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A gust of wind blew gently, and a rustling sound came from the treetops. Li Yue’e looked at her family’s Shuang’er, and said with a kind smile, “Ger Yan, a happy event happened in our family. Your cousin-in-law is pregnant. It’s Qingqing’s…”
Li Yue’e originally stopped Ji Yan to ask about the Lin family’s tofu recipe, but when she saw Ger Yan, she suddenly remembered another thing. In her family, Ji Qian, Ji Yan, and Ji Ya all married on the same day. Now Qingqing was pregnant with a child. She wondered if Ger Yan, who’d married on the same day, had any news. Qingqing was a blessed child. Perhaps Ger Yan was able to rub off some of that luck, then she would be satisfied with her own child.
He definitely couldn’t be like his older brother, Ji Qian. As soon as she thought about her beloved eldest son, Li Yue’e couldn’t help but feel sad. Her Qian’Er was also a good child, who only did something wrong, but she didn’t expect him to be punished like that. Li Yue’e really regretted it. Had she made the wrong decision with Eldest Ji before. They shouldn’t have spoken about Ji Qian’s relations with the innocent daughters in the village. It was natural for men to like women. It was better to be involved with someone’s innocent daughter than a married woman.
A wife having an affair wasn’t a serious matter. It was definitely the woman who seduced her son, causing Ji Qian to be beaten by the cheater’s husband and wounded. It even affected his fertility… If it weren’t for this incident, how could she marry her own Shuang’er to originally foolish Lin Lixuan, and even needing to adopt her nephew.
It was all fate!
Now her family’s Ji Qian married Song Qiao’er. Although Song Qiao’er was crude and tough, she was still obedient to Ji Qian. This man, all he needed was a family to calm down. If she and Eldest Ji had found Ji Qian a wife sooner, then she shouldn’t have had these worries.
Even if this was the case now, they still needed to survive. After Ger Yan married, his life became more and more prosperous. She heard the Lin family made a lot of money selling food in the county town.
At first, Li Yue’e didn’t want to ask Ger Yan the recipe for tofu, since Ger Yan had already married and left the family. If she asked, this might make his husband’s family angry…But just in case Ger Yan was willing to tell his mother the recipe and help out his own family… Ji Qian was his biological older brother, and she was his mother. She wouldn’t harm her own child.
But if the Lin family didn’t agree, well, they could be regarded as family with the Lin family now. If they had a method to help their poor relatives, wasn’t it normal to help?
Li Yue’e smiled and spoke to Ji Yan about the Ji family’s happy event. After speaking, she approached Ji Yan, who was slightly taller than her, and asked about the situation between Ger Yan and Lin Lixuan with an unrelenting smile. This naturally wasn’t a normal matter, but an intimate matter between husband and wife.
“Ger Yan, do you and Xiucai Lin at night…”
It was true that it was harder for Shuang’ers to get pregnant, but there was always a special case. Just look at Ji Ya’s wife, Zhao Qingqing, for example. Not long after marrying, the doctor announced his pregnancy to everyone, surprising everyone. When the experienced wife in the village saw him, she insisted it was a baby boy, which surprised their entire family even more.
It would be great if Ger Yan could do the same.
“Mother, this…” Ger Yan’s heart froze after being asked about this. His heartbeat slowed down, and his expression stiffened. He was clear with himself that besides the first night, nothing else happened between Lin Lixuan and him. At night, they would cover themselves with the blanket and chat. Lin-dage would teach him characters, tell him stories, then he would fall asleep in a daze..
If they didn’t do that matter—then could he have a child?
In the beginning, he didn’t bring it up to Lin-dage because he was afraid of pain, but he later forgot about it. Although their marriage was a bit different from what his mother taught him, he thought that since he and Lin-dage already married, it was nice to pass their days together like this. Even if he faintly felt that something was off, Lin-dage never brought it up, so he didn’t take it to heart either…Now that his mother mentioned it, Ger Yan couldn’t help but be shocked.
Seeing her family’s Shuang’er not speak, Li Yue’e thought he was being shy to talk about his mother. But as his mother, she brought it up again, “Ger Yan, you should give Xiucai Lin some children while you’re still young and your position within the Lin family is stable. After you have children, the villagers won’t be able to criticize you…”
Lin Lixuan was the only Xiucai in the village, and the Lin family now had a method of earning money. If it wasn’t for the fact that Xiucai Lin was a fool before, the Lin family wouldn’t have taken Ger Yan as his wife. Shuang’ers couldn’t compare to women, and there was an old superstition that said Shuang’ers represented misfortune and would bring disaster to the family. Because of this, rich and knowledgeable people would generally not marry a Shuang’er as a wife, for fear of hindering their family’s luck.
