Ping'an is only a small city in the Jiangbei agglomeration, with a population of 140,000 and an area of about 10,000 square kilometers. Of course, most of the area here is desert, and people build dams on rivers and live by lakes.

The city hospital is a three-story dilapidated building, but it covers a large area. Li Dong carried the little girl on his back to register, and then went straight to the pediatrics.

The doctor is a middle-aged aunt wearing a white coat, short hair, a pair of thick glasses, and a very kind gaze.

"How long has the patient been ill?" The middle-aged aunt asked about Li Dong's condition while examining the little girl.

"It's been three days, the first two days were fine, but I didn't expect it to get worse today."

Li Dong blushed a little, if it weren't for the poverty of his family, he wouldn't have made his younger brothers and sisters stiff, and he said that he came over like this.

The middle-aged female doctor probably didn't seem surprised, looked carefully at the little girl's thermometer, looked at her tongue again, touched the little girl's head, turned around and went to prescribe medicine.

"Don't worry, it's just a common cold, the little girl's resistance is too weak, and she usually pays attention to strengthening nutrition."

Li Dong took the prescription, and quickly nodded yes, it was sad to say, the little girl is four years old this year, but she is not as tall as a three-year-old child, her body is very thin, her hair is yellow, and she knows that she is malnourished at a glance.

I went to the pharmacy to get the medicine, and asked the nurse to give a fever reduction injection, which cost a total of 10 yuan, which happened to be Li Dong's salary for a day. After noting down the precautions told by the nurse, Li Dong took the little girl out of the door. It was already dark outside, and I could clearly feel a chill on my face.

Instead of going home directly, Li Dong carried the little girl to Shunda Department Store, which is the largest store in the city, with an area of more than 500 square meters. Shunda Department Store is said to be the property of the mayor's younger brother, because the supply is abundant and the price is affordable, but it is deeply relied on by the general public.

After entering the store, the temperature has increased a lot, Li Dong came to the non-staple food area, and first picked out a bag of milk powder, which is priced at 5 yuan, saving some to drink for a month, which is currently the most suitable nutritional product for a little girl.

I went to the grain area again and weighed 5 catties of rice, which was upland rice cultivated in the last days, and the growing conditions of wheat were almost the same. Rice is a refined grain, and the price is very expensive, 2 yuan per catty, and a total of 10 yuan is spent.

These rice are ready to be boiled porridge for the little girl to drink, and the miscellaneous grains that the family usually eats are obviously not suitable for patients, they are too rough and do not have much nutrition.

After shopping, Li Dong was about to leave, thought about it, and turned back to the non-staple food area to buy a bag of candy. Anyway, today is the first time I have received my salary, and I have to bring some gifts back to my younger brothers and sisters, anyway, it is not expensive, only 2 yuan for a pack.

When I returned home, my younger brothers and sisters had already returned, and when they saw Li Dong coming in, they chattered around them. Li Dong hurriedly made a booing motion, turned his head and gestured to the little girl who was asleep behind him.

Everyone understood, and immediately quieted down, and the fourth child covered his mouth with both hands, for fear of waking up the little girl. Li Dong came to her bed with the little girl on his back, gently took off his padded jacket and shoes, and stuffed her into the quilt.

Tucked the quilt for the little girl, Li Dong left the room with light steps and closed the door smoothly. Back in the living room, everyone began to ask questions again, and Li Dong was not impatient and answered them one by one.

Putting the bag on the table, everyone's eyes suddenly focused on the shopping bag. Li Dong unhurriedly took out a bag of candy and handed it to the second sister, asking her to share it with everyone.

Ignoring the cheers from behind him, Li Dong came to the kitchen, Lu Xiumei was preparing dinner, saw Li Dong coming, quickly put down the kitchen knife, wiped his hands with his apron, and asked anxiously:

"Dongzi, how is Xiao Wu, what did the doctor say?"

"It's not a big deal, it's just a common cold, and I've fallen asleep after the injection." Li Dong comforted.

"Thank goodness, it's all right."

"By the way, A-Niang, I bought milk powder and rice for Xiao Wu, and when the time comes, you give her a good supplement, and the doctors say that she is malnourished." Li Dong reminded.

When Lu Xiumei heard this, she was a little stunned for a while, yes, the little girl is so thin, no wonder she often gets sick, she has no ability, and she drags down the children.

As soon as Li Dong saw A-Niang in a daze, he knew that she was blaming herself, and immediately interrupted: "A-Niang, what do you eat at night?" ”

"What else can I do but multigrain paste." Lu Xiumei really came back to her senses and replied angrily.

In the last days, due to the lack of water, the grain output was very low, and there was not enough to eat at all, and Jiangbei had to spend a high price every year to buy a large amount of grain from the Shuchuan gathering place.

You may ask, why do you have so many children when you can't eat enough? In fact, the reason is very simple, this is the end of the world, people, is the foundation of a gathering place, the more people, the stronger the strength of the gathering place, and the greater the chance of survival.

Therefore, the major gathering places are encouraging fertility and desperately expanding the population, and if one day there is really not enough food, it also means that war is coming. Today's major agglomerations were actually fought through war, but with the establishment of the Federation and the gradual increase in food production, war slowly withdrew from people's daily life.

Li Dong's family has seven people and five children, and their family can receive 50 catties of miscellaneous grains from government agencies for free every month, 10 catties per child, until they reach the age of 16.

Of course, although the grains can be eaten, the taste is not so delicious, and it is absolutely difficult for people who are used to eating refined grains to swallow. Generally, multigrains are mixed with 40 percent flour, 1 percent rice bran, 2 layers of bean dregs and 3 percent algae powder.

The raw material of algae powder is an edible algae cultivated by scientists, although the nutritional value is low, but it is easy to produce, and the yield is very large, generally used with staple food.

Leaving the kitchen, Li Dong returned to the bedroom and lay down on the bed. The Li family's house is an old bungalow facing the street, which was bought by Li's father with all his savings when he got married.

The house is not big, only 103 square meters, there are a total of 5 houses, Lu Xiumei and his wife live in one, the two younger brothers live in one, the little girl and her sister live in one, Li Dong lives in one alone, and the rest is the kitchen. There is also a 40-square-meter yard behind the house, and Lu Xiumei has planted some vegetables in it, which can also improve the food to some extent.

"Big brother, it's time to eat." The eldest sister knocked on the door.

"Got it, come on." Li Dong hurriedly got up.

The staple food of dinner is multigrain paste, and it is also rationed, and Lu Xiumei has already divided it. Li Dong glanced at it, the dishes were good tonight, in addition to pickles, he also burned a stewed radish, probably to replenish his body.

After dinner, everyone went to sleep, one is to save electricity, and the other is that it is very cold at night, or it is comfortable on the kang.