Chapter 676

Fourth Team, evening, Tao family.

After Tao Daqiang, who drove the tractor back from the melon field with a "putt-putt-putt" sound, drove into the courtyard, he reduced the throttle, fearing he would frighten his daughter Xiuxiu.

The baby was already over half a year old. Tao Jian She had made a wooden bed, and at this time she was still crawling and playing in the bed, holding her own feet and gnawing on them.

Yang Pingping was sitting at the door, and she could see her daughter by turning her head. She was holding fabric in her hands, sewing something.

Although there was a sewing machine at home, some clothes were too small to use it, so she just sewed them by hand.

After Tao Daqiang turned off the engine, he took down the tools from the tractor and put them away. He took a washbasin from the washstand in the courtyard, poured the water inside into the vegetable plot through the flower wall, and then went to the well to pump a basin of water to wash thoroughly.

"How are the melon seedlings?" Yang Pingping asked.

"Growing quite well. My brother's side has pulled all the weeds, and he came over to help me work for a while." Tao Daqiang wiped his face with a towel. The towel was dried too hard by the sun, so he soaked it in the water, lifted it up, wrung it dry, and then wiped. While wiping, he said:

"Brother Long said that in some places inside the pass, it's very damp. Towels left outside to hang won't dry and can even get moldy—how is that possible? It's midsummer with such strong sun, how could a towel not dry?"

"Maybe the places are different? Do you remember when we were in school, they talked about some plum rain season, where it would rain every day?" Yang Pingping seemed to have heard the village elders talk about continuous overcast rain; she had at least gone to school a few years longer than Tao Daqiang.

"Then we'll have to go see when we have time. But we can't live there; how can we do without the sun?" Tao Daqiang chatted casually and also wiped his body. After working for a day, there was still quite a lot of sweat on his body.

After wiping his body, Tao Daqiang walked over, looked at the work in Yang Pingping's hands, and asked:

"Is this clothes made for Xiuxiu? Isn't this clothes a bit small?"

"This isn't it, this is prepared for Brother Long's child." Yang Pingping picked it up and gestured to Tao Daqiang, saying proudly, "Our family can live like this now, and even have a tractor to drive, all thanks to Brother Long.

Now that Xiaoxia is about to give birth, there will definitely be many people in the team sending red eggs, so his family definitely won't be short of them. I just thought about making two sets of clothes. Babies grow fast, and clothes are expensive, so preparing more definitely won't do any harm."

"That's right. But I heard, Xiaoxia seems to be pregnant with twins," Tao Daqiang said in a low voice, "Two!"

"What? Two?" Yang Pingping said in surprise, "Did they say when she'll give birth? Is it accurate?"

"Eight or nine out of ten, right?" Tao Daqiang went into the room to tease Xiuxiu, saying while teasing.

"Then I have to make another set..." Yang Pingping accelerated the movements of her hands, "If Xiaoxia is going to give birth, it should be in a few days, right?"

"It should be a few days."

"Then there's enough time." Yang Pingping felt relieved.

After she finished sewing the one in her hands, she immediately went into the room and started cutting fabric on the table.

Now that Tao Daqiang was watching the child, she could just focus on doing it.

Some people in the Fourth Team couldn't feel it, but Yang Pingping's family was in the Third Team, and she felt it too clearly.

Although the two teams were separated by a reed ditch, the lives on both sides, not to say worlds apart, at least for ordinary families, were truly different.

On the Fourth Team side, almost every household, all year round, didn't lack money for daily life—not to say they were truly well-off and financially free, but for buying oil and salt daily, or replenishing daily necessities, they really didn't lack.

Everyone says life is about living within one's means, but the Third Team really lived by measuring their spending—all year round, the only time they truly had money was during the wheat harvest season, and after other crops in autumn were ripe, harvested, and sold.

Although there was occasionally some income in winter, the vast majority of people truly didn't have that ability, nor did they have the mind to engage in other things.

So as soon as spring arrived, they had to buy agricultural materials, seeds, and fertilizers, all of which had to be prepared, along with machine plowing fees, water fees, and miscellaneous fees for children's schooling, etc.

All of these required money.

Life was better than a few years ago, but it was still lived tightly.

