Chapter 106

Ye Manzhi had never felt that time was so long.

The pain was getting higher and higher, making her mind numb.

The doctor asked her to concentrate, but she was like a poor student who had bad grades and refused to listen in class, distracting herself from the pain with random thoughts.

Wu Zhengrong placed the delivery bag in the car and carried it in and out every day. Today it finally came in handy.

The jeep stopped outside the school. When Wu Zhengrong heard she was about to give birth, he remained calm, using the little he'd learned from his Obstetrics and Gynecology textbook to reassure her that there was still time. Then, he hurriedly carried her from the teaching building entrance all the way to the school gate.

She might become famous in school again.

Old Ye was arranged by Chang Yue'e to go fishing secretly by the river. I don't know if he caught any crucian carp.

And there was her physics exam. Luckily she persevered and finished it, otherwise by the time she took the make-up exam, she would have forgotten all the knowledge points, and all her recent review would have been in vain!

Ye Manzhi's mind was full of random thoughts, like a movie. After pushing once more as instructed by the doctor, she finally felt a sense of relief. Then she heard the doctor congratulate her with a smile, "You've given birth to a very happy little girl!"

The loud cry of the newborn made her breathe a sigh of relief.

Thinking that it was the little one she had struggled so hard to give birth to, Ye Manzhi felt a pang of bitterness in her nose and tears began to fall.

When she saw her parents and Wu Zhengrong waiting outside, her tears flowed even harder.

She felt that it would be nice if someone, whether it was her mother or Wu Zhengrong, could come and kiss her.

Wu Zhengrong reached out and wiped the tears from her cheek. After more than ten hours of waiting, he ignored the gazes of others. He leaned over and kissed her sweaty forehead firmly, whispering, "Our daughter is doing well. She's wonderful!"

Ye Manzhi realized that the second half of the sentence was not about her daughter, but was praising her.

In front of her parents and the nurse, she felt a little embarrassed, but she couldn't help but smile.

Chang Yue'e placed her granddaughter in the arms of her husband, who was crying like a dog. She stepped forward to block the view of others and said to the two young people, "Let's go back to the ward first. Giving birth took so long. Let Lai Ya rest quickly."

Ye Manzhi turned her head to look in the direction of the cradle, and finally closed her eyes with relief.

…

The days that followed were a bit confusing for the new parents.

The hospital is also making progress. As long as the baby and the mother are in good condition, they will generally be discharged after three days of hospitalization.

When Ye Manzhi returned home to recuperate after giving birth, she didn't have to worry about anything except eating, sleeping, and breastfeeding her baby.

But Wu Zhengrong and Chang Yue'e were also responsible for entertaining colleagues and neighbors who came to visit, and sending red eggs to relatives and friends to announce good news, so they had almost no time to spare.

After seeing off several of Ye Manzhi's roommates, Wu Zhengrong returned to the room and poured her a glass of warm water.

"How are you feeling today?"

"It's okay," Ye Manzhi said a little awkwardly, "I'm just worried the baby isn't full. Why is she like a little piglet? She needs to eat so many times a day!"

"It's okay. I've made an agreement with the market chef to save two pig's trotters for the next day and stew them with soybeans to help you increase your milk production. Dad has also gone fishing by the river, and he'll try to make sure you can have crucian carp and tofu soup every day."

Ye Manzhi laughed out loud when she heard this, then turned her head and whispered to the baby in the cradle, "You must be filial to Grandpa in the future! He risked being caught and handed over to the police just to catch fish for you!"

Aquatic products are in short supply and are also supplied with tickets.

The Ye family welcomed two newborns in succession. Even if they borrowed the quotas from all their relatives, it was still not enough to make crucian carp and tofu soup for the mother every day.

Old Ye could only go to the riverside and find a place where there were few people to fish secretly.

Ye Manzhi gently caressed her daughter's soft face as if she were a baby, and whispered, "Do you want to touch it? It's so tender!"

"Let's wait until she's older."

Wu Zhengrong often goes to the workshop and has calluses on his hands. So far, he has only touched his daughter's hair and dared not touch other places.

When he was practicing with a taxi, the boy was already two or three months old, several times older than his daughter, and he was fine no matter how much he was hit.

But the newborn baby was so small, only as long as his two palms, and very soft. Wu Zhengrong held her as if she were a ball of cotton.

Ye Manzhi stopped trying to persuade him and stared at the little girl who was still sleeping soundly.

