As soon as Big Brother left, Li Min darted to her sister-in-law's side, "Zheng Ge?"
Tian Jing paused, then smiled, "Calling him Li Zheng Guo is too formal, calling him Comrade Li is too distant, calling him Zheng Guo gives me the feeling of being older than him."
"Calling him Zheng Guo Ge, too many people do that, including Zhang Fang Cao. Calling him Guo Ge, there are too many Guos in Ku Shan. Calling him Zheng Ge, it's unique."
"Why do I feel like something is brushing my face, sweet and cloying?" Li Min even raised her hand to wipe her face.
Tian Jing kindly offered an explanation, "This is me showing affection. What you're experiencing is being showered with it."
"Right," Li Min nodded vigorously in agreement. "Exactly, you're bragging about how loving you and my Big Brother are. My eyes aren't blind, I can see it."
"Then why come over for more?"
"Hmph, as if I don't have my own," Li Min turned and headed for the kitchen. "I'm going to find my Suo Zhu Ge. No, should I call him Suo Ge or Zhu Ge, or Chen Ge?"
Tian Jing shook her head with amusement, genuinely sympathizing with Chen Suo Zhu.
Having a girlfriend with a strong curiosity, poor learning ability, and a full desire to imitate was truly tiring.
And a girlfriend whose role models were two people from the future, an era of information explosion, made it even more exhausting.
...
Li Zheng Guo brought back two pieces of news.
One was that Captain Ou agreed to the request for plastic sheeting on credit from the supply and marketing cooperative.
The second was that an all-member meeting would be held tomorrow morning.
Tian Jing was surprised, "What is the meeting about?"
"Expelling someone's qualification to cultivate land."
"Someone? An acquaintance of ours?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Li Ai Guo."
"His hand was injured by his father. Given the Captain's personality, he should be lenient and give him another chance."
"Heh heh." Li Zheng Guo sneered, "The Captain might want to forgive, but the Zhang and Lin families won't stand for it."
"The Zhang family? The Lin family?" Tian Jing was even more astonished. "What's their connection to this? Besides, aren't the three families friendly relatives and friends?"
"Even the best relationships break down when faced with conflicting interests."
It turned out Li Ai Guo felt that the crops on the land of the families on his left and right were better than his own, and that they must have been siphoning the fertility from his land or secretly swapping his seedlings.
So he began to secretly swap them back, specifically choosing the thickest and strongest seedlings from the land of the families on his left and right.
The Zhang family was the first to notice something was wrong, so they set up an ambush.
They caught Li Ai Guo secretly digging up seedlings from Lin Er Lai's land.
Li Ai Guo denied it, claiming he was just helping Lin Er Lai's family pull weeds.
Fang Qiu Hong, who didn't know much about farming, couldn't distinguish between weeds and seedlings, but she didn't believe Li Ai Guo would help her family pull weeds either.
She sent someone to call Lin Er Lai.
Lin Er Lai naturally recognized the wheat seedlings in Li Ai Guo's hands. Enraged, he got into a fight with Li Ai Guo.
Li Ai Guo's right hand suffered a glorious fracture again.
Li Ai Guo refused to accept it and went to the team office to demand an explanation. As a result, while Lin Er Lai paid his medical expenses, he was sued by the Lin and Zhang families together at the team office, demanding compensation for the wheat seedlings and their future value.
The team agreed, estimated the number of wheat seedlings destroyed by Li Ai Guo on the Lin and Zhang families' land, calculated their value, and ordered Li Ai Guo to pay.
Li Ai Guo naturally disagreed, which led to tomorrow's meeting.
"Is Li Ai Guo an idiot? Blaming his neighbors for his own poorly managed crops? The compensation issue for the Lin and Zhang families must have been arranged."
"Never mind them."
Li Zheng Guo didn't want to talk about Li Ai Guo anymore. "I've asked for leave from the Captain, stating we have business to attend to tomorrow. My mother will represent our family at the meeting."
Mentioning his mother, Tian Jing felt a headache regarding Li Rong Guo's identity, "What about mother?"
"I will quietly tell my mother and explain the pros and cons of the situation to her. Just as you said, we will have to support them, so it's better to receive their gratitude in this capacity. Otherwise, my mother might harbor resentment and hatred."
"Alright, I'll leave it to you."
As they sat down at the dinner table, Li Rong Guo stood up and apologized to Tian Jing, "I'm sorry, cousin-in-law. I, I don't want to sue my mother."
Such an honest, upright, and always yielding person would only spoil the enemy.
"If you don't want to sue, then don't. We're busy tomorrow, we'll visit your house the day after. If we visit a few more times, we'll surely be able to persuade your mother."
"Thank you, thank you."
"You're welcome. Just stay here with peace of mind. Sister-in-law's body will be able to get out of bed after a bit more rest. With someone helping to take care of the household, Da Mai and Xiao Mai will also be safe."
"Okay, okay, I, I understand."
Da Mai and Xiao Mai showed happy smiles. They liked staying at their third uncle-aunt's house. Their third uncle-aunt was very gentle and treated them better than their grandmother treated their cousin Wei Dong.
As night fell, Tian Jing quietly left the Li family alone.
Li Zheng Guo called his mother into the west room to discuss matters.
...
When Tian Jing returned, she found her mother-in-law's eyes were swollen from crying.
"Is it that serious?"
Tian Jing chided her mother-in-law verbally but glared at her husband, wondering if he knew how to handle matters. Why did he turn a happy occasion into this outcome?
Li Zheng Guo was also helpless. His mother was afraid of Tian Tian and didn't even fear him. He had tried to coax her, explained things to her, but she just kept crying.
"Tian Tian."
Mother Li grabbed Tian Jing's hand, "Mother is just crying out thirty years of longing and grievances, and she also feels heartbroken for the suffering your elder brother endured."
"It's my fault. I didn't analyze and investigate carefully, only hiding in the dark and feeling sad."
"I understand your concerns. We can't acknowledge him openly, because other problems are not problems. Financial matters are the biggest problem that erodes humanity, just like Sister-in-law's experience."
"Everything in this house was earned by your hard work, Tian Tian. It has nothing to do with them, nor with Zheng Guo and Min Min. How you choose to distribute it is your business, and I have no right to interfere."
"Yao, uh, Rong Guo, I will help him to the best of my ability. It's my mistake. I won't make any other arbitrary decisions. Don't worry, this home will always be managed by you."
Tian Jing nodded, "It's good that Mother has things clear in her mind."
"I do. I understand. You two should rest."
After her mother-in-law left the west room, Tian Jing bolted the door and sat down beside her husband, hugging his waist. "You have me, your only one."
Li Zheng Guo hugged his Tian Tian back, "Let's be each other's only."
"What about the children?"
"That's different."
"You said that. If you neglect me for the children, I won't stand for it."
"I won't." Li Zheng Guo lowered his head until their foreheads touched. "You are my most beloved treasure. No one can compare."
"Hmph, if I give birth to your former lover, will you change your mind?"
"No." Li Zheng Guo gently kissed her. "It's you. You have been, in past lives and this one."
Dazzled by the cherished kiss, Tian Jing didn't hear the latter part, otherwise, she would have thrown a small tantrum.
Li Zheng Guo still went to boil hot water for Tian Tian to prepare for her wash.
Zhao Xiao Fang enviously joked with her husband, "Da Mai's father, look how much Cousin treats Cousin-in-law. You should learn from him."
"I even fed you."
"Is that the same? I'm unwell. Cousin-in-law receives such meticulous care every day."
"They're newlyweds. We weren't bad when we were newlyweds either."
"Far from it."