Chapter 85 Getting back to writing.
Mother He thought about her daughter's excitement when she went to take a bath, and then saw her sitting in the yard enjoying the sun. She couldn't help but laugh: "You, you have been waiting for this day for a long time, right? Finally, you are out of confinement."
In fact, in rural areas, women usually stay in confinement for a month after giving birth. Those with poorer conditions will only stay in confinement for about 20 days before having to start working. Those with better conditions and those who love their wives will stay in confinement for 45 days.
After all, having a child is something that consumes your energy and strains your body, so you should take care of it as much as possible and try to make up for it.
According to He's mother, she wanted her daughter to have a 45-day confinement. But as soon as she mentioned this, her daughter refused, just to take a bath as soon as possible.
And my daughter said, "Mom, the confinement period is actually just staying at home and not working, eating well and taking good care of yourself. I am usually at home except for taking a bath. You are there so you don't want me to work. I eat fish and drink soup every day to nourish myself. Isn't it similar to the confinement period? There is no need to calculate it so carefully."
He's mother thought so too. Seeing that she really couldn't stand not taking a bath for such a long time, and that she had said before that she would wash her body every other day, but later she washed her body every day, she agreed.
He Susu touched her black and smooth hair, which was almost dry, and smiled: "Of course, I have endured it for a long time just to take a shower."
Since she seldom went out, after fifteen days she was able to leave her room and walk around the house, so He Susu didn't find it so unbearable.
She touched her still smooth but rounded face, and pinched her thickened waist, and said worriedly: "After sitting for so long, I must have gained at least ten pounds. Mom, this is a big problem."
She has already started thinking about controlling her diet and losing the weight by exercising more at home.
Her belly was a little loose after giving birth. Two days ago, when she was browsing the shopping system, she saw a book called "Postpartum Recovery" and exchanged it for a look. It introduced exercises that could be done in this regard, so she had to start practicing as soon as possible.
He's mother didn't like to hear this: "I see, you look good now, you look more blessed. You were pretty before, but you were a little thin. Now you look rosy, and your cheeks look a little plump, which is also good-looking. It's not a big problem."
It is not so easy to gain weight these days. The family had treated their daughter well before, but she was the type who could not gain weight no matter how much she ate. Fortunately, seeing that she had a well-proportioned figure and was pretty, He's mother reluctantly accepted it. Now that she had finally gained some weight, she was very happy.
He Susu smiled and said, "It was just right before. Apart from anything else, my belly needs to be firmer after giving birth."
When He's mother heard this, she said, "That's right. Your belly is loose after giving birth. You need to practice."
She had experience in this area, so she turned to talk about it.
He Susu listened and nodded from time to time. She found that some of the movements her mother said overlapped with those in the book, which showed that the experience was also verified. Of course, the book was more comprehensive and thoughtful. If she wanted to practice, she would definitely practice the whole set.
As for losing the ten pounds, you just need to control your eating a little bit. Your mother usually won’t notice.
In this way, He Susu began her time of exercise recovery and controlled weight loss.
Tangyuan is a very easy child to take care of. He seldom cries except when he is hungry or has urinated. If he wakes up and cries a few times but no one responds, he will stare at the mosquito net for a while and then cry again when someone comes into the room.
With the crib, He Susu and his mother no longer need to hold him often. They only need to hold him and coax him when he wakes up, then put him in the crib and push the crib out to the living room. Tangyuan can play by himself as long as he hears familiar voices.
The last time they went to the county town on the tenth day, He Susu took the initiative to take on the task of shopping, saying that she wanted to go to the county town to get some fresh air, and asked her mother to take care of Tangyuan at home.
In addition to buying meat and vegetables, she went to the department store and bought a pound of peach cakes, and also took the opportunity to take out the items she had redeemed from the shopping system.
They were one pound of fruit and two pounds of mutton plus two pounds of mutton bones. I hadn't eaten fruit for a long time, and the same goes for mutton. Eating mutton in winter warms me up, and if I don't eat it, it will be spring. Then there were small toys for Tangyuan, and I took the shopping items home with me.
