Chapter 0 Extra 5: Xia Xiaoman
The weather is clear and cloudless.
Xia Xiaoman was wearing a pair of sunglasses and lying on a recliner to bask in the sun. In his ears he could hear Maodan's roar, which he wanted to be angry but didn't dare to be.
Xia Xiaoman turned her head and glanced at Maodan who was almost drowned by the baby, revealing a gloating smile.
Maodan was sharp-eyed and saw Xia Xiaoman laughing secretly, so he yelled at her in dissatisfaction. The shit shoveler had no sense at all, and he was almost annoyed to death by these naughty brats.
Since the crew members had raised the baby, they would leave the baby to the care of the nanny when they went out on the ship. When they came back from the ship, they would leave the baby on the farm and let the children play with the small animals on the farm, while they helped with farm work, which was considered as paying Xia Xiaoman's custody fee.
Every time the crew members dropped off a baby, Xia Xiaoman would ask Maodan and Nini to look after the child.
Maodan thought that after the wolf cub was sent to the science museum, he would have the opportunity to live in the world of two wolves with Nini. Unexpectedly, as soon as the wolf cub was sent away, Xia Xiaoman stuffed a group of human cubs into his hand.
These human cubs can’t be bitten or yelled at. They climb onto its head and act bossy, which annoys the wolf so much!
Chen Peiqiong walked into the yard with her big belly, "You're just leaving the baby to the furry animals to look after, aren't you afraid of something happening?"
Xia Xiaoman narrowed her eyes and said, "Maodan and the others are much better than nannies. They can do everything except feeding and changing diapers for babies."
Chen Peiqiong held her belly and sat on the sofa next to Xia Xiaoman. "You are more relaxed. Someone is taking care of the farm. You don't have to worry about anything."
Xia Xiaoman said, "You can be so leisurely. I heard from Jiang Yue that you can apply for maternity leave when you are six months pregnant. It's almost eight months now, and you haven't taken any leave yet."
Chen Peiqiong smiled and said, "I am destined to be a hard worker. It's okay if I can rest for a day or two. But if I rest every day, I will get bored and unaccustomed to it."
Xia Xiaoman curled her lips, "Where's your husband? You had your prenatal checkup today, didn't he accompany you?"
Chen Peiqiong started dating a squad leader in the army two years ago, got married last year, and planned to have a baby this year.
"He accompanied me for the prenatal checkup and sent me here, then went back to work." Chen Peiqiong looked at Xia Xiaoman, "Xiaoman, are you really not going to find someone to accompany you?"
Xia Xiaoman shook her head. "I'm living a good life now, why should I go looking for trouble?"
Chen Peiqiong's mouth twitched, "Getting married doesn't necessarily mean suffering. If you marry someone who is responsible, it can lighten your burden."
Xia Xiaoman said, "But if I marry a bad person, I might die. I don't have to worry about food and clothing now, so why should I take the risk and gamble on a probability that is less than 50%?"
Chen Peiqiong was speechless. After thinking for a while, she said, "It's okay if you don't get married. You should at least have a child! Look, Sun Qing and the others have their own children, and Sister Yu'e has Wen Ling, but you are alone."
Xia Xiaoman replied, "Do you think I look like someone who can raise a child?"
Chen Peiqiong: “…”
She sighed, "Okay, okay! If you don't want to have a baby, then don't. At worst, I can let my son take care of you in your old age."
Xia Xiaoman looked at her and said, "Have you confirmed the gender? Is the baby in your belly a son?"
Chen Peiqiong nodded, "Yes! When the child's father knew it was a boy, his face was very long. He dreamed of having a sweet little cotton-padded jacket."
"If this baby is not a little one, will you have another one?" Xia Xiaoman asked.
Chen Peiqiong nodded again, "Give birth! Next time, we'll do artificial insemination to ensure it's a daughter."
Xia Xiaoman frowned, "The mother still needs to bear the child? This is too painful. Why not use an artificial womb?"
