Chapter 24

After a flurry of chaos, Doctor Ma finally gave his verdict: she was pregnant, just overly weak, which was why she’d fainted.
Pregnant…
Bai Xinmei stared at her own belly, feelings tangled and complicated. Doing missions here was like acting in a TV drama, living someone else’s life. She’d already experienced what it meant to be a wife, was she about to experience what it meant to be a mother too?
When Old Qin heard the news, he was over the moon. He herded the whole family back home, went to his old, battered rosewood cabinet, still locked with a key despite its age, and carefully took out a little cloth bundle.
With exaggerated care, he unfolded it and produced five meat coupons, one sugar coupon, and two oil coupons.
“Old woman, go to the supply and marketing cooperative in town and buy some meat. Our third daughter-in-law needs to build herself up,” he said.
Qin Yuangang, Li Zhaodi, and their daughter Da Ya crowded around, eyes shining with longing, tongues unconsciously licking their lips.
From the west-side room, Qin Yuanhang seemed to have heard the commotion. “Ma, what happened?”
He limped out, one leg dragging slightly.
“Second Uncle, Grandpa’s sending Grandma to the co-op to buy meat! We’re having meat! Grandpa took out five whole meat coupons, five!”
Da Ya was only five, but the moment she heard the words eating meat, her eyes practically glowed green. She was so excited she almost bounced.
Because of Qin Yuanzheng, who was an officer in the army, the Qin family’s life wasn’t exactly dire. Still, this was an era of chronic shortages of oil and salt.
Families in worse shape gnawed sweet potatoes and drank corn gruel day in, day out, not seeing a single scrap of meat all year. The fact that the Qin family could eat a decent meal for every New Year and festival already put them at the “rich household” level.
Seeing how happy everyone was, Bai Xinmei’s mood lifted a little too, though she wasn’t nearly as thrilled as they were.
Of course she wasn’t. Before everything collapsed, she’d grown up in a little Western-style villa, eating delicacies from land and sea off silver plates, with foreign-educated governesses coming to the house to teach her.
A couple jin of pork wasn’t exactly enough to make her weep with joy.
Right now she was nauseous most of the time, and just looked tired.
[This streamer really doesn’t understand the suffering of the common folk. Thumbs down]
[She’s staying in character. Bai Xinmei is a capitalist miss. Her family only fell when she was fourteen. Before that she lived in luxury. How could she lose her mind over two jin of meat?]
[First-floor auntie’s got water for brains. She’s acting]
The Qin family urged Bai Xinmei to quickly write a letter to Qin Yuanzheng and tell him the good news.
Of course, every time she wrote one, she had to cram several people’s words into it. Sending a single letter cost eight cents; everyone just pooled their messages in one go.
Plus, only she and Qin Yuanzheng were properly educated. The others had only taken literacy classes and could barely write their own names.
“Third daughter-in-law, tell Yuanzheng that me and his ma are both doing fine, so he doesn’t have to worry,” Old Qin instructed.
“Third Aunt, can you ask Third Uncle to bring Da Ya some candy when he comes back next time?”
Bai Xinmei nodded, then looked up at the two older brothers.
“It’s fine, Third Sister-in-law,” Eldest Brother Qin said. “We brothers don’t need to say much. There’s not much blank space left, write more of what you want to say to Yuanzheng.”
She felt her cheeks grow hot at that.
The letter went out.
After that, Da Ya waited for her candy every day. Once she finished picking firewood, she’d run straight to the post office to ask if there was a letter from Third Uncle.
“Ma, do you think Third Uncle doesn’t want to send Da Ya candy anymore? Because Third Aunt has a little brother in her belly now, and he has to save the sweets for him?”
“Or maybe your Third Aunt never wrote about candy at all,” Li Zhaodi muttered.
“No way. Da Ya was talking while Third Aunt was writing,” Da Ya said stubbornly, shaking her head. “I don’t believe it. Third Aunt’s not like that.”
“You can’t even read. How do you know she wrote about candy?”
Li Zhaodi squatted there feeding the chickens, hands busy, mouth even busier.
