She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 903 - 819: Famine Era 60 (Part 2)

In the blink of an eye, it was spring of 1962. Tong Zhan and his team started working, and Ye Huan took the child to the clinic.

When the child was hungry, she went to nurse, and when she was free, the teachers helped with the childcare, while she busied herself attending to the warriors’ medical needs.

Of course, buying medicinal plant seeds from the mainland and locally became a daily routine for the couple. Occasionally, she would sun-dry the medicinal herbs she prepared at the regiment headquarters.

Besides, brewing alcohol with grain and soaking herbal wine for the warriors to wash with became part of her daily routine as well.

The summer of ’62 saw Ye Yu carrying the child on vacation to their home, bringing lots and lots of stones. From two large baskets of stones, she picked out US$ 10 to US$ 20 worth of jade stones. Ye Huan didn’t hold back from her sister, but if these stones fetched a good price in the future, she was sure to share half with the couple.

She didn’t waste the remaining stones either, stacking them around the stone nest, forming a stone wall that could somewhat block the wind.

Once Ye Yu arrived, Tong Zhan moved to sleep at the regiment headquarters. Usually, the older child was sent to preschool, while the two younger ones were left with Ye Yu, who brought them to Ye Huan for nursing when the time came.

During the summer vacation spanning two months, Ye Yu helped Ye Huan with childcare a lot. Although she didn’t serve her sister as a postpartum helper, she at least reciprocated her sister’s support in her own way.

Of course, Ye Huan put considerable effort into cooking during these two months. When Ye Yu left, Ye Huan gave her a jar of medicinal wine she brewed herself, along with precious medicinal materials like Snow Lotus as well as herbs for the children’s common cold and fever, all labeled neatly for Ye Yu to easily administer.

How could something produced in space not be better than those bought outside?

Ye Huan wanted to go to Hetian, but with many children and having recently had a little son, she didn’t have as much time as Ye Yu, who was a teacher enjoying summer vacations.

The winter was too cold, making summer visits to her sister’s place for vacation ideal.

The sisters had discussed going back to their old home, but thinking about the round trip taking US$ 10 to US$ 20 days on the road, weighed down by the children, they decided against it. It was too far, so expressing their filial piety was done by sending items and money to their family.

Once things eased out at home, their elder brother and parents often sent things to the two of them, with the whole family guarding their affection in their own ways.

When Liu Zhengrong was 11 months old, she contemplated whether to wean him, but before that could happen, the familiar pregnancy symptoms started again.

During breastfeeding, her period didn’t come, and the couple didn’t use contraception. She knew pregnancy could happen under such circumstances, but she hadn’t expected Tong Zhan, once he recovered physically, to be so potent. She wasn’t sure if it was due to the acupuncture or the Snow Lotus’s efficacy, but the pregnancy was an undeniable fact. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Looking at a room full of radish heads, Ye Huan pinched her temples with concern, "How am I supposed to continue working like this? Do you want me to have two kids in three years?"

Tong Zhan took it easy, "If worse comes to worst, see if any sister-in-law can help us out. While you’re young, you might as well give me another daughter, then we’ll stop having kids."

"What if it’s another son? Are you going to keep trying?"

Tong Zhan laughed heartily, "As long as you give birth, I can afford to raise them. It’s lively with lots of siblings, after all. Next spring we plan to build a mud brick house, and by then we’ll build one for our family too. With the kids growing up, they ought to sleep separately. Our Liu Hongqing should also be going to primary school."

Ye Huan didn’t want more children, "We already have three sons and a daughter; whatever this one turns out to be, you better accept it. Five kids is plenty."

If it were modern times, she couldn’t even imagine raising five kids.

Yet, in this era, children were all strong labor forces. Which family didn’t have five or six kids? She only had two so far, which didn’t seem numerous compared to those in the regiment who brought along family; no shortage of children there either.

Because children were many and ate a lot, so no matter how tough or difficult, the couple had to work hard.

Some women, even in their thirties, due to having many kids and working hard, ended up looking like they were in their forties.

Ye Huan had the advantage of not needing to toil in the wind and rain, plus she had the golden finger that was space, so she appeared relatively well-maintained.

If she had been prettier, she might’ve been the most eye-catching person at the regiment headquarters. But since she wasn’t, despite her strong work capabilities, she didn’t attract attention. Yet she liked it this way—not being noticed. In this era, maintaining such an appearance served as a disguise, making her satisfied with her looks in this lifetime.

In the blink of an eye, it was late July of 1963. Ye Huan’s little daughter, Ye DanNi, was born, named after her sister Ye Danfeng, with both sisters taking their mother’s surname.

This summer, Ye Yu didn’t come because she gave birth to her little daughter, Ye Zhiqiu, several months earlier than Ye Huan.

This year was destined to be joyous, and Ye Huan fulfilled her wish of having two kids in three years. From now on, she would permanently stop having children. Now having three sons and two daughters, what could she be dissatisfied with?

As long as her life afterward was safe and sound, and the children excelled, she wouldn’t feel her life was lived in vain.

And Tong Zhan and his team were supportive, completing the construction of their mud brick house before she gave birth. Therefore, this postpartum period was spent in the mud brick house.

Unlike individual mud brick houses, their family mud brick house had a yard, two hall rooms, one room on each side of the wing, a makeshift cooking shed, and an interior warm kang bed, where cooking could be done. Because normally, they didn’t cook much at home, eating at the regiment headquarters instead. Only in the deep winter did families cook at home, and mostly it was just for boiling water or similar activities.

The courtyard had walls and could grow vegetables. The toilet was in the backyard, and unsurprisingly, their family was likely to settle here in the future.