Chen Fengshi put the newborn baby into Er Er's hands with disgust, snorted, turned around and left the house.
When I got to the kitchen, I saw two bowls of poached eggs with brown sugar on the stove. I was very angry.
He picked up a bowl and poured it into the pot, and said to the eldest daughter-in-law: "I will give the sugar-watered eggs to your fourth aunt first. Your second brother and sister can't eat them for the time being. We will wait until she is hungry. Add some water to the pot and boil it for Qiersong'er."
Brother, how many points are there?"
"Yes, mother." Mrs. Zhao was delighted and quickly picked up a bowl of sugar-watered eggs and went to the second room.
Opening the curtain, I saw my second uncle standing at the door of the room, holding his newborn daughter in his arms, his expression unclear.
Passing the sugar-water egg in her hand to the midwife who was sorting the medicine box, Mrs. Zhao said: "Fourth Aunt, please eat the mouth pad first."
Fourth Aunt Wu was not polite. She took the soup bowl and ate all six poached eggs and drank the brown sugar water in one go.
Wiping his mouth, he stood up, picked up the small medicine box, and said, "I'm going back right now. I'll let your third brother and sister rub their bellies more and remove the lochia later. If you need anything, just call me. It's not far anyway."
Mrs. Zhao quickly said: "Okay, thank you for your hard work, Fourth Aunt, I will ask Dalang to see you off."
"Yes." Fourth Aunt Wu put the medicine box on her back, glanced meaningfully at Chen Erlang who was standing there, and then lifted the curtain and went out with Mr. Zhao.
The mother lying on the kang turned her head, pulled up the quilt to cover her face, and began to cry.
The man holding the baby in his arms pursed his lips tightly, his expression gloomy and scary.
He already had two daughters, but he didn't expect that this baby would be a girl, which made Chen Changping angry and ashamed.
Thinking of his three brothers, the eldest brother already has two sons, and even the third brother, who just got married last year, also gave birth to a son. However, in his own house, all three children were girls.
No, it's the fourth child.
The baby was born more than a year ago, not long after the baby was born. My wife was sleeping soundly at night and accidentally covered her head and face, and she ran out of breath the next day.
That is also a daughter.
Chen Changping felt his head was buzzing and he felt ashamed.
As the saying goes, there are three types of unfilial piety, the greatest of which is not having offspring.
Is his second wife going to die?
Thinking that he might receive strange looks from his relatives and friends, scoldings from his parents overtly or covertly, and all kinds of rumors, Chen Changping felt his blood flow back.
Looking at the baby in my hands, my heart and eyes are full of disgust.
He turned around and left the house.
At this time, the sky was filled with sunset, and there were only a few pedestrians on the road.
Chen Changping put his little swaddling clothes in his wide sleeves and walked quickly towards the back mountain.
The baby in the sleeve twisted its little head, wriggled its mouth twice, and fell asleep peacefully again.
After standing next to the grave for a while, I still felt that it was too close to the mountain road and not secluded enough.
It would be bad if this little evil beast was picked up by passing villagers and carried back to the village to spread the word.
His wife had just given birth, so it was easy for people to guess that it was lost at his house.
After thinking for a while, Chen Changping walked dozens more steps inside before taking out the swaddling clothes and placing them in the thatch.
He stood for a moment, shook his hands, and finally did not dare to strangle the baby girl to death.
Forget it, she might be snatched away by a wild wolf overnight, and she wouldn't have to bear the debt of killing a woman.
Looking around and seeing no one around, Chen Changping turned around and walked down the mountain in a hurry.
…
In late spring, the wild peaches all over the mountains have lost their blossoms and are now covered with fluffy little fruits.
The wild cherries are already ripe and hanging on the treetops, red and yellow, making them particularly mouth-watering.
In Dongchen Village, by the Xiaochuan River, several women were washing clothes and washing vegetables.
"Have you heard? Yesterday, Jiang Sanlang's family picked up a female doll. I don't know which family lost it. Tsk, tsk, the umbilical cord hasn't been taken off yet."
"Really or not? Second aunt, have you seen it with your own eyes?" A woman seemed to be unconvinced, "Who would lose a baby these days?" It's not like they can't make ends meet in the lean years.
"Is there still a day off? I went to his house this morning to borrow a bucket and saw it with my own eyes." Aunt Wang wrung out the clothes in her hands and threw them into the basket. "The baby's face was red and swollen. He said it was bitten by ants. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk .”
"Oh, what a crime." Another woman raised her head and asked, "Where did you pick it up?"
