My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 228 Expecting Childbirth
Farmers have few idle months, and May is a particularly busy time. The sun in May is already scorching hot, and it is the wheat harvest season in the middle of the year. Even in the hospital, you can almost smell the aroma of wheat and the fragrance of wormwood carried by the southeast wind.

Inside the ward, Wang Susu lay half-reclined on the bed, nibbling on a large, bright red peach, while Wang Zhenzhen dangled her little feet on a chair by the bed, peeling and eating a zongzi (sticky rice dumpling). The two sisters chatted as they ate.

Chen Ling stood to the side, listlessly fanning himself, his face heavy with worry.

"What's wrong, brother-in-law? Are you suffering from heatstroke?"

After Wang Zhenzhen finished eating a zongzi, she saw him like this and waved her little hand in front of his eyes.

"You're the one with heatstroke."

Chen Ling pushed her away and then looked at Wang Susu: "It's almost the end of the month, why haven't you reacted yet?"

"I do not know either."

Wang Susu pouted in frustration.

By the end of the month, she would be ten months pregnant, her belly was very swollen, and she looked like she was about to give birth, but she didn't have any physical symptoms.

It's made her afraid to strain too much when she goes to the toilet now.

She's like this, and Chen Ling isn't much better.

As the day drew closer, and the baby was about to be born, he lost his usual composure. Nervousness, anticipation, excitement, and a mix of other indescribable emotions churned within him, making him restless.

Moreover, I've been dreaming about my baby crawling on me every night for the past two nights, but when I wake up, it's empty, there's nothing there, the baby still hasn't been born.

Gao Xiulan had brought a thermos to fetch water, and when she returned and saw Chen Ling's appearance, she couldn't help but laugh.

“Hey, stop loitering around here. Go out for a walk, or go back and bring the eggs back to sell. There’s no guarantee about these things. You’ll just be worrying if you stay here.”

It's not that she's a carefree mother, but the doctor said that with her daughter's physique, there's absolutely no problem with giving birth; the key is just when she'll give birth.

At least the little one in Wang Susu's belly needs to stay there long enough and wants to come out.

"Alright, I'm going home to see Dad. Is Zhenzhen coming back with me?"

Chen Ling thought about it and realized that the longer he stayed here, the more anxious he would become. The main problem was that if he got into a bad mood, his wife and family would also be affected.

It's not good to make everyone so tense; it's better to go out for a walk.

"No, I want to stay with my sister."

The little girl shook her head, then picked up another zongzi and started peeling and eating it.

"Okay, I'll go home for a bit. Call the doctor if you need anything."

"Okay, brother-in-law, you can go now. You've been nagging more than Mom these past few days."

Chen Ling laughed and flicked her on the forehead.

Then they returned to the courtyard, hitched up the oxcart, and went back to the village.

He set off around 10 a.m. and arrived in the village around noon. Along the way, the villagers asked him why his wife hadn't given birth yet, and he could only say that the baby didn't want to come out.

People rarely saw him looking so depressed, and they all started to laugh at him, saying, "You've finally met your match after all. Just wait, you'll have plenty of trouble when your kids grow up."

Chen Ling smiled and replied a few words, finally telling them to come to his house for drinks in a while.

Back home, Chen Ling drank a few sips of water and then went to feed the pigeons.

We haven't moved our pigeons to the farm yet. There aren't many of them right now, so they don't take up much space, and we're not in a hurry.

Currently, all three pairs of pigeons at home have successfully paired up and laid eggs. After about twenty days of incubation, the baby pigeons hatched one after another recently.

Two chicks per nest, six in total. Chen Ling fed the other pigeons and added water for them. The three pairs of adult pigeons in the three nests also came out and ate and drank heartily.

After we finished eating, we walked back to the pigeon coop. Inside, the bare little pigeons were chirping and stretching their necks, constantly nudging the crop of the adult pigeons with their beaks and necks.

Upon seeing this, the adult pigeons opened their beaks and put the baby pigeon's beak in their mouths, feeding it food. The baby pigeon then thrashed its neck and swallowed.

This is a pigeon nursing its young.

It's actually quite amazing.

Other birds feed their chicks after they hatch.

