Starting a new story, "The Little Rural Blessing Has a Cheat", those interested can have a look.
...
[This story debuts on Qidian Reading, where you can listen to the audio book.]
"Another girl!"
Chen Fong-shi disgustedly shoved the newborn baby into her son's hands, snorted, and left the room.
Once she got to the kitchen and saw two bowls of brown sugar poached eggs on the stove, her anger was barely restrained.
She picked up a bowl and poured it into the pot, then said to her daughter-in-law, "First take this bowl of sugary eggs to your fourth aunt-in-law, your second sister-in-law won't be able to eat right now, so we'll wait until she's hungry. The one in the pot, just add some water and boil it, then dole it out to Qi'er and Song'er."
"Yes, mother," said Zhao's with joy, quickly picking up a bowl of sugary eggs and heading for the second room.
She lifted the curtain and saw her brother-in-law standing at the door, holding the newborn girl, his face an unreadable mix of grimness and confusion.
She handed the sugary eggs to the midwife who was cleaning up her medicine box, and said, "Fourth Aunt, eat first."
Without any hesitation, Aunt Wu took the bowl and quickly ate the six poached eggs, then downed the entire bowl of brown sugar water.
After wiping her mouth, she stood up, grabbed her medicine box, and said, "I am going now. Let your second sister-in-law massage her abdomen later to get rid of the lochia. If there's anything, just call me. We're not far."
Zhao hurriedly said, "Okay, thank you very much, Fourth Aunt. I'll have Big Brother send you off soon."
"Hmm." Wu Fourth Aunt slung her medicine box over her shoulder, gave Chen Ergou -expressionlessly standing there- a meaningful look, then lifted the curtain and left with Zhao.
The woman lying on the bed turned her head, pulled the quilt over her face, and started crying.'
The man holding the swaddle purse looked grim, his face terrifyingly dark.
He already had two daughters and never expected that this time it would also be a girl, which made Chen Changping both angry and embarrassed.
Among his three brothers, his older brother already had two sons, and even the one who just got married last year had a son, but his own family had three girls in a row.
No, it was four births.
More than a year ago, that one, only born f
or a while, had her face covered by accident during his wife's deep sleep at night, and by the next day she was gone.
That was also a daughter.
Chen Changping could only feel his head buzzing. He was mortified.
As the saying goes, there are three unfilial conducts, with no offspring being the greatest.
Was his second family going to end his lineage?
Thinking of the strange gazes he might receive from relatives and friends, the oblique insinuations from his parents, as well as the various gossip and innuendos, Chen Changping felt like his blood was running backwards.
Looking at the baby in his hands again, he was filled with disgust.
He turned around and left the house.
The sunset was everywhere at this time, with a few passersby on the road.
Chen Changping tucked the tiny swaddle into his wide sleeve and walked quickly towards the back mountain.
The infant in his sleeve moved her little head a few times and her mouth twitched twice before falling back to sleep quietly.
Standing next to the hill for a moment, he still felt it was too close to the mountain road and not hidden enough.
If this little bastard was picked up by a passing villager and brought back to the village for everyone to know, it would not be good.
Everyone knew his wife had just given birth, and it would be easy for people to guess it was their child that was abandoned.
After thinking for a while, Chen Changping walked a few dozen steps further in before taking the swaddle out and placing it in a patch of grass.
Still standing a while longer, and clenching his palm, in the end, he didn't dare to strangle the baby girl.
Well, maybe she'll be carried away by a wild wolf overnight, and he wouldn't have to bear the guilt of killing a girl.
Looking around and seeing no one, Chen Changping turned around and hurried down the mountain.
...
During the late spring, the wild peach trees all over the mountain shed their flowers and were hung with fuzzy little fruits.
The wild cherries were already ripe, their stalks attached to branches, red and yellow, looking especially tempting.
In Dongchen Village, by the Chuanhe River, several women are pounding clothes and washing vegetables.
"Did you hear? Jiang Sanlang's family found a girl yesterday. Who knows whose child was abandoned, tsk, tsk, the umbilical cord wasn't even detached."
"Really? Did you see it with your own eyes, Auntie Er?" A woman seemed not to believe it, "Who would abandon a child these days? It's not like we're in a famine and can't afford to raise them."
"Isn't that the truth? I went to their house to borrow a bucket this morning and saw it with my own eyes." Aunt Wang Ersan wrung the clothes in her hand, threw them into the basket, and said, "Her whole face was red and swollen, said it was bitten by ants, tsk tsk tsk."
