Tian Cai slept until noon. The gate of the courtyard was locked from the inside and no one came to see the doctor. She lay on the kang for a while before reluctantly getting up from the bed.
Only then did I see Mimi sleeping at my feet. It was very strange for the little guy to appear on the kang at this time. Usually, I had no idea where he would have run away.
I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t had breakfast today.
Usually it would eat a bite at home before going out. As long as Tian Cai prepared the meal for it, the little guy would remember to come back on time to eat.
Mimi was lying on her back with her legs up in the air, close to her quilt, with her big white belly exposed. Tian Cai couldn't help but touch it.
"Oh?" The little guy was woken up. He opened his eyes and looked at Tian Cai, then moved his body and changed direction to continue sleeping.
"Whose cute little cat is this? Let me touch it!" Tian Cai said, rubbing its soft white belly several times with his hands.
Mimi yawned loudly, still looking at her with sleepy eyes.
Taking advantage of the time now, Tian Cai started petting the big cat, making it purr with comfort. After enjoying it, the little guy's cries became several degrees sweeter.
At this time, I get up and have lunch directly. I make a few pancakes with cornmeal and pair them with freshly pickled cucumbers and pickles. It is a delicious meal.
She has been busy recently, but she has not forgotten about the two people who came to her house last time. No one has come to her house for a while. I don’t know if they didn’t notice anything abnormal about her or if they were just holding it back for the time being.
Tian Cai didn't want to have such a time bomb around her. She felt that she couldn't leave any traces when she took action. If people immediately guessed that it was her, all her efforts would be in vain.
Taking advantage of this opportunity to study in the commune, I had some other ideas.
There were less than two months left until the autumn harvest, and Tian Cai was running low on food. She calculated that if she ate sparingly, she could probably get enough for a month.
At this time, most people in the village did not have much food left, so if they wanted to exchange it, they could get it, but it was not certain whether they really agreed or were afraid of offending her.
Tian Cai didn't want to cause trouble for others, so he planned to go to the county after a while. He couldn't run out of food during the autumn harvest.
After waiting for a few days, there was no news about the medical training that had been mentioned before. Tian Cai went to ask Zhang Defa, and he was told that the commune asked him to wait for news.
But she soon couldn't care less.
The sun was shining brightly for several days in a row and it was very hot. Every time Tian Cai came back from a patient visit, his clothes would be wet, which shows how high the temperature outside was.
This went on for more than ten days, and even she, an outsider, could tell that the weather was not right, let alone the old farmer in the village.
Kaoshan Village has some paddy fields. Zhang Defa is worried that the fields will dry up if the weather continues like this, but the old people in the village are worried that heavy rain will come.
Some old people in the village gathered together, often squinting their eyes under a big tree to look at the clouds and the sun in the sky, which made Tian Cai look up several times.
Based on the meteorological knowledge she had learned before, the old people were right. After such weather, there would usually be heavy rain.
Tian Cai had observed the location of the mountain village before. Although this place was at the foot of the mountain, it was not right next to the mountain and required crossing a narrow river.
There is a big slope not far from Tian Cai's house, and down there is a small stone river with a small flow of water all year round.
The source of this river is unknown. According to the old people in the village, the river did not dry up during the severe drought in previous years, but the water flow became smaller. The people in the mountain village survived by relying on it, and many families even moved here because of the drought.
There is a small wooden bridge over the river, connecting the village next to the mountain with the mountains behind. Tian Cai lives in a house that is closest to the river. The river water rose due to heavy rain before, but it is still a long way from her house on the slope. Tian Cai is not worried about getting into the water.
Tian Cai was woken up by the heat again this morning. Since July, she has been sleeping with the windows open. She is woken up by the heat every day and sweats as soon as she moves.
Breakfast was sweet potato porridge. She was going up the mountain to get some meat today. Before going up the mountain, she turned into the village to see Lu Qiuju first.
When Tian Cai went over, he heard a child crying in the house.
It had been a week since Lu Qiuju gave birth. It was particularly painful to recuperate in such hot weather. When Tian Cai went there, she was lying on the kang feeding the baby, but the baby was crying and refusing to eat.
It was already hot enough outside, and with the doors and windows of the Sun family closed, it was even hotter than a steamer. The house was also filled with a strange smell.
Sun Dayou was originally shirtless in the room. When he saw Tian Cai coming over, he quickly put on some clothes and smiled at her embarrassedly.
Lu Qiuju was wearing long sleeves and long pants, with a towel wrapped around her head. Her face was also flushed from the heat. When she saw Tian Cai coming, she straightened her clothes and wanted to sit up to greet her, but was stopped by her.
Tian Cai checked on the baby, whose face was covered in a dense red rash. She took the child's temperature and immediately unwrapped her. "It's too hot. You can't wrap her up so tightly. Look, she's got prickly heat all over her face. How can she not cry if she's uncomfortable?"
"I, I thought she had just come out of her mother's belly, and she didn't want to get frozen again." Sun Dayou scratched his head and was embarrassed to say that this was his mother's idea.
"Do you have finely ground cornmeal at home? If not, grind it and sift out the finest powder to use." Tian Cai explained to her how to use the powder. Every time after giving her child a bath, she would apply some on the places where they sweat easily. She also felt comfortable. "Children's body temperature is higher than adults. Just cover their belly with a pillowcase. You can turn them over every once in a while. Don't use a blanket anymore!"
Seeing the little baby with prickly heat all over his face, Tian Cai thought of one of Grandma Tian’s patients. The baby was fine during the confinement period. She would dress the baby less when she felt hot, and more when she felt cold. She always dressed the baby according to the way adults dressed.
After the confinement period, it is the hottest month of July. There is a local saying that you should move to another place to live for a few days after the confinement period.
The girl stayed at her mother-in-law's house for one day and then left, refusing to live there no matter what. This was because the weather was hot, over 30 degrees Celsius, and her mother-in-law closed the doors and windows, wrapped the child in a quilt, put her on the bed, and covered her with another quilt.
When the girl came back after shopping, the child's face and body were covered with heat rash.
"When the weather is nice and warm, open the windows to ventilate the room. If you're afraid of the draft, go to another room and ventilate the room before returning. Ventilating the room can also help get rid of the odor. Otherwise, if you keep feeling stuffy like this every day, you'll get sick even if you're not sick."
Tian Cai was also helpless. It was already very difficult for a farmer's family to observe the confinement period after childbirth, and the confinement rules passed down from ancestors were really tiring. They were not allowed to take a bath, open the windows, or even eat salty food.
Tian Cai gave a few instructions and left. She was still busy going up the mountain!
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