Although Su Ting adapted well to the innovative dishes introduced by the cafeteria chef after she became pregnant, He Dongchuan still mentioned to her in the afternoon that he wanted Aunt Wang to take care of her.

Su Ting was a little hesitant after hearing this: "Can my parents leave me alone?"

"It should be OK. In the past few years, Aunt Wang's main job was to take care of Xiao Yan. After he came to Pingchuan Island, Aunt Wang became idle and only cooked two meals a day."

In fact, the He family thought it was okay for Aunt Wang to have some free time. She had worked hard all her life and it was time for her to enjoy her old age. But she was very anxious and felt that she was taking the He family's salary for nothing. After Cheng Xiaoman had a long talk with her, she felt relieved.

"The army and the hospital both have cafeterias. Even if Aunt Wang comes to Pingchuan Island, they will have a place to eat," He Dongchuan said, then changed the subject, "But this is up to you. If you don't think it's necessary for her to come, then forget it. My mother is also worried that the food in the cafeteria is not oily and you won't get enough nutrition while you're pregnant."

Su Ting hesitated and said, "We have plenty of fish, meat and eggs now, so even if we eat in the cafeteria, the nutrition should be okay."

She really didn't want Aunt Wang to come.

If she had to say what she is most satisfied with her current life, it would definitely be her freedom. She doesn't have parents-in-law to control her, and He Dongchuan is easy to talk to. So she can sleep in if she wants to, and she doesn't have to do housework if she doesn't want to.

Although she had a good impression of He's mother, and according to the original body's memory, He's mother also liked the original body very much, but she was not the original body, and if she changed her core, He's mother might not like her personality.

When they were living apart, He's mother was naturally satisfied with everything about her, but that might not be the case when they actually lived together.

Although Aunt Wang is not He's mother, she has worked in the He family for more than ten years and brought up He Dongchuan and He Yan. Her status in the He family must be extraordinary. Even if she is not her biological mother-in-law, Aunt Wang is definitely an elder that she cannot easily offend and can control her when necessary.

Su Ting feels that unless it is absolutely necessary, it is best not to easily find a huge mountain to press down on your head.

Seeing that Su Ting was unwilling, He Dongchuan said, "Then I'll talk to Mom again." Although he felt that he would feel more at ease with Aunt Wang taking care of Su Ting, the person being taken care of was Su Ting, and her personal thoughts were more important.

…

Because of morning sickness, Su Ting temporarily stopped drinking milk. So how to drink the milk ordered every day has become the biggest problem bothering their family.

There's no way. He Yan doesn't like drinking milk. A glass of milk every morning is enough to bother him. He can't stand another glass.

Milk is not something that can be stored for a long time. The weather is hot now. If I don’t drink the milk in the morning, it may taste bad by the evening. I can’t wait for He Dongchuan to come back to drink it.

After much thought, Su Ting decided to put making milk tea on the agenda.

Originally, Su Ting's plan was that she would dictate the instructions and He Dongchuan would do the practical work. However, He Dongchuan went out too early on a weekday, and by the time he came back the milk had a bad taste, so the matter was delayed.

Now that there was extra milk to drink, Su Ting began to get excited. Although she had failed in making braised pork before, the method of making milk tea was not complicated. Maybe, just maybe... she could do it?

Su Ting got to work as soon as she said it. After breakfast, she started working.

Making milk tea only requires a few ingredients, just milk, black tea and sugar. All three are readily available. Su Ting took things out of the cupboard, ordered He Yan to take out the clay pot and prepared to start.

Don't ask her why she used a clay pot. She wanted to cook it in a milk pot, but she had to have one at home.

In special times, we don’t need to be so particular.

Su Ting followed the instructions from memory. After the clay pot was heated, she poured the tea leaves and sugar into the pot and slowly stir-fried them.

During this time, Su Ting looked at the fire in the coal stove and felt that it was a bit big. She remembered that the tutorials she had read before would remind her to use a low fire for this step. However, the coal stove is not like a gas stove, which can adjust the fire size at will. So after watching for a while, Su Ting decided not to pay attention to these details and continued to stir-fry the tea leaves and sugar.

He Yan was already skeptical that tea leaves and sugar would be delicious. After seeing Su Ting's expression change from skepticism to hesitation and then her not caring about it, he became even more worried: "Mom, can we really eat what we cook with tea leaves and sugar?"

