The thought of this possibility gripped Shen Wuqiu's heart like a knife, making it hard to breathe. Her voice involuntarily trembled with tears as she asked, "What...what will Mom do then?"
As soon as she said those words, tears streamed down her face.
The toddlers had never seen their strong and beautiful mother like this before, and they were all stunned.
Shen Wuqiu realized she had lost her composure and was afraid of frightening the children. She turned her face to the side, tilted her head slightly, quickly wiped her eyes, and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.
Before she could even compose herself, Sanmao suddenly hugged her leg and burst into tears, crying, "Mommy, don't cry..."
With Sanmao leading the way, Ermao also grabbed her other leg. The little one didn't cry as dramatically, but her little face was taut, as if she was about to cry at any moment.
Like a child who had done something wrong, Da Mao lowered his head, his little hands clenched tightly, "Mommy, I'm...I'm sorry..."
“Mom, we’re sorry, please don’t cry. We know we were wrong, and we’ll listen to you from now on…” Sanmao said between sobs. Of all the children, she was the sweetest-talking and the most talkative.
Si Mao, the little rascal, silently stretched out his little hand. His face still looked as expressionless as ever, but if you looked closely, his round eyes were red. "You, you're angry, so hit us, Mommy, don't cry, okay?"
"Mom, you can do it..."
Even Sanmao, the spoiled little one, stretched out her little hand, hiccuping as she cried, "Mommy hit me, I won't dodge anymore... Waaah, please don't cry..."
Hearing her children's soft, sweet words, Shen Wuqiu's already hardened heart immediately melted into a puddle of water. They were all her precious darlings. If she weren't so afraid of losing them, why would she pretend to be so heartless?
"Baby, did it hurt when Mommy hit you?" She couldn't hold back any longer. She knelt down, took her children's hands and kissed them, tears streaming down her face. "Promise Mommy you won't be naughty like this again next time, okay?"
"Um."
The mother and her daughters hugged each other and cried together.
When Mr. Shen came running back, panting, he saw this scene and was completely baffled. He asked Su Yunzhi, whose nose was also sore, "What's going on here?"
Su Yunzhi sniffed, composed herself, and said, "Don't worry about it, Wuqiu is disciplining the child."
Mr. Shen noticed the bamboo sticks nearby and asked softly, "She even hit the child?"
"What's with that expression? These kids are so audacious. They won't learn their lesson unless they're given a good beating," Su Yunzhi retorted stubbornly. "Let me tell you, you'd better stay out of it."
The words had already been said, and Mr. Shen said with a stern face, "The child is still young, what does he know? Just speak properly."
"It's important to start educating them from a young age." Su Yunzhi was afraid he would meddle in other people's business and give him things to do. "By the way, the winter melons at home are about to spoil, and Wuqiu and the others don't like to eat them. We also have half a basin of leftovers from the past few days. Why don't you take them to Huazi and the others to feed the pigs?"
Shen Xianghua started renovating the pigsty last December, saying he wanted to raise pigs. After the fifth day of the Lunar New Year this year, he bought more than a dozen pigs to raise, treating them as local pigs.
“There’s no rush.” Mr. Chen said, a little annoyed. “I just got back, and they won’t even let me have a sip of water. They’re just making me do this and that.”
Su Yunzhi glared at him and poured him a glass of water. "If you don't want to deliver it, I'll take it myself."
"I never said I wouldn't deliver," Mr. Chen said, taking a gulp of water. "You can't even drive a tricycle, what are you going to do with that?"
Although her words were harsh, Su Yunzhi could still sense the concern in them, so she softened her tone and said, "I was just thinking that they usually cook pig feed here in the afternoon."
"Alright, I'll take it over." Mr. Shen put down his cup, glanced out of the living room, and then asked, "Where are Lingyu and the others? Haven't they come back yet?"
"It's because Qixing and Mingxing are preparing to build roads and plan the land use for the manor. Wuqiu was worried because it was the kids' first day of kindergarten, so she didn't go. Lingyu and Lao Gu and his wife went instead."
Mr. Shen nodded and remarked with emotion, "Who would have thought that the road between Qixing and Mingxing villages could be transformed into an important thoroughfare?"
Compared to Jingrong Village, Qixing and Mingxing villages are more remote, nestled in the mountains. They also have less arable farmland than Jingrong Village. As a result, the population of these two villages has been decreasing in recent years. There used to be a primary school in both villages, but it has been abandoned due to a lack of students, who have all been reassigned to schools in the town.
