Back To The 80s-Chapter 237 - 247: Born (Seeking Monthly Tickets)_1
Gu Xiaobei was stunned. She was unwilling to go and look for help again. Last time when she did, Xiangmin blamed her for being too slow. Now, with the ground covered in ice and snow, and her being pregnant, who would be at fault if she slipped and fell? Thinking this, she just stood rooted to the spot.
Li Fengmei quickly stood up and said, "Chunling, you go get the instructor, I’ll go check it out. Sister-in-law, you better not go." She directed her final words towards Gu Xiaobei.
Gu Xiaobei nodded in agreement, and Ge Chunling ran off to find Guo Huaqiang, who was on duty.
Ding Guihua and Li Fengmei went to Guo’s house to check on Xiangmin.
After dinner, Xiangmin once again got into an argument with Ding Guihua. With both of them in the room, they could hear the laughter from Xiaobei’s house next door. Ding Guihua mocked her, "Look at yourself, not even a single soul has come to give you their New Year’s blessings."
Xiangmin replied defiantly: "Don’t blame me for that. Blame your son for being so useless and not having any connections, that’s why no one is sucking up to him."
Upon hearing this about her son, Ding Guihua got mad. She pushed Xiangmin, causing her to fall from the chair onto the ground.
Xiangmin, who was pregnant at that time, had already miscarried once. Her remaining pregnancy was known as placenta previa and she needed to rest. But she couldn’t keep still and now due to this fall, matters had gotten worse.
Guo Huaqiang returned with a stony expression on his face. He picked up Xiangmin and ran downstairs. Zhang Dacheng was already waiting in his car near the entrance of the premises. This was a matter of life and death which couldn’t wait. As soon as Guo Huaqiang got Xiangmin in the car, Zhang Dacheng hit the gas and the car sped off to the town hospital.
Upon seeing this situation, Ding Guihua was a bit panicked. She was surely angry with Xiangmin but she hadn’t intended to harm her unborn child, her grandchild.
Li Fengmei consoled Ding Guihua for some time, then she returned to Gu Xiaobei’s house.
"How did things go? Is everything alright?" Wang Ping asked.
"The amniotic fluid didn’t break, so it should be okay," Li Fengmei replied tentatively.
Ge Chunling came back and told Gu Xiaobei: "The captain just said that he’s going to take over Huaqiang’s shift. He told you to get some sleep first."
Li Fengmei, with a smile, suggested, "Sleep at this time? It’s New Year’s Eve after all, why don’t we better play some poker. Sister-in-law, do you have a deck?"
Ge Chunling, feeling lazy to go back and bear her mother-in-law’s grumpy face, responded eagerly.
"We don’t have a deck of cards at my place." Gu Xiaobei regretted not buying a deck of cards.
"We have one at my place. Dadong, go and get it and while you’re at it, add some coal to the fire," Li Fengmei ordered Dadong.
Gu Xiaobei, looking at the sleeping Tiedan, said to Gao Qiaoyun, "You go inside and put Tiedan to sleep. Nini, you can sleep later, we’ll play in the outer room."
Pulling out the table, several women began the card game Beggar. They didn’t find it much fun to play without stakes, so Gu Xiaobei grabbed some candies. She handed out ten pieces to each player to use as tokens for winning and losing.
Time passed rapidly in the fun and games. By the time Lu Zhanguo came back, frost covering his clothes, it was almost dawn.
The women were still trying to keep their eyes open, playing for those candy tokens.
Lu Zhanguo looked slightly irritated but also slightlу helpless at Gu Xiaobei, who was giggling as if she had won a grand prize, just because she had won a handful of candies.
On seeing Lu Zhanguo, everybody put down their cards and planned to head home.
"Why go home so soon? The kids are still asleep. Let’s prepare some dumplings for breakfast. It’s a tradition to eat dumplings on the morning of the first day of the New Year. In some of the dumplings, I have added sugar pieces. Whoever gets those dumplings will get rich this year." Gu Xiaobei explained. People usually put coins in the dumplings for luck, but she found it unhygienic, so she decided to add sugar pieces.
