Chapter 87 – 1976

On the first night back home, Zhong Huisheng prepared a table full of dishes to celebrate.

Teacher Shen and Sister Bao arrived one after another. Shortly after, Lu Yiyuan and Sister Hong also came to visit, each bringing a basket of eggs.

“She looks great, a lot like you,” Teacher Shen said with a smile. “Children really change every day. She looks a bit bigger than the day she was born.”

She had visited on the day the child was born, when Wen Jiajia was still asleep.

Wen Jiajia took a closer look and asked, “A bit bigger?”

It was hard to see much change since the baby had been born less than a week ago.

Teacher Shen wanted to hold the baby and said, “I don’t have a daughter at home. I was jealous of Wen Chun and Wen Xuan, and now there’s another one.”

Sister Hong added, “Your house is next door. If you’re jealous, just bring the child home!”

Teacher Shen responded, “Wei Dai treats the child like his precious treasure. How could I take her home?”

She wasn’t sure how long she could stay.

She was more informed than most people and had had a premonition ever since receiving a letter from her relatives.

Her relatives had been sent to the countryside but were now back in the city, though they had not been fully rehabilitated. The yard they lived in had been returned to them…

This year might indeed bring significant changes.

Teacher Shen held the child for a few minutes before reluctantly returning him to the crib.

Visitors came and went quickly.

Wen Jiajia was back in the morning, and by evening, more than 20 people had visited, each bringing supplements.

By nightfall, the eggs had nearly covered the entire coffee table. Zhong Huisheng asked Wen Chun and Wen Xuan to count the eggs. After counting, Wen Xuan excitedly jumped up and said, “Aunt, there are 86 eggs in total.”

Zhong Huisheng was surprised. “So many! That’s enough for your aunt to eat during her confinement.”

Wen Xuan licked her lips and said, “I want some too. I want to eat egg custard with a drop of lard and soy sauce.”

“Okay! I’ll steam some for you and your sister tomorrow.”

Wen Xuan was so happy, she ran off to count the brown sugars again.

The weight of the brown sugar was too much to count accurately, so it needed to be weighed. But she didn’t know how to use the scale. After counting for a long time, she concluded there were only 8 pieces of brown sugar.

Next was the fabric, which Sister Bao brought over. It was incredibly soft, enough to make two pieces of clothing for a baby.

Although their family had no shortage of cotton fabric, Wen Jiajia still felt very grateful, as others wouldn’t know. Sister Bao’s family had so many children, so being able to spare such good material for her was a great act of kindness.

Wen Jiajia rubbed the fabric, planning to wash it and then make a one-piece sleeper for the baby.

The idea of this kind of clothing just occurred to her. After all, before she transmigrated, she was just a recent graduate, and none of her friends or classmates had children, so she was unfamiliar with baby clothes.

It was only this morning, after seeing Wen Chun and Wen Xuan’s overalls drying in the courtyard, that she remembered the one-piece sleeper.

Finally, there was the meat. Wen Jiajia wrote down the name of the person who sent the meat in her notebook—when they have something going on in the future, you’ll need to return the favor with a gift equivalent to what they gave you.

Zhong Huisheng placed the last dish on the table, glanced at the meat in the basket, and said, “There’s pork trotters! If I had known earlier, I would have made pork trotter soup for you.”

Wen Jiajia hurriedly waved her hand, “No, no, let’s save that for a few days later.”

“Don’t worry about the smell; when the time comes, let Wei Dai sear the trotters over a charcoal brazier, and the smell will be gone. But since you’re in confinement and can’t eat that, otherwise, we could prepare a dipping sauce and stew the trotters until they’re tender—it’s really delicious that way,” Zhong Huisheng said.

Before she could finish, Wen Jiajia made a slurping sound, obviously swallowing her saliva.

How could Wen Jiajia not know about this way of eating? She used to eat pork trotters three times a week! For authentic trotters, she even bought a plane ticket to Sichuan late at night.

The food was ready, and the family gathered around the table to eat.

Outside, the cold wind was howling, making the trees and bamboo sway, and there was even a “crack” as an old dead tree was blown down.