Su Ting joked: "Of course you can't eat it, milk tea is for drinking."

But He Yan didn't get her sense of humor and continued to ask, "Is the milk tea brewed this way really drinkable?"

"It should be possible." Su Ting said uncertainly.

Well, more worried.

He Yan sighed and continued watching Su Ting stir-frying sugar and tea leaves. As they were frying, he smelled a strange odor and he sniffed, the odor was still there.

Looking at mom again, she was still stir-frying, as if she didn't smell the strange smell.

He Yan couldn't help but remind her, "Mom, is the food in the pot burnt?"

"Burnt? Probably not?" Su Ting said as she bent over and moved closer to smell the contents of the pot. "It seems to be a little burnt, but it's not serious. It should be fine after adding some water and boiling."

Su Ting said this, picked up the ladle on the table and added water to the pot.

While adding water, she used a spatula to stir the sugar and tea leaves at the bottom of the pot. When she felt it was almost done, she stopped, put the lid on and said, "Let it cook for a while and see if it still smells burnt."

"If it doesn't smell burnt, should we continue cooking?"

"Yes, if it doesn't smell burnt, it means it's cooked successfully," Su Ting said confidently, although it was just a guess. "Wait for the water to boil, then pour in the milk and cook for a while, and the milk tea will be ready."

"What if it smells burnt?"

Su Ting said regretfully: "Then we can only throw it away." She had just poured in a lot of sugar.

Because she was nervous, Su Ting kept bending over while waiting for the water to boil, for fear that the burnt smell would not dissipate.

Fortunately, she was lucky and the burnt smell became less as she cooked it, but the color of the water was a bit strange. Because she had never made milk tea before, she couldn't tell whether it was normal or if it was burnt.

Su Ting hoped it was the former, so she followed her original plan and poured milk into the water after it boiled.

After the milk is put into the pot, its aroma evaporates quickly and interweaves with the tea leaves and sugar to form an alluring caramel aroma.

It's a familiar taste.

Su Ting took a deep breath, and when she looked up again, her face was already full of pride: "How is it? Doesn't it smell good?"

He Yan also took a deep sniff and nodded vigorously: "Yeah! Mom, when will the milk tea be ready?" He began to look forward to the taste of the milk tea.

"Just heat up the milk." Su Ting handed the spatula to He Yan, "You continue stirring, I'll find something to filter it."

Su Ting said this as she left the stool, walked to the cupboard, opened the door and started rummaging around. She remembered that she had a strainer spoon for frying dumplings at home.

After finding the filtering spoon, Su Ting returned to the coal stove. Seeing that the milk in the pot was already boiling, she went outside to get two enamel cups and began to filter the milk tea.

The process went smoothly. Although the mesh of the filter spoon was not dense enough, which resulted in the tea residue not being filtered out completely, the overall look was good and it smelled good.

“Tsk, tsk.”

Su Ting handed the enamel cup filled with milk tea to He Yan. He took it with anticipation, tilted his head back and took a small sip.

The freshly brewed milk tea was a little hot. He Yan held it in his mouth for a while before swallowing it. Then his face wrinkled into a flower and he pouted and said, "It tastes... so weird."

"How could that be?" Su Ting didn't believe it and picked up another cup of milk tea and took a sip.

As soon as she took a sip of the milk tea, her eyebrows wrinkled. It was really strange, a bit bitter like burnt pot, and a bit sweet like too much sugar.

Seeing Su Ting's shoulders drooping, He Yan couldn't bear it, so he took another sip of milk tea and said, "It seems like you can drink it."

"Forget it, don't drink it." Su Ting took the enamel cup from He Yan. Although the milk tea was not so bad that she couldn't swallow it, the taste was really not that good. It was better not to make things difficult for the child.

"mother……"

Su Ting waved her hands: "Don't worry, I'm fine. As the old saying goes, failure is the mother of success. If I don't succeed today, I can try again tomorrow. If I fail tomorrow, I can try again the day after tomorrow. I don't believe that I can't make a pot of drinkable milk."

He Yan originally wanted to comfort Su Ting, but after hearing this, he silently swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

Comfort mom?

He might as well have more sympathy for himself.

