Annual Ceremony

Chapter 15 Qingming Festival (Part )

Orange has seen a cat give birth, but has never seen a person give birth. This is the first time.

At first, hearing Yang Jinniang's screams so shrill and pitiful, Juzi became very anxious and ran into the delivery room.

Seeing that Yang Jinniang was taking a long time to give birth, Juzi felt that they had to go to the hospital. However, there was no hospital for childbirth here, so the only one they could rely on was the midwife.

The sky outside the window was getting brighter and brighter, but the midwife's expression went against the sky and gradually became solemn.

Yang Jinniang was tossed around the whole night, sometimes lying, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing, and trying all kinds of delivery positions. She also drank ginseng soup. The room was full of blood, but Yang Jinniang, who was supported by Mother Zhao and Mother Lu, half bent over and standing weakly on the delivery stool, had a face as pale as gold paper. No matter how much sweat washed away, not a trace of blood could be washed out.

The midwife half-knelt in front of Yang Jinniang, and finally saw some movement in the bloody birth chamber.

This long-awaited sound made the midwife's face change completely.

Orange saw it too.

A thin little foot emerged from there, hanging on Yang Jinniang's bloody lower body, its thin toes wriggling and grasping.

The midwife suddenly stood up and walked out: "Let the person who can make the decision at home come..."

"Save the older one or the younger one, make a decision quickly...if you delay any longer, they won't be able to be saved!"

Wang Xichen, who had been waiting in the outer hall, suddenly turned pale.

The experienced midwife paused and told him truthfully: "It's most likely a boy..."

Wang Xichen's eyes trembled, and he rushed into the delivery room without caring about any taboos. At first glance, he saw his wife who looked like an old cloth soaked in dirty water.

Yang Jinniang was helped back to the bed, where she lay with a tired and dazed look in her eyes.

"I want a small one..." She saw her husband coming over and said in a weak and hoarse voice, "Second Master, I want a small one."

Tears welled up in Wang Xichen's eyes and he held his wife's hand tightly, not daring to let go.

The other people in the room also looked reluctant and hesitated to speak.

Until an old man's voice sounded: "There is no such thing as protecting the elder or the younger."

Wang Xichen turned around and saw that his mother had also come.

Mrs. Dong said bluntly, "A thing that was not born is not even a human being. It doesn't make sense to sacrifice a life for a thing. The Wang family doesn't have such a rule of taking human life lightly!"

Wang Xichen had no more hesitation after hearing this, and said decisively with tears in his eyes: "Listen to mother, save the emperor!"

He ignored his wife who was still shaking her head and bowed solemnly to the midwife: "Please save my wife Jinniang!"

The midwife sighed and asked everyone to leave, leaving only Mother Zhao to help.

Orange is still guarding. She is Zhenyi's mother, and she has to guard for Zhenyi.

Orange had also heard the concept of "protecting the big and the small" on TV, but it didn't know how it was done before, and only found out today.

The midwife held a pair of scissors in one hand and reached into Yang Jinniang's lower body with the other, muttering, "You are not blessed. Go away... Watch the road carefully next time!"

Yang Jinniang cried and tried to struggle, but she had no strength left and could only be pinned down on the bed by Mother Zhao.

Orange clearly saw that the protruding feet of the fetus were still moving at first, but soon turned into a pile of minced meat. As the midwife's hand reached inside, there seemed to be a muffled cry.

As more and more pieces of flesh were dug out, Yang Jinniang's face gradually became numb, and she seemed to feel no pain, until her body trembled slightly, and a large pool of turbid flesh and blood slid out from her lower body, and her abdomen quickly deflated.

Juzi saw that the midwife cut off something, processed it, and then stuffed the mass of flesh and blood back into Yang Jinniang's stomach.

Mother Zhao walked out with the basin of minced meat. Wang Xichen took a look and didn't look back. He almost vomited with tears in his eyes. He didn't dare to look at it again: "Go and bury it..."

He walked into the room with unsteady steps and came to the bed.

"Second Master, tell me..." Yang Jinniang opened her eyes and spoke in a hollow voice, "Is it a boy or a girl?"

Wang Xichen grabbed her hand and said in a hoarse voice, "Yes...it's a girl. I saw it."

Yang Jinniang's eyes trembled, and finally tears rolled out. She seemed to be relieved and sobbed, "She and I are not destined to be together..."

