Xie Jingchen knew that he owed his wife so many promises.
The country was vigorously developing various industries, accumulating reserves over more than ten years, producing numerous elite and outstanding military personnel. Compared to that,
his persistence was merely Xie Jingchen’s own persistence.
Besides, just because he was no longer a military man, didn’t mean he couldn’t serve the country, right?
He had fulfilled all the promises he made to Elder Liu initially. Now, he should live for his small family.
Upon calculating, he was over forty-four years old. In a blink, he had climbed from a young soldier at the age of fourteen, and became an elder soldier for thirty years. He would have retired earlier if not for his wife’s relentless effort in nursing his health to complete the missions.
Thinking of this, Xie Jingchen felt the old wound on his waist aching subtly again...
His spirit was unwilling to admit defeat, but his body had indeed weakened.
Yan Jinsu woke up after nine o’clock the next day. As soon as she woke up, her eyes searched for her husband, only to find that beside her were a few children’s figures, and Xie Jingchen was not there.
"Mommy, don’t worry, Daddy just left for a while. He hasn’t even gone to the military to report yet. He should be back soon," Xie Yuchen explained hurriedly after seeing the disappointment in Mommy’s eyes.
The three dumplings felt wronged too; they hadn’t been ignored by Mom for a long time. Even when they were willful before, Mom would just helplessly shake her head—
It turned out that every head shake was Mom’s helpless gesture towards the distance between mother and child. Mom always waited in the same place for them to come home, so they never realized that... Mom could leave.
Although Mom spent most of her time in the alchemy room, for the sake of the children, Yan Jinsu set up the alchemy room in her own house.
Usually, the first floor was Mom’s workshop and living room, and the bedrooms were on the second floor.
Since it was discovered that going upstairs late at night disturbed the children’s sleep, Mom started sleeping in a guest room on the first floor afterward.
Only when Dad came back, would he go back to rest in the master bedroom.
Clearly, Mom had always been working hard to fulfill her duties, yet they were never satisfied!
Now, suddenly being ignored by their own mother, the three dumplings’ eyes brimmed with tears.
Xiaojiu saw this, but did not speak out to plead for the three dumplings. Some things, they needed to understand and experience on their own to really grasp the essence.
"Mom~" Xishan, being the youngest and compared to his brothers still cooed, called out softly with a tone full of grievance.
Yan Jinsu’s gaze swept over the three children, weakly uttered an "Mm", then saw Xiaojiu already helping her up, while Shiyi picked up a still slightly hot bowl of red date white porridge—
The doctor had just visited, instructing the patient that it’s best to eat some liquid food before taking medicine to ease the stomach, but not to eat too much.
Yan Jinsu was a mother, and even if she was really upset, she wouldn’t refuse the children’s rare understanding. Looking at the key offered to her lips, she frowned slightly, blew faintly twice, and furrowed her brows as she swallowed.
"Move aside, Shiyi, I’ll handle this." Xiaojiu, very alert, was genuinely scared by Mom’s sudden condition. The moment he saw Mom frown, he immediately took the bowl from Shiyi and scolded, lowering his head:
"Bai Lang, have you lost your intelligence? Don’t you know the porridge is hot? Mom is not well, didn’t you think of cooling it down before feeding her?"
As he spoke, he had already scraped half a spoonful of porridge from the edge of the bowl, and after blowing on it twice, he brought it to Mom’s lips.
At this moment, Yan Jinsu indeed sighed in relief, catching her breath sharply, realizing she was short of breath. Seeing Xiaojiu scolding Shiyi, she beckoned Shiyi over.
Shiyi stepped aside, patted by Mom comfortingly on the hand, feeling the soft yet firm touch, bitterness surged within him.
No wonder Dad and big brother were angry.
Shiyi felt deeply wronged; he had never fed anyone before, how could he have known there was an art to it!
Shi twelve and Xishan saw their big brother’s actions... for a moment, they felt terribly ashamed.
Big brother was always the one taking care of the little ones and their sister. Looking at big brother’s familiar posture, his proficiency in feeding porridge, he clearly wasn’t feeding their sister—it must have been when they were little...
Realizing this, the three rather grown ’Xie dumplings’ felt deeply embarrassed.
Unbeknownst to them, big brother had already been competent on his own, while the age difference between them and him was less than a year!
Yet, the three of them still behaved childishly, waiting for Mom to take care of them.
Thinking further, wasn’t their robust growth due to Mom taking care of them at home?
Their parents are truly great.
From the time they were sensible, the neighborhood kids were always envious of them for having such remarkable parents—during those years living in Rong District compound, they realized that Dad’s life was not easy.
Compared to Dad’s fame, Mom was much more low-key. Only top executives knew that her achievements were no less significant than Dad’s.
People they knew outside typically addressed their Mom, not as ’Madam Xie’, but as ’Ms. Yan’—while District Chief Xie Rong was well-known, Ms. Yan’s reputation was not small either.
Merely with Yan Jinsu’s Alchemy Technique, thus far, no one could match her. Another aspect, Yan Jinsu earned a lot of money, and she was also famously generous and kind-hearted in the Rong Department, known as the ’Goddess of Wealth.’
Especially on special occasions, Ms. Yan was often invited to attend. As long as the information was legitimate and the plans and agendas were feasible, they could expect Ms. Yan’s selfless assistance—
Particularly in cases of charity foundations and rural philanthropy, if verified and legitimate, they could receive a substantial charity fund.
It was always Ms. Yan donating in her husband’s family’s name. Naturally, if the promise was not fulfilled... well, then expect a court summons.
Every philanthropic action was communicated by Ms. Yan with meticulous details and funding to the local Rong Team, thus those attempting to swindle surprise fortunes had to see how many lives they had to spend it.
Over these decades, Yan Jinsu’s reputation in the Rong Department was extraordinarily renowned. Her life was born from hardship, but she married a good husband; Xie Family was a traditional yet united large family, making her life utterly fulfilling.
Though Yan Jinsu never formally publicized it, she is the precious daughter of the Yanrong District Chief; within the senior Rong Department, everyone knew Ms. Yan was derived from the Yan and Tao bloodline.
District Chief Xie Rong also had a brother-in-law who was Zhou Family Patriarch, naturally, Zhou family was definitely supporting him from behind.
It could be said, over these years, apart from Xie Jingchen being particularly tricky during missions, there were hardly a few who would foolishly seek to stand out—