The Yi family is raising a toast, and the Zhou family is not missing out either.
As Zhou Jiao entered from the big courtyard to the entrance of the house, she was curious as to why her husband didn’t meet her at the door. Even the arrival of Miao Zhicheng shouldn’t have slowed him down.
"Dang dang... welcome our heroine home." Zhang Guoqing jumped out from the doorway, "Son, you may throw the flowers now."
Shredded colored paper was sprinkled onto the entering Zhou Jiao by this mischievous father-son duo, making the onlooking family burst into laughter.
"Mom, are you happy?"
Zhou Jiao bent down to pick up her child, accepting the small bamboo basket in his hand, "Thank you, my dear son, this is so grand."
"I originally wanted to set off firecrackers, what a pity..."
With a smile on his face, Zhou Xiaozheng gestured them to come over, "Let’s have dinner first."
"Mom, Grandma Chen cooked a lot of dishes you like today. She said you are so brave, even daring to capture spies, and wants to nourish your little heart."
Listening to her son’s chatter, Zhou Jiao nodded repeatedly. She looked ahead at Miao Zhicheng and said with a smile, "Brother Zhicheng, sorry I couldn’t pick you up at the station."
"Why would someone as big as me need picking up." Miao Zhicheng laughed, "Congratulations, cousin, just be careful in the future."
"Alright, thank you, Brother Zhicheng."
Zhou Jiao handed the items to her father, washed her hands, and headed straight to check on the twins.
"Is Da Yi overjoyed?"
"I just told him earlier, he’ll come to see you tomorrow."
Zhang Guoqing nodded, "A while ago, he almost couldn’t hold it in. I reckon he’ll speak up before the school starts." As he said this, he pointed at May 1st, "Look at our youngest."
The child is perfectly fine! Fair and chubby, with dark eyes indicating cleverness at a glance. Zhou Jiao looked at him puzzled.
"We see him every day so we don’t notice. But today Zhicheng came over and exclaimed, how come he looks so much like his cousin? Look, doesn’t he? As he’s growing day by day, he increasingly resembles you."
Zhou Jiao looked back and forth between the two white bun-like kids and still couldn’t tell. Chubby as they were, where did they look like her? Their smiling dimples were an inherited trait, though.
At the dining table, Zhou Jiao listened as everyone chatted, occasionally glancing at her father. The thought of her three sons inheriting their grandfather’s childhood issues amused her secretly.
"Xiao Wu, in the afternoon, take pictures of these certificates and medals. Develop a few copies and send them to your mom and godmother so they can share in the joy."
Zhang Guoqing indeed planned to do so, and hearing his mother-in-law’s suggestion, he nodded cheerfully.
Beside them, Miao Zhicheng remarked, "A few years ago, someone in our commune got a second-class merit in the military, and many people went to celebrate with great fanfare. It’s a pity this time it’s in the city."
Everyone knew what the honest man meant by pity, and they laughed heartily. Who really cared about such formalities?
But as it turned out, Miao Zhicheng’s conjecture was half-right.
In a Northeast County, early in the morning after finishing tai chi, Mr. Zhang chatted a bit with some old friends before leisurely heading home together with an old neighbor from the front courtyard.
Upon entering the house, he saw his wife looking up at the sky, and curiously did the same, "What’s up, kids’ mother, what are you doing?"
"What do you think our Xiao Wu is doing now? The school year’s started, and I wonder how he’s eating at school? I also wonder how the twins are doing? Can we trust others to take good care of them?"



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