"We're going to die either way, but at least the boss didn't die. Next time, someone will take a bullet for us."
"..."
Gu Guanhai: "Hurry up!"
Someone returned shouting and yelling, but collapsed before even reaching the camp.
The group of people who had been grumbling just moments before hurriedly carried the person back.
"A medic! Quickly, call a medic!"
"The announcement says my eldest son is back!"
"..."
Instantly, the camp was thrown into chaos.
But the small mountain village thousands of miles away remains tranquil.
Time flew by, and it was already mid-October. The small village at the foot of the mountain was getting colder and colder.
Yu Mingxiang's family has already lit the kang (a heated brick bed).
There were only two kang beds in the backyard, one in the east room of Yu Mingxiang's main room and the other by the north wall of the east room. The kang beds in the two rooms were connected and shared a stove in the corner between the two rooms.
Once a few pieces of firewood were burned, the kang (heated brick beds) in both rooms were heated.
The stove is outside, so the smoke won't get inside. You can also boil water on the stove, so there's no waste of resources.
With the two kang beds lit, the main room was steaming hot. Qin Xiangdong lingered in his mother's room, looking resentful.
"Mom, why isn't Uncle Gu back yet?"
He said pitifully, "Uncle Gu built a kang (heated brick bed) for you and my elder brother and sister-in-law, but not for me! We agreed that I would sleep with Uncle Gu when it got cold, but Uncle Gu didn't come back. I slept alone in the west room yesterday. It was so cold, I was almost frozen solid."
Upon hearing this, Yu Mingxiang glanced at him and said, "You can sleep in the front yard. There's a kang (heated brick bed) there; it's just a matter of lighting a fire."
"But I'm scared to sleep alone in the front yard!"
Yu Mingxiang: ...
She gave her youngest son a disdainful look. "How old are you? If you hadn't been cheated on, you'd be married by now! And you're still so cowardly?"
Upon hearing this, Qin Xiangdong immediately exploded, "Mom, can we please not bring up things that are hard to talk about?"
"able."
Yu Mingxiang readily agreed, "Go and bring over that kettle of boiling water from outside, let's soak our feet."
Qin Xiangdong: "..."
The eldest son and his wife watched from the sidelines as their second brother was humiliated, and couldn't help but chuckle.
Qin Xiangdong looked at the two of them, snorted coldly, and walked angrily toward the door.
The door opened, and a gust of cold wind rushed in.
Yu Mingxiang, who was sitting on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), shuddered from the shock.
"No, Xiaoru, we need to sew a curtain."
She looked at her daughter-in-law and said, "You can't be exposed to wind or get cold during your postpartum period. Without a curtain, you won't be able to stand the weather in Northeast China. You'll end up with postpartum illnesses and suffer even more."
Xue Ru smiled and nodded, "I'll do whatever Mom says. We'll sew the curtain tomorrow."
Yu Mingxiang: "Okay."
As the weather gets colder, the entire small mountain village seems to have been put on pause.
The soil in the fields was frozen, so there was no farm work to be done. Fewer people went up the mountain to look for things. Apart from visiting each other, the people of Hedao Village basically stayed at home and didn't come out.
However, while others could not go out, Yu Mingxiang could not.
She did what she was told, going to the clinic every day to see patients, regardless of whether there were any.
The next day, Qin Weiguo and Qin Xiangdong carried two sacks of wheat straw and went to the clinic with Yu Mingxiang and Xue Ru.
The clinic has charcoal provided by the village.
The charcoal fired in the charcoal kiln in the neighboring village was jet black and shiny with little smoke. After leaving a small ventilation opening for the clinic, Yu Mingxiang started working on the door curtain with her daughter-in-law.
Regardless of whether Yu Mingxiang had cotton in her space, cotton was not a common material for door curtains in Northeast China during this era.
First, it's too extravagant; second, cotton isn't as sturdy as wheat straw, so it sways in the wind when hung on the door.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law spread out a space on the ground, and while they sewed the door curtain, they chatted idly. The brothers Qin Weiguo and Qin Xiangdong warmed themselves by the fire pit next to them.
Occasionally, when they talked about something happy, the whole family would laugh uproariously.
But as she laughed, Xue Ru couldn't laugh anymore.
"mom."
She murmured softly, clutching her swollen belly, and said, "My water... seems to have broken."
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