Chapter 004: Widow Liu and Prince Yan

Lin Yue is a new mother, and she is always thinking about the two little ones outside the space. Although her body needs a good rest, she dare not sleep too deeply. She has to wake up every one or two hours to feel the breath of the two children and check their diapers.

The two little guys slept soundly, and slept for nearly three hours.

When Lin Yue came out of the space, his sister had just woken up. The little girl was playing with her hands with one eye open and the other closed. Lin Yue reached out and touched it, and it felt dry and comfortable inside the quilt.

At this time, her brother began to sleep restlessly. Lin Yue had a premonition and thought that she would have to wash the diapers and bedding soaked with urine, so she quickly pulled her brother out of the thick quilt and wanted to hold him while he urinated.

As a result, as soon as the little guy got free, he immediately peed three feet high, almost dripping on Lin Yue's face. Now, the bed sheets, quilts, and a small baby were all soaked with urine.

Lin Yue felt tired, so she quickly took the child into the clean quilt and covered him with it.

She wanted to give the two little guys a bath, but she calculated that it was time to feed them, so she went to the kitchen to heat up some fresh goat milk for them. Thinking that the two little guys were too weak, she carefully added a drop of spiritual spring water into the water.

The goat milk was still too hot and needed to be cooled for a while before drinking. There was still a little hot water left in the pot, which should be enough for the two kids to wipe their bodies. She scooped the hot water into the wooden basin and simply moved the basin, the two kids, and the urine-soaked bedding into the space.

The temperature in the space was just right. She adjusted the water temperature in the wooden basin, dropped a drop of spiritual spring water into the water, and wiped the two babies' bodies thoroughly.

When I came out again, the goat milk was cold, just right for feeding the kids. I don't know if it was because of the spiritual spring water or they were really hungry, but the kids drank a few more spoonfuls than last time.

Lin Yue found the mixed grain biscuits that the original owner had made yesterday, soaked them in goat milk and drank a large bowl of them. The goat milk had a strong taste, but Lin Yue was too hungry at the moment and didn't dislike it at all.

The two little guys drank goat milk mixed with hot spring water, and they slept very soundly.

Lin Yue wrapped himself tightly and carefully checked the surroundings of his house to make sure that no one was on the street before sneaking out again under the cover of night.

She came all the way to the well and collected all the water in the well into the space.

The well water is connected to the groundwater and will surge up again after a while, so there is no need to worry about others having no water tomorrow morning.

When she got home, she found some long bamboo poles and ropes and went into the space.

Insert the bamboo pole deep into the ground and tie a rope to it, and you have a simple clothes drying rack.

The wooden basin was filled with clothes and bedding, plus the clothes she took off when taking a bath, it was really a big project.

Lin Yue was still very weak, so he simply went to sleep when he was tired. When he heard the kids crying, he came out to take care of them. When he had time, he continued to wash clothes.

She used to wash clothes using a washing machine, and she never thought that washing clothes would be such a time-consuming and labor-intensive task.

Time was long in the space. One night outside was almost two days in the space. During this night, several bamboo poles were full of clothes and bedding.

Fortunately, she had this space. Although she was still unconsciously worried about the two little guys outside the space, she did not lack sleep. After a night, her body recovered a lot.

The only thing that worried her was that she consumed too much food. It would be great if her stomach was not affected by the speed of time in space.

The next morning, my sister had poop. While Lin Yue was wiping her butt, he kept saying, "Little second child, how can you poop so much when you are so small and you eat so little?"

Lin Yue pinched the baby's stinky diaper with two fingers and planned to throw it out. As soon as she went out, she saw an old lady with completely white hair peeking into her house.

Lin Yue recognized that this was Aunt Zhang from the village. She was over sixty years old. With her six sons taking care of her in her old age, she had never been hungry during the famine, so she was in very good health and could even go to the fields to earn work points during the busy farming season.

She made eye contact with the old lady and greeted her with a smile, "Auntie Zhang, are you out for a walk?"

Aunt Zhang smiled awkwardly: "I heard you gave birth, so I came to see how you are."

The original owner didn't like to communicate with others, and she had hardly spoken to Aunt Zhang. In fact, the village was quite xenophobic. The original owner was a new daughter-in-law whose husband was not around, who had no family, and who was always bullied by her mother-in-law. Even though she had been married for more than half a year, she still hadn't really integrated into the village. So when Lin Yue heard that Aunt Zhang came to see her early in the morning, she still felt a little strange.

Aunt Zhang was a little embarrassed at first, but after she said it, she didn't feel awkward anymore. She put her hands behind her back and walked slowly into the house.