Some people visiting would even reminisce about the production team period, saying that at that time, at least they didn't have to buy seeds and fertilizers themselves.

Of course, this was also a joke. Now they ate fine grains every day, while at that time they ate coarse grains every day, so it was definitely progress. But in terms of spending money, the Third Team was the same as most other villages—it was getting better year by year, but it was still far worse than the Fourth Team.

On the Fourth Team side, under normal circumstances, every household had surplus money. Just to give a simple measure, the number of bicycles in the Fourth Team was more than two or three times that of the Third Team.

Tractors couldn't be compared; until now, not a single family in the Third Team had bought a small four-wheeled tractor.

Yang Pingping would return to her maiden home from time to time, so she felt it most deeply. Her maiden home was considered quite good in the Third Team, but it truly wasn't as good as an ordinary family in the Fourth Team—

Fundamentally, it was because Li Long would bring work to the people of the Fourth Team at least three times a year, allowing them to earn money.

To be honest, Yang Pingping truly couldn't understand why there were still people in the team badmouthing the Li family. She had heard village cadres in her maiden village say more than once that if their village had someone like Li Long, wouldn't they have to worship him?

Perhaps they were blessed but didn't know it.

Anyway, Yang Pingping knew that after marrying into the Tao family, she truly lived a good life.

She also knew what kind of life the Tao family lived before; before having children, Tao Daqiang would often talk about it when sleeping at night.

Although Tao Daqiang usually didn't talk much, after getting married, he would still often tell his wife about his past experiences.

So Yang Pingping was truly grateful to Li Long and the Li family, and truly wanted to make a good set of clothes for Li Long's soon-to-be-born child.

She even gossiped and secretly went to the township to see Wu Shufen; there was a period of time when she couldn't understand why this person didn't like Li Long.

She naturally didn't know, and Tao Daqiang wouldn't tell her what kind of person Li Long was before.

Other families in the village were also discussing what to send to Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia's child.

Those with average relationships would think about preparing some eggs dyed red, while those with good relationships would be like Yang Pingping, preparing clothes, shoes, or hats, etc.

When women gave birth and were in confinement here, those who visited were all married women, and what they sent were basically eggs dyed red.

The Fourth Team wasn't short of eggs, and every household didn't really need to use eggs to exchange for money for household use, so eggs were basically kept for the family to eat.

After all, eggs were nutritious; this didn't need to be publicized for everyone to know. Morning stir-fried eggs, boiled eggs, making egg tea, missing egg garlic, or chili stir-fried eggs, etc.

When there were eggs, it was much easier to make breakfast for children going to school.

Little children also learned to wrap eggs in mud and burn a pile of fire to roast and eat them.

They also tried putting eggs directly into the fire pile to roast, and the result was that the eggs exploded.

So later, when someone in the village went to Southern Tianshan to travel and saw roasted eggs there, they would be very novel and have a sudden realization—so roasting eggs in the wild with fire is better than burning them.

At least they wouldn't explode.

In the obstetrics ward of Shicheng Hospital, there were two parturients in the ward where Gu Xiaoxia stayed.

The other one was a local Corps person from Shicheng, whose husband was from the Eighth Division of the Corps, wore glasses, and looked quite refined.

This person was slightly older than Li Long, and his wife was about the same age as Gu Xiaoxia. Knowing that Li Long was about to have two children, he looked at Li Long with envious eyes.

Liang Wenyu accompanied Gu Xiaoxia to walk in the courtyard, and that man and Li Long were chatting at the door of the ward.

"Looking at you, you don't seem to be from the countryside. Where do you work in Maxian?" That person handed Li Long a cigarette. Li Long waved his hand, signaling inside the ward, and the man said:

"No need to be that careful, right?" But he still put the cigarette into the cigarette case.

"Supply and Marketing Cooperative." Li Long said, "An employee."

The other party's expression clearly carried a bit of reserve, and he said with a smile:

"I'm from the office of the agency, a cadre. You really dote on your wife, willing to spend money to let your wife come in here. Have you named the child yet?"

"Named them," Li Long said with a smile, "If it's a boy, he'll be called Junming, and if it's a girl, she'll be called Junjing."

