In May, the weather is getting hotter and things are easy to get rancid.

The simple offerings on the altar already smelled sour, and a green-headed fly lay on it.

When I saw the toad carved in wood and the little man painted on the stone slab, I understood the purpose of the altar.

Gongsun Yan couldn't help but raise his eyes and look around.

People who avoided it from afar hid behind the doorposts of flowers and trees and corridors, and peeked curiously.

A little boy who looked two or three years old was wearing open crotch pants, holding dirty fingers, and dragging flowers and trees to stand firmly.

His eyes and cheeks are sunken, and his big head is on his body like a reed stick, and it makes people worry to look at it.

The body is skinny, only a round belly is abruptly erect, and the calves are O-shaped, which is a very obvious symptom of rickets.

Gongsun Yan looked frightened, and couldn't help but turn his gaze back to the altar.

Advocating fertility and preferring to have men.

In addition to the fact that it has always been a patriarchal society, the deeper reason for this situation lies in the economy.

In the feudal small-scale peasant economy, production was carried out on a family basis, relying on rudimentary tools and primitive farming methods.

In this way, it is necessary to ensure and invest in labor through the birth of male children.

Based on the above reasons, fertility and male children are linked to the survival and decline of the family.

Gongsun Yan understands these truths.

Reason told him that there was a reason for this.

But emotionally, it made her heart blocked.

It seemed that because she had been watching the altar for a long time, Zhou Jing came over and explained: "Lady, this is Gao Yu who was invited by the family just now. ”

Gongsun Yan once told him to be polite to these two mothers and their families, and not to be frightened, so Zhou Jing was quite tolerant of them.

Regarding the common ritual of asking for a man and a child such as the Gao Yu sacrifice, Zhou Jing agreed after thinking about it for a while.

In fact, in this era, it is not very comfortable to ask for a man and a child, and only Gongsun Yan is the only one.

For others, this is really a normal operation.

Gongsun Yan sighed softly and walked around the sacrificial wooden platform, "What about the mother?" ”

"Separate in two compartments." Zhou Jing introduced.

Only then did Gongsun Yan understand the specific situation of these two families.

Both are shaded households in the village, one is in the east chamber and the other is in the west chamber.

There were no elders in the East Chamber, only a pregnant woman and two young children, and the young child that Gongsun Yan saw just now was the youngest son of the family.

The other family in the west wing has more people and more troubles, and the old woman is from this family, and the mother is her second daughter-in-law.

While listening to Zhou Jing's introduction, under his guidance, Gongsun Yan walked into the hall.

Because he knew that Gongsun Yan was coming, Zhou Jing ordered someone to sort out the hall in advance and prepare tea and fruits.

However, Gongsun Yan didn't mean to sit down and drink tea, and directly wanted to see the mother.

Zhou Jing showed an embarrassed look on his face, "Lady, the delivery room is really pickled......"

It is one of them that it is inappropriate to go as an unmarried woman of Gongsun Yan, and the other point is that it is really not a good place, and Zhou Jing is worried.

Zhou Jing's concerns are very reasonable, but Gongsun Yan has already arrived here, how can he retreat and not verify it himself.

Zhou Jing couldn't, so he had to personally order someone to erect a screen in the room to temporarily cover one or two.

At the time he had arranged, Gongsun Yan put the candied fruit prepared on the table of the hall into an empty tea bowl, came to the courtyard, and beckoned to the thin boy to come over.

The child was still swaying and climbing a branch, looking left and right, crossing his two calves, and slowly moving over.

He only walked two or three steps away and refused to get any closer, just staring at the lacquer bowl in Gongsun Yan's hand.

Gongsun Yan tried a few more times, but the child still didn't dare to come, she took a step forward, and he took a step back.

Gongsun Yan couldn't take him, so he had to put the lacquer bowl on the ground, retreat by himself, and beckon him to take it.

Seeing that he finally approached cautiously, his dirty little hands grabbed a honey-stained dried apricot, licked it, hugged the lacquered bowl, sat directly on the ground, and grinded it little by little with his small teeth the size of rice grains.

"Lady, the delivery room is cleaned up."

After a short while, Zhou Jing came to report.

Gongsun Yan told Alan to stay and look at the child, lest he swallow it in one gulp.

She followed Zhou Jing to the East Chamber.

When he reached the door, he heard the aching of a woman and the hoarse voice of a woman.

"What are you shouting, how can a woman give birth without pain?"

"Yan Niangzi will come in a while, don't do anything, you will quarrel with Yan Niangzi's ears and drive your whole family out of the lonely bamboo."

The weeping woman, as if frightened by this hoarse voice, suddenly lost her voice, and only listened carefully and could hear a heavy gasp.

Gongsun Yan sighed, gently pushed open the door that was not closed, and a wave of heat rushed towards him.

On a slightly hot day in May, the extremely fishy smell after the bloody fermentation made Gongsun Yan hold his breath for a moment.

Zhou Jing and the guards were not good at entering at this time, the guards were at the door, and they frowned when they smelled such a smell.

Gongsun Yan entered the house and gently covered the door.

In this era, the Northland houses did not open more windows in order to keep warm, and only a few small windows on one side of the wall, which were all tightly closed.

There was a charcoal basin lit in the house, and several servant women stood behind a screen, and when they saw Gongsun Yan coming to salute her.

A slightly chubby woman in a stone green dress walked around from behind the screen, and she was the one who had just threatened the mother.

When she saw Gongsun Yan, she made a salute, and asked Gongsun Yan to sit down with a flattering attitude.

Behind the screen, there is also a table, and there is some tea and candied fruit on it, but no one can eat and drink in such an environment.

"Are you the midwife?" Gongsun Yan didn't have a good impression of this chubby midwife, and he didn't want to be polite with her, so he asked directly.

"Yes, yes." The midwife replied urgently.

"Have you done prenatal checkups?"

Zhou Jing is a man of this era, and it can be seen that he is working very hard to complete this work, but there are some details that he can't ask.

This is also the reason why Gongsun Yan read his report and insisted on coming to see it in person. "It's done!" This midwife was deliberately selected by Zhou Jing not only because she is experienced, but more importantly, she is sleek and witty.

Although she didn't know why the master suddenly remembered to pay attention to this issue, she knew that she would be rewarded for her good performance, and she couldn't say that there would be a good way out.

The midwife secretly guessed in her heart that maybe Yan Niangzi wanted to find a midwife in advance and marry her husband's family in the future.

Not to mention the midwife, even the nurse must be selected in the first two years and assigned to the right family.

With this in mind, the midwife has been doing what Zhou Jing said.

"Reach out to me and see." Gongsun Yan didn't ask first, but asked the midwife to stretch out her hand.

If she really followed Zhou Jing's arrangement, she would know by looking at her hands at this time.

The midwife's face was overjoyed, she was glad that she had done it seriously, her hands were stretched out, her nails were neatly trimmed, there was no nail dirt, and although there were cracked calluses on her hands, they were cleanly washed.

Seeing this, Gongsun Yan nodded with satisfaction, "Okay." ”

"Let's go, come in and talk." Saying that, Gongsun Yan bypassed the screen and was about to go inside.

The midwife was dumbfounded, and hurriedly stretched out her hand to stop her, "Yan Niangzi, you are still unmarried, although you are a noble person and have no taboos, but the appearance of this woman giving birth is afraid of scaring you." ”

Compared with the old woman outside, this round-faced midwife obviously knows more about the art of speaking.

Her words with high emotional intelligence made Gongsun Yan look at her again.