She saw the diaper in Lin Yue's hand and asked, "It's so cold today, why are you taking the baby's diaper outside instead of washing it in the house?"

Lin Yue raised the diaper in his hand awkwardly: "My little one has pooped on it, and it will smell too bad if I wash it in the house..."

Aunt Zhang saw her disgusted look and understood immediately. Her eyes widened and she said, "You prodigal child! Are you planning to throw it away? Oh, how can you just throw away a piece of good cloth? How many pieces of cloth in your house can withstand your waste? Look at you, what kind of baby doesn't poop and pee?"

She spoke sternly and without hesitation, she snatched the diaper from Lin Yue's hand, went into the house, scooped out half a bucket of water from the water tank, took it outside and rinsed it briefly, then grabbed a handful of wood ash from the stove, sprinkled it on the diaper, and rubbed it vigorously in the basin.

The diaper was originally made of old cloth and was dark yellow in color. After Aunt Zhang rubbed it for a while and then rinsed it with clean water, the stains were no longer visible.

She quickly hung the washed diapers out to dry in the yard, muttering as she did so: "You young people just don't know how to live. Now you want to get some muslin, but without a ticket, you can't even afford a scrap of cloth. Now you have a child, and your parents-in-law don't care about you. There will be many more difficult things in the future, so you can't live your life without a plan like before."

She turned around and took out seven or eight eggs from her bosom and stuffed them into Lin Yue's hand: "You just gave birth to a child, you can't keep eating dried sweet potatoes all day. Take these eggs, they can help you replenish your body and also add some joy to our celebration. Come on, let's go into the house and see the two little kids."

But then I heard a soft female voice behind me calling, "Hey, Xiao Hui's wife, come here, I want to ask you something!"

When Lin Yue turned around, he saw a very slim woman standing by the grove outside the yard. She was leaning lightly against the tree trunk with one leg stretched back and she was holding a handkerchief in her hand, which she waved at Lin Yue.

This is the nightmare of all the women in the village, Widow Liu.

She was not very pretty, but she knew how to dress herself up and had fair skin, which made her very different from the other women in the village. Although she was in her forties, she was still charming and flirtatious. If a man looked at her door for even a second, the news would spread around the village for days.

Aunt Zhang and she were originally cousins, and both of their husbands died on the battlefield. She was disgusted with the behavior of Widow Liu. When she met people, her face turned black: "Little Gray Wife, come with me into the house and ignore those shameless things!"

Widow Liu leaned back against the tree, looking boneless, and said, "You old bastard, I'm talking to a young wife, what's your business?"

Seeing that Lin Yue ignored her, she shouted from behind: "I'm talking to the wife of Greyhound, I want to ask you something, what is your relationship with that Principal Xu? Why did he come to see you yesterday? Come and talk to Auntie, Auntie can't do without you!"

Lin Yue didn't want to pay attention to her and followed Aunt Zhang into the house.

Widow Liu was bored but didn't seem angry. She just waved her hand and left.

The kids were not asleep yet, and two of them were sitting on the kang, playing with the kids and chatting.

Aunt Zhang didn't want to mention the widow Liu at all, and she taught Lin Yue how to raise a child. "The baby is still too young now. You can't sleep too soundly at night. Don't roll over and crush the child. There are usually three reasons why a child cries. It's either because he has peed or he is hungry. You can try it and you will know for sure. Also, you have to keep the child away from the quilt. A few years ago, a child in another village was suffocated to death by a quilt that fell down."

Lin Yue listened attentively, responded a few words from time to time, and wished he could find a notebook to write it down.

Unexpectedly, Aunt Zhang asked, "I heard that you died the night before yesterday. Was it Su Ximei who brought you back from King Yan's Palace?"

Lin Yue’s eyes widened instantly.

Before she could explain anything, a woman's voice came from the door: "Yes, yes, yes, I heard that too. I heard that Sister Su was very powerful. She talked to Prince Yan for a long time the night before, and then she clapped her hands like this, and your soul returned to its place in a flash."

The person who spoke was a short, thin middle-aged woman who was wearing a flowered cloth blouse full of patches. She put her hands crossed in her sleeves, pushed the door open with her elbow, and walked into the inner room with a gossipy look on her face.

This is the neighbor of the old house, her name is Sister Jin. She is not old, not even forty, but she is of a higher generation, so Lin Yue has to call her aunt when he sees her.