The Li family had a genealogy, but Li Qing Xia didn't completely follow the genealogy when naming the children. Li Long was of the "An" generation, but his older brother and he didn't follow the generation.

Instead, those who had always lived in the old village followed the generation, such as Junshan and Junfeng.

The village was large, and it was inevitable that names would be repeated. Moreover, their clan was not only in one village; it was said that when the genealogy was compiled, it covered more than a dozen villages in four directions and four provinces, and there were many repeated names. Because she was pregnant with twins, the names he chose were also in pairs: boys Junming and Junwei, girls Junjing and Junchan.

These were the formal names.

The nicknames for the boys were Haohao and Mingming; for the girls, Yueyue and Xingxing.

Anyway, they occupied everything in the sky.

This was something Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia discussed together when they had nothing to do. Gu Xiaoxia was still a bit worried, saying they should ask the parents on both sides.

Li Long just thought about being willful for once; his own children, he would name them himself.

"The names you chose sound quite good." That person was also stunned when he heard the names Li Long chose. In this day and age, boys' names were all things like Bing, Jun, Shan, Feng, etc.; girls' names were all Juan, Xia, Mei, Ying, etc.

This young man's level of naming was clearly a cut above.

He named his child Shan, a two-character name, surname Qin, given name Shan. He didn't think of a girl's name; everyone said it was a boy.

Saying this, he felt that the name he chose, was it a bit... should he change it?

Seeing that the name surprised the other party, Li Long was also quite proud. He didn't have his own children in his previous life, but he had them in this life, so being a father for the first time, let's be willful for once!

At this time, Li Qing Xia was actually pondering a matter at home.

No errors, first release, all content is at a glance!

After he and Tao Jian She caught fish and returned, he told Li Jianguo.

"What? You said you want to go back to your hometown in autumn?"

Li Jianguo was a bit worried. Autumn was the busiest time, and he couldn't send him off. When Li Long gave birth to the child, there would be no way to send him off either.

"Why would I need you to send me off?" Li Qing Xia patted his chest, "I'm going back for a major event!"

"What major event?" Li Jianguo's mind was already thinking about what things he had in autumn, which of these things could be adjusted, and which period of time could be cleared to send his old father back.

After all, as the eldest son, supporting his old father meant he had to manage him.

So asking this "what major event" was actually just a casual remark; he didn't think there would be any major event at all, and even felt his old father was just stalling him.

"Continuing the genealogy!" Li Qing Xia said solemnly, "When the old genealogy was compiled, Without Xiao Long was still small, you had just gotten married, and Anguo hadn't gotten married yet.

At that time, the genealogy only had the names of you three brothers, and your sister didn't even have a name. Nowadays, you have Juan and Qiangqiang in your family, Anguo has those two girls, and Without Xiao Long has children too. Don't all these need to be written in?"

Not to mention, continuing the genealogy was truly a major event.

Even if Li Anguo felt that bringing his old father and mother over here to live meant this branch would be in Northern Tianshan from now on.

But Li Jianguo, who had received traditional education, also thought about trying to put all these relatives on the genealogy while he was alive.

As for what the genealogy would become later, that would be for later. He definitely couldn't manage things after his death, but now that his old father said this was a major event, it was truly a major event.

"Then continuing the genealogy isn't such an easy thing, is it?" Li Jianguo thought for a while and shook his head, "We are the direct branch, but there's no clan leader in our village, and the family matters are all decided by you old guys. You've always been in Northern Tianshan; would people listen to you and continue it just because you say so?"

Recompiling the genealogy was not a small matter; it required notifying all the branches recorded in the last compilation and having them prepare the materials.

The Li family's genealogy had always been stone-printed, and just carving the plates took a lot of effort; it wasn't the kind of printing in later generations where once things were ready, they could be compiled and made directly on a computer.

It was troublesome.

"Hey, that's not it. I heard about continuing it before I came. I didn't think so much at the time. I don't know how it is now. Regardless of whether it's continued or not, I have to tell the old home about these descendants' names first, so that there will be names when it's continued."

Li Qing Xia was very persistent about this matter: "I have money. I'll pay for it when it's continued, and the names must be written in."

