Chapter 34 Discharged from the Hospital
Li Yugu filled a basin halfway with hot water, tested the temperature, and then brought it to the bedside.
She drew the curtains beside the bed, creating a small, private space.
"Come on, wipe yourself down. You've sweated so much, it's sticky and uncomfortable." She wrung out a hot towel and lifted Wen Xiaoxiao's hospital gown.
As the warm towel was wiped across her neck and back, Wen Xiaoxiao let out a comfortable sigh.
But when the towel touched her chest, she couldn't help but hiss and gasp. It felt like two heavy stones were weighing down on her chest, her skin was taut and shiny, and it hurt like being pricked with needles at the slightest touch.
Li Yugu frowned as well: "These breasts are really engorged, we need to think of something."
Looking at her grotesque chest, Li Yugu wanted to ask how she got it, but then he remembered Wen Xiaoxiao's screams at night and a vague idea formed in his mind, though he wasn't sure.
Just then, the doctor came in for rounds.
After checking on Wen Xiaoxiao's condition, he said to Li Yugu, "We need to clear the blockage quickly, otherwise she may develop a fever and mastitis. Go buy a breast pump and let the baby nurse more, or express the milk and send it to the intensive care unit."
Li Yugu dared not delay and hurriedly went downstairs.
More than half an hour later, she returned with a rubber ball breast pump.
Wen Xiaoxiao had never used this before, and with Li Yugu's help, she endured the pain and clumsily tried it.
At first, she couldn't get any milk out, which made her sweat profusely. But she gradually found the right angle, and finally, a thin, pale yellow colostrum flowed into the bottle.
Although there was only a little less than half a bottle, Wen Xiaoxiao held the warm bottle as if it were a precious treasure.
Li Yugu rushed the baby to the intensive care unit and returned with a smile on his face: "The nurse said it would be best if the baby could be breastfed."
The next morning, the nurse brought good news: both babies had started feeding normally and were having bowel movements, and their weight was slowly increasing.
Upon hearing this news, Wen Xiaoxiao finally felt a little relieved.
During my time in the hospital, the lines between day and night became blurred.
Wen Xiaoxiao's wounds slowly healed, and her milk production gradually improved.
The two children stayed in the incubator for ten days. After being transferred to a regular infant observation room, Wen Xiaoxiao was pushed there in a wheelchair to feed them every day.
Looking at the two tiny lives sucking like kittens, all her bitterness and grievances seemed to find their place.
Two weeks later, the doctor finally announced that he could be discharged from the hospital.
Li Yugu called Zhao Qingda's bus stop from a public phone booth.
The phone rang for a long time before being answered; the other end was noisy, and you could hear car horns honking.
"Qingda, Xiaoxiao is being discharged from the hospital tomorrow. Come over and pick up the three of them and take them home," Li Yugu said.
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by Zhao Qingda's stammering voice: "Mom, I... I'm fully booked these past two days, I can't go back. Wang Juan can't be left alone either."
Li Yugu's temper flared up instantly: "Zhao Qingda! Are you even human?! Your wife just gave birth to your twins and was in the hospital for half a month, and you barely showed your face! Now that she's being discharged, you're not even coming to pick her up? Don't you even want to see those two kids?! Who does Wang Juan think she is?!"
Zhao Qingda's voice was weak, "Mom, can't you find a car? I'll pay for the fare. I really can't leave here. Wang Juan has been emotionally unstable lately, and the doctor said she can't be subjected to any stress..."
"Money, money, money! All you care about is money!" Li Yugu's hands trembled with anger. "That's your own daughter! You..." She wanted to continue cursing, but the phone went dead.
Finally, she sighed, pulled out her phone book, and started asking about car rental prices.
After asking around, she found that the price of chartering a car from the provincial capital back to the city was so expensive that it made her gasp.
Taking the bus is cheap, but Wen Xiaoxiao has just been discharged from the hospital and is still weak. How can she squeeze onto a long-distance bus while carrying two children?
Finally, they dialed the number for Zhao Fei's pig farm.
Wenbin answered the phone and quickly transferred it to Zhao Fei.
"Auntie?" Zhao Fei's voice came through the receiver.
