Fang Meixiang's mother was cooking lunch at the stove when she heard a voice calling from the doorway, "Grandma Dongqiang, Grandma Dongqiang! Meili's mother!"
"Hey—" Fang Meixiang's mother looked and saw Yu Jihong pushing a bicycle at the door, with Fang Yu sitting on it.
"Oh, Jihong." Fang Meixiang's mother wiped her hands as she walked to the door.
“I just went to Meili’s shop, but the door was closed. Someone next to me said she went to the health center. I was thinking I should come over and tell you.”
"Yes, yes, thank you, Jihong. I'll call her dad back right now so we can go. Dongqiang, Dongqiang!" She called out to both sides from the doorway.
Fang Dongqiang ran over with dirt on his knees, "Did Second Aunt ask Fang Yu's mom to bring us things again?"
"Second Aunt is about to give birth. Go quickly to the field and call Grandpa back. It's in the field at the east end, okay?"
"I know, Fang Yu, I'm not playing with you anymore," Fang Dongqiang said as he ran off.
"It's almost done in the pot, I'll take it out first." Fang Meixiang's mother turned around in a panic, and Yu Jihong was still there.
Feeling bad about leaving Yu Jihong standing there, Fang Meixiang's mother turned around and said, "Jihong, I'll go check on the pot first. Would you like to come in and sit down?"
"No need, Dongqiang can come to my house to play with Fang Yu when he comes back later. You guys go."
“Great! Great! Let Dongqiang come to my house.” Fang Yu agreed readily.
"It's alright, we'll take him there. We'll give him a nice seat in the front."
"Okay, then I'll go back."
"Okay, ride slowly."
Yu Jihong stepped onto the pedal with her left foot, used her right foot to push off a few times for support, crossed the crossbar, and sat steadily on the seat.
"Fang Yu, put your feet to the sides." Fang Yu is growing up and often sits in the back, so I always have to remind her not to get her feet stuck in the tire.
Fang Meixiang's mother served Fang Meixiang some rice. "Meixiang, Meili is about to give birth. We'll be there in a bit. You'll be home alone. We won't be back for dinner yet, but there's some left in the pot. If you're hungry, just help yourself."
They then served the food to Fang Meixiang's father and Fang Dongqiang to dry.
The three of them quickly ate a few bites, and Fang Meixiang's father carried Fang Dongqiang onto the front crossbeam, while Fang Meixiang's mother sat behind him with a basket on her arm.
The bicycle creaked and groaned as it rolled over the gravel road. "Dongqiang, don't wobble your feet, Grandpa's riding faster."
"Oh!" Fang Dongqiang immediately put away and stood still, looking at the metasequoia tree by the roadside as he backed away.
"Luckily, we had the bicycle that Da Miao bought, otherwise it would have taken us much longer to walk here."
Upon arriving at the health center, they saw Fang Meili in the courtyard, with Yuan Xinkang helping her walk back and forth. Fang Meili occasionally frowned and hissed a few times.
"Dad, Mom, what brings you here?"
Before the bicycle had even come to a complete stop, Fang Meixiang's mother jumped off, saying, "Jihong said she came to our house to tell you because your shop was closed."
Fang Meixiang's father parked his bicycle, pulled Fang Dongqiang over, and took the basket from her mother's hands.
Fang Dongqiang looked at Fang Meili's stomach, then looked up at Fang Meili again, "Second Aunt, are you in a lot of pain?"
"Um."
"Are you a little brother or a little sister? Come out quickly, my second aunt is in pain." Fang Dongqiang gently touched Fang Meili's stomach and said to her.
Fang Meili was amused and wanted to laugh, but then the contractions started again. "Hehehe, oh! It hurts!"
Fang Meixiang's mother held Fang Meili's hand even tighter, as if she could share some of Meili's pain by exerting force.
"Dad, take Dongqiang aside. If I scream in pain, it will scare him."
"Second Aunt, I'm not afraid," Fang Dongqiang said, his neck stiff.
“You were tossing and turning in your mother’s belly all night before you came out,” Fang Meixiang’s mother said.