For young people in later generations, genealogy might not be that important, but in this era, the number of people who valued it still accounted for the majority.

It was said that a side branch heard about continuing the genealogy and specially sent someone over to find them, wanting to include their branch into the clan—that is, to recognize the ancestors and return to the clan. Unfortunately, because the materials were insufficient or incomplete, they didn't succeed in the end and went back crying.

An era has an era's imprint. Perhaps in later generations, this might be considered a bit ridiculous, but at this time, this was a very pious matter.

Li Jianguo originally thought about persuading him, but this matter not only related to Li Long but also related to his own children, Li Juan and Qiangqiang.

It must be supported.

He thought for a while and said:

"Old father, then go back in the eighth month. Go back for half a month. At that time, the wheat will be harvested, and the corn and melons won't be ripe yet. Without Xiao Long's child will have completed the full month, and it will be easy for us to travel here."

"Half a month, okay!" Li Qing Xia thought it was okay too, "It's settled, I'll pay the money for the clan, don't you worry about it. Don't you interfere in this matter..."

Li Jianguo smiled noncommittally.

When Gu Xiaoxia was hospitalized, Li Long kept watch at night, and Liang Wenyu lived in Li Xia's courtyard, walking to the hospital, or Li Long would pick her up and drop her off.

The hospital couldn't provide confinement meals at this time. Although there was a canteen, there were some meals Gu Xiaoxia didn't eat well, so Liang Wenyu cooked them at Li Xia's place and sent them over.

Although Sister Yang had the heart to go over to accompany her, the hospital couldn't accommodate so many people, and Han Fang hadn't had her vacation yet, so she couldn't run back and forth.

This afternoon, when she was preparing to make dinner for Han Fang, she saw someone sitting at the gate of the large courtyard, with two large black bags placed beside him.

Sister Yang hurriedly went over and asked:

"Comrade, who are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for... Sister Yang?" Meng Hai heard the movement and hurriedly stood up, greeting Sister Yang with a smile.

He was actually older than Sister Yang, having previously unloaded things with Li Long and eaten in the courtyard, so he followed Li Long and called her Sister Yang.

"Are you that... Captain Meng?"

"No, no, I'm Meng Hai, the militia company commander of Qingshuihe," Meng Hai said with a smile, "Are Comrade Li Long and the others not here?"

"They went to Shicheng Hospital." Sister Yang said while opening the door, "Isn't Xiaoxia about to give birth? Taking her to the hospital will be better when she gives birth."

"Oh, oh..." Meng Hai nodded, understanding why there was no one here.

"Company Commander Meng, come in." Sister Yang opened the main gate and said.

"No need, no need," Meng Hai hurriedly said, "I just came to see. I know Comrade Li Long's wife is about to give birth, so I brought some things from our village to see."

He opened the bag, which contained eggs, dried small fish, honey, dried mushrooms, wild strawberry jam, and small clothes, shoes, etc.

A full large bag.

Meng Hai handed the bag to Sister Yang and said:

"Please pass these things to Comrade Li Long. I'll come again in a while. These eggs are raw because I didn't know when she would give birth, so I didn't dare to boil them."

Sister Yang didn't know whether to accept it or not, but after hesitating for a moment, Meng Hai had already turned and left, not even wanting the bag.

Sister Yang could only shout at his back:

"I'll pass it on to Li Long when he returns!"

After Meng Hai left, Sister Yang put the two bags on the cart and pushed them in. The bags were quite heavy.

Returning and putting the cart away, she sorted the things in the two bags and put them in the kitchen, feeling moved in her heart. Li Long's popularity was really good; the baby hadn't even been born yet, and someone had already sent things over.

Li Long didn't know about this; at this time, he was supporting Gu Xiaoxia for a walk in the hospital.

The day had almost arrived, but the child hadn't been born yet, and Li Long was also anxious. Fortunately, the examinations in the hospital were all normal, so there was nothing to do but walk around like this.

Finally, Gu Xiaoxia felt labor pains. She gave a light cry, and Li Long hurriedly half-supported and half-carried her toward the ward, shouting for the nurse.

This was it, she was about to give birth. (End of chapter)