1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 136: In this era, people use toads to test for pregnancy
Chen Xiangbei shook her head: "It's been almost ten days."

So, pregnancy is almost certain.

Liang Ziqiang thought of her last life, when she was pregnant with her first child, and her reaction was quite obvious. Her entire taste changed, and she would feel dizzy and nauseous from time to time. He paused and asked:
"Besides this, there are no other symptoms, such as dizziness, craving for sour or spicy food, etc."

"No," Chen Xiangbei replied bluntly.

Maybe it's not that stage yet? If it were in the future, it would be very simple. There would be no need to guess like this. A pregnancy test paper would tell everything clearly.

"How about I take you to the county hospital for a check-up when I have some time in the next two days?" Liang Ziqiang really wanted to confirm the results as soon as possible.

Chen Xiangbei was of course more anxious to know whether she was pregnant than he was, but she hesitated when she heard about going to the hospital, and said with a strange look on her face:
"Why did I hear that the county hospital uses a toad to test for pregnancy? It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. I'd better not go for the test!"

Toad? Liang Ziqiang was stunned for a moment, then he finally understood after thinking about it.

In the 1982 and 1983 era, when pregnant women went to the hospital to test whether they were pregnant, the method used was also urine testing, but it was very different from the urine testing in later generations.

That kind of advanced test paper technology has not yet been officially promoted. Now the county hospital’s pregnancy tests actually use toads or frogs.

At first, he didn't believe it when he heard the young women in the village say this after returning from the hospital. But after hearing it a few more times, he began to believe it.

As for why toads were used, he was never quite clear about it. He only understood a little bit from chatting with others later on. It was to inject the urine of pregnant women into the legs of toads. If the woman was really pregnant, the toad would show a special reaction within a few hours; if not, the toad would remain normal and would not react.

Liang Ziqiang had no idea what the toad's specific reaction was or what principle was behind it.

The villagers of this era were even more ignorant, so they spread rumors, with details that toads should be placed on pregnant women...

This rumor is likely to scare a group of newly married young wives. For example, my ignorant wife is so scared that she doesn't even want to enter the hospital.

"I've heard of this. It's just injecting urine into the frog's legs. It's not happening in front of you. Why are you so nervous?" Liang Ziqiang told her.

Chen Xiangbei thought about it and still shook her head: "I'd better not go. It's been so long anyway. If I don't get my period in a few days, then I must be pregnant!"

"It's up to you. But you still have to go to the hospital sooner or later. You have to have several checkups before the baby is born!"

Liang Ziqiang thought that although many rural women these days did not take childbirth seriously, and many of them gave birth directly at home and hired a midwife from the village, there were still occasional accidents.

He didn't want Chen Xiangbei to take this risk. He would rather spend more money and let her stay in the hospital and give birth in the hospital.

After discussion, we decided not to go to the hospital for a pregnancy test for the time being. We would wait until we were sure that we were pregnant and then go to the hospital for some relevant examinations after a while.

Liang Ziqiang, Li Liang, and Zhong Kang agreed to continue the seabed sneaking and night fishing starting tomorrow night.

The next day, I had nothing to do during the whole day because I had to wait until dark before going out to hunt at night.

Liang Ziqiang took this opportunity to go to the mountain to chop some firewood in the morning for cooking.

Chen Xiangbei had just finished washing the dishes and was planning to weave a net for a while, but she quickly called him and asked him to wait for her while they went to chop wood together.

In a blink of an eye, she found another hatchet and followed. Liang Ziqiang wanted to persuade her to leave, but she glared at him:
"You're looking down on me again, aren't you? My mother's family has more mountains than yours, and I've chopped wood before, so maybe I'm even more skilled than you!"

Hearing her say this, Liang Ziqiang no longer objected, and the two of them walked out while talking.

As soon as I stepped onto the road, I saw a yellowish figure running towards me from the opposite side along the path.

They both paused, thinking they had seen it wrong:
"Da Huang? Why is it here so early in the morning?"

Dahuang seemed to have seen them first, and he quickly quickened his pace and ran over from the distance like the wind, making "hmm-hmm-hmm" sounds as he ran.

It wasn't the usual kind of barking, but more like it heard Chen Xiangbei calling its name, so it responded with a "hmm".

"Dahuang, why are you here? It's my dad or mom behind, right?" Chen Xiangbei asked Dahuang one question after another as if she was asking an old acquaintance.

Dahuang probably didn't understand a word she said. He just wagged his tail at her affectionately and rubbed against her legs. He seemed a little excited. Every muscle in his body was twisting. He even tried to lick her hand with his tongue.

