Chapter 458: Fever
Chapter 458: Fever
Jiang Xia was cleaning pork ribs, preparing to chop them and marinate them. Just then, Zhou Chenglei and Zhou Chensen, the couple, returned.
Zhou Chenglei was covered in mud, especially his pant legs. Seeing Jiang Xia washing the ribs, he said, "I'll chop them later, you go ahead and prepare the marinade."
He went to the corner and turned on the faucet, washing the mud off his legs and hands.
"No need, go change your clothes first, don't catch a cold," Jiang Xia continued chopping.
Although her belly was now as large as a six or seven-month pregnancy, the baby was well-behaved, and Jiang Xia didn't feel any discomfort. So she could still handle simple household chores like cooking.
However, Zhou Chenglei and his mother rarely let her do any work. They always timed their return to cook.
Zhou Chenglei quickly washed his hands and feet, then took the knife from Jiang Xia, "I'll do it."
Jiang Xia went to the side and grabbed some rice bran to clean her hands of lard, then rinsed them. She then went to wash the vegetables, "You go change after you're done chopping."
"No rush, my clothes aren't wet, just a bit muddy. You go and rest."
Jiang Xia said, "I've been sitting all day, every day. Doctor Gao even said I should do more work, not just sit around."
Zhou Chenglei glared at her, "Doctor Gao just told you to walk more, not to do heavy work. Don't take things out of context."
Jiang Xia glared back!
Zhou Chenglei had no choice but to look away, unable to out-stare her. His eyes couldn't compete with hers, and he felt like kissing her.
He decided to just lower his head and continue chopping the ribs.
After their last exam, they went for a prenatal checkup. Doctor Gao, knowing that Jiang Xia spent her days sitting and translating, not doing any housework or farm work, advised her to walk more and stay active. On rainy days, she could walk up and down the stairs to build strength for childbirth.
Jiang Xia, being delicate, worried Doctor Gao that she might not have enough strength when the time came.
After all, giving birth to one baby was challenging enough, but she was expecting three at once.
Zhou Chenglei's heart raced with fear at the thought.
He knew all too well how strong Jiang Xia was.
She had the strength of a cat!
He had no idea how much strength was needed for childbirth.
But when his sister-in-law gave birth to his nephew at home, he heard her voice, raspy and strained.
The midwife told her not to scream, or she might run out of strength for the final push.
His sister-in-law, strong as an ox, still worried about her strength.
What about Jiang Xia?
Zhou Chenglei pursed his lips and quickly finished chopping the ribs, as if the smoother the chopping, the smoother Jiang Xia's delivery would be.
Jiang Xia took over, seasoned and marinated the ribs, and said to Zhou Chenglei, "There's also fish. Get the golden threadfish from the fridge, kill it, and marinate it. We'll fry it later."
"Okay," Zhou Chenglei went to get the fish.
Zhou Chensen and Li Xiuxian couldn't find the snake-skin bag for manure at the old residence, so they came to this side to get one.
Li Xiuxian glanced at Jiang Xia and Zhou Chenglei, a loving couple working together in the kitchen. Jiang Xia was giving instructions while Zhou Chenglei followed—a sight that made Li Xiuxian's heart ache.
They were all intellectuals, all married into the Zhou family.
Jiang Xia's life seemed too comfortable.
Zhou Chensen grabbed the snake-skin bag and glanced at Li Xiuxian, "Aren't you going to move?"
Li Xiuxian: "..."
See! He always makes her do the work!
In the lowly outhouse, Li Xiuxian, with a headscarf and a cloth covering her mouth and nose, held the bag while Zhou Chensen shoveled manure into it.
Farm manure, or farmyard manure, is a fertilizer made by mixing human and animal waste with wood ash.
In this era, there were also compound fertilizers like urea.
However, for base fertilizers, most farmers still preferred farm manure.
For countless generations, the villagers had cultivated and fertilized their fields this way, raising generation after generation, and no one considered it dirty work.
But Li Xiuxian had always found it dirty, and she didn't do this work at her parents' home. Now, in her husband's home, she was tasked with the dirtiest and most disgusting job.
Li Xiuxian glared at Zhou Chensen, silently toiling away.
The worst and most hated person was him!
He didn't stand up for his wife!
He felt awkward asking his brother-in-law to help with the manure, but he could have asked Zhou Chenglei.
