Gu Qishen patted his son's head and said, "He is always very quiet and doesn't like to talk. I'm worried that he will be too introverted in the future and have difficulty communicating with others."
Du Yuhan smiled gently at Gu Huayang and said, "Huayang, come to Auntie's. Auntie has some delicious food here."
As she spoke, she took out animal crackers from a cookie tin and handed them to Gu Huayang. These animal crackers were the same as the ones Du Yuhan had given Gu Huayang last time.
Gu Huayang's eyes lit up when he saw the sweet-smelling cookies in Du Yuhan's hand. He glanced at the pretty aunt who seemed very friendly and slowly walked over to Du Yuhan's side.
Du Yuhan smiled happily upon seeing this, hugged Gu Huayang in her arms, stuffed the biscuit into his hand, and watched the little guy happily eat the biscuit.
Seeing his son's actions, Gu Qishen smiled and said, "I've noticed that Huayang and Xiaohan seem to have a special connection; he seems to particularly enjoy being close to you."
Yu Huiru smiled and said, "Xiaohan has a quality that attracts children, and Haobo especially likes to stick to her. Huayang is so introverted, you have to be careful and spend more time with the child."
Gu Qishen said worriedly, "My nanny is okay at taking care of the child's clothes and meals, but she can't communicate with him. I'm very worried about her. But I'm usually very busy with work and can't take care of her at all."
There are disasters happening everywhere right now, including in City C. I have to go to the countryside every week, so I'm often away from home, and he rarely sees me. I think that's why our child is becoming increasingly quiet.
Du Yuhan patted Gu Huayang's head and said, "Children need their parents' company. You're usually busy with work, and he spends all his time with the nanny without his parents, which will definitely affect his personality. You must pay attention to this. It would be bad if the child became autistic. That's a disease, and it's very difficult to treat."
Yu Huiru said, "Qi Shen, if you don't mind, you can often bring Huayang to my house so he can play with Haobo. They're only a year apart in age, so they should get along well. You can rest assured with me watching over him."
Du Yuhan also said, "Yes, Brother Gu, you can send the children to my house. I can help take care of them and play with them. I think Huayang will gradually become more lively."
Gu Qishen was naturally willing to send the child to the He family. He felt very at ease with the He family parents, and his son also liked to be close to Du Yuhan, something he had never seen in anyone else.
He said, "Taking care of children is tiring too, won't this be too much trouble for you?"
Yu Huiru said, "No trouble at all. Huayang is a good boy, and it's perfect for him to play with Haobo. You don't need to be polite. What kind of relationship do our families have? You can just send the child over often."
He Chenglin said, "You must be very busy with work lately. City C has suffered quite a bit from the disaster, so you must be under a lot of pressure."
Gu Qishen sighed and said, "Rectifying grain supplies in various places is a major task, but the disaster-stricken area across the country is too large. The people are facing very difficult lives. The supply in the cities has been reduced again and again. Apart from coarse grains, which can still be guaranteed, other non-staple foods have been greatly reduced."
He Chenglin sighed and said, "People have nothing to eat, so how can we feed livestock? There isn't even enough bran and chaff to feed people. All the edible wild vegetables have been dug up. In the dead of winter, there aren't even any wild vegetables left. Life is hard for ordinary people."
Gu Qishen said, "Even with the greatest ability, it's not easy to get food now. The New Year is just around the corner, so we'll have to see if the heavens will grant us food next year. If there's still a drought next year, we'll have to continue organizing farmers to fight the drought. To solve the food shortage, we still have to start with the harvest from the farmland."
Du Yuhan said from the side, "There are many rivers in C City. As long as the rivers don't dry up, we can organize farmers to use the river water to irrigate their fields. We can also plant drought-resistant grains, and by selecting high-yield, high-quality grain varieties, we should be able to guarantee a harvest of 50% to 60%. For example, corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes."
Gu Qishen said, "That's easier said than done. Irrigation is entirely done by manpower, which is very difficult. High-quality, high-yield, and drought-resistant grain seeds are even harder to obtain. I'm also worried about next year's grain seeds."
Because of the lack of food, many villages have even eaten their seed crops. Without seed crops, what will they grow next year? City C is so large, with such a large population; ensuring everyone has enough to eat is a huge challenge.
Du Yuhan had some thoughts in her mind, but after all, she wasn't very familiar with Gu Qishen and didn't know what kind of person he was, so she couldn't say too much.
Moreover, she didn't know much about the local situation and didn't dare to offer any advice.
She plans to visit Laohewan Village in a while, hoping to offer some advice to Uncle Liang and improve the situation for next year.
He Chenglin invited Gu Qishen to have lunch at his home. Gu Qishen stayed because his son was reluctant to leave.
Du Yuhan cooked lunch. She soaked some wood ear mushrooms and stir-fried them with cabbage; she made a sauerkraut stew with glass noodles, adding some wild boar meat she had brought back; she also stir-fried hot and sour shredded potatoes and scrambled eggs with scallions, and added a seaweed soup.
She also steamed egg custard for the two children, Gu Huayang and He Haobo. The main dish was still steamed buns made from a mixture of wheat and water.
When the food was served, He Chenglin invited Gu Qi to sit down and said, "Today, it's Xiaohan who's cooking. Her cooking skills are even better than your Aunt Yu's. You should try it today."
Looking at the food on the table, Gu Qishen said somewhat apologetically, "I'm really sorry to have troubled Xiaohan so much. We can just have something simple. It's too much of a expense."
Gu Qishen is very familiar with the current supply of materials. The meal that Du Yuhan cooked today has both meat and vegetables, which is very plentiful by today's standards.
Yu Huiru said, "Don't worry about the expense, we need to eat too. By the way, I haven't met the nanny your mother found for you to take care of the child. How's her cooking?"
Gu Qishen shook his head with a wry smile and said, "She's a distant relative from my mother's hometown. She doesn't know how to cook, let alone has any culinary skills. She just cooks the food. All she eats all day long is cornbread and corn porridge. That's basically it."
Yu Huiru frowned and said, "Then what is she feeding Huayang? You know, children are different from adults. I think Huayang has lost a lot of weight recently."
Gu Qishen shook his head, somewhat angry and helpless, and said, "Actually, I was planning to send her back. It's not a big deal that her cooking is bad, as long as she can take good care of the child. But I found out that she was secretly drinking the milk powder that I went to great lengths to buy for Huayang."
I saved the limited supply of eggs for Huayang, but she ate quite a lot of them. Otherwise, Huayang wouldn't have lost so much weight. If I hadn't accidentally discovered this and questioned Huayang for a long time before finding out the truth, who knows what kind of mistreatment she would have suffered.
If she weren't a distant relative of my mother, I would have kicked her out long ago.
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