The milk in the clay pot boiled, and Xu Chunniang skimmed off the milk skin with a spoon. When it cooled down, she took the baby and fed her one spoonful at a time.
The little kid was neither anxious nor fussy. He swallowed mouthful by mouthful. When he had almost finished eating, he closed his mouth and eyes, looking as if he wanted to sleep.
Wiping the corners of the little girl's mouth with a handkerchief, Xu Chunniang patted her back to smooth her breasts, and looked up at her husband and said, "Sanlang, give her a name."
Jiang Sanlang scratched his head and couldn't think of any good words after a long time.
"How about asking Uncle Chen to give it to me? I, I can't think of a good name at the moment."
Uncle Chen's real name is Chen Sanyou. He is the village chief of Dongchen Village. He is highly respected and well-versed in literature. Many families in the village asked him to name their children.
Xu Chunniang shook her head, "No need to go through so much trouble."
She didn't want everyone to know that she had picked up a child.
Although this matter cannot be concealed at all, it is better to keep a low profile. When the child grows up, everyone will get used to it.
"Why not call her Yingbao?" Xu Chunniang touched her daughter's face and said softly, "This is the baby you met when you went to Beishan to pick cherries."
"Okay, let's call you Yingbao."
Jiang Sanlang slapped his thigh and said cheerfully, "Chun Niang, you are right. It's a treasure I found while picking cherries."
Hey, this is a good name, auspicious!
In the blink of an eye, summer passed, winter came, and spring arrived. When the grass grew and the birds flew, Xiao Yingbao was already eleven months old. Not only could he crawl, but he could also walk a few steps by holding on to the wall.
"father!"
Yingbao held the wall with one hand and opened the other hand to Jiang Sanlang who just entered the room: "Hold me!"
Now she can speak, but she can only utter one or two words at a time.
"Hey, Yingbao, are you tired of learning to walk? Come here, look what Daddy brought you."
Jiang Sanlang took out a wrinkled green-red fruit from his arms, shook it in his hand, bent down and teased his daughter, "Do you want to eat it? It's so sweet and fragrant."
Yingbao's eyes lit up, and she stretched out her chubby little hands to hug him, "Period!"
Big apples, although their quality is not very good, it is rare to see them in the countryside at this time of year.
"Where did it come from?" Xu, who was sitting next to him, took a look and sewed the sole of her shoe with a sizzling sound.
Jiang Sanlang chuckled, bent down to pick up his daughter, and sat next to his wife, "My mother gave it to me. She couldn't bear to eat it, so she secretly stuffed it to me, saying that it was for Yingbao to sweeten her mouth."
Xu rolled her eyes at her husband and said disapprovingly, "It's a New Year gift from my elder sister-in-law to my parents. How dare you take it from me? We have already separated. It would be embarrassing if others saw us."
There are also children in my uncle's family. I wonder what my sister-in-law would think if she knew that my mother-in-law secretly gave apples to her third son.
"What's the big deal? I didn't ask for it. How can I refuse it if my mother gave it to me? A gift from an elder should not be refused. Do you understand?"
Jiang Sanlang didn't care at all. Seeing that his daughter's little teeth couldn't bite open the fruit peel, he took it and started to chew it. After biting off a circle of the peel, he put it back into his daughter's hand.
Yingbao: ...
Looking down at the fruit with holes in it, I suddenly couldn't eat it anymore.
"Why don't you eat?" Jiang Sanlang scratched his daughter's nose and said with a smile, "Do you dislike your father?"
Yingbao blinked and shook her head: "No problem!" After that, she bit off a large piece, took it out of her mouth, and stuffed it into her father's mouth, "Daddy!"
Jiang Sanlang laughed loudly and bit off the gift handed to him by his daughter.
Mrs. Xu also smiled and stroked her daughter's fluffy little head. "Our Yingbao is so filial. She knows to give the first bite to her father."
Yingbao nodded heavily, "Filial piety! Daddy, Mom!" and bit off another piece and gave it to Chunniang.
"Hahaha, my good daughter!" Jiang Sanlang laughed heartily, "When our parents get old, we'll rely on Yingbao to see them off."
Yingbao shook his head, raised his chubby little finger and pointed at A-niang, "Brother! Yingbao! Send!"
"What did Yingbao say?" Jiang Sanlang didn't understand what his daughter said, so he asked with a smile.
