Back To The 80s-Chapter 145: Coincidence (Give Jeanette 3 Golden Pigs to reward with an update)_1
Gu Xiaobei felt sorry for Xiangmin and for the women of this era. Many women never went for a check-up throughout their pregnancy, with a significant number in rural areas giving birth at home.
They stood in the courtyard, chatting for a while longer before dispersing. Gu Xiaobei followed Li Fengmei home. Ge Chunling also went to Li Fengmei’s place, continuing to knit sweaters and paste shoe soles.
"Do you think Guo Family’s sister-in-law will be okay?" Ge Chunling said, looking worried.
"She should be fine, probably just a little pregnancy discomfort," replied Li Fengmei while spreading a layer of paste, laying an old cloth over it, and smoothing it down.
Gu Xiaobei had brought an old sweater of Lu Zhanguo’s, a sweater which clearly showed its age with threadbare cuffs.
Ge Chunling took the sweater and started counting stitches. Gu Xiaobei and Li Fengmei kept quiet, afraid they would interrupt her.
Ge Chunling, having finished counting in one breath, suddenly exclaimed, "Huh! When I went to call Doctor Chi, I mentioned that Guo Family’s sister-in-law had pregnancy troubles and she seemed to already know."
Li Fengmei curiously asked, "Really?"
"I told Doctor Chi to go check on Guo Family’s sister-in-law because of her stomach pain. She followed me without displaying any surprise and the team leader of the health brigade said Doctor Chi had already taken leave in advance," replied Ge Chunling, feeling that something was strange.
"Ah, what are you suspecting? Maybe she took time off for other reasons. She’s not a psychic, capable of foreseeing events," scoffed Li Fengmei, laughing at Ge Chunling’s suspicions.
Gu Xiaobei, however, took note. Although she wasn’t sure whether it was a coincidence, considering her unexpected encounter with Chi Xiaoyue at the Xinhua Bookstore, she decided to tell Lu Zhanguo about it.
Meanwhile, Gu Huaqiang had rushed Xiangmin to the field hospital and headed straight for the obstetrics and gynecology department.
After the doctor’s examination, he revealed: "There are signs of miscarriage. She needs to be hospitalized immediately to save the child."
"I’ve been very cautious, how could I miscarry?" Xiangmin couldn’t help asking.
"Have you recently eaten anything unusual? Do you move too little normally? Have you carried heavy items? All these factors are relevant. Furthermore, you are pregnant with twins, so you need to be more cautious than others," The doctor responded kindly.
Just as he was speaking, Xiangmin distorted her expression in pain: "Doctor, my stomach... hurts... it feels like... something is... flowing out..." Her forehead was already covered in sweat.
The doctor’s expression changed as well. He told the nurse next to him, "Quick, prepare the operating room." Then, he turned to Gu Huaqiang and said, "Get the fees paid quickly and bring more sanitary paper."
Gu Huaqiang turned pale and hastily rushed downstairs. Chi Xiaoyue, with an unreadable expression, followed the nurse and wheeled Xiangmin into the operating room.
Gu Huaqiang hurriedly paid the fees, bought three bundles of rough paper from the small shop, and ran upstairs. Upon seeing the closed operating room door, his hands began to shake involuntarily.
An hour later, the operating room door opened. The doctor, looking somewhat weary, said to Gu Huaqiang, "Don’t be too upset, at least the other one is healthy. The mother needs to stay under observation for a period."
Although Gu Huaqiang was upset, he felt a little relieved upon hearing this news. At least one child was saved. He then went to finish the hospitalization procedures.
Looking deathly pale, Xiangmin was wheeled into the ward. She lay with her eyes closed, appearing weak. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and glared at Chi Xiaoyue who was by her bedside and said, "Why did you make me eat hawthorn? You are a doctor, don’t you know hawthorn can cause miscarriage?"
Earlier in the operating room, the doctor had asked if she had consumed any hawthorn recently. Apparently, hawthorn could induce uterine contractions leading to a miscarriage. She had indeed eaten quite a lot in the last few days.