"Oh dear, it's such a sin." Another woman leaned in to ask, "Where was she found?"
"No idea, Jiang Sanlang's family simply won't tell." Aunt Wang glanced around, a gossipy look on her face: "Probably from one of the nearby villages. I wonder which family is so disgraceful."
"Absolutely!"
The women knocked their washing sticks on clothing, a flurry of noise.
"Anyway, she's not from our village. We only have about twenty households in our village, everyone would know if a woman so much as farted, let alone gave birth to a child." One woman said.
The crowd burst into laughter.
"Certainly, no one in our village would be that heartless."
Aunt Wang pursed her lips: "What's unfortunate is that the baby is a girl. If it were a boy, Xu Chunniang would be relieved."
Jiang Sanlang had been married to Xu Chunniang for ten years without a single child, which had nearly infuriated his mother to death.
The women looked at each other, breaking into knowing laughter, "Yes, yes."
"It's to Jiang Sanlang's credit that he hasn't divorced his wife after all these years."
"Indeed, if it were my family, constant nagging would ensue everyday. A wife without a child wouldn't last three years in my family, let alone ten."
"Absolutely." The crowd agreed.
One woman knocked her washing stick and said: "Ah, Chunniang is lucky to have a husband who cares for her. Without Jiang Sanlang's protection, she would have long been divorced by his mother."
"Yes, what a shame Jiang Sanlang is such a talented man, both cultured and strong. I am afraid there might be no continuation of his lineage." Another woman sighed.
"Who can disagree?"
The women sighed collectively, sometimes feeling sorry for Jiang Sanlang, sometimes envying Xu Chunniang for having a handsome and caring husband.
The thought of their own husbands, whose unkempt beards and body odor were sources of displeasure, resulted in an acrid taste in their mouths.
"A baby girl is not so bad."
A woman wringing clothes said: "How does the saying go? Raising a daughter brings a son. This baby girl might bring Jiang Sanlang a chubby baby boy."
"That's not necessarily true." A woman retorted.
"Why not? Isn't that exactly what happened to Chen Ergou's family in West Village? Their daughter-in-law didn't have a child for three years until his old mother adopted a baby girl. Guess what, less than two years later, Ergou's wife was pregnant."
"Yes, yes, yes, I heard about that. It truly happened."
"Yes, even the girl might be adopted by Jiang Sanlang from somewhere else, claiming it as a foundling. He probably feigned her origin to avoid being ridiculed if she didn't bring them a child."
"Haha, that's also a possibility…"
After a round of gossip, the women finished washing the clothes, packed their baskets, and returned home.
Dongchen Village, Jiang Family.
Jiang Sanlang walked into the house with a bowl of sheep milk and told his wife: "Older brother's sheep just had lambs yesterday, so I milked some to feed the baby."
"Oh, what a coincidence!"
Xu Chunniang rejoiced, "Now the baby has milk to drink."
They were worried about what to feed the child, but it turned out that the ewe, his elder brother bought earlier that year, had just given birth.
She placed the swaddled baby on the bed, covered it with a thin blanket, rolled up her sleeves to take the bowl, and told her husband, "I'll go boil it. You look after her; she was crying a lot earlier."
Jiang Sanlang passed the clay bowl into his wife's hand, looked at the baby on the bed, and the more he looked, the more attached he became, "She must be hungry, she has only had some sugar water since yesterday."
The baby on the bed opened her eyes slightly and suddenly smiled at him.
"Oh, our daughter knows how to smile." Jiang Sanlang was thrilled, touched his stubble, and proudly said, "Our daughter recognizes her dad."
"Stop talking nonsense." Xu Chunniang shot a glance at him, "She is so little. How could she possibly recognize you?"
Jiang Sanlang chuckled, "You never know; our daughter is very smart. Yesterday, the moment I picked her up, she stopped crying and just kept shedding tears, as if she was grievously wronged."
Thinking of the baby girl's pitiful face, Jiang Sanlang's heart ached. He reached out to touch her head and sighed.
Who would be so heartless to abandon a newborn baby girl on a grave mound? They clearly wanted the child to die.
If he hadn't passed by and heard a baby's cry in the graveyard, the baby would most likely have been eaten by snakes, rats, and ants in another day or two.
If you didn't want to raise a child, you could give her away. Why kill her?
"It's alright now; you're my, Jiang San's, true daughter from now on."
Jiang Sanlang picked up the baby and held her close to his chest, "As long as I have something to eat, you will never go hungry."