Chapter 61 Unable to Give Birth
Within a few days, the whole village knew that there was a new child in Lu Jiayuan's family.
The hungry child cried so loudly that all the neighbors heard it in the middle of the night.
In addition, Lu Jiayuan often sought help from neighbors, and soon everyone knew about his child's situation.
I heard that the child was born to his sister, but when he saw that it was a girl, he abandoned the child in the countryside. This is not uncommon in the countryside.
When we were poor, we gave birth to several daughters in order to have a son for our families.
The better-off families would raise their daughters and marry them off early. The more ruthless ones would throw their daughters out and drown them as soon as they were born.
It is not uncommon for people like Lu Yanan to give their daughters to other families to raise after having too many of them.
But hearing about the family planning policy in the city sounds even more shocking.
Sun Pingjuan's voice was still as loud as ever. "What? Why do people in the city even care about how many children people have?"
Lu Xing knew the most about this. Including her past life experience, she'd experienced this twice. "I heard the fertility office will be going to the countryside to spread awareness soon. Maybe our village will have to implement family planning, too."
When hearing this, the people who reacted the most were not those who had children, but those who did not.
After Old Lady Lu ruined the marriage with Butcher Wang, she always thought that her son was so well-off that he would have no trouble finding a wife.
Now, when she suddenly heard about family planning, her first reaction was that it was impossible. "If people are not allowed to have children, then if a girl is born, won't the family be wiped out?"
"Before, if you had many children, you could be awarded as a model soldier. Why are you suddenly not allowed to have more children?"
Some people who dislike her deliberately bully her, saying, "Your son still doesn't even have a wife, why are you so anxious?"
"I see that you say no, but you support it in action. First you pushed your eldest daughter-in-law away, and then you ruined the relationship with your youngest daughter-in-law, for fear that she would give birth to a grandson for you."
"Your family can't give birth to a son. Your whole family can't give birth to a son."
Old Mrs. Lu didn't think she was wrong. She just felt that others were cursing her, and she wanted to use violence because she couldn't win the scolding.
Several other people quickly held her down.
Liu Hehua had just come from home and saw several people looking like they were fighting. "What's going on? Why are they fighting again?"
"Who knows? They talked about family planning and a fight broke out after just a few words."
"Family planning? How did you know the birth control office was going to send people to our place to promote family planning?"
"What?"
Now everyone in the chat was panicking, "Auntie, why do we have to implement family planning here? Are we not allowed to have children anymore?"
"If I'm not allowed to have children, won't my family be ruined? There'll be no one to burn paper for me when I die."
Liu Hehua was confused by what several people said, "Why doesn't family planning allow you to have children? It means that you are encouraged to have good eugenics and raise children well, and to have only one child per family.
The people around him were not convinced, "Whose family only has one child? What if they have a girl? Wouldn't that wipe out the family?"
Liu Hehua immediately looked at the person who was speaking. "What kind of thinking is that? People say women hold up half the sky. It doesn't matter whether you have a boy or a girl. So, your daughter can't provide for you in your old age?"
She didn't come here to chat. After Lu Zhengde came back from training in the town, he had to find someone to change the slogan on the wall to one about family planning, so that the people from the fertility office wouldn't deduct their performance points when they came tomorrow.
But there were only a few people in the village who could read, so the village chief had to take action himself.
Liu Hehua came over to ask if anyone had paint and a brush for painting the wall.
"What did you use to paint the slogans before?"
"The paint from a few years ago has long since dried up."
Most people don't have much use for paint, let alone stocking it at home.
"Why don't we go to town and buy it now?"
"Today, all the village heads went to a meeting, and all the paint in town was sold out."
"What should we do then?"
They looked at the yellow earth wall and didn't know what to do for a moment.
Lu Xing looked at the stones on the wall and had an idea.
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The next day, people from the fertility office came to Xiaoshi Village.
There were three people in total. The leader was a very serious middle-aged woman, followed by two young and strong men.
As the middle-aged woman walking in front entered the village, she saw that the original slogan on the wall at the entrance of the village was covered with mud, and the rest of the wall was covered with messy words.
She couldn't help but frown. "What's written on this wall? Why isn't there a family planning slogan?"
The young man next to him immediately took out his notebook, looking as if he was going to deduct points.
Lu Zhengde quickly stepped forward to explain, "Director, our village organized a study session on family planning policies yesterday. These are all the results of our study."
"These are all the results of the villagers' learning."
"Look at this: Family planning is good, and the government will provide for your retirement. This was all written spontaneously by our villagers."
Seeing that the middle-aged woman's face looked better, she was obviously very satisfied with the learning results. "Although your learning attitude is very good, this slogan still needs to be implemented as soon as possible. I won't remember it this time."
"Okay, okay, thank you, leader. We will implement it right away."
Seeing how understanding he was, the middle-aged woman's mood, which had been angered by the previous villages, improved a bit. "Village Chief Lu, among all the villages we visited, yours was the most cooperative."
"This family planning policy is also a key focus of your annual performance evaluations. I hope everyone can cooperate. This is for everyone's benefit."
"Yes, yes, we will definitely cooperate with the publicity and education."
He had asked his mother to inform the villagers in advance, so no matter what the people in the fertility office said, they would just applaud and the matter would be settled.
Sure enough, when the director was speaking, no one in the audience objected. She became more and more satisfied as she spoke. This was a normal scene. Those who wanted to go on stage and hit people while speaking were simply troublemakers.
Before leaving, he couldn't help but pat Lu Zhengde on the shoulder and said, "Village Chief Lu, your village is very cooperative. You've done a great job. Keep it up. There's a good chance you'll be recognized for excellence at the end of the year."
After they had left their shadows, the people sitting below dared to speak, "Village Chief, can we speak now?"
"That's all right, thank you all for your cooperation."
"So what that person just said about only allowing one child, and about fines and IUDs, is that true?"
"Yes, yes, then our family already had a girl, can we have a second one?"
Lu Zhengde knew that it was useless to talk about this matter in a gentle manner. Most people wanted to have many children and be blessed with good fortune. "Didn't the director just say that if you have a second child, you will be fined if you are discovered?"
"If you don't pay the fine for having more than one child, you'll face the consequences in the detention center."
"Besides, our village is so poor that we can't raise too many children. Didn't the director say that if we want to get rich, we have to have fewer children and plant more trees? Otherwise, we won't even be able to pay the fine."
"Will I really be fined for having more children?"
Lu Zhengde made a five, "Really? A fine of five hundred. Everyone's watching outside."
"I'm going to die. Five hundred yuan, I can't save that much money in a year."
Although many people have the idea of having children, they are still scared by the amount of the fine.
Lu Zhengde didn't think that just one sentence could scare everyone away from committing any crime. "You all should go back and think about it. If you have any questions, come and ask me."
The others went home with their own thoughts.
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