20 Chapter 20
◎From now on, they are just siblings, no distinction between inside and outside◎
It was a large female insect, walking slowly, with scars all over its body and both legs lame.
Watching with eager eyes, wanting to pursue you.
Mu Yun stood between Cheng Mu and the tiger, his hand trembling as he held the dagger, his eyes fixed on the tiger. He knew he couldn't defeat a tiger like this; only a strong man like Captain Lin had the strength and ability to do so. But this was a scarred tiger, and he estimated his chances.
Captain Lin's most proud achievement was capturing a large white tiger with hanging eyes in Wanqing Mountain. Wanqing Mountain is located in the Taihang Mountains, where tigers and leopards are ferocious. County governments in various places teach people how to catch tigers. Of course, Master Lin also taught Mu Yun these skills.
Or you can use a spear at eyebrow level, place the tip of the spear on the ground when the tiger pounces, and wait for the moment the tiger lands to hit you with the spear tip; if you have no weapon, when the tiger pounces, use your head to hit its throat to stop it from eating you, then hug the tiger's waist with both hands and roll on the ground with it until the tiger is exhausted and you torture it to death.
He was not strong enough to defeat the tiger by just wrestling. He did not have a spear in his hand, but he had a dagger.
"Auntie, run!"
Cheng Xi took a deep breath, held the baby with her arms, and dived down the slope.
From the perspective of the mother tiger, the prey suddenly disappeared. It roared, pressed its two front paws on the ground, lowered its front body, and prepared to pounce.
Mu Yun squatted down in a horse stance and held the dagger tightly.
"Mrs. Cheng!" Qi Song and Gui'er came towards her.
Cheng Mu opened her mouth for a long time before she found her voice again, "There's a tiger! Mu Yun, Mu Yun..."
Qi Song and the others had heard the tiger's roar a long time ago. He was holding a pickaxe for turning the soil, and Gui'er was holding her kitchen knife.
The situation was critical, so they rushed over without stopping.
Beside the ox cart, Mrs. Yu was holding Xiaoliu, spinning around anxiously, "Madam Cheng, what should we do? How can they fight such a big beast?"
Cheng Mu leaned against the shaft of the cart, already exhausted. She reached for her belly and pulled out a piece of cloth. She wiped the sweat off her face and head, "Aunt Yu, there's nothing we can do. If we get hit, it's either you or me."
The baby in her arms was still crying. She glanced at Xiaoliu who was sleeping peacefully and asked, "Is there any rice soup left? I want to eat this too."
Yu suddenly realized that she was also holding a baby. She looked at her belly and said, "Madam Cheng, you've given birth!"
"Aunt Yu, please feed her."
"Madam Cheng, feed him." Yu was an experienced person. "Milk can only come out if you suck it."
Cheng Mu sneered. She was still a grown-up girl and couldn't do this. "Aunt Yu, there won't be any milk. She was scared away by the big beast today, and there won't be any in the future." She should nip this possibility in the bud as soon as possible.
Fortunately, Yu was not like Jiang. She was also frightened by the tiger and was worried and uneasy.
The noise on the other side of the slope gradually calmed down, and the two looked at each other anxiously.
After a few breaths, three figures appeared at the top of the slope.
Cheng Mu breathed a sigh of relief, the corners of her mouth twitched as if to smile, and a few tears oozed from the corners of her eyes.
Gui'er ran down the hill, "Mom! We killed the big bug! Mom! We killed a big bug!"
Yu wiped her tears with the back of her hand, crying and laughing at the same time.
Qi Song came back and said, "It was a female tiger. If it hadn't been seriously injured, we would have died this time!"
Human women are restricted in their movements and weak when they are pregnant and giving birth, but tigresses are different. Their gestation period is short, and they have to protect their cubs after giving birth, so their fighting power becomes stronger.
Mu Yun: "I don't know who hurt it, and what happened to that person."
"He must be dead," Qi Song said. "The tigress has to take care of her cubs and rarely hurts anyone unless she hurts one of her cubs. Since she's been so badly injured in a fight, there's no reason to let her go."
Mu Yun looked at Xiao Liu. Some mothers are not as good as a big beast.
Cheng Mu looked at the baby she picked up. When she found him, he was lying in a grass nest with marks on the back of his neck. His body was sticky and smelled bad. When she turned him over, she saw that he was grunting with his eyes closed, his little chest rising and falling, and the part of his belly button connected to the placenta had been bitten off and was black.
The tigress would chase them, most likely because she had lost her cubs and adopted the baby as her own.
It is not known why the baby was found near the hill. It is possible that his mother was injured by a tiger, or that he was thrown here.
Qi Song reminded, "It's getting late, we have to leave here as soon as possible."
Gui'er asked, "Can you carry the tiger away?"
Yu said in panic, "Aren't you afraid that another big beast will jump out?"
"There is no room for two tigers in one mountain, so how can there be any big beasts?" Gui'er was reluctant to throw away her spoils.
Cheng Mu advised, "The ox cart can't fit it. There are only a few of us, old and young, how can we carry a big beast? Let's call some strong men from the village to help us tomorrow."
After they crossed the mountain and reached a slightly flatter road, Guier and the others discovered that there was a baby.
It was already dusk when they arrived at Zhaojia Village. Yu's house in Zhaojia Village had been unoccupied for two years. Upon arrival, she refused to let Cheng Mu leave the carriage and instead tied a thick band around her hair. "You should have worn it on the way, Madam Cheng. You were so frightened by the giant beast that you were only focused on the journey... Madam Cheng, please wait a moment. We'll clean up the house first and then you can come in."
There are only three rooms in her yard, a main hall with side rooms on both sides. The kitchen is inside the main hall. There is a circle of earthen wall behind the house. The wall is cracked and overgrown with weeds.
