She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 899 - 817: Famine Era 58

It seems that with the encouragement of acupuncture and Snow Lotus,

"Let’s not rush, the meridians are pretty much repaired, we’ll adjust slowly. Snow Lotus truly deserves its reputation as precious Chinese Herbal Medicine, and with the nurturing of Space Spiritual Energy, the help it provides is the greatest."

Perhaps the rock weighing heavily in his heart finally settled, and Tong Zhan felt even better while working afterwards.

Ye Huan did not stop giving him acupuncture; every midday when taking a break, acupuncture had become a mandatory activity for the couple. With the children not at home and resting at the regiment, the couple cherished the rare illumination in the earth cave.

Originally, they took one pill every two days, but now it has sharply decreased to one pill a week, wanting to see how things go without medication.

It increased to ten minutes, although still far from what it used to be, it was a huge progress for the couple nevertheless.

After November, the temperature in Xinjiang plummeted to several dozen degrees below zero, and once the ground froze, everyone started hibernating.

Before hibernation, those with families used their money to buy the grains and vegetables planted this year. As it was the first year, the yield wasn’t high, so the country provided them with the greatest subsidies, focusing on self-sufficiency. That is to say, the grains planted were available for the regiment’s consumption, but starting the second year, yield reports had to be submitted.

This year’s field was not irrigated with fertilizer; it was all grassland, so the yield was not high. With more people arriving, there was artificial fertilizer, gradually nurturing it, and the yield would increase. However, without chemical fertilizer, even if the yield was high, it wouldn’t be much. The specifics would have to wait for agricultural experts to arrive for detailed inspection and research.

The warriors still went to the regiment to eat, but those with families bought grains, so they could cook at home.

Ye Huan’s family earned money from two people, so naturally, they bought enough for themselves to eat.

With such cold weather, Ye Huan and Tong Zhan gathered a lot of Firewood ahead, especially Ye Huan. The presence of space made it twice as effective, and failing that, there were coal balls too, hence the accumulated Firewood was enough to heat their home’s stove.

Eating, drinking, caring for the children, once they fell asleep, the couple started entertaining themselves.

Entering late December, Ye Huan stopped giving Tong Zhan medicine. Although without medication, endurance was lacking, at least he fought on his own. As long as acupuncture persisted, given time, full recovery was certain.

At the end of January, Ye Huan discovered her period hadn’t come.

She waited for ten days, and still, it hadn’t come; her heart was filled with anticipation.

Although doctors can’t treat themselves, she couldn’t resist taking her pulse, but struggled for half a day without finding a pregnancy pulse.

With no choice, she braved the wind and snow, and together with Tong Zhan went to a Tibetan Medicine doctor, who after three repeated attempts, stroked his bearded chin and said to Ye Huan and her husband.

"Congratulations to both of you, this time, it’s truly joy after hard times, this is definitely the pregnancy pulse."

Thus, in the New Year of 1961, Ye Huan at the ripe age of 31 finally conceived her and Tong Zhan’s child. Who knows how happy the couple was at that moment?

Ye Huan was so overwhelmed she hugged Tong Zhan and cried out loud. She married him at 23, and only conceived at 31; eight years to finally reach this child.

For this New Year, Tong Zhan rarely got drunk, and Ye Huan silently shed tears watching him, as the bitterness within was only known to those who experienced it.

Tong Zhan had truly enduring hardships.

This year, they mostly planted high-yield potatoes and corn, with enough cotton for internal consumption.

So during winter, they lacked radish and cabbage; only potatoes as vegetables, corn as staple food, and for cotton to be made into cloth, they needed a weaving machine, but the entire regiment had no such machine.

Tong Zhan realized this gap and planned to apply for one after the New Year’s celebrations.

Just because others didn’t have it, didn’t mean their family lacked vegetables; eating at home held the freedom of doing anything and making whatever they wanted.

Of course, due to tight oil supplies, to avoid overly rich flavors, they mainly cooked rather than fried. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Potatoes could be steamed, roasted, or stir-fried; regardless of preparation, they tasted good, but eating them daily was tiresome, so sometimes they’d bring out Space Spiritual Energy’s salted duck egg, spicy cabbage, and shredded radish as side dishes.

After becoming pregnant, Tong Zhan gave her his eggs to nourish her. He didn’t work, hence didn’t need them. When he used to focus on recovery, he had no need to waste food now when they had a child coming.

Ye Huan knew persuading him was futile, so she accepted, consuming one egg every two days. Now the children didn’t go out, so the three of them steamed two eggs, sometimes Zhuangzhuang, understandingly, would let the younger siblings eat them all, leaving her deeply moved, but she wouldn’t accept and had him share in eating them.

With three children, there’s no favoritism, everyone got to eat them.

The preciousness of food made them cherish every single grain during this harsh winter.

And the child growing inside made her realize that she could have at least one more child before turning 35.

Also, before New Year, she received a letter from Mom, because the family faced famine, there was nothing to send them, but the blessings from home had arrived.

The letter was sent in August; they only received it by late November, spending half a year on the journey. The distance became their helpless longing for home.

The letter told them the disaster, although passed, would not fully recover until post-autumn harvest.

Unfortunately, Grandpa couldn’t endure the famine, starved to death by unscrupulous uncles and aunts.

During the famine, even though Mom and Second Aunt frequently sent grains over, the grains never reached Grandpa’s mouth once they left...