W Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Pregnancy Mole 1

Some time ago, the Shen family was exhausted from busying themselves with the funeral and worrying about the unconscious Ling Xing.

Although saddened by Shen Hai’s passing, they were more dazed and occupied.

As the main family, they had to manage everything and didn’t have much time to grieve.

Now that everything had settled, even a brief thought of Shen Hai could bring tears to their eyes.

Memories lingered, but they could no longer meet him.

The emotions were contagious, and Ling Xing behind the curtain also felt his eyes moisten.

He felt pity for Shen Hai, and also for himself.

Now he was alone in a completely unfamiliar environment.

Although he had been comforting himself, he was completely clueless about this place.

He didn’t know what his future days would be like.

This floating feeling, the emptiness in his heart, and the inability to find solid ground was truly agonizing.

Ling Xing didn’t stay behind the curtain any longer. He had wanted to check what was wrong with the crying.

Now knowing the reason, he got up and went back to lie down.

He couldn’t sleep after lying down. Shen Lai’s words made him feel a sense of crisis, and his mind was full of thoughts on how to fill his stomach.

The Shen family was too poor, and he was even poorer than them.

Money, how was he going to make money?

Ling Xing was so worried that he didn’t fall asleep until late at night. He was shaken awake the next morning.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw a little girl with pigtails sitting at the head of his bed.

The girl was very thin, her hair was a little yellow and sparse, her head was big, and her limbs were slender.

When she saw Ling Xing open his eyes, she shrank her neck and said timidly, “Grandma told me to call eldest brother-in-law to have breakfast.”

Ling Xing paused for a moment to recognize who the girl was. It was his nominal fourth sister-in-law, one of the twins brought by Cao Manyue.

The seven-year-old child looked so thin and small that she could pass for four or five years old.

In ancient times, children were prone to premature death. It seemed that malnutrition accounted for a significant part of the reason.

Shen Hai had told Ling Xing the children’s names before. After they came to the Shen family with their mother, they changed their surnames.

Now the girl was called Shen Xiaochun, and the “ge’er” was called Shen Xiaxia.

Ling Xing rubbed his face to clear his head, “Okay, Xiaochun, I’ll get up now.”

Having completed Grandma’s task, Shen Xiaochun didn’t dare to stay in the room any longer and quickly got off the bed and ran out.

Ling Xing’s own clothes were too tattered to wear. The patched clothes he wore when he married in were found for him by the Shen family.

He didn’t throw away his own tattered clothes but wore them inside in an attempt to keep warm.

After getting dressed, Ling Xing lifted the curtain and went out wearing those broken straw sandals.

The Shen family was the only family at the foot of the mountain, and the area occupied by the house and courtyard was actually not small.

However, it seemed that when the earthen house was built, the house was built relatively small to save money.

The earthen house in the middle had three rooms. The room on the east side was where Shen Hai used to live. He was sick and needed to recuperate, so he lived alone.

After Shen Hai left, Ling Xing had been living in the east room.

The west room was where the Shen family elders lived. In the hall, a wooden bed would be set up with stools and planks at night, and Shen Lai slept there. Before Shen Yan got married, she and Shen Lai slept together in the hall.

There were also rooms on both the east and west sides. The room on the east side was where Shen Gui and his wife slept with their two children, and the room on the west side was the kitchen. A cloth curtain separated a space where Shen Hui slept.

The kitchen on the west side was close to the mountain, and there were too many mosquitoes. Sometimes snakes would run out, and no one except Shen Hui dared to sleep there.

Now it was early February, and it was still cold. The Shen family ate in the kitchen.

To save firewood, the unburned branches and wood were also taken out, extinguished, and piled in one place for later use.

The kitchen was still warm, as they had just finished cooking.

The wooden table was quite old, and many cracks could be clearly seen on the surface. Three of the four table legs had stones underneath.

The stools in the house were not much better, all with missing legs. When people sat on them, they had to be careful to maintain their balance and not make too large of a movement, otherwise they would fall.

When Ling Xing was unconscious, Shen Lai took care of him for a few days because no one else in the family could spare the time.

Seeing Ling Xing shivering as he came over, he quickly patted the empty stool beside him, “Eldest brother-in-law, come and sit next to me.”

Ling Xing looked over at the sound and remembered the three bowls of noodles Shen Lai had devoured.

At that time, he didn’t know what the Shen family was like. He had eaten the birthday noodles in advance. Now, thinking about it, Ling Xing still felt bad about it.

He had to find a way to pay Shen Lai back.

Thinking this, Ling Xing felt a lot more relaxed. He smiled and walked towards Shen Lai, sitting beside him.

Because one of the stool legs was missing, Ling Xing sat up straight, afraid of falling on his butt.

