I was reborn after my cousin stole my life.

Chapter 103: It's a Daughter

"Can you draw this promotional poster?" Director Hao then asked this question.

Yuan Xiu pursed her lips: "...Director, I can only draw patterns at most. The posters are meant to be put up on the wall for everyone to see. Let's leave the professional stuff to the professionals."

Director Hao didn't make things difficult for her. "Alright, I'll have the comrades from the publicity department give it a try. How about tomorrow? Come over tomorrow and talk to them to see how to implement this publicity. I'll leave this matter to you."

Yuan Xiu agreed and left the office with her notebook.

The next morning, she went to the publicity department and communicated with the staff there.

There weren't many people in the publicity department. The comrade who took over from Yuan Xiu was surnamed Lin. He was a young man who was a very good painter. He painted the hospital's blackboard bulletin board and the propaganda posters on the outside walls. He was especially good at painting portraits. I heard that he was often borrowed by the street office to paint propaganda posters on the walls on both sides of the street.

They were from the same hospital, and although they hadn't spoken before, they weren't complete strangers. After exchanging greetings, they got down to business.

Yuan Xiu was a complete novice when it came to propaganda posters. She didn't offer any suggestions on the style or design of the posters, but only discussed the meaning that the posters were meant to convey with Comrade Xiao Lin.

"That's all for today, Comrade Yuan Xiu. I'll send the painting to your department once it's finished."

The two communicated fairly smoothly. Perhaps thinking that Yuan Xiu was an outsider who didn't understand, Comrade Xiao Lin had a bit of the arrogance of an artist. Yuan Xiu did almost all the talking, while Comrade Xiao Lin just nodded or said he understood.

Yuan Xiu handed him the propaganda she had rewritten, marking each line and summarizing the theme of the painting in a few words.

Comrade Xiaolin accepted it.

Yuan Xiu: "Thank you for your trouble."

Yuan Xiu left the propaganda department and returned to the pharmacy.

When Hao Jia saw her return, she asked, "How did it go?"

"Wait for the propaganda department to finish the illustrations." Yuan Xiu picked up her military water bottle and drank some water. After finishing, she took out two candies from her pocket and handed one to Hao Jia.

Hao Jia waved her hand: "You eat it yourself, I won't take food from a pregnant woman."

Yuan Xiu smiled, withdrew her hand, and popped a piece of candy into her mouth.

"Then it looks like we'll be waiting a while..."

"Comrade Yuan."

Hearing the voice, Yuan Xiu turned around and asked, "Master Cheng, what's going on?"

Master Cheng handed the prescription to Yuan Xiu: "I have a bit of a headache, come and get the medicine."

Hao Jia took the prescription. "I'll take it. You sit down and rest for a while."

Hao Jia picked up the medicine, and Yuan Xiu then talked to Master Cheng about the precautions for decocting the medicine.

Master Cheng listened attentively. "I never knew there were so many intricacies to decocting medicine. This is the first time I've ever heard of it. Thank you, Comrade Yuan, you are so thoughtful."

"This is all part of my job."

While packing the medicine that Hao Jia had picked out, Yuan Xiu chatted with Master Cheng: "Master Cheng, is this your first time getting medicine from our Chinese medicine pharmacy?"

Master Cheng nodded: "Yes, in the past, whenever I had a headache or fever, I would go to a Western doctor to get pills. It was convenient; I didn't have to brew the medicine."

After she finished speaking, she took a paper package out of her pocket, placed it on the counter, and pushed it in front of Yuan Xiu. "I saw last time that you really liked eating raisins, so I brought you some."

Yuan Xiu was taken aback and subconsciously pushed the paper package back, "How could I accept this? You can take it back and eat it yourself."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about. I just feel a connection with you and treat you like a junior. If I had a daughter, she would be about your age. I don't know why, but I felt close to you from the first moment I saw you."

Yuan Xiu smiled somewhat awkwardly, "I still can't accept it. Our hospital has a rule that hospital staff cannot accept anything from patients."

Master Cheng: "There's such a rule?"

"have!"

Seeing her say that, Master Cheng could only regretfully take the paper package back.

After she left, Hao Jia said, "That person is quite enthusiastic. They even gave you raisins when you were getting medicine. It seems like they like you quite a bit."

Yuan Xiu watched Master Cheng's retreating figure without responding to her words.

Is there such a thing as liking someone for no reason in this world?

Just because she thought that if she had a daughter, she should be the same age as Yuan Xiu?

There must be far too many people in this world that she could like.

Even the kindness of your own blood relatives comes at a price, let alone that of a stranger.

There's no need to take polite phrases like "I felt close to you from the first moment I saw you" seriously.

Yuan Xiu's intuition told her that Master Cheng was actively approaching her.

