Chapter 39 Sorry for the production, you rascal.

“These liberation shoes are still perfectly fine, but Chengzi even said they were old rubber shoes.”

Deng Xia looked at Zhong Chunsheng's shoes with a wide smile, urging the man to take a few steps and try them on.

Zhong Xin held the green satchel on his back with amusement, staring at the words "Serve the People" printed on it.

"If everyone in the family had feet the same size as Chengzi's, then we could all take turns wearing a pair of liberation shoes," Deng Xia couldn't help but sigh.

“My brother’s feet are so big, I don’t want to have feet as big as his, like a duck’s webbed feet.” Zhong Ying said with disdain, as she took off the cotton hat that her mother had just put on her head and put it on Xiao Guoqiang’s head.

The large, wide-brimmed cotton hat had ear flaps hanging down on both sides. When Zhong Guoqiang wore this hat, his eyes were completely covered, leaving only his small chin sticking out. Even so, he was very happy. He excitedly puffed out his chest, saluted, and shouted in his childish voice, "Learn from Comrade Lei!"

Seeing this, Miao Suyun tried to hand the army green water bottle to Zhong Ying, saying, "Hey little sister, here, take the water bottle—"

Zhong Ying didn't want it. She held up the red-covered book in her hand and said, "This one is fine with me."

Even without a cell phone or internet, reading a book will do, Zhong Ying thought, finding a bittersweet humor in her thoughts.

"It's alright, we still have cloth coupons, right? This year, everyone in the family can buy cloth and make new clothes for the New Year!" Deng Xia waved her hand.

Zhong Cheng sent a lot of things home, as well as money and tickets. It has to be said that the Zhong family's life has indeed improved a lot because he went to join the army.

Take the most indispensable tickets these days, for example. Although rural people are not restricted by various tickets for everything they eat and drink like city dwellers, vegetables and grains grow in the fields, families raise chickens, and production teams raise pigs. Of the "clothing, food, housing, and transportation" categories, only "clothing" is the most difficult to obtain.

Except for some production teams located in cotton-producing areas who could keep a few kilograms of "reserve cotton" after selling the cotton to the supply and marketing cooperative to spin yarn and weave cloth to solve their clothing problems, other rural people could only buy cloth and make their own clothes. Buying cloth involved one thing - "cloth coupons".

Unlike urban residents who received ration coupons for cloth, rural people could only obtain cloth coupons by exchanging grain or eggs. Making a new outfit for a child for the New Year was considered a luxury. The Zhong family was no exception; clothes worn out by Zhong Cheng were given to Zhong Ying, then to Zhong Xin, and now even young Zhong Guoqiang wears clothes his uncle once wore. Of course, the favored Zhong Ying received extra new clothes, because, as Deng Xia said, "She's a grown-up girl now; she needs at least two decent outfits."

Deng Xia had a fiery temper and a quick temper. The day after she said she was going to buy cloth, she called her whole family to go to the commune's supply and marketing cooperative to buy cloth. Anyway, the land was frozen now, and everyone in the production team was completely idle, busy with their own preparations for the New Year.

Before the Lunar New Year, the cloth counters at the supply and marketing cooperatives were packed with people. Every family had saved up their cloth coupons for a year just to make a new outfit for the New Year.

Zhong Chunsheng squeezed through the crowd and finally managed to get his family to the counter.

Deng Xia stared intently at the neatly stacked rolls of fabric on the wooden shelf behind the salesperson, not even wanting to blink. She called to her family, "Come and see, what kind of fabric do you all want to make clothes from?"

There's not much to choose from. The shelves are mostly filled with the "old three colors": blue, green, and black. Besides that, the most eye-catching items are two or three rolls of red fabric, which people usually buy to make armbands or hair ties for girls. Then there are scattered white fabrics and checkered fabrics... nothing particularly fancy. In recent years, things have become increasingly conservative.

Zhong Chunsheng wanted to match the pair of liberation shoes his eldest son gave him, Zhong Xin wanted to match the green satchel his brother gave him, Miao Suyun wanted to make a small-sized military uniform for her son Guoqiang, and they all chose green "polyester twill" fabric, while Deng Xia wanted blue plain cloth.

Zhong Ying pointed to the black cotton cloth, "I want this."

Deng Xia pressed her arm down, frowned and disapproved, saying, "Why wear black during the New Year? People who don't know better will think you're a widow!"

