She Only Cares About Cultivation

An Yi secretly decided to spend the next New Year in the county, as she didn’t write any Spring Festival couplets this year, which upset many people. Now, she’s not giving out sugar, either, who knows what they’re saying about her behind her back. Fortunately, she doesn’t care about these things; she just feels it affects her mood.

Then she closed the door: "Alright, from now on, we’ll study well. I don’t care what’s right or wrong; as long as no one disturbs us, it’s fine. You two should go over these problems for me. I’ll go and cook for you; let An Ran stay with you. The little guy is quite sensible, knowing to roll around and play on the bed."

An Yi seized the opportunity of going down to the cellar to enter the space, to soothe Anning for a while. But a child of three or four months old is no longer limited to just sleeping; she wants to play, wants to be held. With the heavy snow blocking the mountains, no one can come to this village, so she couldn’t even find an excuse, having to frequently enter and exit the space to soothe Anning. Thinking carefully, she might as well be like An Ran. An Ran has always been under their watch, while with Anning, she was much more negligent. Most of the time, the child is alone in the space, poor thing!

It’s true that when sleepy, a pillow appears. Just after the second day of the first lunar month, the production team leaders began to gather male socialists to clear the snow on the roads.

Thick snow was piled on both sides of the road, allowing them to visit relatives with ease; otherwise, how could they walk with snow all over the road?

The snow that had frozen was not easy to clear, different from other Northern areas. If the temperature does not reach, the snow would melt; but in Northeast, once the snow falls, it freezes, therefore it’s very labor-intensive. But one cannot stay at home forever, even if just visiting nearby villages, it’s a chance to look at each other, at least it’s considered going out.

Unexpectedly, they worked until the sixth day of the first lunar month. Luckily, it didn’t surpass the 15th day, so the year didn’t count as complete, but the road has been cleared nonetheless?

One morning, An Yi used the excuse of visiting relatives in the city, when she actually hid in the space for the day. After dark, she brought Anning out in front of them. To prevent recognition, she prepared blankets, cotton clothes, and diapers for the child, as if she had really brought her back from somewhere. In fact, the two had already spent the day playing in the space.

"Oh my, sis, this child...could you have picked her up as well?"

Out of breath, An Yi pulled off her thick scarf, while Angel hurriedly took the child, only speaking after removing her hat, scarf, and gloves.

"Doesn’t this child look very familiar to you? Look closely?"

She drank a cup of hot water handed by Anna, and the sisters examined more closely. An Ran curiously peeked over and then couldn’t help but switch her gaze from An Ran to Anning, then stopped at Anning, and back to An Ran. After repeating this, the two looked up in disbelief.

"Is this true? We heard people saying Mrs. Qian’s wife passed away due to difficult labor, and the child was left at our doorstep by the old lady, yet we had no child, so we assumed it was false, nobody cared. But now it appears to be true?"

An Yi nodded, "I went this time to bring the child back. Before, I lied to the villagers saying I sent her to a welfare home, but actually, I didn’t. I just placed her with another family. You know, during that time I was busy between caring for An Ran and attending classes, the child was just born, what would I do if anything happened due to negligence? But this is An Ran’s younger sister, and I couldn’t bear to throw her away, so I looked for someone to foster her. Today I went to bring her back. When school starts, the child will also go with An Ran for full-time care."

"In spring, you need to change your names, and conveniently register this child’s household, under ours. After all, this is a life, the mother risked her life to bring her into the world, she is the closest person left for An Ran. You can’t find another person with such a close relationship in this world. Just for An Ran, however hard it may be, we need to keep her. I didn’t discuss it with you, not wanting to burden you with worry,"

"Sis, stop being so polite, we are family. You are the head of our family; even we listen to you. The matter of the two children is naturally best decided by you. I also think we should register the household first, after all, such a big child gets a five tael allowance every day!"

Within three years, they get five taels of allowance. The two children’s food costs added up to hundreds of pounds per year, not registering the household is a loss.

First, register under the agricultural household; when entering the city, then switch to urban household.

When asked about her name, An Yi smiled: "I named her Anning. An Ran and Anning, these two sisters are our entire hope from now on."

"Not bad, it’s a beautiful name, Anning. Leaving safely, if their mother knew, she would smile peacefully in the afterlife."

From then on, the An family rarely opened their door, unless to fetch water. Only when passing by their house occasionally could a child’s cry be heard, assumed to be An Ran making a racket, nobody knew the An family had quietly become a family of five.

An Yi would choose to lecture them when the children were asleep; if awake, she’d give the sisters assignments, and when finished, explain them one by one, mainly to cultivate their ability to learn independently.

With the arrival of Anning, An Ran became particularly excited, feeling mom seemed to pay more attention to the little sister, thus An Ran didn’t quite like Anning, using her limited vocabulary to express dissatisfaction. It’s common child behavior in vying for affection, An Yi didn’t feel this was bad, at least it’s instinctual.

Life seemed to return to around this time last year, the sisters taking care of An Ran, considering one born in the tenth lunar month and the other in the ninth lunar month, the mom had a tough time, almost too...pitiful.

Judging from this rhythm, more exaggerated than having two within three years.

Equal to getting pregnant immediately after postpartum, that Qian family man, really... shameless!

By March, the snow started to melt slowly. The An family didn’t idle, running to the county four or five times, finally completing necessary name-change procedures. After changing names, they were all on the same register, with Anning’s registration causing a sensation in the village, even the team leader started regarding An Yi differently.

"If there’s any difficulty, feel free to say so, it’s not easy for you, one salary supporting two kids while taking care of those two sisters. I’m already applying for your family’s martyr’s glorious military recognition. I believe it will be completed in the first half of this year, and once it’s issued, your family can receive an additional allowance for another person. This is the only responsibility I can fulfill."

An Yi, upon hearing, immediately expressed heartfelt gratitude, for she hadn’t hoped for this certificate, as her information wasn’t complete, she couldn’t prove she was the descendant of a martyr, nor anyone to vouch for her. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have dragged on till today.