Chapter 59 Ambition Unleashed Something, like a spark of fire…
Hearing Tian Mei describe the situation as so serious, Nie Ying gasped and staggered backward. Fortunately, the Fan sisters, Erni and Zhaodi, supported her from behind.
"What should we do?" Nie Ying panicked, completely at a loss. "Mountain Goddess, please protect me! Mountain Goddess..."
Zhong Ying sighed helplessly. "It's better not to pray to the Mountain Goddess at a time like this."
Although Zhong Ying had just considered praying to the Mountain Goddess to protect her brother, it was like praying to the God of Exams before an exam or to the God of Wealth before starting work. It was more like making a wish than praying to a god. When things really come down to it, you still have to take the exam yourself, and your salary depends on your performance. In the current situation, it's better to ask the doctor to save his life than to pray to the Mountain Goddess for protection.
"Did someone go to call Sister-in-law Nie?" Zhong Ying asked as she hurried outside.
Tian Mei quickly replied to her younger siblings, "Yes, they have. Fu Shun's family has gone to call them."
Zhong Ying breathed a slight sigh of relief. This was the confidence that the production team had a doctor. Fortunately, it was already close to evening, and Nie Jinlong and Yao Dongxiu had returned from their daytime medical training course at the commune clinic.
The sky was dim, a grayness between day and night. At this time, there was no need to turn on the lights. The naked eye could still see things, but not very clearly. Zhong Ying was walking too fast and did not notice for a moment. She tripped over a half-protruding stone on the ground and stumbled.
To others, Zhong Ying appeared unsteady and about to fall, but she quickly regained her balance.
Only Zhong Ying knew that it was Li Linshi who appeared in front of her just in time and caught her.
“What’s the rush?” Li Linshi frowned slightly. “Brother Nie’s house and Second Cousin’s house are only one house apart. Sister-in-law Nie must have arrived first.”
Zhong Ying nodded haphazardly. Of course, she could have thought of that too, but concern made her confused.
Although Deng Xia and Nie Ying had been at odds for most of their lives, the younger generations of their neighboring families had grown up together and actually had a pretty good relationship. Zhong Ying only had one older brother, Zhong Cheng, and Fan Dani was her half-sister.
Zhong Ying walked quickly to a house in the middle of the village. There was a commotion at the gate, which showed an unusual atmosphere.
She walked straight in without stopping, and sure enough, she saw Yao Dongxiu sitting by the bed. Zhong Ying then looked at Fan Dani lying on the bed and saw that she looked unwell.
"How is it?" Zhong Ying asked immediately.
Yao Dongxiu's face was calm. "I first unbuttoned her collar to keep her breathing clear. I think it's like she's been poisoned."
Those around gasped. Poisoned?
"Our whole family ate together, how could the second son's family get poisoned?" Liu Qiang frowned, puzzled.
Liu Fushun, who was standing to the side, turned to look at his younger brother and asked anxiously, "Did you eat something again after you came back?"
Liu Mancang, who was anxious but unable to help, was concerned about his wife who was unconscious on the bed. Hearing this, he was distracted and thought for a moment, "Da Ni took medicine again after dinner when she got home."
"Medicine?" Nie Ying exclaimed in surprise. "How come I didn't know my daughter was sick?"
Liu Mancang hesitated, "It's...it's because I drank medicine that can help me have a son."
All eyes immediately fell on Liu Mancang, making him extremely embarrassed. He lowered his head, wishing he could find a crack in the ground to disappear into.
Yao Dongxiu quickly asked, "Are there any medicinal herbs left? Let me see them!"
Liu Mancang hurriedly went to look for it, rushed into the kitchen, took out a small cloth bag, carefully unfolded the four folded corners covering it, and handed it to Yao Dongxiu.
Yao Dongxiu rummaged through the medicinal herbs wrapped in the cloth. She recognized them all; the Yao family had been skilled in medicine for generations, passing down traditional Chinese medicine. Her gaze settled on one of the herbs. "Cinnabar... You two are really messing around... Quick, get me an egg!"
