Grandma Qin was truly angered.
For the past two years, the common people had been short of food. Besides cattle and sheep, they had long stopped raising other livestock and poultry.
In less than three months, the second daughter-in-law would give birth. In less than six months, Yaoyao would give birth, and the Hou family also had someone pregnant.
The chickens raised by the Qin, Hou, and Zhao families were all treasures. Losing even one made them incredibly distressed.
The two children had killed four of them. Not only Grandma Qin was angry, but Grandma Ma, heartbroken, hid in the kitchen and ignored Grandma Qin's punishment of Fuzi.
"Sister-in-law."
"Sister."
Grandma Qin stood up and spanked each of the two children on their bottoms with a feather duster. "What are you shouting about? It's useless to shout at anyone. There's still the time of one incense stick left. Continue with the ceremony."
Qin Junyao didn't expect Grandma Qin to suddenly strike them and couldn't stop her.
"Grandma, they are not ignorant children. Our family only gets to eat meat happily during festivals. It's normal for children to be greedy."
Qin Xiaoyu straightened up and retorted, "We're not greedy. We didn't want to eat it ourselves."
Fuzi raised his hand in agreement. "That's right. Brother is injured, and I want to take good care of Sister-in-law. I was going to kill a chicken for Sister-in-law." Fuzi suddenly covered his mouth with both hands.
It was over. He had revealed it.
"Your brother is injured? When?" Qin Junyao looked at Fuzi and asked sternly.
Fuzi covered his mouth and shook his head. Don't ask him; he didn't know.
Grandma Qin sighed. "You two go to the kitchen and see if the meal is ready. We'll punish you after you eat."
Upon hearing Grandma Qin's words, Fuzi and Qin Xiaoyu immediately dashed out of the room, disappearing in an instant.
"Grandma, why do the two younger ones know that Zhao Liangcai is injured, but I don't? Why didn't you tell me? How is Zhao Liangcai injured? How did he get injured?"
Grandma Qin rolled her eyes at Qin Junyao. "What a stupid question. Of course, you wouldn't know if I didn't tell you. They were running with Deng Zi Tui this morning and overheard them talking about it."
"What's wrong?" Grandma Qin was about to tell Qin Junyao that Zhao Liangcai's injury was suspicious when she noticed Qin Junyao standing there stiffly, motionless.
"Don't move, I'll go call someone." Grandma Qin thought her granddaughter was in trouble and was about to run out, dropping the feather duster.
Qin Junyao grabbed Grandma Qin's arm. "Grandma, it moved."
"What?"
Qin Junyao's eyes widened, and she pointed to her belly. "It moved."
Grandma Qin used her free hand to pat the headscarf on her head and shouted, hands on her hips, "Damn it, you scared me to death! Of course, the baby in your belly will move, it's alive."
Qin Junyao held Grandma Qin's arm tightly, her eyes filled with confusion. "It's not moving now."
"What? Do you want it to perform acrobatics in your belly?"
Qin Junyao imagined a little dumpling in her belly breathing fire, balancing a cauldron, and breaking stones with its chest, and suddenly she laughed.
Grandma Qin sighed. If it weren't for the little one in her granddaughter's belly, she really wanted to slap Qin Junyao. She was too foolish.
With the interlude of fetal movement, Qin Junyao calmly listened to Grandma Qin talk about Zhao Liangcai's injury. There was no shock, grief, or fainting as Ling Manshuang had feared.
Throughout the conversation, Qin Junyao kept touching her belly with a happy expression while listening to Grandma Qin.
"In my opinion, there's a fifty percent chance that Fuzi is only lightly injured and is faking a serious injury. If he were truly seriously injured, he wouldn't have the energy to send a message back, asking Deng Zi Tui to guard the road to the salt lake."
Grandma Qin tapped the table and asked Qin Junyao, "Did you hear me?"
Qin Junyao placed her hands on her slightly protruding lower abdomen. "I heard you, Grandma. I've long been prepared for him to be injured while leading troops in battle. As long as he's not dead, it doesn't matter if he's injured or disabled."
