Back To The 80s-Chapter 165: Fava Bean_1

Gu Xiaobei remained silent, clearly this girl was anxious for him to get back to see if Jin Cheng was back yet.

When they arrived at the family courtyard, seven or eight military wives were standing there, huddled in a group. Li Fengmei, Ge Chunling, and Wang Ping were all there.

Gu Xiaobei was somewhat curious, what had happened?

Seeing Gu Xiaobei’s return, Li Fengmei hurriedly waved, "Sister-in-law, I’ve been looking for you. Come here quickly. We’re registering the quantity of coal briquettes for each household, how many does your family need?"

"Huh? I don’t know how many we need. How many your family needs, that’s how many my family needs, I guess." Gu Xiaobei was totally clueless about this.

"My family needs a thousand pieces, but your house doesn’t have a heated kang, do you want to buy more?" Li Fengmei suggested.

"Oh, should we buy two thousand pieces?" Gu Xiaobei really didn’t know how much extra he was supposed to buy.

Li Fengmei sighed, "Alright, for now, let’s just declare twelve hundred for you."

"Alright." Gu Xiaobei nodded, in any case, Li Fengmei would know better than he did.

"One piece of coal is nine cents, prepare the money later, the coal will be delivered tomorrow, just give it to Chief Logistics Officer Xiang." Li Fengmei said.

Sun Aiqin had been standing on the outside without speaking, feeling very discontented.

Li Fengmei didn’t really want to take care of this matter, but she had coincidentally run into Xiangyang when she went to the vegetable field in the afternoon. Not being able to refuse, she had to come back and organize everyone’s registration.

When everybody had left, Li Fengmei and Gu Xiaobei walked upstairs side by side. Li Fengmei took out a handful of roasted broad beans from her pocket and gave them to Jiujiu.

Qin Li took Jiujiu into the room to draw, seeing it was none of her business, Gu Xiaobei picked up the dirty clothes and went to the washroom to wash them.

She unexpectedly met Xiangmin also washing clothes. These past few days, she hadn’t seen Xiangmin leave the house, let alone wash clothes or cook.

Xiangmin saw Gu Xiaobei coming in, sneered and lowered her head to scrub the clothes.

Gu Xiaobei went to the faucet furthest in, put down the basin and turned the faucet to collect water.

When Ge Chunling entered, she greeted Xiangmin and walked towards Gu Xiaobei.

"Sister-in-law, are you free tomorrow?" Ge Chunling asked, putting her basin next to Gu Xiaobei’s.

"I don’t have any specific plans, why?"

"Let’s go to town, I think your clothes are pretty nice, can you help me pick out some?" Ge Chunling said excitedly.

"Sure, is there something to celebrate?" Gu Xiaobei knew that making a new outfit now meant either a holiday, or something happy happening at home.

"Yeah, my family sent a telegram saying my younger brother is getting married next month, I need to go back." Ge Chunling said happily,

"Good news, actually, I was planning on going to town tomorrow too, let’s go together."

From across the room, Xiangmin saw the two of them laughing and joking, her face was ashen. Since becoming pregnant, the people in this courtyard had distanced themselves from her. In her mind, she felt it was all due to Gu Xiaobei’s instigations.

A 25-watt light bulb cast a dim yellow light, under its halo, Xiangmin’s face looked a bit ghastly.

"Sister-in-law, why are you washing the clothes? Didn’t you say I was going to wash them?" Chi Xiaoyue appeared at the washroom door, exclaiming.

"It’s okay, just a couple of pieces of clothing. I had nothing to do, so I came over to wash them." It seemed Xiangmin regained some spirit.

"How come the instructor isn’t here, if he sees you doing laundry, he’d be heartbroken again." Chi Xiaoyue rolled up her sleeves to start scrubbing, while talking.

"He didn’t come back for dinner, he’s probably in a meeting."

"I was wondering, how could the instructor bear to let you lift a finger." Chi Xiaoyue exaggerated her tone when saying this.

Gu Xiaobei couldn’t help but sneer inwardly, you two really don’t need to be this dramatic, who cares.

Chi Xiaoyue gave Gu Xiaobei an inscrutable look, then went back to talking to Xiangmin, "Sister-in-law, is your brother getting along here?"

"It’s become a routine now. I work in logistics and it’s not strenuous at all. Plus, I have complete authority, can go out every day. It’s quite comfortable." Xiangmin started bragging again.

