She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 822 - 775: Famine Era 16 (Second Update)

Fortunately, Third Aunt also brought good news. Having given birth to the fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth sons, she wasn’t young anymore, being 38, just two years younger than Mom. Brother Eight is Third Aunt’s third son. When he joined the army, he was only twelve; even the eldest, Brother Five, is already twenty this year.

For a long time, she wanted a daughter and thought she’d never have one in this lifetime. But Second Sister-in-law’s luck rubbed off on her.

Only after seeing a traditional Chinese medicine doctor who confirmed that the fetus was stable did she share the joyous news with the family. Now, everyone in the family is even more delighted.

Double the joy, how could they not be happy?

Elder Aunt also had four sons, but at 45, she has no hope of bearing any more.

Though she’s envious, she’s not jealous. With a harmonious family, she sincerely rejoices for her two sister-in-laws and takes even better care of them.

To be honest, the unity of the Ye Family is greatly attributed to the fairness of the two elders. Even the fact that they managed to send eight grandsons to the military is not something ordinary people could do. After sending them off, only two grandsons returned. The pregnancies of the Second and Third sons’ wives owe much to Ye Huan’s luck. Their family’s little lucky star arrived just before the famine era; otherwise, everything that followed for their family might not have happened.

The winter of 1945 was particularly cold. One morning, Ye Guosheng and his husband were delivering tofu to the town. Passing by a grove, they suddenly heard the faint cries of a baby. Stunned at first, they quickly stopped the cart. Following the sound, they found a newborn baby girl on the snowy ground.

The baby girl was wrapped in thin cotton clothing, and it wasn’t clear how long she’d been there, but she was already on the verge of dying.

"Quick, take her to the clinic for a check-up."

They were already headed to town, so they quickly pushed the cart, holding the child, and brought her to the local clinic.

To keep the child warm, Ye Guosheng took off his inner cotton clothes, giving the child a chance to survive.

The baby had no major issues but had caught a fever from the cold. She stayed in the hospital for three days before being taken home by Ye Guosheng and his partner.

They decided to raise this child as their own.

Third Aunt, deeply moved, said, "I didn’t expect that before my Fourteenth is even born, God would send a precious child to our family. Congratulations, big brother and sister-in-law, for having both a son and a daughter!"

"Now I don’t have to envy you, and soon these three can grow up together. Xiaojuan, sorry for taking your Fourteenth,"

"Haha, sister-in-law, this daughter was meant to be yours by fate. Look how beautiful she is, wonder whose child she was that they could bear to abandon such a beautiful daughter in this bitter cold. If it weren’t for us finding her, wouldn’t it be..."

There were many who couldn’t survive the 1940s, many old folks considered daughters a burden. Regardless of how the child ended up in the snow, besides Aunt’s envy for Mom and Aunt, picking up a daughter was more than just luck.

Because she also wanted a daughter, but that was just a dream. Who would have thought that heaven would grant you what you want right away, how could she not be overjoyed?

Ye Xue thus came to the Ye Family and became their third daughter. The so-called Fourteenth is just a general ranking; after all, she’s not a grandson and can’t be ranked with them, even the thirteenth, Ye Jialei, ranks eleventh among the grandsons.

In the forties, fifties, and sixties, birth rates were quite high. So thinking carefully, each era indeed has its unique characteristics.

The Spring Festival of 1946 was not just marked by the addition of two babies, but Third Brother also successfully met a prospective wife, his elementary National Language teacher, who is exactly five years younger (18 years old). Though not pretty, she’s educated and doesn’t mind that he lost a hand. The downside is she has many siblings, ranking fourth, with three older brothers, one younger brother, and one younger sister. The betrothal gift required is one hundred silver coins, as she is a teacher.

Dad and Mom considered this wife good. After repeated evaluation and confirmation, they set the engagement in December, planning the wedding for September.

Grandpa also announced a significant event during the Spring Festival—dividing the family.

Now that there are more children, the space is clearly insufficient. Considering the passing of First and Second brothers, whose children are still young, the old house is given to First Uncle’s family.

Daddy and Uncle had no objections, nor did Mom and Aunt. These younger ones, of course, had no objections either.

So, with the arrival of spring, both their family and Uncle’s family began looking for places to build new homes.

To compensate them, Grandpa gave each household a subsidy of fifty silver coins. First Uncle asked for nothing because, having taken the old house, he got a significant advantage, so he had no reason to ask for more. As the eldest son, he was responsible for the daily care of the grandparents.

