunar year. December 30th was the real-time for the fun.

There were not many wealthy families in this village, and these few families were on good terms with the Xu Family. They were Wu Mei’s and his companions’ families.

When fireworks were being set off, most of the children in the village came to watch. Xu Ran even saw Xu Hui and Xu Qiang. After all, they were just kids, so he didn’t have the wish to argue about anything.

After the firecrackers were finished, people began to paste up spring couplets. As the bright red spring couplets were pasted up on the two sides of the gate, the shabby bamboo house got a bit of color and the whole family smiled and laughed.

The celebration of the New Year should have its taste, and the food on the table was the best proof.

The dinner here was eaten at noon, and only at night would they eat dumplings.

Fish and pig hooves were eaten at noon. Liu Tong even stewed a chicken, and then cooked a plate of dishes with pickled radish and fat meat, so the table was covered with meat. With the rice in the bowls, this was a very luxurious life in the village.

Only when the New Year was coming did Xu Ran suddenly remembered that many things had not been prepared, such as cured meat and sausages, which were all specialties of the Shu Region. However, the people here were too poor to usually eat like this. Xu Ran didn’t see anyone prepare such things, so he forgot it.

The glutinous rice had not been ground, which meant that they would have no rice balls to eat.

In his previous life, his mother made everything prepared. When he went home, he just needed to open his mouth and eat. He didn’t find anything so troublesome or need to worry about anything. But when he had his own family, he knew the trouble of it.

‘Truly, only a child being with his or her mother can be as precious as a gem!’

Besides, it was unpopular to slaughter pigs during the New Year. Therefore, except for the meat that was bought for them to eat during the New Year, there was no extra meat for him to do other things.

‘Forget it. Wait for the next year! Maybe I’ll be able to make some money.’ He comforted himself.

After lunch, Xu Ran took the remaining rice to feed the fruit trees. When he was young, his grandparents would force him to feed the fruit trees with the remaining rice after lunch.

It was the action of putting rice into one’s family’s fruit trees. First, one needed to make a small opening in the tree; then he should put a few grains of rice into it while murmuring, “Feed fruit trees, feed fruit trees. Neither the wind nor the rain can make your fruit fall. Then bear nice fruit.”

Their family didn’t have fruit trees, but he found that there were many wild fruit trees on the back side of the mountain and he could not tell which family they belonged to. Anyway, after feeding them, he could move them to his home in lunar March.

On the back side of the mountain, many different kinds of wild fruit trees could be found, such as pear, peach, cherry, apricot, walnut and so on.

Xu Ran toured around there with his two kids and fed a few trees.

Knowing that they would have fruit to eat this year, he became so excited that he looked like a child.

In the afternoon, he was going to visit the tomb of Liu Tong’s dad. Liu Tong came from Liu Village. In the past new years, Liu Tong dare not visit his dad’s tomb because Daddy Xu would say that he lived off this family but cared about his parents’ family. This year he didn’t mention it, but Xu Ran did.

However, Liu village was a little far away so that one would have to spend a long time going and returning, so Xu Ran decided to go there after lunch.

Liu Tong had already prepared the things for the worship, and then the whole family headed for Liu Village.