Gu Xiaobei made more than two hundred dumplings. After they froze in the cold outside, she put them in a clean flour sack and hung it up out of doors. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
Lu Zhanguo started the fire, boiled the water, and prepared to cook the dumplings. Having played cards all night, the women were worn out and no longer fearful of Lu Zhanguo.
"I wonder how Xiangmin is doing now," Li Fengmei couldn’t help but say.
Picking up on this, Lu Zhanguo suddenly said, "Old Guo called and said she gave birth, it’s a baby girl."
Many were shocked by Lu Zhanguo’s words. They remembered Xiangmin’s confident declaration that she was carrying a boy and took it for granted.
Gu Xiaobei felt like laughing mischievously. Now, Ding Guihua must hate Xiangmin to the core, and Xiangmin’s days ahead would be even tougher.
After finishing the dumplings, the sleeping children woke up. They fed the children dumplings, and only then did everyone depart.
Lu Zhanguo tidied up the dishes and Gu Xiaobei swept the shells from the melon seeds off the floor. The leftover shells filled up a dustpan.
Gu Xiaobei had bought raw melon seeds and had roasted them slowly over the coals when she had had a free moment. They consumed more than half over the course of a single night. Gu Xiaobei decided she needed to find time to roast the remaining raw seeds.
After the cleanup, Gu Xiaobei couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. Lu Zhanguo urged her to go inside and get some sleep.
Gu Xiaobei didn’t refuse. She was grateful that the baby in her belly had been kind. Sitting up all night with a baby in one’s womb is no easy feat.
After staying up all night, Gu Xiaobei was so exhausted that she didn’t even dream in her sleep. Even when people came to give New Year’s blessings in a ceaseless stream, they could not wake her up.
Gu Xiaobei woke up due to hunger. When she woke up, it was already well into the afternoon. As she lay in her warm bed, she moved her head a little, reluctant to get up.
Lu Zhanguo entered the room and saw Gu Xiaobei with her eyes wide open, lying in bed. He walked over and sat by the bed, patting her slightly rosy face because she had just woken up, "Why aren’t you getting up after waking up? Are you hungry?"
Gu Xiaobei grabbed his hand and sat up, looking intensely and seriously into Lu Zhanguo’s eyes. "Happy New Year, husband," she said, then burst into a grin and leapt into Lu Zhanguo’s arms.
"Happy New Year," Lu Zhanguo replied, lightly stroking her back.
"In the future, let’s celebrate the New Year together as a family every year. Oh, I wish we could have three or four kids. It would be so much fun," Gu Xiaobei said, sighing.
Lu Zhanguo listened to Gu Xiaobei’s chatter with a slight hint of resignation. Let’s not even discuss having more children; even celebrating the New Year together every year was not a guarantee he could make. But he nodded in agreement, "Okay.
Gu Xiaobei stayed in Zhanguo’s arms for a while, then lifted her face and stretched out her little hand, "Where’s my red envelope? I wished you a Happy New Year, now you need to give me a red envelope."
Looking at her mischievous smile, Lu Zhanguo couldn’t resist pinching her cheek and said indulgently, "I don’t have a red envelope. All the money at home is with you, is there something else you want?"
"I want your heart, and only me can live in it." Gu Xiaobei sat straight, pointing at Lu Zhanguo’s heart with her fine finger.
Lu Zhanguo looked deeply into Gu Xiaobei’s eyes and replied, "Alright, only you will live there. Forever."
"I love the word ’forever.’" Gu Xiaobei lunged once more into his arms, giving him a big, wet kiss.
"Alright, get up now, eat something first. In the evening, we are going to Lijun’s house for dinner," Lu Zhanguo said, kissing Gu Xiaobei’s cheeks, and helping her get out of bed.
Fortunately, Gu Xiaobei prepared a lot of snacks. Lu Zhanguo toasted two buns for her on the stove and mixed a bowl of milk powder. Gu Xiaobei always worried about insufficient nutrition for the baby inside her, so she was always finding ways to replenish her nutrients. She realized she ate a lot but didn’t put on weight. It seemed the child inside her must have absorbed all the nutrients.
