I bring bad luck to my husband, you bring bad luck to your wife.

The heat was unbearable.

Xiangxi now spends most of her day indoors, except for meals. She only goes out for a stroll in the early morning and evening when it's cool to stretch her muscles.

It's uncomfortable to stay indoors for too long.

Although Yang Tongchuan brought him some picture books, he found that the stories in them were all similar, mostly about love and romance, and they got boring after a while.

"Hold on for a few more days, it'll get cooler after the start of autumn." Yang Tongchuan looked at Xiangxi, who was wearing a thin shirt, but didn't dare to have any improper thoughts.

He only dared to obediently fan himself.

"From childhood to adulthood, I never dreamed I could live such a life. I never imagined that one day I would be waited on hand and foot, idly sitting at home daydreaming." Xiangxi lay on the bamboo mat that Yang Tongchuan had specially bought for him and sighed about life.

Before he got married, he only had a tattered straw mat to use in the summer.

"Ouch!" Xiangxi exclaimed.

"What's wrong? Are you having cramps or a stomachache? I'll go get you a doctor." Yang Tongchuan put down his fan and was about to run outside.

"It's okay, it's okay, come back, he kicked me, feel it."

I've been feeling the baby move a lot these past few days, and I'm used to it now.

Yang Tongchuan has been quite busy lately and spends little time at home, so we haven't run into each other even once.

Yang Tongchuan placed his hand on his stomach with some skepticism, feeling around for a long time, but there was no reaction.

"Don't rush, Grandma said he'll move more frequently in the future, and you'll eventually have a chance to touch him."

When he was sleeping at night, Xiangxi could feel a large hand occasionally touching his stomach, as if it were looking for something.

The next morning, Yang Tongchuan, unusually, didn't get up early and stayed in bed with Xiangxi for a while.

The two of them got up slowly and went to have breakfast.

In the main hall, everyone else was ready to eat.

"Erlang has been so busy lately, he's lost weight from exhaustion." Yang's mother had also heard about it; a few days ago, a high-ranking official came and was arresting scholars all over the county.

Yang Tongchuan worked from dawn till dusk every day, assisting these people in solving cases.

"I haven't lost weight, I've just gotten a bit tanned." Yang Tongchuan hadn't had breakfast at home for several days and was really craving the sweet rice porridge from home.

Xiangxi took a boiled egg, peeled it, and put it in Yang Tongchuan's bowl.

Yang Tongchuan didn't refuse and ate it in one bite.

He knew that Xiangxi was pregnant and didn't need an egg, because her mother had specially ordered a batch of goose eggs from the countryside and sent them to their home, so that Xiangxi could eat one every other day, saying that goose eggs would remove fetal toxins and make the baby fair-skinned.

One goose egg costs as much as four chicken eggs. Although Xiangxi had already had enough, he still tried his best to eat the goose egg, which was almost as big as his fist, every time because of his mother-in-law's good intentions.

After finishing their meal, Yang Tongchuan took Zhen Laifu's hand and they went out.

It was only because a colleague in the yamen heard that Yang Tongchuan's family had a fine-looking black dog, so he wanted to borrow it to breed with his own dog.

Today is the day we agreed upon. The two of them will take the dog to the yamen together, and in their spare time, they will mate it.

In the evening, Yang Tongchuan returned with Zhen Laifu by the hand and a live chicken in his arms.

"Why did you suddenly buy a chicken?" Yang's mother asked suspiciously.

Yang Tongchuan could only explain with a smile.

It turns out that when he took Zhen Laifu to the yamen for breeding today, he initially bred a female dog.

Later, as more people took a liking to this black dog, those who had female dogs at home wanted to bring their dogs over to see if they could be bred.

One of his colleagues was breeding his father-in-law's dog. His father-in-law's family raised and sold chickens, so he brought a chicken over for Yang Tongchuan.

"Oh my, thanks to Laifu, we're going to have stir-fried chicken tonight!" Yang's mother laughed heartily upon hearing this.

