Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Seeking Medical Help_1

Translator: 549690339

In the west room, Yingbao was leaning against the kang, deep in thought.

In her previous life, her two younger brothers were born on the twenty-sixth of September, and their mother said they were born at night.

As their birth was quite unexpected and it was raining heavily, their father didn’t have time to fetch a midwife from the town, so he had to ask for Aunt Wu from Xichen Village.

Although Aunt Wu had plenty of experience as a midwife, she was inevitably flustered because it was her first time encountering a case like their mother’s.

In the end, the twins were born safely, but one of the brothers was mentally impaired because of distress during birth.

Their mother also suffered a lot, she had to lay in bed for two months, and was unable to bear children afterward.

“Tomorrow is the 26th of September, we need to ask father to fetch the town’s midwife early in the morning,”

Yingbao muttered to herself, “No matter what, I cannot let anything happen to my brother and mother again.”

But how can she convince her father that their mother is going to give birth tomorrow?

After all, having a midwife come to the house is not easy, and the consultation fee is quite substantial.

And since their mother showed no signs of labor, if they asked the midwife to come and she didn’t go into labor, wouldn’t it be a waste of silver taels?

Well, if it’s a waste, then so be it. She couldn’t risk her mother and brother’s lives just to save some money.

Yingbao crawled into her quilt, closed her eyes, and entered the cavern.

Now, the open area by the pond was covered in a thick layer of soil.

This fertile soil, had recently been shoveled in little by little by Yingbao, and now it was planted with wheat, rice, soybeans, and several water chestnut plants, as well as a patch of green vegetables and shepherd’s purse.

The wheat, rice, and soybeans had just sprouted, while the green vegetables and shepherd’s purse were growing rapidly.

The previously planted water chestnut plants had grown and produced water chestnuts as big as eggs, crunchy and sweet.

But no one here had ever seen such large water chestnuts, as it was autumn, Yingbao didn’t dare to take them out, she had to replant them one by one.

Moreover, on the other side of the black soil, many fruit trees were planted, including jujube, pear, peach, chestnut, and apricot trees.

The fruit saplings had grown to half a foot tall, and could be transplanted out next spring.

The two apple trees that were transplanted earlier were growing well, so these saplings should be no different.

However, where to plant them required careful consideration.

Twenty or thirty fruit tree saplings certainly couldn’t all be planted in the yard, not even in the front or back of the house, as that would be too conspicuous.

Planting them on North Mountain was out of the question.

That land was part of the allotment, and when her father got older, he would have to return half of it to the public. If he passed away, the entire allotment would have to be returned.

She didn’t want to make an effort just to benefit others in the future.

Therefore, the only place left was South Mountain, where her father’s permanent farmland was located, with dozens of acres of mountain land.

Moreover, South Mountain had the advantage of high terrain and few rocks, so even if there was a major flood in the future, it wouldn’t reach the top.

Hmm, in the future she would encourage her parents to build a house on South Mountain, in order to avoid the great flood a few years from now.

Yingbao approached the rock wall and carefully observed the growth of these crystal-clear objects.

The part that had been scraped off hadn’t grown back, which made her feel a bit disappointed.

This meant that once these Wudingzhis were used up, there would never be any more.

Yingbao scratched her head, feeling conflicted.

The fact that the hen at home was willing to lay eggs and that Xiaolu was growing well was thanks to the Wudingzhi.

Even when she cut her finger with a reaping hook last time, it was the juice of the Wudingzhi that she used for treatment. The effect was very obvious, with just two hours leaving no trace, proving it was a good thing.

Since this was a non-renewable good thing, she would have to use it sparingly in the future.

The next day, Yingbao got up before dawn, dressed, folded her quilt, and ran to her parents’ room.

That’s right, Yingbao had her own room now.

Because her brother was about to be born, and she was a sensible girl, she couldn’t keep sharing a bed with her parents.

So, at her strong request, her father had made a kang in the west room for her to live in.

Yingbao peeked out from under the curtain and called to the room, “Dad!”

Jiang Sanlang was putting on his shoes, and seeing his daughter coming in so early, he thought something had happened.

“What’s the matter?” Mr. Jiang hurried over.

Yingbao, leading her father by the hand, tugged him outside. “Come quickly, I have something to tell you.”

Mr. Jiang followed his daughter into the western chamber and asked, “What does Yingbao want to tell Daddy?”

Yingbao thought for a moment with her fingers crossed, then said in a low voice, “Dad, I had a dream last night.”

