A charming widow in her 70s married a factory manager and raised his children.

The idea was quickly suppressed by Zhuang Qingxiang.

It's already difficult enough for her to stay; she doesn't dare to hope for anything else.

No matter how kind-hearted Director Lu is, he will not tolerate such unreasonable demands.

Zhuang Qingxiang hugged and kissed her obedient daughter: "Yueyue, when you turn seven, Mommy will send you to school, okay?"

"Okay," Xiao Qianyue replied happily.

Zhuang Qingxiang calculated in her mind that if Director Lu was willing to let her stay and breastfeed her child until he was one year old, she could earn eleven months' salary.

Five yuan a month, eleven months would be fifty-five yuan.

The accommodation and meals are included, so even if there are unexpected expenses, there should be more than 40 yuan left, which is more than enough for my daughter's tuition.

However, life had to go on after eleven months. There was still money needed for accommodation and daily expenses, so they had to find a way to earn some more.

While busy, Zhuang Qingxiang was also thinking about how to make money after settling down with Director Lu.

Since she can't breastfeed now, she cooks rice porridge to keep the baby fed, which is enough to get by.

After applying heat as the doctor suggested, I felt much better.

But the nights are hard to endure.

I can't feed my baby all day, and my breasts swell up painfully at night.

Zhuang Qingxiang secretly lifted the curtain a crack and saw Lu Congyue lying on the small bed as if he was asleep. She then lowered her head and quickly went out to fetch hot water to apply as a hot compress.

She tried applying heat and squeezing the affected area, but after a lot of effort, it didn't help much, so she had to ask her daughter for help.

"Yueyue, help your mother suck again." She lowered her voice to the lowest level, afraid of waking the man sleeping outside.

In the outer room, the man lying on the small bed had his eyes closed and his fists clenched, lying like a stone sculpture.

The woman's noises inside the house didn't stop all night, constantly drilling into his ears. He really wanted to go out and swim in the river right now, but he couldn't leave.

There was still rice porridge simmering on the small stove, and he had to keep an eye on it.

After finally getting the room quiet, Lu Congyue closed his eyes and forced himself to sleep. He had just drifted off to sleep when he was startled awake by the loud crying of a baby.

Lu Congyue sat up abruptly, and upon hearing Zhuang Qingxiang soothing the child, immediately asked, "What's wrong?"

Zhuang Qingxiang was startled; she thought Lu Congyue had already gone to sleep.

"They must be hungry, I'll go get them..."

"I'll go get it," Lu Congyue interrupted her, and went directly to the kitchen to bring over the simmering rice porridge.

The child was still crying, but he stood outside the curtain, hesitating: "Should I leave it outside or bring it inside?"

When one child cried, the other started crying too. Zhuang Qingxiang was too busy comforting both children at the same time, so she hurriedly said, "Let's put them outside to cool down first, and bring them in when they're not hot anymore."

Lu Congyue responded.

The child cried and struggled, and no matter how Zhuang Qingxiang tried to soothe him, she couldn't. Lu Congyue, who was outside, was about to explode with frustration.

"Director Lu, could you please bring in half a bowl? These two kids are both very impatient," Zhuang Qingxiang called out, her forehead covered in sweat.

Lu Congyue felt that it was still very hot, so he simply divided it into two half bowls. After bringing them in, he gave one bowl to Zhuang Qingxiang and took the other bowl to stir with a spoon.

Zhuang Qingxiang scooped a little bit with a spoon, blew on it until it was almost gone, and then fed it to the child.

Little Qian Yue was also woken up. She lay down next to her younger brother and coaxed the crying Cheng Lin in her childish voice.

Lu Congyue noticed that Zhuang Qingxiang fed Donghua first.

In the dim light of the kerosene lamp, one child on the bed was crying, another was being soothed, and yet another was eating. The woman was feeding the children, while she herself was stirring the rice gruel the children wanted to eat by the bedside...

Lu Congyue suddenly had the illusion that he had started a family.

