Ouyang Meihua's gaze immediately shifted to Tian Jing's belly. "Are you pregnant?"
Her piercing stare startled Tian Jing. "I already have three kids, why would I secretly get pregnant? I have both sons and daughters."
Ouyang Meihua nodded. "It's good you're not pregnant. I'm telling you, there are several women in the village who are secretly pregnant. Otherwise, I would have definitely dealt with Fang Qiuhong."
Tian Jing quietly breathed a sigh of relief. She also hoped to get pregnant quickly before winter.
The more anxious she was, the harder it was to conceive.
Spring arrived amidst Tian Jing's anxiety.
As everything began to revive, many women in the village went far away to visit relatives.
Tian Jing patted her forehead. Why did these people put all their intelligence into this?
What excuses should she, a reborn person, come up with?
Li Zhengguo comforted his wife. "You're just too anxious. When you actually get pregnant, I'll have Lu Xinggang impersonate Xiao Wei and send a telegram."
That was the only way. Speaking of Lu Xinggang, Tian Jing took the opportunity to ask, "When are you going to check the accounts?"
Li Zhengguo hesitated. "I'm a bit scared."
"Scared of what? Scared of seeing the truth? When did you become so self-deceiving?"
"Ahem!"
Li Zhengguo coughed and sat up straighter. "Tiantian, he was a life-and-death comrade to me, otherwise, I wouldn't trust him so much."
Under his wife's gaze, he deflated again. "Wife, give me a little more time. Fourth isn't here yet, is he? Let's wait a bit longer."
"And how long should we wait?"
"Until Fourth has fully arrived."
Li Zhengguo spoke quickly. "Besides, we don't have much money. I'll earn another year's worth of melon money."
Tian Jing looked at him with a half-smile. "A year's melon money can buy at most four courtyards."
"You want to buy a whole piece of land, and now you want to buy that plot to the north."
Li Zhengguo's eyes darted away. "Wife, I really need some time, at least until Fourth arrives, right?"
"Right!"
Tian Jing nodded. "I'm worried too. Then, by September at the latest, after the watermelons are completely sold."
"Mmm-hmm."
...
Seedlings were being cultivated.
Tian Jing helped the Wang, Niu, and eldest brother's families cultivate seedlings.
She had also quietly inquired with the Ou and Yang families.
Both families stated that they could not give the villagers any reason to gossip and that it was better to advance and retreat with the villagers.
Li Min, holding her youngest son, came to buy seedlings, but her mother kept her outside the yard. "None."
Fang Qiuhong, with her bulging belly, saw this and sneered at Li Min. "Sometimes, your maternal family is unreliable."
"You?" Li Min pointed at her belly in surprise. "How could you..."
Fang Qiuhong touched her belly and laughed. "How could I not? In the countryside, if the first child is a girl, after she turns five, you can have a second child."
"But you, you..."
"What about you?"
Fang Qiuhong's expression changed. "Even if you have a disabled child, you can still have another."
"But you said a second child, and this is your third, isn't it?"
"I'm not going to argue with you."
Fang Qiuhong turned and left.
A woman who was talking to Fang Qiuhong waved to Li Min. "Don't talk nonsense. She got a birth permit. She has connections, she's very proud."
Does having connections matter more than having money?
Looking at the tightly shut door of her maternal home, Li Min felt a pang of loss.
...
After the watermelon seedlings were planted, Tian Jing's anticipation finally arrived.
Li Zhengguo put aside all his affairs and focused on purchasing the supplies needed for the coming year.
Tian Jing, enduring the discomfort of morning sickness, quietly moved these supplies into the cave in Qingsong Rock.
Xiao Song was very welcoming upon hearing that Tiantian would be staying there for a long time.
"Xiao Song, once my body feels better, I'll move you into the Misty Valley."
Xiao Song was not in a hurry. "Isn't there still time? Let's wait a bit longer, I can keep you company."
Keep company?
Tian Jing, her mood suddenly turning somber, sat on a rock beneath the pine tree.
