After the family-planning officials left, Chuntao felt even more frightened.
“Brother Zhijun, what if they really come to take someone away tomorrow? What are we going to do?” Her voice trembled, and her eyes were filled with fear.
Zhou Zhijun reached out and gently rubbed the top of her head. His voice was deep and steady. “Don’t scare yourself. They’re only trying to intimidate us. They wouldn’t dare use force. Even if they really came, they wouldn’t lay a hand on you. I’d stand in their way! I’m strong enough to take whatever comes!”
From the very beginning, Zhou Zhijun had never intended to let Chuntao undergo sterilization. Even after she finished her confinement period, he still wouldn’t let her endure that operation.
Chuntao had risked her life to give him a pair of twins. He had seen all the suffering she’d gone through and felt every bit of it in his heart. If he could, he would have endured it in her place.
As a man, he had to shoulder the sterilization himself.
Chuntao was so delicate and slender. The thought of her going under the knife hurt him more deeply than having flesh carved from his own heart.
He hadn’t made his intentions clear in front of Lin Chun and Shi Yanhua today because he was afraid they would seize on the matter and urge him to go to the clinic first thing tomorrow.
The banquet hadn’t even been held yet, and there was still a mountain of work waiting at home and in the fields. How could he find the time to get sterilized?
Zhou Zhijun had already made up his mind. Once Chuntao finished her confinement and they held a lively celebration for the babies’ first month, her body would have recovered almost completely. Then he would go to the clinic himself.
The operation wouldn’t keep him from going to work on the reservoir.
Chuntao looked up at him in astonishment.
It wasn’t unheard of for men to be sterilized, but she had never heard of one undergoing an actual operation.
In previous years, most men were given sterilization injections, but those injections weren’t very effective. Once the family-planning officials discovered that, they would still drag the wife in for surgery.
Everyone in the village said that if a man got sterilized, his body would weaken. He wouldn’t be able to do heavy labor, and he wouldn’t be any good in bed either.
Zhou Zhijun was the pillar of the family. The old depended on him, the young depended on him, and the entire household relied on him to keep things going. If anything happened to him, how would they survive?
And besides, he was so insatiable. What if he really couldn’t perform anymore…?
The thought made Chuntao both embarrassed and anxious. “No! A man shouldn’t get sterilized!”
Zhou Zhijun sat down on the edge of the bed and gazed at her flushed little face. He took her cool hand into his warm palm, his eyes gentle.
“Why shouldn’t he? If a woman can endure the knife, a man can endure it even more!”
“People say a man’s body will weaken after sterilization, and he won’t be able to do heavy work!” Chuntao lowered her eyes, not daring to look at him, and spoke in a barely audible voice.
“Don’t listen to their nonsense. My body is made of iron. I’m sturdy as can be, so you can put your mind at ease. Once the first-month banquet is over, I’ll go to the clinic and have it done.”
“But don’t you still have to work on the reservoir? How will you work after surgery?” Chuntao tried to dissuade him.
“It’s only a minor operation. It won’t stop me from working. Don’t worry about anything. Just concentrate on taking good care of yourself. That’s more important than anything else.” Zhou Zhijun comforted her gently, leaving no room for further argument.
Chuntao pressed her lips together and fell silent. Then she suddenly remembered that Zhou Zhijun had gone to visit relatives to announce the birth. She looked up at him and asked cautiously, “Brother Zhijun, did you go to Lijia Village?”
Zhou Zhijun’s heart gave a sudden jolt.
He had already heard that Grandma Shen had passed away. Afraid the news would upset Chuntao and harm her health, he had kept it from her, planning to tell her after her confinement.
“I went. The whole family was so busy they barely had time to catch their breath. They were all working in the fields when I arrived.”
“Then… did my sister-in-law Lanhua say anything unpleasant?”
What Chuntao was most worried about was Wang Lanhua’s quarrel with her brother. She was also afraid that her grandmother might resent her.
“She has a good life of her own and didn’t say anything. Your grandma and your brother were delighted when they heard you’d given birth to twins!”
Chuntao wasn’t hoping for gifts from her family. She had simply been raised by her grandmother since childhood, and she had never stopped thinking about the old woman. She wanted to see her when they held the banquet.
