Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 891 890 Ways to Express Gratitude

Sunday, May 6.

After breakfast, the young couple took the eggs and peaches that Zhang Guifang had prepared to the Municipal Maternity Hospital.

The eggs were brought back by Tang Zhitong last night, and the peaches were given by Chu Chunxue.

Ten eggs and a dozen peaches—in this year's harvest, they're quite presentable.

Zhang Guifang originally planned to have her son and daughter-in-law bring canned meat, but she changed her mind after hearing that her daughter-in-law's classmate would be visiting the house next week.

Three or five eggs don't make a dish, but canned meat is different. One can be a large meat dish, and if you break it into several portions, you can stir-fry or stew them into small meat dishes that can be served.

A balanced mix of meat and vegetables, nutritious and delicious, no one can find fault with it.

When the young couple arrived at the ward after asking around, Liu Yue was lying on the bed watching her clumsy husband awkwardly holding their child with a silly grin.

"Wow, this scene is so cozy, it's enviable." Tang Zhitong said with a hint of envy as she entered the room.

"No need to be envious. I heard from your sister-in-law that you'll be getting married soon too. Please sit down." Liu Yue saw that Tang Zhitong and his wife seemed a little surprised and struggled to sit up.

"You can just lie there. Your sister-in-law said you gave birth, so we came to see you." Xiao Wang quickly put the gift on the bedside table and then reached out to hold Liu Yue down.

"You came all this way, why did you bring anything?" The movement aggravated her wound, and Liu Yue complained as she lay back down on the bed.

"I'll give you some extra nutrition. How are you? Still in pain?" Xiao Wang held his friend's hand, first showing concern for his friend's condition.

The two sisters chatted nearby, while Tang Zhitong stayed close to Gu Yong to watch the children.

"Tsk tsk, so fair-skinned, Yong-ge, have you decided on a name yet?" Newborn babies aren't exactly good-looking, but this one has fair skin and is instantly endearing.

"Not yet, no rush. Does he look like me?" Gu Yong turned to the side, showing the child's face to Tang Zhitong, waiting for his good friend's evaluation.

"They look alike, like they were made from the same mold," Tang Zhitong replied against his will.

When people see a newborn baby, they often say that the baby looks like so-and-so. Tang Zhitong feels that if this is said by a friend of the newborn's parents, it is mostly perfunctory.

A newborn is only a few days old. What can you tell from that?

If these words came from an elder who had watched the new parents grow up, Tang Zhitong felt they were somewhat reliable.

Newborn babies haven't fully developed yet, so they naturally don't resemble their parents much. But it's different in the eyes of elders. They often say: "This child looks just like you when you were little, you're practically identical."

This makes the statement more credible, since they really did see what the child's parents looked like when they were young.

At the same time, heredity is a very strange thing. It is said that children have a biological instinct that they will have certain characteristics that resemble their biological fathers when they are born. It is said that this is to arouse the father's love and seek survival. Tang Zhitong does not know if it is true or not, but he has heard of a legend in the Yuan Dynasty that the firstborn child was killed by falling.

Hearing Tang Zhitong's affirmation, Gu Yong grinned foolishly and said to his sleeping son, "Baby, come here and give your uncle a smile."

Hearing the sound of Gu Yong's clamp, Tang Zhitong felt inexplicably uncomfortable. Was this still the same good brother who was always so easygoing with him?
"Yongzi, bring the baby over here so Wenwen can see him," Liu Yue called to her husband from the side.

"Okay!" Gu Yong readily agreed, went over and put the child on the bed. Before leaving, he couldn't bear to touch his son's tender face with his finger. Still not satisfied, he simply lowered his head and kissed his son's cheek.

This kiss was a disaster. The child pursed his lips, and after a few seconds, he realized what was happening and burst into tears.

"You, with your prickly beard, I told you, how come you can't remember?" Liu Yue scolded her husband while patting her son.

"Hehe, this is so rare." Gu Yong rubbed his hands together and grinned like a child who had done something wrong.

"You chat with Anzi for a while, I'll comfort the child." Gu Yong has been taking care of the child day and night for the past few days, and Liu Yue doesn't want to nitpick at him in front of her friends over this. She just wants to keep him away for now so he won't bother the child anymore.

"Brother Yong, let's go to the door and chat for a bit." The best way to coax a child is, of course, to nurse him. Although this ward is a double room, no other patients have been arranged to stay here. Tang Zhitong saw all this and took the initiative to invite Gu Yong out.

In fact, Gu Yong didn't have to go out, since he knew the couple well. However, they couldn't very well leave him alone, and he couldn't just stand there on his own. The best solution was for someone to accompany him, and that person was none other than the host, Gu Yong.

"Okay, I was just about to have a smoke, I was about to burst." Gu Yong chuckled and agreed, turning around as he walked out.

Tang Zhitong smiled and followed him out of the ward.