After a moment, she turned around and said to her husband, "Wait until I recover... let's have another child. We can always have one."

Orange, who thought he was very brave, suddenly felt terrified at this moment.

There was gratitude, shame and self-blame on Yang Jinniang's frail face, but even such a weak person, she didn't look afraid at all.

Juzi suddenly felt a little disgusted with Yang Jinniang.

Orange turned and ran away.

Soon, Zhenyi ran in.

Chun'er followed in, her eyes also red and swollen: "The young lady didn't sleep all night, I really can't stop her..."

"Get out quickly..." Yang Jinniang's voice was so weak that it began to fade away: "It's unlucky..."

"Mother, I'm not afraid!" Zhenyi finally burst into tears and hugged her mother's shoulders: "I want to stay with you! I won't go anywhere!"

In the next few days, Zhenyi slept restlessly and often had nightmares. She woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and ran to A Niang's room to see if she was still there.

To make matters worse, the oranges were lost.

The family has been busy these days, and Chun'er has not had time to look for it carefully. Normally, Orange would often slip away, but never for more than two days, but this is already the fifth day.

Zhenyi looked everywhere and shouted everywhere, but she still couldn't find the orange.

The sun sets in the west and the stars become denser.

Orange was walking by the Hou River, and familiar cats kept greeting him, but he ignored them.

With its furry tail hanging low, Orange walked across the river and came to an alley. After a few jumps, it climbed onto the roof and squatted on it in a daze.

It didn't seem like it really hated Yang Jinniang, it just hated this place and wanted to go home.

But how to get back? Orange thought carefully and realized that he came here because he accidentally fell from a high place when fighting with the foreign tabby cat.

Orange jumped and jumped off the roof.

But in mid-air, it instinctively grabbed the wall to cushion its fall, and then landed steadily without any damage. Orange sighed, it was undeniable that it was really a very capable big cat.

The big cat Orange sat there in a daze for a while, and suddenly heard a child crying at night. It seemed that the child had a nightmare, and the adults were patting the child in a gentle voice to comfort him.

Zhenyi also has nightmares, right?

The house is in such a mess, who will comfort Zhenyi?

Orange suddenly stood up, and its four legs moved faster and faster, and it ran back to Wang's house.

Juzi returned to the second courtyard with ease, pushed Zhenyi's door open a little, and nimbly slipped in.

Zhenyi fell asleep, and Chun'er was taking care of Yang Jinniang with Mother Zhao in the next room.

Perhaps because she was afraid that Zhenyi would be scared after waking up from a nightmare, Chun'er left a light on in the room.

Juzi jumped onto the bed and was relieved to see that Zhenyi was sleeping soundly.

Juzi stared at Zhenyi who was sleeping, and suddenly wondered, will Zhenyi become Yang Jinniang when she grows up?
Juzi didn't want that. He was very worried about Zhenyi's future, and he didn't know what Zhenyi's ending was in history books.

Orange doesn't like this place, but it likes Zhenyi very much. After thinking it over, it still can't bear to leave Zhenyi here alone.

It wants to accompany and protect the child.

Orange stretched out one of his front paws and gently pressed the pad of his paw on Zhenyi's forehead, as if signing the most loyal contract.

The cool and soft touch made Zhenyi open her eyes hazily.

Before Juzi could retract his front paws, Zhenyi grabbed him and rubbed him hard.

Zhenyi was very happy to get it back.

She got out of bed barefoot, replaced the water in Orange's small bowl with clean water, and took some dried fish, carefully tore it into pieces and put it in another small bowl placed side by side.

Orange jumped onto the small table to eat. Zhenyi climbed onto the chair, squatted in the middle of it, with her hair loose and her knees hugged, watching Orange eat and drink.

After eating and drinking, Orange licked his fur and jumped onto Zhenyi's bed with a swagger.

Zhenyi hurriedly followed and lay down next to Juzi. After covering Juzi with a small blanket, she held one of Juzi's paws with one hand before closing her eyes with peace of mind.

Orange yawned - see, it said, cats are very important to humans, there's nothing you can do about it.

In the next few months, Yang Jinniang spent most of her time in bed recuperating, and Zhenyi seldom went to the study. She spent most of her time practicing calligraphy and arithmetic in A Niang's room.

