Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

However, as soon as Wang An entered the house and tried to pick up the two little ones, he suddenly felt a heart-wrenching pain.

The pain caused Wang An's whole body to spasm. He clenched his teeth tightly and instinctively hugged the two little ones tightly in his arms, as if afraid of dropping them to the ground.

Perhaps Wang An used too much force when holding the children, hurting Xingfu and Kuaile, which caused the two little ones to cry out loud.

Upon seeing this, Mu Xueqing, who was standing nearby, and Huang Li, who was soothing the children by the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), quickly took the two little ones from them.

Immediately afterwards, Mu Xueqing and Huang Li said in alarm at almost the same time:

"Xiao An, are you alright?"

"Big brother, what's wrong?"

After a moment's pause, Wang An smiled and changed the subject:
"It's nothing, nothing at all. My eldest son and daughter are growing so fast! They must weigh at least 30 pounds together. I remember they were only this small when they were born, not even 5 months old yet, and they've grown so big already, hahaha."

As he spoke, Wang An even stretched out his two hands to demonstrate the length.

Mu Xueqing didn't reply, but instead said in a trembling voice with red eyes:
“From now on, we won’t do anything. We’ll just stay home and take care of ourselves, okay? Anyway, we have more money than we can spend in ten lifetimes.”

As she spoke, Mu Xueqing blinked her beautiful big eyes hard to stop the tears from flowing out.

Wang An felt a pang of heartache seeing Mu Xueqing's expression. He gently smoothed a strand of hair at her temple and chuckled as he echoed her sentiments:
"Okay, I'll listen to you. I won't do anything from now on. I'll just lie on the kang (heated brick bed) all day and stay there, hehehe."

Mu Xueqing remained silent, head bowed as she comforted the child, tears streaming down her face.

Seeing this, Wang An put his arm around Mu Xueqing's shoulder, pulled her into his arms, and said with a smile:
"Look at you, why are you crying? You're being so pathetic."

"The doctors all say I'm in good health and recovering incredibly fast, so don't worry, everything's fine. I'm just not fully recovered yet, I just stretched a little. Don't cry."

Wang An comforted Mu Xueqing like a child, wiping away her tears as he did so. After a long while, he finally calmed her down.

Huang Li held Kuai Le silently. Seeing that Mu Xueqing was better, she suddenly whispered to Wang An:

"Big brother, what's wrong?"

Wang An turned his head and smiled, saying:

"It's nothing serious, I just got slapped by a big paw."

After a pause, Wang An, looking quite smug at the already shocked oriole, continued:

“Let me tell you, Little Oriole, that big claw only ambushed me. Otherwise, with my skills and marksmanship, I’m not bragging, but dealing with that big claw would be a piece of cake.”

The oriole, her face filled with shock, pressed on with the question:

"Big brother, you ran away after that big claw hit you?"

Wang An shook his head and then said in a pretentious manner:

"Do you think we'd let him get away? Ambush him and then run? Are you kidding me? I 'bang bang bang bang bang,' and I'd take him down in a few shots. How about that? Isn't that awesome, bro?"

As he spoke, Wang An also stole glances at Mu Xueqing.

The main point is that although Wang An's words were ostensibly addressed to Huang Li, he actually intended for Mu Xueqing to hear them.

Mu Xueqing rolled her eyes at Wang An and simply snorted in displeasure.

The oriole, however, readily agreed and said:

"Yeah, big brother, you're so mean."

After saying that, Huang Li even gave Wang An a thumbs-up with an expression of admiration.

Wang An laughed heartily, his face full of smugness and boastfulness.

Turning his head, Wang An suddenly asked Mu Xueqing:
"Honey, how did you know I got slapped by that big paw?"

Mu Xueqing glanced towards the outer room and said softly:

"That day, Dad and Mom were whispering to each other, and I overheard them."

After saying this, Mu Xueqing still had a smug look on her face.

Wang An was taken aback upon hearing this, his eyes widening in disbelief. He'd been keeping it a secret perfectly well, so why did these two have to gossip about it? Didn't they know the old saying, "Walls have ears"?

Spring passed and winter came again, and in the blink of an eye, it was December 1982.

After taking Chinese medicine for three months and resting for six months, Wang An finally made a complete recovery after more than nine months.

To be honest, those nine months were incredibly difficult for Wang An. No, it wasn't just difficult; it was agonizing.

