Chapter 1 Brother-in-law, are you back?

"Brother-in-law, are you back? My sister said she would be back later tonight!"

Li Zhuangsheng opened the door, and Hu Mengke walked over quickly with a smile.

"Yeah, I know. Phew...it's so cold outside. It's colder than it was a year ago...Hey, why don't you turn on the air conditioner?"

Li Zhuangsheng closed the door, shook his legs, lowered his head to change his shoes, and put the paper box in his hand on the shoe cabinet with a smile: "By the way, the bath mat I bought for Xuanxuan online has arrived. I will just pick it up when I get home. I'm back... The goods have arrived on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, so fast."

"Just turn on the air conditioner in the bedroom. Turning it on in the living room consumes more electricity. And you spend too much money. What kind of bath mat do you want to use..."

"Safety comes first. I read online that with this, children won't have to worry about drowning when taking a bath."

Hu Mengke bent down to sort out Li Zhuangsheng's shoes and put them in the shoe cabinet. He raised his head and stared straight at Li Zhuangsheng's face with his charming big eyes: "Brother-in-law, you take such good care of me. I really... don't know how to repay you."

A faint smell of milk rushed into his nose. Li Zhuangsheng looked at this beautiful face that was only 60% similar to his wife but not inferior to hers, and subconsciously distanced himself a little.

You still have to pay attention to melons and plums. Moreover, Hu Mengke's appearance is naturally charming and graceful. If he is too close, there is no guarantee that he will not have random thoughts in the future.

"You're welcome. You're just like my sister. Just turn on the air conditioner. The electricity bill is not much!" Li Zhuangsheng waved his hand. "By the way, I'll..."

Halfway through the words, a baby's cry sounded in the house.

Hu Mengke smiled apologetically, turned around and returned to the house. When he came out, he had taken off the down jacket that he was originally wearing and held a baby in his arms.

This is her daughter.

"Xuanxuan are you hungry?"

Li Zhuangsheng walked over, looked at this niece who had no blood relationship with him, and couldn't help but smile knowingly.

This little guy is only two or three months old and has a really loud voice.

"It seems so."

Hu Mengke smiled and lowered his head, pulled the openings on both sides of his clothes to reveal some milky white, and softly comforted his daughter to feed her milk.

Li Zhuangsheng turned his face away reflexively, then turned around, pretending not to see anything.

But it seems to be a little bigger than Hu Mengdie. he said in his heart.

"Thank you, brother-in-law. This nursing shirt is really good. If you didn't buy it for me, I really didn't know there was such a convenient thing!"

Hu Mengke lowered his eyes and patted Xuanxuan who had calmed down.

"I saw it online and it's not very expensive, so don't worry about it."

Li Zhuangsheng waved his hands without looking back and took advantage of this moment to take apart the bath mat he just bought.

Hu Mengke looked at her daughter's little face, raised the corner of her mouth, and said softly: "My mother came over yesterday and said that you are so good to Xuanxuan, just like her own father."

Li Zhuangsheng waved his hand quickly: "You can't talk nonsense. Xuanxuan is my niece, so I should treat her well!"

The living room became quiet, Li Zhuangsheng was unpacking the express delivery absentmindedly, and Hu Mengke was silently feeding Xuanxuan.

Sister-in-law Hu Mengke is 21 years old this year, five years younger than Li Zhuangsheng and his wife Hu Mengdie. She has been living in Li Zhuangsheng's house for several months. To put it bluntly, she has been living in Li Zhuangsheng's house since she came out of the hospital.

Hu Mengke originally lived with a man for more than a year, but did not obtain a certificate. Until the end of last year, Hu Mengke gave birth prematurely when she was more than seven months pregnant. But the man's family suddenly claimed that the child was not born prematurely, but was born as a result of Hu Mengke's affair.

They refused to recognize the child and refused the woman's family's request for a paternity test. They could not produce any evidence of the woman's cheating. They only humiliated and abused Hu Mengke, which made the scene extremely ugly.