Li Yugu spoke with some difficulty: "Feizi... Xiaoxiao is being discharged from the hospital tomorrow, and that bastard Qingda... said he can't come back. Do you think... it's convenient for you..."
Before she could finish speaking, Zhao Fei interrupted her, saying, "I'll pick you up at the hospital entrance at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."
Li Yugu felt relieved and quickly said, "Okay, Feizi, thank you..."
"Don't mention it, Auntie. See you tomorrow."
After hanging up the phone, Li Yugu felt a mix of emotions.
At 8:00 a.m. the next morning, Zhao Fei's van stopped right in front of the hospital.
He wore a clean, slightly worn shirt today, and his hair was neatly combed.
When he saw Li Yugu carrying one child and Wen Xiaoxiao carrying another, he quickly went to greet them, took the large bundle from Li Yugu's hands, and then looked at the tiny baby wrapped in a red silk swaddling cloth in Wen Xiaoxiao's arms.
"Get in the car, there are blankets in the back seat, it'll be more comfortable to lie down." He opened the car door.
Sure enough, the car was lined with thick quilts and a pillow.
Wen Xiaoxiao got into the car with the child in her arms, and Zhao Fei carefully closed the car door.
He drove very smoothly the whole way, and you could hardly feel any bumps.
The two little ones slept soundly in their mother's arms, occasionally smacking their lips.
More than an hour later, the car drove into the alley and stopped at the entrance.
Hearing the car, the neighbors all peeked out to see what was going on.
"Oh, you're back! You're back!"
"Look, there are twins!"
"Tsk tsk, these two little girls are really pretty!"
The neighbors gathered around, chattering auspicious words and vying to see the baby in the swaddling clothes.
With a tired smile on her face, Wen Xiaoxiao carefully handed the child to the aunties she knew.
Zhao Fei stood on the periphery of the crowd, carrying large and small bags in his hands, but his gaze passed over the crowd and landed on Wen Xiaoxiao.
She had lost a lot of weight, and her face was still pale, but her eyes had a resilient light that she hadn't seen before.
Just then, Wen Xiaoxiao seemed to sense something, raised her head, and her gaze met Zhao Fei's through the crowd.
In just a moment.
Zhao Fei saw a lot of things flash in her eyes.
His heart tightened suddenly, as if something was gripping it, and a thousand words were stuck in his throat.
He wanted to ask her if her wound still hurt, if the baby was crying at night, and if she was afraid of being alone in the hospital for the past two weeks.
Wen Xiaoxiao looked away first, continuing to respond to the neighbors' greetings. But her ears were quietly turning red.
"Alright, alright, everyone disperse. Let Xiaoxiao go inside and rest. She shouldn't be exposed to the wind during her postpartum period!" Li Yugu began to shoo people away.
The neighbors then dispersed, muttering things like "What a blessing!" and "The Zhao family has a new member."
Zhao Fei carried the things into the main room, then went to the well in the yard to fetch a bucket of water and gave the car a quick wash.
Li Yugu was busy in the kitchen starting a fire and heating the kang (a traditional heated brick bed).
Although it was the height of summer, women in their postpartum period had to sleep on a heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed). Wen Xiaoxiao carried her baby into the east wing.
After wiping the car, Zhao Fei didn't leave in a hurry.
He walked to the corner of the yard, picked up a hoe, and began to clear the overgrown weeds in the corner of the wall.
The hoe struck the soil rhythmically, one stroke at a time.
His eyes, however, drifted again and again to the open window of the east wing.
Through the window, he could see Wen Xiaoxiao sitting sideways on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), her head down, gently rocking the child in her arms.
The afternoon sun shone on her, casting a soft, warm glow on her pale cheeks.
She occasionally looked up, her gaze inadvertently sweeping across the window.
Zhao Fei immediately lowered his head, pretending to concentrate on weeding.
She patted her sleeping baby daughter in her arms and gently hummed an unknown tune, making the baby sleep even more soundly.
Zhao Fei, standing outside the window, stopped what he was doing.
He stood there quietly, leaning on his hoe, a smile unconsciously curving his lips.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com