1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 315: A Gift from a Cute Kid

"Mom, you were tired last night, why don't you take a nap by the bed?"

Liang Ziqiang saw that his mother's eyelids were also twitching, so he tried to persuade her.

As a result, not long after, he also sat on the stool and fell asleep leaning against the wall.

He was suddenly awakened from his light sleep when a nurse called his wife's name.

"Your child can get a birth certificate before being discharged from the hospital. Have you brought everything with you?" a nurse came in and asked.

Liang Ziqiang quickly took out a handful of things from the big cloth bag.

A blue piece of paper with a red stamp on it was the birth certificate that had been issued shortly after we got married last year.

The two palm-sized documents that looked like laminated photos were his and his wife's ID cards. They were obviously not as thick as the card-type ID cards of later generations.

There are also two small red plastic-covered books, which are his and Chen Xiangbei’s marriage certificates.

Before coming to the hospital, he had prepared everything he could think of.

"What other documents do you need?"

The nurse took a look and said, "Birth permit, marriage certificate, ID card. All three are in place. It's OK."

Then he asked, "Have you decided on a name for your child? It's necessary to get a birth certificate. If you haven't decided on one yet, you can discuss it first. Then go to the obstetrics and gynecology office to get it when you're free!"

Liang Ziqiang instinctively turned his head to look at the bed. Chen Xiangbei woke up just in time when she heard the voices and said hurriedly:
"I haven't decided yet. I'll come find you guys when I've thought it over!"

As soon as the nurse left, Chen Xiangbei glanced at the sleeping baby and started thinking:
"I think for a boy, a name that's loud and auspicious would be good. Let me think about it, for example, words like 福,贵,旺,财 are all good..."

The wife said a string of names that she thought were satisfactory, but Liang Ziqiang's face became darker and darker as he listened. It just didn't seem right.

No, did you give birth to a baby or a dog?
How come every word when put together reminds people of the names of the local dogs in the village?
My wife is fine in other aspects, but the taste of this name is really worrying...

He was worried that if she continued to choose names, she would end up with the name "Duobao" sooner or later, so he quickly and decisively stopped her and said:

"I have a name that I think is pretty good. Give it a try. Liang Jingcheng! How is it?"

He looked at his wife expectantly, but she frowned and thought for a moment, then shook her head and said:
"Not so good, I always feel that it's not as good as the wealth and prosperity I mentioned!"

Liang's mother also came over and said, "This name doesn't sound very good!"

Liang Ziqiang then realized that his mother and his wife actually had similar values ​​when it came to naming their children!
"Imagine a promising future. You must have learned this phrase, right?"

"I've learned it! When my classmates wrote messages to each other in the third year of junior high school, this word was the most used!" The wife seemed to have suddenly understood and said happily, "Jingcheng Jingcheng, so this is what it means? It sounds pretty good. I didn't expect that you could come up with a great name so quickly! When did you become so cultured?"

"Don't underestimate people!" He was quite proud.

It's really fast, it comes out of his mouth in just one second, how could it not be fast?
There was no need to think about this name at all, because this was the name of his and her firstborn child in the previous life.

In his previous life, he spent a lot of time thinking about naming his first son.

I remember that we were building a building for an education bureau in another place at that time. Liang Ziqiang was working and moving bricks on the construction site while racking his brains to think of a name for his son.

I racked my brains and thought about it for several days in a row. It can be said that I have thought it through carefully and did not waste the little knowledge I learned from junior high school!

Sure enough, hard work pays off.

He succeeded...

I met a retired senior official from the Education Bureau and made some slight changes to the name he had come up with.

So, there was this good name that cleverly combined the wisdom of both him and the veteran cadres: Liang Jingcheng.

Among them, the wisdom of veteran cadres accounts for 66 percent.

Liang Ziqiang's contribution accounted for 33%, mainly concentrated on the first character "Liang".

At this moment, facing his daughter-in-law's loving eyes, Liang Ziqiang deservedly accepted his wife's praise.

"Then let's decide on this name, Liang Jingcheng?" he confirmed.

"Well, I like this name the most!" Chen Xiangbei nodded happily.