But the most important issue at that time was that because the baby was born prematurely, he needed to be placed in an incubator for a period of time. This is a considerable expense, and the groom’s family is unwilling to pay for it.

Li Zhuangsheng later thought that perhaps because Xuanxuan was a girl and the hospital incubator cost money, they were unwilling to take responsibility.

Regardless of the cause, the problem of premature babies must be addressed.

Hu Mengke couldn't afford that much money, and Li Zhuangsheng's father-in-law was a stubborn middle-aged man. He didn't like Hu Mengke's partner before, and the relationship between the two was also very tense due to Hu Mengke's personal affairs. After this incident, he directly threatened to No matter whether the little daughter lives or lives. The mother-in-law felt sorry for her daughter, but after all, her father-in-law was in charge of the house, and she couldn't come up with any money.

The baby is still healthy, but it would be a life if left alone. Li Zhuangsheng couldn't stand it, so he paid the money.

His wife Hu Mengdie and sisters Hu Mengke were very close. After Hu Mengke was discharged from the hospital, he had no place to stay and had no choice but to seek refuge with his sister and brother-in-law.

The house was bought by Li Zhuangsheng's parents before their marriage. Li Zhuangsheng did not reject his desperate sister-in-law.

This wedding house is about 140 square meters, with three bedrooms and one living room, and an additional study room. It is enough for two more people. His own sister Li Xiuyu will occasionally come to stay, not to mention this sister-in-law will help Do housework.

Before that, Li Zhuangsheng mostly did the cooking, but after Hu Mengke moved in, Hu Mengke took on many of the housework.

After Hu Mengke finished feeding, he carefully carried Xuanxuan back to the room. When he came out, he put on his down jacket and walked to the kitchen with a smile: "Brother-in-law, please sit down for a while. Dinner will be ready soon."

"Oops..." Li Zhuangsheng slapped his head with an apology on his face, "I just wanted to tell you, but I got sidetracked. I won't eat at home tonight, Li Xiuyu and I went out to eat."

"...Then why are you going out to eat? Ask her to come with you and have something to eat."

Hu Mengke was stunned for a moment, with a smile on his face.

"She insisted on calling me to eat hot pot, and she also called her... partner, alas..." Li Zhuangsheng showed a wry smile and helplessness to Hu Mengke.

"Is that so..." Hu Mengke smiled inexplicably, as if to say "I understand." "Sorry, I wanted to ask you to come along, but you still have to take care of Xuanxuan, so it might not be convenient..."

Hu Mengke smiled and waved his hand: "It's okay, it's okay, Xuanxuan is still young, and I can't leave her behind. By the way, did she only call you?"

"I originally wanted to call you sister, but didn't she have dinner with her colleagues today?"

Li Zhuangsheng took out his mobile phone and checked the circle of friends. Hu Mengdie had already posted photos of meeting his colleagues outside.

"Is it……"

"I'm so sorry, you're the only one eating tonight." Li Zhuangsheng clasped his hands together, looking apologetic.

"It's okay, brother-in-law, you are always so polite!" Hu Mengke smiled, patted Li Zhuangsheng on the shoulder, and whispered to himself, "But this sister-in-law is always good at choosing the right time."

"Then I'll leave first..." Li Zhuangsheng was about to go out when he suddenly remembered something and took out his mobile phone, "Oh, by the way, you are almost out of money. Your sister asked me to transfer some to you."

After saying that, he slid his finger and gave Hu Mengke two thousand yuan.

Hu Mengke looked at the transfer records on his phone and pursed his lips: "When did my sister ask you to transfer money to me?"

Li Zhuangsheng was stunned for a moment: "Just...this morning?"

"But she just transferred it to me yesterday."

Hu Mengke raised his phone with a smile and showed Li Zhuangsheng the chat history between the two, including a transfer of one thousand yuan.