"Isn’t it? Xiangyang is really skilled. When will his wife join him in the army?"

"By the end of the year, I think. But there are no vacant houses in the housing complex, so we have to wait until the old soldiers are demobilized at the end of the year, and see if there are any available houses." Xiangmin was quite cheerful and her voice carried the upbeat tone of her mood.

"If there’s none left, wouldn’t it be solved if Xiangyang applies for a house in the newly built housing complex?" Chi Xiaoyue suggested.

"Right, I’ve totally forgotten about that. I will remind Xiangyang to apply early."

While wringing out the clothes, Chi Xiaoyue added: "Yes, and ask for a second-floor apartment, it won’t be damp in summer or cold in winter."

"Hmm, I was thinking the same thing."

Both of them were discussing housing matters as if they could control the outcome.

Gu Xiaobei had been looking down for too long and felt a bit tired. She raised her head to stretch her shoulders and unintentionally saw Chi Xiaoyue looking at her, as if she were watching an interesting show.

A sudden alarm went off in her mind, reminding her of Liu Cuicui’s warning to be wary of Chi Xiaoyue.

After Xiangmin and Chi Xiaoyue took the clothes out, Ge Chunling grumbled: "The houses in the residential complex are assigned according to rank. It’s not as if they can live wherever they want."

Gu Xiaobei didn’t understand this, she was still thinking about how Chi Xiaoyue might set her up.

Seeing that Gu Xiaobei didn’t say anything, Ge Chunling continued: "But Sister-in-law, your family can definitely get a second-floor apartment."

Gu Xiaobei thought for a moment and said: "We want the first floor." There are only two floors, and no buildings around blocking sunlight. Moreover, the Northwest is dry, so how could it be damp? And they could plant flowers and plants in front of the door, which sounds quite good.

When it was time to sleep, Jiujiu seemed unwell. She began to vomit, throwing up all her dinner. She became listless and complained about a stomachache, Gu Xiaobei felt that she had a bit of a fever.

Gu Xiaobei found the sudden illness perplexing and didn’t dare to delay any further. She asked Qin Li to stay with Jiujiu while she went to find Lu Zhanguo.

Upon hearing the news, Lu Zhanguo quickly drove the camp’s vehicle and hurriedly took Gu Xiaobei back home, to take Jiujiu to the hospital.

When she returned home, Jiujiu had fallen into a semi-comatose state. Gu Xiaobei was so scared that her legs turned soft and she broke down in tears. She couldn’t understand how the situation had escalated so quickly.

Lu Zhanguo picked up Jiujiu, asked Gu Xiaobei and Qin Li to follow, and they all rushed to the town hospital.

The on-call doctor at the town hospital examined Jiujiu but couldn’t identify a cause for the illness.

Gu Xiaobei had become completely panic-stricken. She clung to Lu Zhanguo’s arm and exclaimed, "How did she get sick so suddenly? She was fine during the day."

Lu Zhanguo patted her back, comforting her: "Don’t worry, I’ll go and call Dr. Jin."

After Lu Zhanguo left, Gu Xiaobei looked at Jiujiu who was lying unconscious on the hospital bed, and couldn’t help but clutch her hand with a heavy heart.

Lu Zhanguo quickly brought Dr. Jin. Dr. Jin started examining Jiujiu immediately without even bothering to wear his white coat.

"What did you feed the child today?" Dr. Jin questioned while examining the patient.

Gu Xiaobei was too flustered to remember. After a moment, she replied: "Today she just ate rice and cabbage, the normal stuff."

Qin Li added from the side: "She ate a handful of fava beans in the evening."

Dr. Jin’s expression became serious: "It appears that the problem lies with the fava beans." He then instructed the doctors to start an intravenous drip immediately.

After taking care of that, Dr. Jin heaved a sigh of relief and said: "This child seems to have a genetic disorder known as fava bean disease. Luckily she’s older and had eaten dry beans. If she’d eaten fresh fava beans during spring, it would’ve been difficult to save her. We’re replenishing fluids now and by tomorrow, she should be fine."

Gu Xiaobei shuddered at his words. She couldn’t believe there was such a disease. Any lapse could be fatal.

Seeing their confusion, Dr. Jin explained: "This fava bean disease is typically genetic. Most cases appear before a child turns three, especially after eating fresh fava beans, which often cause an attack. For someone as old as Jiujiu to have an episode is quite rare."