The small toys given to Tangyuan are a bit like wind chimes. The wood is polished into a round shape. When the wind blows gently, it will swing continuously and make crisp sounds when colliding, which can attract children's attention.
When she came back, she hung the wind chime on the retractable pole of the crib, so that Tangyuan could see the wind chime swaying when he was lying down.
The carpenter's craftsmanship is excellent and he has great ingenuity. The crib also has a retractable wooden pole at the head of the bed, which can be folded up when not in use and pulled out, folded and hung when in use, so that the user can hang some toys for the child.
Like now, when the wind blows, the wind chimes swing and make crisp sounds. Tangyuan lies in the crib, grinning and making "ah ah ah" sounds as if to echo the sound of the wind chimes. His eyes also follow the direction of the swinging wind chimes, looking very clever.
He's mother took out the apples her daughter bought from the kitchen and said, "Susu, come and have an apple. You must say that this toy you bought for the child is really good. It looks like a person and can entertain the child. I'm not afraid that he will be bored lying in the crib."
After all, children may cry if they are bored.
He Susu smiled and nodded: "Yes, I also think this toy is worth buying."
When she saw this toy in the shopping system, she wanted to redeem it. Seeing her mother holding an apple and about to eat it, she took the apple and took a bite. It was crisp and juicy. She missed eating fruit after not having it for a long time.
Speaking of which, she hadn't earned much diligence points since her mother came over. After all, her mother even helped her with the occasional food preparation, so she just took a rest. At that time, she only received diligence points as rewards every time a manuscript she sent out was accepted.
From the time the fifth story was written to now, it can be said that the diligence value in the shopping system has not changed for nearly two months.
To her surprise, after she started exercising every day according to the movements described in the book "Postpartum Recovery", the number in the diligence value column in the shopping system began to increase again.
He Susu didn't notice it at first, but one night when she was browsing the shopping system, she noticed that the amount of diligence value seemed to be different from what she saw last time. She looked through the details and found that it was a reward for her daily exercise.
She couldn't help but smile when she saw it. She didn't expect that exercise could also be considered a kind of labor. In the past, washing clothes and preparing food were considered physical labor, and writing articles was considered mental labor. So exercise could be considered physical labor.
He Susu was very happy. She had no source of income from labor points during this period. Although the things she could exchange for were few, the feeling of living off her savings was always uncomfortable. Now she could earn labor points by exercising every day, which was a pleasant surprise.
She exercises in her room every day, doing some simple stretching and abdominal exercises to move her whole body. In addition, she controls her food intake and eats meat and vegetables evenly. After a month, He Susu lost weight and returned to her pre-pregnancy appearance.
Seeing the changes in her daughter, He's mother couldn't help but grumble, "I finally raised you to be blessed, how come you're getting thinner again? This shouldn't be the case."
She didn't see her daughter exercising in the room, nor did she notice that she ate a little less than before. The food at home was still as good as before, and she just cooked less soup a few times. She couldn't understand why.
He Susu pretended to know nothing: "Maybe it's just my physical constitution. I got fat because I stayed in bed a lot during the confinement period. Now I'm losing weight because I'm moving around."
He's mother thought that walking around the house for a while could be considered an activity, so she said nothing and accepted the fact that her daughter had lost weight again.
Cheng Shi sat aside with a smile on his face. He had seen Susu exercising in the room several times.
After February and the beginning of spring, Tangyuan stays awake longer and longer, and his energy also increases.
He is a talkative person. Whenever there is someone around him, he will always shout "ah ah ah" to attract the adults' attention. If someone can make him laugh, his dimples will appear at the corners of his mouth.
He is chubby, with fair skin, a delicate and pretty nose and mouth, a pair of eyes as black as black grapes, and his hands and feet are as plump as white lotus roots.
He Susu takes care of him most of the time, so there is no need to hold him all the time. Tangyuan can be placed on the bed or in the crib.
