Chapter 45 Good News

"Oh, Big Brother Dacheng, please, just tell me."

Jin Wenning was young after all. No matter how mature she was in her heart, she was still just a child without deep city walls in her heart. Hearing that there was good news, she simply could not hold back.

She slid right off her chair, grabbed Li Yancheng's arm, and began to shake it.

Jin Zhihai and his wife were as crafty as foxes, just waiting for their younger sister to pester him.

They knew that as long as his sister acted spoiled, that guy Li Yancheng definitely wouldn't be able to stand it and would end up telling.

"I'll tell you later. Study for now."

"Ah... Big Brother Dacheng, how can I possibly study right now? Tell me first, or I'll die of curiosity."

With that, little Ningning's big dark eyes rolled around, and with a mischievous grin like a weasel that had just stolen a chicken, she chuckled, "Big Brother Dacheng, if you don't tell me, I'm going to tell my brother and sister-in-law your secret."

"My secret?"

Her words left Li Yancheng completely bewildered. His biggest secrets were his soul transposition and that dimensional warehouse, but there was no way anyone could know about those. What other secrets could there be? Why was he completely unaware of them?

Little Ningning's words immediately piqued the interest of Jin Zhihai and Xing Lihua. Compared to the good news that might or might not exist, their good brother's secret seemed much more attractive.

"Ningning, what secret do you know about your Big Brother Dacheng?"

"Hehe." Little Ningning looked at Li Yancheng triumphantly, the expression on her face clearly telling him: Are you going to tell me or not? If you don't, I'm going to spill it.

"Uh... Ningning, what secret of mine? Tell me and let me hear it."

"Well then, Big Brother Dacheng, I'm really going to say it."

"Go ahead. Once you tell me, I'll tell you that good news about your brother."

"Really?"

"Really."

Li Yancheng was also extremely curious; he truly had no idea what secret this girl Ningning had managed to get hold of.

"Hehe, Brother, Sister-in-law, let me tell you, I found out that Big Brother Dacheng... is secretly making clothes for himself."

"What?"

As soon as these words came out, the mouths of Jin Zhihai and his wife almost split all the way to their ears, and their eyeballs almost popped out onto the floor.

Li Yancheng was also dumbfounded upon hearing this.

This... this wasn't really a secret, because he had never intended to hide it in the first place, but... but how on earth did this girl find out?

"How did you know?"

As soon as the question left his mouth, he realized he had asked a foolish one. This girl treated his rooms just like her own home with no difference whatsoever. She even had a key and could come and go freely.

It was entirely normal for her to have seen the clothing sketches and the fabrics he had already begun cutting on the table in that other room.

During those few days of leave, he had reorganized the house and restored the west ear-room to its function as a bedroom.

The west ear-room was accessed through the side where the old man used to live, so he had converted the half where the late old man had lived into a study.

The middle section remained unchanged, serving as both a living room and a kitchen. As for the side where he lived himself, it had been converted into a clinic combined with a workshop.

Giving Luo Yang acupuncture treatments happened over there, and making clothes happened over there as well.

As for the skill of making clothes, it was something he had unlocked in his previous life, which was why Jin Zhihai and Xing Lihua were so shocked upon hearing it.

In his previous life, the mother of his child was a fashion designer who was worked to death when busy. At that time, he was merely an ordinary accountant with a relatively relaxed job, so he would occasionally help his wife out.

It was during those years that he learned how to draw sketches and how to make simple garments, such as Zhongshan suits and Western-style suits.

What he made could only be described as barely passable to wear; decades later, they certainly wouldn't be presentable outside because they were truly unsightly. But right now... it didn't matter at all, since everyone else's clothes looked just like that.

The reason he wanted to make his own clothes was purely to find a way to pass the time in between his studies.

Seeing Jin Zhihai and his wife standing there with their mouths wide open, staring at him in utter shock while waiting for a reasonable explanation, he chuckled, "I'm just learning, I'm just learning. Don't be so shocked; I'm simply doing it to pass the time."

With that, he smoothly changed the subject and asked, "Zhihai, do you know that Lihua is pregnant?"

??!

The effect of his subject-changing maneuver was exceptionally effective. Before his voice had even faded, the gazes of both siblings, Jin Zhihai and Jin Wenning, simultaneously landed on Xing Lihua.

Xing Lihua was also stunned, staring wide-eyed at Li Yancheng as if trying to discern whether it was true or false from his face.

She and Jin Zhihai had been married for over two years without ever conceiving, and both of them had been growing anxious. She had even secretly gone for medical checks, and her body was definitely in perfect working order.

She had originally planned to drag Jin Zhihai to the hospital if she still hadn't conceived within the next few months. Never had she expected that a pleasant surprise would arrive so inadvertently.

"No wait, Dacheng, how do you know my wife is pregnant?"

"I could tell by looking at her, obviously. What else did you think?"

"You can tell just by looking with your eyes?"

"Your wife's physical manifestations of pregnancy are still quite typical; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to tell."

Li Yancheng gave them a brief explanation and immediately followed up by saying, "Of course, you guys had better go to the hospital to get a checkup and confirm it. Alright Ningning, come on, let's get started."

"Big Brother Dacheng, am I going to be an aunt?"

Ningning, who had just been called by name, snapped back to her senses and asked in a dazed tone.

"That's right, you're going to be an aunt."

"Then why am I still studying? I'm going with them to the hospital."

The young girl no longer had any heart for studying; she leaped straight off her chair and ran to Xing Lihua's side.

"Sister-in-law, I want to go to the hospital with you."

...

Those three left the Li residence with expressions of pleasant surprise mixed with lingering disbelief, leaving Li Yancheng all by himself. He lifted the freshly boiled water off the stove, poured himself a cup, and lit a cigarette. Just as he sat down, someone approached the doorway.

"Dacheng."

"Uncle Zhao, please come in. Sit down, I'll pour you some water."

Li Yancheng hurriedly stood up to welcome Zhao Zhong from the front courtyard inside.

"Don't fuss, Dacheng. I'm just here to say a few words and then I'll leave."

"Uh... then have a smoke, Uncle Zhao. What brings you here?" Li Yancheng picked up the pack of cigarettes from the table, handed one to old Zhao, and asked with a puzzled expression.

He could actually guess why old Zhao had come over. Wasn't it because of the scolding he had handed out earlier, both implicitly and explicitly?

Old Zhao was the courtyard manager for Courtyard Number Twenty, appointed by the neighborhood committee right around the time of liberation.

Just as liberation had newly arrived, there were quite a few saboteurs left behind by the Blue Party. To quickly weed those people out, the government frequently mobilized the masses and employed human wave tactics.

If the neighborhood committee had to deal directly with every single household, they would have been worked to death, which led to the creation of the position of courtyard manager.

Serving as this courtyard manager (whether male or female) actually brought no real benefits; it simply required a warm heart and a strong sense of responsibility, being able to promptly convey notices from the neighborhood committee to every household in the courtyard, as well as relaying the residents' needs back to the neighborhood committee to act as a proper bridge.

At the same time, they also had to organize the residents of the courtyard to maintain good hygiene and foster harmonious neighborhood relations.

To put it bluntly, it was a voluntary position dedicated to service.

"Dacheng, what happened yesterday—after I came back, Mingming told me all about it..."