Grandma Jing's heart dropped. The joy of getting here got cut in half in an instant. Jing Shu arched an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
They'd planned to hand over the gifts they'd brought for Qiao Lan, but everyone went in empty-handed instead and hurried to see what was going on. There wasn't even time to run back to the RV for supplies.
Compared to Grandma Jing's nerves, Jing Shu stayed pretty chill. She even had the mind to look around for changes at Eldest Aunt's place. When they came at New Year, a fire had scorched parts of it. You could still see black marks on the walls. The old apple plot, though, now held a row of prefab sheds.
From a distance, Jing Shu spotted black pigs inside, one after another. They didn't look lively.
Those black pigs were from the original breeding sow Jing Shu gave the family. In just two years they'd grown to a few dozen. With feed abundant early this year, they'd bred another twenty-something piglets.
Seven-plus months later, most of them were full-grown.
"We still have to butcher them," Jing Shu sighed. She needed to talk Eldest Aunt into slaughtering the herd and saving only two as breeding stock. From here on, they should sell piglets. Keeping pigs wasn't going to work.
Food was about to get scarcer and scarcer. No maggots, no red nematodes. It'd stay that way until mutated species appeared.
Inside the house were only her sister-in-law Qiao Lian and Qiao Lian's mother. The rest of Qiao Lian's family had gone home. Eldest Aunt was here with her son, Wei Zheng. What surprised Jing Shu was seeing Second Aunt, Jing Zhao, too. She was holding a basin of hot water and using a towel to wipe Qiao Lian's sweat.
"Jing Pan, Mom and Dad, Jing Shu, the others are here. Go greet them," Wei Chang called as he stepped in, eyes glued to the doctor. Everyone finally turned to look. The lighting was dim, just a couple of flashlights. If you didn't look closely, you couldn't tell who was who.
"Forget me, what's the doctor say?" Grandma Jing hurried over and grabbed her eldest daughter's hand. She thought Jing Pan had gotten thinner again. Was caring for the daughter-in-law wearing her down?
"Mom, Dad, Jing Shu, You'ai, you're all here. Sit first. Jing Zhao, pour some sweet hot soup to warm them up," Jing Pan said with a weary smile.
Grandma Jing frowned at her second daughter. "Why're you here? Don't tell me you're mooching food again."
Jing Zhao really was slimmed down. She used to be fat, now she was only a bit plump. She chuckled. "Mom, I'm helping Big Sister take care of Qiao Lian every day. Put it on the payroll. I've been taking great care of her."
The male doctor finished his exam, shook his head with a frown, and said, "You took too good care of her. She's due, but there's no sign yet, and she's been eating too much. That can lead to a big baby. We can't even confirm the fetal position without equipment. If there's no progress in three more days, pull strings and get some oxytocin. Without proper gear, if she can't deliver, you might end up with a difficult birth. That could mean two lives lost."
Qiao Lian clapped a hand over her mouth, tears spilling down.
Up close, it was obvious she'd gained a lot of weight, around 180 jin, which is about 90 kg.
Grandma Jing shot a vicious glare at Second Aunt and Eldest Aunt. "You fed her this fat, and now she can't deliver. Have you never been mothers? You don't know basic common sense?"
Second Aunt bristled. "Mom, I've been serving Qiao Lian with all my heart. That's how we ate when we gave birth back then, always afraid we weren't eating enough. Besides, I had a C-section, I don't know all this. Having enough to eat is already a blessing now. Plus Qiao Lian wants this and that every day. Brother-in-law said yes to whatever she asked."
Eldest Aunt bit her lip. "It's my fault. I've been busy running between everything, so I left Qiao Lian to Jing Zhao. It looked like she was doing a good job."
Grandma Jing turned her stare on Qiao Lian's mother. "You're her real mother. Why didn't you keep her in check?"
Qiao Lian's mother shrank into a corner and said weakly, "In-law said the hospital's doing free deliveries now. I thought it'd be like before the apocalypse, so I told her to eat her fill."
Eldest Aunt rubbed her temples. "I did say that, but I also said lots of equipment doesn't work and there aren't any drugs. 'Free delivery' just means if you can manage without any medical support, you deliver. If you can't, there's nothing they can do. That's why I found an experienced doctor to come."
Qiao Lian's mother muttered, "I don't care. You guaranteed it'd be a smooth birth. I can't deal with this now."
Seeing tempers flare, the doctor tried to ease it. "Don't be too pessimistic. The mother should walk more every day. If labor starts, bring her to the county hospital's temporary post and find me."
Once the doctor left, the whole room felt colder. Qiao Lian sobbed and insisted on getting up to walk. It was hard to imagine that a woman who used to be so slender had turned this dark and heavy in less than a year. If she'd been a six in looks before, she was down to a one now, with only the light of maternal love around her.
Watching Qiao Lian shuffle one step at a time and rest after each, Jing Shu shook her head. Compared to Zhang Bingbing, this was night and day. Was childbirth like this?
To ease the tension, Grandma Jing brought up Zhang Bingbing's delivery, saying as long as they followed the doctor's instructions, the baby would come soon. She added that Jing Shu and Wu You'ai had helped deliver before, and they'd figure it out together. The mood finally thawed.
Wei Zheng bowed his head and kept quiet, just supporting his wife as she walked.
Wei Chang, though, started bouncing his knee after a while, too antsy to sit. Jing Shu took the chance to call him outside. They walked the courtyard and talked.
"Uncle, it's been rough for you. You set up a factory and haven't earned back a single coin yet."
"Jing Shu, that's not what I like to hear. You mean your uncle didn't get it before and suddenly does now? We've always lived one step at a time. You're the only one looking three steps ahead. I know the red nematode market like the back of my hand. Our Livestock Breeding Center worked hard to raise a few hundred pigs and a few thousand chickens. Now there's no feed. Tell me, aren't we still close to striking it rich?"
Once he got on the topic, Uncle lit up. "Come on, I'll show you our pigs, and the red nematodes I'm breeding myself. Back then it was one virtual coin for 100 jin of red nematodes, that's about 50 kg. Now it's one virtual coin for 100 live worms. Your uncle's got a fortune in this tank."
Sure enough, the prefab shed held dozens of black pigs. A big pool nearby churned with red nematodes.
"Jing Shu, with this stock, I want to expand the operation."
"Uncle, find some time in the next few days and butcher all the pigs."