Chapter 302: Chapter 302

After confirming the news, Qin Xi brought Li Xianglu to the Overseas Chinese Store to buy a bunch of fruits, walnuts, red dates, and a lot of dried fruits before they returned together.

The corners of Qin Xi’s mouth unconsciously curled upwards, obviously in a good mood, while Li Xianglu followed behind lazily, with a demeanor of resigned indifference—having already foolishly gotten to this point, and now even pregnant, they say pregnancy makes one dumb for three years, so being a bit dumb herself wasn’t a problem.

Grandpa Li and Su Yan had people set the dining table in the yard directly, waiting for others while watching Sister Xing cook.

By mid-June, the weather had already heated up. Sister Xing planned to make some cold noodles for lunch, accompanied by red bean porridge, while the naughty kid was squatting by the outdoor faucet, playing with the fish in a basin.

These fish were bought by Grandpa Li early in the morning at the market from someone selling them from a cart. They were a bit more expensive than the food supply station, costing four mao per jin, but the fish were lively and jumping in the basin, very fresh, so he bought four of them.

Seeing the two returning one after the other, Qin Xi had an unmistakable look of joy, while Li Xianglu behind had a face of laziness—it was clear without guessing that she must be pregnant.

The naughty kid, seeing Qin Xi carrying a big net bag of fruits, suddenly dashed over and first took out a few peaches to wash at the faucet.

Before long, Li Xianglu lazily leaned on a lounge chair with the naughty kid, eating peaches.

The naughty kid, sitting on a small stool beside her, stared at Li Xianglu’s belly in amazement and asked, "Is there a little baby in your tummy?"

Li Xianglu nodded, took a bite of the peach, "Mmm, the crispy peach is really sweet."

The naughty kid couldn’t help but gently poke Li Xianglu’s belly with his finger, frowning, "Why is it so soft?"

Li Xianglu rolled her eyes. Of course, it was soft—it was just the soft flesh on her belly.

Then the naughty kid asked excitedly, "Am I going to become an auntie later?"

Li Xianglu nodded and said, "Yeah, you’ve leveled up."

The naughty kid leveling up to become an auntie was quite formidable, especially since summer vacation had started, and she maintained a state of readiness every day, serving by Li Xianglu’s side like a little maid—bringing water, fetching ice pops from the fridge, and fanning them occasionally.

Half a month later, upon learning that Li Xianglu was pregnant, Lu Anna couldn’t resist coming over. Seeing how obediently the naughty kid served, she spoke jealously, "Xiong Youxin, you can’t be so partial, the one in my belly is also your nephew; you’re the auntie of both, you can’t favor just one."

Xiong Youxin was completely flabbergasted, wondering what to do now that she had turned into an auntie for two children—suddenly feeling the weight of great responsibility.

Li Xianglu laughed heartily, pointing at Lu Anna and said, "Can’t you stop bullying people like that? Xiao Xin is still young herself, can’t even take care of herself, yet you expect her to look after children."

Lu Anna grabbed a peeled melon and began munching on it, finishing half before sighing, "The courtyard house is really great, you can eat whatever you want. It’s not like my mom’s, where there are too many restrictions, this one can’t be eaten, that one can’t be eaten."

Li Xianglu comforted, "Your mom is just looking out for your best interest. Pregnant women have many taboos—you know, hawthorn, crabs, and even watermelons have to be eaten less. Those are all cooling foods."

Lu Anna glanced at her own protruding belly, then looked at Li Xianglu’s still flat stomach and asked, "How many months are you?"

Li Xianglu counted and replied, "Not even two months."

Lu Anna finally felt relieved and said, "That’s good, my child will still be the eldest."

Li Xianglu looked at her incredulously, wondering how being with Qin Zhen for so long had made her progressively sillier.

Yet, Lu Anna continued to attack the second piece of melon, eating while sighing, "Really, Grandpa Li has a knack for growing melons. They’re still sweet even when grown elsewhere. Pack some for me when I leave. My two sisters-in-law and their kids are coming too; it won’t be enough if we have too little."

Li Xianglu was completely stunned. That thick-skinned attitude was just like Qin Zhen’s—turns out a couple can indeed grow strikingly similar after being together for a long time.

At the end of June, Li Jianqing and Qin Zhen returned. When Qin Zhen transferred to the missile school, he was specifically demoted one level, but military schools don’t involve an internship - graduates are sent directly to the troops below.

Thus, Qin Zhen and his wife moved here, making the courtyard suddenly much livelier.

Originally, Xiong Youxin felt a bit of an aunt’s responsibility towards the child in Lu Anna’s womb, but as soon as she remembered that Qin Zhen was the father of the child, she suddenly didn’t want to play the aunt to the child anymore or take care of Lu Anna, focusing solely on taking care of Li Xianglu.

Apart from feeling sleepy and being able to eat, Li Xianglu showed no other symptoms, so she went to work as usual.

In early July, the director left to study for half a year. For the next six months, Pu Jianxin managed the bank’s affairs, and if there were any larger issues, they were brought directly to the bank manager.

Their bank was different from others because it had an underground storage vault; Li Xianglu had once helped the director deposit money there when she officially began working at the counter.

The bank had six security personnel, which was more than a typical bank, because of the presence of the savings vault. Four nearby Post Offices would deposit the daily remittance amounts.

After the director left, Pu Jianxin assigned Li Xianglu the daily task of counting the money deposited by the Post Offices. She also had the opportunity to go down to the underground storage vault to check.

In contrast to modern scenes of money being laid out all over tables, everything was stored in wooden boxes labeled with amounts, and gold was handled similarly. Fractured gold pieces, upon receipt, had to be properly packaged, with karat amounts noted, waiting to be picked up by the national treasury for remelting into different standards.

Since money now consisted of paper bills, the storage room was equipped with two fans constantly rotating to help dehumidify the space.

Zhou Qingfang was unusually cheerful lately, inexplicably happy, often looking down on everyone with a superior gaze.

Everyone knew about Li Xianglu’s pregnancy, and Sister He, the oldest among them, was particularly shocked. She had always thought Li Xianglu was a single young lady, only to discover that she was not only young but had been married for three to four years, and was even pregnant.

That afternoon, as work was about to end, Zhou Qingfang’s sister, Zhou Qingxue, hurried in from outside, holding a letter.

Zhou Qingfang greeted Pu Jianxin, then went outside first. After murmuring outside for a while, Zhou Qingfang came back in and requested leave from Pu Jianxin.

Pu Jianxin looked at the calendar hanging behind the wall and frowned, "It’s only Wednesday. How many days are you planning to take off?"