An Zhiqing's first reaction was, "Do you know about it? When?" He was suspicious that someone had already been gossiping about his younger sister.
"At noon when I went to town with Sister-in-law Fengxia and several other sisters-in-law, Shen Hongxing mentioned it herself when she got into an argument with another sister-in-law. She let it slip," Zhi Xia said.
An Zhiqing was clearly being paranoid. His face cold, he said, "This Shen Hongxing has never been well-behaved. She must have deliberately mentioned this in front of you to make trouble for you. Just you wait, since her husband can't control her, big brother will have the army discipline her. With the way she is, offending almost half the families in the compound, sooner or later she'll bring trouble on her husband."
"Big brother, it's not worth reporting such idle chatter to the higher-ups. That would make us look petty. She didn't actually say it on purpose today. Although Shen Hongxing isn't great, she does stand up for her younger sister. It was another sister-in-law who said it. She got into an argument defending Shen Hongmei," Zhi Xia said.
There were only a few pieces of sweet and sour pork left among the three dishes. As Zhi Xia spoke, she stood up to clean up. An Zhiqing also stood up.
"Is there water left in the tank? I'll take this chance to fetch you some more. I'll be away with the company for a few days, but Pei Jing should be back soon," he said.
"There's still half left. I don't use much water on my own," Zhi Xia deliberately emptied the water into her space. After all, when she cooked it was just for show. An Zhiqing came by every few days, so she couldn't very well tell him she never used any water.
"Then I'll fill it up for you, just in case Pei Jing comes back late and I'm not here. Don't want you to run out of water," An Zhiqing said.
He went out the door carrying a bucket of water. The neighbors were used to it by now since it wasn't the first time.
Zhi Xia went back inside and took out a lot of yarn and some soft cotton cloth from her space.
The autumn clothes Pei Jing wore were all pilling. Yet he insisted on wearing them to sleep, and hugging him while he wore those fuzzy clothes was so uncomfortable.
She would make him a set of pajamas, since it was for her own benefit she absolutely could not cut corners.
Just thinking about his embrace made her miss it a bit.
Although it was cold out, being held by him was like curling up by a stove. At first there was some awkwardness when they started sleeping together, but later they learned to hold each other's icy feet against their own warm legs to warm up.
She had to knit two sweaters, one for each of them.
As for the cotton cloth, it was to prepare clothes for the child in her belly.
Based on the dream she had, there should be two babies in her womb, and twins ran in their family. She and fourth brother were twins, Zhou Nan and little uncle were also twins, so it was very possible she could have twins too.
When the time came it would be summer, and babies' clothes needed changing frequently, so she had to prepare more. Taking advantage of having time now was perfect.
Right, she also had to keep up with her reading and studies. She had brought several books with her.
Just like attending the literacy class, it wasn't that she couldn't read, but she had to make sure others knew she could.
Otherwise, someone who had never set foot in a school suddenly being able to read and do everything would definitely raise suspicions, unless the person was a fool.
While Pei Jing was still away, she took out all the useful things that wouldn't seem out of place from her space. When he came back and saw them, he wouldn't suspect anything, at most he would think she had just bought them or they had been sent from her family. He couldn't ask about every single item.
An Zhiqing told Zhi Xia he was heading back after fetching the water, and she gave him some dried pork she had made, though it was from pork, and tasted quite good too.
Big brother was clearly harder to fool than fourth brother. Zhi Xia didn't dare take out beef jerky in front of him, that would be like dancing on the edge of a cliff, asking for death.
Of course, she didn't have to keep everything hidden forever, but she had to wait for the right opportunity and source.
This was also why Zhi Xia chose to make the clothes and knit the sweaters by hand rather than take ready-made items from her space.
At the very least the workmanship would be hard to explain, the difference between hand-sewn and machine sewn, even with a sewing machine there was no overlock machine.
Novels and reality were different. Soldiers were naturally highly vigilant, so she had to be extra careful.
Even her own sleepwear was sewn by herself using a sewing machine in her space, after all there had been one at Grandma's house.
After An Zhiqing left, just as Zhi Xia was about to close the door, she saw a woman coming from the kitchen.
She had her hair in a high ponytail, wore a turtleneck sweater and tweed coat. A belt at the waist of the coat was tied in a bow, accentuating her slender figure. Below she had on black straight-leg pants and low-heeled oxfords, the whole outfit made Zhi Xia narrow her eyes.
"Is sister-in-law in? Hello, I'm Shen Hongmei, my older sister is Shen Hongxing," Shen Hongmei said smiling as she approached the door, clearly aiming for Zhi Xia.
Zhi Xia nodded. "Hello, I'm An Zhi Xia. May I ask if you need something?"
Zhi Xia wondered about her objective - could it be like Shen Hongxing, thinking she had stolen Pei Jing and wanted to oppose her?
But looking at the smile on her face, it didn't seem so.
"Nothing much, I just came to see how beautiful Deputy Regiment Commander Pei's daughter-in-law is. You don't know, as soon as I got back I heard your name. You really are as pretty as they say," Shen Hongmei familiarly pulled Zhi Xia's arm and said, "Zhi Xia, I felt close to you as soon as I saw you. What if we were sisters in our past life? And you look younger than me, it feels awkward to call you sister-in-law, so why don't I just call you by your name?"
There was no harm in a smiling face. No matter her motives, her current attitude was fine, just a bit too enthusiastic.
When Zhi Xia nodded, Shen Hongmei immediately said, "Wonderful, it's settled then."
She looked eagerly into the room and asked, "Zhi Xia, I've brought a gift. Won't you invite me in to sit a while?"
She waved the small cloth bag in her hand, "These are big red dates given to us by the villagers where our troupe performed. It's not much, but I brought some for you to try."
Usually Zhi Xia would refuse, but Shen Hongmei was different.
From the moment she first saw her, she gave Zhi Xia a tremendous sense of dissonance. Even her current overtly friendly attitude toward Zhi Xia seemed forced, as if she didn't actually want to get close, yet had no choice.
Curious, Zhi Xia moved aside to let her in.
The house looked very different after being tidied up compared to when they first moved in. They ate at a small table, the large square table was covered with a light green tablecloth. The curtains were also light green, and Zhi Xia had folded some paper stars and sporadically hung them up.
While Zhi Xia observed Shen Hongmei, Shen Hongmei was also surreptitiously surveying Zhi Xia and everything in the house.
Zhi Xia invited her to sit. In conversation, she made clear her desire to be friends, and said she used to like Pei Jing, but that was in the past. Now that Pei Jing was married, she, Shen Hongmei, was above being a homewrecker.