She was indeed eager to "stay widowed" for the ghost, but the ghost wasn't happy about it, Zhong Ying thought to herself. She still insisted, "I want a pair of black pants that are durable and easy to clean."

Deng Xia thought about it and agreed. The whole family makes clothes, and each person can only make one piece, not a whole set. Black cloth is too unlucky to make a jacket, but it can be used to make trousers.

"Mother, I'll pass. I have enough clothes," Miao Suyun said, worried that she wouldn't have enough cloth coupons.

"No way! You can't be left out just because someone else is missing! Chengzi sent back cloth coupons, but his wife can't even get a new dress? I can't do something like that!" Deng Xia wouldn't let her go, pulling her daughter-in-law along and insisting that she choose.

Unable to refuse Miao Suyun's hospitality, she also chose a piece of cloth, saying, "Then I'll do the same as my little sister and make a pair of pants out of black cloth."

In the end, Deng Xia gave all the cloth coupons she had saved at home and those sent by Zhong Cheng to the salesperson, which was barely enough to buy enough cloth for her family to make clothes.

The fabric has been bought, but the clothes still need to be made.

Zhong Ying held the needle carefully and intently, pricking the cloth, and then... she pricked her hand again.

Li Linshi watched from the side, never having seen someone sew clothes so many times. He was more skilled at mending his own clothes than Zhong Ying.

“I think I have enough clothes to change into,” Zhong Ying said calmly, without any sense of shame about not being able to sew well. She naturally put down the cloth in her hand and prepared to stand up.

Deng Xia pressed down on her shoulder, forcefully pushing her daughter back onto the stool. "No, how can you not even make a piece of clothing? Who will make your man's clothes in the future?"

Zhong Ying sighed deeply. Her mother wished she could arrange a "crash course for becoming a good wife" for her, so that she could master housewife skills such as cooking and sewing in a short period of time, so that she wouldn't be disliked after marriage.

Just like how her modern mother doesn't let Zhong Ying do any housework, both mothers from different times and spaces actually want their daughters to have a better life within their own limited understanding.

Zhong Ying had no choice but to pick up the needle again. Oh well, she'd keep sewing. Not for the man, but because she herself really wanted a new pair of pants without patches.

Just then, someone urgently knocked on the Zhong family's courtyard gate, "Auntie! Second Aunt Zhong! Are you home?"

Deng Xia went over and opened the door.

Taking advantage of the moment, Zhong Ying glanced at the male ghost beside her and lowered her voice, "Why are you following me again?"

“I’m afraid you’ll act first and report later,” Li Linshi said, describing a situation where someone is once bitten by a snake and becomes overly cautious.

Zhong Ying choked. She had indeed thought about it, but it was like having the desire but not the courage.

Deng Xia opened the door and saw it was Erni from the Fan family next door. She asked in confusion, "What's wrong? Erni, don't worry, tell your aunt what's wrong."

Fan Erni was so anxious that she panicked and said very quickly, "My sister is about to give birth. My mother went to the Liu family to ask my sister's mother-in-law to help with the delivery. Now there is no one in charge at home, and my sister is about to give birth!"

Deng Xia was startled, "How come she's about to give birth?!"

Fan Dani heard about her second sister's troubled marriage and rushed back to her parents' home with her big pregnant belly to ask them about it.

"Is what happened with the Zhou family true?" Fan Dani asked. "Did they send someone to say it?"

Fan Wu remained silent, Nie Ying's face darkened, and now Fan Dani understood everything. She slumped onto the stool, her expression blank.

Son, son... These two words are like a curse, tightly bound to her mother's fate, to her fate, and in the future, to the fate of her sisters.

Holding her nearly nine-month pregnant belly, Fan Dani murmured in a daze, "What if I can't give birth to a son? Will my second sister really be dumped? And it will be even harder to find another marriage..."

Amidst these turbulent emotions, Fan Dani went into premature labor at her parents' home.

Nie Ying hurriedly ran out of the house to find the midwife in the production team who could deliver babies, Lin Shuhong, Fan Dani's mother-in-law. Only Fan Wu and her daughters were left at home.

“My father is useless at a time like this, and my third and youngest sisters are terrified,” Fan Erni looked at Deng Xia with pleading eyes, her voice trembling and tinged with tears, “Auntie, please come to my house and help me.”