Wang Xichen rarely goes out. He concentrates on taking care of his wife's diet and medication, and also helps his daughter with her homework.

One day, Wang Xichen came back from outside with a long-lost smile of relief on his face. He held two letters in his hands, one of which had been opened. It was from Jilin: "My father sent someone to bring a letter back. He arrived at the border defense office last October..."

Jilin is bitterly cold, and many people have died on the road to exile. Fortunately, Wang Zhefu set out during the Qingming Festival last year, thus avoiding the cold winter.

Yang Jinniang was relieved and Zhenyi was also very excited.

Wang Xichen handed another letter to his wife: "Jinniang, I will go to my mother first and help you read the letter later."

Yang Jinniang nodded and urged: "Go quickly, you should go to mother first... Go quickly."

Zhenyi wanted to be with her father, but she stayed.

Yang Jinniang smiled and said, "Go if you want to, and listen to the news about your great-grandfather."

"I'll stay and accompany mother." Zhenyi has always been very opinionated: "Wait until father comes back and ask... Mother, let me read the letter to you!"

Zhenyi is eight years old this year and has already mastered hundreds of commonly used characters.

Seeing her daughter being well-behaved and considerate, Yang Jinniang nodded with satisfaction: "Okay, let me hear what words Zhen'er has learned."

The letter came from Jiangxi, where Yang Jinniang's sister Yang Tingniang's husband's family lived.

Yang Tingniang also couldn't write, so she asked someone to write the letter. Some of the letters were probably written by Yang Tingniang herself, in vernacular with a little bit of local dialect. Some of the letters were probably written in Mandarin because the writer was too abbreviated. The words used were mixed, but fortunately, it wasn't difficult to understand.

At first, he talked about mostly trivial matters, just saying that he was feeling better, that the family situation was up and down, that his eldest daughter had been engaged, etc.

Finally, I would like to mention that last year I gave birth to another daughter, who was drowned by her mother-in-law.

The words are plain and do not express any emotion, as if they are just mentioning a very ordinary thing.

Yang Jinniang's heart trembled, and she whispered in a daze: "I am already a very lucky person..."

Then he looked at Zhenyi and said, "My Zhen'er is also a very lucky child."

Thinking of the "little daughter" whom she had no chance to see, Yang Jinniang was troubled by the sad things and worried about her sister's situation in her parents' home, and her eyes became red again.

When she heard Shuyi coming to visit, Yang Jinniang hurriedly wiped away the tears from her eyes and put the letter away.

Zhenyi hadn't seen her elder sister for some time, and her elder sister looked much thinner.

The marriage between Shuyi and Wen Yiheng dragged on for nearly a year but ultimately failed.

The Wen family did not explicitly refuse at first, but just kept putting it off. The Wang family was also a family that cared about their reputation, and when they saw that the Wen family was backing off, they stopped mentioning it.

Qian Yuling asked his brother at home and learned that Wen Yiheng was still interested, but he couldn't persuade his strong grandmother. His father was in the officialdom and couldn't help but have doubts because Wang Zhefu was exiled.

After hearing this, Shuyi did not blame anyone, but just nodded slightly, lowered her eyes and said, "That's it."

The most feared thing for a girl is delay in her marriage as she is getting older, so Shuyi's marriage should be planned early. The third wife was very anxious about this matter.

There were quite a few people who came to propose marriage, but their conditions were not satisfactory. It seemed that they took advantage of the Wang family's bad situation and wanted to pick up a good daughter-in-law who was out of reach even with a ladder on normal days.

The third wife, who came from a moderately wealthy family, had some ambition. Moreover, her husband was an official. How could the daughter whom she had raised with great care be married off in such a hasty manner?
The marriage was discussed for more than a year, and when the Qingming Festival came again, Shuyi's marriage was still not settled, and she was instead given a reputation for being picky.

Wang Xipu, who returned to Jinling to worship his ancestors, had a few arguments with his wife because of this matter. When Juzi went to eavesdrop, he saw Shuyi quietly wiping tears under the jujube tree in the yard.

It was not until the early morning of this day, in the drizzle, that a mother and son, accompanied by two servants, came to the Wang family's door, and the atmosphere in the third room began to improve.

Upon hearing the news, Orange also rushed over to help take a look.

　I will update every other day, and I will update at this time in the future. If you don’t see it now, don’t wait~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)