Chapter 239 Full Moon
It was dark, but Dandan had no intention of going to sleep. He wore long johns and a blanket, his chubby little feet kicking restlessly. Wen Wan's way of raising children was different from the way they were raised here. On hot days, she didn't like to wrap him up in a blanket and then tie him up with cloth tape until he looked like a club. Zhang Hongying thought the way she raised him might make him grow up to be disabled, but after two attempts at persuasion, she'd given up. The child hadn't been tied up since birth, and it had been so long. If she tied him up again, he'd cry his heart out.
If he doesn't sleep, Wen Wan can't sleep either, for she is afraid that he will pee on her again if she falls asleep.
The couple leaned against each other and talked.
Wen Wan couldn't go out, so Lu Dongping picked up some interesting things from the outside world to tell her. He mentioned Lu Dongcheng, and then began to count on his fingers: "There are only eight days left, and I will be out of confinement."
"Yes, there are still eight days until I can be liberated. I feel like I'm all rotten. I need to wash myself properly."
Lu Dongping lowered his head and sniffed around: "How can it be rotten? It smells good."
Heat rushed in, Wen Wan smiled and reached out to push him away: "Don't move, it's itchy!"
Lu Dongping's hands moved around unruly, and his breathing became heavier: "Anbao, we haven't done that for a long time. I'm suffocating."
"You have to hold it in for now. It's not a full month yet."
Of course Lu Dongping knew that it was less than a full month, but that didn't stop him from trying to get it back a little bit in this way or that. But in the end, he was still the one who suffered, and he was just asking for trouble.
The next morning, not long after Lu Dongping left, Shengxia came to the door with some things.
Wen Wan gave her a silk scarf when they got married, but she never got a chance to return the gift. Now that it's back, Wen Wan just gave birth to a child, and it's not even a full month yet, so she definitely wants to express her gratitude.
"I came back in a hurry and didn't have time to prepare any gifts for you and the child. This cloth is soft, and you have good craftsmanship, so you can make him two small clothes. And this piece of bright red Dacron, it would look great if you could make him a shirt."
Wen Wan was too embarrassed to accept it and kept refusing: "No, why are you so polite right after you get home? This red Dacron suits you very well. I still remember the red flowers I tied for you when you got married. It made you look especially pretty. Of course, you are pretty anyway."
Shengxia laughed at her: "How can you be as pretty as you? Look at you, you're already pregnant, and you look no different from then. Your face is so tender that you can squeeze out water from it."
After laughing, he continued, "Don't push me around. You call me sister, and Dandan calls me aunt. This is a little token of my appreciation. I know you probably don't need it, but you can't despise it."
Okay, now that things have come to this, if I continue to refuse, it would not be polite but hypocritical.
After collecting her things, she turned back and continued talking to Shengxia: "You stayed at home for a few days when we got married that year. It was the end of the year and it was freezing cold. This time it's warmer, and the mountains have their own advantages when they're hot. Just treat it as a vacation for yourself. You know your uncle and aunt, they're very simple people, good-natured and easy to talk to. The one from the Dongcai family you met earlier is divorced, and this one is younger. They can't get married until the end of this year. She's a very capable and nice-tempered girl. You should be able to get along very well."
Shengxia nodded. "I know. You seem to be doing pretty well. I'm actually quite open-minded. As long as he doesn't change his mind about me, I'll be wherever he is. We've been married for so long. Marriage means a lifetime. People only have so much good fortune in their lives. If you meet someone, you have to cherish them. If you miss out, you'll never meet another person who treats you so well again."
She had already made up her mind. Even if Lu Dongcheng didn't have a job after he recovered, she would accept it if he could just go back home and farm and earn work points. This was how life was for women. Sometimes, you really couldn't refuse your fate.
She sat with Wen Wan for a while, looked at the adults and children, and then went back.
Lu Dongcai and Lu Minghai went to the fields early in the morning, Hu Qingqing went to the mountains to pick pig grass, and Gao Xiulan took care of Chuyi at home and did some odd jobs.
When Shengxia came back from outside, Gao Xiulan was chopping pig grass under the eaves and teased Chuyi: "Grandma has been out for a few days. Is Chuyi behaving well at home?"
Chuyi was wearing open-crotch pants, sticking his butt out, pulling at the grass leaves. When he heard her ask, he quickly said, "Be good, Chuyi, be good."
Gao Xiulan said, "I heard from your father that you were naughty and cried every day, and your mother couldn't comfort you."
Chuyi refused to admit it: "Be good, Chuyi!"
Gao Xiulan laughed: "Okay, you are a good boy. We are the best students in the first grade."
Shengxia walked into the yard and called out, "Mom, you're chopping grass for the pigs. Let me do it!"
Gao Xiulan didn't give in: "I can do it, it's rare for me to fool you. After all this trouble, I'm finally back. Take a few days of rest in peace."
Shengxia pulled a bench over to the side and sat down, calling Chuyi: "Come, come to your aunt, I'll wash your hands for you."
Chuyi was not familiar with her, so he just glanced at her and pointed his butt at her.
Gao Xiulan called Chuyi: "Call me auntie."
Chuyi glanced at her without saying anything and continued to entertain himself. He could even make a flower out of a piece of grass.
