Right! It started from that day…

Xiaoguo suddenly remembered that Zhuang Zhuang started behaving like this when he returned from the county that day.

“What did they do again on that day?”

Oh, right. Xiaoguo remembered. Was Zhuang Zhuang unhappy that he didn’t get to stay with Qin Anming and had to come back early?

That was impossible. Zhuang Zhuang was definitely not like that.

Xiaoguo immediately dismissed the idea. Zhuang Zhuang’s love for her was real. Although he liked his uncle very much, she was definitely number one on his list. She was very sure of that.

“Then what could it be?”

Xiaoguo stopped cutting the leeks and stared blankly at the knife in her hand. At this moment, Zhuang Zhuang came over. As soon as he entered, he said to Xiaoguo, “Mother, I’m hungry.”

Xiaoguo was startled and her hands jerked. The knife nearly cut her hands. Seeing this, Zhuang Zhuang quickly ran over and grabbed Xiaoguo’s hand to check. He felt even more regretful. Why did he suddenly make a sound and scare his mother?

Xiaoguo comforted Zhuang Zhuang. “It’s fine. Zhuang Zhuang, look at my hands. It’s fine. It’s fine.”

Zhuang Zhuang checked carefully to make sure that there was no blood before he felt assured.

Xiaoguo’s earlier thoughts were suddenly interrupted. Now all she could think about was cooking. Zhuang Zhuang was hungry.

“Zhuang Zhuang, beat the eggs. We’ll have chives, eggs, and dumplings.”

Xiaoguo hurriedly chopped the chives and instructed Zhuang Zhuang to beat the eggs. Zhuang Zhuang’s expression remained the same as he nodded obediently.

Night came. Xiaoguo, who was preparing to sleep, had just put Zhuang Zhuang to bed. She had just blown out the candles and was laying on the pillow when her mind suddenly cleared up. She remembered something!

Xiaoguo turned to look at Zhuang Zhuang’s sleeping face and felt a little upset. So that was what had happened.

When Zhuang Zhuang stopped in the county to look at the notice board, he could recognize the words on it. From then on, Zhuang Zhuang looked like he had a lot on his mind.

Xiaoguo thought carefully about the details. During the first notice, Zhuang Zhuang was still fine. He even joked with Xiaoguo. When the second notice was posted, Zhuang Zhuang seemed to have stopped talking.

The second letter was about the ordinary people in the military camp being allowed to return to their hometown. Did Zhuang Zhuang remember his father, whom he had never met?

This explains why he was so depressed.

But what should she do? Xiaoguo really didn’t know how to resolve this matter. Zhuang Zhuang missed his father. Where is she going to find a father for him?

Looking at Zhuang Zhuang’s fair and tender face, Xiaoguo had a sleepless night for once. She tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. She only managed to close her eyes at dawn.

But she was soon woken up by a commotion outside. Xiaoguo sat up abruptly. Her mind was in a daze and her vision was a patch of black. Startled, she quickly lay down and closed her eyes to rest.

“Oh my, this is bad.” The bout of dizziness almost made her pass out.She really shouldn’t get abruptly out of bed.

As Xiaoguo closed her eyes to rest, the noise outside seemed to have grown louder again. Xiaoguo listened carefully, but she couldn’t hear much. She could only hear the occasional faint cries.

Xiaoguo got out of bed and put on her clothes. Without waking Zhuang Zhuang up, she went out alone to see what was going on.

When she opened the door of the room, she could hear weeping sounds coming from outside the courtyard even more clearly now. It was accompanied by muffled voices. Frowning, Xiaoguo walked towards the front door. What was happening?

She had just opened the door and was walking towards the source of the voice, when she bumped into Mrs. Yang, who was just coming out of her door. It was obvious that Mrs. Yang had also been woken up by the noise.

“Sister-in-law.”

Mrs. Yang sighed and followed Xiaoguo.

Along the way, the two of them speculated about the reason. When they arrived, they saw a few men who had returned together standing in front of their respective houses. The women who had been waiting for their return were crying at the door.

Finally seeing the person they had been thinking about day and night, the women had tears on their faces, but they were also smiling. Even the children were happily nestled in their fathers’ arms.

Xiaoguo knew the reason at a glance. It turned out that a few men had come back together. Xiaoguo had thought that the men would all come back in a large group but it turned out that they were coming back in individual groups.

Xiaoguo didn’t feel anything. When Mrs. Yang saw this scene, she was so excited that she was almost in tears. She tried her best to look into the crowd to see if her husband was among them.

Xiaoguo was worried about Zhuang Zhuang. Seeing that Mrs. Yang was still standing there with no intention of leaving, Xiaoguo had no choice but to let her know that she was leaving.

On the way back, she saw some women in the village running out of their houses towards the entrance of the village. Since there were already men coming back, their men should definitely be back soon.

Everyone was dressed up and were rushing to the village entrance to wait for their husbands.

Among them was Li Zhaodi, who had not appeared for a long time. Her anger had only subsided recently. Fortunately, she managed to recover before the men returned.

At this moment, she was wearing a set of new clothes. Her hair was styled and her face was powdered.

When she passed by Xiaoguo, she glared at her, but didn’t stop to say anything else. She was in a hurry to get to the village entrance, so she didn’t have time to spend on Qin Xiaoguo.

Xiaoguo looked at her in confusion. Why did Li Zhaodi’s clothes look so familiar?

She looked down at herself. “Those look just like my clothes.”

In ancient times, there were also copycats…

Xiaoguo shook her head helplessly and walked home.

When she got home, Zhuang Zhuang had just woken up. His big eyes were rolling around, and he happened to meet Xiaoguo’s eyes.

“Mother, why is it so noisy outside?”

Zhuang Zhuang got up and leaned against the bedpost. Xiaoguo walked over, thinking about what to say.

“Some of the men have returned from the army.”

As Xiaoguo spoke, Zhuang Zhuang nodded without any surprise in his eyes.

Xiaoguo’s eyes darkened. As expected, Zhuang Zhuang had recognized the words on the notice. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so calm.

What happened in the morning did not affect Xiaoguo and Zhuang Zhuang at all. The two of them continued with their daily routine.

Zhuang Zhuang seemed to have forgotten about this matter. He returned to his normal state and continued joking around with Xiaoguo.

Seeing him like this, Xiaoguo didn’t appear worried, but she was actually worried sick.

Zhuang Zhuang was definitely not as calm as he looked on the surface, and she was helpless because she had no way to resolve it.

If Zhuang Zhuang was tired, she could give him a massage. If he was hungry, she could cook. But he was missing his father now. Xiaoguo really had no solution.

She didn’t know why Zhuang Zhuang was so hung up about his father. He must be yearning for fatherly love in his heart. And fatherly love was something that couldn’t be replaced by her maternal love.

Xiaoguo really had no choice at this moment. Zhuang Zhuang would definitely not take the initiative to tell her, and she wouldn’t be able to get anything out of him.

But looking at Zhuang Zhuang, who has something bothering him at such a young age, she really didn’t feel good.

“Zhuang Zhuang.”

“Mother, I’ll see if there are any eggs.”

Before Xiaoguo could say anything, Zhuang Zhuang interrupted her.

With that, Zhuang Zhuang ran out. Xiaoguo sat alone on the bed and looked at Zhuang Zhuang’s small figure. “Sigh, what an unsolvable problem…”