Time passed quickly, and it was the end of 1970 again. When Xuemei was six months pregnant, she went to the county town for another check-up. Doctor Gu said that the baby was developing well, and that Xuemei should eat small meals frequently in the late pregnancy, so as not to let the fetus grow too big, which would make it difficult to give birth.
Xuemei is now over eight months pregnant. Ever since the autumn harvest, when farm work has lessened in the village, Han Chen has been taking her to work every day. At the end of the eleventh lunar month, the weather was getting colder, and the roads were slippery. Xuemei didn't go to work, so Han Chen filled in. Later, when the three Qingya siblings went on summer vacation, Han Chen and Xuemei discussed it and decided that one of them would cover for a month, as a form of training for them.
After Qingya and her two siblings discussed it, they decided to let Feifei take over for a month. Xuemei gave him 20 yuan as substitute fee, Feifei took 14 yuan for himself, and the remaining 6 yuan was divided between Ruirui and Qingya because they helped with housework.
The kitchen and firewood shed on the right side of Xuemei and Hanchen's house have been built. Now Xuemei and Hanchen boil water in the kitchen for washing. The flush toilet that Hanchen requested has also been built. It is located diagonally behind the new brick house and behind the old brick house. The original toilet is used as a septic tank. After using the toilet, feces and urine will flow into the septic tank after flushing with water.
Liu's father and Han Chen paved a stone path from the new brick house to the new toilet, so they wouldn't have to worry about getting their shoes covered in mud even on rainy days. The squat toilet in the new toilet was also built using stones they had chiseled from the stone wall, and the toilet floor was also paved with smooth stones.
After the new toilet was built, many people came to the Liu family to see it. The families of Liu Guanghui and Liu Xiu, as well as the educated youth at the educated youth institute, were all very interested and planned to renovate their toilets next year. They wanted to make the toilets as clean and hygienic as the new one at the Liu family, with little odor in the summer. It would also be easy for the village to collect farm manure, unlike now, when the whole toilet becomes dirty and smelly every time farm manure is collected.
On the 21st day of the twelfth lunar month, the village decided to distribute grain today. Although there was no snow this year, the temperature was low and the wind was cold. Sometimes it rained at night, and the road surface was frozen and slippery in the morning.
Xuemei also wanted to go to the threshing ground to take a look. Han Chen was worried, so he asked Ruirui to help Liu's father, and he helped Xuemei to the threshing ground. Xuemei's belly was smaller than that of an average pregnant woman at eight months, but the fetus was very healthy, said Wu Yuezhu and his grandson. Xuemei now weighs more than 110 pounds, 17 or 18 pounds heavier than before she became pregnant. Her face has become rounder and her complexion has become more rosy.
The family had almost prepared everything for the baby in Xuemei's belly. After receiving the letter, the Lin family sent Xuemei and Han Chen a few pieces of cloth, a bag of milk powder, and remitted fifty yuan.
At the end of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, Xuemei also received more than ten kilograms of defective cloth from the supply and marketing cooperative. Now the family has no shortage of cloth. She also gave two bags of defective cloth to Shengnan, Xinyan and He Wanting respectively. The defective cloth just had many holes bitten by insects and was unevenly dyed, but it was still very useful without the insect holes. These were all cotton cloths.
This year, the family was allocated five kilograms of cotton, and with the cotton grown by themselves, there were more than seven kilograms. Feifei chose the military coat that Xuemei had just brought back. There was no need to make new cotton-padded clothes in the past two years, so after filling some new cotton into the quilt and the cotton-padded clothes of Qingya and her brother, there were still about five kilograms of cotton left in the house.
During this time, Liu's mother and Xuemei made chestnut cakes and sold them to the supply and marketing cooperative. They also spent the rest of their time preparing clothes for the baby. They have already made three quilts: thick, medium and thin, which will last until the baby is four months old. Liu's mother made new cotton shoes for those in need at home with the remaining cotton.
Xuemei and Liu's mother also made three sets of children's clothes, all of which were monk's clothes tied with cloth straps. Newborn babies are too small, so this kind of clothes is easy to wear. When she grows up a little, they can just move the straps. Of these three sets of clothes, two small ones can be worn by the baby until she is four months old, and the large one can be worn until at least half a year old.
Xuemei and Liu's mother also prepared several hats and pairs of socks. Xuemei even crocheted a woolen hat and two pairs of socks. Since babies don't wear shoes in the first few months, Xuemei planned to give her a pair of cotton socks and a woolen hat when it's cold, so she can keep warm even under the blanket. Liu's mother, however, had already made a pair of tiger-head shoes with cotton and a pair of cloth tiger-head shoes.
The family also prepared twenty or thirty diapers. Wang Weidong and his wife now have two sons and a daughter, so they don't plan to have more children. They distributed the diapers and clothes used by their children when they were young to Xuemei, Xinyan, and Zhiqing. They were all washed and dried. Xuemei got a set of small clothes and ten diapers. Liu's mother made some diapers with clothes that Qingya and her two siblings couldn't wear and defective cotton cloth. They were all washed, dried, and put away.
This year, Xuemei was pregnant, so Han Chen didn't go hunting with Liu's father. However, Yang Wanlin went along. Liu's father, Ruirui, Qingya, and Yang Wanlin were all quite skilled hunters, so they planned to hunt something big. They went up the mountain together on the second night of the twelfth lunar month and stayed there for two days before returning on the fourth night. They had killed two wild boars, one weighing nearly 200 kilograms, the other nearly 100 kilograms. They also took down more than ten rabbits and a spore weighing over 20 kilograms.
After they returned to Liu's house and had something to eat, Liu's father and Yang Wanlin took a large wild boar, roe deer and several rabbits to the county town before dawn. When they came back at around 1:00 p.m., the remaining prey at home had been cleaned up by Liu's mother, Qingya and Ruirui.
Wild boar meat is cheaper than domestic pork. A large wild boar weighs 197 kilograms and is sold at 0.40 cents per kilogram; roe deer meat weighs 23 kilograms and is sold at 0.50 cents per kilogram; six wild rabbits are sold at one yuan and fifty cents each. In the end, Liu's father and Yang Wanlin took back 99.3 yuan, with Liu's father and Yang Wanlin each getting 30% and Ruirui and Qingya each getting 20%. In addition, Liu's father also brought back a bag of malted milk for Xuemei, and Yang Wanlin brought back a bag of malted milk and a thermos, all of which they exchanged for their own money.
Ruirui and Qingya earned 19.86 yuan, almost 20 yuan, for this trip, and they didn't want Feifei's substitute fee.
After Liu's father and Zhang Wanlin came back, Xuemei, Han Chen and others divided the wild boar meat and the remaining six rabbits, and used the money to buy twenty kilograms of wild boar meat and two rabbits to make bacon. The bacon sent to the Lin family yesterday was made with this meat.
Xuemei hadn't eaten rabbit meat since she found out she was pregnant. While her family ate rabbit, she ate cured pork. Liu's mother, fearing she wouldn't be able to resist, always went to the kitchen to fry the rabbit herself, never letting Xuemei touch it.
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