She leaned on the kang with a smile on her face, took out two eggs from her pocket and handed them to Lin Yue, urging him, "I saw your mother-in-law sitting at the gate with a stool, waiting for everyone to give her gifts. Let me tell you, you gave birth to a pair of children for her family, what a great contribution! When you started the movement the day before yesterday, I heard Wang San's wife knocking on her door, but she didn't even come to take a look, which was really heartless. Just now she wanted to lead me to her house, but I refused to go, and didn't even let her touch the egg shell! Oh, yes, tell us what happened the night before yesterday, I wanted to come yesterday, but I didn't come because I didn't want to disturb your rest."

Lin Yue was very embarrassed. This was the first time she had heard this rumor. She had no idea that it had spread so wildly in the village in just one day.

She said quickly, "My dear aunt, please don't talk nonsense. That's all feudal superstition! It was indeed Aunt Su who saved me the night before last, but that was a serious way to cure illnesses and save lives. It was her eldest son Zhang Shoutian who taught her first aid. You know, Brother Shoutian is a worker in the city, and he knows a lot of things."

Sister Jin just looked at her with a smile, and Aunt Zhang also had an expression of watching a show. It was obvious that neither of them believed Lin Yue's words.

She thought for a moment and then explained, "If it's really as weird as you say, Aunt Su would have to be a deity, and she would have to be a higher official than Prince Yan in order for Prince Yan to listen to her."

Lin Yue knew that the Four Olds would be destroyed in a few years. If this rumor was allowed to spread, neither she nor Aunt Su would be able to escape.

Naturally, the two of them did not believe that Aunt Su was a higher-ranking official than Prince Yan. In comparison, it was more believable to say that she had learned some method to save people.

Sister Jin was a little disappointed, and obviously not satisfied with the answer, but she didn't say anything. She got on the kang, teased the child and talked about other things.

After seeing off Aunt Zhang and Sister Jin, seven or eight more groups of people came one after another. Everyone brought something, more or less. Most of them brought eggs, but some also brought brown sugar and noodles.

In Xiaotian Village, on the third day after a child is born, people with good connections will come to give gifts. It doesn't have a proper name, but it's probably equivalent to the third-day bathing ceremony. However, the local custom is not to bathe the child so early, so they just come to see the child.

Lin Yue had no idea about this, and the original owner was also inexperienced, so she didn't even prepare anything to drink. She could only hurriedly boil some water, dig out some sugar and put it in the water, then serve it to the guests.

Seeing the two twins, everyone was so adorable that they would pinch their faces from time to time, or lift the blanket to take a look, and then look at each other and laugh. Lin Yue didn't know what they were laughing about, he just watched from the side with fear, afraid that one of the sisters-in-law or aunts would pinch the children too hard and hurt them again.

What she didn't know was that because she had no milk, she had escaped social death.

Aunt Wang San came with her eldest daughter-in-law Liu Jianhua and her young lady Zhang Xiaohui.

Liu Jianhua and her eldest son Zhang Shouxin have been married for nearly three years, but there is still no sign of pregnancy. Aunt Wang San and her husband are very anxious, and today they brought their eldest daughter-in-law here just to share in the good fortune.

She pushed her honest daughter-in-law to the front of the kang and said in a loud voice: "Little Gray daughter-in-law, let our Jianhua hold the child. Come, hold him!"

Liu Jianhua smiled at Lin Yue awkwardly, and only stepped forward shyly after Lin Yue agreed. He wiped his hands on his clothes, rubbed his hands together to warm them up, and then carefully picked up the little boss.

The room was too small, so five or six people filled it up. Auntie Wang squeezed in, picked up the second child, and put him in her daughter-in-law's arms: "Hold this one too. It's not enough to just have a son. It's a blessing to have both a son and a daughter!"

Everyone in the room laughed good-naturedly. Liu Jianhua blushed with embarrassment. He was reluctant to put the two children in his arms down, but was too embarrassed to hold them.

There were so many people at home, but the two little guys were not afraid at all and were quietly held in someone's arms. The second child met Liu Jianhua's gaze and showed a sweet toothless smile. Liu Jianhua's heart softened immediately and he was reluctant to let go.

The eldest daughter-in-law of Aunt Wang San is a relatively introverted and shy person, but her daughter Zhang Xiaohui is very generous and outgoing.

She just stood near the door, watching the group of people talking, laughing and playing with children without interrupting or joining in the fun. She stood alone at the outermost circle, not at all like most girls at this age who would be easily shy, and her expression was very calm.

But his eyes would often unconsciously fall on Lin Yue, as if he was sizing him up, which made Lin Yue feel a little uncomfortable.

She turned her head to look at Zhang Xiaohui, who smiled faintly at her and turned her head to look at her sister-in-law's excitement.