"Xiao Song, I knew a pine tree that looked very much like you. It was called Xiao Qing..."
"...Alas, it was all a dream. I really wish I could bring it here to keep you company."
"When I was with it, I often thought of you. I thought of you more times than I thought of my three children."
"I always feel like I've let you down. It seems like you only have me, but I have so many people taking my heart and thoughts away."
Xiao Song's emotions were also slightly affected by Tian Jing, but it was a tree, and its emotions passed quickly.
"Why are you suddenly so sentimental? Is it the baby in your belly making trouble?"
"No." Tian Jing stood up and took a deep breath to calm her emotions.
Her husband's eight lifetimes of dreams, her own two lifetimes of dreams, kept replaying in her mind and heart.
Such vivid dreams, yet they were false. Sometimes, when she snapped out of her reminiscence, she would find it hard to distinguish between reality and illusion.
She knew she shouldn't be like this, but she couldn't help herself.
"Tiantian? Tiantian?"
"Xiao Qing?"
"Pfft! I'm Xiao Song, what are you thinking?"
"Uh, I was spacing out."
...
The postman rode a long way into the mountains to deliver a telegram.
In this era with no privacy, the few dozen words in a telegram were almost common knowledge.
Moreover, the telegram was for Tian Jing. In Kushan, where outsiders were rarely seen, it was big news.
Soon, the whole village knew that Tian Jing's maternal mother had asked Tian Jing to bring the children to stay for a while, as she missed them.
...
Tian Jing packed a bag of clothes and was about to leave with her three children.
Li Mu was worried. "Why only bring so few things?"
"I'll buy more over there."
Her youngest daughter-in-law's words left Li Mu with nothing to refute.
She followed them to the quadrangle courtyard at the east end of the village.
Regarding the telegram, Grandpa Xiao was very surprised. His daughter would ask Tiantian to visit? She would miss Tiantian?
That would happen only when the sun rose from the west.
Tian Jing winked vigorously at her grandfather. "I'll take the children to see her."
Grandpa Xiao didn't understand his granddaughter's hint, but in front of his granddaughter's mother-in-law, he couldn't say anything.
"Do you want A Guang to send you off?"
"No need. Brother Zheng will send us. When he returns, tell him to report your safety."
"Alright."
Grandpa Xiao looked at his great-granddaughter. "Lili, if you leave, what will happen to your great-grandfather missing your crying?"
Li Weili, held in her father's arms, turned the back of her head towards her great-grandfather. "Bad."
"Hahaha."
The loneliness in Grandpa's laughter made Tian Jing feel uneasy.
Li Mu followed her youngest son's family all the way to the Keshui River.
Watching the big truck drive away, she returned home dejectedly.
The once lively house was now empty, leaving only her.
She fidgeted here and there, feeling unsettled.
She went to the vegetable shed and then to the melon fields, but neither needed her.
She wandered to her eldest son's doorstep, hesitated, and then went in.
Seeing her mother-in-law, Ouyang Meihua was surprised. "Mother, what's wrong?"
Li Mu reached out to hold her grandson.
Li Weiyu dodged and rushed into his mother's arms.
Li Mu sighed. "Meihua, do you blame me in your heart?"
"Blame you for what?"
"Blame me for helping you less, and that Xiaoyu doesn't even recognize me."
Ouyang Meihua pulled her youngest son from her embrace and pushed him towards her mother-in-law. "If he's disobedient, just spank his bottom."
After forcefully shoving her youngest son into her mother-in-law's arms, Ouyang Meihua continued, "I have Damai and Xiaomai to help. I'm not too busy.
"Honestly, if my sister-in-law were someone else, I might have blamed her."
"With Tian Jing, I have nothing to argue about. She's making money with us, and if I still bickered with her about this, would I even be human?"
These words reminded Li Mu of her daughter.
Since she had nothing to do lately, she decided to go and teach her daughter, she couldn't just stand by and watch her daughter be led astray by those people.