"I think it's okay, Liang Jingcheng. The good thing about this name is that it sounds loud enough!" Liang's mother also changed her words without any shame.

At this moment, the chubby little guy who was sleeping soundly smacked his lips, as if he was savoring the sweetness of milk in his dream.

Then he moved, and his right hand, which was no longer so wrinkled, was raised up and remained there.

"See, my son didn't object and he even raised his hand to vote!" Liang Ziqiang said firmly.

Therefore, with the unanimous agreement of the four people present, the name "Liang Jingcheng" was successfully passed.

Liang Ziqiang immediately took the documents and ran to the doctor's office.

After a while, the birth certificate with "Liang Jingcheng's" name, address, and date of birth was filled out.

It couldn’t be printed like in later generations. The nurse filled it out directly with a pen and then asked her superior to stamp it.

Back in the room, he took out the birth certificate and showed it to his wife.

He looked at his birth certificate and then at his sleeping son, as if forcing himself to identify himself.

Gradually, the son in front of him seemed to be equal to Liang Jingcheng, the son in the previous life.

The difference is that he hopes that Liang Jingcheng in this life will embark on a different path in life from the very beginning.

I hope he lives up to his reputation and has a bright future.

After lunch at noon, little Jingcheng had another full meal of milk and then fell asleep again.

The mother and son slept until the afternoon. Suddenly, Liang Ziqiang heard a familiar voice in the corridor, asking about the location of the room.

When he turned around, he saw his father-in-law Chen Dagang and mother-in-law Li Jinju both walking in from the door, with his father following behind them.

Needless to say, my father must have gone to Huagu Village today and informed my in-laws Chen Xiangbei that she was going to give birth today, and then several people came to the county hospital together.

Chen Xiangbei was almost asleep, and she woke up immediately when she heard her parents' voices. Just as she was about to call them, a burst of crying broke out at the head of the bed, instantly suppressing her voice.

She used to cry for a while and then stop, but this time she cried really hard and didn't stop, and her voice was very high-pitched.

Mother-in-law Li Jinju quickly picked him up:

"Oh, don't cry, don't cry. It's a boy, isn't it? My good grandson, little Rourou, grandma will hold him. Don't cry, don't cry!"

Li Jinju was experienced in coaxing babies, but even if she held him in her arms and rocked him gently, she still couldn't stop little Jingcheng from crying violently.

"I'm afraid she needs milk?" Li Jinju looked at her daughter.

"Did he just feed me?" Chen Xiangbei couldn't figure out the reason and was anxious to take Jingcheng from his mother's arms.

Just when Li Jinju stopped shaking, little Jingcheng in her arms suddenly became quiet as if the car had braked suddenly.

At the same time, Li Jinju suddenly felt the dampness and heat in her arms.

Looking at Xiao Jingcheng's comfortable expression of "I am very pleased", I immediately knew what happened.

"So he's going to poop. It feels good now, right?" Li Jinju looked at Xiao Jingcheng who would go back to sleep after playing around, and said with a smile, "I don't know if it's pee or poop."

Liang Ziqiang heard this and hurried over to change the diaper. It really was poop. However, the feces discharged by the baby in the first two days had no odor.

"It's the first time I see you. This is a big gift for grandma!" said Liang's father with a smile.

Several people rummaged around to find new diapers and washed his little butt.

Liang Ziqiang even carried the soiled diaper along the aisle, looking for a place to wash it.

When people saw him along the way, they automatically avoided him. He was invincible and unstoppable.

Liang Ziqiang was so happy that he felt like he had found a treasure. He carried the diaper and found a smooth path in the narrow hospital corridor...

While he was in the county town, there were still many things he needed to buy, so Liang Ziqiang hurried out to buy them all.

Now that the child's gender has been determined, it is natural to buy a few more sets of clothes, shoes and hats for boys.

Liang Ziqiang found it inconvenient to change and wash diapers frequently, so he wanted to find a substitute in the store. Unfortunately, there was no substitute at all.

Diapers were not available these days, and if ordinary toilet paper was used instead, Liang Ziqiang took a look and found that most of the toilet paper these days was rough and the baby's delicate skin might not be able to withstand it.