"Hey, little thing, you just told me you were a good boy! If you don't call me aunt, I'll be angry."
Chuyi is small, but she knows a lot. She understands everything the adults say. After hearing Gao Xiulan say this, she hurriedly turned around and called Shengxia: "Boliang."
Born in October 1972, she is now a little over a year and a half old. She can walk well, but she still can't speak clearly. The only thing she can say clearly is her own name, apart from individual words.
Shengxia looked at her and smiled, then stretched out her hand: "Give me a hug, there's some candy here."
This is quite effective. The little girl threw away the pig grass in her hand and ran towards her.
Shengxia coaxed her to wash her hands and went into the house to get some candy for her.
Then he sat back and talked to Gao Xiulan.
"I brought two pieces of cloth for Wanwan. They're not much, just enough for her to make a dress for herself and for her child. I also prepared another one, the same as the one. Is it for Dongcai's wife directly?"
Gao Xiulan said, "It's a little token of your appreciation after all. Just give it to her when she comes back. But don't do this in the future. Cloth is precious. Keep the ones you find suitable for yourself. You and Dongcheng will need them. If you have children, you'll need them even more."
After talking for a while, Gao Xiulan mixed the pig feed and fed it to the pigs. As soon as she finished, Lu Dongcheng came out of the house.
He couldn't lie down, but walking was too difficult.
Yesterday he insisted on walking back from the wheat field but he couldn't do it anymore. After resting for a night and feeling a little better, he couldn't lie down again.
As soon as he left the house, Gao Xiulan started nagging him: "Why are you up again? Go back to bed and get some more sleep. You're almost thirty, and you still need your mother and wife to keep an eye on you. How can you be so troublesome?"
Lu Dongcheng said, "I'm just walking around in the yard and taking a break."
It's not like he can't really move at all. He's in his forties, so he can't do all his urination and defecation in the house, right?
Shengxia went to help him, but he refused and went to the toilet by himself.
Gao Xiulan was muttering outside: "He's just a stubborn ass. He's been like this since he was a child. What's the point of being stubborn? He's the only one who gets hurt."
Lu Dongcheng heard it but pretended not to hear it. He walked around the yard twice before returning to the house.
After lying down, he asked Shengxia, "Have you visited Dongping's wife?"
Shengxia responded, "I've seen it, and it's no different from before. It's being taken care of well. The baby is also being taken care of well. It's not even a month old yet, and it's white, plump, and adorable."
Lu Dongcheng leaned over and looked at her: "Do you like children?"
Shengxia nodded without hesitation: "I like it."
Lu Dongcheng smiled and said, "As long as you like it."
Two days later, Lu Dongfu also came back from vacation, and the house became even more lively.
On July 28th, Dandan was one month old, and Wenwan was finally able to leave the confinement period.
The previous afternoon, Lu Dongping had boiled a large pot of water and brought the large wooden tub used for washing clothes into the house so she could have a good bath. Wen Wan's hair hadn't seen water for a month, and she felt like lice had taken root. She changed the water several times and applied shampoo several times before the problem subsided. However, after each wash, her hair fell out so much that her head felt light and fluffy. There was lice everywhere, in the tub, on the comb, on the towel.
Lu Dongping got the water out, cleaned up the room, and had almost finished drying her hair.
I took the towel and served her, then told her about the full moon celebration.
"Didn't you write it down in a notebook before? Originally, we said we wouldn't have a full-moon banquet. We would just have our aunt and uncle's family and our family have a meal together. That was the idea. But Mom meant that everyone who came to see you with gifts should be invited, whether they came or not. That's what she meant."
"I'm fine with that. Is it tomorrow? Is it in time?"
"There's still time. I'll just go for a run later. There are only a few dishes, so there are only a few tables. I can pack up the bacon tonight, so there's still time to cook it tomorrow morning."
It wasn't busy originally, but it became lively outside early in the morning on the 28th.
Wen Wan was used to getting up late during her confinement period, so she felt uncomfortable all over when woken up so early. She rolled around in bed a few times and continued to sleep.
Lu Dongping still has to go to the Armed Forces Department in the morning and will be back at noon. A few of his good friends from the commune have already agreed to come over for a drink, so they will probably come together at that time.
The family had saved some soybeans and had made soy milk for Wen Wan a few times during her confinement period. There was still some left, so they planted two rows of them on the roadside in front of the door. It looked like they could harvest about ten pounds in the fall. Zhang Hongying soaked two bowls of soybeans the night before, got up early in the morning, and went to the next door to grind them into pulp with her hands. After filtering, she made soy milk and tofu.
Everyone knows that soybeans are good things, but the yield is too low. They are not planted in the collective land of the team, and the private plots of each household are also limited. The most they can do is to plant some in the corners in front of and behind the house, and harvest a little bit to eat as a rare tofu during festivals.
Gao Xiulan and her two daughters-in-law came over early in the morning to help, some lighting the fire and some chopping vegetables, while Lu Chun'e and Hu Qingqing carried baskets to the private plot to bring back everything edible. As for Lu Donglin and Lu Dongfu, they went up the mountain early. Mushrooms are in season now, and picking some and stir-frying them would make a delicious dish.
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