She recalled Chunmei's evaluation of this Master Cheng: "He's a very warm-hearted person."

……

Aunt Yuan didn't mention the bride price again, so Zhou Lei didn't say anything about divorce either.

Aunt Yuan didn't mention it because she was genuinely afraid that she might accidentally ruin her daughter's family, and felt that she needed to think things through more carefully.

Zhou Lei didn't mention it because he felt everyone knew the truth and tacitly agreed to send Yuan Juan back to her hometown to prepare for childbirth once it got warmer.

Aunt Yuan didn't say when she was leaving, so Zhou Lei naturally couldn't take the initiative to kick her out. After all, his mother-in-law had already backed down, and as her son-in-law, he couldn't keep pushing her.

As for Yuan Juan, she knew that Zhou Lei couldn't bear to part with her, and the only thing that worried her now was returning to her hometown to prepare for childbirth.

Aunt Yuan said she had a solution, which put her mind at ease. She started going out frequently, almost every day, and wouldn't come back until it was time to eat.

Sometimes when they come back, they'll be carrying some food and drinks.

The Zhou family's meals became more abundant, and Zhou Lei assumed that his mother-in-law had spent money to subsidize them, so his attitude towards Aunt Yuan improved somewhat.

Aunt Zhou whispered to him privately, "I wonder what kind of bad thing he's up to."

Yuan Juan knew that her mother was not a generous person, and these foods and drinks were definitely not bought by her.

"Who gave it to you?"

"Your Aunt Cheng."

Yuan Juan knew this Aunt Cheng; her mother had been going out a lot lately to chat with her.

"Didn't I tell you? She works at a restaurant and has plenty of food to eat. She knows I'm having a hard time at your in-laws' house, so she specially saved some food for me."

Yuan Juan thought the two just got along well, but she didn't expect their relationship to be so good.

"I'll take you to see her this afternoon. She has a family heirloom skill; she can tell whether you're having a boy or a girl by touch. If it's a boy, you'll have more confidence! If your man dares to send you back to his hometown, I'll take you away! After the son is born, if he doesn't come to pick you up with the dowry, I won't let him see the son!"

Yuan Juan's eyes lit up: "Really?"

"It's true! I saw it myself. Didn't that woman give birth yesterday? She was already ahead of us before labor started, and your Aunt Cheng glanced at her belly and said it was a girl. And she really did give birth to a girl!"

"Didn't you say you were going to touch it? How come you figured it out by looking?"

Aunt Yuan looked at me with an expression that said, "You don't understand. You're still in the early stages of pregnancy, so we can tell by touch. When you're further along, your Aunt Cheng will be able to tell at a glance!"

Yuan Juan believed her and went with her to see this Aunt Cheng.

"It's a girl." Master Cheng withdrew his hand and sighed regretfully.

"What?"

Aunt Yuan's eyes widened in disbelief. "Is it really my daughter?"

Master Cheng nodded. "Would I lie to you?"

No way, Xiao Cheng is so good to her. She's never met such a nice person. Even sisters are like this.

Xiao Cheng gave her so many examples, and she never made a mistake.

Yuan Juan was completely bewildered. How could it be a daughter?

Even the old hag said that her pregnancy looks like she's carrying a son!

Master Cheng opened his mouth, his face showing difficulty, but in the end he sighed silently and suppressed what was in his heart.

Aunt Yuan glanced at her, her eyes flashing.

The mother and daughter arrived full of excitement, but left dejected.

……

A week later, Comrade Xiao Lin from the Publicity Department delivered the completed poster to the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Yuan Xiu was in charge of this matter, so Director Hao called her to his office.

Upon seeing the painting, Yuan Xiu exclaimed, "It's beautifully painted!"

Comrade Xiaolin raised his chin and said, "I've been focusing all my energy on this lately, and I drew several versions before settling on this one."

Yuan Xiu: "Thank you for your hard work, Comrade Xiao Lin."

Director Hao asked Yuan Xiu, "See if there's anything that needs to be changed. If not, we'll place the order and send it to the printing factory for printing in the next couple of days."

Yuan Xiu shook her head. "The painting is fine. I'll check the text again."

"Alright, then you and Comrade Xiaolin will go to the printing factory together."

Yuan Xiu nodded.

"Little Yuan."

Just after getting off work, Yuan Xiu ran into Master Cheng at the entrance of the hospital.

She also changed her address to "Comrade Yuan" to "Little Yuan" at the beginning. This was the third time Yuan Xiu had seen her this week.

We meet three times a week: once on my way home from get off work, once at the farmers' market, and today.

Every time she saw her, this Master Cheng would stuff food into her hands, either raisins or dried apricots. With such enthusiasm, Yuan Xiu dared not accept them. She even regretted accepting the raisins from him when they first met.