…

In the following period of time, Su Ting's daily routine became getting up, getting milk, buying breakfast, eating breakfast, and making milk tea, while He Yan's daily routine became getting up, eating breakfast, and being a guinea pig.

Although Su Ting is very good at summarizing problems, she is prone to unexpected situations. Today, the fire was too high and the tea leaves were burnt. Tomorrow, her hand may have shaken and she put too much sugar. The day after tomorrow, she may have added too much water. There was another time when she poured salt into the pot instead of sugar.

In just one week, He Yan tried all kinds of milk tea.

Now he thinks that... milk tastes pretty good.

Fortunately, after the stage of frequent trial and error, Su Ting no longer encounters problems when making milk tea, and the taste of the milk tea she makes is gradually improving.

As a less staunch supporter of milk tea, He Yan quickly switched sides after tasting the smooth and delicious milk tea. When He Dongchuan doubted whether milk and black tea could make a delicious drink, he excitedly defended milk tea: "It's really delicious, much better than milk! Dad, you'll know after you try it!"

Unlike He Yan's excitement, Su Ting, who was making milk tea, was very calm: "Whether it tastes good or not, you'll know when you taste it after it's ready."

Although her tone was flat, the pride revealed in her eyes and eyebrows showed that she was very confident in the milk tea she made.

He Dongchuan said, "Okay, I'll try it."

"Wait."

After trying so many times, Su Ting has already memorized the process of making milk tea. She is no longer flustered like the first time, and can even say that it is smooth as flowing water.

It only took about ten minutes to cook a pot of milk tea.

Su Ting picked up the casserole, covered the large bowl of milk tea with a white cloth, asked He Yan to help press it tightly, and then poured the milk tea into the bowl.

The filtering effect of the white cloth is much better than that of the filter spoon. The filtered milk is caramel-colored and looks thick and smooth. Su Ting asked He Yan to take a spoon, scooped out a mouthful and tasted it herself first.

Moderate sweetness, rich milky flavor, perfect!

Su Ting poured a cup of milk tea for the father and son respectively, and handed it to them without saying a word. She raised her chin and motioned them to taste it.

He Yan was very supportive, he took a sip from the enamel cup, it was a little hot, he didn't dare to drink more. He Dongchuan was a step slower, but he drank more, he wasn't afraid of the heat.

After swallowing the milk tea, He Yan smacked his lips and savored it: "Delicious!"

He Dongchuan raised his eyebrows. The taste was a bit strange, but it was not bad. He also nodded and said, "Not bad."

Su Ting laughed.

She had been looking forward to this day ever since she announced that she would surprise He Dongchuan with braised pork in brown sauce. However, braised pork in brown sauce was too difficult to make, and the monthly ration of pork was limited. The cost of trying to make it was too high, so after failing twice, she had no choice but to give up.

The milk had been ordered long ago, and half a pound was delivered every day. He Yan couldn't drink that much, and the excess had to be thrown away if she didn't make milk tea. She had no pressure to use it to try making milk tea.

Well, it's a bit of a waste of sugar and tea.

But these two things were put in small amounts, so the waste was limited. Moreover, her waste was not in vain, at least she managed to stir up the milk tea.

Seeing Su Ting's expression of "come and compliment me", but pretending to be indifferent, He Dongchuan smiled and said, "How did you think of boiling tea leaves and milk together?"

"Not what I thought."

Although she invented milk tea, Su Ting did not think of pretending to be the inventor. She hesitated and said, "I heard about it by chance before. I was also worried about the taste, but I heard that Mongolians often drink milk tea?"

He Dongchuan recalled and said, "Yes, but they were drinking salty milk tea, which we might not be used to."

"Isn't it sugar?" Su Ting asked, pretending to be stupid, and then muttered, "I'll try adding salt someday."

He Yan, who was drinking milk tea, suddenly had a bad feeling and quickly said, "It's okay to make salty milk tea, but can you not let me taste it?"

"Wouldn't it be nice to let you be the first person to drink milk tea?"

He Yan: “…” Not very good at thanking you.

Su Ting was just talking casually and had no intention of actually making salty milk tea. Seeing He Yan's face full of resistance, she said, "Okay, since you don't want to, forget it."

He Yan breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head and drank the remaining milk tea in the glass comfortably, and asked with his abacus: "Mom, can I stop drinking milk and only drink milk tea in the future?"

