Shen Wuqiu touched the cheek that her daughter had stolen a kiss from, and couldn't help but smile. The fatigue from being tormented by these little ones all morning instantly disappeared.
Seeing that the little one was no longer in the way, Dad Chen started talking about his business, "Qiuqiu, it's precisely because it's the end of the year that we should help the villagers out and let everyone have a lively and happy New Year."
"Well, I had no choice, did I?"
Mr. Shen scratched his head. “Well… Lao Du and I have discussed this matter.”
"..." Shen Wuqiu was speechless. "You've already discussed it with Boss Du, so why are you coming to me for my opinion?"
"I was just testing the waters to see what you'd say..."
"..." Shen Wuqiu took a deep breath. "Although I don't really want to agree, if you really want to make this supermarket your business, then I definitely have no objection."
Shen Wuqiu was telling the truth. Although she felt that her father was getting old and should just enjoy his retirement, she would support him if he felt he was still vigorous and wanted to do something. After all, everyone has their own ambitions.
When Mr. Shen heard what she said, he clicked his tongue and pondered how to phrase it. “It’s almost Chinese New Year, so I was thinking of going with Lao Du to a nearby village to get a few cows and black goats to sell. We’ll then combine them with local beef and mutton, and add vegetables to a hot pot meal.”
Upon hearing this, Shen Wuqiu looked up at him and asked, "Your idea?"
Mr. Shen wasn't sure what she was thinking, and didn't dare admit it, "It's not entirely mine, Old Du thinks so too..."
"He's got some ideas." Shen Wuqiu said stubbornly, but in his heart he was quite impressed with his father. No wonder the old man had achieved what he had today.
"You think it's a good idea too?" Mr. Chen finally understood and spoke more fluently. "Besides beef and mutton, we also have two reservoirs, right? People in the countryside are all about good omens during the New Year, and every household needs to have fish. The weather has been good lately, so we can go to the reservoir on the dam and get a batch of fish. It'll be a good opportunity to boost the popularity of your fishing club."
Shen Wuqiu glanced at him and said, "Anyway, I'm not responsible for supplying the goods your supermarket needs."
The implication is that if they want fish, Dad will have to figure out a way himself.
Mr. Shen immediately nodded, "Of course, I know you're a busybody. By the way, speaking of the reservoir, your mom told me that the shed sent two giant salamanders over today. She asked me to ask you if you want them sent over here too."
When the weather is nice, Su Yunzhi can't stay on Huashan Mountain, so she takes some time to cook for them. She hasn't cooked breakfast for the past few days, but she made two bags of steamed buns a couple of days ago and put them in the freezer.
Shen Wuqiu originally wanted to say no, but after hesitating for a moment, she nodded and said, "I'll go get one later, you can leave the other one downstairs for now."
After her father mentioned Shen Zhipeng's situation, Shen Wuqiu talked to someone the next day. Seeing his current miserable state, she felt sorry for him and found him to be much more reliable. So she asked Shen Zhipeng to continue managing the reservoir on the dam. However, he was no longer in charge. The person in charge was a professional aquaculture expert introduced by Lao Du.
Seeing that she had accepted Shen Zhipeng's kindness, Mr. Shen felt even more relieved. "Then I'll contact Lao Du about this today."
Shen Wuqiu remained silent.
Mr. Chen glanced at her, then at Zhou Xingxing, and cleared his throat as if to say something. “By the way, Xingxing, I haven’t watched your live stream in a long time. When are you going to stream again?”
“Recently, the babies have all turned into little babies. When I stream alone, no one watches. Last time, someone in the chat said that if I don’t bring the babies along, I should stream less.”
"Speaking of which, I haven't heard a meow in ages, I kind of miss it, huh?"
Shen Wuqiu glanced at her father and mercilessly exposed him: "Do you miss the meowing sound?"
Mr. Shen blushed slightly, feeling a little guilty. He walked away with his hands behind his back, muttering to himself, "I wonder when these little brats will turn back..."
"..." Shen Wuqiu glanced at Zhou Xingxing, who was still buying things for Sanmao, and was too lazy to say anything more. "When are you planning to go home? Your mother called me yesterday to ask me about it."
Ever since Shen Wuqiu forced Zhou Xingxing to call home to let her know she was safe, and Zhou Xingxing let Shen Wuqiu answer the phone once, Zhou Xingxing's mother stopped urging her to go back. Instead, she calls Shen Wuqiu every few days with such enthusiasm that anyone who didn't know better would think Shen Wuqiu was her real daughter.