Pigeons, on the other hand, are fed pigeon milk.

Pigeon milk, also known as pigeon milk.

Pigeons do produce milk, but that doesn't mean they have mammary glands. Their milk is different from that of mammals.

Pigeon milk is secreted from the pigeon's crop during the brooding period. It is similar in color to soy milk, but if you look closely, it appears more yellowish.

Because it is used to feed baby pigeons and is very similar to breast milk, it is called pigeon milk or pigeon formula.

When they are not mating, laying eggs, or raising chicks.

Their crops do not secrete pigeon milk.

In other words, just like humans, breast milk is only secreted when a baby is born...

However, unlike humans and other mammals, male pigeons also secrete pigeon milk.

The male and female work together to manage the household, raise their young, and build their beautiful home.

Chen Ling stood by and watched for a while. He wanted to go closer to take a look, but the big pigeons puffed out their crops, ruffled their feathers and wings, and kept cooing, preventing him from getting close to the baby pigeons in the nest.

"Look how stingy you all are! Fine, I'll wait until they leave the nest before I check, okay?"

Chen Ling shook his hand, added two more ladles of water to cool them down, and then put some water into the lotus pond as well.

Now, only a few red eels and some miscellaneous small fish fry remain in the lotus pond at home.

Red eels generally don't swim to the surface except when they are feeding, and outsiders usually can't see them.

When Lynx came last time, I specifically told him that the two red eels I bought from him produced eel fry this year. They were bred by Han Ninggui and others, and all the eel fry were red.

Therefore, Professor Han now suspects that the fact that this creature's color can be inherited by offspring is not due to a random genetic mutation caused by environmental changes. Given the current situation, it can be regarded as a new branch of eels.

Lynx also said that even if it has no research value, just the fact that they spent a lot of money to buy these eel fry last year after they grew up not only did they not lose money, but they could actually make a profit.

This is also part of his enjoyment of seeking out novelties everywhere he goes; there's fun to be had, unusual things to see, and often, he even manages to find something unexpected.

Before leaving, he instructed Chen Ling to raise the Qinling fine-scaled salmon well, and if he could scale up the business, he would find buyers for him. "There's no rush for the Qinling fine-scaled salmon or the red-lipped barbs, especially the red-lipped barbs. In a few more years, their value will be beyond imagination."

Chen Ling picked off the two lotus leaves that had been gnawed by insects, got up, and hopped on the oxcart to head out of the village.

After the Dragon Boat Festival, the village worked for ten to fifteen days to harvest all the wheat. Outside the village, as far as the eye could see, the farmland was bare, with only a short layer of wheat stubble clinging to the ground.

New stacks of wheat straw were erected on the threshing ground, and new sheds were built.

When Chen Ling drove his oxcart past, he saw many villagers drying wheat. In the middle of the day, under the scorching sun, they spread the wheat out on the threshing floor and then walked barefoot across it, creating shallow furrows to make it easier to dry.

When they saw Chen Ling pass by, they all stopped and smiled.

"Fugui's back? Has Susu given birth yet? When can we attend your baby's one-month celebration?"

"It'll be ready soon, I'll call you when it's ready."

Knowing that his family was expecting a child, everyone was very enthusiastic, and Chen Ling responded very patiently when she met him.

……

"Our wheat and rapeseed should be ready for harvest soon."

Upon arriving at the farm's orchard, the father-in-law reached out and plucked a few ears of wheat, rubbed them in his hand, and plump raw wheat grains appeared in his palm. He then blew away the awns and husks from the grains, threw them into his mouth, and chewed them vigorously.

Chen Ling also rubbed two ears of wheat and put the raw wheat grains into his mouth to taste them.

Raw wheat grains have a slightly earthy smell, but after a little chewing, they fill your mouth with the aroma of wheat. The grains are also soft and juicy.

"Now is the perfect time to eat it raw; a few more southeast winds and it won't be good anymore."

Wang Cunye glanced at him, then walked to the edge of the rapeseed field, picked two rapeseed pods, and said, “There’s very little green left on the rapeseed pods. If Susu doesn’t produce any more in the next few days, we’ll find some people in the village to help harvest the rapeseed first. We can wait a little longer for the wheat, but the rapeseed ripens quickly and we can’t wait any longer. If it rains, it will get soaked in the field.”

