She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 882 - 808: Famine Era 49
The time swiftly entered the year *, and when Liu Hongqing turned one hundred days old, Ye Huan took him to the photography studio, spending the high price of one yuan for a black-and-white hundred-day photo. She got five prints, sent one back home, and kept the rest in her space to avoid losing them in the future. π§ππππΈπ¦π£πππ·ππ.π€π°π
In this era, all photos were black and white, and the hundred-day photos were only about two or three inches in size, with white borders. They came with complimentary negatives, the kind you could develop yourself in the future.
Liu Hongqing had a solo photo taken, and about a week later, the couple, dressed in military uniforms, took another photo holding him.
In total, there were ten photos, for two yuan β five photos for one yuan, ten photos for two yuan, which was considered a high price in those days.
Since they had already gone back home in September last year, they didnβt return for the Spring Festival of ** year. The couple and the child spent a cheerful year in the dormitory of the General Hospital.
The benefits they received this year were quite good. They had meat dumplings and even made braised pork once. They even took Ye Huan and her son to climb the Great Wall, visit the Temple of Heaven, and go to the Imperial Palace. They toured all the attractions they hadnβt had a chance to visit before by relying on buses and their two legs during this holiday.
After the New Year, the General Hospital had plans to go to Hebei for an exchange and study. After discussions with Tong Zhan, assuring that he could temporarily take care of the child, Ye Huan signed up, as there was enough time for more than half a year. Tong Zhan was pleased to handle the matter.
In early March, Tong Zhan came personally to pick up the mother and son, bringing everything useful from home to the family quarters in Hebei.
Ye Huanβs hospital was not close to where Tong Zhan was, and the hospital wouldnβt accommodate her either, so she worked three shifts: morning, noon, and night, squeezing on buses to and from work, which was tough. Meanwhile, Tong Zhan had a more relaxed job, so when Mom wasnβt around, the hired Aunt was off work, and Tong Zhan was the one changing diapers and taking care of the child.
He wasnβt that close to the child initially, but in just a month, he established a good father-son relationship with Zhuangzhuang.
Previously, Zhuangzhuang wouldnβt smile at him, only wide-eyed stares. But when Mom arrived, he immediately greeted her with a smile. It was so dramatic!
Tong Zhan was certainly not convinced, thinking, "I spend half my monthly salary supporting you, and you give me this attitude?"
Thus, in order to gain favor with Zhuangzhuang, he certainly dealt with a lot of diapers. Once, exhausted, he lay down for a nap with him, only to get doused on the face by the little guy and even swallowed a mouthful. On her return, Ye Huan was in stitches as Tong Zhan indignantly reported the incident.
What seemed dramatic enough with the father and son, became even more so when Tong Zhan lifted the child high, and as he looked up, the childβs drool flowed right into his mouth, making him sick, gagging as he washed the diaper on the side.
Ye Huan rolled around on the bed, laughing and holding the child.
"Zhuangzhuang, Zhuangzhuang, youβre lucky youβre young. Otherwise, he would definitely have to scold you if you were even two or three years old, and your PG would get beat red."
When Zhuangzhuang turned four months, Ye Huan started giving him a bit of fruit puree, stewing eggs, and making rice porridge. He didnβt eat much, going from one meal a day to gradually three meals, taking about three months to adjust his stomach and make him adapt to supplementary foods.
When Zhuangzhuang was seven months old, he had a high fever. Tong Zhan and she took turns watching over him, for three full days before he gradually stabilized.
After this incident, the bond between Tong Zhan and the child grew deeper; a single cough at night could alert the nervous dad.
Because in this era, there are fewer chemical additives, people eat just those few things, so as long as a child is cared for a little more attentively, compared to the delicate dolls of the past, they are definitely healthier and easier to raise.
Especially since Zhuangzhuang was born full-term, his physical condition was more advantageous in all aspects.
Zhuangzhuang and Ye Huan stayed in Hebei until the child was one year old, returning to the military district general hospital after National Day. By this time, Ye Huan had been in Hebei for nearly ten months; time does not wait for anyone.
Boys tend to start speaking later, but he wasnβt late in walking; he could walk at eleven months.
After he could walk, he became harder to manage than before. After returning to Beijing, Aunt Zhao came over again. After consulting with her, she agreed to come over during Ye Huanβs night shifts. So Ye Huan didnβt shortchange her, increasing her salary from the original fifteen to twenty.
With someone to help take care of the child, Ye Huan would go out to deal with some things before her night shifts. Now her space had risen to level 20, she could grow cotton. Although it accumulates more slowly, itβs more worthwhile than waiting to buy or scrambling to buy from the outside world.
Although Ye Huanβs hospital wasnβt centrally located in the liveliest and most bustling areas, the peopleβs enthusiasm was visible to them.
...
Throughout this year, Ye Huanβs feelings were mostly superficial, as all her time outside work was given to the child. Even when she went out, she was only obsessed with exchanging money for things. If she stayed in the rural areas, she might have truly experienced that feeling of being in the midst of it.
The closer it got to the year *, the more uneasy Ye Huan felt, despite repeatedly advising her parents in letters to save a little more food, just in case. They complied, but she still feared they wouldnβt have enough and would face another shortage.
But the reality was, after experiencing the famine of *, the members of the Ye Family practically heeded every word Ye Huan said.
Upon reflection, the better days the Ye family enjoyed now, werenβt they thanks to Ye Huan leading them?
Their tofu business was called off by Ye Huan when the year * came around. Of course, it wasnβt stopped suddenly; from the year *, they gradually decreased the production. After the grandparents passed away, they only did business in the village, and half a year later, they stopped entirely, even giving up the village business.
After the autumn harvest of * year, Ye Jiazhe, working in the Grain Bureau, already sensed something wrong and began advising his parents and brothers to dry any vegetables from their private plots and wild vegetables they foraged, storing them up as much as possible.
... So they couldnβt even cook family meals, but Ye Huan had instructed them five years ago to pickle some vegetables, dry some goods, soybean paste, soybeans, spicy cabbage, pickled radish, dried wild vegetables, potato dregs, sweet potato dregs, glass noodles, dried sweet potatoes, anything edible, they stored it in the cellar.
To make her parentsβ life a bit easier, Ye Huan sent batches of peanuts, mung beans, soybeans, sorghum, and other grains home before the New Year of ** year. She didnβt go home too, hoping to exchange more practical benefits during the New Year.
Aunt Zhao helped her take care of Zhuangzhuang until the end of the year *, after which she had to return to her hometown due to her spouseβs health issues.
Considering that there was a kindergarten at the workplace, and after the New Year, Zhuangzhuang would also be two and a half years old, able to go to kindergarten, Ye Huan gave Aunt Zhao a one-time payment of thirty yuan at the end of the year as thanks for her careful care over the past two years.
In fact, the famine actually first impacted rural areas directly. Those in the city living on state supplies merely felt that grains were pricier and limited, but as long as one had money and tickets, they could still get by. The countryside was a different story altogether...
