"If Gao Zhijun comes back, what if he wants the children? If you divorce him, you’ll never see them again. They say a stepmother makes a stepfather. Have you thought about what will happen to them?"
Adults sometimes transferred their resentment onto the innocent.
"I won’t give them to him." If the children were willing to stay with her, she wouldn’t let them go.
"Humph, you’re too optimistic."
That was just how the world worked. After a divorce, a daughter was fine; if the man’s family didn’t want her, she would go to the woman’s family. But could it be the same for a boy?
She didn’t argue with the captain. Regardless, she would deal with whatever came her way.
At worst, she would drag him down with her.
However, her plans to move to the city might be...
"Right now, this is all just our guesswork. What if he’s already dead?" Bai Jiu really wished he was dead at this moment.
The captain didn’t want to say another word.
"Alright, as long as you know what you’re doing. Go back. You’ve stayed at your maiden home long enough. It’s time to come back."
Bai Jiu didn’t understand his meaning at first, but it clicked after she left his house. He was afraid she would implicate her maiden family and wanted her to return to the village to handle her affairs. No matter what happened, he would protect her.
"Xinghua, don’t tell Mom and Dad about this. I’ll handle it," Bai Jiu instructed Bai Xinghua on their way back.
"Don’t be afraid, Sis. Our family has suffered all kinds of hardships. We aren’t afraid of him," Bai Xinghua said, his heart aching as he looked at his oldest sister.
She appreciated his good intentions, but she truly didn’t want to drag her parents’ family into her mess.
"Enough. If you utter a word of this, you can pretend you don’t have a sister anymore. I’ll go to town and find someone to officially sever my ties with our family."
Humph, she refused to believe Gao Zhijun could control everything.
Although her mood had been dampened by the news, Bai Jiu still visited everyone else she had planned to see. Preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn’t even step inside their houses. After dropping off her gifts, she headed straight home.
Back at the house, Bai Xinghua looked at his sister, hesitating to speak.
Bai Jiu ignored him. She wasn’t afraid anyway. Let the storm come.
"Alright, hurry up and help me chop some wood. I need to cook soon."
Bai Xinghua ate his dinner absentmindedly. Bai Jiu let him be; she knew it would take him a while to calm down.
She had done nothing wrong, so she had nothing to fear. However, not everyone possessed her resilient mindset.
"How much longer are you staying in the city?" Aunt Peng asked Bai Jiu during dinner.
"I’ll come back after the Lantern Festival. Spring will be just around the corner, and we’ll need to go to work. By then, the captain probably won’t be willing to write me an introduction letter anyway." Bai Jiu looked calm, chatting and laughing with Aunt Peng as if nothing had happened.
Zhou Aiguo was a quiet guy. He didn’t know why Brother Bai was completely silent throughout the entire meal, nor did Brother Bai bring up the matter of going into the mountains, which his grandmother had mentioned earlier.
He didn’t dare to ask, either. He simply ate his food in silence.
"That’s true. Winter will be over after the fifteenth. The snow is already starting to melt. Still, early spring will be bitterly cold. Don’t overexert yourself at work; you can’t push yourself like you used to," Aunt Peng urged worriedly.
Working herself to the bone like a man—she was the only woman in the entire brigade who did that.
Hearing Aunt Peng’s caring words, Bai Jiu’s slightly chilled heart warmed up.
"Don’t worry, I won’t mistreat myself anymore. I only did that because I had no choice, for the sake of the two children. I won’t be that foolish now."
"As long as you understand. I plan to raise chickens when work starts. The village chief secured a sideline business with the higher-ups. This is the first time our village is experimenting with it, so who knows if it will succeed." Aunt Peng’s relationship with Aunt Li had improved immensely since they took Bai Jiu to the hospital last time.
Aunt Li would often drop by Aunt Peng’s place for a chat. She had heard about this sideline business directly from the captain’s wife.
"That’s a good thing." With a sideline business, the villagers’ annual income would increase. Although the village chief wasn’t an easy person to get along with, he managed things much more proactively than Captain Gao.
"Exactly. You have no idea, over in the neighboring Huangshan Team, every household gets an extra few hundred yuan a year. Their sideline business is incredibly profitable." Aunt Peng wanted to save more money. Aiguo wasn’t young anymore, and he would need a wife in a few years. She had to save enough to cover the costs.
She couldn’t shortchange her future granddaughter-in-law.
Bai Jiu didn’t know the exact details, but she knew that doing business brought in money, especially in this era. Who wouldn’t want a sideline business? But if managed poorly, they could suffer heavy losses. Raising chickens, however, was a solid choice.
After they chatted for a while, the sky outside turned dark, and Aunt Peng and Aiguo went home.
Bai Jiu knew her younger brother was still unsettled, but she didn’t want to waste words comforting him. "Boil some water and wash up first. I’m going next door for a bit."
Bai Xinghua’s mind was still a mess. Hearing "next door," he assumed she meant the neighbors and didn’t ask further. He only told his sister to come back early.
Next door, Bai Jiu brought some snacks over—pastries, canned goods, and some hawthorn fruit leather.
The hawthorn fruit leather was something she had managed to snatch up at the supply and marketing cooperative during the New Year. Sweet and tart, Xiuxiu absolutely loved it. So she had bought extra and stored it in her space, making it the perfect treat for the elders next door to taste.
She chatted there for a while before finally returning home.
Lying in bed, her thoughts churned.
On the surface, she was indeed quite calm. But she was also feeling helpless.
If Gao Zhijun really couldn’t tolerate her, she could get a divorce and live a good life with the two children. She was just afraid he wouldn’t let the children go. As the captain had said, a stepmother makes a stepfather. Who knew how the children would end up?
So she didn’t dare to let them go.
Of course, this was assuming the children chose her. Having been in this world for a few months, she genuinely liked and accepted the two children from the bottom of her heart.
She was also a little afraid the children...
That night, Bai Jiu didn’t sleep very well.
Because of the uncertain variable that was Gao Zhijun, she lost her motivation to hustle for a job in the city. Anyway, it wouldn’t be long before she could leave this place openly and legitimately.
Thinking about her future path, she felt she could do another run of selling items from her space.
Of course, the town and the county wouldn’t do. She wanted to go to the city.
Truth be told, she hadn’t been to the city even once. She still had plenty of provisions in her space; she wasn’t worried about going hungry.
But cashing them in was the most worthwhile move. Naturally, if she didn’t know the future trajectory of this era, she definitely wouldn’t take the risk. It was exactly because she knew the future that she wanted to earn more money as a safety net.
The next day, Bai Jiu securely locked the doors and windows of the house, then went back to her maiden home with Bai Xinghua.
When they reached the door, Bai Jiu couldn’t help but warn him one more time, telling him not to mention Gao Zhijun’s situation to their parents.
Whatever he was thinking, this time he willingly agreed. Seeing him comply, Bai Jiu finally felt relieved.
Having decided on her next steps, Bai Jiu headed straight to the city on the eighth day of the lunar new year. Because she had an introduction letter, everything from finding accommodation to handling other matters went smoothly.
Her excuse to her family was that she wanted to try her luck in the city and see if she could buy a job position.
The two children couldn’t bear to part with their mother, but Bai Jiu was going there to peddle goods and didn’t dare bring them along. She had to promise to bring back delicious treats before she could finally pacify the pair.