Chapter 293

After treating the wounds, Shen Man swapped shifts with a colleague and wouldn't come in the afternoon, promising to work a half-shift for her colleague next week.

Her colleagues in the department were understanding. After finishing the procedures, Shen Man rode her bike and took her husband home.

"Wife, how about I ride the bike?"

Jiang Ye, sitting in the back seat, felt bad for his panting wife who was pedaling hard.

With his legs curled up, maybe due to his weight, he felt the bike was a bit wobbly. To avoid his wife getting tired or crashing, he should be the one riding.

"O-okay then."

Switch!

Shen Man felt that if there was no need to suffer, she shouldn't force it. She couldn't pedal it, and her own physical strength was indeed lacking.

After switching positions, Shen Man didn't hold back; she wrapped her arms around her husband's lean, strong waist, pressed her face against his hard back, and muttered softly:

"That guy surnamed Gu is probably jealous that you look better than him, so he specifically chose to hit your face."

Apart from this reason, she couldn't think of any other.

"Mm, this person is narrow-minded, pretentious, and harbors evil intentions..."

Saying a dozen idioms in one breath, Jiang Ye didn't slow his pedaling; he was as steady as could be.

"..."

The more Shen Man listened, the more she felt something was strange. Why was her brain itching?

A thought suddenly popped into her head: her husband seemed a bit petty!

Was he treating Gu Tingchen as a love rival?

Complete disparagement, exclusion, and a subtle, all-around belittling...

"Um, how about we let Grandpa step in and teach that guy surnamed Gu a lesson?"

"That's unnecessary. Conflicts between men should be resolved by men themselves."

Jiang Ye politely refused. What a joke—if he couldn't even handle that guy surnamed Gu and had to ask for Grandpa's help, he'd be too useless!

Unfortunately, this guy left early. If he dared to stay at the guesthouse for a few more days, he wouldn't mind doing something in the dark...

The Capital, Railway Bureau, right?

When he had time, he would ask Section Commander Duan if he had any connections there. If not, he would contact his former comrades; he seemed to remember someone who had retired to the Capital...

Shen Man felt the competitive spirit on her husband and silently shut up.

Fine, he had his own sense of proportion; she had to trust her husband.

This topic ended here, and the two tacitly stopped talking about Gu Tingchen.

Because a group of officers had sacrificed their lives, due to post-event pension work and other factors, this year's scheduled matchmaking event was postponed for a month.

Political Commissar Ji had been in a busy state for these past few days, only able to sleep three or four hours a day!

His whole person seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, becoming thinner by the day.

His originally round cheeks became angular, his chin became sharper and thinner, and in just one week, he had lost a whole circle!

All of this fell into Wang Mingkui's eyes; he was anxious but helpless, and could only sigh.

During this time, the children at home were sensibly quiet and not noisy, all realizing that the atmosphere in the Jiashuyuan had been low recently, and they often heard the sobbing of some military wives...

Wang Amei often took her little cousin out to play and heard more gossip.

Only now did she realize that soldiers were not omnipotent; soldiers could also bleed and sacrifice.

For the first time, she faced the identity of a military wife and realized it wasn't as glamorous and carefree as it appeared on the surface.

For the first time, she wondered if she could really be a good military wife in the future.

She asked her aunt, but her aunt didn't give her a direct answer, instead telling her not to rush and that she had time to think about it slowly.

Her aunt said that a girl's best days were before she was married.

Her aunt was willing to keep her by her side for two years, help her look for a suitable person slowly, and told her not to have any pressure and to just live a leisurely life by her aunt's side for two years.

After seeing the final letters, almost none of the widows of the sacrificed officers in the Jiashuyuan caused trouble. They all silently packed their luggage, held their children, and were silently sent back to their hometowns by people arranged by the team department.

If this was their husband's last wish, they were willing and had the ideological awareness to cooperate.

Just like that, the number of military families living in the Jiashuyuan visibly decreased by half.

Many houses were vacated, and the logistics department went door-to-door to take statistics, preparing for the next batch of military families.

The dead are gone, and the living must look forward.

From a humanitarian perspective, the army did not treat any military family poorly and also provided arrangements to escort the martyrs' widows.

Military arrangements, looking forward and far, could not be announced to the outside world. No matter how tormented the high-level commanders were, they had to push things forward and consider the future...

Time flew by, and a page of the calendar was torn off.

The atmosphere, which had been low for a long time, was finally swept away at the rescheduled matchmaking event, ushering in a new festive spirit!

And at this time, the old masters in Shen Man's house were watching TV when suddenly, Lian Lian rolled over!

This made Old Master Pei incredibly happy!

"She rolled, she rolled! My Lian Lian knows how to roll over!"

"Saw it, saw it! This little girl, she's really strong, just as sturdy as her dad."

"Look quickly, Xiao Mantou is rolling over too!"

"Good heavens, this little guy, he rolled twice in a row. Is he unconvinced because we were all praising his sister?"

"Stop looking at them for a second, come encourage Xiao Nuomi. This little guy is still chewing on his fingers; why isn't he rolling over?"

"Xiao Nuomi, look, your brother and sister have both rolled over. Can you perform a roll for everyone too?"

"Iya-ya."

No matter how the others coaxed him, Xiao Nuomi just giggled foolishly and refused to roll over!

Lian Lian and Xiao Mantou, on the other hand, could already roll everywhere. When they were tired, they would pant, drool, and giggle at the adults.

When they were rested, they would continue to roll, as if they had discovered a new continent. They hadn't learned to walk with their feet yet, but they had already started learning to roll in relay.

Their clumsy and cute appearance inexplicably made people think of a black and white animal.

When Shen Man returned home in the evening and heard that her son and eldest niece could roll over, but her daughter couldn't—implying her daughter was quiet—she felt it was impossible. It must be that her daughter, that little clever ghost, was being lazy and didn't want to perform.

Sure enough, in the evening, after washing the little one, drying her off, and placing her on the bed, the quiet Xiao Nuomi the elders spoke of instantly became full of life.

Hearing a crisp and pleasant "Iya-ya," Xiao Nuomi then quickly completed a high-difficulty move as if it were flowing water—

Rolling over!

"Iya-ya."

Her eyes, which were as large and clear as grapes, were locked onto her mother in front of her, as if saying, "Look, Mom, I can roll over too; I only roll for Mom to see."

This scene made Shen Man feel surrounded by happiness. She couldn't help but pick up the little one, affectionately rub her cheek against the little one's, and praise her in surprise:

"You're amazing!"

So cute, just like a pink and tender sticky rice ball.

They say giant pandas are cute when they are young, but she thought her own daughter was the cutest!

It was a pity there were no mobile phones or digital cameras, otherwise, she would have kept photos of the little one's cute childhood to collect. When they were old, they could flip through them from time to time.

Oh, terrible, she seemed to have been assimilated...