The seventeenth year of the Republic of China (1928, the year of Wuchen in the lunar calendar, the year of the dragon). Chinese New Year's Eve. The northeast has long been frozen for thousands of miles, and the bright red lanterns at the streets and alleys symbolize the approaching Spring Festival. On the street, there are few pedestrians, wearing ear-covered cotton hats and heavy over-the-knee coats, walking briskly. Only the smoke from door to door of the chimney shows the vitality of the dance.

The courtyard of the Ling family is a diametrically opposite scene from the outside of the courtyard, a sturdy young man is lying by the window and looking into the house, walking anxiously at the door from time to time, and an old man with white hair and red face is sitting on a stone bench under a dead tree in the courtyard with a cigarette pouch in his mouth. Several servants ran around under the reprimand of a woman.

"Tie Zi go to the town to pick up Mrs. Wang, she has been delivering for decades, she should be able to do so" "Fusheng, is the carriage set, go to Liu's house to pick up your in-laws" "Yingzi, is the water boiling?"

"Mother, mother, this grandmother can't do it, it's getting dark, why hasn't there been any movement, Wen'er's body is already weak, what's the matter, or I won't give birth" The young man lying at the window said anxiously at the woman.

"Yun'er, wait a minute, I've already called Mrs. Wang, I'll go and take a look first."

"Dad, Dad, what's going on, it's been a long time, Wen'er is so screaming that I'm going to be heartbroken, why is it so difficult to have a child?"

The old man under the tree threw the cigarette pouch, popped out the burned tobacco leaves inside, and flew into the mouth of the young man, "What do you call it, you are louder than your daughter-in-law, when Lao Tzu participated in the defeat of the Boxer Rebellion, he was chased by the Eight-Nation Alliance Army with a gun all over the Northeast, and took your mother to give birth to you in the broken temple, it was difficult at that time, and I didn't raise you so big." ”

The young man spat out the ashes of his cigarette. Not to be outdone, his eyes glared, "This is my daughter-in-law, it's my seed that is about to come out, are you not in a hurry, can I not be in a hurry, it's been a few years, and I'm finally going to have a baby, why can't this product come out yet?"

"Do you think I'm not in a hurry, this is also my grandson" The old man stood up, took a cigarette pouch and knocked on the young man's head, "If you haven't been messing with flowers and grass, as for the fact that you are almost thirty years old, you still have the face to say here"

Seeing that he had been poked at the point, Ling Yun no longer opened his mouth, but just looked at it more anxiously......

It was getting dark, every house was lit up, and several children were noisily setting off firecrackers. On the street at the entrance of the Ling family's compound, a carriage that had just turned in hurriedly braked the reins. The bolt helped a trembling old woman out of the car. "Grandma, Mrs. Wang has picked it up" "Quick, come in and have a look" The woman before went out and took Mrs. Wang into the room. At the moment of opening and closing, no one noticed a gust of wind mixed with a few snowflakes and flew into the room in a circle.

The midwife who came early before saw it, and quickly gave up the position to Mrs. Wang, and said with a bitter face, "It's strange, nothing different, although the mother is weaker, but this child is very healthy, when the child is in the right fetal position, the child also kicked my hand, is it because it is cold and doesn't want to come out, Sister Wang, look at what's going on, I'm helpless, I've been delivering for so many years, the first time I met such a difficult doll?" ”

Mrs. Ling looked at her daughter-in-law, who was pale and sweating profusely, listened to Grandma Sun's words, glared at Grandma Sun, and said to Grandma Wang, "Mother Wang, I'm sorry for you, look at what's going on, obviously the fetal position has been lifted, but she has recovered again." The child is lying in the belly, but how can it be born?"

Mrs. Wang didn't speak, touched the woman's pulse, faint but still beating strongly, rubbed her hands on the stomach, found the position of the child in the belly and began to correct the fetal position, sure enough, just hold the fetal position, ready to let the woman exert force, the fetus kicked a few times in the belly, and then recovered.

Mrs. Wang cleaned her hands, got up and went to the table next to her, and knocked on it with her hand. Mrs. Ling took out a few pieces of ocean from her sleeve and stuffed them into Mrs. Wang's hand, "Mother Wang, look at this?" Mrs. Wang closed her glasses and fell into deep thought, and everyone in the room was silent, looking at the ancestor of the midwifery world who was not easy to speak.

The candles in the room flickered, the stove in the middle burned red, warming everyone in the room, a gust of wind swept a few snowflakes over the stove, turned into water, and then turned into steam, only one snowflake floated up a little more by the heat wave, and fell to the belly of the pregnant woman and turned into water, penetrated into the skin and disappeared.

At this time, Mrs. Wang suddenly opened her eyes, and everyone shivered unconsciously. "The master who brought me to debut once told me that those who do our business are actually on the verge of life and death, we brought our lives to this world from another world, in fact, we are exchanging our lives with another world, a reunion and a parting, a joy and a sorrow, in a lifetime and a dream, life is only ninety-nine, how many people can live for a hundred years?"

Everyone was wondering how to stare at this princess, why did these incomprehensible words suddenly pop up, they were all big characters and didn't know a few people, how could they suddenly say a few lines of poetry.

"That's it, after Ling Gong came, he took his brother to help us drive away the landlord Lao Cai who had been oppressing us, and even sacrificed his brother to snatch back our coal mine land from the bandits, and the old body never knew how to repay Ling Gong's kindness for future generations" said and stuffed the ocean back into Mrs. Ling's hand, "Prepare a one-foot square red cloth, two catties of paper money, a pot of wine, two hanging ten thousand cannon battles, the red cloth is taken to the house, the paper money and wine are burned at the east end of the courtyard, and when the time comes, the east end of the courtyard puts a cannon battle, Put it at the door of the backyard and hang it again."

"Yingzi, go out quickly and let them prepare" Mrs. Ling arranged to, "Mother Wang, what is the use of these?" ”

"The fetus has not been out, the head and feet cannot be changed, but there is a thought, and the place of the sunrise in the east is about to be the year of the dragon. The Ling family may be ushering in the dragon on the first day of the Year of the Dragon, so burn some paper money and put some artillery to let them know that the Ling family will not be worse than in the Dragon Palace, and the artillery battle at the south gate is to guide the way to welcome."

……

As soon as the time came, the firecrackers sounded, the dragon came in the year of Wuchen, the sound of ten thousand rings went out, the sound of ten thousand rings started, the princess went out with the help of her grandmother, without saying anything, quietly got into the car, and was sent out by the bolt, and the money, wine, and big rooster were not taken.

The second 10,000 rings ended, and the cry of the baby in the house suddenly rang out. Everyone in the courtyard was excited, and it was Ling Gongzi again, how could he still look like an adult, so he was about to dance excitedly. smiled at Ling Laozi and said, "Dad, I'm also a father, I'm also a Laozi, hehe" Old Man Ling picked up the cigarette pouch and hammered it on his son's head. "Then I'm also your old man"

"Squeak" The door opened, and Mrs. Ling walked out holding a child wrapped in a bulletin, "It's born, it's born, Lao Ling, it's a grandson" "With a handle, okay, haha, with a handle" Ling Lao laughed loudly. "Son, it's a son" Ling Gongzi stepped forward and lifted it, saw the bulge of flesh, rushed into the room excitedly, and hugged the daughter-in-law on the kang "Wen'er, thank you, thank you"