Beijing. The Li Family Courtyard!
“Ding!”
As the clock in the bedroom chimed, Li Yi slowly opened his eyes.
He felt a tingling sensation in his arm. Upon closer inspection, he realized Jiang Xue’s head was resting on his arm.
His right hand was wrapped around her neck, resting on his son’s “food bag,” while his left hand lay on Jiang Xue’s stomach.
They say “the land of love is a hero’s grave,” and with a wife, children, and a warm bed, even someone like Li Yi felt his fighting spirit waning.
Reluctantly, he crawled out from under the covers, put on the clothes scattered all over the place, and prepared to face the new day.
Seeing quite a few of their clothes still scattered on the floor—all the result of last night’s “accident”—Li Yi got out of bed to gather them up.
However, the moment his feet touched the floor, he realized his thighs were aching—as if he’d just finished a marathon. The sensation was damn exhausting.
Li Yi instinctively glanced at Jiang Xue, who was fast asleep. Her face was etched with exhaustion, looking as though she’d been pushed to her limits.
Although he felt a twinge of tenderness, what dominated his heart was still that barbaric pride!
He sat on the edge of the kang to catch his breath, then finally got up and set to work.
As soon as he entered the main room, Li Yi saw that Juanzi was already up, cleaning the house.
Upon seeing Li Yi, Juanzi hurriedly said, “Brother Yi, breakfast is in the pot, and I’ve finished cleaning up. I’m off to school!”
“Wait a minute, Juanzi!” Li Yi said.
“What’s wrong, Brother Yi?”
Li Yi immediately pulled a stack of bills from his pocket, handed them to Juanzi, and said, “Here’s 36 yuan—that’s your wages for the past two months. Take it!”
But when Juanzi saw the money, she instinctively took two steps back and said, “Brother Yi, I’m already so grateful that you’ve taken me in and let me go to school—how could I possibly take your money?”
“You’ve been taking care of my wife and our two kids. It’s only fair that I pay you for your work. Besides, it’s not much—just take it!”
“I don’t want it!”
“Take it. You need to buy school supplies and things like that at school—you’ll find it useful!”
Hearing this, Juanzi hesitated briefly, then stepped forward to take a 10-yuan note and put it in her pocket, but she still refused to accept the rest of the money!
Seeing that the girl was absolutely determined not to accept it, Li Yi didn’t press the matter further. Instead, he said, “From now on, I’ll give you 15 yuan a month as wages. If you don’t want it, I’ll save it for you. Go back to school!”
“Okay!”
After watching Juanzi leave, Li Yi quickly washed up and headed to the kitchen.
He saw that there was some cooked millet porridge in the pot and a few large steamed buns in the steamer—these were what his mother-in-law had given them yesterday when they returned from the Jiang family’s old house.
Just as Li Yi had finished serving the porridge, he suddenly heard a child crying from inside the house.
He immediately put down the bowl and ran toward the bedroom.
The baby’s cries also woke Jiang Xue from her deep sleep. She sat up instinctively from the kang, picked up her crying son, and brought the bag of grain to the little one’s mouth.
Seeing this, Li Yi couldn’t help but swallow hard.
But before he could dwell on it, little Yunjin on the other side began to whimper as well.
The two little ones seemed to be in perfect sync; whenever one started something, the other would quickly follow suit.
Li Yi hurried over and picked up the little girl.
Feeling Li Yi’s warm, strong arms, the little girl’s furrowed brows quickly smoothed out, and she stopped whimpering.
After a moment, Jiang Xue said with half-closed eyes, “Give me the girl. You go change the boy’s diaper—that little stinker seems to have pooped just now!”
“Alright!”
By the time Li Yi had changed his son’s diaper and wiped his little bottom clean with warm water, Jiang Xue had finished feeding their daughter and had her dressed as well.
Jiang Xue had intended to get up and wash up, but just like Li Yi, the moment her feet touched the floor, her legs gave way, and she nearly fell.
More importantly, she felt not only weak and achy all over, but also a dull ache in several places, as if she’d been run over by a truck.
Having experienced something similar before, she immediately knew what was going on. Her face flushed red, and she couldn’t help but silently curse Li Yi for not knowing how to treat a lady with tenderness.
As it happened, Li Yi had just witnessed Jiang Xue nearly falling!
Seeing this, he hurried over and asked, “What happened? Did you hurt yourself?”
Jiang Xue’s face flushed, and she hurriedly replied, “I’m fine—I just wasn’t paying attention!”
It was too embarrassing; how could she possibly explain?
“Okay, go wash up and eat. I’ll pop over to Third Brother’s place in a bit. Once I return the car to the cotton mill, I’ll come back and keep you company!” Li Yi said.
Hearing this, Jiang Xue was taken aback for a moment. Her expression changed slightly, and she hurriedly said, “No need. You go take care of your business first. With Mom here, I can handle things on my own!”
Yesterday, when Li Yi told her he’d be staying home every day to spend time with her and the baby, she’d been overjoyed.
But now, she regretted it!
Thinking about this guy’s animal-like stamina, Jiang Xue was genuinely a little scared.
If he stayed home every day, would she eventually find it hard to even get out of bed? The thought sent a shiver down Jiang Xue’s spine.
Li Yi didn’t notice anything amiss and continued, “Mom isn’t in the best of health either. We can’t keep bothering them all the time. I’ll take care of you two instead!”
“No, I can take care of Yunrui and Yunjin just fine without Mom!”
Seeing how strongly Jiang Xue was refusing, Li Yi immediately sensed something was off and stared at her intently.
“Huh, you don’t look right. Why do I get the feeling you don’t really want me to stay home and take care of you and the kids?” Li Yi frowned.
Jiang Xue’s face flushed red. She glared at Li Yi and said, “Are you sure you’re coming home to take care of me and the kids, and not to torment me?”
“How exactly would I be giving you a hard time…”
At that moment, Li Yi suddenly understood.
Seeing his wife’s flushed face, he burst out laughing. “I was wondering what was wrong—so that’s it!”
“How dare you laugh! You have no regard for a lady at all—aren’t you afraid of hurting me?”
“I was in a hurry last night. I apologize. I’ll be more careful from now on!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“Well, we’ll see how you behave. Also, you can’t get me pregnant again before I graduate from college. I don’t want to go to college with a big belly—that would be so embarrassing!” Jiang Xue said.
“Fine, fine, whatever you say. If you don’t want it, I’m not going to force you!” Li Yi said with a laugh.
“I’m not going to argue with you. Anyway, you don’t have to stay home all the time—a man should be out in the world!”
“I’ll do as you say!”
With that, Li Yi suddenly took a step forward, picked Jiang Xue right up, and headed toward the dining room…
………
………