Yes, it was torture. Day after day, you couldn't do anything, you were completely helpless. How could a young man in his twenties bear that?

Most importantly, Wang An couldn't provide physical and emotional comfort to numerous women, which is the most despicable thing.

In the past year, the two little babies, Happiness and Joy, have learned to say some simple words, such as "Dad," "Mom," "Grandpa," and "Grandma," and they have also learned to walk.

To be honest, for adults, it's more tiring to coax two toddlers who can walk than toddlers who can't walk yet.

The main problem is that if you can't see them at a glance, they can disappear anywhere. If you're not careful, they can disappear without you even noticing.

What's most infuriating about these two kids is that they always run to the doghouse and lie on top of the big black dog and other dogs, refusing to get down.

The dogs, including Dahei, were utterly despondent. The main problem was that Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli had finally grown up and stopped causing trouble for them, but now two even younger puppies had appeared.

Of the two children, Wang An was most pleased with his daughter, because she had completely inherited Mu Xueqing's beautiful genes and looked exceptionally beautiful, even more beautiful than an angel.

What Wang An was definitely dissatisfied with was his eldest son.

The main reason is that the two children are twins, and they look almost identical, so Wang An felt that his eldest son looked like a girl.

Because he is also very handsome.

That's right, it's because he's handsome. He's a boy who looks very handsome, which is why Wang An is very dissatisfied with his son's appearance.

In Wang An's opinion, men must have a strong sense of masculinity. They can't be as fierce as Zhang Fei or Li Kui, resembling wild beasts, but they also can't be as handsome as Pan An or Song Yu, captivating countless young women!

Unfortunately, her eldest son turned out to be quite the opposite, developing a face that resembled that of Pan An and Song Yu. He was so handsome that people would believe he was a young girl.

If this were in later generations, then Kuaile would be a true heartthrob, the kind of guy who's especially popular with girls.

This caused Wang An to worry every time he looked at his son, and he thought that if things really didn't work out, he would have his son undergo plastic surgery. Others would get plastic surgery to look better, but his son would have to be made to look uglier.

These days are driving me crazy with worry!

Of course, the main reason why Wang An had all sorts of random ideas was because he was too idle; to put it bluntly, he was "meddling in other people's business."

Besides these, some other things happened during these nine months.

This spring, Sun Dafu and other leaders of Kaoshantun finally decided to contract out all 1 mu of barren mountains and 1 mu of wasteland that had been agreed to be contracted out last year to the villagers of Kaoshantun.

Whether it's a barren mountain or wasteland, the contract period is 70 years. The initial payment must be for 5 years' worth of contract fees, and the remaining contract fees must be paid in full within 10 years without any delays.

If payment is not made by the deadline, not only will the initial payment not be refunded, but the land will also be taken back by the village committee and re-contracted out.

To be honest, the pressure of these contract fees is quite significant for the contractor.

The contracting fees are really not expensive, and can even be said to be very cheap, because the contracting fee for wasteland is 5 yuan per mu per year, and the contracting fee for barren hills is 1 yuan per mu per year.

In other words, the annual contract fee for 100 mu of wasteland is only 500 yuan. If it is cultivated well, even if corn is planted on 100 mu of land, the annual yield will be at least 100,000 jin.

If we calculate based on the price of corn at this time, 10 jin of corn would be worth 3500 yuan. After deducting expenses such as seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, you would still have at least 2500 yuan left.

In other words, if you farm normally at this time, you can earn back the contract fee for 5 years in just one year. For the remaining 4 years, whatever you earn is yours.

Of course, the reason for this calculation is that although the wasteland becomes arable land after reclamation, it does not require the payment of public grain.

Of course, when it comes to farming, you can't take natural disasters into account; if you did, you wouldn't need to farm at all.

What was unexpected was that, despite the huge difference in contracting fees between barren mountains and wasteland, many people in the village took out all their savings and rushed to contract the wasteland. In the end, Wang An's family only managed to contract 300 mu of wasteland, which was better than nothing.

Unlike wasteland, which everyone was scrambling to contract, barren mountains were unwanted. So, at Wang An's insistence, Wang Dazhu contracted all 1000 mu of barren mountains.

It might not be immediately apparent, but Wang An knew that even if this barren mountain were left unattended for over a decade, it would instantly transform into a golden goose laying golden eggs every day. (End of Chapter)