Hu Dating and Lin Shuhong, who were near the door, quickly turned around and went to the chicken coop in the yard to collect eggs. Before long, the eggs, still warm, were in Yao Dongxiu's hands.
After feeding Fan Dani egg whites as first aid, Yao Dongxiu finally had time to wipe the sweat from her forehead. She turned to Liu Mancang and said, "Taking medicine containing cinnabar can cause mercury poisoning. How long has your wife been taking this medicine?"
"It's been half a month. Is it serious?" Liu Mancang asked.
Yao Dongxiu glared at him, annoyed. "You almost lost your wife. Do you think that's serious?"
Liu Mancang broke out in a cold sweat. He was terrified by what he had just experienced. He and Fan Dani had a marital relationship and three children. He only wanted a son, not to become a widower.
"Egg white is only a temporary detoxification. You still need to go to the commune clinic for an injection of 5% sodium dimercaptopropanesulfonate solution, once a day for three days..." This last part was the Western medical knowledge Yao Dongxiu had recently learned. She couldn't help but scold Liu Mancang, "There's no such thing as a fertility drug! We need to be scientific. Whether you have a boy or a girl is determined by genes. The genes for having a boy are provided by the man. Don't blame the woman for not being able to have a son..."
With the crisis averted, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Nie Ying, finally recovering her fighting spirit from her limp state, pounced on her son-in-law relentlessly, yelling, "You little brat, you almost made my daughter drink poison to death just to have a son..."
People around rushed to break up the fight, and the room became chaotic again.
Lin Shuhong was trying to persuade her in-laws while apologizing on behalf of her son. She was exhausted and increasingly felt that having many sons was not necessarily a good thing.
As the person with the most sons in the production team, Lin Shuhong counted them off in detail.
The eldest son, Liu Fushun, hit his wife, which almost caused his younger brothers to have difficulty finding wives.
The second son, Liu Mancang, who is currently being slapped, is a liar! He really is a liar, and he almost became a widower;
The third son, Liu Guangtian, accompanied his new wife on her homecoming a few days ago. He didn't know how to persuade his father-in-law to stop drinking so much that he died.
Liu Fengshou, the fourth son, had previously harassed a female educated youth, causing her great embarrassment.
The youngest son, Liu Laicai, seems to have completely reversed his sister's personality; he's neither a boy nor a girl.
Lin Shuhong apologized humbly, but couldn't help but sigh heavily in her heart, increasingly doubting what was so good about raising sons. Five! She had five sons! Not one of them was easy to deal with!
The second son was still stubbornly arguing, "It was Da Ni who found out about fertility drugs everywhere. She started asking around after her sister's engagement was broken off..."
Hearing this, Nie Ying calmed down and let Deng Xia and Liu Hongyan pull her away. After Erni's engagement was broken off, it wasn't just Dani who was still resentful.
Zhong Ying stepped forward to bring this farce to an end, saying, "Alright, from now on, no one in the production team should drink any more 'fertility drugs.' I think we should have Sister Dongxiu give everyone a proper lesson when it rains and we don't have to work, explaining from a scientific perspective what determines whether a child is a boy or a girl."
Being backward and ignorant is the original sin.
After seeing everyone off, Liu Mancang thanked Yao Dongxiu again, saying, "Thanks to you today, sister-in-law. Tomorrow I'll need you and Brother Jinlong to take Da Ni to the clinic for an IV drip. I really don't know how to thank you enough."
He nervously rubbed his hands together.
Yao Dongxiu didn't mind. She didn't save people for the sake of being thanked. "It's okay. When your wife wakes up, make sure she drinks plenty of water. That will help her get rid of the toxins faster."
Liu Mancang responded repeatedly, and when he saw Zhong Ying, he quickly said, "I also want to thank Yingni'er."
He used to laugh at Zhong Ying's actions when he heard Li Gang talk about them, but now, Liu Mancang was truly grateful that Zhong Ying had persisted; it was a good thing that the production team had a female doctor. If it had been Nie Jinlong who came to save her today, he probably would have stood by Fan Dani's bedside hesitantly, not daring to touch her much, let alone unbutton her clothes to keep her breathing clear or feed her egg whites to detoxify her.
