AYLS – Chapter 125

After finishing her meal, Lin Qiao headed over to the chicken farm. Everyone was still talking about what had happened in the provincial capital.

Li Ermei stood off to the side with her child on her back, listening with a sour expression. She kept muttering about how she had really missed a great opportunity, lamenting how tough life was for women.

Xiao Ming’s mom said, “You were the one who wanted to have a baby. Now you complain like this. If you didn’t want kids, you could’ve just not had one.”

Li Ermei replied, “I do want a child, but if men could give birth, I would’ve definitely made my man do it.”

“Then why don’t you let your family’s Comrade Instructor Chen give it a try?”

Everyone burst into laughter.

Lin Qiao laughed along. Seeing how Li Ermei was so angry she was biting her lip, Lin Qiao consoled her, “You’ll have chances in the future. We might have plenty of opportunities to collaborate with the provincial livestock farms later on.”

Li Ermei brightened. “Really?”

“Why would I lie to you? Don’t rush, don’t rush. You can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry — wasn’t that what you said yourself?”

Li Ermei huffed, “We’re not rushing. Hmph.”

She glanced outside again. “Why isn’t Li Yan here yet? Don’t let it be something serious.”

“Can’t you say something nice for once?” Su Weizhen glared at her.

Li Ermei actually shrank back a little, bouncing the child strapped to her back.

Inside the clinic, Zhang Tuo and Li Yan stared at the military doctor in disbelief.

“What are you looking at me for? Listen carefully to the instructions. There’s no problem at all — your body is in good condition. Everything is a normal reaction. It’ll get better after a while.”

Zhang Tuo asked, stammering, “So… she’s really pregnant?”

“Comrade Zhang Tuo, didn’t you listen to a word I said? Yes, she’s pregnant. Last time Comrade Li Ermei also came here to be examined. I even researched this field more thoroughly afterwards. If you don’t believe me, you can go to the hospital and check again.”

“No, no, no — I trust you completely.” Zhang Tuo was so excited he could barely string his words together.

Li Yan was also wide-eyed, unable to believe she’d conceived so quickly.

She felt nervous, afraid she might not be a good mother — but she was also overjoyed.

After leaving the clinic, Zhang Tuo insisted on going to the hospital for another checkup. Li Yan didn’t agree.

Then he said he should take leave from work — she was experiencing morning sickness, after all, and needed rest.

“No. Ermei didn’t take leave back then. I don’t want to either. And it’s not a health issue — it’ll pass in a few days.”

Zhang Tuo still wanted to persuade her, but Li Yan said, “I hope our child can be strong. I don’t want us to teach them to avoid problems from the beginning. After the baby is born, we’ll raise them ourselves. We won’t send them back to the capital.”

“We’ll raise them ourselves?” Zhang Tuo was stunned, because earlier they had discussed sending the child to the capital for the elders to help raise if they couldn’t manage.

“Yes. I’ve been thinking — if they grow up in the capital, they’ll end up just like we did. That’s not what I want.”

Zhang Tuo looked at her, touched to the core. Just as he was about to say something heartfelt, Li Yan suddenly beamed. “I need to hurry and tell Xiao Qiao and the others this great news.”

“…”

…

When Li Yan rushed over, everyone immediately asked how she was feeling.

Lin Qiao said, “If you’re unwell, just rest at home.”

“I’m not unwell.” Li Yan looked a bit embarrassed. “I’m… expecting.”

“Ah—!” Lin Qiao was shocked.

Why did everyone just say “I’m pregnant” like announcing the weather?

The others happily congratulated Li Yan, saying she and Zhang Tuo were at the perfect age to have a baby.

Li Ermei also cheered, “Oh my goodness, that’s wonderful! Our families are close in age — if you have boys they can be brothers; if you have girls they can become in-laws.”

Su Weizhen couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Stop thinking about arranging child betrothals.”

“What’s wrong with that? Xiao Qiao was also a child betrothal.”

