Only then did Auntie Dong and Auntie Wang feel relieved.

Now, the supply and marketing cooperative could order bean sprouts from the village as long as the order quantity was not more than 2,000 catties. Every catty was worth 20 cents.

The bill would be settled once a month.

However, the village would have to arrange for the transportation of the bean sprouts to the city.

When the news of the agreement was released, the entire village was very happy. The other villages had all kinds of factories and the villagers had long been envious of others. They did not expect that their village would also have a factory now.

The entire village cheered about the news.

But only one family was immersed in silence.

That was Qiao Zhuang’s family. Other families more or less managed to grow bean sprouts, but Qiao Zhuang’s family had never successfully grown any. It was really infuriating and they did not know why that happened.

So strange!

Qiao Zhuang glanced at Qiao Yu, then picked up a branch beside him and whipped her. “Did I say you need not put in effort!”

“It must be because you’re a money-losing good-for-nothing that we have no bean sprouts. Otherwise, how can it be that we can’t grow bean sprouts? It’s all your fault. I’m going to beat you to death today!”

…

Now that the entire village was making money from the venture, Qiao Mei was willing to start growing bean sprouts again.

After all, almost every household in the entire village could make money from it now, so no one would be jealous of her or report her to the authorities. Instead, everyone would protect this business.

If someone did something to lose their source of income, the entire village would not be happy.

Qiao Mei felt wonderful. When she had time, she stayed at home and made things like cloth diapers and mattresses for the children. After cutting the cloth and sewing them up, she hung the cloth diapers out to dry in the courtyard.

When the villagers saw the pieces of white cloth from afar, they thought that Qiao Qiang had passed away.

Only after asking around did they find out that these were actually items for children.

This was really too lavish. Even a child’s items were made of such good fabric and cut in such big pieces. Could she even finish using them?

Besides, there would be plenty of other things to spend money on in the future.

How could she afford to mess around like that?

Auntie Dong could not stand it anymore. She went to Qiao Mei’s courtyard, held her hand and said earnestly, “Mei Mei, don’t blame me for being naggy. I’m doing this for your sake.”

“For these kid’s stuff, you don’t have to prepare too much. I still have some children’s things at home which my children have no use for now. Why don’t I get them for you?”

“How can we not use things sparingly!”

Qiao Mei smiled and said softly, “Auntie is right. However, I have enough things here. I really don’t want to waste your nice gesture.”

Her smiley face was really infuriating.

Auntie Dong was so angry that she gritted her teeth. If she was her biological daughter, she would definitely teach her a lesson. This was really too wasteful. It would be enough to prepare just a few items, she really did not know how to live frugally.

Qiao Mei put down the needle in her hand and touched her stomach with a blissful smile. She was in fact having two babies. No matter how much she prepared, it would not be too much. Otherwise, she would end up being in a spin when the time comes.

Should she tell the father about the two children?

Qiao Mei thought for a moment and shook her head.

Forget it. Let’s not talk about this for now. Just treat it as a gift for the children’s father.

…

One day, Qiao Mei was sitting in the courtyard when she heard a car coming down the road outside and stopping at the door.

As soon as she went out, she heard the person at the door explain his presence.

There were three packages in the car that had been sent to her by others and he asked her where to place the packages. She asked him to put them in the courtyard and then send the person off.

However, these three large sacks still made Qiao Mei bewildered.

All these should be from Xia Zhe, right?

She wondered what Xia Zhe had sent her. He was in the army, so how could he send anything?

Although Qiao Mei was puzzled, she quickly went to work and started clearing the sacks. There were really a lot of things in these three big sacks.