At noon on October 6th, Chuchu suddenly started.
Zhang Meng saw this and quickly borrowed a carriage from Jiang's house, and went to the town to ask Dr. Zhang to deliver the baby.
Yingbao and Chunniang came to help. They first boiled a large pot of water, then washed all the basins in the house, and then put the delivery mattress on Chuchu.
Seeing that Chuchu had a severe stomachache and afraid that she would faint, Yingbao gave her a bowl of fruit juice with Wudingzhi in it.
Chunniang cooked a bowl of brown sugar poached eggs and forced Chuchu to eat two to prevent her from fainting during childbirth.
Doctor Zhang finally arrived. Seeing that everything was ready, she delivered Chuchu's baby without hesitation.
At this time, Chuchu's cervix was already four fingers dilated, and Doctor Zhang helped her up and walked around a few times.
The delivery went smoothly afterwards. Not long after the amniotic fluid broke, Chuchu followed Doctor Zhang's instructions and pushed along with the contractions. The baby came out smoothly with a loud cry.
"Oh! It's a daughter!"
Doctor Zhang said cheerfully as she quickly cleaned out the placenta, gently cleaned the baby's mouth with gauze, turned her over and patted her back and buttocks twice to help her breathe smoothly and cry louder.
Pick up the baby and wash her briefly in warm water, then wipe her clean with the cotton cloth that had been prepared earlier.
Then use a piece of cotton cloth to hold the umbilical cord, leaving it about a finger long, bite off the cloth with your teeth, and then use a cotton thread to tie the broken end of the umbilical cord.
Yingbao watched the whole process of Dr. Zhang delivering the baby and felt it was magical.
Doctor Zhang wrapped the baby, then slowly rubbed Chuchu's belly, and then pressed lightly to expel the remaining blood in the uterus.
Stop when you can no longer feel any lumps in your lower abdomen.
"Let the baby suck milk early, otherwise the breasts will become swollen and inflamed." Doctor Zhang warned: "You will get out of bed and urinate once in a while, understand?"
Chuchu nodded and looked at the baby in Chunniang's arms with a gentle expression.
After cleaning Chuchu up, Doctor Zhang changed the quilt under her and sat down to rest. She called out to the door, "Come in."
Zhang Meng lifted the curtain and walked in, touched his wife's cheek, and was so heartbroken that he was speechless.
Doctor Zhang pointed to the lotus leaf bag on the bench and said, "This is the afterbirth. Find a place to bury it, and bury it deep."
Zhang Meng agreed, picked up the lotus leaf bag and went out.
Chunniang placed the baby next to Chuchu and went to help pour out the blood.
Then she went to the kitchen and cooked a big bowl of pig's trotter noodles for Doctor Zhang.
Because Chuchu had just given birth, she could only eat soft and light egg noodles.
Only on the second day, when the milk supply is smooth, can the mother be given some fish soup to promote milk secretion. Otherwise, the mother may suffer from milk accumulation and inflammation.
The next morning, Zhang Meng carried red eggs to Yue's house to announce the good news, and Jiang Sanlang also helped deliver red eggs to each household in the village.
Chuchu is Chunniang's goddaughter, and can be considered half a child of the Jiang family. After receiving the good news, the villagers also came to congratulate her with eggs or brown sugar.
For a while, Zhang Meng's family was bustling with people coming and going.
In order not to disturb Chuchu and the children's rest, Chunniang received the guests in the main hall and asked Yingbao to register the congratulatory gifts.
When Zhang Meng returns from Yue's house, he will be responsible for these matters.
Zhang Meng was accompanied by Chu Chu's younger brother Chu Qing.
It turned out that after the leader of the Chu clan learned that the school in Dongchen Village did not recruit students from other villages, he asked Chu Qing to come to his sister and ask his brother-in-law for help, hoping that he could study under the scholar.
Because the scholar's knowledge is definitely better than those old students who have failed the exams many times.
If a member of the Chu family passed the imperial examination and became a scholar, it would be a matter of honor for the family. Their family would have the hope of crossing the social class barrier and rising from farmers to scholars.