Yingbao got off her father's knees, stumbled to Xu's side, threw herself into her mother's arms, touched her belly and said, "Brother! Mother, brother."
Jiang Sanlang seemed to understand this time.
Is his daughter trying to say that her mother is pregnant with a younger brother
How is that possible
Mrs. Xu was also confused. She touched her belly and asked with a smile, "Yingbao said that mother has a younger brother?"
"Yes!" Yingbao nodded heavily, put her little hand on A Niang's belly, and said firmly: "Brother!" Two!
Jiang Sanlang was stunned, and suddenly remembered that his wife had not been able to eat in the past few days and had often retched.
Could it be... Could it be...
His eyes suddenly lit up amazingly, and he grabbed his wife's arm and said, "You've been complaining of stomach discomfort these past few days... How about we go find a doctor?"
Xu was also stunned and murmured, "It's impossible."
She has been married for nearly eleven years. How could she be pregnant when she is almost thirty
Jiang Sanlang pulled his wife up and said anxiously, "It's not a big deal to go and have a look, but... even if you're not pregnant, we still have to take her pulse. You haven't been able to eat these past few days, and that's not a big deal..."
Xu thought for a moment and nodded, "Well, let's go and have a look. We definitely won't be able to make it now. Let's go to town tomorrow."
"Yes!" Jiang Sanlang picked up his daughter and spun around, his teeth showing and his eyes showing with joy. "My dear daughter, tomorrow your parents will take you to the town to play."
Xu chuckled and put away her shoes, "For dinner, we'll have soup noodles and make some egg custard for Yingbao."
…
Doctor Old Zhang lives in the town, about five or six miles away from Dongchen Village, which takes half an hour to walk there.
Jiang Sanlang was afraid of tiring his wife, so he prepared to go to Chen Cunzheng's house to borrow a donkey for transportation.
"Don't." Xu was a little embarrassed, "Just go, it's not like you can't walk."
Doctor Zhang is a famous midwife in the town. Everyone in the surrounding area knows her. Those who go to her for pulse check are either pregnant women or women who are about to get pregnant.
In the past few years, I had consulted many doctors and taken a lot of medicine, but my stomach just didn't feel any better.
If I go again this time, it would be fine if I am really pregnant, but if not, I wonder how others will make fun of me.
"Okay." Jiang Sanlang held his daughter in one hand and supported his wife with the other, "Then you should be careful."
Mrs. Xu chuckled and pushed her husband's hand away. "I went to fetch water yesterday. Can't I walk today?"
Jiang Sanlang withdrew his hand, hugged his daughter tightly, and said softly: "Don't be picky in the future. Wait for me to come back and do everything."
During the spring planting season, he would go to the fields to work before dawn, and even his wife would bring him lunch.
I plow the soil, loosen it, apply fertilizer, and then sow seeds. After finishing my own work, I go to my eldest brother's house. I can't go home until dark every day, so I have no time to fetch water for the house.
However, in the future he could get up half an hour earlier and fill the water tank at home before going to the fields.
Xu smiled at her husband and touched her belly, feeling anxious inside.
Yingbao blinked her eyes, looked at her father, then looked at her mother, and smiled.
That’s great, my mother is pregnant with my younger brother, and the family is finally reunited.
Yingbao hugged her father's neck tightly, rested her head on his shoulder, and stared at the red birthmark on her wrist with her eyes downcast.
It was this birthmark that separated me from my parents and brother forever.
Got to find a way to get rid of it.
Before getting rid of it, she had to hide it carefully so that no one else could see it.
She didn't want to be recognized by that family again after several years and experience abuse, conspiracy and strangulation again.
In my previous life, I struggled to survive for more than ten years, but only lived to the age of twenty-one.
Just when she thought she had finally escaped and her suffering was over, she was suddenly found by her biological father and mother, who strangled her to death.
She clearly remembered that her biological mother tightened the rope in her hand while gritting her teeth and cursing: "You disaster star! You vicious bitch! How dare you live? How dare you live?"
Due to using too much force, Han's face was distorted, foam appeared at the corners of his mouth, and he looked as hideous as a demon.
Yingbao couldn't stop trembling when she thought of the pain of her throat being tightened, the explosion of her brain due to suffocation, and the despair and resentment in her heart.