"What?"

"Anyway, milk tea is made with milk. Drinking milk is good for the body, and milk tea must be the same, and it tastes better. Can I only drink milk tea in the future?"

Su Ting stopped finishing her work and said with regret, "Although your logic is correct, unfortunately, milk tea is an unhealthy drink and you can't drink too much. So in the future, not only will you have to continue drinking milk, but I won't make milk tea often. Once or twice a month, no more."

He Yan is now in a state of losing the rice while trying to steal the chicken. He looked puzzled and asked, "Why? Isn't milk good for the body? Isn't sugar good too? And tea leaves, you and dad always drink them with water, they are all very good, so why is milk tea made with them bad for the body?"

Su Ting thought to herself that she was not a researcher, so how could she know why milk tea made from three healthy ingredients would be unhealthy? But this did not stop her from making up a story: "Didn't you see that I put a lot of sugar in the milk tea? Eating too much sugar is bad for your body. You want to drink milk tea every day, fine, but I can only make you milk tea without sugar, which tastes bitter. Do you want to drink it?"

In Su Ting's past dozen or so failures, He Yan had tasted bitter milk tea and was still impressed. He quickly shook his head and said, "Then I'd better drink milk normally."

As he spoke, he glanced at the remaining milk tea in the large bowl, raised his glass and asked, "Can I have some more milk tea today? I've finished all the previous ones."

Because she had just rejected He Yan, and there was only a layer of milk tea left at the bottom of the bowl, Su Ting agreed very generously and poured the rest of the milk tea to him.

He Dongchuan saw it and asked, "You don't drink it yourself?"

Su Ting touched her stomach, shook her head and said, "I'd better forget it. I don't know if I can drink it."

Although it is not certain that pregnant women cannot drink milk tea, Su Ting remembered that her former colleagues would give up milk tea and coffee after they became pregnant, so during this period of time she just tasted the flavor, and most of the prepared drinkable milk tea went into He Yan's stomach.

He Dongchuan understood: "That's it."

After drinking the milk tea, He Dongchuan washed the dishes. When he came out, he saw that it was almost time, so the three of them prepared to go out.

Today is the 18th, and they are going to the hospital for a check-up.

…

The city hospital is also in the central city area, a little farther away than the department store they usually go to, but it only takes one more bus ride and about ten minutes to get there.

He Dongchuan was a little worried before the trip. Since she started to have morning sickness, Su Ting had never left Pingchuan, and he was afraid that she would get seasick or motion sickness. For this reason, he went into the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some yellow peels. She was pregnant and couldn't take motion sickness medicine. If she really wanted to vomit, she could only eat something sour to suppress it.

However, after boarding the ship, Su Ting was in good condition. Although she was not completely unresponsive, she did not feel sick either. The yellow peels that He Dongchuan bought were not wasted, as they were all shared by the mother and son.

He Dongchuan didn't touch it because he couldn't stand the sour taste of the yellow peel.

In the past, if we didn't consider Su Ting's picky eating, her taste was more similar to He Dongchuan's. But since she started to have morning sickness, her taste has been getting closer to He Yan's, and now there is one more person in the compound who is keen to try new dishes.

It was exactly nine o'clock when we transferred to the city hospital.

The time was not early, but there were not many pregnant women coming to the hospital for check-ups these days, so after getting the number, they waited for less than half an hour before it was their turn.

"You sit here for a while and don't run around." After He Dongchuan gave instructions to He Yan, he went into the doctor's office with Su Ting.

The doctor was a middle-aged woman in her forties with shoulder-length hair that was very trendy and her white coat was buttoned all the way to the top.

Seeing the two people coming in, she stopped writing in the medical record book and asked, "Comrade Su Ting, right?"

"Yes, my name is Su Ting." Su Ting sat opposite the doctor.

After looking through Su Ting's information, the doctor asked, "When did your menstruation stop?"

"Around the 27th of the month before last."

"It's been a month and a half now. Do you have any morning sickness?"

"Nothing happened before, but there has been some reaction recently."

The doctor nodded, and then asked Su Ting in detail about her reactions. Then he asked Su Ting to stretch out her hand and felt her pulse. After a few minutes, she said, "I think I'm pregnant."

