Back To The 80s-Chapter 144: Accident (Giving Jeanette and Shi Bi an additional bonus)_1

After Lu Zhanguo had a bowl of hot wonton soup, he immediately felt much more comfortable. Gu Xiaobei gave Lu Zhanguo some of hers from her bowl, saying, "I’m trying to lose weight tonight, you should eat more."

"You’re not even fat, why would you need to lose weight!" Lu Zhanguo grumbled, scooping up half a bowl of wonton soup into his stomach.

Gu Xiaobei watched as Lu Zhanguo drank all the soup, and she went to fetch a basin of cold water and diluted it with some hot water. Urging Lu Zhanguo to go and wash himself up in the house, she washed the dishes and checked Jiujiu’s homework. Only after finishing washing up with Jiujiu did she enter the room.

Lu Zhanguo, who was already snoring softly in the room, suddenly opened his eyes as Gu Xiaobei tip-toed to the bedside. His eyes flashed sharp like a leopard at first, then cleared, not looking like someone who just woke up at all.

Under the dim bedside lamp, Gu Xiaobei was taken aback by Lu Zhanguo’s gaze and stammered, "It’s just me..."

By this time, Lu Zhanguo’s gaze had softened considerably. He wrapped his arm around Gu Xiaobei in his arms as soon as she lay down, and after a while, he fell asleep, snoring lightly again.

Gu Xiaobei was taken aback. This was not how ordinary people sleep, it was like a leopard, always on high alert.

After a good night’s sleep, by the time Gu Xiaobei opened her eyes, Lu Zhanguo was already gone. She wondered: Why did he leave so early? These days she usually woke up before the camp’s wake-up call, as she needed to make breakfast for Jiujiu.

When she got out of bed and went outside, Jiujiu had already washed up and was quietly reading aloud the English words and simple sentences she had written.

Gu Xiaobei kept it simple, frying some bun slices and then making a half-pot of powdered milk for Jiujiu and herself. She wondered if her failure to conceive was due to malnutrition?

After breakfast and sending Jiujiu off, Gu Xiaobei took her sweater to Li Fengmei’s house, where Ge Chunling, the wife of Wu Guanghan, the platoon leader of the third platoon, was also there.

Seeing Gu Xiaobei with her knitting, Ge Chunling enthusiastically asked, "Sister-in-law, what pattern are you knitting this sweater in?"

"I don’t know, Fengmei was teaching me. I’m knitting what she told me to. Now that I’ve finished knitting the edge at the bottom, I need to learn how to increase stitches," Gu Xiaobei said, raising her sweater.

Li Fengmei was sitting at the large table, gluing some old fabric layer by layer with paste, waiting for it to dry, and then using it as a shoe sole. She laughed upon hearing their conversation and said, "I’m just a half-learned teacher, you should let Chunling teach you. I remember she knitted a very nice pattern the other day."

"Okay, as long as there’s someone to teach me, I don’t know anything," Gu Xiaobei was not at all shy and handed her sweater and yarn to Ge Chunling.

"How many stitches do you need to add? Do you have any of Lu Zhanguo’s old sweaters? Let me see how many stitches they have." Ge Chunling said professionally. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Okay, you wait here, I’ll go home and get the sweater." Gu Xiaobei turned to go home but suddenly, a terrified scream came from Xiangmin’s house.

The three of them were startled and quickly set aside their work to go and see. Although they were not close on ordinary days, they lived in the same courtyard.

Li Fengmei pushed open the door of Xiangmin’s house and saw Xiangmin sitting on the ground, clutching her stomach in pain, her face as white as a sheet. She quickly turned back and told Ge Chunling, "Go get Dr. Chi over here."

Gu Xiaobei was surprised. From her experience, she knew that Xiangmin should be sent to the hospital as early as possible. "You look after her, I’ll go get Old Guo to come back and drive her to the hospital," she said and ran outside.

Li Fengmei went over to help Xiangmin up, and asked, "What’s wrong?"

"My abdomen... it’s clenching... it hurts." said Xiangmin, sweating profusely, shivering with fear and pain. She was nearly thirty and had finally gotten pregnant. She couldn’t afford any trouble.

"Do you feel anything coming out down below?" asked Li Fengmei, who had given birth to two children and had some experience.

"No... there’s nothing."

"That’s good. Don’t worry too much. When we get to the hospital, just get an injection to prevent miscarriage. You’ll be fine." Li Fengmei comforted Xiangmin, rubbing her back.

This morning, Xiangmin felt a slight heaviness in her stomach when she woke up but she didn’t think much of it. Just now, she was about to carry out the dirty water when she felt a cramp-like pain in her stomach. It would tighten and then release. That’s when she screamed out in fear.

Ge Chunling brought in Dr. Chi Xiaoyue who, seeing Xiangmin, confessed somewhat flustered, "Oh sister, what happened to you?"

"Her stomach hurts. Please check her now," Li Fengmei urged breathlessly.

Chi Xiaoyue squatted down, sadly saying, "I don’t know anything about obstetrics and gynaecology." And it was true, she could only deal with simple traumas, treat common colds and fevers, and give injections.

"Sister, hold on a little longer. Your husband, Old Guo, will be here soon, and we’ll take you to the town hospital," Li Fengmei didn’t know what else to do.

It took Gu Xiaobei some time to find Guo Huaqiang with the help of a clerk on the shooting range, so she was a bit delayed getting back.

Xiangmin, seeing Gu Xiaobei took so long to find Guo Huaqiang, thought Gu Xiaobei was deliberately dawdling and wasting time, and couldn’t help but wail in pain.

Guo Huaqiang rushed back as soon as he heard the news. Even though he and Xiangmin had been having some marital difficulties, they had been eagerly anticipating the child she was carrying. Of course, he was worried.

Guo Huaqiang sprinted up the stairs of his apartment and into his car. Gu Xiaobei couldn’t catch up and after running that circuit, she felt breathless and her heart was pounding so she just walked slowly.

Just as she reached the base of the stairs, Guo Huaqiang came down with Xiangmin in his arms. As they brushed past each other, Gu Xiaobei found herself on the receiving end of a glare from Xiangmin. What was that all about?

Guo Huaqiang drove, with Chi Xiaoyue in the back seat holding Xiangmin. Li Fengmei and Ge Chunling thought there was no need for so many people to go along, so they didn’t, and Gu Xiaobei didn’t want to go either.

Once the car had raced off, Li Fengmei turned around and said, "She seemed fine before, but how did this happen? I think she’s too delicate on a regular basis."

Wang Ping, hearing the noise, came out of her house and asked, "What happened?"

"Guo’s wife had a premature contraction and has just been sent to the hospital," Ge Chunling replied.

"Could it be because she has been eating hawthorn fruit? She came to my house for pickled mustard greens yesterday, and I saw her constantly consuming hawthorn. The old folk in our area always say that pregnant women should not eat hawthorn as it could cause miscarriage. I told her yesterday, but she said she’d been eating it for a few days without any reaction and accused me of being superstitious," Wang Ping said with some resentment.

Gu Xiaobei suddenly remembered that a few days ago, Xiangmin was indeed drinking hawthorn water with rock sugar. It seemed very likely that the problem was with the hawthorn.

"There’s such a saying? We were told that pregnant women should not eat rabbit meat because it could cause a harelip in the child, and not to eat donkey meat, otherwise the child will grow up stubborn," Ge Chunling said.