"Okay, I understand, Dad. Have you had lunch yet?"

Chen Ling glanced at his father-in-law not far behind him; the old man had just been herding sheep with his little yellow dog.

"I've already eaten. It's easy for me to eat alone. Our family eats so much, are you worried I'll go hungry?"

Wang Cunye smiled and then pointed to the stream at the foot of the mountain, saying, "By the way, there are a few wild peach trees and wild loquat trees over there. The fruit they bear is very sweet. There are also some ripe watermelons. When you go back to the county town later, go and pick a couple more."

Chen Ling took a look; it was the same tree he planted last year. After watering it with spiritual water, it was now laden with fruit.

As for the watermelon, it ripened a bit late due to insufficient sunlight, but that doesn't mean it's not tasty. Wang Cunye tried one and said it was very sweet and tasted great.

"Wang Wang Wang..."

At this moment, Heiwa and Xiaojin ran down from the mountain. They had missed Chen Ling very much after not seeing him for many days. They circled around him, shaking their heads and wagging their tails vigorously. Their two big tails were like brooms, making his pants slap loudly.

"Alright, alright, stop fooling around, let's go collect the eggs."

The father-in-law and son-in-law, along with their dog and sheep, went around the orchard collecting eggs.

After collecting the eggs and filling up the ones he had saved up over the past few days, Chen Ling ate a simple meal for lunch and returned to the county town in the afternoon.

After settling in the county town, I no longer need to wait for market days to sell eggs. I can send some to the supply and marketing cooperative and department stores whenever I have time, or sell them at the entrance of the hospital. This way, selling them won't be much slower than going to the market.

If you're lucky on a particular day, you can sell everything by driving an oxcart around the county town in the morning.

……

It was the first day of the sixth lunar month, three days before the market day in the county town.

Although it's not market day, I'm lucky today.

He brought the eggs from home yesterday afternoon, and this morning he was just about to go out and sell them when several people came to his door. The one leading them was an old lady who had bought eggs from him several times recently.

Every time he passed by the door, as long as he opened his mouth to call out, he would definitely come out to buy eggs.

We didn't buy much, just enough for the whole family to eat for ten days to half a month.

Today, he came with several women. One of them was carrying her grandson on her back. When she got to the door, she pointed at him and shouted, "I recognize you! You're the young man who sold vegetables here last year. I even bought five catties of your chives, but you wouldn't give me a discount, not even a penny less."

Wow, I ran into an old customer.

Chen Ling smiled somewhat awkwardly, "I'll give you a discount on the eggs this time."

The old lady immediately laughed: "You didn't open for most of last year, so why are you selling eggs this year?"

"Hey, it's nothing. Eggs are more expensive this year than in previous years, so I'll just sell whatever has the best price."

"Goodness, you're quite the clever young man."

While talking, the old ladies busily gathered around the oxcart, picking out eggs. This time, each of them bought quite a lot, around seven or eight jin, or even nine or ten jin.

After asking a couple more questions, I learned that he had gone to his daughter's house to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.

"Oh right, after the Dragon Boat Festival and the busy farming season, we'll have more free time to celebrate the festival. So today I'll have to take my eggs around and wander around a lot."

Upon hearing this, Chen Ling had an idea. After the old ladies finished buying the eggs and left, he locked the gate and set off.

But after getting on the oxcart, they hadn't gone far when the little white calf stopped and began kicking its hooves and bellowing restlessly.

"What's wrong, Xiaobai? Are you thirsty?"

Chen Ling thought for a moment and realized that the cattle hadn't been watered yet, so he got off the cart.

At the same time, he secretly blamed himself for being so focused on selling eggs that he forgot to give the cows water; he had been quite careless in every aspect lately.

He took out his keys and went back to open the door.

Before he even reached the door, a small figure ran towards him from a distance, waving and shouting as it ran.

"Brother-in-law, brother-in-law, my sister is about to give birth."

"Hurry to the hospital, my sister is about to give birth."

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To avoid disrupting reading, the preceding chapters have been deleted. Also, the group number is in the introduction.

(End of this chapter)