"Oh, in a few more days, Xinghe said he'll be done in a few more days..." Zhou Xingxing blurted out, only realizing halfway through his sentence that he had said something and quickly stopped.
Shen Wuqiu didn't pry into her relationship with Zheng Xinghe. Although she knew there had been something going on between them since they watched the dragon boat race, she hadn't confronted them. Now that Zhou Xingxing had said it herself, she was a little surprised. "So fast? He wants to go home with you to meet his parents?"
Zhou Xingxing said shyly, "Oh dear... it's not that fast, much slower than you and Lingyu, who got married because of pregnancy."
"..." Shen Wuqiu chuckled.
"Look at you two, how long has it been since you met and had your baby? And look at us, we've known each other for so long..."
Sanmao, who had been busy choosing a dress, suddenly looked up at her.
“…What’s wrong, little darling?” Zhou Xingxing stroked the soft little tufts of hair in her hair. “Sanmao is so cute, even the strands of her hair are adorable. Shen Xiaoqiu, why don’t you just let me have Sanmao as my daughter…”
"Little sister~" Sanmao suddenly exclaimed, patting her belly with her small hand and calling out clearly.
"..."
After a brief silence.
Shen Wuqiu stared wide-eyed at Zhou Xingxing.
Stephen Chow stared at her wide-eyed, and after a long while, he raised his voice and said, "How is that possible?"
Shen Wuqiu was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.
Stephen Chow added, "Even if he's that good and hits the mark on his first try, it's only been four days, okay?"
"..."
After Zhou Xingxing finished speaking, she remembered Sanmao's mythical beast nature, blinked, looked down at her stomach, and then looked at Shen Wuqiu, "Holy crap..."
Chapter 164
After learning she was pregnant, Stephen Chow was initially shocked, but then fell into a complex mix of emotions—occasionally, the thought of becoming a mother would excite her, but the thought itself was agonizing. In short, she was so troubled that she couldn't eat or sleep.
That night, exhausted, Gu Miaomiao went downstairs for a stroll and saw a figure floating around in a small, dark room in the kitchen. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably be scared half to death. Luckily, she wasn't human. She walked up behind the figure and patted it on the shoulder: "What are you doing?"
She wasn't scared, but the star who was "playing the ghost" was startled by her silence. She jumped up, and only after shining her phone's flashlight on the person did she pat her chest, still shaken, and say, "Damn, how come you walk so quietly..."
Gu Miaomiao shrugged, looking completely innocent. "You just didn't hear me. What were you doing sneaking around like that in the middle of the night?"
"You're the one sneaking around," Zhou Xingxing said irritably, reaching out to turn on the kitchen light. "I was just afraid of waking you up."
"Don't worry, we've done special soundproofing on this house." Gu Miaomiao was very confident about it. She then skillfully opened the cupboard and grabbed a handful of dried fish from a sealed plastic bag on the top shelf. "By the way, what are you doing up so late at night?"
"I can't sleep." Zhou Xingxing grabbed a handful of hair in frustration, paused, and then asked her, "What are you doing up so late at night?"
"Looking for something to eat." Gu Miaomiao chewed on dried fish, looking just like a handsome, smoking hoodlum.
Stephen Chow glanced at her. "You seemed to have eaten quite a bit for dinner, didn't you?"
Gu Miaomiao raised an eyebrow. "You know that sex is very physically demanding... But since you're new to this, you might not know much about it."
"..." The moment Gu Miaomiao looked up at her, Zhou Xingxing knew that she had brought this upon herself. "No, why are you looking at me like that?"
Gu Miaomiao naturally looked away. "Nothing much, I just thought that someone with your figure probably wouldn't feel very good to the touch."
"..." Zhou Xingxing almost spat out a mouthful of blood and killed her. "You really deserve a beating. I don't know what kind of good fortune you had in your past lives to be able to meet a perfect goddess like Shen Xiaoqiu."
Gu Miaomiao took a deep breath and said calmly, "The more you think I'm not perfect, the more it proves that Qiuqiu loves me purely."
"..." Zhou Xingxing couldn't win the argument, so he jumped up in anger, "Don't try to show off in front of me, don't think I don't know you were kicked out by Qiuqiu."
Okay, I've been exposed.
Gu Miaomiao suddenly felt that the dried fish in her mouth didn't taste so good anymore. Although this little emotion only lasted for a moment, Zhou Xingxing still caught it. "Ha! I really guessed right."
Come on, let's hurt each other.
Gu Miaomiao pouted and stopped pretending, "That's still better than you being alone in an empty room."
