Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Chapter 354: Chapter 354: How sour can this question get?

Translator: 549690339

“Ow! It hurts…”

Liu Zhi’er, swept off her feet by him, crashed directly into his chest, prompting an involuntary cry from her.

In a state of disarray, she tried to rise from him, but his iron arm kept her pinned down. The push-up she had just managed catapulted her back into his arms, causing her face to explode with embarrassment.

Near her cheek was his heart, and the strong pulses that emanated from his chest gave her an unusual sensation.

She was dumbfounded for a while before clumsily trying to rise again.

The sudden void at his chest made Di Yelei grumble incomprehensibly, and he flung his arms around, coincidentally clutching Liu Sisi’s hand who was sleeping on the other side. Clasping it tightly, he laughed contentedly!

“Sisi, the office of the County Magistrate has suspended its operations and we’ve gotten the day off. Today is a joyful day… both knees at the door! Happy… mumbling…”

Nonsense spilled from his drugged lips. Liu Zhi’er listened, but soon lost interest and ran off to her own room without a thought for the dirty stains on his clothes, casually flinging a quilt over the two of them.

Sitting on the bed beside the still asleep Da Mao, Liu Zhi’er took a while before she found the courage to start untangling the sash from her clothes.

Her trembling hands struggled for a while before she managed to remove her outer clothing.

Lifting her clothes, she gazed at the hidden place where a pink scar had just started to heal. A wave of sadness overcame her…

Unable to contain her desolation, she encircled herself, weeping quietly, struggling to suppress any audible sounds of grief.

In the middle of the night, Di Yelei was awakened by an excruciating headache.

Simultaneously, he detected a strange and unpleasant odor.

After a great deal of effort, he opened his eyes, looked at Sisi’s hand wrapped in his, shook his heavy head and tried to recall the events of the day but found he had no memory of even returning home.

Fearing that the smell of wine on his body would offend Liu Sisi, he hastily got up to wash himself, only then noticing the stains on his clothes.

Baffled!

How did these stains get onto his clothes? He couldn’t remember at all!

Shaking his head, he changed into clean clothes and returned to the room refreshed.

When he got back, he found that Liu Sisi seemed to have just woken up and was looking around in confusion.

“Ye Lei!” She called out softly.

“Sisi, yesterday was the 21st day of Lunar December. The Imperial Astronomical Observatory chose an auspicious day and notified the governmental office to cease operations. All officials started to take leave. On the day of the seal yesterday, the County Magistrate joked and asked me to host a banquet for my colleagues. I couldn’t refuse, so I invited everyone to the First-Class Fragrant Restaurant for a merry gathering. They all urged me to drink. If it weren’t for Zhang Peng helping me avoid some drinks, I would probably not even have the strength to climb onto the horse,” he explained.

“Are you proud of that? You got leglessly drunk. You were completely asleep on the horseback. When the jujube red horse brought you back, we couldn’t get you into the house. Thankfully, Second Sister arrived and managed to get you inside with the help of Sister Guihua. Look at you, your drunk antics worry the entire family. It’s pointless and harms your health, what for?”

Liu Sisi glared at him, and thought better of telling him about her close brush with losing the baby.

Anyway, now she was fine, why bring up something that could only add to the agitation?

“Yes, yes, you’re right, Sisi. Your husband will always keep that in mind and will never dare to forget it.”

Di Yelei, wearing a mischievous smile, climbed into the bed and casually brought her into his arms. “Let’s sleep a little more! Look at you, so sleepy you can’t even open your eyes.”

“It’s fine, everyone says it’s like this when you are pregnant.”

Liu Sisi leaned into his arms, unable to resist fiddling with his prominent Adam’s apple, teasing him sporadically.

“By the way, Ye Lei, back then… when Ms Dou was pregnant with Xuan’er and YingEr, was she also suffering from morning sickness like this?

“Why do you suddenly bring her up?”

Di Yelei seemed somewhat taken aback. He just realized that he had been gradually forgetting Ms. Dou’s memory for quite some time, he could barely even remember her appearance or laughter.

“Come on! Tell me, I want to hear.”

If this were the Liu Sisi from before, she would never have asked such a question to upset herself.

Because no matter what the answer to this question was, the one who would end up feeling uncomfortable would definitely be herself. Why would she trouble herself and disrespect to the dead?

“You really want to hear?”

Di Yelei chuckled, lightly scraping her tiny nose, and as expected, saw Liu Sisi wrinkle her nose in response.

“Stop messing around! I really want to hear! Quick!”

Liu Sisi urged him on.

“I suppose it happened by chance when I married Ms. Dou.”

Di Yelei thought about it, “When I was young, I had a big appetite but often did not have enough food to eat. Once during the winter, the ground was covered in ice. I accidentally slipped on the ice while carrying a bucket of water and smashed it. She punished me by not allowing me to eat. After being cold and hungry for two consecutive days, I was extremely famished, so I set my sights on the chicken coop at Zhang Peng’s house. The weather was too cold at the time, and the chicken wasn’t laying any eggs. I was so hungry that I couldn’t bear it, and in my nearly blinded state, I ended up wringing the chicken’s neck and drinking its blood…”

As Di Yelei spoke, his eyes began to well up.

“What does this have to do with Ms Dou?” Liu Sisi asked curiously.

“After I had recovered a bit, I looked up and saw Zhang Peng standing in front of me. He didn’t blame me for killing his chicken, instead, he brought me a bowl of hot rice to eat. He was just over ten years old at the time and wasn’t married to Sister Guihua yet. He watched me hungrily devour the rice, then Zhang Peng asked me: ‘Do you want to go hunting? If you learn to hunt, you won’t have to worry about going hungry again.’ It was these words that firmly decided my path of making a living by hunting.”

Liu Sisi listened quietly, rubbing her head against his chest lightly.

“Perhaps because I was hungry, or perhaps I was naturally cut out to be a hunter, the very first time I went up the mountain I caught a rabbit. We didn’t have hunting dogs in my house, so I relied on my own two legs to chase the wild rabbit, and finally managed to catch it head on, making it my meal. That was the most satisfying meal I remember having – I finished an entire wild rabbit by myself.”

There was a sense of pride in Di Yelei’s words.

“I remember it was my third hunting trip. As usual, I was checking the traps like Zhang Peng taught me, when I unexpectedly rescued Ms Dou who had fallen into one. I didn’t give it much thought at the time and let it pass. However, after my betrothed Ms Qiao passed away from illness, Ms Dou sent someone to propose for a marriage to me. This led to what happened next.”

“When she married into the family, the two of you must have had a good relationship, right?”

Without even realizing it, Liu Sisi’s question came out sounding as sour as it could be.