“Third Aunt definitely wrote it.”
“You trust her that much?”
“Because Third Aunt is pretty. Third Uncle says faces reflect the heart. If she’s that pretty, she can’t be bad. She wouldn’t lie to me.”
“What do you know about ‘pretty’, you little brat…”
Thinking about her third sister-in-law’s smooth, fair face only made Li Zhaodi even more sour.
Like some little fox spirit, just looking at her, you could tell she wouldn’t be easy to handle.
She remembered what her mother-in-law had said: back when the Bai family fell, her third brother had rushed back on leave just to fetch that girl. And Third Brother had such a bright future ahead of him.
What was it to marry the daughter of a landlord? That “bad class background” had been dragging him down ever since. She’d overheard him talking with an old classmate once, some Jiang Weimin, younger than Third Brother and already a full battalion commander, while Third Brother was still only a deputy.
She’d heard plenty from outside the door: it was all because his wife’s class origin was “problematic.”
Every time Third Brother came back, he never let his wife lift a finger in the house or fields.
When he wasn’t home, Mother Qin dumped all the hard, dirty work on Li Zhaodi. Third Sister-in-law just went to look at the fish pond and pull a few weeds in the vegetable plot. Easy, clean, comfortable work.
Why, exactly, did she, Li Zhaodi, have to break her back for her man?
“Big Sister-in-law.”
Bai Xinmei’s voice came from behind, belly pushed out in front of her.
Li Zhaodi jumped, heart skipping a beat.
Had she heard any of that just now?
“Wh-what do you want? I’m busy,” Li Zhaodi blustered, louder than usual to cover her panic.
“I think… I’m in labor…”
Li Zhaodi looked over.
Bai Xinmei was standing in the doorway, one hand clinging to the frame. A puddle had already spread under her feet. Her face was chalk white, and she was trembling with the effort of staying upright.
“Holy Mother, Ma! Ma! Dad! Yuangang! Oh my god, she’s having the baby!!”
“Ma and Grandpa went to the fields to turn the soil. Dad’s working in the mine for work points, it’s just us and Second Uncle at home,” Da Ya piped up.
Li Zhaodi threw down the basket of goose grass, wiped her hands on her trousers, and rushed over to catch her sister-in-law.
“Dear heavens, her waters have broken already! Da Ya, go get your grandparents right now! Run!”
Five-year-old Da Ya was terrified, snot running down her face. Only when her mother roared at her did she startle into motion and take off at a sprint.
The pain came in waves, stronger and stronger. The Qin family members working outside still hadn’t made it back. The fluid had almost all run out.
Seeing that this was no longer sustainable, Li Zhaodi made up her mind: she would deliver this delicate sister-in-law herself. She wasn’t trying to harm her, she’d helped her mother deliver her last two younger sisters, after all.
Doctor Ma wasn’t even in the village; word was he’d gone visiting his mother-in-law.
Li Zhaodi stomped her foot, then shouted toward the west room, “Yuanhang! Second Brother! What are you doing holed up in there? Someone’s about to die!
“Go boil some hot water. There’s a clean cloth in my room!”
[The streamer looks like she’s about to croak. Is this going to be a difficult labor? Did she go offline? Time to score.]
[Kind of mid, to be honest. That teasing bit was fun, but the plot’s not that dramatic. I’ll give it an 11.]
[For the counting during that scene, I’ll give a 15, hehe.]
[Boring.]
…
Bai Xinmei was in fact having a difficult labor.
In a poor rural setting in the 1970s, giving birth meant stepping one foot straight into the underworld. Even more so for someone like her, a former rich miss whose body, despite a year of fieldwork, was still only “strong” compared to the pampered past version of herself.
That wasn’t nearly enough now.
No. If she died here, she’d lose.
[Villainess Division intern Jiang Wei: current task completion 0, score 0.
OOC level 0, score 10.
Audience composite score: 13.6.
Total: 23.6 points.
Male Lead Division tasker Long Huasheng’s current total: 28.4 points.
If intern Jiang Wei goes offline now, it will be considered a failed challenge. This system will initiate purge mode.]