"I was young and didn't understand things back then," Fang Dongqiang explained.
"The child is talking like an adult."
Fang Meili's mother-in-law came out from inside. "Meili's mother, Meili's father is here?"
"Hey, we just came over because someone from our village said Mei Li's shop was closed."
“Melli said she felt a little pain in her stomach this morning, so we came over. The doctor just checked her and told her to come out and walk around before going for another checkup.”
"Mother, I don't want to leave." Fang Meili lowered her body.
"Okay, okay, let's go inside and sit down for a bit." Fang Meixiang's mother helped her walk inside, then turned back to remind her, "Dongqiang, you stay outside with Grandpa."
Fang Dongqiang and Fang Meixiang's father sat on the cement tree trunk in the courtyard of the health center, the trunk warm from the sun.
Fang Dongqiang looked up along the tree trunk. The old camphor tree's branches stretched out wide, and in the sparse areas with new leaves, he could see the clouds slowly drifting in the sky.
A breeze blew by, and the light filtering through the leaves flickered. Fang Dongqiang stretched out his small hand, watching the light shimmer on the back of his hand.
After looking at it for a while, he looked down at the tree trunk again. There were several fine cracks in the cement surface, with some soil stuck in them. He had just seen a few ants crawling up the cracks.
Fang Meixiang's father looked at the row of wards to see how Fang Meili was doing inside.
He thought back to that night around Chinese New Year, when Meixiang cried out in pain all night. He looked down at Fang Dongqiang, who was now so grown up.
“Grandpa, the ants at the hospital.” Fang Dongqiang pointed to the ants along the cracks in the cement around the tree. “The ants at the hospital are the same as the ants in our house.”
"Hmm." Fang Meixiang's father patted Fang Dongqiang's little shoulder. "Dongqiang, are you hungry?"
Fang Dongqiang rubbed his stomach. "Hungry."
"Grandpa will take you to buy a sesame seed cake."
Fang Dongqiang jumped down from the tree and took Fang Meixiang's father's hand as they walked into the street.
By evening, Fang Meili still hadn't given birth. Fang Meixiang's mother said, "It might be evening, her father, you should go home first."
“Yes, go back, we’ll take care of things here,” Grandma Fang Meili added.
"Merry, I'll head back now."
"Okay, Dad, you should go back. My older sister is home alone." Fang Meili said, her brow furrowing again from the contractions.
"Second Aunt, just bear with it a little longer. The pain won't be so bad once your little brother and sister are born," Fang Dongqiang said as he came over.
"This kid speaks with such maturity."
Yuan Xinkang patted Fang Dongqiang's head and said, "Dongqiang is so good at talking, he won't have to worry about finding a wife in the future."
"Your second aunt is your wife."
"Yes, yes, you know everything."
The lights in the health center had just come on, and the dim yellow light fell on the old camphor tree in the yard, casting long shadows.
Fang Dongqiang looked at the cement tree enclosure; the few ants should have gone home by now.
Fang Meixiang's father lifted Fang Dongqiang onto the bicycle, and pedaled away, the bicycle chain making a soft "click-clack" sound.
The wind carries the fragrance of flowers, and you can hear the soft rustling of wheels rolling over the soil.
Fang Dongqiang sat in the front, his head bobbing as he drifted off to sleep. Occasionally, he would bump his head against a small pebble, causing the car to jolt slightly, and he would lift his head again.
"Dongqiang, we're almost home, don't fall asleep," Fang Meixiang's father kept reminding him.
"I didn't sleep." Fang Dongqiang blinked. "I've never ridden a bicycle at night; it's dark everywhere."
"What's the difference between riding a bicycle during the day and not during the day?" Fang Meixiang's father kept talking to him, afraid he would fall asleep.
As soon as I stopped my bicycle at home, a neighbor came over and asked, "Has Mei Li given birth yet?"
"not yet."
"I've been in pain all day, and I should be able to give birth tonight. I just came to see Meixiang to bring her a bowl of rice."
“We left some food for her at lunchtime and told her to serve herself if she was hungry.”
"When I came over, I saw someone give her some food. Do you know who it was?"