"I don't know, Jiang Sanlang's family refuses to tell anyone." Second Aunt Wang looked around and said with a gossipy face: "I don't know anyone from a few nearby villages. I don't know who is so wicked."
"No!"
Several women beat their clothes with ping-pong-pong bang.
"It's not from our village anyway. There are only about twenty households in our village, and everyone will know when the mother-in-law farts, let alone giving birth to a baby." A woman said.
Everyone laughed.
"There are no such cruel people in our village."
Second Aunt Wang curled her lips: "It's a pity that she is a girl. If she were a boy, Xu Chunniang would have been relieved."
Jiang Sanlang had been married for ten years, but his wife Xu Chunniang didn't even lay an egg, and Mrs. Jiang was almost mad to death for this.
Several women looked at each other and smiled knowingly, "Yes, yes."
"Thanks to Jiang Sanlang's benevolence and righteousness, he has not divorced his wife for so many years."
"That's right, if you leave her in my house, she might scold you all day long. Let alone ten years, she will just divorce me if she doesn't get pregnant in three years."
"No." Everyone agreed.
A woman banged her clothes-beating stick and said, "Hey, Chun Niang is also blessed with a good life. She married a husband who loves others. If Jiang Sanlang hadn't protected her, would you have been Mrs. Jiang?"
"That's right. It's a pity that Jiang Sanlang is a talented person, capable of both literary and martial arts. Tsk, tsk, tsk, he may not be able to succeed in the future." Another person sighed.
"Who says it isn't?"
All the women sighed, one moment they felt that they were not worthy of taking care of Jiang Sanlang, and the other moment they envied Mrs. Xu for her good fortune and married a handsome and caring husband.
When I think about the unshaven and sweaty guy in my house, I immediately feel sour.
"Girls are just right."
A woman twirled her clothes and said, "As the saying goes, a baby is born, and this baby girl might attract a fat boy to Jiang Sanlang."
"That's not necessarily true." A woman retorted.
"Why is it not certain? Isn't it the case in Chen Ergou's house in Xicun? His wife has not been around for three years, and his mother brought back a baby girl from outside for them to raise. Guess what, Ergou's wife became pregnant within two years. "
"Yes, yes, I've heard about it too, it really does happen."
"So, maybe that baby was brought by Jiang Sanlang from somewhere else. He deliberately said he picked it up because he was afraid that he would not be able to attract children in the future and would be laughed at."
"Hahaha, that's right..."
The women laughed and gossiped for a while, washed their clothes, and each carried a basket and went home.
Dongchen Village, the third room of the Jiang family.
Jiang Sanlang came into the house with a bowl of goat's milk and said to his wife: "Yesterday, my eldest brother's sheep gave birth, so I squeezed some milk and boiled it later to feed the baby."
"Hey, this is such a coincidence."
Xu Chunniang was pleasantly surprised, "Now the baby has milk to drink."
I was worried about what to feed the children, but I didn’t expect that the ewe my eldest brother bought years ago actually gave birth to a calf.
He put the swaddling clothes in his hands on the bed, covered him with a thin quilt, rolled up his sleeves and took the bowl, and said to his husband: "I'll go cook it while you come and look at the baby. She was crying so hard just now."
Jiang Sanlang handed the pottery bowl to his wife's hand and stretched his head to look at the little baby on the bed. The more he looked at it, the more he loved it. "Maybe he is very hungry. He drank some sugar water since yesterday."
The little baby on the bed opened his eyes slightly and suddenly grinned at him.
"Hey, my little girl will laugh." Jiang Sanlang was pleasantly surprised. He touched his stubble and said proudly, "My little girl has recognized her father."
"That's all nonsense." Xu Chunniang glared at him, "How old is she, how can she recognize you?"
Jiang Sanlang chuckled, "That's hard to say. Our daughter is very smart. She stopped crying as soon as I picked her up yesterday. She just kept crying, as if she was extremely wronged."
When he thought of his little girl's ants' face at that time, Jiang Sanlang felt heartbroken. He stretched out his hand to touch her head and sighed.
I don’t know who is so cruel as to throw their newborn baby into a grave because they don’t want her to live.
If I hadn't just happened to be passing by there and heard the cry of a child in the cemetery and boldly went to check, the child would have been eaten by snakes, rats and ants in another day and a half.
Alas, if you don’t want to keep her, you can give her away. Why would you want to take her life?
"It's okay, from now on you will be my daughter-in-law, Jiang San."
Jiang Sanlang picked up the baby, bumped it, and held it tightly to his chest. "As long as I have a bite to eat, you will never be hungry."