He paused, put the bowl aside, frowned, and said, "That's enough. You can feed him now."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Zhuang Qingxiang didn't mind and even said "thank you" before letting Xiao Qianyue take over and help feed the child rice oil.

After finally feeding the two children, tidying up, and putting the three children to sleep, Zhuang Qingxiang breathed a sigh of relief, tiptoed off the kang (a heated brick bed), and took the used bowls and spoons out to wash them.

"Where are you going?"

Zhuang Qingxiang had just lifted the curtain and stepped out when she was startled by the sudden sound, and almost dropped the bowl in her hand.

"I...I'll go wash the dishes," Zhuang Qingxiang said, bowing her head.

"Leave it to me." Lu Congyue came over and took the bowl.

The touch of their fingertips felt like a tiny electric current, and the two of them let go at the same time.

Seeing the bowl fall straight down, Zhuang Qingxiang exclaimed in surprise. Fortunately, Lu Congyue reacted quickly and caught the bowl.

"Go back and rest, I'll go wash the dishes." Lu Congyue's voice was muffled as he finished speaking and walked out.

Zhuang Qingxiang felt very embarrassed.

She was hired to feed the children and do chores, but now she can't feed the children and the employers still have to do the chores. This is outrageous.

"Director Lu, let me do it, let me do it."

She followed behind, saying, "How could I trouble you with such a task?"

As a result, she bumped headfirst into the man's back.

Zhuang Qingxiang covered her nose and squatted down, her eyes filled with tears.

She said this man was made of iron, and tears welled up in her eyes.

Lu Congyue realized that his sudden stop had caused her to bump into him, frowned, and felt extremely annoyed.

He doesn't like clumsy people, especially women!

"Are you alright?" he asked, suppressing his anger.

Zhuang Qingxiang covered her nose and shook her head.

"Then go back and rest!" Lu Congyue snapped impatiently.

Zhuang Qingxiang's heart skipped a beat. She knew she had displeased the factory director, so she didn't dare to go back to her room to rest. She covered her nose and mouth and followed behind him.

"Director Lu, Aunt Tian said that I can breastfeed the baby in a day. Don't worry, I will definitely not let the young master go hungry."

Lu Congyue stopped abruptly again, turned around, and his gaze sharpened like an arrow: "What did you say? What young master?!"

Zhuang Qingxiang opened her mouth slightly, realizing she had misspoke, and hurriedly corrected herself: "No... I misspoke, I meant I definitely won't let Xiao Donghua go hungry."

"Where did you learn to talk like that, 'young master'?" Lu Congyue pressed her, frowning as he asked, his voice as cold as ice.

Zhuang Qingxiang opened her mouth, then finally managed to stammer out, "Y-I've heard people say that before... Actually, logically speaking, since I'm the nanny responsible for taking care of him, he should be treated like a young master by me... right? I don't really understand..."

Lu Congyue stared intently at her.

The moonlight was bright, and he could see her guilty and timid expression. He scoffed inwardly, but maintained a blank expression on his face: "Watch your words in the future. He's my adopted son, not some young master! If you say anything wrong again, you'll be causing me trouble, understand?"

Zhuang Qingxiang nodded hastily.

She turned around and slapped herself twice.

She knew all too well that those so-called masters and young masters would be criticized and paraded through the streets, and might even be arrested.

Otherwise, her mother wouldn't have taken her away from the farm and settled in Dongya Village.

She must have been delirious from the fever today, which caused her to blurt out all the names she used to call her before she was ten years old. It's really bad!

Not daring to follow Lu Congyue any longer, she quickly hid back in her room to sleep.

Lu Congyue finished washing the dishes expressionlessly, drank a few mouthfuls of cold water, went back to his room, turned off the lights, and lay down.

The room quieted down, and Lu Congyue could hear that the woman and child inside were breathing evenly and steadily, clearly fast asleep.

It seemed she wouldn't be going out tonight, so Lu Congyue closed his eyes with relief.

However, even though I was just sleeping, everything went wrong in my dream.