Chapter 136

Xu Ran ran upstairs and downstairs all the time, and then he brought a basin of clean water in and a basin of water completely reddened by blood out. He was frightened to see the blood, while Shao Yu kept telling him that it was fine.

Xu Ran had no more helper. Wu Mei and others went to the town. Xu Ran asked Gao Quan to kill a chicken to stew chicken soup for Liu Tong. After a long time, Gao Quan got a chicken ready clumsily. In the end, the chicken stewing job was handed to Mr. Hu and Gao Quan was in charge of making a fire.

Liu Tong could endure pain and tried his best to keep quiet. He wouldn’t make a sound unless he really couldn’t stand it, so most of the time, Xu Ran could only hear groans, but Xu Ran would rather Liu Tong scream. He wanted to go in, but Shao Yu and the mid-spouse stopped him. It was sad that he couldn’t even speak to Liu Tong.

This torment lasted for four hours. At noon, Xu Ran heard the sound of the bowl breaking in the room, followed by the a baby’s wailing. Shao Yu quickly ran out to congratulate Xu Ran, “Young master, the baby is born. It’s a Ge’er. Congratulations.”

After hearing that the baby was born, Xu Ran got calm finally. He wanted to go into the room to take a look, so he looked at Shao Yu eagerly, “Shao Yu, can I go in now?”

Shao Yu shook his head. “Young Master, not yet. You have to wait until the mid-spouse wraps the baby and takes him out.”

Xu Ran thought about the scene that a baby could be held out as soon as it was born on TV, and nodded, “OK, I will wait!”

As expected, the mid-spouse carried the baby out soon and congratulated Xu Ran and praised the baby was beautiful.

Xu Ran looked at the wrinkled baby and didn’t feel he was beautiful. Xu Ran asked the mid-spouse to carry the baby first, because he wanted to go into the room to see Liu Tong.

Liu Tong was lying weakly on the bed, sweating all over the face.

Xu Ran took the wet handkerchief from the basin beside him to wipe the sweat, kissed him on the face and said, “Tongtong, thank you. It’s a Ge’er. Themid-wife says he is beautiful.”

Liu Tong smiled weakly, “The babies who are just born all look the same and we can’t tell if they are beautiful. Go and squeeze some ewe milk first, heat it and then feed it to the baby later. I’ve prepared the reward for the mid-spouse. Just give it to him later. Eggs have been prepared. Ask Shao Yu and Gao Quan to dye and proach them. Hand them out to the villagers later.”

Liu Tong got strengthless as he said this and his voice became lower. Seeing that he was about to fall asleep, Xu Ran gently touched him, “Tongtong, don’t fall asleep now. There’s chicken soup in the kitchen. I will ask Shao Yu to bring it to you. Drink it first before you sleep. I know what to do next, so rest assured.”

Liu Tong closed his eyes and feebly nodded. He was really sleepy, tired and hungry. If he hadn’t had breakfast in the morning, it would be harder for him to survive this forenoon.

Xu Ran went out and shouted to downstairs. Soon, Shao Yu quickly brought the chicken soup up. Xu Ran asked Shao Yu to take care of Liu Tong and feed him chicken soup while he went to look for the mid-spouse with the prepared reward for him.

Xu Ran thought about it and stuffed another piece of silver in. He was too busy now, so he needed the mid-spouse to carry the baby, and the reward should be satisfying.

The mid-spouse was happy to receive the reward. He weighed it and knew it was a lot of money. As Xu Ran asked him to help carry the baby for a while, he agreed without hesitation.

Xu Ran took the bowl and went to pick up ewe milk. Tangtang and Guoguo squatted beside him to feed the ewe.

This ewe bore lambs just a few days ago and there was plenty of milk now.

Xu Ran told the kids the little brother was born and the mid-spouse was carrying him. Then, he asked them to see the baby.

The kids ran away happily.

After Xu Ran got half a bowl of milk, he ran to the kitchen and put the it on the fire he had prepared.

Xu Ran let Mr. Hu watch the fire and moved out the two baskets of eggs at home. The dye was a kind of grass that was bought in the pharmacy and it was harmless to the body.

After Xu Ran told Gao Quan what to do, he just brought the goat milk to feed the baby.

Tangtang and Guoguo followed around the mid-spouse, asking repeatedly to see the little brother. So the mid-spouse squatted down and let them watch clearly. The twins were quite interested in the wrinkled little baby, and they kept calling him little brother.

The newly born baby was very fragile with his eyes closed. One couldn’t be careful enough when feeding him. Fortunately, the mid-spouse was watching aside and teaching Xu Ran what to do.

After Xu Ran finished feeding the baby, it was already past noon. They were so busy that they hadn’t eaten yet. Mr. Hu had already put the food on fire, but no one went to fry the dishes.

After the baby drank milk, Xu Ran sent the baby to the room and put it beside Liu Tong. He asked Tangtang and Guoguo to accompany him and whispered, “Watch your little brother carefully, but don’t wake him and Daddy up. If the baby wakes up, you can go outside and call me.”