Chuchu was very happy to see her younger brother coming, and quickly asked her husband to clean up a room for him so that he could live in their house from now on.
Chu Qing sat on the bed, touched her niece's face, and said to her sister, "Sister, grandma asked me to tell you to let Sister Chu Man take care of you, but I didn't agree."
Chu Man has been spoiled to that extent, how could she take care of others? Chu Qing would rather take care of her sister herself than ask Chu Man's cousin to come.
What's more, the siblings are not familiar with Chu Man at all. They basically won't talk to each other even if they pass by each other. She came to her sister's house with ulterior motives.
Chuchu smiled and praised: "You did the right thing, I don't need them to take care of me."
Chu Qing scratched his head and said, "I told grandma that I would take care of you and my niece, and she got angry."
Chuchu sighed softly: "If you are angry, then be angry. We will not go back to the village in the future. We will live with my sister."
She raised her younger brother since he was a child and he is the closest to her. It is her greatest wish that he can live with her.
"Yeah." Chu Qing smiled.
He had long wanted to live with his sister, but his father wouldn't let him.
Now that his father has married a new bride, he doesn't pay much attention to him, so it's a good thing that he doesn't have to go back.
At this time, Zhang Meng walked in and said to Chu Chu, "Jiang Cunzheng agreed to let Chu Qing study under Li Xiucai. Go and become his disciple tomorrow morning."
"That's great." Chu Chu was very happy.
For my younger brother, it was extremely lucky to be able to study under Li Xiucai, even for just three years.
Because Li Xiucai said that he would take the imperial examination in three years and his energy was limited, so the number of his students could not exceed twenty.
And there are more than twenty people coming to study. The children of Dongcun Chen alone have occupied more than a dozen places.
Which of the remaining places are not carefully selected
Even though the annual stipend is only 20 taels, there are still people flocking to it.
It is said that the annual dowry of twenty taels was set by Ying Bao.
One is to prevent someone from making trouble for the scholar, and the other is that the scholar owes a lot of debts and he won't be able to pay them back if he doesn't give less.
The days passed one by one, and it was the end of October in a blink of an eye.
That day, Chu Qing, who had just returned from school, told his sister that he had seen Chu Man and Sun Erniang, who lived in the West Village.
They seemed to be renting a house from a villager in Xicun, and no one knew what they were doing.
Chuchu certainly knew what they wanted to do, but she couldn't tell her brother.
"Don't worry about it. If you see them, just stay away from them and ignore them!"
She told her brother: "Just study hard, and don't see anything else. Do you understand?"
Chu Qing nodded in confusion.
He didn't tell his sister that he had seen Chu Man several times, peeking at the school gate and looking at their teacher.
Oh, no, I was looking at Mr. Chao’s friend.
Mr. Li's friend lived in West Village and came to discuss academic matters with him every other day. The two of them often recited poems and painted, and would stay together for an entire afternoon.
Every time this happened, Chu Man and her mother would come in and talk to the master's mother.
But the master's mother was very polite and distant to them, often saying that she was tired and needed to rest.
But as soon as Chu Man and her daughter left, the master's mother came out of the house and either went to the backyard to dig the ground or sat in the yard to make clothes.
The other students might not have noticed, but Chu Qing knew Chu Man. Whenever Chu Man and her daughter came, he couldn't help but take a few more glances at them to see what they were trying to do.
In a blink of an eye, it was the sixth day of the winter month, and Chuchu's daughter was one month old.
Zhang Meng held a full-month banquet for his daughter and invited the whole village to attend.
Of course, in order to show respect for scholars, the scholar Chen Changping from Xicun and the village chief Chen Changsheng were also invited.
The weather was not very good that day, it was gloomy and cold, with fine snowflakes falling.
Jiang Sanlang took a few villagers with him to help build two wedding tents, and set up several tables for the buffet under the tents.
Several sisters-in-law from the Jiang family helped with the cooking, while several neighbor aunties sat outside the kitchen picking vegetables and washing dishes.
Before the banquet started, Chuchu's father arrived, along with the Chu clan leader and Chu Muramasa.
They braved the wind and snow, drove an old horse-drawn cart, and stopped in front of Chuchu's house.