"Gu family, are you home?"
One day, Chen Lishu was reading a book inside when the front door of the house was suddenly knocked upon. Hearing Wei Laotai’s voice, Chen Lishu instinctively frowned.
"Coming."
As soon as Chen Lishu opened the door, Wei Laotai, without being invited, slipped in with a sideways motion. Her eyes scanned the room, and she secretly nodded. Although this Gu family member wasn't particularly attractive, her home was kept quite tidy.
Seeing a chair by the wall, she walked over and sat down.
Chen Lishu closed the door and sat in a chair next to Wei Laotai, asking with a smile, "What brings you here, Auntie?"
Wei Laotai was a bit displeased. "We live as neighbors, so what? Can't I just drop by for a visit?"
Chen Lishu smiled and didn't respond.
"How come your daughter-in-law is so unobservant? I've been in the house for a while, why haven't you offered me a glass of water?"
Wei Laotai looked at her with a critical gaze.
In her mind, she was doing Chen Lishu a great favor by offering her granddaughter.
"Liyuan, go and pour Aunt Wei some water."
Chen Liyuan, having received the instruction, turned and went to the kitchen to pour a cup of water.
Wei Laotai took it, took a sip, then cleared her throat and spat a thick glob of phlegm onto the floor.
Chen Liyuan instinctively looked at Chen Lishu. They had just mopped the floor yesterday. How could this old lady be like this?
Chen Lishu smiled at her. "There's nothing else here, you can go back to your room."
Chen Liyuan obeyed and turned back to her own room.
"I heard that you and Commander Gu have been married for several years and don't have any children?" Wei Laotai asked sideways, as if making casual conversation.
The smile on Chen Lishu's face faded slightly. "Auntie, if you have something to say, just say it directly. I still have things to do."
Wei Laotai pouted. "It is a woman's proper duty to assist her husband and raise children. If you can't even have children, what urgent matters could be more important than this?"
The smile on Chen Lishu's face completely disappeared, replaced by an icy coldness. "If I recall correctly, your son's surname is Wei, right? What does it have to do with you whether I have children or not? You're meddling too much. If you came here just to talk about this, there's no need. Please leave, now, immediately."
Seeing her getting agitated, Wei Laotai forced out a smug smile. "Look, you're getting anxious. I came here precisely to help you solve this problem."
Seeing that Chen Lishu wasn't responding, she continued, "I've calculated it for you. In your situation, you need to adopt a child first to change your luck, and only then might you be able to have children."
Chen Lishu almost laughed out loud when she heard this. Thinking of what Lin Xiaoyue had said earlier, she retorted, "And it has to be a girl, preferably a few months old?"
Wei Laotai was stunned when she heard Chen Lishu say what she was about to say. "How did you know?"
"Why don't you just say it's your Er Ya?"
"Isn't that exactly what I'm saying? There's no one more suitable than our Er Ya. When you said you could also read people, I thought you were just fooling me. So it turns out you know everything." Wei Laotai's face was full of wrinkles as she smiled. "Gu family, what do you think?"
Chen Lishu's face darkened. "Not very good!"
If she wanted a child, she could have one herself. Even if she couldn't, she would never adopt a child from the compound, let alone choose a child from the Wei family.
Seeing that she actually disagreed, Wei Laotai's face fell, and she spat, "Gu family, don't be ungrateful. Miss this chance and there won't be another. If you can't have children then..."
Chen Lishu walked directly to the door and pushed it open. "Get out! Otherwise, don't blame me for being impolite."
"You want me to get out? Do you have any manners? Did your parents teach you to speak to elders like this? You ungrateful wretch, hmph, unappreciative, it's no wonder you can't have children."
Wei Laotai was humiliated. As she walked out, she cursed, "You look like a seductive vixen, with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, not an ounce of meat on your body. Even if you begged me, I wouldn't give Er Ya to you. What a disgrace!"
Normally, out of consideration for the men who worked together, Chen Lishu would endure and tolerate. But today, the person had bullied her to her doorstep, and she could no longer bear it. She directly grabbed the broom placed behind the door and swung it at Wei Laotai.
Wei Laotai didn't expect the usually quiet person to resort to violence. Caught off guard, she was hit twice and immediately let out a wail, "Gu family is trying to kill someone! Everyone come and see!"
The entire compound was filled with women who were at home and idle. It had been a long time since there had been any excitement. Hearing Wei Laotai's cries, everyone rushed over to see.
Zhao Guiying, who was closest, quickly opened her door.
"Sister-in-law, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong? The Gu family is bullying people and trying to kill me!" Wei Laotai said with a pout from a distance. Chen Lishu had a broom in her hand, so she was wary and dared not approach.
"Why aren't you telling everyone why I hit you?"
Chen Lishu said, looking at Zhao Guiying, her voice involuntarily rising a few decibels, and also speaking to everyone present, "Although my husband and I have been married for almost three years, I've only been in the army for a little over half a year in total. I also have to go to school, and I only come back one day a week, on Sundays. It's normal that I haven't gotten pregnant yet, right?"
Not only Zhao Guiying, but other military wives who had rushed over also nodded in agreement. "It's not like everyone gets pregnant right after marriage. The men also have to go on missions from time to time. My own husband and I had our second child four years after our first."
"Yes, that's what it's like for us military wives. I still haven't gotten pregnant, and my mother-in-law keeps urging me without knowing anything. We already spend so little time together, who knows our hardship."
Chen Lishu glanced at everyone, then her gaze fell on Wei Laotai. "Instructor Wei's mother just came to see me, and she insulted me repeatedly, saying I can't have children, and she even wanted to give me her granddaughter to raise? I don't know if Instructor Wei knows about this. If he doesn't, then it's truly pathetic for him to have a mother like you. If he does know, then I believe his character is not fit to continue serving in the army!"
Everyone was stunned by Chen Lishu's words.
"This, this old lady must be crazy, right? I know their Er Ya, she goes to the clinic every few days for medical treatment. Let alone whether she can even have children, but if she truly couldn't, would she be so foolish as to adopt their child?"
"Exactly. The two families live so close. Isn't this clearly asking someone to raise a child for their family? I wouldn't do this if I were in her shoes."
Wei Laotai, hearing the discussions, felt utterly disgraced. She shot Chen Lishu a fierce glare and shamefully went back to her own home.
"When people get old, they get confused. Sister-in-law, don't take it to heart," Zhao Guiying said comfortingly, looking at Chen Lishu.
Chen Lishu smiled at her. "It's better to compete with peers of similar interests than to argue with fools. Sister-in-law, don't worry, I won't take what people like her say to heart."