1940s: I supported my wife and sister-in-law by hunting.

Standing to the side, Chen Guilan looked at her brother's expression and immediately understood.

She was a woman too. She had given birth to three daughters before finally having a son. She knew all too well how much scorn and humiliation a woman would suffer in her husband's family if she couldn't give birth to a son as her first child.

She opened her mouth, wanting to say a few words of advice, to say that it's good to be a girl, but she swallowed the words back.

She's able to maintain her position in her maternal family now only because of her brother's support. A mother's brother is the most powerful, and she's ultimately a married woman, so it's not fair for her to say anything.

She also thought of Kexin's father, Zhang Baofu, who was usually too cowardly to say a word, but this time he was quite tough and didn't come to pick her and the child up from school.

She snorted inwardly, not caring at all. She wanted to see how long Zhang Baofu could hold on, carrying the farm work alone and supporting both sides. There would come a time when he would bow his head and beg for help.

Chen Gaoshan visited the two newborn daughters in each room, and it would be a lie to say he wasn't disappointed. He had previously thought that at least if they had children, they would have a son to carry on the family line.

But then I thought, both of my daughters are healthy and well-behaved, even though they're all wrinkled. There's nothing wrong with that. If I want a son, I can have another one later. It's not like I can't have more children.

Especially when the two little girls stared at him with their big, dark eyes, his heart melted instantly. He immediately had a different life experience and felt a greater sense of responsibility as a father. He felt the burden on his shoulders was heavier, and he knew he had to work hard to support the whole family and protect the two little girls.

Lianhua was weak after giving birth and lay on the kang (a heated brick bed). She didn't care that she had given birth to a girl. As long as she and her child were safe, that was more important than anything else.

But Xinghua couldn't hold back her tears, which streamed down her face as she sobbed.

She was not well taken care of at home since she was a girl. Her parents favored boys over girls and always gave the best things to her brothers first.

Although her in-laws were kind, she was always worried after marrying into the Chen family. She hoped to give birth to a big, healthy boy so that she could gain a foothold in her husband's family and be worthy of her husband who died young.

In the end, she still gave birth to a daughter. She felt guilty and had an inexplicable sense of inferiority. She felt useless and had brought shame to the Chen family. She was even more afraid that her in-laws would dislike her even if they didn't say it, and that she would have a hard time in the future.

Even the thought of her own daughter being looked down upon because she is a girl in the future makes her heart ache, and her tears flow more and more fiercely.

Even though she was thinking about it, her hands still wouldn't obey her commands. She subconsciously pulled the blanket covering her daughter's chin up higher and higher.

Motherhood is ingrained in one's bones. No matter how much one complains, one cannot help but feel love and tenderness for the child one risked one's life to bring into the world.

"Shanzi, I'm just a useless good-for-nothing. I didn't give your brother a son to carry on the family line, and I didn't continue the Chen family's ancestral line. Why is my belly so unworthy? I'm sorry to your brother, sorry to our parents, and sorry to you."

Upon hearing this, Chen Gaoshan immediately frowned. He hated it when women belittled themselves. The teacher had said that "women hold up half the sky." In terms of farm work and housework, how are women any less capable than men? It's not like they can't have children in this lifetime, so why demean themselves?

"What's wrong with my daughter? Doesn't she have the blood of the Chen family flowing in her veins? She's all our Chen family's flesh and blood. I, as her second uncle, haven't said anything, but you're getting stuck in a rut, overthinking things! Let me ask you, have your father and mother ever said a bad word about you? Have they ever given you the cold shoulder? Have they ever looked down on you?"

Xinghua sniffed and shook her head.

"No, my parents treat me well and haven't said anything, but I still can't get over it."

"We have to get through it, even if we can't!"

"Keep having children. Whether you have a son or not is up to fate. What's the use of worrying? If you ruin your health, how will you raise the children? I'll say it again: as long as they're from our Chen family, without missing limbs or a cleft lip, I'll love them all, whether they're sons or daughters! My little girl is hungry, hurry up and breastfeed her. Lianhua just gave birth and hasn't started producing milk yet. You have plenty of milk from both breasts, you can't possibly eat it all. Stop crying, you're in postpartum confinement, don't worry about ruining your eyes by crying."

Hearing Shanzi's comforting words, Xinghua felt much better, as her feelings of resentment and guilt eased.

At least Shanzi, no one disliked her for having a daughter, nor did anyone blame her for being useless.

She wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve, held her baby girl, who was crying for milk and nibbling at her breast, close to her chest.

"Shanzi, bring the girl from Lianhua's side over too. I have enough milk, I can feed both children together, they won't go hungry. You know, if they don't eat, their breasts get so engorged in the middle of the night, their clothes get all wet."