The child's face is no longer so red, her eyeliner is flowing, her eyelashes are long, and her little nose is delicate and upright, making her very beautiful.

Ye Manzhi shifted her gaze from her rosy lips to her eyelashes, then looked up at Wu Zhengrong's.

Although not as long as Wu Zhengrong's eyelashes, the baby's eyelashes can continue to grow. Her little beauty should be able to successfully inherit her father's long eyelashes, right?

As his bedmate, Wu Zhengrong knew very well that she had been coveting his eyelashes for a long time. Occasionally, when she was unconscious, she would hug his neck and kiss his eyes.

Seeing her looking at him, he said politely, "She looks a lot like me."

Ye Manzhi asked doubtfully, "My mom said she looks like me when I was little, but grandma said she looks more like you. Who does she look like?"

Xiao Piaoliang is still too young, and her facial features haven't fully developed yet, so she can't tell who the child looks like.

Moreover, Wu Zhengrong was sent to be raised by his grandparents when he was over two years old, which made Ye Manzhi deeply doubt what Grandma Wu said.

However, she soon found the answer from Wu Zhengrong's biological mother.

Sun Ruzhen went straight to the military industrial complex after getting off the train. When she saw her granddaughter, she said curiously, "This child looks just like Zhengrong when she was a child. Her eyes and nose are exactly like her aunt's, and her eyebrows and mouth are like Xiaoye. She is very delicate."

Wu Zhengrong and her elder sister share the same face. Xiao Piaoliang looks exactly like her aunt, but she still looks like Wu Zhengrong.

Ye Manzhi was happy but also a little jealous.

Her eyes are also very beautiful. It would be great if the child could inherit her eyes and Wu Zhengrong's eyelashes.

Sun Ruzhen returned to Binjiang this time specifically to visit the mothers and newborns.

She had already known the due date from Ye Manzhi's letter, so she bought a train ticket back home as soon as the kindergarten was on vacation.

Because Ye Manzhi bought a lot of dried seafood and dried fruits in the south during her last visit, Sun Ruzhen thought she liked to eat them, so this time when she returned to Binjiang, in addition to milk powder and malted milk, she also brought her a lot of seafood and fruits.

When Chang Yue'e first met her mother-in-law and saw the food piled on the ground, she couldn't help but say to her daughter, "Your mother-in-law is quite generous, but she's just short-sighted."

When she came to her son's house, she didn't help with cooking, didn't wash diapers, didn't take care of the pregnant woman, and just sat there like a guest.

But if you say she is a guest, she still stays in the military industrial compound all day, either looking after the children or tending to the vegetable garden and chickens in the yard.

Come in the morning and leave in the evening, just like punching in for work.

"My mother-in-law's cooking is terrible, so don't let her cook anymore. She doesn't really care about Wu Zhengrong's affairs, but she's quite generous. She gave me two hundred yuan for the birth of my child."

Chang Yue'e was secretly shocked and thought, if she doesn't want to work, then don't work. It's great that her grandmother can help take care of her granddaughter.

So, Chang Yue'e and Sun Ruzhen divided the work and cooperated with each other, and Wu Zhengrong also went home to eat and look after the child at noon every day. Except for the torturous breastfeeding at night, Ye Manzhi's confinement was relatively easy.

That day, she was holding her daughter and basking in the sun together on the big bed.

Liu Jinbao suddenly came to her home to inform her that comrades from Xincheng Commune called her and asked her to go to Xincheng Commune.

"Didn't you say what it was?"

"No, it seems to be urgent, so I asked you to come over as soon as possible."

Ye Manzhi thanked him and asked no more questions.

Now urban streets have also been established as communes. Xincheng Commune is the former Xincheng Street Office, and the house she brought as a dowry is on Xincheng Street. When she bought the house, she left the phone number of Guangming Street there.

When Wu Zhengrong got off work that night, he told him his guess, "It's likely that something happened to our house. Go check it out for me tomorrow."

Wu Zhengrong was holding his chubby daughter and looking at her. He always felt that the child's eyebrows seemed a little light, so he couldn't help but hold the child under the light to observe her carefully.

"Did you hear what I said?" Ye Manyi asked anxiously.

"I heard. I'll go over there after work tomorrow." Wu Zhengrong placed the child next to her and asked her for confirmation, "Do you think her eyebrows are too light?"

The new mother was immediately distracted and moved over to watch with him.

"It seems a little bland, what should I do?"

