Chronicle of the 70s-Chapter 312 - 301: Second Update on Childbirth

In October, the weather in the capital had already cooled down. Li Xianglu had another check-up and confirmed that she was expecting twins, who were both very healthy. With only six months of pregnancy, her belly looked as though she was about to give birth any moment.

Li Jianqing had reached eight months of pregnancy, with just over a month until delivery, and her belly was not small either. She had started resting at home since last month, often getting the old man’s driver to take her to the quadrangle for a free meal and drink, before her father would pick her up after work in the afternoon.

Sister Xing alone was clearly not enough help. So Xu Wu arranged for a girl around seventeen or eighteen to join in. The girl’s name was Leng Qing, and fitting her name, she often kept a cold expression. However, she was very efficient at her tasks, could drive, and even knew some martial arts. Whenever Li Xianglu went out shopping or for walks, she would accompany her.

With Leng Qing there, things at Qin Xi’s house became much more relaxed, but at work, there was no downtime; the usual business affairs and the plans he and Xu Wu had made in private.

Back when the bomb incident happened at the great hall, Qin Xi took Li Xianglu to a hollow in the mountains on the outskirts near Beihai in the capital, where Lao Qi had found some particularly unusual ore, which later turned out to be a gold mine.

Back in the ’80s, there wasn’t any concept of contracting the land, but concerning the old coal mine in the hollow, Qin Xi managed to get the piece of land to become enterprise-owned.

Now that Xu Wu had returned, they discussed it and decided to let Xu Wu develop that area.

As for how to divide the profits, the two didn’t talk about it—it was completely unnecessary. Xu Wu’s trust in Qin Xi was somewhat strange. Why would he be so assured and trust him with the gold mine without trying to take any for himself?

In fact, Qin Xi wasn’t just being trusting; he knew the Xu Wu of his past life.

Xu Wu was a man who valued friendship more than life itself, and grudges were no different.

In his previous life, the person who saved Xu Wu was Qin Miao, who married the grandson adopted back into the family by her old man, Tu Gou, and so the three were against himself. Xu Wu, that guy, was like a rabid dog—once he targeted someone, he would not stop until he took them down.

This life, according to his own design, he saved Xu Wu and let the kind-hearted Li Xianglu take care of him, planting the seed. Consequently, in this life, the previous enemies were now working together.

Even so, Xu Wu still felt it strange that Qin Xi trusted him so much, so he asked Li Xianglu.

Li Xianglu chuckled and said, "You’re my brother, why wouldn’t he trust you?"

Xu Wu laughed; he liked this reasoning.

Li Huan’s wounds hadn’t fully healed yet. The injury was close to his heart—he had been shot three times and lost a lot of blood. He barely survived, relying on his sheer willpower to pull through.

Ever since returning from the Bay area, he had been staying in the quadrangle here. Obviously, there was not enough space for everyone, and the last three rooms of the guest house had been taken. Although Qin Zhen had nominally moved out, he still stayed here with Li Jianqing whenever he came back.

Li Jianqing needed a room of her own, as did the newly arrived Leng Qing, as well as Li Huan, who was recovering from his injuries, and Xu Wu, who stayed over from time to time.

The courtyard was overcrowded. Annoyed, Su Yan simply bought the empty house across the street. The courtyard was about the same size as theirs, but the houses inside were so old they could not be inhabited without complete renovations. The price wasn’t cheap either, at two hundred thousand yuan.

That was a full one hundred and ten or twenty thousand yuan more expensive than when they bought their current house, showing how sharply housing prices had risen recently.

And money was the least of Su Yan’s problems. Without bargaining, she bought it directly and even put it under Li Xianglu’s name.

And Xu Wu proactively took on the task of house repairs, commencing the work in the dead of winter.

For some reason, after Xu Wu’s involvement, the Zhou family never showed up again. Li Xianglu had been worried that after Zhou Qingfang’s arrest, that old lady from the Zhou family would surely come to make trouble. Yet they stayed away, even when Zhou Qingfang received her sentence.

Speaking of which, Zhou Qingfang was indeed pitiable, having rashly agreed to Pu Jianxin’s request.

Zhou Qingfang was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. Although the robbery was not successful, it was the most severe premeditated robbery in the capital in the next ten years. If Li Xianglu hadn’t sensed something was wrong, the bank would have lost at least millions in deposits and gold.

Pu Jianxin was given a life sentence; he attempted suicide twice while in custody, luckily discovered in time.

The other accomplices are not worth mentioning, and the guy from the Bay that Pu Jianxin snitched on never appeared again. After all, the 1980s were different from future decades with advanced networking. Back then, you couldn’t just pull up surveillance to easily get a photo of the criminals, so the guy vanished without a trace.

Nevertheless, Xu Wu didn’t give up. Introduced by Qin Xi, he got to know Lao Ba and others, paying his respects at various piers in the capital, getting acquainted with many people from different factions.

By mid-November, Xiong Youxin’s paperwork was all set. Li Xianglu cooked a pot of tea eggs, marinated some beef, steamed buns, brought four fragrant melons, and a large bag of clothes and shoes to send him off on his journey.

Xu Wu happened to be traveling to Shanghai, so he took Xiong Youxin with him to rendezvous with Xu Xi.

Before leaving, the naughty kid looked at Li Xianglu’s swollen belly with great regret, saying, "I won’t be able to see my little nephews being born."

Li Xianglu rolled her eyes. In fact, they didn’t know the sex of the baby, but the naughty kid insisted that Li Xianglu’s womb carried nephews, always referring to them as such. Xu Wu also insisted, and the two of them formed an alliance, strikingly in sync.

After Xu Wu left, Qin Zhen came back. He had long known Xu Wu would return and was extremely excited; the kid who could eat even more than him was coming back.

But Xu Wu went to Shanghai as soon as he arrived, which was a tremendous regret for Qin Zhen. However, he soon forgot about Xu Wu the moment he saw Lu Anna’s belly, bulging like a ball.

Every day, he spoke to Lu Anna’s belly, claiming it was to cultivate a bond with the child.

Lu Anna was only half a month away from giving birth, so Qin Zhen applied to take his exams early and came back ahead of time.

But man’s plans can’t compete with heaven’s; three days after Qin Zhen returned, Lu Anna gave birth prematurely.

After a day and a night, she delivered a big, chubby girl, weighing seven pounds and eight ounces. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Qin Zhen’s eyes were red from lack of sleep, but his excitement was beyond words. He found the reddish, indistinct feature of his child beautiful and kept telling the visiting Qin Xi and Li Xianglu that his daughter was the eldest.

Ever since Lu Anna gave birth, Qin Xi’s complexion hadn’t been good. After a check-up, the doctor said it was due to high blood pressure.

Li Xianglu was startled; Qin Xi was only twenty-four, how could she have high blood pressure?

Upon asking, the doctor noted it was due to excessive emotional tension.

Li Xianglu became dejected. It seemed that Qin Xi had what was known in past lives as pre-partum anxiety syndrome. With no choice, Li Xianglu kept reassuring Qin Xi that she wouldn’t have a difficult birth. But this only scared Qin Xi, sending her blood pressure up again.