Next door was the yard of Gui'er's uncle's house. There was a lock on the door. Gui'er shouted in front of the door, but no one answered. She climbed over the wall and went in. The house was also locked. She touched the dust and it seemed that no one had lived there for some time.
Guier came back and said, "Dad often goes out to do things, and he's out again."
Her eldest uncle was the same as her father. He worked on the farm during the busy farming season and did carpentry work for others during the slack season.
The autumn harvest is coming soon, so he should be back soon.
In another quarter of an hour it would be completely dark. Qi Song took out a fire starter and together with Mu Yun, lit an incense ball in every room. These were incense balls specially made by Renxintang. The smoke produced by burning them could remove odors, repel insects and drive away evil spirits.
Gui'er fetched a bucket of water from somewhere and, along with Yu, wiped the room with a cloth. The room was empty except for a kang (a bed) and a kang table. When Gui'er was young, her family all shared a kang. Later, when her brother and she grew up, their parents added a kang in the other wing, separating the men and women.
After cleaning up, Yu also divided the room in the same way. She, Gui'er, Cheng Mu and the two babies were in one side room, and Qi Song and Mu Yun shared one.
How could Mu Yun live with Qi Bo? They didn't know Mu Yun was a girl, and they couldn't explain it that way. Cheng Mu said, "Mu Yun should live in the main room. Xiao Liu and Xiao Qi would make noises at night, so it would be more convenient to take care of them."
There was only an octagonal table and a few benches in the main room. If the benches were put together, they could also be used as a bed. Mu Yun felt that he had the responsibility to take care of the baby, so he readily agreed.
Yu said, "Uncle is still a child. How can he take care of the child? I will take care of anything in the evening."
Guier asked, "Have they got names yet? Little Six and Little Seven? Why Six and Seven? What about the other five?"
Xiao Qi followed Xiao Liu's lead and called out, "That's us," Cheng Mu said, suddenly having an idea. She pointed out the people who lived in the same room and had come all the way together, counting them one by one, "One, two, three, four, five."
Several people burst into laughter together, and the shock and fatigue of the day were greatly alleviated in the laughter.
Placing Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi side by side on the kang, Yu touched Guier's head and told her, "Rich families have their own rules. Large numbers represent a prosperous family."
Gui'er nodded, not quite understanding, "So giving birth to a child means you bring one along."
Cheng Mu sat on the kang, "From now on, they are just siblings, no distinction between inside and outside."
Yu said she understood and gave Gui'er some instructions.
After entering Yu's home, Cheng Mu began her confinement period.
Yu told her not to leave the house, not to do needlework, and not to touch cold water. These were the experiences others told her during her confinement.
Cheng Mu was very grateful, but she did not come to Zhaojia Village to recuperate after giving birth. She was stuck in the house for a month and how could she go out to learn about farming?
Yu only said that confinement is the most important thing, and postpartum illness can be very torturous.
Cheng Mu was helpless and called Mu Yun to give him instructions, "You and Gui'er, go visit every household in the village and say hello. Also, go to the fields and see where the fields are. Most importantly, ask the farmers about their harvests. For example, what difficulties are there with this wheat? Are they with seeds, soil, water, pests and diseases, farm tools, etc.? And what are the problems in each of these areas?"
Mu Yun was overwhelmed after hearing this.
Mu Yun can take Cheng Mu's place and run errands outside, and he has been doing a good job in the past few months, but when it comes to Cheng Mu's professional field, it will take time to comprehend it.
Cheng Mu tried to teach him several times, even writing big words on paper to give him hints, but she gave up in the end and just asked him to visit each household, saying that they were there to plant winter wheat and asked them about things in the fields.
Cheng Mu took out some raisins from the space and asked Gui'er to give each family a handful when greeting others.
Gui'er had wanted to find some strong men to go to the mountain to carry the tiger, but after walking around the village, she didn't see any strong men. "Why aren't they all at home?"
Mu Yun advised her to give up the idea. "The tiger must have been eaten by snakes, insects, rats and ants by now. The meat has already gone bad in the hot weather, and the skin is badly damaged from the wounds. What's the point of bringing it back?"
Gui'er had no choice but to accept it.
Yu boiled a pot of hot water, added some cold water, and gave Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi a "bath on the third day".
The two children had never been washed since they were born. There was still vernix caseosa on their necks, armpits, and other places, and yellow scabs on their scalps. Yu held the babies' heads and necks with one hand and wet a cloth with the other, gently wiping their tender skin. As she wiped, she muttered, "Wash their heads first, and they will become kings; wash their waists later, and each generation will be higher than the previous one; wash their eggs, and they will become county magistrates; wash their gutters, and they will become prefectural governors..."
To be honest, newborn babies are really unattractive. Their skin is wrinkled and cracked in some places. Xiaoliu has turned yellow, and Xiaoqi has papules on his face and back. You have to take care of them. You will see them later.
After washing them and wrapping them in cloth, Yu placed the two eggs on the kang, took out two eggs, and said with a smile, "Madam Cheng, you come and roll the eggs."
Cheng Mu likes to roll happy eggs. When she was a child, adults rolled boiled eggs for her.
Cheng Mu leaned towards Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi, supported herself with one hand, took the peeled egg from Yu, and asked, "What do you mean?"
Yu gestured to her, "Get out of my face."
Cheng Mu put it on gently and rolled the egg carefully. Yu said, "The face of the egg is like the skin of the egg, and the red of the willow is like the white. It is really a lover..."
A kind smile spread across Cheng Mu's face, as light as the gentle waves.
Although they were both born only a few days ago, each of them has experienced life and death. I hope they will be blessed in the future.
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