The system announced the progress in a cold, flat tone. Clearly, things were going smoothly on the Male Lead side.
That snapped Bai Xinmei awake.
Just moments before, Li Zhaodi had thought she was on the verge of death. Her own mother had died the same way: unable to push, the baby stuck, mother and child gone together. Thinking of that, Li Zhaodi had wiped at the corners of her eyes.
“Sister? Meimei?
You’re awake? You have to push, you have to push hard. Bite down on this stick.
That’s it, push!”
When the baby finally came squalling into the world, two different groups of people arrived at the Qin household.
The first were the Qin family themselves: Old Qin and Mother Qin running back from the fields, and Eldest Brother Qin rushing home after walking more than ten li.
When they found out that Li Zhaodi had helped deliver the baby, they were all stunned.
Mother Qin’s opinion of this eldest daughter-in-law, who’d cost them half their savings and didn’t have much brains to show for it, shifted a little.
The second group brought bad news.
The kind of news that comes all at once.
“Terrible, terrible! Your third son is gone. Our Shuan Zhu went into town and saw the notice board, full of writing, and your Yuanzheng’s name was on it. What was it called again…”
“Martyrs’ Roll.”
“That’s it, martyrs. And martyrs means he’s dead, doesn’t it?”
The thunderbolt left the Qin family completely stunned.
Bai Xinmei caught fragments of the conversation and promptly fainted.
…
Three years later.
Bai Xinmei sat in front of the clay stove, feeling thoroughly depressed.
What was wrong with this system? Why hadn’t the male lead, Song Jinping, come down to the countryside yet?
The Male Lead Division people were practically one Dragon Ball short of summoning Shenlong, and she still had zero progress.
She hadn’t come here to “experience motherhood” and “live a rustic life.” It felt like there was a guillotine hanging over her neck; even if she wanted to rest, she couldn’t.
To make things worse, lately Liu Mazi, who lived at the end of the village, kept blocking her on the road. Yelling and scolding did nothing. If there hadn’t been someone in the cornfield the other day…
Ever since Qin Yuanzheng’s death, life in the Qin household had gotten rough. Everyone ate from the same pot, but in terms of labor, only Eldest Brother Qin and Old Qin could truly pull their weight. Li Zhaodi and Mother Qin together barely counted as one full set of work points.
Compared to before, Bai Xinmei’s health had improved a little, but if she spent three days cutting rice in the paddies, she’d end up vomiting and fainting again. When the doctor came to take a look, he said it was heatstroke from working under the blazing sun and told her to go cut pigweed instead. She managed to slice open her hand on that, too, the blood just kept flowing and flowing.
The Qin family knew she wasn’t unwilling to work…
They might have three sons, but one was dead, one was lame, and the last one was mild and easy to push around. If a horse is gentle, people ride it; if a man is kind, people bully him. Little by little, the villagers started to treat the Qin family as an easy target.
Now Bai Xinmei’s job was to stay home feeding the chickens and ducks, cooking for the Qin family, taking meals out to the fields, checking the fish pond, and looking after the children.
Not long ago, Li Zhaodi had given birth to a son. That tough woman had been back in the fields working within half a month of delivering.
At the time, Bai Xinmei had looked at her with pure shock and admiration.
By midday, it was time to bring lunch to Old Qin and the others in the fields.
“Ma, Ma, Niuniu hungwy.”
A tiny figure came stumbling and tottering toward her.
Niuniu was the daughter Bai Xinmei had borne for Qin Yuanzheng, a posthumous child.
Lately, thanks to Liu Mazi’s constant harassment, rumors had begun to spread through the village that Niuniu was some wild seed she’d conceived with another man after Qin Yuanzheng’s death.
Otherwise, how come she’d never been pregnant before, and then the moment he died, she suddenly “had” a child?
What a joke. With how pretty Niuniu was, how could she possibly be Liu Mazi’s?
Besides, when she’d first married into the Qin family, she’d only been fourteen. What baby was she supposed to have back then…
[The streamer’s cooking skills are leveling up fast.]
[Niuniu is so cute. Mamy, I’m taking her home.]