Su Ting nodded, and after waiting for a while without hearing the rest of the story, she couldn't help but ask, "Is that all? No need for a checkup?"

The doctor smiled and asked, "What kind of test do you want?"

Su Ting had no idea what kind of pregnancy tests were needed at this time, so she could only ask uncertainly: "Should we use a scientific instrument to take a picture of my belly?"

Su Ting has great faith in traditional Chinese medicine.

Whenever she had health problems in the past, she would go to a traditional Chinese medicine hospital first and would prefer to drink bitter Chinese medicine.

But a few decades later, even traditional Chinese medicine began to rely on scientific instruments when treating patients. There were not many doctors who dared to prescribe medicine based on taking the pulse, at least Su Ting had never met one.

Therefore, taking the pulse has almost become a legendary thing for Su Ting.

Fearing that the doctor might misunderstand her doubting her medical skills, Su Ting explained, "It's not that I don't believe your pulse diagnosis, I just want to confirm it again."

The doctor was not as stingy as Su Ting thought. Not only was he not angry, but he smiled and said, "It's okay. Usually, most pregnant women who come here don't want to be examined, so I'll just take your pulse directly."

Hospital equipment is not free. Examinations require additional testing fees, and many brigades and units do not reimburse this money, so you have to pay for it yourself.

Taking the pulse is much cheaper. Unless the child is in poor condition and needs medication, under normal circumstances you only need to pay a few cents for the registration fee.

Many pregnant women or their families are reluctant to spend money, so even if they go to the hospital, they will choose cheaper methods. Unless it is necessary, they will not choose to use instruments for examination.

As time went by, she would no longer ask the patient to use instruments for examination as soon as she saw him, but would instead take the patient's pulse first.

She will only write a prescription for pregnant women if the pulse is unstable and further examination is needed. If the pulse is stable, she will not bother.

Firstly, pregnant women will not go for the check-up even if the prescription is given. Secondly, after seeing the fees, many people will think that she is doing it for the money and it is a thankless task, so why should she go through all that effort.

I didn't expect that the patient I met this time was different from the previous ones.

The doctor thought about it and quickly wrote out a list for the examination. After writing it, he tore off the paper and handed it to Su Ting. He pointed to the fee column and emphasized: "Before the examination, you must go to the window to pay the fee."

Su Ting glanced at the expense column. Compared with the average income of that era, the expenses were not cheap.

But He Dongchuan herself is a high-income earner, not to mention that she had just signed a publishing contract and would soon receive three hundred and ninety yuan in royalties. This amount of money was nothing to them.

So Su Ting took a look and nodded directly: "Okay, by the way, doctor, I had breakfast before I came here, will it have any impact if I go for the examination now?"

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't affect me."

Su Ting breathed a sigh of relief and took the receipt to pay for the examination.

There were even fewer people in the examination department, or to put it another way, there was no one else in there except the medical staff. Su Ting handed over the payment slip and was taken into the examination room by the nurse.

The examination process was quick, but the results came out very slowly, and they would not know until the afternoon. So after the examination, they could not leave the hospital, and even had lunch in the hospital.

The hospital starts work at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and Su Ting and her colleagues went to the examination room on time to get the report.

Su Ting had seen a pregnancy test report posted by a colleague on WeChat Moments before. The content was very concise. In addition to the pregnant woman’s personal information, there was only information such as the test items and results. If the result was positive, it meant the woman was pregnant, and if it was negative, it meant the woman was not pregnant.

Before receiving the report, Su Ting thought that the inspection process in this era might be different from that in later times, but the degree of simplicity and clarity should be similar...

The fact was indeed similar. The report she received was just a thin piece of paper. The only thing that surprised her was that the examination results were handwritten by the doctor.

can't read.

Su Ting stared at the report for a long time, then looked up and asked He Dongchuan: "Do you understand?"

"……no."

Well, let's go see a doctor.

With the test results, the three returned to the obstetrician's office.

There was no one inside, so the three of them went straight in.

It was only noon, and the doctor still remembered them. When he saw them come in, he asked, "Are the results out?"

"It's out." Su Ting handed over the result.

The doctor took the report and looked at it carefully. She did not look up and her expression was very serious. The atmosphere in the office gradually became tense.

After a long while, the doctor raised his head and saw the family of three holding their breath because of nervousness. He smiled and said, "Congratulations."