Lin Qiao: “…”

The room buzzed with excitement, and Li Yan’s face turned red. Lin Qiao shooed everyone back to work and pulled Li Yan inside to rest. “No wonder your reactions were so strong before. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have let you go out with us. You suffered for nothing, didn’t you?”

“No, even if I’d known, I would’ve gone. Opportunities like that are rare.” Li Yan laughed. Lin Qiao glanced at her belly curiously. “Do you feel anything?”

“No, nothing at all. I just feel happy.”

Lin Qiao truly admired them; they didn’t seem worried at all about the pain of childbirth.

Li Yan said, “Xiao Qiao, once you become a mother someday, you’ll understand how magical this feeling is.”

Lin Qiao shook her head. “You and Ermei are so brave. I couldn’t do it. I’m scared of pain.”

“I’m scared too, but compared to that, I want someone to inherit my ideals and aspirations even more.”

“Chicken farming?”

“…No. I mean watching them grow into someone with ideals and ambition. Someone who won’t repeat my past mistakes.”

Hearing her, Lin Qiao suddenly felt a pang in her chest. As a daughter, she couldn’t help thinking that her father, Comrade Lin Dajin, had never once thought about her inheriting his ideals or ambitions.

Even though Li Yan was pregnant, she still insisted on working.

Lin Qiao fully supported her. In this era, hard work seemed to be embedded in everyone’s bones.

After the tasks at the chicken farm were assigned, Lin Qiao and Su Weizhen went to the logistics office to discuss the matter of the provincial breeding farm with Director Jiang.

The provincial breeding farm wanted to take eggs from their chicken farm to use as hatching eggs and incubate chicks themselves. This didn’t affect their farm at all, since they already supplied eggs daily to the families in the military compound and the military district cafeteria.

Those eating eggs didn’t need special breeds.

Director Jiang said, “They already talked to me about this. Since you think it’s fine, I have no objections. I also hope the breed you’re developing can be expanded. That would be good for the common people.”

With support from the logistics office, Lin Qiao and Su Weizhen exchanged delighted glances.

Although neither said it aloud, expanding the breed from their space-raised chickens had always been their goal.

They wanted more people to benefit from the advantages of the space.

After receiving the reply, the provincial breeding farm quickly set a date with them for the first egg exchange.

And because hatching eggs were more valuable than regular eggs — one hatching egg could be exchanged for two regular eggs — the military compound’s families were more than willing to go without eating eggs for a while so they could save them up for more trades.

Lin Qiao and her team not only saved hatching eggs for the provincial farm, but also incubated many chicks for themselves.

Batch after batch of fluffy chicks emerged from the incubation room, and the entire chicken farm bustled with life.

The weather grew hotter.

The chicken population expanded steadily, and despite the large scale, their monthly losses remained small. The survival rate had reached ninety percent.

This was data they could hardly have imagined.

The Logistics Department valued the project even more than the previous year, coming for inspections almost every week.

Even the provincial breeding farm, after exchanging eggs to incubate chicks, was stunned by the final results once they hatched.

They called to ask Lin Qiao about the average hatch rate at their chicken farm.

After receiving the exact numbers, the breeding farm’s director was thrilled. “Unbelievable. We’ve been sitting on a treasure mountain without realizing it. When it comes to breed selection, we really fell behind.”

Lin Qiao and Su Weizhen felt embarrassed listening to that.

The provincial breeding farm’s director expressed his hope for deeper cooperation. From now on, Lin Qiao’s side would specialize in supplying hatching eggs, while the provincial farm would continue bartering with regular eggs. This would ensure their breed expanded faster.

In their words, letting such good hatching eggs be eaten would be an absolute waste.

They would rather not eat eggs—every one of these should be saved to hatch into chickens that would lay even more eggs in the future.

With that, the number of eggs Lin Qiao provided each month to the military compound families and the military district cafeteria actually increased.

After discussing with the Logistics Department, Sister-in-law Zhang felt that the chicken farm needed even more support.

With such a good breed, if they could expand it, it would benefit countless ordinary people.