"Let's wait and see. If her eyebrows remain this pale when she grows up," Wu Zhengrong pondered for a long time. Just when Ye Manyi was expecting him to offer some insightful advice, he said, "Let her use an eyebrow pencil to draw them in."

Ye Manzhi: “…”

Since his wife still needed to recuperate after giving birth, Wu Zhengrong went to Xincheng Commune alone.

Then that night he brought Ye Manzhi a piece of news.

The city is going to renovate private houses.

Ye Manzhi's house on Xincheng Street is a private house, and the commune wants to mobilize her to participate in the renovation of the private house.

“How do I renovate a private house?”

Ye Manzhi was not allowed to read books or newspapers during her confinement period. She was devoted to her child and had not paid attention to the news outside for some time.

"It's said to be similar to the previous reform of capitalist industry and commerce, involving public-private partnerships," Wu Zhengrong said, flipping through a recent newspaper. "Socialism doesn't allow exploitation, but some people think collecting rent is also a form of exploitation."

Ye Manzhi held his chin with his hand and said nothing.

The rent of private housing is indeed much more expensive than public housing.

When she was helping her fifth brother find a yard, she only dared to look for public housing at the street housing management office because the rent of public housing was low.

Guangming Street is located in the suburbs, and most residents have housing allocated by their units, so the stock of public housing on the street is relatively sufficient.

However, most of the houses in the city are privately owned, and you have to queue up if you want to rent public housing at the Housing Management Office.

The rent for private housing is two to three times that of public housing on Guangming Street.

Her fourth brother's wish was to buy a yard in the city and earn the rent. With the rent, he would never have to work for the rest of his life and could concentrate on taking care of flowers, birds, fish and insects.

Ye Manzhi thought for a moment and said, "Our house has been vacant and we haven't collected any rent. Doesn't that count as exploitation? Does it also need to be renovated?"

"The commune wants to mobilize you to register your idle house with the housing management department. Then the housing management department will centrally manage, repair, and allocate the house. After deducting the repair costs, management fees, real estate taxes, insurance premiums and other expenses, the rent will be set according to a certain percentage of the rent."

The house on Xincheng Street has never been occupied. Ye Manzhi mainly uses it as a warehouse. Most of the supplies she has stockpiled in the past two years are in the cellar there.

But the rent in the city is high, and if she keeps the house idle, it would actually be a loss for her.

If it weren't for the things in the cellar, she would have rented the house out long ago.

"Do you think we should accept mobilization?" Ye Manzhi asked him for his opinion.

"We only stay there occasionally when we go to the riverside. There's really no point in leaving the house idle. If you still want to rent it out, you have to renovate it. From now on, the path for individuals to rent out the house will be blocked." Wu Zhengrong paused and said, "But you also have to consider that many people rent houses for several years or even more than ten years. If we want to take the house back and live in it ourselves, it may not be easy to do. Some people who rent public housing think it's their own house."

Ye Manzhi hesitated and said, "Why not just refuse the renovation? Since it's a public-private partnership, the rent for private housing will likely have to be 80% the same as public housing. If the rent for a private apartment is 15 yuan, then a comparable public housing unit would only cost 5 or 6 yuan per month. Otherwise, no one would want to rent public housing."

Her job has not been finalized yet, and Wu Zhengrong is currently studying for a postdoctoral degree at the Military Academy. It is very likely that her job will be adjusted by the organization after graduation.

Once they leave the military industrial compound, they must have a place to stay, right?

If the monthly rent is only five or six dollars, she would rather not rent it out.

Wu Zhengrong put down the newspaper and said, "You're not a private homeowner yet, so whether you register your house is entirely voluntary. But as a transferred cadre, you're also considered a half-state cadre. If you don't register your idle house, you'll inevitably be gossiped about."

"..." Ye Manzhi couldn't help but sigh, "I'm so worried."

She still has a lot of stuff in that cellar.

Leaving the house idle or registering it with the housing management office each has its own advantages. The couple discussed it for half the night but still couldn't come up with a specific set of rules.

When Ye Manzhi was worrying about the house she brought as a dowry, her mother-in-law Sun Ruzhen brought them another explosive news.

Dean Wu, who had just retired a few months ago, began to worry about his affairs after his death.

I just happened to hear that the city was carrying out private house renovations, and the old man was worried that policy changes in the future would affect the transfer of property.

Dean Wu wants to divide the inheritance in advance.