"Being kicked out is no different from me being left alone in an empty house?" Zhou Xingxing's mood instantly improved. He leaned against the kitchen counter next to her and unconsciously picked up a small dried fish and started munching on it. "Sigh, why did Shen Xiaoqiu kick you out?"
Gu Miaomiao didn't want to talk about such sad things, so she deliberately changed the subject, "I heard you're going to be a mother?"
Why bring up something you shouldn't talk about!
Zhou Xingxing rolled his eyes at her, "Can you guys keep reminding me about this all the time? I'm getting so annoyed."
Gu Miaomiao didn't really understand. "Didn't you want to keep Sanmao for yourself before? Now that you're about to have your own baby, you don't want him anymore?"
"It's not that I don't want it..." Zhou Xingxing didn't know how to express his feelings right now, "It's just that it's too sudden..."
Perhaps it was the quiet of the night, the perfect time to pour out one's emotions, that made Stephen Chow take a deep breath and, unusually calmly, begin to speak. "To tell you the truth, I've never thought about getting married, much less having children. Otherwise, why would I be so resistant to the blind dates my mom arranged for me... But, well, fate is such a strange thing..."
Gu Miaomiao listened to her while chewing on dried fish.
Su Yunzhi roasted the dried fish until it was dry and crispy, making a crunching sound when you chewed it. During the day, the sound wouldn't be a problem, but at night, it was a bit loud.
"I'm telling you this seriously!"
"I'm listening carefully too." After saying that, Gu Miaomiao took another bite of dried fish, making a crunching sound.
"..." Zhou Xingxing was a little frustrated. "I'm going to sleep. You can eat slowly."
Gu Miaomiao finally realized what was happening, licked her lips, and said, "I'm not eating anymore, you can tell me."
"I'm not in the mood."
“That’s just how pregnant women are,” Gu Miaomiao clapped her hands. “But you should still try to control your emotions and not get angry, otherwise it’s bad for your health.”
"..." Zhou Xingxing asked her, "Don't you have any communication problems with Shen Xiaoqiu?"
"Um?"
"Are there no communication barriers in interracial love?"
"No, we can just exercise together." Gu Miaomiao felt she had a lot to say about this. "By the way, as someone who's been there and a good friend, I want to tell you something: for couples to have a long-lasting and harmonious relationship, in-bed exercises are a very important harmonizer. Take Qiuqiu for example, if she's in a bad mood and easily irritable, doing some exercises with her will make her feel much better. How's your relationship with Zheng Xinghe in bed?"
As a novice on the battlefield, Zhou Xingxing had studied a lot of theoretical texts and illustrations, but her practical experience was zero. However, in front of Gu Miaomiao, who was a seasoned veteran, she felt that what Gu Miaomiao said made a lot of sense.
After some hesitation, she asked hesitantly, "What constitutes harmony?"
How can one describe this blissful, ineffable state in words?
Gu Miaomiao racked her brains but couldn't come up with the right words. However, if she didn't say anything, it would affect her dignity as a veteran of the battlefield. So, she calmly continued to make things up: "Well, everyone's feelings about this are probably a little different, but there's one thing that should be common, which is... it's that kind of... singing, you know?"
"Singing?" Stephen Chow didn't immediately understand the girl and didn't react for a moment.
"You know, that kind of... involuntary... By the way, you can sing it, right?"
Zhou Xingxing understood, his face turning slightly red. "Ahem... I don't have much experience."
"Oh, this kind of thing doesn't require experience. It's just a natural progression after you can't help yourself. Let me put it this way, like Qiuqiu, she was a quiet girl at first. Of course, I probably wasn't very good at it back then, but now, basically as long as she's not deliberately trying to spite me, she can sing really well..."
"..." Is this something I can hear? Zhou Xingxing swallowed hard. "Ahaha...I see..."
"Tell me, has that Zheng Xinghe ever wanted you to sing...?"
Zhou Xingxing scratched her neck and nose shyly, but to show that her relationship with her partner was harmonious, she nodded, "Yes..."
"That's about right. Whenever Qiuqiu sings, I feel like I'm about to ascend to heaven." Gu Miaomiao closed her eyes, savoring the lingering feeling from just now.
Damn it, if those little bastards hadn't suddenly woken up and shamelessly imitated her wife's singing style, her wife Qiuqiu wouldn't have been so ashamed and angry as to kick her out.
Stephen Chow secretly rubbed his slightly flushed face, "Then you two... have a very harmonious and long-lasting relationship, huh..."
Gu Miaomiao glanced at her, "You've been here for so long, and you've finally said something I like to hear."