fictionpage Chapter 97 Lou Xiao'e's Thoughts
Chapter 97 Lou Xiao'e's Thoughts
Chapter 97 Lou Xiao'e's Thoughts
Liu Yulan felt sorry for her older sister and would definitely make a special trip to Zhang Ming's house to visit Liu Yuchun later.
As long as she doesn't compete with Liu Yulan for a man, she's willing to help her older sister, with whom she grew up. The two sisters actually have a good relationship, but things started to drift apart after they met He Yuzhu.
However, they are sisters after all, and it's not like they should become estranged over this. Besides, Liu Yulan and He Yuzhu have been married for many years now and even have a son and a daughter.
Under such circumstances, Liu Yulan would no longer be as wary of Liu Yuchun as before.
In reality, He Yuzhu never harbored any animosity towards Liu Yuchun or Zhang Ming, and the two families rarely interacted; it was all just their own imagination.
In short, He Yuzhu never discussed marrying Liu Yuchun with her, but Liu Yuchun felt that her sister had stolen her marriage opportunity.
Because of this unresolved issue, the two families have never been very close over the years. Zhang Ming even suspected that He Yuzhu and Liu Yuchun had done something to betray him.
Zhang Ming frequently beat and scolded Liu Yuchun because of this, and Liu Yuchun, in turn, resented Liu Yulan and He Yuzhu because of the beatings.
Lou Xiao'e married into the courtyard house, which can be considered a transformation from a pampered young lady to the wife of an ordinary worker.
Asking a young lady like her to learn how to serve Xu Damao is definitely not going to work.
Fortunately, Xu Damao didn't mind. He now felt that he was capable of marrying Lou Bancheng's daughter.
Although Lou Xiao'e couldn't compare to Liu Yulan in beauty, she was still richer. Xu Damao even flaunted his wealth to He Yuzhu because of this.
Xu Damao had a knack for pleasing women. Lou Xiao'e didn't like doing housework, so Xu Damao did it himself.
He never argued with Lou Xiao'e about this, and for a time the young couple lived quite harmoniously.
She was incredibly bored because Xu Damao often went out to show movies. The family didn't even have a radio, and Lou Bancheng wanted her to keep a low profile.
She usually chose to wear work clothes, and although Lou Xiao'e didn't like it, she could only accept her father's arrangement.
Fortunately, Liu Yulan was here. Because she had a good relationship with He Yuzhu, it was normal for her to come to the He family to play.
Liu Yulan also liked this cheerful and kind girl. Liu Yulan herself interacted with a few people most often in the courtyard.
Li Xiaoman's mother, Zhang Panpan's mother, Qin Huairu, and others basically didn't have much contact.
Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, Yan Bugui, and the deaf old lady had all schemed against Liu Yulan before.
Although He Yuzhu eventually retaliated, Liu Yulan also suffered some losses.
This also meant that she rarely opened up to others. Furthermore, because of Li Xiaoman and Zhang Panpan's mother, who were both elderly and considered elders, Liu Yulan mainly stayed at home to take care of the children.
It wasn't until Lou Xiao'e married into the courtyard house that she finally had someone her own age to talk to.
In fact, Qin Huairu had always wanted to befriend Liu Yulan, but Liu Yulan suspected that Qin Huairu had something going on with Zhu Zi. Although she wouldn't stop her, there was no reason for her to rush to befriend Liu Yulan.
Qin Huairu eventually gave up on the idea. After all, she had already given birth to He Yuzhu's child, so she naturally didn't care about Liu Yulan.
He Yuzhu doesn't get involved in the petty thoughts between women, including Liu Lan and Qin Huairu, who are only superficially sisters.
He Yuzhu knew all these things. Sometimes men also need to learn to play dumb, just like ancient emperors. If they didn't play dumb, how could they be caught up in the daily squabbles and jealousies in the harem?
Today, when Lou Xiao'e was preparing dinner at the He family's house, she suddenly walked in from outside. Seeing Lou Xiao'e come in at this time, it was obvious that she hadn't cooked again.
The two families were close, and Lou Xiao'e was a generous person. Although she often came to the He family's house for meals, she also gave Liu Yulan a lot of things.
"Xiao'e, have you eaten?"
Lou Xiao'e didn't stand on ceremony and sat down directly.
Liu Yulan went to the kitchen, took a set of bowls and chopsticks, and handed them to Lou Xiao'e.
He Dongliang and He Feifei obediently called out "Aunt Lou".
Lou Xiao'e only managed a slight smile when she heard the child's cry.
"What's wrong? Why are you unhappy to see you come back?"
Lou Xiao'e didn't want to talk about it, but seeing He Yuzhu's concerned look, she couldn't help but open up and confide in him.
Lou Xiao'e didn't have many people she could trust, and He Yuzhu was one of them.
"It's all because of Xu Damao's mother. I went there for lunch today, and when I was cooking, Xu Damao's mother was holding an old hen in the yard and kept saying, 'Since you don't lay eggs, I'll eat you.'"
"Pfft"
Lou Xiao'e was furious when she saw He Yuzhu suddenly laugh out loud. She slammed her hand on the table. She was already feeling terrible, and He Yuzhu was actually laughing at her too.
"Xiao'e isn't laughing at you, I'm laughing at your mother-in-law."
Lou Xiao'e didn't believe it, thinking that He Yuzhu was taking advantage of her lack of knowledge.