Deng Xia and Nie Ying had been at odds for over a decade, disliking each other, but at this moment she was also quick to leave, not forgetting to turn her head and instruct, "Miao'er, you and Yingni'er quickly boil a big pot of water!"

After saying that, Deng Xia hurriedly followed Fan Erni to the next room.

Miao Suyun herself had been through something similar, and knowing the urgency of the situation, she hurriedly went to boil water.

Even though he knew no one could hit him, Li Linshi instinctively stepped aside.

As Zhong Ying helped her pour water into the large iron pot on the stove using ladles and buckets, she asked her sister-in-law, "Is Sister Dani about to give birth? Is she giving birth at home like this? Is her mother-in-law delivering the baby?"

Zhong Ying found it hard to believe. They weren't going to the hospital, the hygiene at home was practically nonexistent, there was no professional obstetrician, just a midwife? And there were no painkillers or oxytocin, were they just going to give birth like that?

Miao Suyun nodded as if it were a common occurrence. "Yes, they all gave birth at home. It's just that Da Ni'er's birth was too rushed this time. I'm afraid she wasn't prepared for anything."

As she spoke, Miao Suyun's heart tightened, and she felt a little flustered. "I'll go find another piece of cloth to wrap some wood ash and send it over quickly. Little sister, you watch the fire and add more firewood to make it burn faster!"

The firewood in the stove crackled softly, startling Zhong Ying.

The woman's cries of pain, which she could not bear, echoed through the courtyard wall.

After delivering the ashes, Miao Suyun jogged home. Seeing that the flames couldn't even redden Zhong Ying's pale face, she quickly realized, "Sister, were you frightened?"

Although Zhong Ying was considered an "old maid" by the others in the production team, she was still a little sister in Miao Suyun's eyes.

Miao Suyun held Zhong Ying's hand and comforted her gently, "It's okay, every woman goes through this. I was scared before, but when it came time to give birth, I found that it wasn't that scary. Just push, persevere, get through that period, and the baby will be born."

Zhong Ying wasn't comforted at all. The baby was about to be born, and it wasn't like she was going to poop and have to hold it in. What else could she do but grit her teeth and give birth? She couldn't just put the baby back in!

Then came an even sharper shout from next door.

The child cannot be put back in, but its birth can be prevented at the source. Zhong Ying thought that she absolutely could not have a child in this era; without prenatal checkups, without doctors, without going to the hospital, this was a true "gate of hell," and she would rather remain a widow!

Once the water boiled, Zhong Ying and Miao Suyun worked together to carry the pot to the Fan family next door. Gui also silently lent a hand, subtly manipulating the water in the pot to rise and reduce the weight.

During his time in the Ganlin River, Li Lin not only calmed himself down, but he also felt that his ability to control the water had become stronger.

Midwife Lin Shuhong and Nie Ying had already run over, and the three women were all circling around the woman in labor in the room.

"The hot water is here!" Miao Suyun shouted towards the window.

Deng Xia hurried out of the house, her hands still stained with blood. "You've come just in time! I need to sterilize the scissors with boiling water! The baby is out, and we're about to cut the umbilical cord!"

Not long after, a pot of boiling water that had just been brought in turned into a basin of bloody water and was brought out again, a truly shocking sight.

Zhong Ying felt like she was fainting from blood. What kind of hell was this? It was terrifying!

She seemed lost in thought as she followed Miao Suyun back home.

Miao Suyun took her son and thanked Zhong Xin, "Luckily, my younger brother helped look after Guoqiang, otherwise, in this chaos, I really wouldn't have been able to take care of anything else..."

Zhong Xin gave a shy smile and shook his head.

The voices of the people seemed to be muffled by a layer of cotton, and Zhong Ying could not hear them clearly; she had only one thought in her mind.

She glanced at Li Lin, who was standing silently to the side, seemingly lost in thought, and said, "Sorry, you rascal."

Zhong Ying didn't care whether he agreed or not at the moment; she was really going to "lose her life"!

It's better to be strangled to death by a ghost than to bleed, cry, and leak milk!

At this moment, Zhong Ying and the original body seemed to overlap. Although the reasons were different, the strong thought was the same.

She was determined to marry Li Linshi!

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Author's note: No matter what, the male lead can't escape the female lead's grasp!