After seeing everyone off, Liu Mancang went straight to look after the children.
Leaving Liu Mancang's house, people were still talking about what had just happened as they walked to their respective doorsteps and parted ways. The closer they got to the village entrance, the fewer people there were on the road. In the end, only Li Ming and Liu Hongyan, Li Gangshi and Tian Mei, Zhong Ying, and five others remained, plus a ghost.
The moon hung high in the sky, and Liu Hongyan sighed, "It's all because of my son that all this trouble has happened..."
Li Gang remained silent, secretly relieved that he had a son and didn't have this kind of trouble.
Tian Mei didn't say anything, but she couldn't help feeling a sense of sadness, like the fox mourning the death of its kin.
Li Ming pondered, "Yingni'er is right. We really need to teach the members a good lesson, explaining it from a scientific perspective, so that such things won't happen again in the future. Yingni'er, remember to do this."
Zhong Ying responded as if she had been daydreaming in class and her name had been suddenly called on, "Ah, okay."
The two couples, one old and one young, returned to the Li family's house, while Zhong Ying went back to her own home next door.
"What are you thinking about?" Li Linshi asked, carefully observing Zhong Ying's expression. "You seem a little unhappy because of what happened today?"
Zhong Ying didn't go inside. Instead, she sat down on a bluestone slab in the yard where dried radishes were being dried and mumbled an "Mmm."
She watched them as if they were living in a swamp, struggling to survive.
Actually, there were signs long ago, but Zhong Ying was too focused on lying down to think about it deeply.
The reason why the eldest aunt was so determined to see Zhong Ni get married before she was willing to leave was because a woman's fate was entirely tied to a man. If she married the wrong person, her whole life would be ruined.
Because he was a son, and the only son, Li Changgui was over-protected and had no room to breathe, and died trapped in the village.
Nie Jinlong could get a medical training opportunity without doing anything, while for Yao Dongxiu, the same opportunity required her to first solve various problems such as family and children.
In her quest to have a son, Fan Dani drank some ridiculous "fertility drug," nearly losing her life in the process...
Ultimately, all these issues stem from the prevailing ideology of our time—the preference for sons over daughters; we live in a male-dominated society.
Men hold the vast majority of the power of discourse. For example, in the Tonggan Production Team, which is a miniature social circle, the production team leader is a man, the warehouse keeper is a man, and the scorekeeper who controls the lives of the commune members has always been a man. Before Zhong Ying became the women's team leader, only the animal feeder was a woman, and Nie Jinfeng could only manage the four cows and nine pigs in the production team.
Even Zhong Ying, the women's team leader, though she sounds like a team leader, only has influence among women.
This seems to have become a common phenomenon, where even if women are able to enter management positions, they mostly hold marginal or auxiliary roles.
Power is still in the hands of men, which is why this society is sexist.
The patriarchal rule throughout history has led the vast majority of women to "accept their fate," receiving this discipline from the time they learn to speak, and tacitly accepting that men are more important than women.
But Zhong Ying saw the future: female pioneers in all walks of life constantly strived to increase women's weight, and it took decades for the gender balance to finally be barely balanced in modern times.
Zhong Ying was lost in thought, muttering to herself, "Since someone has to do it..."
Something sparked in her mind like a flash of inspiration.
"Why don't I do it? Starting now..."
Zhong Ying asked herself these questions.
She clearly knew the principle that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Li Linshi didn't understand what she was saying. "What are you doing?"
“I want…” Zhong Ying looked straight at him, her wavering tone slowly becoming firm, “I want the seat you couldn’t get.”
Zhong Ying's face remained calm, but ambition and sharpness suddenly burst forth from her eyes.
The blooming of the epiphyllum is beautiful, and the drawing of a sword under the moonlight is equally breathtaking and awe-inspiring.
Li Linshi looked at Zhong Ying, his Adam's apple bobbing unconsciously. He was no exception; even though he already loved her, he was still captivated by her once again.
For the first time, Zhong Ying felt not disgust for power, but a longing for it.
“I want to be the production team leader,” she said.
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Author's note: Zhong Ying: I'm not going to be the women's team leader anymore, I want to be the team leader!
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