Liang Shengdi's pregnancy came half a month early, which happened to be the most difficult time of the year in May.
Liang Shengdi really looks ugly now.
Except for the bulging belly, the rest of the limbs are thin and feel like they will break if bent. The eye sockets are also very sunken.
Dashan's mother said that if Zhang Xiaonv didn't eat more to save her strength, the child would probably suffocate to death in her stomach.
Zhang Xiaonv opened the last bag of food while crying, poured out the rice inside and made a bowl of dry rice for Liang Shengdi. Liang Shengdi held the bowl of rice and directly put it into her mouth with her hands, not afraid of choking.
I waited until I had licked the bowl clean inside and out before I remembered to drink some water.
Lin Wenxuan stood anxiously at the door holding Yulan. He was almost unrecognizable due to his weight loss.
Although Zhang Xiaonv only reduced his food ration by one third, it was impossible for him to eat alone. Seeing his mother and wife starving, he often shared some of his share with them.
Or maybe there are no fat people these days. Even Xiao Yulan doesn't have much fat on her face.
How can you grow meat if you eat sweet potato or wild vegetable porridge every day?
This was not her second birth, and the baby came out much faster this time than the first time, but Liang Shengdi felt like she was about to die.
The child didn't cry at first, but started to cry after Dashan's mother slapped his butt a few times.
But she was as light as a kitten, much lighter than when Magnolia was there.
"It's a boy!" Dashan's mother happily told Zhang the good news.
Zhang Xiaonu was crying and laughing, kneeling on the ground and shouting "Ancestors bless you! Bodhisattva bless you!"
The child was placed next to Liang Shengdi, and the sisters-in-law and aunts who helped with the delivery all said that the child was weak and needed to be fed more.
Liang Shengdi didn't even have the energy to refute them.
What do you want her to feed?
That feeling of life passing away came back.
Everyone was happy. She had continued the Lin family's lineage. Even Lin Wenxuan was laughing so hard that his eyes were blurry. Only Lin Yulan was running around. Sometimes she would go to see her brother in the arms of her father and grandmother, and sometimes she would lie down beside Liang Shengdi, shouting,
"Mom...it hurts...whoosh..."
Liang Shengdi didn't even have the strength to cry out loud.
On the third day after the birth, Lin Wenxuan sat beside her, excitedly discussing with Liang Shengdi what to name the second baby. She asked Lin Wenxuan in bed to tell Zhang Xiaonv whether the second baby could eat rice porridge.
She didn't have much milk this time, so if the second baby wanted to be full, he had to eat hard for a long time, and he would want to eat again soon after eating. She really felt light and airy.
But Zhang Xiaonv disagreed.
"You heard it the other day too! They all said that Erbao was still too young and needed to be fed with milk! Besides, where would we get rice soup to feed it?"
There's still more than a month until the summer harvest! Zhang Xiaonv is now living her life by the sliver of rice.
Since Liang Shengdi had just given birth, she was the one who ate the most at home. Even Yulan was eating less. Rice soup? Yulan only ate rice soup!
The wild vegetables on the mountain had almost been picked, and Lin Wenxuan couldn't find anything to eat, so he turned his attention to the chicken in the yard.
Zhang Xiaonu almost jumped up.
"I'm dying! Why do you two keep staring at this chicken all day? Is that something we can eat? Do you know how much a chicken is worth out there? How much food can it be exchanged for?"
"Then take it and exchange it for food!" Lin Wenxuan shouted, also getting angry.
"You guard this chicken every day, not letting it eat or drink! You think about how much it's worth! Why don't you exchange it for food? Otherwise, it's worthless!"
"Why is it worthless? It lays eggs! Why is it worthless?!"
"You didn't even give Shengdi any of your eggs!"
Liang Shengdi is in such a state, but his mother still guards the chicken every day and won't let go. Is she going to let the chicken starve to death before she stops?
Zhang Xiaonv still said the same thing, if you want to kill the chicken, kill her first.
The Lin family had been raided several times, and now apart from food rations, the only valuable thing in the house was probably this chicken. She would never allow anyone to take it, unless it stopped laying eggs, and then she could sell it.
Liang Shengdi could only lie there and continue feeding her baby. Except for getting up to use the toilet, she spent the rest of the time lying there, just to save some energy.
Zhang Xiaonv couldn't help much with the child, so Liang Shengdi basically had to take care of the child herself.
Because Yulan is one and a half years old, she is the most clingy and protective of herself. She has always been taken care of by her grandmother, and now if she sees her grandmother going to pick up her brother, she will cry like a dog.
No matter how much Zhang Xiaonv loves her granddaughter, she is the one who brought her up with her own hands, so how could she bear to see her cry out of breath?
Moreover, she couldn't help with breastfeeding, so Liang Shengdi had to take care of it herself. She was the one who came to get the diapers every day and washed and dried them.
To be fair, Liang Shengdi also knew that Zhang Xiaonv was not a bad mother-in-law. It was just that the year was bad, and as she was in charge of the family, she had to work hard to allocate resources so that everyone could survive.
But every time she lay there like a piece of dead pork while feeding, Liang Shengdi couldn't help but hate her a little.
Why can't we just kill the chicken? Or sell it and exchange it for food?
Why can't we let everyone have a full meal, or let children drink rice soup?
Just for this so-called valuable property!
But wasn't this little fortune earned through her hard work?
Why did she work so hard but still had nothing to eat!
Liang Shengdi fell into a vicious circle again. She was thinking about these things whether she was awake or asleep. Sometimes when she was lying alone in bed with her child, she would stare at the ceiling and mutter to herself.
Lin Wenxuan saw it but didn't know how to comfort his wife, so he became even more silent. He could only run to the fields five times a day, hoping that the rice would ripen quickly. When the rice was ripe, he would bring the new grain home so that Shengdi would have enough to eat and his son would have rice soup to drink.
Finally, when the second child was one month old, the rice fields began to drain. In another ten days or half a month, the rice could be harvested. Lin Wenxuan has been squatting in the fields these days, trying to feel around to see if he could find any eels.
Yellow eel is very nutritious. If you find one, you can take it back and give it to Shengdi to nourish her.
Zhang Xiaonu also brought her granddaughter to the fields to help. She tied Xiao Yulan with a rope, one end tied to Xiao Yulan, and the other end tied to a big tree to prevent her from running into the fields to feed leeches, while allowing her to see people when she looked up.
He followed Lin Wenxuan to the fields to remove the weeds first to avoid trouble when harvesting the rice.
Liang Shengdi was left at home to take care of Erbao.
Zhang Xiaonv said she would come back to make lunch later, but she had boiled some water and put it on the table for her. If she was thirsty, she could go and pour some water for herself to drink.
This went on for several days and nothing happened.
Until two days before the official summer harvest.
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