Mr. Jiang laughed and rubbed his daughter’s small head, “Did you have a nightmare?”

Yingbao shook her head and said earnestly, “I dreamed that Mother is going to give birth to my little brother tonight, and she bled a lot. Dad, you should rush to get a midwife to come home.”

Mr. Jiang was taken aback and instinctively thought his daughter’s dream was absurd.

Then he suddenly remembered that his wife’s due date was approaching, and that last time his daughter had accurately predicted that her mother was carrying a boy. Hence, his daughter seemed to possess some intuitive abilities.

He grew a bit panicked, but resolved to make a decision.

“Alright, I’ll go to town right away.” Mr. Jiang hurried to the east chamber to check on his wife. Seeing that she was not exhibiting any abnormalities, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Chunniang, I’m going to town, you stay home and don’t go wandering off,” Mr. Jiang instructed.

Having propped herself up into a sitting position, Chunniang asked in surprise, “What are you doing so early in town? The sky isn’t even light yet.”

“It will be soon.” Mr. Jiang turned around and left.

Once they were outside, he saw that it was raining and pretty heavily at that, so he went back to get his hat and raincoat, which hung on the wall. With those in hand, he proceeded to his elder brother’s house.

He needed to ask his sister-in-law to come over and help.

With his wife about to give birth and their daughter so young, it would be unwise to not have an adult in the house who could handle the situation.

Seeing her father hurrying around, Yingbao quickly reminded him, “Dad, it’s rainy and the roads are slippery. Be careful. The midwife is old, she can’t walk in the mud. Go borrow a donkey cart from Uncle Zhang at the village.”

Mr. Jiang smacked his forehead.

Ah, how could he have forgotten about that?

Waving at his daughter, he said, “Got it, Dad will take care of it. You stay home with your mother, don’t run off.” Saying this, he dashed into the rain.

With a sigh, Yingbao went to the kitchen to feed Xiaolu, and let out the chickens from their coop.

Seeing that the water in the tank was nearly gone, she let the water out of the cave till the big tank was filled.

Then, after thinking for a while, she retrieved some dry firewood from behind the kitchen stove, and took two old clay bowls and a clay jar from the cabinet. She stored all these things in the cave for potential future needs.

Sister Zhou, Mr. Jiang’s sister-in-law, arrived soon after, holding an umbrella and a pot of freshly cooked rice porridge.

“Aunt Zhou.” Yingbao greeted her warmly.

Sister Zhou smiled and asked, “Yingbao, why are you up so early? Where’s your mother?”

“Mother is inside, she’ll be out soon.” Yingbao replied lightly.

“Then I’ll go see her.” Sister Zhou began to walk towards the east chamber.

Yingbao, seeing Aunt Zhou come to accompany her mother, felt a sense of relief.

She put on the small hat her dad had made for her, wore her wooden clogs, and took Xiaolu out of the house to do its business.

Xiaolu obediently followed, stepping into the rain.

Once Xiaolu was finished, Yingbao cleaned its body with a torn cloth and began to shovel the chicken manure from the coop.

This was usually her father’s chore, but since her father was busy today, she had to take it on herself, she didn’t want her pregnant mother to do it.

After cleaning the chicken manure and sweeping up, she finally entered the kitchen.

Just then, Sister Zhou came in, expressing her surprise. “Oh my, you’re so diligent! I was going to ask your sister Dani to do it, but you’ve already swept everything clean.”

Yingbao laughed, “Usually, it’s Mom and Dad who do it. But Dad is out today and Mom is not well, so I just tidied up a bit.”

Sister Zhou took out two clay bowls and two pairs of chopsticks from the cabinet. “Yingbao, Auntie brought some porridge, it’s still hot. Come and have some with your mother.”

“Okay, thank you Auntie Zhou.” Yingbao, hopping about happily, followed Sister Zhou through to the main room to have porridge.

Chunniang, at this time, expressed her helplessness to Sister Zhou, “Don’t bother yourself with this, I already promised I won’t go out.”

Sister Zhou then chuckled and said, “This morning, Mr. Jiang rushed over and told me that you might be going into labour, so he asked me to come and check on you. I had just cooked some porridge in the morning and felt that you might have trouble getting around, especially with it raining outside. I didn’t want you to slip and fall, so I brought some over.”

“There’s no way I would give birth yet.” Chunniang felt somewhat embarrassed.

She rubbed her belly and hesitated, “But I have been feeling my belly tighten and then loosen intermittently for the last couple of days. I still can’t tell if it’s the baby kicking or not.”