They needed to take even better care of it. So they directly instructed Comrade Lin Qiao to continue expanding the team.

They aimed to have all military families join the chicken-raising initiative, putting in the same enthusiasm they once had during land reclamation.

They wanted to make the chicken farm thrive and grow.

Lin Qiao was overjoyed. That evening, during a meal with Su Weizhen, Ermei, and Li Yan, she excitedly talked about it, unable to find the right words.

“When I first started raising chickens, I thought it was just my wishful thinking. At the time, I only hoped the hens would lay eggs so the children could eat better. Though I secretly imagined one day expanding the chicken flock, I never thought it would happen this fast. With the organization’s strong support, I’m really, really confident now.”

Li Ermei said, “Who could’ve guessed you’d be so lucky—finding such amazing eggs. Your luck is really something else.”

Lin Qiao instinctively looked at Su Weizhen.

Su Weizhen coughed lightly. “There’s always the rare chance. Xiao Qiao just happened to catch it.”

Lin Qiao nodded. “Exactly. Maybe if it had been someone else, they’d have had the same luck. What matters isn’t me, but that this chicken flock ended up here in our Huaguo.”

Li Yan said excitedly, “Even if it started by chance, it only became inevitable because of everyone’s hard work.”

Li Ermei raised her cup of brown sugar water. “Alright, stop saying things I don’t understand. Come on, cheers.”

They all picked up their enamel cups and drank the sweet brown sugar water.

Li Ermei asked, “Once things settle down here, are you two leaving?”

Hearing that, Lin Qiao and Su Weizhen froze and looked at each other.

Then both nodded.

Lin Qiao partly missed Gu Huayuan, and partly felt her mission here was nearly complete—she could finally return to her own world. She needed to hurry and finish her progress bar.

As for Su Weizhen, she was worried about Lin Qiao’s future with Gu Huayuan, hoping to prepare things ahead of time.

She also missed Xu Yuanzheng. She feared her arrival would affect his fate, and she wanted to get back early to keep an eye on things.

With that, the excitement in the room dimmed a little.

Li Ermei took a sip of sugar water. “Well, it’s fine. Isn’t there a saying that no banquet lasts forever?”

“It’s ‘all feasts must come to an end,’” Li Yan corrected.

“Same meaning. After eating and drinking, everyone goes home. Worst case, we write letters later.”

Su Weizhen said, “Ermei, you’d better practice your handwriting more. Otherwise I won’t be able to read your letters.”

Li Ermei: “…You’re unbelievable, Su Weizhen. You’re about to leave, and you still haven’t let go of old grudges—you just have to jab at me whenever you can.”

Su Weizhen replied calmly, “I can’t forget.”

Lin Qiao and Li Yan couldn’t help but cover their mouths, laughing.

…

The chicken farm still wasn’t completely stable, so Lin Qiao obviously couldn’t leave anytime soon.

She wasn’t in a hurry anyway. The hardest days were over; all that remained was wrapping up the final work.

But someone else couldn’t wait anymore—and wrote her a letter.

In it, Gu Huayuan asked about her work, whether she had encountered any difficulties, and expressed great concern for the chicken farm’s situation.

Lin Qiao felt a bit sour and complained to Su Weizhen that he’d been gone so long, yet wrote back asking only about her work. Not a word about her.

Su Weizhen laughed, “Only work? Nothing else?”

“Nope. All about work. Asking the chicken farm’s scale, how many workers we have, how things are progressing.”

Su Weizhen covered her mouth, laughing. “Do you really not understand, or are you pretending?”

Lin Qiao raised a brow. “Understand what?”

“He’s so worried about your work because he wants to know when you’ll finish and when you can join him.”

Lin Qiao: “…Seriously, he could just say it outright. Why talk in circles?”

This Gu Huayuan—if she hadn’t come into his life, he probably would’ve stayed single forever. When she left, what would become of him? What if that personality of his made it impossible for him to find a wife?

He really made people worry.