Wei Dai closed the living room door and windows, turned on the electric light, and the room instantly became bright.

The electric light had a new bulb replaced just yesterday. It was an incandescent bulb with a white light tinged with red. Although bright, it was glaring and hard to look at directly. Moreover, it dimmed over time, losing about a third of its brightness after three months of use, so the family kept a stock of bulbs, with more than ten old ones replaced over the past two years.

Once the room was a bit warmer, Wei Dai brought out the baby’s crib from the bedroom.

Wen Jiajia was speechless, “Do we have to watch over your daughter even while eating?”

Wei Dai had specially made a cover for the crib, which not only blocked the wind but also shielded the baby from the glaring light.

He opened the cover and smiled, “I’m afraid she’ll cry. What if she gets scared of being alone in the room?”

Can a baby be afraid after just a few days? Wen Jiajia pursed her lips, didn’t argue with Wei Dai, and started eating.

To accommodate her, Zhong Huisheng had not made too many heavily seasoned dishes for this meal; most were light.

For instance, there was carp tofu soup and stir-fried yam with wood ear mushrooms, as well as stir-fried pork with winter bamboo shoots and shredded potatoes.

The only relatively strong-flavored dish was the braised ribs, so Wen Jiajia focused on that and ate to her heart’s content.

Night fell.

After a few days, Wen Jiajia realized that her baby was a low-demand angel, making her so happy that her smile almost reached her ears.

After feeding the baby and preparing to sleep, she noticed that Wei Dai was still sitting at the desk, seemingly doing something.

She leaned over to take a look. Wow! The paper was filled with dense writing, with the characters “Hong” and “Ying” appearing repeatedly, making her eyes hurt just from looking at it.

“Still haven’t decided on a name? How about I help?” Wen Jiajia pulled up a chair and sat down.

Wei Dai was unhappy, “Didn’t we agree earlier that the surname would be yours, but the name would be mine?”

Wen Jiajia glanced at the paper and said, “Just tell me, are you satisfied with any of the names on that paper?”

Call out any of those names, and three or four people in the family courtyard would respond.

There are too many common names!

Wei Dai awkwardly replied, “I can keep thinking about it.”

Wen Jiajia said, “Up to you, but if you can’t come up with something, let’s at least give her a nickname. Today, when others asked me what the baby’s name was, I had nothing to say.”

Outside, the howling wind gradually subsided, and the sound faded into the distance. The moon reappeared from behind the clouds.

An idea suddenly struck Wei Dai as he recalled the night their baby was born—when the clouds parted and the moon shone brightly.

“How about we name her Yue Ming (Bright Moon)?” he suddenly suggested.

Wen Jiajia was surprised, “Yue Ming Xing Xi, Wu Que Nan Fei?” (A line from an ancient poem)

Wei Dai smiled and said, “No, it’s not related to ancient poetry. I just thought, the moon was just as bright on the night she was born.”

Wen Jiajia repeated the name several times to herself. Although simple, it sounded unexpectedly nice with her surname.

Childbirth is truly painful, and a mother has to endure much more than a father, so they had already agreed that the child would take her surname.

“Wen Yueming, Wen Yueming…”

Wen Jiajia’s eyes lit up, “Then let’s name her Yueming. Our child will surely thank you in the future!”

After all, it would be much easier to write her own name.

Wei Dai was also excited and, after thinking for a while, said, “Shall we give her the nickname ‘Yueliang’ (Moon)?”

Wen Jiajia responded, “That’s fine, it’s definitely better than ‘Xiaoming’ (Little Ming).”

She was really worried that Wei Dai would give their child the nickname “Xiaoming.”

It’s a bit of a tongue-twister.

Wen Jiajia returned to bed and gently touched the baby’s soft cheek with her finger.

“You have a name now.”

—

After giving birth, Wen Jiajia felt much better, mainly because Elder Peng had excellent skills. After a few acupuncture sessions, her stomach felt significantly better.

Soon, it was New Year’s Eve.