"Ahem!" Li Zhuangsheng saw this and scratched his face awkwardly, then laughed dryly, "Oh, it's okay, just take them all. Don't be too frugal, spend when necessary, Xuanxuan is still young, it's time for her to spend money."

"Brother-in-law, you are too gentle." Hu Mengke bit her lip and smiled, pointing at Li Zhuangsheng's chest, "A kind man like you is easy to be deceived."

"Haha, I'm not a fool. I won't believe in any telecom scam!"

Li Zhuangsheng turned around and pushed open the door with a smile.

"Hey, brother-in-law..."

Seeing Li Zhuangsheng was about to leave, Hu Mengke couldn't help but call him softly.

"Is there anything else?" Li Zhuangsheng tilted his head.

Hu Mengke was stunned for a moment, his eyes drooping: "I thought about it... I plan to sell the clothes I had before to get some money..."

"What clothes... Oh, you mean those JK clothes?"

Li Zhuangsheng took a while to react, and then he remembered that Hu Mengke used to be a JK girl, and had several sets of JK clothes in various colors. When they met for the first time, she was wearing a blue and white JK and greeted him with a smile.

"Well, anyway, those won't happen again..."

"I heard from your sister that you seem to like those things very much, so keep them. Second-hand clothes can't be sold for much money, so just tell us if you don't have money. This is also your sister's house, you can stay as long as you want!"

Li Zhuangsheng dissuaded him with a smile, then gently closed the door.

Hu Mengke licked his lips, walked to the kitchen, looked down from the window, and soon saw Li Zhuangsheng's figure.

She looked down silently, repeating the silent wave of goodbye until the other person disappeared from her sight.

"Wow, it's so cold." Li Zhuangsheng shook his hands, regretting not bringing gloves.

It was dark, and the street lights on both sides were dim. He walked out of the community and stood on the roadside waiting for a taxi. During the Chinese New Year, the taxi fares would increase significantly, but he didn't care.

In this small county, Li Zhuangsheng's conditions are pretty good. His father is a deputy-section-level civil servant, and his mother runs a small supermarket. He successfully landed a job last year and joined the county's local chronicles office. It has no future, but it's easy, and there are inexplicably few secondments, which suits his lazy personality.

In addition, he also writes online articles on the website. He started writing online articles in college and has gradually stabilized until today. He earns about 20,000 yuan or more in royalties every month, which is much higher than his salary. Moreover, he can write novels while slacking off at work, so basically he has private time when he gets home from get off work.

It's just that he is a otaku and basically stays at home in his private time, reading books, playing games, watching anime, doing housework and so on.

He was still like this after getting married. He was worried that he would be considered decadent and unmotivated, but his parents-in-law had a high opinion of him. They thought he was a good family man, unlike other people who fooled around outside all day. This made him feel a lot more at ease.

Now that his sister-in-law has moved in, most of the housework is done by her, so Li Zhuangsheng has more time to relax and have fun. From this perspective, his current life is close to perfect. There are two words to describe his life: lying flat.

At the entrance of the community, various shops on both sides of the road lit up colorful signs, and people could be seen coming and going from time to time.

Li Zhuangsheng looked at the dark night sky, which was as clear as water and hung in the distance like a jade hook. He exhaled slowly, and a white mist formed in the cold night sky.

A cold wind blew from somewhere and blew into his neck. Li Zhuangsheng shuddered and quickly retracted his head.

Suddenly there was a feeling of unreality.

More than a year ago, he was still a single mother with almost no contact with women other than his family. He spent the whole day gritting his teeth watching short articles and videos showing love on the Internet. He never thought that one day he would be able to date a girl and get married... This was such a distant thing, as if it was in the future that he could never catch up.

Looking back over the past year, sometimes it feels like a dream. I felt like a carefree child before, but suddenly I have started a family and a career.

A moment of light, a thousand years of Huabiao.

The taxi slowly stopped in front of him. Li Zhuangsheng rubbed his stiff face and stopped thinking about it. He was lucky to marry his high school goddess.

(End of this chapter)