"That's exactly what I've been waiting for! Just wait, I'll go get it right now!"

Chen Gaoshan entered the west wing and gently picked up his eldest daughter. The little one was sleeping restlessly, and her brows were still furrowed as she was picked up.

Her little mouth pursed unconsciously.

Lianhua had no milk after giving birth, and the baby was crying from hunger. Chen Liu felt sorry for her granddaughter but had no other choice but to scoop up some warm boiled water and feed it to the baby little by little with a small spoon, which barely managed to soothe the crying.

Inside the room, Er Yatou, who had just been fed a full meal by Xinghua, lay quietly on the small mattress beside Xinghua with her chubby little face.

These two girls have very different appearances. Just looking at their head shapes, the younger girl is clearly much more well-proportioned than the older girl, with a rounder back of her head.

Xinghua had just finished breastfeeding her baby girl and hadn't even had time to close her clothes when she saw Chen Gaoshan bring over his eldest daughter. Without thinking, she reached out and pulled her clothes aside, revealing her other chest, ready to breastfeed her eldest daughter.

Newborn babies seem to be born with an instinct to find food. When they are held in the old lady's arms, their little mouths immediately start to move, their little heads bobbing, and they accurately locate the milk and move over to find it, without being picky at all.

It's true what they say, whoever gives milk is your mother. He's drunk so much milk, he must have a lot of mothers.

Xinghua sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), holding the little girl in her arms. Women who have given birth are really different from before; her eyes were so gentle they could drip water, and a smile played on her lips.

"Look how much my eldest daughter is eating! Her little mouth is smacking, and her little hands are holding on tightly. She's such a good girl."

This is the child that my own sister risked her life to give birth to. Lianhua suffered so much, I have to feed this child until he is well-fed and alive. I absolutely cannot let the child suffer.

In the next room, Lianhua was sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed). Her chest was swollen, hard, and painful, bulging like two tight, hard stones, but no milk was coming out; it was completely blocked.

She was in so much pain, and the thought of her baby going hungry because there was no milk made her anxious, and tears almost welled up in her eyes.

Just now, her mother-in-law, Chen Liu, brought over freshly cooked millet porridge, along with brown sugar and two eggs. These were the most precious foods for postpartum women in the village. Lianhua forced herself to sit up and eat. After finishing, she took a coarse cloth handkerchief from the side of the kang (heated brick bed), wiped her mouth, and looked at her painfully swollen chest, worrying to her mother-in-law.

"Mom, what am I going to do if I don't have enough milk? I can't keep letting my sister feed both babies. If they both drink her milk, she'll be completely drained, and her health will suffer. What will we do then?"

At this moment, Chen Guilan was sitting cross-legged on the kang (a heated brick bed), holding a needle and thread and shoe soles in her hands, sewing stitch by stitch, the awl piercing the thick shoe soles with fine stitches.

The autumn harvest was over in the village, and there wasn't much work to do, so she came over during the day to help take care of her niece-in-law and went back home at night.

Standing by the kang (a heated brick bed) with an empty bowl in her hand, Chen Liu sighed with a frown. She had given birth to two children herself, and each time she had milk a month early. She had never encountered a situation like Lianhua's, where the milk could not come in.

"You child, you've grown up with two big, chubby little devils. You look so bulky in your clothes, but when it comes to actually using them, they're useless. They're just for looking good! Look at Li Muxia's wife next door, she looks like a skinny monkey."

She wasn't very heavy, but her milk supply was plentiful after giving birth. It would gush out even while she was lying down, and drinking cold water would bring out the milk. There's really no comparison!

She paused for a moment, then quickly continued.

"Here's what I'll do. I'll go ask Granny Wang for ways to increase milk production later. I'll also have your dad kill the old hen at home and make chicken soup for you. Eat plenty of oily and nutritious food to stimulate your milk production. Maybe then it will come in."

Chen Guilan, who was standing to the side, stuck the awl in her hand into the sole of her shoe, stopped what she was doing, looked up at Lianhua, and spoke frankly. They were all married women, so there was nothing to be embarrassed about talking about these things on the kang (a heated brick bed).

"Sister-in-law, Lianhua, I have a practical solution. If the milk duct is blocked, it means it's not open. The baby's mouth is small and weak, so he can't suckle properly. Gaoshan is a strong young man, and he's readily available."

Let him massage and press the milk ducts to help clear the blockage and release the milk. Then let him apply pressure to the milk container. Once the milk duct is clear, the milk will naturally flow. When I had my first child, my milk ducts were also severely blocked, and it was Kexin's dad who helped me clear it this way. It worked better than anything else.

...