Chen Peiqiong smiled and said, "There are differences between pregnancy in the mother's body and pregnancy in an artificial womb. In pregnancy in the mother's body, you can clearly feel the wonder of life being born from your body. In pregnancy in an artificial womb, I always feel like something is missing."
Seeing that Xia Xiaoman still didn't understand, Chen Peiqiong gave a simple example, "If a child makes a mistake, if it's your own child, you'll be more or less lenient when you punish him. But if it's a child conceived in an artificial womb, you might kill him."
After all, she has never experienced the pain of ten months of pregnancy. If the child is killed, it is killed. At worst, she can use an artificial womb to give birth to another one later.
Xia Xiaoman suddenly realized that it was no wonder that the crew members were so willing to leave their children to be raised by others. Even on vacation, they never considered staying at home to take care of their children.
I think it's because I didn't give birth to the child with my own hard work, so I don't have a deep relationship with him. Even if I don't see him for a while, I won't worry about him.
…
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, those naughty kids who used to bully Maodan have all grown up, and Maodan has also reached the end of his life.
This day was the same as usual. Xia Xiaoman got up early, washed up, went to the refrigerator to take out the chicken to cook chicken porridge for Maodan and Nini.
Maodan and Nini lost all their teeth a few years ago and cannot eat anything hard. Xia Xiaoman cooks soft chicken porridge for them every day.
Maodan smelled the chicken porridge, tremblingly walked to the rice bowl, took two bites, and then lay down at Xia Xiaoman's feet. Seeing this, Nini stopped eating breakfast and lay down beside him.
Xia Xiaoman looked down at them and said, "Why don't you eat? Is the chicken porridge I cooked today not tasty?"
Maodan didn't say anything, and put his head on Xia Xiaoman's instep. Xia Xiaoman squatted down, rubbed his big head, and carried Maodan to the food bowl, "Be obedient and eat your food."
Maodan, like when he was little, buried his head in Xia Xiaoman's arms and rubbed it before getting up to continue eating breakfast. Nini saw him eating and started to eat with him.
After dinner, Maodan and Nini followed Xia Xiaoman all the time. Wherever Xia Xiaoman went, they followed tremblingly.
Xia Xiaoman seemed to have noticed something and asked Zhang Can to handle all the today's affairs. She stayed at home and combed Maodan and Nini's hair and showed them the video of the wolf cubs sent by Jiang Yue.
As evening approached, Maodan climbed on Xia Xiaoman's lap, watching the video of the wolf cubs running freely in the water forest, and slowly closed his eyes...
Xia Xiaoman combed Maodan's hair over and over again. The little moments she had spent with Maodan kept emerging in her mind, and tears gradually gathered in her eyes.
After an unknown amount of time, Xia Xiaoman stood up and went to the room to pack up all of Maodan's things, intending to burn them together when Maodan was cremated tomorrow.
After packing up her things, Xia Xiaoman walked out of the living room. Nini rested her head on Maodan and died...
Xia Xiaoman had known that this day would come, but when it really came, she realized that she was not prepared at all for Maodan and Nini to leave her.
With the help of Li Yu'e and others, Xia Xiaoman cremated Maodan and Nini together. She put the ashes in an exquisite box and sank it to the bottom of the water.
After Maodan and Nini passed away, Xia Xiaoman locked himself at home for four or five days.
Li Yu'e, Sun Qing and others were worried that something might have happened to Xia Xiaoman, so they all went to Xia Xiaoman's house.
Xia Xiaoman opened the door and saw so many people. She forced a smile and said, "Why are you all here?"
Li Yu'e said, "Zhang Can said you haven't been to the farm for a few days. We are worried that something might happen to you at home alone."
Xia Xiaoman rubbed his messy hair and said, "What can happen to me? I'm just a little tired from cleaning the room the past two days, so I want to rest at home."
Upon hearing this, Li Yu'e looked around and found that all traces of Maodan and Nini in the room had been erased by Xia Xiaoman.