When Zhen Laifu heard what he was going to eat, he jumped up with joy, which amused everyone in the family.

The chicken was originally intended to be used for soup that evening, but Xiangxi boldly suggested that it could be stir-fried with chili peppers, as he wanted something spicy.

"Alright, it's hot, stir-frying with chili peppers will make it more appetizing, everyone eat more." Mother Yang instructed Yanzi to kill the chicken.

As the saying goes, sour foods indicate a boy and spicy foods indicate a girl. Xiangxi has been craving spicy food for several days, but she has been holding back. Today, looking at this chicken, she really couldn't resist anymore.

But he regretted it as soon as he said it. He realized he had had enough of a good life and dared to make such a request.

Fortunately, Yang's mother no longer cared about these things. Even if Xiangxi gave birth to a girl or a boy this time, she would be happy.

As long as the baby is born safely, that's all that matters.

The Yang family had been longing for a child for far too long.

Xiangxi has an exceptionally good appetite tonight.

I ate a whole bowl of rice with the stir-fried chicken with chili peppers.

In the evening, Yang Tongchuan accompanied him for a stroll in the yard to aid digestion.

"Why didn't you say you wanted spicy food sooner? You've made yourself suffer like this."

"I didn't really want to eat it, I just suddenly had a craving."

"If there's anything you want to eat or want in the future, just tell me. I'm a rough guy, not as thoughtful as my older brother. If you don't tell me and expect me to guess, I'll never figure it out."

When it comes to guessing what his wife is thinking, Yang Tongchuan admits he can't keep up with his older brother.

Every time his sister-in-law gave him a look, his older brother immediately knew what his wife wanted.

This impressed Yang Tongchuan immensely.

He even asked his older brother how he did it, and after a long pause, his brother told him two words: talent.

Pooh!

The following afternoon, Yang Tongchuan made a special detour to the market to see what spicy snacks he could bring back for Xiangxi.

I happened to walk up to Xiang Qiang's stall, so I asked him which of his snacks were spicy.

When Xiang Qiang heard that Xiang happy wanted to eat spicy food, his face stiffened slightly.

Fortunately, Yang Tongchuan's expression didn't seem unusual.

"I heard that the meat jerky shop run by out-of-towners has spicy stuff. You can go check it out there," Xiang Qiang pointed in a direction.

"Okay, I'll go take a look first." Yang Tongchuan was about to leave when Xiang Qiang unusually stopped him.

Xiang Qiang actually wanted to tell Yang Tongchuan that the saying "sour for a boy, spicy for a girl" was not true and that he shouldn't take it to heart, but he didn't know how to bring it up.

"Is there anything else?" Yang Tongchuan looked at Xiang Qiang's hesitant expression and thought that he had encountered some trouble and needed his help.

"It's nothing, I was just asking how Xiangxi's appetite is lately. Do you want me to make some more pancakes for you to take back?" The sister-in-law pushed Xiangqiang away and smoothed things over for him.

She guessed what the fool was trying to say.

"Sister-in-law, no need to trouble yourself. The last time we got some, our whole family ate it together, and it took us two days to finish it. No need this time. I don't have anything else to do, so I'll go buy some dried meat first." Yang Tongchuan was in a hurry to get home, and his pace quickened unconsciously.

Seeing Yang Tongchuan walk away, the sister-in-law angrily punched her husband.

"Are you trying to tell him that even if Xiangxi doesn't have a boy this time, she'll give birth to one sooner or later, so your brother-in-law won't worry? Have you filled your brain with some kind of 'chaos soup' or blinded yourself by the smoke from the charcoal fire? Can't you see how much Yang Tongchuan cherishes Xiangxi? Why are you saying such annoying things? If you can't speak properly, just shut up." The sister-in-law was furious.

Xiang Qiang is good in every way, except he's not quick-witted and easily offends people when he speaks.

Hopefully, Gui'er won't inherit his father's blockhead mentality.