Zhou Chenglei was his younger brother, the youngest of the family, and as the older brother, if he asked him to do something, he had to do it.
She had arranged for him to have an easy task, cooking at home, and she even bought the ingredients herself, yet he didn't seem to know how to choose an easier job.
Marrying such a man was a constant source of frustration!
If she had known better, she would have married someone from town.
But Li Xiuxian endured it all, as the couple had been in a cold war for a long time, and they hadn't even celebrated the New Year properly. She just wanted to end the cold war as soon as possible.
Due to the cold war, Zhou Chengsen hadn't touched her.
She had secretly gone to get her IUD removed.
She needed to hurry up and get pregnant; otherwise, how could the child be close in age to Jiang Xia's?
The two of them transported a cartload of manure to the fields.
Tian Caixia smiled and said, "Thank you, Second Younger Brother and Sister-in-Law! The seedling field has already been prepared! You should quickly spread the fertilizer and then go home for lunch!"
Li Xiuxian felt like she couldn't even eat her lunch.
Sure enough, after spreading the fertilizer, she lost her appetite.
She returned to the old residence to wash her hair and take a shower, spending over two hours doing so.
She couldn't even sing a single line without making a mistake!
That night, Li Xiuxian took a shower for over an hour before she felt like she had finally washed away the smell of manure.
She glanced at the person on the bed.
Zhou Chengsen was already asleep.
Li Xiuxian sniffed her own body; it smelled fragrant.
She snuggled into Zhou Chengsen's blanket and hugged him.
Zhou Chengsen, not sure if it was because of the rain, had a terrible headache and felt feverish. He took a packet of headache medicine and went to sleep, but now, awakened by her, he felt dizzy and nauseous. He turned over, facing away from her, and said, "Go to sleep early. We need to wake up early tomorrow to start planting, and then I'll go back to work. Don't expect my family to help us with these tasks; we'll manage our fields ourselves this year."
Li Xiuxian: "..."
If it weren't for Zhou Chengsen coming home every day after work to tutor their daughter with her homework, and the fact that they slept in the same bed every night, she would have suspected that he had someone else!
Otherwise, how could they have gone four months without any marital relations? Was he not interested?
He might not have the desire, but she did.
Was it necessary to stay angry for so long? Moreover, she wanted to have a son.
Li Xiuxian took the initiative and cuddled up to him.
Zhou Chengsen avoided her, saying, "My head hurts so much, I just want to sleep."
Li Xiuxian: "..."
She was so angry that she turned her back to him!
The next morning, Li Xiuxian got up and returned to town on her own, not bothering with anything else.
Zhou Chengsen returned from the fields, and Jiang Xia and Zhou Chenglei had just come downstairs.
On a rainy day, Jiang Xia didn't allow Zhou Chenglei to go out and run in the rain, so he ran up and down the stairs and did push-ups indoors instead.
Jiang Xia noticed that Zhou Chengsen's face was a bit pale and asked, "Second Brother, are you feeling unwell?"
"My head hurts a little."
Zhou Chenglei came forward and touched his forehead, "You have a fever. I'll take you to the clinic to get it checked."
Zhou Mu came out of the kitchen holding a tray of wheat and bean cakes, "You have a fever, and you still went to the fields? Eat some breakfast first, and then we'll go to the clinic."
"It's nothing serious. I'll just eat breakfast and take a fever-reducing medicine. Yingying, have you finished your breakfast? Let's go back to school!"
"I'm done!" Zhou Ying quickly grabbed her school bag.
Zhou Chenglei said, "It seems like a high fever; his forehead is burning. Let's go and get it checked. I'll drive you there and drop Yingying off at school on the way."
So the two brothers quickly finished their breakfast, and Zhou Chenglei drove Zhou Ying to school, reminding her to find her mother after school. Then, he took Zhou Chengsen to the clinic to see a doctor.
It was the same old doctor, who glanced at the thermometer and saw a reading of 39.8°C.
He looked up from his glasses and said to Zhou Chenglei, pointing at Zhou Chengsen, "This is the kind of situation where you should have rushed him here in a panic. If you didn't bring him in, why did you bring the other one with a temperature of 37.1°C in such a hurry?"
Zhou Chenglei: "..."
He had never seen a doctor with such a good memory!
(End of Chapter)
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