However, this road renovation has turned these two dilapidated villages into hot commodities again.
Because of the new road plan, the main road to be built will lead directly to the county town. Previously, if people from these two villages wanted to go to town, they had to first leave their remote mountain village, go to the town, and then go to the county town. But the new road will be built directly from the other direction.
If it used to take at least two hours to get to the county town, now it takes at most one hour. Even the villagers of Jingrong Village take the new road to get to the county town, which is more convenient.
"That's right, who would have thought this day would come?" Su Yunzhi sighed. "So the old saying 'thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river' is really true. On another note, Old Du is really well-informed. If he hadn't known this inside information in advance, it probably wouldn't have been so easy for him to contract the land over there now."
"Of course."
Last year, before there was any news about road construction, Lao Du and Shen Wuqiu were already discussing contracting land to develop a manor. After two months of running around and hosting numerous banquets, they finally managed to contract 1,500 acres of land.
After the couple chatted for a while, Su Yunzhi urged Mr. Chen to deliver the winter melon.
After sharing her feelings with the children, Shen Wuqiu called the kindergarten teachers and principal, and then stayed home with them.
After being scolded, the kids were unusually quiet for a while.
During dinner that evening, the family gathered together and talked about the kids' "glorious deeds" of skipping school. After hearing that they had even scared their mother, Shen Wuqiu, to tears, Gu Miaomiao immediately wanted to beat up a few of the kids.
The elders had different opinions about sending their children to kindergarten.
However, before the elders could reach a conclusion, the children refused to go to kindergarten no matter what.
To avoid going to school, the kids turned into fluffy little things the very next morning.
Chapter 167
Having not seen their little bundles of fur for a while, Shen Wuqiu and the others quite missed them. Besides, Shen Wuqiu already felt the children were too young for kindergarten, so she turned a blind eye to their self-righteousness.
Besides, Shen Wuqiu secretly felt that the kindergarten in town was unreliable. It was one thing for her own child to run away, but the fact that her child, who was so young, could sneak out of the kindergarten indicated that there were some problems with the kindergarten's management.
Of course, in family education, if one person plays the "good cop," then another person must play the "bad cop."
Shen Wuqiu, the mother, plays the good cop, while Gu Miaomiao, the mother, plays the bad cop.
Gu Miaomiao pretended to give them a stern reprimand for not attending kindergarten. After the reprimand, she didn't let them slack off and made them go to the dam reservoir to work every day.
Don't think that just because you've become a kitten, you can be a good-for-nothing playboy.
Since you're not going to study hard, then you should contribute to the family business.
In the gentle breeze and warm sunshine of March, it is the perfect time for fishing.
To advertise her fishing club, Gu Miaomiao learned on her own how to use her children's popularity for marketing. In order to warm up the upcoming grand manor, she specially hired workers to build professional fishing platforms for her children at the Bashang Reservoir.
Each child has a mushroom-shaped fishing platform and a set of fishing tools tailored to their needs.
Although the kittens were unwilling, they obediently sat on their designated fishing platform under the intimidating presence of the family's adult cats. After all, they preferred sitting on the fishing platform to sitting obediently on a bench at kindergarten.
"Tsk, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, who would believe that there really are kittens in this world that can fish?"
At first, Lao Du thought that Gu Miaomiao had gone to great lengths to build these little fishing platforms just to use the kittens' fame as a pretense. Little did he know that it wasn't just for show. These kittens were actually sitting obediently on their respective fishing platforms. Although a couple of them couldn't sit still and kept looking around, they were at least pretending to be fishing.
“They are smarter than ordinary cats.” Shen Wuqiu didn’t have the same desire to show off her kittens as her father, nor could she ignore their uniqueness. In fact, she didn’t want her kittens to be out in the public eye at all. Perhaps this is a mother’s nature; no matter how capable her kittens are, in a mother’s heart, they are all children who need her protection.
"This isn't just being clever, it's downright..." Old Du didn't know how to describe it. He racked his brains for a long time but couldn't find the right words, so he simply changed the subject and asked her, "Speaking of which, even if the fish take the bait, can these kittens catch it?"
Shen Wuqiu just smiled and didn't say anything.
Anyway, Gu Miaomiao's cold and ruthless mother had set a task: if you didn't catch five fish a day, you couldn't go home.
