Chapter 29: Ni Duan Dispels Doubts (Part 1)

Zhang Guoqing rubbed his forehead and turned to enter the bedroom. He wondered if Jiaojiao was awake yet—he hadn’t really spent any time with his son, just running around all day. He slipped in quietly, only to find that neither of them was asleep.

“Oh~ my dear wife, your poor husband is so pitiful~ Holding a cornbread bun in his hand, not a drop of oil in the vegetables. Life here is so hard, every step is a struggle, holding that cornbread bun, tears just keep falling…”

Zhou Jiao couldn’t help but burst out laughing. She looked into her baby’s eyes and said, “Baby, look at your daddy—doesn’t he look so pitiful? Should our baby comfort daddy?”

Zhang Guoqing quickly came over to the kang, sat down, and hugged Jiaojiao. “Baby, I’m your daddy. Daddy finally gets to see you awake—why do you sleep so much? Are you full? Daddy is so pitiful, not as lucky as baby who gets to drink milk.”

Zhou Jiao leaned against him, holding their son. “You ran around a lot today, didn’t you? Move that little table over here for me, I need to put some things down. I had chicken noodle soup for lunch—nothing anyone could smell. This time you get to eat the honey-braised chicken leg meal. I don’t even remember when I bought it. I was bored this morning and reorganized the food in the space, so eat more with the roast chicken.”

Zhang Guoqing stood up, went to the small living room, locked the door, and moved the little table over. “Put our son down beside you, don’t keep holding him. If you hold him all the time during your confinement, your arms will hurt later, and you’ll get into bad habits that’ll make it harder when you take care of him yourself.”

Seeing her produce a steaming meal box out of nowhere, he started drooling. Ever since he transmigrated yesterday, he’d been so anxious he’d practically lost his sense of taste.

Zhou Jiao felt bad seeing how hungry he was, swallowing hard. This fool—he could have just bought something to eat in the city; he had money and ration tickets. Just thinking about that coarse cornmeal made her throat hurt.

“You silly, why didn’t you eat your fill in the city before coming back? Remember this for next time. Always eat before you come home. Otherwise, you’ll end up with stomach problems at your age, and that’s a real hassle.”

After a few bites, Zhang Guoqing hurriedly drank some soup. “I had two buns at my second sister’s place this morning, then got delayed at the Zhou’s. By the time I got home, I was starving, and all there was was that life-sapping cornmeal bun and cornmeal porridge—everything was cornmeal. I had no choice but to choke down a bun and a bowl of porridge. Dad even tried to give me another bun—I almost cried. And that pickled vegetable? So salty it could kill someone, and they ate it all up.”

Zhou Jiao pointed at herself. “I’m pretty silly too. If I don’t eat, I go hungry until I can’t stand it anymore and then force it down. I don’t dare tell you. Everyone at home thinks I just have a small appetite. When I ate with Grandma at the Zhou’s, she always made sure the food was soft for the elderly.”

Zhang Guoqing quickly finished eating and had Zhou Jiao put everything back into the space. Then he opened the door to the small living room to let the smell dissipate. “No wonder you’re so skinny and sallow. Good thing you’re back soon, or with your health now, you’d never recover. You have to do your confinement properly this month, no matter what anyone says—thirty days, at least. If we could, I’d have you do forty. Dad just said at the table that we’ll start building the house tomorrow, and move in come spring. But how are we going to get through the next few months? We don’t have much stockpiled, and buying grain for everyone isn’t practical.”

Zhou Jiao thought about the cornbread buns and oil-less stews from her memories and felt troubled. She pouted at him. “In the village, women usually get up and start doing chores three days after giving birth. If you’re not out working in the fields, you’re already considered lucky. The only thing they care about is eating something to help with milk production. If I do things differently, won’t people gossip? Do you remember how your two sisters-in-law did their confinement?”

“How can they compare to you? Those women are used to rough living and hard work. What’s the gold in our space for, anyway? Are we short of money? If we need something, we’ll buy it. Who cares what they think? Women are just jealous and envious. You have to stay in the room for thirty days, and with winter coming, you can stretch it to forty. Don’t worry, I’ll handle any family disputes. You just focus on recovering. As for how my sisters-in-law did their confinement, I’m a man—how would I know?”

He rolled his eyes at her, already thinking about what he could buy to placate his sisters-in-law. He knew full well that after three days, they were up cooking, making pig slop, and except for not using cold water or going to the fields, everything else was business as usual. Only Jiaojiao would believe he didn’t know—after all, six kids had been born in the family in quick succession; how could he not remember?

If they were going to build a house, they’d have to provide food for the workers, and things would get chaotic at home. He’d have to come up with a plan. If his mother-in-law came, maybe she could be put to use. He didn’t feel guilty about that—who knew what kind of people they were or what their motives might be? He’d have to meet them to find out. Poor Jiaojiao had never had parental love in either of her lives.

Zhou Jiao thought he was right. They weren’t short of money, and even if she wanted to work, she couldn’t do much. In her previous life, her older sister had shielded her, so she just went to school. Later, she handed out flyers or helped in restaurant kitchens, and in college, she earned money as a translator.

In this life, Zhou Jiao had learned embroidery from her grandmother but hadn’t done much housework. There were plenty of idle people in the Zhou family, and after marrying into the Zhang family, she got pregnant right away and only ever tended the fire.

Comparing herself to the village women made her shudder—she couldn’t even imagine it. She decided to listen to her husband and do as he said. “Alright, I’ll do whatever you say. I’ll just stay here and not go back.”

Zhang Guoqing gave her an approving kiss on the cheek and patted her head. “Good. Let’s not talk about that for now. Our priority is figuring out how to buy enough grain for the next three years, or even ten. Grain is the most critical thing. Besides us, there’s Dad, Mom, and our four older siblings. We can’t be eating well while they’re chewing on grass. I figure we’ll just give them coarse grains.”

Zhou Jiao was worried after hearing this. If she’d known she was going to transmigrate, she would have bought hundreds of tons of rice. “But where can we buy grain? The city is on rations, and the countryside doesn’t have enough to eat themselves.”

“Let me tell you my plan, and see what you think. Here’s what I’m thinking: Second Brother-in-law Huang Yaoguo drives for the factory. I’ll see if he can get some defective fabric, then check with his older brother who works at the supply and marketing cooperative to see if we can get any internal defective goods. We’ll keep half the brown sugar for ourselves. When the time comes, we’ll sell everything at prices lower than the supply and marketing cooperative, go out to the countryside, and secretly trade for grain. We don’t want money, just grain—doesn’t matter if it’s coarse or fine.

Also, since we have money now, we can still buy grain on the black market. Keep a thousand yuan in cash, and convert the rest to grain. Once your confinement is over and I’ve figured out the situation in the city, we’ll act. With the space, it’s much safer.”

Zhou Jiao nodded as she listened. She agreed—nothing was more important than grain. But for safety’s sake, she had a concern. “I agree with everything you said, but we can’t go out trading for grain too often. Don’t forget, you still have to do your labor. If you’re always absent, people will start watching you, thinking you’re up to no good.”"