Chapter 22 Can't Give Up

There is no work in the fields in winter, so An Zhixia is responsible for preparing delicious meals for the brother and sister. She also feeds the farmhand Niu Wang and then stays in the house knitting cashmere sweaters.

Finally, before the New Year, the brother and sister both wore comfortable and extremely warm cashmere clothes. Two sets for each person, An Zhiqiu's was black and red, and hers was red and ginger. After making the cashmere clothes, she used elastic cotton cloth to make autumn clothes and trousers, and of course, a white shirt that indicated her intellectual status.

On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, the village slaughtered the New Year pig and each household was given some pork.

An Zhixia also followed the crowd and started to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner. According to rural customs, the meals from the first to the fifteenth day of the lunar month should be prepared before the 30th day. Each meal only needed to be heated up, so everyone used all their skills to make more variety.

She spent two days thinking about the recipe and then pulled her brother to work in the kitchen.

The previous buns had been eaten, so she continued to steam two large pots, one pot of steamed buns, one pot of sticky bean buns, and one pot of flower rolls. She also made some cakes, such as date cakes, mung bean cakes, pumpkin cakes, rice dumplings, glutinous rice balls, etc.

After steaming, put it on the bluestone outside the house to freeze it solid, and then put it into a jar for storage.

An Zhixia continued to make fried food: carrot balls, sugar cakes, twisted dough sticks, fried dough sticks, fried meat, fried sweet potatoes, yams, mushrooms, lotus roots, tofu, French fries, etc. She also braised a pot of meat, tofu, pork intestines, and dried vegetables. The soup with all the ingredients was fragrant and kept floating in the winter courtyard, as if it had a hook, pulling people to crane their necks and sniff.

"Hello, Xiao An, the educated youth?" A pretty girl in a floral jacket and two short pigtails stood at the kitchen door and greeted with a smile, her lips blooming with shallow dimples.

The voice was crisp and full of youthful freedom.

"Excuse me, who are you?" An Zhixia is a person who is obsessed with looks and voices. She is beautiful, but she cannot look at it all the time, so she still maintains a great enthusiasm for beautiful people and food.

"I'm Fang Hongye, and my father is the village chief," she said with a smile, "Niu Wang is a child who doesn't know how to behave. He ate a lot of your food. We didn't have anything good to give back, so I thought that you educated youth from the city probably wouldn't know how to make shoes, so I made two pairs. You're not allowed to dislike them."

As she said this, she placed the shoes wrapped tightly in oil paper on a clean chair, raised her foot shyly and walked away, still shouting.

This, this is the brother's first wife in the novel? Looking at this beautiful woman, An Zhixia felt that if she were the brother, it would be difficult to resist such luck in love.

"Zhixia, who's here?" An Zhiqiu only saw a woman's back and asked casually.

"Ah," An Zhixia hesitated for a moment and pointed at the oil-paper bag: "I just gave some food to the village chief's grandson, and his aunt sent two pairs of shoes. The villagers are too honest," she concluded with a sheepish smile.

An Zhiqiu glanced at his sister and asked curiously while unwrapping the oil paper package, "How many good things have you given to others that made them take the trouble to make shoes for you in return?"

The shoes were single shoes with thousand-layer soles, and the stitching was neat and beautiful. He couldn't help but take off his cotton shoes to try them on. "Oh, you know what, they really fit my feet."

After hearing what her brother said, An Zhixia thought more. Should she let the plot develop, let her brother and Fang Hongye get together, and then make double the effort to get out of the predicament; or should she be the cruel stick that breaks up the couple?

Before she could think about it, a child came running in, shouting: "Oh no, someone fell into the river! Sister Zhiqing, fell, fell into the river..."

An Zhixia quickly called Fei Zheng and asked her to put out the fire in the stove. She asked the child for the location, then dragged her brother to the river.

"Xia Xia, don't worry, brother will go and take a look first," An Zhiqiu had long legs and ran very fast. In two or three steps, he was out of the alley and disappeared.

An Zhixia didn't dare to delay and continued running with gritted teeth.

There is a river surrounding Hetang Village. The river is wide and the water is a bit turbulent, so even if the river freezes in winter, people dare not step on it easily, for fear of falling into the ice. Only some playful and daring children ignore the adults' dissuasion and secretly go to the river to cut ice and fish, and accidents happen every year.

When she was almost out of breath, she finally saw the crowd gathered together. She pinched her waist and held her breath and ran again, "Get out of the way, get out of the way."

They were all teenagers, and when they heard the noise, they made way for them.

An Zhiqiu was wet all over, holding a pale boy with closed eyes in his arms. Two little girls were holding onto one of his legs each, crying so hard that they were almost dying.

Seeing his sister coming, he shook his head with an unpleasant expression and said in a low and sour voice: "When I arrived, there were still bubbles in the water, but after I rescued him, he was dead."

Niu Wang stood aside awkwardly, blaming himself: "I'm sorry, Sister Zhixia..."

No amount of excuses can save a life.

An Zhixia gritted her teeth and took a deep breath, quickly teaching her brother the first aid measures for drowning that she had to recite seven or eight times every day these days. Clear the mouth and nose of debris, empty the water, perform artificial respiration, and perform external chest massage, over and over again.

An Zhiqiu was tired, and Yang Jiong, who rushed over after hearing the news, immediately performed artificial respiration and external chest massage.

"Forget it, this child can't be saved." More than half an hour had passed, and more and more people from the village had rushed over. Seeing that they were still insisting on rescuing the child, some people couldn't help but whispered to persuade them.

"Yeah, it's been so long..."

Some wives and aunts turned their backs with red eyes, unwilling to watch, "This child has suffered a lot, now that he is gone, maybe he can be reborn into a good family."

"Continue," An Zhixia stared at Fang Lixi lying flat on the ground, gritting her teeth and not letting go: "It's too early to give up now. Many people took several hours to resuscitate."

An Zhiqiu supported his sister unconditionally. Seeing that Yang Jiong was exhausted, he took over the job and continued to perform artificial respiration and external chest massage in turns.

When Fang Yuan rushed over, the man who was over 1.80 meters tall staggered, his eyes almost burst, and he was extremely sad, angry and desperate. He smashed his fist on the gravel-covered ground and blood gushed out instantly.

An Zhixia has calmed down now. "Comrade Fang, the child is still waiting for you to save him. We can't give up easily until the last moment."

Seeing that Fang Yuan's eyes had regained some clarity, she recounted the rescue measures in detail.

Fang Yuan cleaned his wound briefly and immediately took over from An Zhiqiu, doing every step very well.

The two little girls kept talking to their brother. Their hoarse and childish voices made the adults bite their lips and cry.

After repeated rescues, no one spoke, and everyone silently prayed for a miracle to happen. But the sun had already set, and Fang Lixi closed her eyes tightly, without any reaction.

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(End of this chapter)