“Dad, rest assured. We will take good care of our little brother.” the kids promised as they patted their own chests.

Xu Ran smiled and walked out.

Shao Yu wanted to clean up the room, and Xu Ran asked him to watch the children by the way. He went to the kitchen to cook, because the mid-spouse should have lunch here before leaving.

As soon as Xu Ran went downstairs, he heard a knock on the door. The dogs didn’t bark, so they should be acquaintances.

Xu Ran ran to open the door anxiously. Wu Mei and the rest were standing at the door with their packbasket on their backs. The ox cart was still at his door. Probably they just came back from the town.

Wu Mei saw Xu Ran and immediately asked, “Xu Ran, has Liu Tong given birth? On the way back, we met the husband of mid-spouse Zhou. He told us that Tangtang and Guoguo went to his house to invite mid-spouse Zhou.”

Not only Wu Mei, but also others looked anxious. They were really worried about Liu Tong.

Xu Ran opened the door a little wider and nodded, “Just did. You guys came back at a perfect time. We haven’t had lunch yet and you could help cook. There are not enough people at home and we are too busy.”

“How is Liu Tong? Is the baby a Ge’er or a man? Have you fed the baby? Is Liu Tong in his room now? Can we look at him first?”

Wu Mei asked so many questions at a stretch.

Xu Ran moved sideways and asked them to come in first. He said then, “It’s okay. Tongtong fell asleep after having some chicken soup. The baby drank milk and now he is sleeping next to Tongtong, and Shao Yu is watching. Don’t worry. Go to cook first and look at him after lunch, OK?”

Wu Mei and the others heard this and rested assured, and then they went to the kitchen to cook.

Xu Ran walked out of the door, led the cow left outside the door to the stable, and threw some withered grass to it.

He closed the courtyard door and went to the kitchen to help Gao Quan dye eggs red.

Wu Mei had enough helpers and cooked fast, but they didn’t want to eat here because there were still people at their homes. They only cooked for the Xu Ran’s family. When Xu Ran and his family had lunch, Wu Mei and other Ge’ers went upstairs to see Liu Tong. Tangtang and Guoguo and Shao Yu were replaced, and they got downstairs for lunch.

When Wu Mei and the others went up, Liu Tong was already awake. They had just come back from the outside and worked in the kitchen for a long time, so they smelt bad. They knew this was not good for the baby, so they didn’t carry the baby and just took a look.

Liu Tong lay on the bed and greeted them, “Why are you here? Have you eaten yet? ”

“Not yet.” Wu Mei shook his head, “We will go home to cook after taking a look at you. There are still people waiting at home.”

Liu Tong urged them to leave, “You should go home quickly then. The baby is born and I am fine.”

“No hurries. We got no news about this before, and you just gave birth to this baby so quickly.” Liu Qing stepped forward and said.

“Yeah, really quickly.” Wu Lan echoed.

Liu Tong smiled, “I didn’t expect that either. I was fine when I had breakfast. But my stomach hurt just after Ran went out. Fortunately, Shao Yu was home, or I don’t know what to do.”

Wu Mei said, “It’s good that you’re fine now. Rest well and eat whatever you want. Xu Ran spoils you so much and he will try his best to get everything for you. You didn’t eat well enough last time when you gave birth, which made your body weak. Luckily you were young at that time, but you’re 26 now. It’s different.”

Liu Tong nodded, “I got it. I will take good care of myself. You guys can go home first and come back after eating!”

“Alright, we’ll go now. We’ll come back later.”

The three of them reminded Liu Tong of something and left.

Liu Tong looked at the baby sleeping soundly aside, and touched the cheek with his fingers with a satisfied smile on his face. This was the baby he gave birth to, a Ge’er Ran wanted.

Liu Tong took his fingers back and was about to sleep when the child woke up and started to cry.

Liu Tong was startled and immediately held the baby in his arms to see if he had peed.

Xu Ran was eating downstairs and heard the baby crying. He immediately put down his bowl and climbed up hurriedly, “Tongtong, what’s wrong? Why is the baby crying? ”

Liu Tong patted the child and shook him gently. He pulled out the diaper then and handed it to Xu Ran. “He peed. Go and get some hot water. Bring me a piece of dry diaper.”

“Okay, I’ll go now. Don’t worry!”

Xu Ran didn’t walk now but ran. He climbed up the stairs with hot water quickly. He wrung out the warm handkerchief, handed it to Liu Tong and then went to get the diaper.

The diapers were originally cut off from old clothes. However, Xu Ran considered that the baby’s skin was too tender when it was born, so he went to the town to buy soft cloth and asked Liu Tong to sew it on the old cloth. Liu Tong wouldn’t be stingy on issues about the baby, so he did it as told.

After Liu Tong wiped the baby’s butt, changed the diaper and shook him for a while, the baby stopped crying. However, he should feel hungry after peeing, so Xu Ran went downstairs to heat goat milk.

–