Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 429 Xiaoman
The clock in the VIP reception room pointed to 6:20 p.m. Zheng Lihui sat on the leather sofa, his fingers unconsciously stroking the edge of his teacup.

Outside the window, dusk was falling, and the sunset over Shixing City stretched the shadow of the blinds into a long, slanted line, cutting out stripes of light and dark on the "One Hundred Sons and Many Blessings" painting.

The sea breeze, carrying the scent of disinfectant, drifted into the room. The faces of the hundred children on the Suzhou embroidery seemed to come alive in the changing light and shadow, winking and making faces at him.

The Longjing tea in his cup had long since gone cold, but he hadn't drunk a drop.

The occasional soft clanging of stretchers and metal instruments echoed from the corridor outside, each sound like a hammer blow to his nerves.

"Old Zheng, how is your wife?"

The door to the reception room was pushed open, and Dong Xinping, a member of the Central Decision-Making Committee and Minister of Science, Education and Health, strode in carrying a stack of documents, followed by two young medical officers carrying materials.

He took off his glasses and wiped them; a fine mist from the sea still clung to the lenses.

"Oh, you made a special trip here?" Zheng Lihui immediately stood up and greeted the other person, his military boots making a crisp sound on the floor. "The person has already been taken to the operating room, ready for a cesarean section."

"Who will be the surgeon?" Dong Xinping asked.

"Reporting to Minister Dong, it was Vice President Liu Azhu who personally performed the surgery," a hospital administrator rushed over and hurriedly replied.

"Oh, that's great! Liu Azhu is the best gynecologist here; she'll definitely have a successful surgery." Dong Xinping patted his shoulder and reassured him gently, "Last year, this hospital performed 31 cesarean sections, with 24 mothers and babies surviving. That's a top success rate for us."

Zheng Lihui's Adam's apple bobbed, but he didn't reply.

The image of Liu Azhu's anxious face flashed before his eyes again—"60% certainty" felt like a thorn in his heart.

A few clear cries of a baby came from outside the door, piercing the silence of the reception room.

The sound came from the direction of the regular delivery room. Then, more cries merged into a wave of sound, like a vibrant tide, crashing against the walls of the corridor.

"Judging from this noise, quite a few newborns are arriving today." Dong Xinping got up, walked to the window, and pushed it open a crack.

Fresh air rushed in, mixed with the smell of alcohol disinfectant and a faint smell of blood.

"Old Zheng, don't worry. Just wait patiently, and your fifth child will definitely be delivered to you, and your sister-in-law will be safe and sound." He turned around and said with a smile.

"..." Zheng Lihui glanced at him, a bitter smile on his face, "Old Dong, this is my sixth child."

"Heh... you have six now." Dong Xinping smiled slightly awkwardly. "We've all been so busy, it's been a long time since we've seen each other. Hey, I have to say, you're quite the fertile one, averaging one every two years. Are you planning to make it a perfect ten?"

"I'd like to, but my wife would suffer!" Zheng Lihui shook his head with a smile. "Oh well, let nature take its course."

"If you have the ability, you should have more children." Dong Xinping sat on the sofa, picked up the teapot on the small table, poured himself a cup of tea, took a few sips, and then jokingly said, "From top to bottom, everyone in Xinhua is encouraging more children. You should set a good example."

“Relying on having more children to increase the population is too slow,” Zheng Lihui said. “We still need to build more ships and send more immigrants. Now that we have a base of 200,000 people, we can take the scale of immigration to the next level. We should try to bring back 20,000 to 30,000 people a year. With some resources available in the country, we can still manage.”

“Old Zheng, while immigration is very important, you can’t underestimate the natural population growth rate of Xinhua itself,” Dong Xinping said, patting a stack of folders on the sofa armrest. “Do you know how many newborns there were in Shixing City last year?… 1,280!”

"Huh?...So many?" Zheng Lihui was immediately surprised. Although Shixing City was known as the number one city in Xinhua, the entire city had a population of just over 30,000, which was less than the population of some prosperous towns in Jiangnan during the Ming Dynasty.