"Is Master Cheng's cold still not better?"

Master Cheng smiled and shook his head: "Alright, the medicine I prepared as you instructed really helped me recover from this cold quickly. Today, we ran into an old farmer from the neighborhood who came to the shop with pears from his own tree and asked if we would buy them. We bought them and gave them to us as a bonus. Since you like sour things, we brought them over for you."

Yuan Xiu: "..."

Am I your own daughter?

"Isn't Master Cheng busy at this time?"

"I'm not busy, I don't have a shift this afternoon."

Master Cheng handed a few green pears from his pocket to Yuan Xiu, saying, "Don't be so polite with me. I don't like sour food, and they'll just sit there anyway. You might as well take them."

Yuan Xiu wouldn't take it, so she hung it on a tree branch next to her.

"..."

When Jiang Zhou arrived, he saw Yuan Xiu staring blankly at the half-netted green pear.

"Trying to eat pears?"

Yuan Xiu ignored the half-filled net of pears and got on the back of the bicycle: "Let's go home, let's go home, I have something to tell you."

Jiang Zhou: ...Did I step on a cat's tail?

As soon as she entered the house, Yuan Xiu mentioned Master Cheng to Jiang Zhou.

"Isn't she weird? Why does she keep getting close to me? She even tries to tempt me with sweet treats like raisins and dried apricots. I've already said no, but she still hangs pears on the tree. Her kindness towards me is just inexplicable!"

Yuan Xiu frowned: "And another thing, I've been running into her far too often lately, even more than Chunmei, who lives in the same compound. It's so strange."

Jiang Zhou stroked his chin thoughtfully, "It does seem a bit deliberate."

"That's right! Last time we ate together, Sister Chunmei said she was very enthusiastic, but that's a bit too enthusiastic! I don't have any other relationship with her. Sister Chunmei and the others were nice to me at first because of you. What's the reason she's nice to me?"

Yuan Xiu's eyes lit up, and she voiced her suspicions, "Tell me... what's her purpose in deliberately getting close to me? Could there be something wrong with her identity?"

Jiang Zhou: "Whether there's a problem or not, we'll find out by checking."

……

Jiang Zhou took this matter to heart and began investigating Master Cheng the next day.

On the surface, Master Cheng's records are correct. He was a young widow with no children. His parents are still alive in his hometown. He was a formal employee of a state-owned restaurant and was transferred here as a head chef at the end of last year.

Jiang Zhou's gaze fell on the "Relatives and Friends" section. He had an older sister who disappeared in the late 1950s and was presumed to be deceased.

Jiang Zhou tapped on the "Transfer Order" and "Missing Sister" columns.

……

The half-netted bag of green pears that was hanging on the tree branch at the hospital entrance is gone.

Yuan Xiu felt a little regretful. If Master Cheng really had a problem, and if she came back after they left and saw the pears on the tree branches, would she think they were on guard against her? Wouldn't that alert them?

Fortunately, once she entered the hospital, she saw the half-netted pear through the registration window.

"Xiao Yuan, would you like a pear?" The lady at the window handed her a pear.

Yuan Xiu took it and asked, "Where did you buy it?"

"We didn't buy them. Yesterday, when I got off work, I saw half a net bag of pears hanging on the tree. I was afraid someone had forgotten about them, so I brought them in. This morning when I went to work, I asked each person who came in, and they all said they weren't theirs. I guess someone didn't want them, so we took advantage of the situation."

Yuan Xiu took the green pear back to the pharmacy and put it in the drawer.

……

"Comrade Lin, Comrade Yuan, I won't see you off. We'll call your hospital after our factory prints the posters."

The person in charge of the printing factory escorted Yuan Xiu and Comrade Xiao Lin to the factory gate.

Comrade Xiaolin shook hands with Yuan Xiuhe, the person in charge, and then left after saying goodbye.

The two of them came by bus, and it was still early before departure time. Bus tickets were reimbursable, but if they took a tricycle back, they would have to pay for it themselves.

Clearly, Yuan Xiu and Comrade Xiao Lin shared the same idea: since they were already there, they should take advantage of the ample time to browse around the department store.

Once inside the mall, the two went their separate ways; you did yours, I did mine.

Spring clothes are already hanging on the wardrobe counters in the shopping mall.

Yuan Xiu's gaze fell on a long-sleeved, light yellow dress with small black polka dots.

The blouse has a wide waist with belts on both sides, so it can be worn by people with both small and large waists.

When the weather warmed up, her belly started to show. These days, there weren't any pants made specifically for pregnant women. As the pregnancy progressed, she would untie the waistband, tie the ends with a string, and you could see her underwear when she lifted her clothes.

In winter, people wear thick clothes, and the long clothes don't show.

It becomes obvious as soon as the weather warms up.