To please others? It's better to please yourself.

After receiving the letter, Xu Jing'an took advantage of her rest at home to starch and wash all the clothes and diapers that her three children could no longer wear, boiled them in boiling water, and then dried and stored them away.

Watching his daughter-in-law bustling about, Mr. Shen clicked his tongue in amazement. "She washed it so cleanly, even cleaner than a face towel. Did the hospital used to wash gauze like this?"

He had never seen anyone wash diapers like that before; only his daughter-in-law was so particular.

During the War of Resistance against Japan, there was an extreme shortage of medical equipment and medicines. Even gauze and sterilized cotton balls were reused in the Eighth Route Army. The shortage of professional surgical instruments, anesthetics, and painkillers was even more severe. Amputations were sometimes performed using carpenters' saws or even kitchen knives.

The conditions were so harsh that it was unbearable to look at. Many soldiers suffered from bacterial infections after being wounded.

After washing his hands, Shen He came over to help. "Dad, you're wrong. The gauze circulation requires Dr. Bethune's 'Thirteen Methods' of disinfection."

While putting on a diaper, Shen He said to his father, "Used gauze has to go through thirteen processes, including washing with clean water, soaking in lime water, sun-drying, and boiling in boiling water. Your grandson's treatment is still a bit lacking."

Shen's mother brought out the children's old baby bottles and toys, intending to wash and boil them. "Can things compare to before? Conditions have improved, so the children's treatment should keep up, shouldn't it?"

Mr. Shen couldn't help but sigh, "You know what, after all this fuss, I feel completely different. I feel so much more at ease!"

"That's right, you can't be too careful with a newborn!" Xu Jing'an saw that someone had taken over the task of changing diapers, so she came over to help Shen's mother.

"Mom, stop messing with the bottle, it's already cracked."

"Where?"

Xu Jing'an pointed it out to Shen's mother, who looked at it carefully for a while before noticing. "It really is. It's probably been worn out for a long time. We should just buy a new one."

When the children saw the diapers hanging all over the yard, they shouted excitedly, "Wow!"

They ran back and forth across the bottom. Luckily, they were short, otherwise they would have gotten filthy.

Xu Jing'an: "Hey—, you can't touch it with your hands, okay?"

"I know—" Everyone, from the oldest to the youngest, shouted "I know!" Mao Mao was especially eager to join in.

The elderly couple smiled happily as they watched their grandchildren running around the yard.

……

After finishing their chores in the evening, the couple would lean against each other and whisper sweet nothings. Now that Zhuangzhuang is older, he's long since moved out to sleep on his own. Mao Mao and Dou Dou are still small, and they both sleep soundly.

Otherwise, the two of them wouldn't have been able to relax and fuss for more than half an hour.

Xu Jing'an leaned against Shen He's chest. "Go to your workplace tomorrow and see if you can exchange some cloth coupons and milk powder coupons. It won't look good if we just give your older brother and sister-in-law old things."

"Okay, how many milk powder coupons do you need?"

"Of course, the more the better! I reckon you'll have at least two or three!" What's a leading lady? She has to give birth to twins, triplets, or quadruplets to be considered a leading lady. Someone like her, giving birth to only one child at a time, is just an ordinary person!

With so many babies, there's bound to be not enough milk. In those days, we'll have to beg and plead with everyone we know, pulling strings and asking for favors, all just to get some milk for the babies.

Xu Jing'an calculated that it would take several more years to process the milk powder vouchers.

A month later, the family finally managed to scrape together three milk powder coupons. In addition to buying the milk powder, Xu Jing'an also bought two baby bottles.

I remember when I was pregnant with Zhuangzhuang, I was thinking of buying two baby bottles to prepare for the baby. The first time I went to buy baby bottles, Xu Jing'an really learned a lot.

Who would have thought there were glass baby bottles shaped like birds and fish? She was incredibly surprised when she saw them. Everyone says that people dressed very conservatively back then, yet they had made such a breakthrough in baby bottles.

Of course, she ended up buying a regular upright bottle. She couldn't accept other shapes; they were a bit beyond her comprehension.

Regardless of the shape of the bottle, they all have a standard opening diameter (3.5cm).

There are two drawbacks: one is that the narrow opening makes it difficult to put formula in; the other is that glass products are prone to shattering during use. (The glass bottle is cool to the touch, and the chance of it breaking is higher when hot water is poured in. This is especially common in winter, and can easily cause injury, so extra caution should be taken when using it.)

After packing up the prepared items, Xu Jing'an added two newly bought pieces of cloth: one light purple with white plum blossoms and one light blue with white polka dots (after all, the female lead was pregnant with twins this time), three bags of milk powder, and two baby bottles, and sent them over.

February 14, 76 — the Lantern Festival (January 2th of the lunar calendar)

On the Lantern Festival, families naturally gather together to eat glutinous rice balls. Xu Jing'an had always thought that glutinous rice balls and glutinous rice balls were the same thing, just different names in the south and north.

She had never eaten them before at the Xu family's house, and only after arriving at the steel mill did she realize that the two were different. Yuanxiao has a thicker skin, while Tangyuan has a thinner skin; the soup for Yuanxiao is cloudy, while the soup for Tangyuan is clear.

Although she still thinks glutinous rice balls are delicious, it doesn't stop her from enjoying them immensely. After all, she only eats them once a year, and who can say that the sweet black sesame filling isn't delicious?

The three children each held two bowls and ate without even looking up.

"Mommy, you still want some?" Dou Dou hugged Xu Jing'an's leg, raised her chin covered in black sesame filling, and looked at her mother.

Xu Jing'an smiled and showed the bowl to Dou Dou. "See? Mom eats even faster than you guys!"

"Ah—" DouDou looked at the empty bowl and cried out in disappointment.

"Come quick, Grandma has some here!" Afraid that the children would cry, Shen's mother quickly distributed the few glutinous rice balls she was reluctant to eat to the children.

Here, there are many taboos once the twelfth lunar month begins. You are forbidden to say things like "gone," "finished," or "all gone."

"Have you finished the housework?" — "Is the house all tidy?"

"Everything is tidied up"—this means the work is finished.

"It's fine as you say"—this is something that hasn't been finished yet.

You're not allowed to stick your chopsticks into the bowl when eating noodles — this is only done as an offering to the dead.

Knives should not be placed in basins — this is only done when someone in the family has died.

When someone's life is better than before, people say that their lives have improved. So before the New Year, when steaming buns, people would ask, "Have all the buns been steamed yet?" Regardless of whether they had steamed the buns or not, most people would answer, "Yes, they've been steamed." Some people would say, "Not yet, just a little while."

Furthermore, children are forbidden from breaking things, and even those with a full set of teeth are not allowed to cry. From the beginning of the twelfth lunar month to the first lunar month, very few families beat their children. They simply don't want the sound of crying in the house.

In the evening, the children, carrying red paper lanterns with a tiny candle stub lit inside, ran around the yard. Soon they would sneak out of their homes to play with the neighborhood kids.

Zhuangzhuang also had some firecrackers he had saved up during the Spring Festival in his pocket, which attracted a bunch of children to surround him.

After finishing his meal, Shen He went to the Public Security Bureau for his shift. Their unit couldn't afford to relax, especially during holidays, let alone now that there were no holidays for the Lunar New Year.

As darkness fell, Shen's father, worried about his children, went out to check on them.