It is important to understand that this city was built by the Xinhua government with the majority of the nation's resources. In order to maximize the advantages of economic scale and industrial agglomeration, a series of related industrial sectors were specifically planned, and nearly a hundred large and small industrial and mining enterprises were established. Together with the nearby Guangfeng City, they formed the twin engines of Xinhua's overall industrial development.

Every year during the immigration season, priority is given to the development needs of Shixing City. The artisans and craftsmen introduced from the Ming Dynasty, Korea, and Japan are selected first by Shixing City to continuously expand and build new industrial categories, enriching Xinhua's industrial chain.

Following Zheng Lihui's conventional thinking, the annual population growth in Shixing City mainly comes from immigrants, while the number of local births should be negligible.

But to his utter surprise, the small town had more than a thousand births every year.

As one of the main leaders of the Army, Zheng Lihui basically stayed in the Army Headquarters building or Army garrison, and rarely had time to wander around the city.

If he were to take a stroll through the city streets, he would find that there are a lot of children in this small town, ranging from energetic teenagers of sixteen or seventeen to toddlers learning to walk, scattered throughout every corner of the town.

“That’s right, Shixing City already had a thousand births last year.” Dong Xinping picked up his teacup and took another sip. “Last year, the entire Dongping County had two thousand eight hundred births, almost three thousand. And nationwide…”

He paused deliberately, then looked at Zheng Lihui with a smile: "Nine thousand seven hundred and sixty. At this rate, it's a sure thing that the local population will increase by more than ten thousand this year!"

"The number of births has reached this level?" Zheng Lihui was somewhat surprised. "I remember three years ago, the number of newborns nationwide was less than five thousand."

"In just three years, our population base has increased by more than 30 percent. In addition, medical conditions have also improved, so it's no wonder that the number of births has increased dramatically."

As Dong Xinping spoke, he pointed out the window towards the main building of the hospital, "This Dongping Second Hospital alone delivered more than 600 babies last year, with a maternal mortality rate of less than one percent. In the Ming Dynasty or Europe, this number would be at least 10 percent (the maternal mortality rate in the Ming Dynasty was actually 5-10%, while the maternal mortality rate in Europe was extremely high, generally around 15-20%, and even in the early 19th century it was still as high as 10%)."

Zheng Lihui nodded, his gaze involuntarily drifting towards the doorway.

Seeing this, Dong Xinping smiled and changed the subject: "Speaking of which, the hospital is quite lively today. I just passed by a few wards and heard that there are more than thirty women in labor."

"Really? So many?" Zheng Lihui raised an eyebrow. "Heh, today is a good day, Lesser Fullness. I hope everyone can have a Lesser Fullness in their lives!"

As they were talking, the door to the reception room was gently pushed open, and a female caregiver wearing a blue mask peeked in: "Minister Zheng, the surgery is over. Everything went smoothly, and your wife and child are both safe! ...It's a baby girl, weighing six pounds and four ounces!"

"Mother and daughter are safe!?" Zheng Lihui stood up abruptly, a look of surprise on his face.

“Yes, Minister Zheng. Dean Liu said the surgery went even more smoothly than expected, with minimal bleeding and a loud cry from the baby.” The nurse’s eyes curved into crescents above her mask. “Now, your wife is under observation in the recovery room, and the baby has been moved to the nursery. Would you like to go see her?”

Zheng Lihui nodded, turned to Dong Xinping for a slight nod, and then, led by the female caregiver, walked towards the nursery.

Through the glass window, he saw the tiny baby, who was fast asleep with her fists clenched, a card hanging from her ankle with her birth information recorded on it.

In the corridor, Dong Xinping's instructions to the medical officers could be faintly heard: "...Next quarter, we need to expand the maternal and child health facilities to prepare for the baby boom in the second half of the year. Also, you need to provide the necessary manpower for maternal and child health care in rural towns and villages, and conduct several mobile medical services..."

Zheng Lihui walked to the window, unbuttoned his top button, and let the evening breeze flow into his neck, experiencing an unprecedented sense of comfort.

"Hehe, Xiaoman."
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(End of this chapter)