The two of them were still talking when Aunt Zhou lifted the curtain and entered the room.
Earlier, she had been washing diapers by the pit at the western end of the village. On her way back, she had spotted Shi Yanhua leading a man and a woman out through their gate. Her heart had tightened at once, and she had quickened her pace home.
When she entered the courtyard and saw Zhou Zhijun’s bicycle, she knew he had returned, and only then did the worry weighing on her heart ease a little.
“Zhijun, Shi Yanhua brought people from the family-planning office to our house?” Aunt Zhou wiped the water from her hands, her expression grave.
“Yeah. They just left.”
“He only got home last night, and they came looking for him today. Someone with a black heart must have reported us behind our backs! Otherwise, how could the commune officials have arrived so quickly?”
Aunt Zhou gritted her teeth angrily, then turned toward Chuntao on the bed. Her voice softened. “There’s no escaping sterilization, but we have to wait until after the month is over!”
“I told them I’d go after the month. They won’t come bother us again,” Zhou Zhijun said solemnly.
The next day, Chuntao spent the entire day in a state of nervous anticipation. It wasn’t until night had fully fallen and the family-planning officials still hadn’t come that she finally relaxed.
Zhou Zhijun sat beside Chuntao. His warm, broad hand gently brushed over her round, soft cheek, and his deep voice carried a hint of indulgence.
“Your little face is getting rounder and rounder. You look even prettier than before.”
The dim lamplight illuminated her long eyelashes as they trembled lightly, like two little fans. His words made Chuntao’s cheeks burn.
“I’ve just gotten fat from eating so much. My face is completely round now!” she muttered.
“You look even better with a little more flesh on you. I like it.” He leaned close to her ear, his voice husky, as though it had been roughened by sandpaper.
“Tao, it’s been so long since I’ve shown you any love. Once your month is over, let me take good care of you and make it up to you!”
As he spoke, one of his hands began to wander, slipping beneath the hem of her clothes.
In an instant, his blood began to race, and every ounce of strength in his body seemed to gather in one place.
“Tao, I’ve missed you so much. Last night I had a dream. Do you know what I dreamed about?”
Chuntao knew it couldn’t have been an innocent dream. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know!” She turned her flushed face toward the wall.
Zhou Zhijun continued, “For three whole days and three whole nights… It felt so good, I can’t even describe it…”
In the dream, he had kept wishing it wouldn’t end—that it wasn’t really a dream. But when he woke up, he discovered that it had been.
Chuntao’s face grew even redder, and her heartbeat quickened. Even her breathing fell out of rhythm.
She shut her eyes and said nothing. Zhou Zhijun continued, “Once your month is over, I’m going to buy us a Simmons mattress. It’ll be soft and comfortable! Then we can sleep on it together, and you won’t have to worry about being hurt by the hard bed anymore!”
“Tao, it’s been so long. Don’t you miss it?”
It wasn’t that Chuntao didn’t miss it. She was simply too shy to admit it.
“You shameless man! I don’t miss it at all!”
“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you don’t miss it! We’re husband and wife. What’s there to be embarrassed about?”
“Stop talking! I don’t want to listen!” Chuntao was already so stirred up that if he continued, she was afraid she would…
Seeing her like that, Zhou Zhijun changed the subject.
“I’m going to hold a grand banquet for the babies’ first month. I’ll even make up for our wedding at the same time!”
Although they had already registered their marriage, Chuntao still harbored a vague uneasiness. She was afraid someone might cause trouble during the banquet.
And what about Wang Lanhua? Would she come and make a scene too?
“I think we should invite only the most important relatives. That should be enough. I’m afraid someone might cause trouble!”
“Who would dare cause trouble?” His hand never stopped moving.
Zhou Zhijun hadn’t had a big white steamed bun in ages, and he’d been craving one terribly.
Now that the two children had eaten their fill and fallen asleep, the restlessness in his heart was impossible to suppress.
“Tao, I’ll just… I won’t do anything else!”
“No! Your mother and the others are still in the east room. What if they come over and catch us?”
But Zhou Zhijun already…