She deliberately consumed Tangyuan's energy. Tangyuan's schedule was basically consistent with that of the adults. When she went to bed in the afternoon, Tangyuan would also sleep. He could also sleep as soon as the lights were turned off at night. He would cry when he was hungry or urinated all night. After she made him feel comfortable, he would continue to sleep.
Don't bother parents at all.
When Su Yu and Mrs. Wu found out about this, they all praised the child for being easy to take care of and well-behaved. Some children are night owls, who often sleep during the day and make a lot of noise at night, making it difficult for adults to sleep.
He Susu responded with a smile and also felt that Tangyuan had cultivated a good habit.
She had taken such a long break and was planning to continue writing articles. Last week, she unexpectedly received a letter, which she thought was from her father or her parents-in-law, but turned out to be from a magazine.
In the letter, the editor asked her how she was doing recently and said that the magazine really needed authors like her to submit more excellent stories. Many readers were looking forward to her more excellent works and looked forward to receiving her submissions soon.
This feeling of being valued and waited for was great, and it also dissipated a lot of He Susu's laziness that had been building up for two months, and she decided to pick up the pen and write again.
During her confinement, she asked Cheng Shi to borrow a lot of books from the library according to her interests and possible creative directions. This helped her accumulate knowledge and materials for story creation, and also gave her a general direction for the sixth story she was about to create.
In fact, inspiration often comes up, but He Susu still has to select which ones are suitable for long stories and whether she has enough story lines and creative desire to write them long. Many inspirations that come up by chance are very good, but they lack follow-up power, so they can only be written into short stories.
He Susu earned a good amount of royalties from contributing long stories to this magazine. Moreover, once the story outline and character settings of a long story were laid out, she only had to continue writing according to the outline. Unlike short stories, sometimes the time spent on making the outline was longer than the time spent on writing the entire article. The input-output ratio was small, so she was not very willing to write short stories.
He's mother has been happy since she learned that her daughter has started writing articles again. This is a job that makes money. Even though her son-in-law has to give a lot of his monthly allowance and bonus to his daughter, it is good for her daughter to be able to make money on her own, and she can speak with confidence.
At this time, she would help take care of Tangyuan. If the child fell asleep, she would take him to her room to sleep. If he was awake, she would put him in the crib and push him to the living room. Whether she let him play with the wind chimes by himself or tease him, unless he was hungry, which she couldn't handle, she would generally not let Tangyuan disturb her daughter's work.
He Susu still wrote articles at the same pace as before. After waking up in the afternoon, she would drink a glass of water and then sit at the desk in her room to write articles.
She first reorganized her inspiration according to the general direction she had thought of during her confinement, and expanded the possibilities of the story development from all aspects, thus having a rough idea of the setting of the protagonist and the story outline.
Then I picked up a pen and started writing and drawing on the manuscript paper, using divergent thinking to determine the key plot points in the story's beginning, development, turning point and development process, and at the same time determine the protagonist's personality, growth environment, and the main line of the story.
After writing for two consecutive afternoons, He Susu finished writing one manuscript page after another. She then wrote down the complete story outline and character settings on new manuscript paper, and also set all the key plot points.
After going over the plot she had come up with from beginning to end in her mind and making sure there were no obvious logical loopholes, she breathed a sigh of relief.
The preliminary work of writing the article was officially completed. As it was still early, He Susu was not in a hurry to start writing. She put away the manuscript and put down her pen, stood up, stretched her neck, moved her hands and feet, and then walked out of the room.
Tangyuan happened to be awake, lying in the crib, staring at the swaying wind chimes and never getting tired of it.
Mother He sat on a chair outside the living room, drinking a cup of tea from time to time. She loved drinking tea. In the past, her family conditions were not very good but not bad either. However, she would only brew tea to entertain distinguished guests. Now that her daughter had a lot of tea leaves, she could drink whenever she wanted. Only then could she enjoy the brewed and fragrant tea.