After a pause, she added, "I have money."
Grandma Qin blinked her small, triangular eyes and didn't respond.
She didn't understand what Qin Junyao meant by having money. Was it that she had money to support Fuzi, or that it didn't matter if Fuzi died or was disabled as long as she had money?
They ate chicken for lunch, and Qin Junyao ate an extra spoonful of rice happily because of the fetal movement.
When Grandma Ma found out, she thought Qin Junyao ate more rice because she liked the chicken, and she ran to find Deng Zi Tui and the others to hunt more wild chickens.
From then on, the few wild chickens in the mountains met their misfortune.
After lunch, Qin Junyao, with her hair loosened and wearing inner clothing, lay on the heated brick bed but didn't take a nap.
She was sleepy, yawning so much that tears streamed down her face, yet she didn't want to sleep.
"Madam, please sleep. After you wake up, all the wild flowers we dug from the mountain will be planted," Liu Yu persuaded Qin Junyao to sleep, suppressing her own urge to yawn.
Her mistress kept yawning, and seeing that made her sleepy too, so she couldn't help but yawn a few times secretly.
"Liu Yu, the child in my belly moved today. Oh, give me the red booklet, and I'll record it so I don't forget." Qin Junyao wanted to get up to record the first fetal movement.
"Congratulations, Madam. Madam, please lie down. I'll remember it for you and won't forget."
Qin Junyao thought for a moment. "That's fine, but don't forget to remind me."
That red booklet was something Qin Junyao had started recording since she knew she was pregnant.
Initially, it was to record her own physical changes to help Liu Yu make judgments. Later, it became a pregnancy diary.
Qin Junyao's belly hadn't grown much. When she was at the same stage of pregnancy, Second Aunt Qin's belly was like a small basin on her, while Qin Junyao's was just a bowl.
How small could a baby be in such a small bump? Palm-sized? A palm-sized baby could move?
Qin Junyao thought that the next time the baby in her belly moved, she wouldn't be stunned.
She would touch her belly and say, "Baby, I am your mother. Nice to meet you. Let's take care of each other."
Liu Yu watched Qin Junyao fall asleep with a smile on her face and quietly sat beside her, embroidering shoe uppers.
After Qin Junyao truly felt the baby moving in her belly, she no longer went out every day to watch the construction of the walls.
Besides instructing her subordinates, she took time to put spatial well water and shuttle seedlings into the empty cave dwellings she had bought. Most of the time, she stayed in her room.
Taking advantage of the pregnant woman's tendency to be drowsy, she began to plant grain in her space again. She had an idea that would get her grandmother to beat her.
Half a month passed in a flash. The walls of Qin Junyao's and the other families' courtyards were all built.
The walls, two zhang high, were over six meters tall. Walking along the steps in the courtyard, one could reach the top of the wall and the roof. Every time Qin Junyao climbed the wall, she felt like she was standing on the city wall of a great city, not her own courtyard wall.
"Liu Yu, did Miss Ling say she would bring her family over today?" Qin Junyao stood on the wall and looked into the distance.
"Madam, Miss Ling said she would move in after the furniture is all settled."
Qin Junyao pointed into the distance. "Then, who are those carriages?"
Liu Yu followed her mistress's finger and looked. "Madam, where are the carriages?"
A few breaths later, Liu Yu finally saw black dots in the distance. As the black dots got closer, she realized they were carriages.
"Are there really carriages? Are they coming in our direction? Is it Young Master Bai?"
Qin Junyao shook her head. "No. Let's go down and take a look."
The mistress and servant descended the wall. After a while, the gatekeeper came to report that Biandan had arrived.
Qin Junyao recognized Biandan and immediately asked the gatekeeper to open the door and let the person and the carriages in.
Hearing that Biandan, who was originally in the Northwest City, had returned, Deng Zi Tui, Grandma Ma, Grandma Qin, and the others who were at home came out to wait at the main gate.