Was it because she gave birth to two Shuang’ers, and that was why their family didn’t have Old Lady Ji’s favor? Second Ji had two sons. Third Ji had twins, a boy and a girl. She was the only one who gave birth to two Shuang’ers… Because of these two younger Shuang’er brothers, this caused Ji Qian to lose favor with his grandmother. Sigh…it was her stomach’s fault for having bad luck.
Although Shuang’ers could conceive children like women, in the end, their appearance was the same as men’s. Few men liked Shuang’ers, who had a body as hard as their own.
It also wasn’t easy for Shuang’ers to conceive. The average Shuang’er could only have one or two children in a lifetime. It was hard to find a Shuang’er who’d given birth to three children in the entire county town. It was even harder for Shuang’er to give birth. It was scarier than passing through the gates of hell.
In addition, if they couldn’t have children before the age of 25, the Shuang’er probably would never have children.
Ger Yan barely forced out a smile. He stretched out his tongue to moisten his dry lips. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to Li Yue’e but couldn’t.
Li Yue’e didn’t notice Ger Yan being deep in thought. In her eyes, her eldest Shuang’er had always been quiet and didn’t like to talk. He must be shy. If he really actually happily spoke about his matter with his husband in front of her like those other savage Shuang’ers, then she would have thought she saw a ghost.
Li Yue’e whispered in Ger Yan’s ear about private matters between husbands again, such as how to easily have children… Finally, she advised, “Ger Yan, do you remember what I told you?”
Ji Yan nodded numbly.
“Good.” Li Yue’e grinned, the thick wrinkles around the corners of her eyes appeared. Although she was a rare beauty when she was young, now that she was old, traces of beauty were hard to find now.
Li Yue’e put away the smile and finally got to the main reason she found Ger Yan. She asked Ger Yan…for the Lin family’s recipe to make tofu.
Seeing the tofu, many people could guess that it was made from soybeans. There were also some people in the village who learned to crush the soybeans to make soy milk. However, after having the soy milk for half a day, they couldn’t turn it into the tender and white tofu. After leaving it for a day, it became a stinky and disgusting tofu piece—no. How could that be called a tofu piece? It was basically the same as something they dug out from the ground.
The villagers tried countless methods, but they couldn’t figure out how to make tofu pudding—What method did the Lin family use to turn the soybeans into tofu?
Li Yue’e stared at her family’s Shuang’er with shining eyes. Her voice was louder than before, “Ger Yan, tell Mother.”
Ger Yan was startled by Li Yue’e’s suddenly loud voice. When Li Yue’e talked to him about relations between husbands, he’d stayed quiet as was immersed in his own thoughts thinking about his relationship with Lin-dage. Now that he heard his mother’s voice—it was to ask him for the recipe for tofu.
“I can’t tell you, Mother. I can’t tell you. I…I need to head back…” Ji Yan’s heart was in turmoil, and he could only mutter out those few words. He clenched the wooden basin he was holding in his hand. There was a wind under his feet as he turned around and fled to the direction of the Lin residence.
Li Yue’e shouted after him, “Ger Yan, Ger Yan, don’t go!”
Seeing Ger Yan’s distance figure, Li Yue’e couldn’t help but stomp her feet anxiously.
Lin Lixuan rode the little donkey back to the Lin residence. After he went home, the first thing he wanted to do was see Ger Yan and bring him to see the newly bought little donkey. Didn’t he like the donkeys he saw before? If their family had a clean and cute little donkey, his eyes would be twice as bright as usual.
Thinking of Ger Yan’s beautiful face with a happy expression, his delicate and adorable dimples appeared as well. An inexplicably warm emotion bloomed in Lin Lixuan’s heart.
He patted the donkey on the head and fed him a carrot. The little donkey munched on it, shaking his head as if to please his new master.
This little donkey was a foodie.
Even after feeding him several carrots, he still wasn’t satisfied. It had a big appetite…like a certain someone.
“Little donkey, you have to be good. You’ll see your other master soon. He’ll definitely take good care of you.” The diligent Ger Yan would definitely feed the little donkey just like he takes care of the vegetable patch at home. This silly donkey was blessed enough to come to their house. It was very lucky.
Who knew that when Lin Lixuan led the little donkey into the Lin residence’s courtyard, he didn’t see Ger Yan anywhere. Zhao Liniang was the only one there, feeding their chicks and ducklings water. The chubby chicks and ducklings that were brought home some time ago had grown a lot. Their bodies were several times larger than the hand-sized bodies from before. The yellow fluff had faded and their dark wings had grown—In short, they weren’t cute looking anymore, so they wouldn’t feel distressed when killed to be eaten.
The vegetable patch in front of the house had a short fence around it because of these uninvited guests. The bamboo sticks stuck in the ground kept them out, preventing them from jumping in and ruining the long and green cabbages.
“Oh my, you bought a donkey! Look how energetic he looks. My son really knows how to choose them.” Zhao Liniang put the water ladle down and greeted them. Looking the donkey up and down and touching him everywhere, her eyes were full of satisfaction.
“How much did he cost?”
