Mother said: "Your third uncle is going to plow the vegetable ditch, the second brother has not returned home for a long time to do business in other places, and your younger brothers are small, after the beginning of spring, there are more and more living roads in the field, do not feed the cattle well, the ditch of the vegetable field and wheat field needs the ox to plow, and the slab soil needs the ox to turn over and plant the grain, you go to pick up a water, and I will carry a backpack of grain and grass." ”

The daughter did not listen to her mother's instructions and took a step forward to untie the grass on the shelf.

Mom lifted her hand and shouted, "If you are told to carry water, you will go and carry water, I can carry this grass back!" ”

Jin Chun saw that his mother was angry, so he had no choice but to run to the kitchen to take down the flat burden, pick up the bucket, and pick the second water.

Mom struggled to carry back the second backpack of grain grass, and the third uncle had finished plowing Caizigou and went home.

After breakfast, my mother felt a dull pain in her stomach, and she knew very well that the twelfth child, who had been ten months pregnant, was about to be born again.

"Third sister, after you wash the dishes, cut a basket of pigweed in the garden and cook it to feed the pigs, and I'll rest on the bed."

Mother said this to her third daughter.

Lying on the bed, the baby seems to be calmer in the mother's belly, and the mother feels less pain than before.

After a while, my stomach hurt again.

At this time, the eldest daughter-in-law came into the room and asked, "Grandma (according to the child's name), your stomach hurts very much, I will give you chopsticks!" ”

Mom replied: "Go and take it, I am in a lot of pain, which side is this bumpering!" ”

The sister-in-law took out three chopsticks in the chopsticks, turned around and took out a bowl in the cupboard, filled half a bowl of water in the water tank, walked to the hall to give her mother-in-law chopsticks, and kept chanting "Labor-inducing woman comes to induce labor, please bless my grandma to give birth quickly, you don't make my grandma's stomach ache......"

Reading and reading, the three chopsticks stood together in the water bowl.

The sister-in-law returned to the room and asked, "Grandma, I have occupied the water bowl, does my stomach still hurt?" ”

Mom doesn't hum or answer.

At this time, my mother seemed to be asleep, in a daze, as if she had returned to the tragic scene of typhoid fever in 1943:

He was lying on the bed sickly, his eldest son, eldest daughter-in-law, and eldest grandson were sick on the bed, and the remaining son of the eldest brother's family, Xiao Jiumei, fell ill on the bed with him.

The third, fourth, and fifth sons fell ill in bed, and their grandsons Bake and Baming fell ill in bed, but her husband Zhou Qixue was not sick.

Everyone who is sick has a fever, fever, craving water, not eating, and sleeping.

According to the doctor's prescription, Zhou Qixue soaked the cow from the black cow skull and soaked it in water to drink, some had a fever and sweated for four or five days, and some couldn't sweat.

In two months, the eldest son died, the third son died, the eldest granddaughter died, the eldest grandson died, and the seventh son died.

She saw the dead eldest son, third son, seventh son, and eldest daughter at the foot of the camphor sacred tree behind the village.

They shouted one after another, "Mommy, Mommy......"

She saw the dead eldest grandson and eldest granddaughter, and they all knelt in front of her, crying and shouting, "Grandma, grandma......"

Wave after wave of shouting.

Suddenly, the wind blew fiercely, and the branches of the camphor tree swayed around, and the branches made a "rustling" sound.

A large snake skewered out of the hollow of the tree and screamed in fright.

When I woke up, my stomach was still painful, as if the baby's little hands were scratching in my belly.

Mom started moaning loudly.

The sister-in-law came to see her mother-in-law, and the pain was unbearable, so she walked next to her mother-in-law and guarded her mother-in-law.

Mom moaned and said:

"I really can't stand the pain, you quickly call your grandfather (according to the grandson's name) to the window and ask Uncle Zhu to read the book."

The sister-in-law ran out of the room and saw the third uncle walking around in the ear room.

Ever since Wang was humming in bed, Grandpa had been walking and walking around in the back of the room.

The sister-in-law ran to the third uncle and said, "Grandpa, grandma told you to hurry up to the window and ask Duke Zhu to read the book for grandma. ”

The third uncle said "um", without saying a word, walked out of the court, took three steps and did two steps, and arrived at Duke Zhu's house with a cigarette.

Duke Zhu sat on the edge of the bed, trimmed his beard, ate tea and read a book, listened to the barking of the dog, and hurriedly said to Grandma Zhu: "Go and beat the dog, welcome the distinguished guests in!" ”

Grandma Zhu opened the door and looked: "Yo, it's the third master!" What kind of urgency do you have, the sun is about to set, you are still coming, you look at you, your head is sweating. ”

When the third uncle walked into the door, he hurriedly told Zhu Dagong about the fact that Wang had a baby in the afternoon and couldn't give birth for a long time, and his stomach hurt, and asked him to look through the book to see which god Wang had hit?

After hearing this, Zhu Dagong straightened his beard and said: "I have been a little uncertain since breakfast, it seems that there is a big event today, how do you know that you are coming, and this kind of thing is again, you wait, I will calculate." ”

Zhu Dagong closed his eyes slightly, pinched the middle finger of his right hand for a while, pinched the index finger for a while, pinched his thumb for a while, took a few puffs of cigarettes, opened his eyes and said: "Congratulations, third master, your family is going to add a noble son, hurry back, when the lights are on, the child will be born." ”

After listening to Zhu Dagong's words, Zhou Qixue fell to the ground with a stone, and hurriedly said: "Dagong, in a few days, I will invite you and your grandmother to my house to sit, eat tea and drink, and I am in a hurry today, I didn't bring you some climbing wine from our family."

Zhu Dagong said: "My own person, I still talk about this, I will drink with your big milk one day!" ”

The sun has set, the evening breeze is blowing all the way, the cattle baby has collected the cattle back to the cattle pen, the chickens have entered the chicken coop, and the uncle has returned to the village on Wednesday, and every household has lit the tung oil lamp.

He stepped into the hall with his front feet, and the cry of a baby "wah-wah-wah" came from the room - the twelfth child of the Zhou family was born.

The third uncle hurriedly took down the money paper from the shrine, lit the vegetable oil lamp on the shrine, put the money paper on the flame of the vegetable oil lamp and lit it, hugged his hands down, made three gestures in the middle of the big table in front of the shrine, and kowtowed three times.

Pray: "The ancestors of the Zhou family are great-great-great ”

After that, take the long cigarette stick, wrap it in a leaf cigarette, sit on the high bench on the left side of the hall, and smoke while thinking about the past:

Since the Wang family married into the Zhou family, the mud and water have pulled several babies up, and they have been busy all year round, working in the field with themselves during the day, and sewing and mending the dolls at night.

In the summer, she scraped off the hemp skin with a bamboo knife, dried the hemp cold, kneaded it into hemp thread to weave her own linen, and also knitted leggings for herself.

It's hard! It's difficult, it's difficult for men, it's even more difficult for women, giving birth to a baby from breakfast, and the pain is until the night when the lights are on to give birth to the baby.

At this time, the third uncle heard the eldest daughter-in-law shouting in the kitchen: "Grandpa, it's time for dinner!" "I felt hungry, busy from noon to this time, the family still hasn't had time to eat?

After dinner, they washed their feet and went to bed.

At dawn the next day, Jin Chun went to the cat cave to fetch water as usual, and on the way back, he met his aunt and father in the village, Jin Chun stood with water and said: "Auntie, my mother gave birth to a little brother who was herding cattle last night. ”