Chi Xiaoyue blurted out in shock, "Sister-in-law, can eating hawthorn really cause a miscarriage? I truly had no idea. I saw that you had no appetite and thought that you might want something sour. The hawthorns in the courtyard of the health brigade were ripe so I brought some to you. I swear I didn’t know they were harmful," Chi Xiaoyue said, looking both worried and aggrieved, with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Seeing Chi Xiaoyue like this, Xiangmin felt that she might have been overly suspicious. "Alright, I should be grateful that the heavens left me with one child."
Chi Xiaoyue silently wiped her tears, "The doctor said that if you could have been brought in a little earlier, it would have been better. It’s my fault, I should have known more about pregnancy."
Xiangmin couldn’t help but start to doubt upon hearing this. While she had sent Gu Xiaobei to fetch Gu Huaqiang, it took her ages to get back. The base wasn’t even that far from the nurses’ quarters. She would settle this account with Gu Xiaobei later.
After Gu Huaqiang finished the hospital procedures, he bought a washbasin, a tiffin carrier and some brown sugar. He reasoned that needing these items at the hospital warranted buying them instead of wasting time going back to get them from home.
Chi Xiaoyue quickly took the thermos flask provided in the ward and dissolved some brown sugar in hot water for Xiangmin since there was no pot available.
Gu Huaqiang, feeling a bit embarrassed, said, "Doctor Chi, could you please look after my wife for a bit? I need to go home to get her some change of clothes."
"That’s fine. I happen to have taken a few days off, saying I had errands to run in the city. I can use this time to take care of my sister-in-law," replied Chi Xiaoyue with a smile.
Xiangmin did not say anything, her face blank. Her thoughts were filled with resentment towards Gu Xiaobei, planning to settle the score with her later.
As Gu Xiaobei was cutting vegetables in the room, she overheard Li Fengmei talking to Gu Huaqiang in the corridor. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
"Educational officer, how’s sister-in-law doing?"
"She is fine now. She needs to stay in the ward for a few days to observe."
"The child is okay, right?"
"We lost one, but the other one survived. We need to observe for a while."
"Tell sister-in-law not to be too upset, we will go and see her."
...
Hearing that Xiangmin had managed to keep one child, Gu Xiaobei breathed a sigh of relief. Even though she had ill feelings towards Xiangmin, she knew the child was innocent.
That night, Gu Xiaobei was lying in Lu Zhanguo’s arms, talking about the morning’s incident. "Do you think Chi Xiaoyue is sabotaging things behind the scenes?" Gu Xiaobei couldn’t shake off the feeling that Chi Xiaoyue was up to something.
"Why do you think so?" Lu Zhanguo couldn’t make sense of it. From what he could see, there shouldn’t be any conflict of interest between Chi Xiaoyue and Xiangmin, nor did Xiangmin seem to have any utilitarian value.
"There’s no specific reason, just a gut feeling," said Gu Xiaobei, while her hand wandered all over Lu Zhanguo’s body.
As Lu Zhanguo was trying to keep Gu Xiaobei’s wandering hands at bay, he asked, "Can you use your intuition to guess the reason why Chi Xiaoyue would want to harm Xiangmin?"
"Maybe she used Xiangmin’s hospitalization as a cover to lurk in the hospital," suggested Gu Xiaobei. This was a common plot in 21st century spy dramas, and so, she just casually made a guess.
However, this thought stuck in Lu Zhanguo’s mind as he pondered over it.
"Right, remember the last time we went to see Qin Mei? They also said they were going to see Qin Mei, but Qin Li said she never saw them," Gu Xiaobei suddenly remembered and hurriedly shared her revelation with Lu Zhanguo.
Lu Zhanguo frowned. They had yet to find concrete evidence against Chi Xiaoyue, all they had were suspicions. But, what role did Chi Xiaoyue play in this incident?
Gu Xiaobei’s hand was still wandering over Lu Zhanguo’s body. "Once you are done pondering, let’s discuss about having a son. You aren’t too hardworking. You haven’t even managed to plant a small sprout," she teased.