There was no draft at this time, and when the wind chimes stopped shaking much, He's mother reached out and touched them, causing the wind chimes to continue shaking and making a crisp sound.
At this time, Tangyuan also laughed happily, as if he knew that his grandmother was sitting next to him and was playing with him through the wind chimes.
He Susu came out and saw this scene and couldn't help but smile: "Mom, I have finished writing the manuscript today. Did Tangyuan bother you?"
He's mother called her over: "Susu, come and have some tea. Tangyuan is very well behaved, so why would she bother me?"
To be honest, Tangyuan is much easier to take care of than the family's new granddaughter Keyun. Keyun is small and difficult to serve. I don't know who developed this habit, but as long as someone pays attention to her, she will insist on being held, and if not, she will cry loudly.
He Susu walked over, took the cup and drank a cup of tea, then walked to the crib to see her son.
When Tangyuan saw her, he instantly became excited, raising his hands and shouting "Ahhh", and kicking his legs hard, as if he wanted a hug.
Having ignored her son for the whole afternoon, He Susu was happy to satisfy him now. She reached out and picked up Tangyuan from the crib, gently rocking him in her arms, and coaxed him softly: "Tangyuan, you haven't seen your mother for so long, do you miss her?"
Tang Yuan: “Ahhhh!”
He Susu smiled: "You are missing your mother, Tangyuan is so good. I just went to work, and I can buy you delicious and fun things with the money I earn. You didn't make trouble for grandma just now, so I have to reward you."
After saying that, she lowered her head and gently kissed Tang Yue on the cheek.
Tangyuan obviously liked this way of intimacy and she screamed even louder.
He's mother couldn't help laughing as she watched from the side. Her daughter really acted like a mother after becoming one. She was so nice to Tangyuan and would kiss him every day.
Of course, she also cherished Tangyuan. During the day, the mother and daughter took turns to take care of Tangyuan. When the son-in-law came back at night, he was the one who took care of Tangyuan and cherished her too.
After teasing Tangyuan for a while, He Susu put him back in the crib. The child lay there obediently, with his round, moist eyes open, staring at his mother's face.
He Susu patted the wind chimes to divert Tangyuan's attention, and took the opportunity to walk over to the chair and sit down. Tangyuan didn't react much to his mother's departure, and was still looking at the shaking wind chimes.
After drinking another cup of tea, He Susu sighed, "Mom, you are so lucky to be here. I just finished writing an article and I have a cup of hot tea to drink."
"What's the big deal? It's as simple as having a cup of tea. I'm happy here, cooking and taking care of the kids. It's much easier than working in the fields." He's mother said with a smile.
He Susu: "Working in the fields is indeed hard. I see that you and dad are not young anymore. In a year or two, just tell my dad not to go to work. My eldest and second brothers can earn enough work points at home, so they can always support the family."
It is now 1976. She remembered that in the plot of the book, the college entrance examination would be resumed at the end of 1978. Starting in 1979, the production team abolished the work point system and implemented the household responsibility contract system, with each family managing their own farmland.
Moreover, by that time, selling things would no longer be speculation, as business policies and environment would be greatly relaxed. There would be more things for sale on the market, and those who were bold could make money, while those who were less timid would have a better life.
But these cannot be said now.
Mother He shook her head. "You know your father's temper. He can't sit still. It's more painful for him to sit at home without going to work than to kill him. He is born to work hard. When others praise him for being a good farmer, he thinks he can do it for the rest of his life."
He Susu smiled and said, "Dad is just like that. I'll talk to him more later. Who knows, one day he might realize that his body can't do so much work anymore, and then he'll naturally know to take a rest."
Mother He nodded: "That's right, your father is a man who cherishes his life, and he will listen to your words to some extent."
He Susu had just spoken to her family on the phone a few days ago and heard her father's voice. When her mother and third brother called home during the Chinese New Year, she was unable to go with them because she was still in confinement, so she called home as soon as she could go out.
Her father was a dull man who might not say a word when hit with a stick, but he could still say a few words to his daughter.