Old Du found it increasingly intriguing and decided to stay and fish with these kittens to see if they could actually catch any fish.
So he specially moved a stool and sat next to Simao, who looked the most honest and simple, to watch Simao fish.
When Si Mao saw him coming over, he secretly moved the dried fish he had laid out closer to himself. After confirming that he wasn't after his dried fish, he continued fishing.
She was still very diligent until the fish population reached its maximum.
Soon, Lao Du saw the fishing line move, which meant a fish was biting the hook. He was about to remind the kitten next to him.
As soon as he turned his head, he saw the fishing line being pulled back with lightning speed, so fast that he had no idea how the cat had managed to reel it in.
In short, by the time he realized what was happening, he saw the little cat biting the tail of the fish on the hook and spitting it into the bucket.
"..." To be honest, Lao Du felt a little scared. He felt that the cat in front of him was not a cat.
Of course, Si Mao, that simpleton, didn't care. He glanced into the bucket, counted them: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, exactly five. Today's task was complete.
She ignored the dried fish, ate one small dried fish, then picked up the remaining two small dried fish, circled the mushroom fishing platform, found a comfortable spot, and lay down.
Seeing that Lao Du was still looking at her, her sour face became even more displeased, and she gave him an unpleasant glance.
"..." Old Du hurriedly turned his gaze away, got up and left.
It's unbelievable, he felt like he understood what the cat was saying.
After witnessing firsthand how skilled the cat was at fishing, Lao Du frequently spread the word about it within his social circle.
At first, no one believed it. They all said that Lao Du was resorting to any means necessary to trick them into going fishing.
However, everyone still gave him face and brought their friends and family to visit the dam reservoir.
Once everyone comes and sees it for themselves, it will be another wave of free publicity.
At the end of March, the construction of new roads in Qixing and Mingxing villages officially began.
Old Du had been dealing with people in the government for many years, and taking advantage of the convenience of road construction, he and Shen Wuqiu also began to start a large-scale construction project for the manor.
Fifteen hundred acres of land is not considered small in this third-tier county town.
Old Du applied for 700 mu of land for the foundation alone, and in addition, he applied for several hundred mu of planting base within the manor.
This was a huge project. Lao Du hired several professional designers just for the design drawings, but none of them were satisfactory.
In the end, Gu Lingfei found a professional designer to help. After talking with him, they discovered that the designer and Zheng Xinghe were fellow students.
Thus, the important task of securing the 700-acre site fell to Zheng Xinghe.
Although neither Shen Wuqiu nor Lao Du believed in gods and Buddhas, they still needed a proper opening ceremony for such an important event.
Without Shen Wuqiu having to invite Lady Wang, Lady Wang sent someone to deliver the auspicious date for starting the project: 9:18 AM on April 17th.
Once the start date was set, on April 13th, Zheng Xinghe brought Zhou Xingxing over, along with Zhou Xingxing's mother and Zheng Xinghe's mother.
As for why such a grand spectacle was made, it was all thanks to Stephen Chow being pregnant.
Regarding the pregnancy, Stephen Chow wanted nothing more than to give that little bastard Sanmao a good beating.
"Shen Xiaoqiu, do you know how badly Sanmao has ruined me? It's all her fault for talking nonsense, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten pregnant and had a child so early!"
"How could our Sanmao be talking nonsense? Aren't you pregnant?"
“If Sanmao hadn’t been talking nonsense, would I be pregnant now? I went to the hospital for a checkup, and the doctor said the fetus was less than eleven weeks old. According to the time Sanmao said that time, the baby should be at least twelve weeks old.”
Shen Wuqiu did the math in her head. According to Zhou Xingxing's account, she went out with Zheng Xinghe around January 15th. If she got pregnant that time, she should indeed be twelve weeks along.
Shen Wuqiu roughly guessed what was going on and inexplicably wanted to laugh, "But isn't it true that you're pregnant now?"
"It's all thanks to that little brat Sanmao. If she hadn't talked nonsense that day, I wouldn't have been so unrestrained with him afterward..."
As Zhou Xingxing spoke, her voice trailed off, as the matter still made her a little embarrassed. Ever since Sanmao said she was pregnant, she had been busy having affairs with Zheng Xinghe, thinking that since the baby was inevitable, there was no point in using any special measures.
In the end, she wasn't pregnant at all.