If the warehouse is solid, you will know etiquette; if you have enough food and clothing, you will know honor and disgrace.

In the countryside, feeding a child would probably be done by covering up with clothes or by the mother turning her back to avoid shame, but that's not acceptable here.

Putting herself in his shoes, Tang Zhitong felt that if Xiao Wang were giving birth, she would definitely feel the same way as Gu Yong and his wife, not wanting any other adult men to be present.

"Brother Yong, you should quit smoking too, or the kids will hate the smell on you." After leaving the ward, Tang Zhitong left the door slightly ajar and waved away the cigarette Gu Yong offered.

"It's unlikely I can quit. I've been relying on a couple of cigarettes to stay awake these past few days." Gu Yong lit one up, took a deep drag, and immediately relaxed.

"Keep an eye on him, sleep when you need to, there's still a long way to go." Through the rising smoke, Tang Zhitong saw the bloodshot in Gu Yong's eyes; he hadn't had a proper rest for at least three days.

“Yeah, these past few days have been special. One minute the older one needs water, the next the younger one has peed or pooped, and we have to keep washing diapers. There’s so much to do, I can’t even sleep when I lie down. So I’ll let your sister-in-law get some more sleep, and I’ll watch the kids.” Gu Yong said with a grin, clearly enjoying himself.

"Have you found a nanny for the family yet? There are some chores that the nanny can do." Tang Zhitong knew that the Gu family's nanny, Aunt Sun, had been fired, and that Gu Yong had later said that his parents were applying to the organization for a replacement.

“We found one, but it’s not convenient to have a nanny come and stay with us at the hospital. Things will be easier once we’re discharged and go home; we can leave the diapers and everything to the nanny.” Speaking of diapers, Gu Yong became excited, a cigarette between his fingers, as he described to Tang Zhitong how smelly his baby’s first poop was.

Tang Zhitong listened with humming and hawing, playing the straight man for a moment.

"Thank goodness it's warm now. If it were winter, I can't even imagine the taste of soaking it in warm water." After describing it, Gu Yong was still not satisfied. He finished a cigarette, looked at the last cigarette butt, and licked his lips. He hadn't been drinking water regularly these past few days, so his lips were a little dry.

"Think about it, it'll save a lot of food." Seeing Gu Yong's nostalgia, Tang Zhitong chuckled slyly. "Pah! I knew you weren't up to any good!" Gu Yong threw away his cigarette butt, stomped it out, and laughed and cursed.

"Hahahaha." Tang Zhitong laughed heartily. He was so caught up in mundane affairs that he had forgotten how long it had been since he had laughed so freely.

"Honestly, I owe my promotion to you. If it weren't for that foot trap you set, I would have been stuck on the sidelines for another two years." After Tang Zhitong finished laughing, Gu Yong solemnly thanked his good friend.

"I already thanked you once in the letter, so thanking you again would be too much. If you ask me, you really need to thank Ding Jianhui for this. If it weren't for his dedication to improving it and achieving good results in the skills competition, the foot strap wouldn't have been promoted so quickly." Tang Zhitong hadn't forgotten Director Ye's long sigh in the cemetery, and he brought Ding Jianhui to the forefront again.

"Hmm, you're right. I'll talk to my mom about it later." Gu Yong thought about it and realized it was true. If he was the only one who got promoted while Ding Jianhui was still climbing utility poles at the grassroots level, it seemed a bit incongruous.

"I heard your laughter before I even went upstairs, so I followed the sound and came here, saving me the trouble of asking around for the ward." Wu Haiyang was carrying a net bag full of fruit, including two cans of fruit. He was followed by Dr. Lü, who was clearly also there to visit Liu Yue.

"Brother Yang, Sister-in-law." Tang Zhitong greeted Wu Haiyang and his wife, and then pushed open the half-closed door and called out, "Dr. Lü is here for rounds."

"You two chat, I'll go in and take a look first." Lü Lixian took the net bag from her husband, nodded to Tang Zhitong, and went into the house first.

She was a doctor here herself, and she saw many patients every day. She knew that people with higher living standards and higher levels of education cared more about their privacy, so she temporarily left the men outside.

"How have you been feeling these past few days? Are you tired?" Wu Haiyang had also been through this stage, and after stopping, he naturally started chatting with Gu Yong about parenting experiences.

These two new dads have both learned valuable lessons and achieved success. Tang Zhitong listened attentively, intending to learn from them.

A moment later, Liu Yue called out to Gu Yong from inside. Her voice sounded strong and clear, indicating that he had been receiving adequate nutrition these past few days.

Wu Haiyang was clearly visiting for the first time and stepped forward to look at the child, while Tang Zhitong humbly asked Lü Lixian, "Sister-in-law, what kind of surgical sutures are used for surgery now?"

"What kind of surgery? The type of sutures and materials used will vary depending on the surgery." Lü Lixian was taken aback, not expecting to be asked this question.