Xu Youfang had been standing in front of the stove. She ladled a bowl of rice for Ling Xing. The chipped ceramic bowl was steaming. Ling Xing took it and thanked her, “Thank you, mother.”

Xu Youfang shook her head, “We’re family, no need to thank me, eat quickly.”

Shen Lai stared at Ling Xing’s bowl, his eyes filled with envy.

The flour paste in that bowl was much more than his.

At first, Ling Xing didn’t recognize what was in the ceramic bowl.

After taking a sip, he tasted it.

It was coarsely ground flour, added with water and cooked directly into a paste.

Because it was coarsely ground, there was still a lot of wheat bran, and the flour was also a bit grayish.

It scratched his throat and was difficult to swallow.

But Shen Lai beside him, as well as Shen Xiaochun who had just called him to get up, and Shen Xiaxia who looked almost the same as her and was also thin with a big head and small body, were all looking at him with envious eyes.

Because the flour paste in his ceramic bowl was the most, Ling Xing only felt that the flour paste in his mouth was even more difficult to swallow.

In his previous life, his family was also poor when he was young. But wheat bran was used to add to other things, to feed pigs and chickens…

What kind of life was this?

How could they be so poor that they couldn’t even eat their fill of wheat bran freely?

Ling Xing put down the bowl, first picking up Shen Lai’s bowl which was close to him, and poured some into it.

Then he got up and poured some for Shen Xiaochun and Shen Xiaxia.

Shen Lai was naturally overjoyed to see this, while Shen Xiaochun and Shen Xiaxia were uneasy.

Xu Youfang also saw Ling Xing’s actions. She sighed and wanted to put more in Ling Xing’s bowl, “You’re not feeling well, you need to eat more.”

This flour paste was not good stuff to begin with. How could people live if they ate so little?

There was still half a bowl in Ling Xing’s ceramic bowl. Seeing that there was not much left in the pot, at most two spoonfuls,

Xu Youfang probably hadn’t eaten yet, so he quickly covered the ceramic bowl, “Mother, I’m not hungry yet.”

Not wanting to eat up other people’s rations, Ling Xing looked around and changed the subject, “Where are father and the others?”

At this time, only Shen Lai, the Shen Xiaochun siblings, and Xu Youfang were in the kitchen. The other members of the family were not there.

Seeing that Ling Xing really didn’t want it, Xu Youfang didn’t force him anymore. This was indeed not good stuff. When spring came in a while, she would go to dig fresh wild vegetables and make them for Ling Xing to nourish his body.

“They finished eating early and went to pick firewood. While it’s still cold, picking some can still sell for a price.”

Otherwise, the family would really have nothing to eat.

February was an awkward time. The animals in the mountains were still sleeping, and the plants had not yet sprouted. There were only bare trees and withered weeds.

Besides picking firewood, there was really nothing else to do on the mountain.

After finishing breakfast, Xu Youfang pushed Ling Xing out of the kitchen and told him to go rest.

Shen Lai’s favorability towards Ling Xing increased sharply today because Ling Xing had eaten a few more mouthfuls of flour paste.

Shen Xiaochun and Shen Xiaxia also had a lot of goodwill towards Ling Xing. Usually, their mother told them to eat as little as possible and not to cause trouble for the Shen family.

This was the most filling meal they had eaten in the Shen family, although they were still hungry after eating, it was already very good.

There was not much work to do at home. Other families had chickens and ducks to feed, and those with better conditions would raise pigs.

The Shen family had nothing.

When the soil thawed in the spring, they would open up land outside the yard to plant some vegetables, but they couldn’t even plant vegetables now.

Xu Youfang didn’t let the three children follow her to work in the kitchen. She said to Shen Lai, “Take Xiaochun and Xiaxia to accompany your eldest brother-in-law. He just came to our house, talk to him more, don’t let him miss home and feel uncomfortable.”

As soon as Shen Lai heard this, he took one in each hand and ran into the east room in a puff of smoke.

“Eldest brother-in-law!”

Ling Xing was wrapped in a leather jacket sitting on the bed, shivering and breathing into his palms.

Seeing Shen Lai bringing the two children in, he told them to quickly get on the bed.

The three of them weren’t wearing much more than him, and their faces were frozen purple.

Shen Lai didn’t stand on ceremony either, he took off his straw sandals and climbed onto the bed with Xiaochun and Xiaxia to talk to Ling Xing.

“This cloth strip is making my head hurt.”

While speaking, Shen Lai pulled the cloth strip on his forehead up.

Only then did Ling Xing notice that there was a slightly raised red mole between Shen Lai’s eyebrows.

It was a “ge’er”‘s pregnancy mole.