On the phone, her father was concerned about her health and Tangyuan's situation. Of course, he also asked about how his husband was doing here. He Susu told him in detail so that he could feel at ease.
He's mother naturally lived a comfortable life in the army. Her daughter's family was here, as was her third son's family. She also made friends with several people like Mrs. Wu who she could chat with, and she was very familiar with the route to the county town for shopping.
Occasionally, she would go out in the afternoon to the place where the children played in the family compound, and she would meet many people of her age who were watching children. She could strike up a conversation with them after a few words, and there was no shortage of people to talk to.
He Susu and Cheng Shi had discussed that when Tangyuan grew bigger and stronger, the couple would take him to the county town to have a photo taken, which they could then send back to his father and parents-in-law.
My parents-in-law sent me many packages, most of which were food, clothing and daily necessities for He Susu, and some were small clothes for the little kid Tangyuan.
In the letter, the mother-in-law said that if she wasn’t too busy with street work and couldn’t get away, she really wanted to come to the army to see them.
In the following days, He Susu pushed the crib to the yard every morning so that the child could bask in the sun, and she herself could bask in the sun as well.
Of course, the child cannot be exposed to the sun for too long, so after pushing the dumplings and the crib into the living room, she would let them dry in the yard for a while, and then go home quickly when the sun got stronger.
In the afternoon, she gave the dumplings to her mother to take care of and stayed in her room to write.
The beginning of a story is the most difficult to write. Even if you have laid out the story outline and conceived the character of the protagonist, you still need to choose a suitable entry point to introduce the characters. It is best to have some ups and downs to attract the reader's attention.
He Susu selected several entry points and tried them out, and finally kept the one that she felt most comfortable with and was most satisfactory to start writing. She wrote very slowly at first, but when she became familiar with the personalities and ways of speaking of the characters in the story, she was able to write faster in choosing words and composing sentences.
Even so, it took her more than a week to finish the 20,000 words required for the initial submission of the story.
After reading the 20,000-word manuscript and making sure there were no logical problems or typos, He Susu breathed a sigh of relief.
At night, she handed the manuscript to Cheng Shi and said proudly, "I have written the beginning, and it feels pretty good. Take a look."
Cheng Shi smiled and agreed, then took the manuscript and read it with interest.
He had been amazed and impressed by the stories written by Susu before, and had praised her with many nice words. Since then, Susu loved to show him the manuscripts she had written, saying that she wanted him to be her first reader.
Cheng Shi was happy that he was Su Su's first reader and was honored to enjoy this special treatment. He also liked to read the stories written by Su Su, which were as attractive as reading vernacular novels when he was a student.
At this moment, he flipped through the manuscript and read it carefully, slowly becoming fascinated. When he reached the last page and there was no more to turn, Cheng Shi felt a strong sense of loss in his heart: "Why does it end here? I haven't read enough."
He Susu was happy to hear this, because it showed that the story she wrote was attractive. She imitated the storytellers in the teahouses in ancient times and said, "If you want to know what happens next, please read the next manuscript."
Cheng Shi put down the manuscript in his hand, stretched out his hand to hold Susu in his arms and said with a smile: "You wrote this story so well. The suspense left at the end made me so excited that I am afraid I won't be able to sleep tonight."
He Susu said boldly: "Then let's do something that won't require sleeping."
As he said this, he reached out and touched Cheng Shi's thin but powerful abdominal muscles.
Cheng Shi immediately got the feeling, and he put his hand on Susu's waist and rubbed it hard: "Then I won't be polite later."
He Susu smiled and said, "Come on."
Cheng Shi was concerned about her health, and even though he had to endure the discomfort, he wanted to let her recuperate for a while.
Hearing Susu say this, he really couldn't bear it anymore, but he still remembered the serious matter and told Susu his feelings after reading the story, being a loyal and good reader.
That night, Tangyuan was brought to He's mother to sleep with. The couple played around for a long time and only fell asleep when they were tired.
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