On New Year’s Eve, the family was busy all day because it wasn’t just New Year’s Eve; it was also the baby’s one-month celebration.

Wei Dai got up early to grind tofu, and after that, he went out to buy groceries.

Wen Jiajia was still sleeping in bed—there was no choice. She had to get up at night to feed the baby. Because of this, her sleep quality had declined a lot. Originally, she could sleep naturally from the time she went to bed until she woke up, but now her sleep is broken into several segments.

She used to have morning grumpiness, but over time, she’s become more patient, just waiting for the day to wean her baby.

This morning, when Wen Jiajia woke up at eight-thirty, the first thing she did was check the baby’s diaper.

Yep, it was wet and needed changing.

Her baby was really well-behaved, not even crying when wet. Wen Jiajia, having never raised such a young child before, assumed all babies were like this. It wasn’t until Ms. Shen and others mentioned how their kids used to cry the moment they wet themselves that she realized her daughter was truly different.

Because of this, Wen Jiajia even observed her daughter closely, and only after confirming that she was a perfectly normal child did she feel at ease.

Since the soy milk had already been ground, breakfast naturally included soy milk, along with the buns steamed yesterday, which were stored in the cupboard.

Seeing her come out, Zhong Huisheng said, “The soy milk’s gone cold. Go brush your teeth first, and I’ll heat it up for you.”

Wen Jiajia responded with an “alright” and peeked into the kitchen, where she found it filled with ingredients.

“Did Wei Dai already come back from shopping?” she asked.

Zhong Huisheng replied, “He came back a while ago. He said he had to go to the team.”

Wen Jiajia nodded and went to eat after brushing her teeth.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were now in elementary school and on winter vacation. The two sisters, for the first time, appreciated the benefits of being in primary school. When they were in preschool, they had to attend from the beginning of the year to the end!

At that moment, the two were playing next door, but they rushed back as soon as they heard the radio.

Wen Jiajia asked, “What were you playing next door?”

Wen Chun took a sip of soy milk, found it not sweet enough, and said, “We were going to play with firecrackers, but then we remembered Xiaomei^[1]Little Sister. is still sleeping, so we didn’t.”

Wen Xuan nodded vigorously, “We didn’t even let Xiao Yi play, and we definitely didn’t let Yuan Chao and the others. Yuan Chao and the others were playing with big firecrackers!”

It’s a sign of changing times. In previous years, no one in the military compound would have dared to openly set off firecrackers.

But this year, even kids were setting them off. Of course, the adults weren’t joining in yet. If something happened, they could just say the kids didn’t know any better, but adults wouldn’t have that excuse.

Hearing the girls, Wen Jiajia ruffled their hair, then felt their bellies. “Did you have breakfast early? Do you want to eat some more?”

Wen Chun grinned, “No, there’s definitely going to be lots of food today. I want to save room for other things.”

Wen Xuan’s eyes lit up, and she gulped down the soy milk before stuffing a fried dough stick into her mouth. Speaking with her mouth full, she asked, “Aunt, will there be fried chicken today? I dreamed of fried chicken last night.”

Wen Jiajia gently scolded, “You need to swallow what’s in your mouth before talking. What if you get excited and accidentally spray someone?”

Then she answered, “Fried chicken is fine, but you’ll have to wait until tonight. It needs to marinate first.”

Wen Xuan quickly chewed and swallowed, nodding, “Got it. I’ll eat less now to save room for the fried chicken tonight.”

Wen Jiajia thought to herself, *Let’s see if you can hold out until lunch.*

After breakfast, Wen Jiajia had to help out in the kitchen.

The radio was still on, playing the news instead of stories. Wen Jiajia needed to catch up on current events, knowing only a few big things that happened this year.

At the moment, the kitchen was bustling with activity as they were frying various foods.

There were fried vegetable balls and meatballs, filling a large basin, along with plenty of fried potato strips and lotus root strips, as well as stuffed lotus root and eggplant. Wen Xuan was sitting on the doorstep, eating with such delight that she’d completely forgotten her morning vow.

Wen Jiajia teased her, “Still planning to eat fried chicken?”