B5SB -Chapter 176 Leaving Confinement

Grandma Gu carried a bowl of freshly cooked millet porridge and some eggs into the bedroom, but she didn’t see Yu Shanyue—only her little granddaughter and her family of three.

She asked in confusion, “Has that young lady left?”

Lu Huailin took the millet porridge and eggs from Grandma Gu and nodded, then changed the subject: “Grandma, you rest for a while. Your daughter-in-law has me here.”

Hearing this, Grandma Gu didn’t ask further and smiled warmly: “Alright, then I’ll leave Xiaohan in your care.”

Gu Yihan watched Lu Huailin cracking the eggs and felt an instant headache; she couldn’t shake the sense that the smell of chicken droppings was wafting into her nose.

Lu Huailin chuckled at his wife’s disgusted expression. “Not to your taste?”

Gu Yihan looked at him with a face full of grievance. “It’s completely tasteless in my mouth.”

After only a few days of confinement, she had eaten nothing but bland fish soup and chicken soup, or boiled eggs—if there was any variation, it was just brown-sugar poached eggs.

Lu Huailin knew his wife was beginning to feel sick of eggs after eating so many for days in a row, no matter how good they were.

Gu Yihan reluctantly had a little millet porridge mixed with brown sugar but didn’t want to touch the eggs at all.

Frowning, Lu Huailin decided he needed to check the nearby villages—maybe someone was secretly raising pigeons in the mountains—and get something different to change his wife’s appetite.

“Wah…”

Just as Gu Yihan finished her porridge, the baby started crying.

She quickly picked him up to feed him and instructed Lu Huailin to pour a cup of water to let it cool so the little one could have some water after feeding.

Seeing his wife’s movements, Lu Huailin said, “Honey, should we change his diaper first?”

Gu Yihan froze. “It’s the same if we change it after he finishes feeding!”

Lu Huailin patiently explained, “It’s easier to avoid spit-up if he feeds first and then we change the diaper.”

He had learned this from Leng Xiao, who had several children—experience speaking.

Gu Yihan looked at him in puzzlement but handed the baby over.

Just as the little one was starting his meal, he lost it because of his father’s words and started wailing loudly.

But Lu Huailin, a soldier by training, changed the diaper and cleaned him efficiently in one smooth motion.

He quickly returned the baby to Gu Yihan, adjusted his position for easier feeding, and the little one, recognizing the familiar scent, nestled in and began sucking vigorously, pausing to rest when tired before continuing.

Watching this, Gu Yihan laughed. She looked at Lu Huailin and said, “Look at him squinting—how does he find the…”

Halfway through, she caught herself, stopping before saying something inappropriate.

Lu Huailin glanced at his wife’s increasingly rounded and full chest, forcing a controlled smile.

…

Time passed quickly. Before long, Gu Yihan completed her confinement period, though Grandma Gu had her stay an extra two days.

By the weekend, after feeding the little one early and waiting for him to fall asleep, she picked up her laundry and called out to Grandma Gu, who was sitting on the sofa: “Grandma, the baby’s asleep. Listen out for him—I’m going to the military bathhouse.”

Grandma Gu glanced at the clothes in her granddaughter’s hands. “Can’t you just boil some water at home and wash?”

Gu Yihan shook her head repeatedly. Heaven knows what condition she was in. If she hadn’t secretly had Lu Huailin boil water for her to wipe herself at night, she’d probably be smelling awful by now.

On her way to the bathhouse, she ran into Captain Wen’s wife, Wang Erya. “Sister Wang, so early? You’re going to the bathhouse too?”

Wang Erya smiled and looped her arm through Gu Yihan’s other arm. “It’s been so long! I’ve been meaning to thank you.”

Gu Yihan was momentarily puzzled. “Thank me for what?”

“Thanks to Xiaohan, I got a job at the textile factory as a worker,” Wang Erya said, beaming.

Gu Yihan looked at her, genuinely happy for her: “That’s wonderful.”

Wang Erya smiled and nodded. Laughing and chatting, they walked into the bathhouse together.

At that hour, there weren’t many people—just a few scattered patrons.

Gu Yihan used her homemade loofah bath scrub, but as soon as she scrubbed, it released a lot of mud. Startled, she rubbed harder up and down.

One military wife looked curiously at what Gu Yihan was holding and approached her. “Hello, I’m Song Zhi.”

Gu Yihan paused, looking at Song Zhi. Her face was delicate and round, her figure plump—a highly admired look for the time.

She smiled. “Hello, I’m Gu Yihan.”

Though it was awkward to stand naked and greet someone, she couldn’t very well ask her to leave.

Song Zhi pointed at the loofah scrub in Gu Yihan’s hands. “This looks really useful. Where did you buy it?”

Wang Erya turned her head curiously in that direction.

Gu Yihan shook the scrub in her hands, smiling: “You can’t buy this anywhere—it’s handmade.”

Wang Erya, being from the countryside, recognized it as a loofah and explained to Song Zhi: “It’s made from a loofah.”

Instantly, the three women became acquainted over a simple loofah scrub.

Gu Yihan also learned that Song Zhi lived on the third floor of the family quarters, had a four-month-old daughter, and that her mother-in-law was taking care of the baby while she taught middle school at the military school.

Gu Yihan handed the scrub to Wang Erya to help scrub her back.

As Wang Erya scrubbed, mud strips falling off, she exclaimed: “During confinement, you really can’t bathe?”

Song Zhi smiled, looking at Wang Erya’s awkward expression. “When I was in confinement, I was sweating so much and wanted to wipe down, but I feared catching a cold. By the time I finished confinement, I smelled awful.”

Wang Erya sighed: “So you’d better choose the right time to get pregnant if you want to do confinement properly.”

Gu Yihan and Song Zhi exchanged a glance and laughed.

After finishing their bath, the three walked part of the way together before heading to their respective homes.

On the way back, there were more military wives on the road. Gu Yihan stopped to chat briefly with acquaintances.

Jiang Yue watched Gu Yihan walk away and questioned Li Duo beside her: “What’s with you, walking so slowly on purpose?”

Liu Aihua, standing nearby, glared at Li Duo and muttered: “Exactly! I wanted to greet the colonel’s wife too.”

“We’ve been with the unit so long and haven’t gone to thank the colonel for arranging jobs for us.”

Li Duo scowled at Jiang Yue. “Wasn’t it all arranged? We’ll go this afternoon.”

Jiang Yue sneered: “Keep your little schemes to yourself. This isn’t your rural hometown; no one here will indulge you.”

With that, she grabbed Liu Aihua’s hand and walked off.

Li Duo stomped her foot in frustration. Who was she, anyway? Just because Gu Yihan was Lu Huailin’s wife, she went out of her way to flatter her.