I can only go back and think of a solution.

In addition, in the later stages of the confinement period, women should drink some chicken soup with codonopsis pilosula and wolfberry if possible.

Liang Ziqiang bought codonopsis, peanuts, and wolfberries. He also bought some eggs, vegetables, and a hen. As for pork, he could only buy it in town early in the morning.

There isn’t much money left at home now, so I won’t buy anything except the necessities.

After staying in the hospital for two days, Chen Xiangbei was soon discharged.

The entire process of giving birth to the baby cost more than 70 yuan.

When we got home, the first thing we did was light firecrackers to celebrate the safety of mother and child and to welcome the arrival of the new life.

Before the firecrackers were all set off, Litchi came out. She was sharp-eyed and saw Liang Ziqiang holding a little meat ball in his hand.

The first reaction is to reach out and grab it:

"It looks like it's so much fun! Second brother, you've been playing all the way, come and play with me too!"

Liang's mother's bamboo stick came over quickly:

"You silly girl, is your nephew for you to play with? I was out of the hospital for two days and you didn't even bother to clean up. Look at what a mess the house is in!"

Before Liang Ziqiang handed little Jingcheng to Lizhi, she had already been frightened by the stick and ran away.

Lizhi had just run away when Duobao came over again.

I haven't been out to sea these days, so I don't know where Duobao is. When I heard the sound of firecrackers, I ran home like a flash.

When Duobao saw clearly that there was a little thing that looked like a human in the cradle, his eyes instantly widened to almost twice their usual size.

Liang Ziqiang was sitting on a chair with the baby in his arms. The baby kept circling around the chair and refused to leave. Every now and then, it would bark and hum at Liang Ziqiang:

How could there be such a small person? Where have you been these two days? Where did you pick him up from?

After humming for a while, he looked up and saw Chen Xiangbei, only to find that the hostess's waist had become thinner and her bulging belly had disappeared.

The dog still had some brains. After thinking for a while, he seemed to have figured out the relationship between the two. He then stretched out his nose to smell the little hand in the cradle.

Liang Ziqiang saw that it was full of curiosity, so he didn't stop it. Duobao sniffed twice, and seemed to be completely sure that this little guy who had been sleeping soundly was his master's child. Suddenly, his butt seemed to have a small motor installed, and his tail was wagging vigorously and happily.

While moving closer: Let me smell it again, I haven’t smelled his face yet!

When Duobao was about to kiss Liang Jingcheng's little face, Liang Ziqiang quickly turned around and blocked Duobao away.

Duobao simply sat down on the ground in front of the chair and kept looking at the sleeping Liang Jingcheng:

If you don't want to kiss, then don't kiss! I'll just take a look, there's nothing wrong with taking a look, right? !

After sitting at home for a while, Liang Ziqiang had other things to do, so he carried his bucket and went to the shrimp pond in the east of the village.

In the broodstock pond, some broodstock that had successfully produced fry began to die. This is normal. The life cycle of prawns is only one year. They will soon reach the end of their lives after producing roe.

Liang Ziqiang used a hand-scoop net to scoop out all the dead shrimps and threw them away. The shrimp eggs on the remaining small number of parent shrimps had not yet matured and fallen off, and still needed to be fed, so he continued to feed them with Artemia.

As for the shrimp fry that have been transferred to the big pond, they do not have enough feeding capacity yet, so it will take another day or two before they can start feeding them with Artemia.

The second day after returning home, which was also the third day after Jingcheng was born, was an important day in their village - the third day of the birth ceremony.

On the day of the third day of the baby's bath, my father-in-law and mother-in-law also came. In addition to bringing some fruits as usual, they also brought some mugwort leaves, locust branches, and eggs.

Mugwort leaves and locust twigs are specially used to boil bath water. Liang Ziqiang was originally planning to go to the village to find some mugwort leaves, but he saw that they were no longer needed.

The time is usually in the afternoon. The sun is quite warm, and the big bathtub is filled with warm water, and the bath begins.

A big rooster had been slaughtered and placed on the table. Liang Ziqiang lit firecrackers and then held his son and bowed in front of the table.