He Yuzhu looked at Lou Xiao'e and said seriously.
"Have you ever considered that the reason you two don't have children might be because of Xu Damao?"
Lou Xiao'e's face froze, finding it somewhat unbelievable.
After all, in everyone's eyes, the inability to have children must be a woman's problem.
Now that He Yuzhu suddenly tells her that having children is related to men, Lou Xiao'e finds it hard to believe.
"I know you don't believe me, but you can think of it this way: women are the land, and men are the seeds. If the seeds are bad, then no crops will grow."
"Brother Zhu, are you serious? You're not just trying to comfort me, are you?"
"You can go back and get checked. If you're healthy, then you can determine whose problem it is."
Lou Xiao'e felt that He Yuzhu's words made a lot of sense. She hadn't known about this situation before, and she was naturally unhappy to be indirectly criticized by Xu Damao's mother today.
"Alright, let's eat first. We won't be able to sleep tonight if we're hungry."
Lou Xiao'e picked up her chopsticks and ate with some skepticism, already deciding in her heart that she would go to the hospital for a check-up later.
If it weren't for her, she would definitely have taken the medical report to Xu Damao's mother.
Let's see what she says then; she's actually making veiled accusations against her.
He Yuzhu was also thinking that in the plot, it seemed that Sha Zhu had repeatedly used the "child-mutilating kick" to beat Xu Damao, which caused the latter to become infertile.
Since his time travel, he's gotten along quite well with Xu Damao. At least he's never kicked him, so he can face Xu Damao with a clear conscience.
According to the world's correction line, Xu Damao will most likely still be the one who won't have children.
In recent years, He Yuzhu has been busy juggling relationships with several women and hasn't paid much attention to Xu Damao.
However, that doesn't mean He Yuzhu was unaware that Xu Damao, just like in the story, would often help the widows and young wives when movies were being shown downstairs.
Xu Damao started showing movies in the countryside at the age of seventeen. Could it be that his excessive indulgence at such a young age caused him to become infertile?
After all, it's the age when they're still growing, and if they have too much contact with women too early, it can indeed cause this kind of situation.
In addition, there aren't many contraceptive methods available for men these days, or perhaps Xu Damao's attempts to prevent pregnancy led to problems.
Liu Yulan looked at He Yuzhu, who was deep in thought. Ever since Lou Xiao'e mentioned that matter at dinner today, He Yuzhu had seemed somewhat unsettled.
Liu Yulan didn't suspect that He Yuzhu and Lou Xiao'e had anything going on. If Lou Xiao'e did something to betray her, she would definitely be too embarrassed to face her.
"Why did you say that to Xiao'e today? What if Xu Damao isn't infertile? Xiao'e would be so heartbroken."
"It's nothing, I was just offering a suggestion. The sooner these things are discovered, the better. Regardless of whose fault it is, it's always better to find out beforehand."
"Okay, let's go to sleep."
"Honey, shall we do the laundry today?"
Liu Yulan gave He Yuzhu a flirtatious look, and He Yuzhu understood immediately. They were an old married couple; a single glance was enough for them to know each other's meaning.
"hey-hey"
A night of fish and dragon dance, moths, willow branches, and golden threads.
The next day, He Yuzhu came out of the space early again, and yesterday he continued to work in the space for half a day.
I've been busy harvesting corn lately, spending half the day working on it online. Luckily, I only need to sleep for two hours online, which doesn't interfere with my work outside the next day at all.
A few years ago, He Yuzhu used the space's output to exchange for a full two thousand large yellow croakers during this special period.
With this enormous fortune, He Yuzhu no longer worries about running out of money. He will no longer sell the resources produced in his space; after all, without the need to worry about making money, he no longer needs to work so hard every day.
Now, farming practices are changing again. The four acres have been used to grow grains and peanuts for the past few years. Now that the country has achieved a bumper harvest, there is no need to further expand grain cultivation.
The most rational plan is to use one acre to grow grains, one acre to grow vegetables, one acre directly for growing peanuts for oil extraction, and one acre to grow medicinal herbs for two medicinal dishes.
One crop of corn is used to feed livestock, and the other crop of wheat is milled into high-quality white flour for personal consumption.
Vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers—to improve the family's meals.
One acre of peanut oil can be pressed to provide peanut oil for three families, so they basically don't need to spend much money on these things throughout the year.
Now I have to feed three families, and I consume quite a lot of food every day.
There's no need to continue making money by selling space output; in the future, the space's purpose will simply be to supply my family.
The number of livestock in the space will also be reduced, and they will basically not be sold except for personal use.
As the women in the family get older, it's necessary to prepare medicinal cuisine to improve their health in advance. The grains and vegetables in this space are definitely better than those outside, and I feel more at ease eating them.
He Yuzhu practices Baduanjin (Eight Pieces of Brocade) every day, so he must be very healthy.
I've never actually made the two medicinal dishes recorded in the ancient book on Baduanjin that I bought a few years ago.
The main problem is that some medicinal herbs are hard to buy in reality. He Yuzhu consulted with Chinese medicine shops, mainly about the age of the herbs.
He Yuzhu chose to grow them himself, since he didn't need to rely on the space's output to make money now. He decided to make good use of the space's favorable environment to grow those medicinal herbs.
Once the medicinal herbs are cultivated, they can be used to make medicinal cuisine to improve the health of the women in the family.
After replanning the spatial ecology, He Yuzhu began to enter the space every night to transform the ecology.