"It doesn't look like he came here to accompany your parents. He must have missed you after not seeing you for a long time, so he came here by himself to visit and reminisce about the past!" Liang Ziqiang speculated.

This time, Da Huang seemed to understand a little bit, and shook his tail a few more times, then jumped up to hug Chen Xiangbei. It was obvious that he really missed his daughter.

After Chen Xiangbei heard what Liang Ziqiang said and looked at Da Huang's expression, she suddenly felt a little sad and hugged Da Huang:
"You really missed me, so you came all the way to see me? You're stupid, if you missed me, you can come anytime, you know the way anyway!"

Chen Xiangbei's voice became hoarse as she spoke. Da Huang heard that something was wrong with the voice and turned to look at Liang Ziqiang. He barked twice with a warning look in his eyes, and the meaning seemed very clear:
"Tell me! Have you bullied her these days? When you visited my relatives before, I thought you didn't look like an honest person!"

Chen Xiangbei found it a little funny when she saw its expression and translated it to Liang Ziqiang:
"It's asking you if you've bullied anyone. Why, are you too embarrassed to speak?!"

Liang Ziqiang spread his hands, somewhat helplessly:
"I'm afraid if I tell the truth, it will bite me to pieces. Its daughter is bullied every day, and her belly is about to grow big from my bullying!"

Chen Xiangbei's face flushed immediately. She looked back at the room behind her and spat at him: "Why don't you dare to speak louder? It would be better if mom and sister-in-law could hear it!"

As the two were talking, a half-grown figure ran out of the house, stood at the door, stunned for a moment, and saw a large creature of the same species actually pounced into Chen Xiangbei's arms, and he refused to fight on the spot.

"Woof! Woof!" Duobao is not big in size, but he is very imposing. He rushes towards Dahuang, looking like he is ready to fight if he doesn't agree.

Dahuang fell back to the ground, clenched his claws on the ground, and prepared to fight.

Liang Ziqiang and Chen Xiangbei were both dumbfounded, watching an ethical tragedy of mother and son killing each other about to unfold irreversibly.

They charged towards each other tit for tat, and in the blink of an eye they were within striking distance.

He opened his mouth and licked the other person's face...

I don’t know who recognized who first, and the roar of charging forward instantly turned into a murmur of “hmm-la-hmm-la”.

The mother and son reminisced about the past in a language that humans could not understand at all. The scene was as warm and touching as the reunion of long-lost relatives who had been separated in troubled times.

But Da Huang was not so kind to Liang Ziqiang. After reminiscing about the past for about half a minute, it turned around and gave him that warning look again, and barked at him.

This time, the meaning was even more certain: I have long suspected that you stole the baby, what else do you have to say now? !

Chen Xiangbei threw half of the flower roll she was going to take to the mountain to eat to Da Huang:
"Okay, we're going to go chop some wood, do you want to come along?"

Dahuang picked up the flower roll and ran up the mountain without any hesitation.

Once they reached the mountain, the two of them worked together to chop and bundle wood, while Dahuang and Duobao instantly turned into wild dogs, running all over the mountain without a trace.

Both of them were quick on their feet and had already chopped two loads of firewood in half a morning.

"Hey, there are also rice cone trees on your mountain?"

Chen Xiangbei almost stepped on a round, thorny fruit, picked it up and saw that it was a rice cone. The two looked up and saw a tall rice cone tree standing a few meters away.

Liang Ziqiang just remembered that now seemed to be the season for eating rice cones?
He quickly ran to the rice cone tree and saw rice cones scattered all over the ground.

Rice cone is a small chestnut, much smaller than chestnut, but tastes much better than chestnut.

When Liang Ziqiang saw Chen Xiangbei picking up the treasures, he knew that she must love them. He helped her pick up a small pile without caring about the thorns.

Having nothing to put the things in, he simply took off his straw hat and used it as a container.

The firewood was almost chopped, and the two men started walking back down the mountain, carrying two loads of firewood.

"It's a pity that we don't have chickens. Braised chicken with rice cones is the most delicious! How about I ask mom for one later? I'll just give her the money..."

Liang Ziqiang had already made arrangements on the way.

Before Chen Xiangbei answered him, she heard a series of "hmmmm" sounds in the distance.

It was the voices of Da Huang and Duo Bao. They must have had enough of playing in the mountains this morning, so they followed their voices and came here.

When they came closer, Liang Ziqiang and Chen Xiangbei just stayed there.

No wonder these two guys can't open their voices, they keep making mumbling sounds, what the hell are they holding in their mouths? !
(End of this chapter)