In a blink of an eye, little Jingcheng was taken over by his grandmother. According to the rules of their village, if there is a midwife, the midwife will wash the baby on the third day, and if there is no midwife, the grandmother will be responsible for washing the baby on the third day.

Li Jinju was quite knowledgeable about these things. She stirred the bathtub a few times and said, "Stir once, twice, and three times. The elder brother leads the younger brother to run." After stirring, she began to give little Chengcheng a bath.

As soon as the warm water reached the top of his head, little Cheng Cheng refused to do it and started crying loudly.

Chen Xiangbei was watching anxiously from the side, and kept asking, "Mom, could it be that the water is too hot?"

Li Jinju glanced at her daughter and said, "The water temperature is just right! She always cries when she takes a bath. This is called a noise basin, and it's a good thing!"

Liang's mother also concluded that the louder the Xiangpen cried, the more auspicious it was...

After hearing this, Chen Xiangbei didn't know what to say.

Li Jinju kept talking, and while bathing her grandson she kept saying a lot of nice things:
"Wash your hair first, and you will become a prince; wash your shoulders, and you will become a high official; wash your waist, and you will be higher than the previous generation; wash your balls, and you will become a county magistrate; wash your gutters, and you will become a prefect."

Liang Ziqiang was sweating when he heard this. What kind of blessing is this? As soon as the baby is born, all future positions are reserved...

Those who know about it call it the third day bath, while those who don’t know about it may have thought it was a test for imperial examinations in ancient times.

There is no way around it. In the minds of the older generation, they like to equate future with official career, and having a promising future is almost equivalent to becoming an official.

Obviously, Xiao Chengcheng is not satisfied with so many titles.

The crying did not stop because of the promotion, but became more intense. The legs kicked wildly, and every sound was a protest:

Let me go! Water has entered my eyes. I don’t want to be an official. I want my mother. Mom, please wipe Cheng Cheng’s eyes!

That’s pretty much what it means anyway!
After finally finishing the bath, Chen Xiangbei wanted to take the baby over out of pity, but she didn't expect it was not over yet.

After drying his hair, it was the baby's grandmother's turn to comb his hair.

There were quite a few with fine hair. Liang's mother said as she combed her hair:

"A wooden comb with two handles, and a red hat when he grows up..."

When Liang Ziqiang heard this, he was like, wow, his career is back on track...

After combing her hair, she took a boiled egg, which was no longer hot, and rolled it on little Chengcheng's face.

The meaning of this is said to be to wish the child to have beautiful skin in the future, like egg skin.

This is probably the only wish today that is not related to being an official...

After putting on his new clothes, Liang's mother brought him a bunch of green onions.

Hit Xiao Chengcheng...

What skillful movements, just like when he usually swung bamboo sticks to chase Liang Ziqiang and the others.

"One is smart, two is clever, three is promising..."

Liang's mother pretended to hit Cheng Cheng three times. Although she didn't use any strength at all, Liang Jingcheng seemed to understand that she was hitting him. He felt wronged and curled his lips. This time he turned to his mother and cried to accuse her.

As she cried, she nudged her little head into Chen Xiangbei's arms, trying to find food to comfort her aggrieved little heart...

Seeing this, Chen Xiangbei quickly carried him into the inner room. Cheng Cheng had obviously found enough comfort, and the crying stopped in the blink of an eye...

Here, after beating Liang's mother, she handed the onions to Liang Ziqiang and signaled him to run to the hillside and throw the onions onto the roof.

The meaning of this is even more interesting: extremely smart.

Liang Ziqiang picked up the onions, climbed to a high place, and threw them onto the roof of his house.

At this point, the third bath is completely completed.

Before dark in the afternoon, father-in-law Chen Dagang went back to Huagu Village, but mother-in-law stayed here to help Liang's mother and take care of Chen Xiangbei during her confinement.

At the very least, Chen Xiangbei, a complete novice mother, should learn some skills in raising a child, and at the same time, her body should recover a little before returning to Huagu Village.

Liang Ziqiang has been taking care of the baby these days. Now that he has taken a break, he has started to think about what to do next. Now that he has got the big ship, he has to start working on the next step...

(End of this chapter)