However, grandparents said that the three sons would take turns, starting this year at Uncle’s house.

Building a house required village approval for land allocation; it wasn’t a matter of building wherever you wanted. In those times, houses were typically made of adobe, with little cost beyond wood and stones. The main expense was likely manpower, as helpers needed to be provided with good food and drink.

This was the rural practice for building houses, no wages required, and they couldn’t choose the busy farming season as everyone was expected to assist.

Their home and Third Uncle’s new home were adjacent, on the village’s edge, a normal expansion direction.

Their house was in the east, Uncle’s house was in the west, both had the same size base, about four hundred square meters, which is not small by modern standards because buildings can be stacked vertically. However, in a time when there were only earthen houses and no single-story houses, it wasn’t considered large.

But it was about 30 meters long and 15 meters wide. Given their current situation, Ye Huan thought it was sufficient.

Ye Huan had control over the design of the house: three rooms in the hall, with the middle being the living room. To the east was the room for father and mother, and to the west was the sisters’ room.

There were two east wing rooms, one for the kitchen, and one for miscellaneous items.

There were two west wing rooms, one for Third Brother and one for Fourth Brother.

They planned to plant vegetables in the front yard and build another room in the backyard specifically for making tofu, with a toilet in the corner.

This was the parents’ house, and for now, that was sufficient. Since Ye Jialei was still young, even when he grew up, his brothers would have already moved out, leaving the old house to him.

As for where they would settle and whether they would use the house in the future, that was another matter. For now, Ye Huan’s arrangement was quite suitable.

Uncle and Third Aunt thought her layout was quite reasonable, so they adopted her design style as well. However, instead of using fences as barriers, they built a proper wall around the new house courtyard.

In this era, although there were green bricks, green brick tile houses were too extravagant and would arouse envy, just like now, even this was making quite a few people envious.

Everyone said their family got rich from making tofu, but in fact, they hadn’t earned much. After paying the betrothal gifts and building the house, they were nearly broke.

Even though Ye Huan had saved over two hundred silver coins, it was her money, and she didn’t plan to take it out now, because the efficacy of silver coins was depreciating due to inflation.

Therefore, she saved as much as possible, thinking that these items, if kept, could be considered antique artifacts.

Now, Mom was at home taking care of two children and helping the pregnant Auntie cook for the workers. Sometimes, the elder aunt would also come to help.

Daddy and Uncle took turns to help at the tofu shop, and the grandparents were running back and forth, helping wherever was busy.

The rest of the children, including Third Brother, were in school, which was more important than anything else.

In April of 1946, Third Aunt gave birth to the Ye family’s fourth sister, Ye Bing.

With this, they had Ye Yu, Ye Xue, and now Bingbing, all complete.

She was named Ye Bing because there was a hailstorm in those days, and hail in April was rare, so Third Aunt named her Ye Bing, thinking Bingbing sounded lovely.

Looking at it this way, Ye Huan didn’t quite fit in with her sisters!

In June, when the school term ended and she returned home, the house was almost finished, but as it was an earthen house, the interior still needed plastering.

Then came the woodworking, with a bed made for each room of the house.

Because winters were cold there and there was no firewood, making heated beds (kang) was not very useful and took up space, so they just made regular beds and windows and doors.

During the summer vacation, the children returned home, and they handled the painting themselves. From woodwork to painting, it was completed by early August.

By mid-August, all the doors, windows, and furniture were placed in the house, and the window paper was applied. At this point, the brothers’ new house was finally set.

The furniture had aired outside for quite some time, so there was no odor. The new sister-in-law was satisfied after her inspection.

Then the formalities began, and on September 9, they got married. Ye Huan even specially took a leave to watch the lively entry of the sister-in-law into the house.

From building the house to getting married and making furniture, their family spent five to six hundred silver coins in total. It’s said they even borrowed at least two hundred silver coins from Uncle and Third Uncle.

Even at that, Grandpa had initially given fifty silver coins. Reflecting on it, the expenditure wasn’t small. If it weren’t for the ongoing tofu business, they probably wouldn’t have dared to build such a good house so boldly.

Of course, the five to six hundred silver coins included their own mill, as they had already divided the family business. Whoever made and sold things in the future would keep their profits, an inevitable experience for all. But every month, each family would give five silver coins for the old men’s living expenses, which was also arranged.

When Uncle supported them, her family and Uncle’s family gave support. If they supported them, Uncle and Third Uncle gave support, and so on, ensuring fairness to everyone.