Chapter 52 – Eight Months

Su Danhong was working towards an ideal and Ji Jianyun felt guilty. He felt like he did not have the capabilities to give his wife the good life she wanted, so she could only envy other people’s families.

“Don’t worry, Danhong, I’ll buy all these things for you soon!” Ji Jianyun declared very solemnly.

Su Danhong was confused, she had already planned on buying everything herself, but it seemed Jianyun really wanted to do it. Thus, she nodded and let him do what he wanted. “Okay, then earn some money and I’ll wait for you to buy it for me.”

Ji Jianyun nodded earnestly.

After the couple finished talking, Ji Jianyun began to fulfill his responsibility as a father by getting prenatal education about her pregnancy, talking to the little baby inside her belly, and planning the future development of their family for their little baby.

The next day, Ji Jianyun went up the mountain to work.

Building the wall around the mountain was not a feat that could be accomplished overnight. It took three months of intermittent work to build the wall as there was a lot of other work that needed to be done.

They also had to spend a little bit more money. With this type of wall, the 600 yuan that Su Danhong had given to Father Ji before was not enough. She had to spend an additional 100 yuan to finish it. This figure did not include the extra wages for Ji Jianguo and the others.

However, after this wall was built, Father Ji and Mother Ji’s expressions visibly relaxed.

Aside from the big gate, there were three other small gates built. During this time, Ji Jianyun had personally made a trip to Jiangshui City to order iron gates. He had it delivered, and spent more than 50 yuan altogether.

So in total, around 800 to 900 yuan was spent on the wall and gates.

Once everything was calculated and the villagers heard the amount, they secretly let out a gasp.

The average family couldn’t come up with a mighty figure of 800 or 900 yuan. This orchard had only just been set up and so much money was invested in it. Moreover, this didn’t include the cost of the saplings.

“Xiao Bai and the other dogs will be useful now. Let’s build a kennel for them so that they can live on the mountain in the future,” Su Danhong said.

Ji Jianyun agreed and went up the mountain with his father that day to build dog houses for all three dogs. Each doghouse was very spacious.

Even Father Ji said that these dog houses could be regarded as luxurious.

“From now on, the three of you will be responsible for guarding this orchard. You can just scare the children away, but if it’s an adult who is asking for trouble, then you can just jump on them and bite them. Don’t be polite!” Su Danhong told Xiaobai and two yellow dogs.

The three dogs were not as clever as Da Hei, but they were very intelligent and responded with their barks.

Over the past six months, the three dogs had luscious hair, and fierce gazes because the food was really good, and there was the spiritual spring water for nourishment. Each time they were taken out, they were praised by everyone.

A grown man, like Ji Jianguo, and young and strong men like Ji Hongjun, were no match for them!

The only reason the dogs could not beat Ji Jianyun was because he had trained in the army. He was injured before, but now that he could go out, even five or six young and strong men in the village together were not his opponents.

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In regards to this, Su Danhong was very proud. This was her man and she felt safe with him. Others did not dare to look at her when they went out.

Once Xiao Bai and the others were on the mountain, Da Hei was the only one left at home. But with Da Hei, he alone was the equivalent of two dogs.

One day, Ji Jianyun carried two meals: one for the morning and one for the evening. Both meals were carried up the mountain in a bucket. Father Ji also liked to walk around the mountain because he had nothing to do. So, he brought Xu Aidang and Ji Hongjun over to begin building the chicken sheds.

There were lots of things to do every day, but for Xu Aidang and Ji Hongjun, it was well worth it for the salary of 13 yuan a month.

Su Danhong had already come to an agreement with them and they were willing to be long-term workers.

If their family needed them during the busy season, they could come and request for leave. Su Danhong was very open minded about it.

Xu Aidang and Ji Hongjun really valued this stable income because their family’s lives had improved a lot since the beginning of this year.

Along with Su Danhong and Ji Jianyun’s trust, they would never waste time on their work and idle around and, if anything was given to them to do, they would be able to do it properly without them needing help.

Su Danhong was not distressed at all for giving each of them a salary of 13 yuan a month.

In contrast, it was Mother Ji who was extremely distressed. However, Su Danhong didn’t take her too seriously, and it was enough to listen to her nag about it once in a while.

In a flash, Su Danhong was eight months pregnant. There were only two months left before she was due to give birth and her belly was already very big. Ji Jianyun was really afraid to leave her side for too long during this period. Even if he really had to go out for a long time, he would go find Mother Ji to look after her or go to Aunt Yang next door and ask her to help with the housework.

On this particular day, Aunt Yang was making shoes as she smiled and said, “I’ve never seen anyone who adores his wife like Jianyun. Ah, Danhong, you’ll be blessed in the future.”

Su Danhong giggled. “Jianyun is like that. He fusses all the time as if no one has ever had a child. I told him that he didn’t have to be so careful, but he wouldn’t listen.”

Aunt Yang beat the soles of the shoes. These shoes could be taken into town to be sold. Her shoes were well-made and they sold every time. Even though it was not a lot of money, she could use it to alleviate the burden and help support her family.

Su Danhong was embroidering next to her. They were both busy as they talked.

Aunt Yang looked at the finished traditional Chinese painted peonies1. Even if it was not the first time she had seen Jianyun’s wife’s embroidery skills, Aunt Yang was still stunned by it.

The colors were magnificent and there was so much variety. Jianyun’s wife didn’t have an outline, so it was like she could embroider out of thin air. This really was the level of a top embroidery master.

Aunt Yang tried to learn it before, but she couldn’t. When Jianyun’s wife embroidered in front of her, she really felt that this was something ordinary people could not accomplish.

She examined a big peony and it was simply so real, and so was the landscape. Everything was extraordinarily exquisite.

Aunt Yang looked at it for a while and then continued to beat the soles of the shoes. Anyway, she had come to accept the fact that Jianyun’s wife was the only one that could embroider like this in the entire village. Other people didn’t have this type of skill.

So it’s not that she was too old to embroider, but that she really did not have the talent to do so.

“Aunt, I hear there’s going to be electricity in our village, right?” Su Danhong asked.

“Yes, it will be available in a few days, but why do you need electricity? You still have to buy lights, and using electricity costs money,” Aunt Yang replied.

“Aunt, you’re not going to get it installed?” Su Danhong looked at her in surprise.

“No, I’ll just use an oil lamp,” Aunt Yang said.

“It’s better to install it now while it’s still free. If you want to install it in the future, then you’ll have to pay for it. If you save a bit of money every month and need to pay for the installation in the future, then you will lose everything you have saved. It’s not worth it,” Su Danhong explained.

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