"It's like surgery, such as vascular anastomosis or appendicitis." Tang Zhitong gave two examples at random. When compiling the "Barefoot Doctor's Handbook," some doctors suggested including vasectomy, but due to a lack of sufficient effective case support, the technology was deemed immature, and the matter was temporarily shelved.

Tang Zhitong had read the relevant materials. The general procedure was to make an incision in the scrotum, hook out the vas deferens, cut it, sew the two ends together, and then put it back in. The procedure was similar to that of later generations, but at the time, since it wasn't written in a book, he didn't look at it carefully, and he didn't pay attention to what kind of surgical sutures were used.

Tang Zhitong tried to lean towards vasectomy, but didn't explicitly state it.

This ligation procedure was not included in the manual at the time, not only because of a lack of effective case studies, but also because of public resistance.

Although male sterilization is not much more difficult than female IUD insertion, many men believe that sterilization makes them less manly, as if it would make them inferior. In fact, various rumors circulated when sterilization was first promoted, making people increasingly afraid.

"For wounds inside the abdomen, absorbable sutures are generally used because they are easy to absorb. For delicate wounds like those on blood vessels, fine sutures are needed. For wounds on the surface of the body, cotton sutures are sufficient because they are easy to remove after the wound has healed."

“It’s absorbable, like catgut? Do you have any in the office? I’d like to take a look.” After Lü Lixian’s prompting, Tang Zhitong remembered something, but he had never seen this thing before, and he couldn’t make it even if he tried to do it behind closed doors.

"There are sheep intestines and silkworm silk. Why are you interested in this?"

"Hey, the barefoot doctors who were trained have started working. Some of the bolder ones are performing surgery on patients, saying the prognosis is not ideal and there is inflammation, so they are looking for the cause." Tang Zhitong lied through his teeth.

“Come with me.” Lü Lixian accepted this reason, but as a professional doctor, she did not approve of the barefoot doctor’s practice. However, she also understood that medical care in the city was expensive, and professional doctors could not often go to the countryside. Folk remedies, traditional prescriptions, and barefoot doctors were all compromises under the existing conditions.

Tang Zhitong, with his silver tongue, not only showed the surgical sutures to the public but also successfully purchased several rolls of surgical sutures from the Municipal Maternity Hospital at his own expense under the guise of teaching reference, using Lü Lixian's name.

Now the male cats won't meow anymore, right?

When Tang Zhitong returned to the ward, Gu Yong's mother, Tian Yuping, was also there.

"Hello, Aunt Tian." Tang Zhitong greeted her first.

"Hello Xiao Tang, I'm so glad Yongzi has friends like you. Thank you for what happened last time." Tian Yuping smiled and extended her hand to Tang Zhitong, speaking very frankly.

"Brother Yong has already thanked me twice. I'd be embarrassed if you thank me again." Tang Zhitong knew that Tian Yuping was referring to the ankle strap, and at this moment, he waved his hand to decline like a well-behaved child.

"Yongzi just mentioned your suggestion, which is very good." Tian Yuping withdrew her hand, her tone light and casual, as if she were merely affirming Tang Zhitong's idea.

"I'm sorry to have troubled you." Tang Zhitong quickly thanked him, and after thanking him, she glanced at Gu Yong. This guy is quite efficient. She had only been gone for a short while, and he had already taken care of Ding Jianhui's matter.

Even though Ding Jianhui contributed the most, should both of them be promoted as co-inventors?

not necessarily.

Gratitude doesn't necessarily have to be repaid to the person in question. Sometimes, fulfilling their small requests is also a way to express gratitude.

The adult world sometimes doesn't have so many twists and turns. I appreciate your kindness, you make requests, and as long as I think it's appropriate, the matter is settled.

"You young people chat first, I have something to do at work, so I'll be leaving now." Tian Yuping seemed to have been waiting to say these words to Tang Zhitong, and then she left.

After seeing Tian Yuping off, Wu Haiyang didn't stay long either, citing work commitments as the reason for leaving first.

Since Lü Lixian had just said she needed to examine Xiao Wang again, Tang Zhitong and his wife would have to wait a little longer.

"Things are not peaceful internationally lately, there's been a lot of fighting," Gu Yong remarked to Tang Zhitong as he watched Wu Haiyang leave.

"Let them argue, we can't help them much anyway. Let's go back and play with the kids." Tang Zhitong has been reading the newspaper lately, but not as attentively as before.

There's been a lot of international news lately. The Russians shot down a U2 fighter jet, and the US wanted a deep apology from the U.S., but the U.S. refused. So, the US turned around and vented its anger on its "good brother."

The meetings currently underway in Romania are rife with heated arguments, escalating the split within the international communist movement, bringing the differences between the two countries on major principles into the open, and causing relations to deteriorate rapidly, not far from a complete breakdown in ties...

(End of this chapter)