Farmer's Struggle

Chapter 1 Disappointment
February 21st of the lunar calendar in [-] was a very normal day.

February in the lunar calendar in Northeast China is still not warm, so you have to wear cotton-padded jackets when you go out, and the ground has not yet melted, and there is still ice on the clods brought out by digging with a pickaxe.

Ju Wenqi spent the whole morning digging out five ridges, his arms were sore and his forehead was covered with sweat.

He didn't dare to take off his padded jacket, fearing that he would catch a cold and have a fever and delay his work.

Carrying a pickaxe and wiping his sweat, he walked home, but when he entered the village, he was stopped by his younger sister, Ju Ying, who lived at the head of the village.

Ju Ying pulled him and looked around like a thief. When she saw that no one was looking at them, she lowered her voice and said, "Third brother, I gave birth. The birth was after ten o'clock in the morning. The third sister-in-law is very good. Later, you can cook some porridge and send it over." Bar."

A slight smile appeared on Ju Wenqi's handsome face.

"Male or female?" he asked nervously.

In Ju Wenqi's generation, there are four brothers and sisters in total, three boys and one girl. He is the third eldest, the two older brothers in front, and the only younger sister in front of him.

The four brothers and sisters were not born of the same mother.The mothers of Ju Wenlin, the eldest, and Ju Wenxin, the second child, died early. Father Ju lived alone for many years and married a crazy woman who came from nowhere, and later gave birth to Ju Wenqi and Ju Ying.

Ju Wenqi's brother and sister are quite different in age from the first two elder brothers, and they walk together like father and son. Ju Wenlin's eldest son, Ju Changfu, is only three years younger than Ju Wenqi.

Father Ju passed away seven years ago. At that time, Ju Wenqi was 26 years old and had been married for more than four years.

Before leaving, Father Ju took Ju Wenqi's hand and said with a suffocated breath, "Wen Qi, you are the only one of your three brothers who has no children yet. You should take care of yourself and take your wife to the county hospital tomorrow. I didn't see it." I can't close my eyes when I see you giving birth to a son."

Father Ju, who couldn't close his eyes after speaking, closed his eyes and died the next moment.

Ju Wenqi is a dutiful son, and he always thought about this matter in his heart. His father took his daughter-in-law to the county hospital to see a doctor in the first seven days. After spending a lot of money, the family was exhausted, and the Chinese medicine was enough to vomit. The daughter-in-law Zhang Yongmei finally became pregnant.

After much anticipation, she gave birth to her first child, a girl.

The couple were a little disappointed, but this was their first child after so many twists and turns, and they still loved and pampered them.

Within two years, they ignored the policy above and gave birth to another one.They planned well, this one would be worth a little fine if they had a son, and if they had a son, they would be less punished if they were not born.

It's a pity that heaven failed to fulfill people's wishes, and the second child was still a girl.The family's cattle were taken away, and the newly made bedding was not left behind.

In the past two years, the policy has been tightened. Many pregnant women were taken away to kill their children, and those who had already given birth were directly used for birth control.

Zhang Yongmei hid in Tibet to avoid birth control and became pregnant again. People from the family planning office in the village came to the house every three days to arrest her. Zhang Yongmei never dared to go home.

If a child is born, he will definitely not be able to avoid being punished, so he will be punished, as long as his son is punished, Ju Wenqi will admit it.

Ju Ying sighed before saying anything, and with a look of regret on her face, she patted her thigh and replied, "It's still a girl."

Ju Wenqi did not hide his disappointment. He reached out to touch his pocket, took out a cigarette bag and rolled the shredded tobacco with paper cut from old newspapers with trembling hands.

"Third brother, don't get angry, you and third sister-in-law are only in their early thirties, let's have another life in the future," Ju Ying persuaded.

Ju Wenqi sighed and waved his hands: "Okay, okay, I'll go home and cook first, my mother is worried about the child."

Ju Wenqi lived in the old house left by Ju's father. It was a small thatched cottage, very short, and looked a little crooked from the front, as if it could be blown crooked by a strong wind.Fortunately, the location of the old house is good, in the middle of the village, so it is convenient to visit anyone's house.

Afraid that the madwoman would run around and throw stones at other people's children and cause trouble, Ju Wenqi would lock the door every time he went out, leaving a gap between the two doors, so that the adults could not get through the children, but it was okay, so that the madwoman had something to do, big girl Ju Min came out to call for someone.

Just as the lock was being unlocked, a child's cry came from the room, and Ju Wenqi almost broke the key in a panic.

It was Ju Jing, the second girl, who was crying.

The little girl is only three years old this year. She doesn't understand anything. She hasn't seen her mother for more than a year and doesn't care about it. She cries all day long when she's hungry, thirsty, cold or hot.

"What's the matter? Did you bully your sister?" Ju Wenqi asked Ju Min, who was sitting on the kang playing a tumbler.

Ju Min replied unconvinced: "Who bullied her. She cried because she wanted to eat the milk powder in the jar but couldn't reach it. It was milk powder bought for my younger brother, so she can't eat it."

One sentence just hit Ju Wenqi's heart, and he was so depressed.

"It's not the younger brother, it's the younger sister," Ju Wenqi said in a muffled voice, "I'll make some porridge and then I'll fetch your mother back, and you burn the kang in the east room."

As soon as she heard that her mother was coming back, Ju Minle didn't even play with tumblers, and rushed out to hold firewood without wearing a padded jacket.

The five-year-old child is about the same height as Chai, but she can hold it securely, which shows that he usually does this work.

After the porridge was cooked, Ju Wenqi asked Ju Min to let it cool down and serve a bowl to grandma, then went out with two aluminum lunch boxes.

When he passed the east end of the village, he left a lunch box of thick millet porridge for the old man of the Sun family, and borrowed an ox cart from his family.

It took more than an hour for the bullock cart to climb down the ridge and creaked to get to the place.

This is a small mountain depression, not exposed to the wind, and it is much warmer to build a grass shed inside than outside.

Over the past year, Zhang Yongmei has changed many places, and this is the ninth place. She chose to give birth here because she thought it would be safe from the wind, and she would suffer less.

Ju Wenqi lifted the torn quilt on the thatched shed, bent down and got in.

The space inside is small, dark, and smells bad.

"I brought porridge, you can drink some, let's go home if there is nothing to do." With the faint light of a candle, Ju Wenqi handed the lunch box that he had been clutching in his arms to Zhang Yongmei.

She has been tossing and tossing during pregnancy, Zhang Yongmei is not only not fat, but also has lost a lot of weight. She looks skinny and frightening.

Zhang Yongmei sniffed with red eyes, looked lovingly at the sleeping child lying next to her, sighed and said: "This child is not blessed, I have milk for the first two, but not this one."

"If you don't have it, you don't have it, as long as you can support it," Ju Wenqi comforted: "You don't have to worry about it anymore, you go home and take care of it. We are still young, and taking care of it and taking on a few more carpentry jobs will always make life better. Let us girls have a good life."

Zhang Yongmei was very persuasive, and she ate a lunch box of porridge without any appetite, and started to pack things without resting after eating.

In fact, there are not many things, and a package can be filled by stuffing it.

Ju Wenqi went outside the shed to tear off the torn quilt, wrapped Zhang Yongmei and the child tightly, and placed the mother and daughter on the ox cart.

The bullock cart creaked up and downhill, and the speed was slower than when it came. It was estimated that it would take more than two hours to get home.

No matter how long the road is, it will always come to an end. No matter how poor and difficult the days are, as long as you work hard, you can always get through it.

These days, you always have to live to know whether it is good or bad.

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(End of this chapter)