Sun Qing, who was standing by, sighed inwardly and said, "Xiao Man, how about I get you two more snow wolves?"
Xia Xiaoman was stunned for a moment, then shook her head and said, "No, I'm too old to support myself."
Sun Qing suggested, "If you don't want to raise a wolf, why not raise two birds? Birds are easier to train. You don't have to spend time training them."
Xia Xiaoman continued to shake her head, "I don't have the heart to keep a pet for the time being."
Sun Qing frowned and said, "If you don't have a pet to keep you company, you'll be too bored at home alone."
Li Yu'e said, "Xiao Man, do you want to move in with me? There's a chess and card room on the first floor of my place. I don't have much to do there. You can come with me to play cards and relax."
"It just so happens that Wen Ling has moved out now, and I'm alone. If you move in, we can take care of each other in the future."
Xia Xiaoman looked at the pairs of concerned eyes and finally nodded, "Okay! I'll move there in two days."
Whether she moves away from here or lives here, she will think of Maodan and Nini all the time.
…
After moving to Li Yu'e's house, Li Yu'e, Sun Qing and others would often find excuses to take Xia Xiaoman out to play.
There are also many recreational activities for middle-aged people. Now there is more and more oxygen outside, the water level is slowly dropping, and there are many fish in the water that I have never seen before.
Xia Xiaoman and his friends would occasionally go fishing outside wearing shielding suits. Every time they caught a fish, the good-looking ones would be placed in an ornamental fish tank, the ugly ones would be cooked and fed to chickens and ducks, and the relatively normal-looking ones would be braised for dinner parties.
If they are not fishing, they will go to the game city to play holographic games. A group of people will split into two groups and play gun battles in the holographic games. Or they will go to the chess and card room downstairs to play mahjong. When they are excited, a group of middle-aged people can play all night.
With the help of Li Yu'e and others, Xia Xiaoman quickly got over the loss of Maodan and Nini. He played with his friends every day and only went to the farm occasionally to check on the situation.
After decades of such simple and happy life, Xia Xiaoman's hair has turned gray.
That day, she saw on the electronic bulletin board that the Shenzhou spacecraft, the latest launch from the capital, had found a planet suitable for human survival.
The capital plans to send a group of soldiers to explore the planet first, and is currently working hard to build a spacecraft that can transport tens of thousands of people.
After seeing the news, Xia Xiaoman asked someone to carve a jade gourd pendant out of jade. After getting the jade gourd pendant, Xia Xiaoman injected all the space energy in his body into the jade gourd.
Xia Xiaoman, leaning on a crutch, took the jade gourd and handed it to Zhao Mingzhu, the successor of the fleet.
"Mingzhu, this is the biggest secret of my life. You must keep it well. If one day the country wants to evacuate the Blue Planet and go to a planet in outer space, you must take this out. It will be the basis for your negotiations with the authorities."
After so many years of repair, the ozone layer of Blue Planet has not been fully restored. No one knows how many years it will take for Blue Planet to return to its pre-disaster state.
Now that the capital has found a second planet suitable for human survival, it doesn't matter whether the ozone layer of the blue planet is restored or not. Maybe when the spacecraft is built, the capital will select candidates to go to the new planet just like they selected candidates to enter the underground city many years ago.
She is old and cannot wait until the day she leaves the planet. But Zhao Mingzhu and the others can still do so, and the descendants of those crew members still have a chance.
The jade space produced by the capital now is limited, but her space is infinite. Zhao Mingzhu has infinite space as a bargaining chip, so that she can strive to bring all the descendants of the crew to the new planet at the future negotiation table.
After Xia Xiaoman handed the jade gourd to Zhao Mingzhu, she suddenly felt relieved. The secret she had hidden for a lifetime was finally revealed...
[The extra chapter is also finished! Thank you all for your continued support and companionship. This time I really have to say goodbye! Bye, see you in the next book! ]
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