"Oh, who is it?"
"Third brother's wife." The neighbor also looked incredulous.
The neighbors were all quite nice to their family. When they weren't home, the neighbors would look after them. Fang Meixiang's father didn't find it strange. But when Yu Jihong brought food to Fang Meixiang, he was really surprised.
“Meili is in the hospital. She came to tell us that. Maybe she knew we weren’t home, so she came to bring dinner to Meixiang.”
"Hmm, she's quite sensible. I just closed the chicken coop door. Go check again yourself to see if the chickens have all come back."
"Okay, I'll go check. We're not home, so thank you for your concern."
"Oh dear, everyone has emergencies sometimes. We should look out for each other as neighbors."
That evening, Fang Meixiang pulled Fang Dongqiang aside and pointed out the room where she was sleeping.
"Do you want Dongqiang to sleep with you tonight?"
Fang Meixiang nodded.
"Dongqiang, are you going?" Fang Meixiang's father asked Fang Dongqiang, looking down at him.
Fang Dongqiang shook his head, "I still need to talk to my grandfather tonight."
“She knows her mother isn’t home, and she’s taking care of her son by herself.” Fang Meixiang’s father watched Fang Meixiang walk away into the room.
"Grandpa, do you think Auntie has given birth yet?" Fang Dongqiang lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
"She should have given birth by now." Fang Meixiang's father looked at the ceiling of the bed. He also hoped that his daughter had already given birth so that she would suffer less.
"Once it's born, we'll know if it's a boy or a girl," Fang Dongqiang said excitedly.
"Go to bed early, we'll go to the health center tomorrow."
The next day, Fang Meixiang's father brought out the bicycle, and Fang Meixiang also came out to watch over it.
"Do you want to go too?"
Fang Meixiang nodded.
"There won't be enough room for Mom when she comes back, so you should stay at home."
Fang Meixiang lowered her head and rubbed against the door frame.
Fang Dongqiang sat in front of the bicycle, rode off, and then looked back at his mother standing by the door.
Fang Meili was already lying in the hospital bed, with an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes next to her.
“She was born around 10 p.m. last night. Come here, Dongqiang, come see your little sister,” Fang Meixiang’s mother said.
Fang Dongqiang, supporting himself on the edge of the bed, looked at his baby sister in swaddling clothes. Her little face was like a freshly peeled peach, covered with a layer of extremely fine down, and glowed with a faint pink hue when it shone in the light. Her eye sockets were still swollen, leaving only a shallow slit.
"I came all the way from home, and my sister is still sleeping," Fang Dongqiang asked softly.
"Yes, your little sister needs to sleep more so she can grow up quickly and play with you," Fang Meixiang's mother said with a smile.
"Second Aunt, is your stomach pain gone now?" Fang Dongqiang asked Fang Meili.
"Hmm, it doesn't hurt anymore."
“I told you that the pain wouldn’t be so bad after I gave birth to my little sister.”
"Dongqiang, who told you all this?" Yuan Xinkang asked him with a smile.
"Nobody told me, I knew it myself."
Grandma Fang Meixiang brought over some brown sugar and egg soup, and Fang Meixiang's mother helped Fang Meili up to eat.
Dongqiang leaned over and took a look.
"Dongqiang, do you want to eat?" Fang Meili asked.
"No, this is for you to eat after you give birth to your little sister."
He's not even as tall as the stove, but he's always so shrewd.
On the way back, Fang Meixiang's father said that Yu Jihong had brought dinner to Fang Meixiang last night.
"Her dad, do you think Ji Hong is crazy?"
How would I know?
“Oh, right. Meili asked her to bring you more things than you do at home,” Fang Meixiang’s mother said from the back. “She’s always a perfectly normal person when she comes over. Meili said she’s a good person and easy to get along with, and now I think she really is a good person. It’s really embarrassing for Meixiang to eat at her house for no reason. Next time you have something, give her a little something too.”
When Fang Meili was in postpartum confinement, the busy farming season had not yet begun, and Fang Meixiang's parents often visited her.
They've been using this road to town the most this month.
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