Grandma Jing's heart dropped, her initial excitement withering in an instant as she processed Wei Chang's words. Jing Shu arched an eyebrow but didn't say anything, watching the lines of worry deepen on the older woman's face.
They had planned to hand over the gifts they had brought for Qiao Lian, but in the sudden rush of anxiety, everyone went in empty-handed and hurried to see what was going on. There wasn't even time to run back to the RV for the supplies they had packed so carefully.
Compared to Grandma Jing's nerves, Jing Shu stayed pretty chill. She even had the mind to look around for changes at Eldest Aunt's place as they navigated the damp entryway. When they came at New Year, a fire had scorched parts of the building. You could still see the jagged black marks on the walls where the flames had licked the plaster. The old apple plot, however, now held a row of prefab sheds that stood in the mud.
From a distance, Jing Shu spotted black pigs inside the sheds, their dark shapes shifting in the gloom. They didn't look lively; they were sluggish and heavy in the cramped spaces.
In just two years, they had grown to a few dozen. With feed abundant early this year, they had bred another twenty-something piglets that scurried through the muck.
Seven-plus months later, most of them were full-grown, their flanks thick and solid.
"We still have to butcher them," Jing Shu sighed quietly to herself. She needed to talk Eldest Aunt into slaughtering the herd and saving only two as breeding stock. From here on, they should sell piglets instead. Keeping pigs wasn't going to work as the world tightened its belt.
Food was about to get scarcer and scarcer. No maggots and no red nematodes would be found easily. It would stay that way until mutated species appeared to fill the vacuum of the ecosystem.
Inside the house were only her sister-in-law Qiao Lian and Qiao Lian's mother. The rest of Qiao Lian's family had gone home, leaving a smaller, more tense group behind. Eldest Aunt was here with her son, Wei Zheng.
What surprised Jing Shu was seeing Second Aunt, Jing Zhao, too. She was holding a basin of steaming hot water and using a towel to wipe the beads of sweat from Qiao Lian's forehead.
"Jing Pan, Mom and Dad, Jing Shu... the others are here. Go greet them," Wei Chang called as he stepped into the room, his gaze fixed on the doctor. Everyone finally turned to look. The lighting was dim, provided by just a couple of flashlights that cast long, swaying shadows against the scorched walls. If you didn't look closely, you couldn't tell who was who in the dim, flickering light.
"Forget me, what does the doctor say?" Grandma Jing hurried over and grabbed her eldest daughter's hand, her own fingers trembling with a mix of cold and anxiety. She thought Jing Pan had gotten thinner again. Was caring for the daughter-in-law wearing her down to the bone?
"Mom, Dad, Jing Shu, You'ai... you're all here. Sit first. Jing Zhao, pour some sweet hot soup to warm them up," Jing Pan said with a weary smile.
Grandma Jing frowned at her second daughter as she moved toward the stove. "Why are you here? Don't tell me you're mooching food again."
Jing Zhao really was slimmed down. She used to be fat, but now she was only a bit plump, her movements quicker than before. She chuckled as she reached for the ladle. "Mom, I'm helping Big Sister take care of Qiao Lian every day. Put it on the payroll. I have been taking great care of her."
The male doctor finished his exam and straightened his back. He shook his head with a frown. "You took too good care of her. She is due, but there's no sign of labor yet. She has been eating too much. That can lead to a big baby. We can't even confirm the fetal position without proper equipment. If there's no progress in three more days, pull strings and get some oxytocin. Without proper gear, if she can't deliver, you might end up with a difficult birth. That could mean two lives lost."
Qiao Lian clapped a hand over her mouth, tears spilling down her puffy cheeks.
Up close, it was obvious she had gained a lot of weight. She looked to be around 180 jin (about 90 kg), her skin stretched tight and her breathing shallow.
Grandma Jing shot a vicious glare at her daughters. "You fed her this fat, and now she can't deliver. Have you never been mothers? You don't know basic common sense?"
Jing Zhao bristled, her chin lifting defiantly. "Mom, I have been serving Qiao Lian with all my heart. That's how we ate when we gave birth back then. We were always afraid we weren't eating enough. Besides, I had a C-section; I don't know all this. Having enough to eat is already a blessing now. Plus, Qiao Lian wants this and that every day. Brother-in-law said yes to whatever she asked."
Jing Pan bit her lip, her expression pained. "It's my fault. I have been busy running between everything, so I left Qiao Lian to Jing Zhao. It looked like she was doing a good job."
Grandma Jing turned her stare on Qiao Lian's mother, who was huddled on a chair. "You're her real mother. Why didn't you keep her in check?"
Qiao Lian's mother shrank into a corner and said weakly, "In-law said the hospital is doing free deliveries now. I thought it would be like before the apocalypse, so I told her to eat her fill."
Jing Pan rubbed her temples, her eyes closed. "I did say that, but I also said lots of equipment doesn't work and there aren't any drugs. 'Free delivery' just means if you can manage without any medical support, you deliver. If you can't, there's nothing they can do. That's why I found an experienced doctor to come."
Qiao Lian's mother muttered, "I don't care. You guaranteed it would be a smooth birth. I can't deal with this now."
Seeing tempers flare, the doctor tried to ease the tension. "Don't be too pessimistic. The mother should walk more every day to help things along. If labor starts, bring her to the county hospital's temporary post and find me."
Once the doctor left, the whole room felt colder, the dampness of the rain seeming to seep through the floorboards. Qiao Lian sobbed and insisted on getting up to walk. It was hard to imagine that a woman who used to be so slender had turned this dark and heavy in less than a year. If she had been a six in looks before, she was down to a one now, with only the faint light of maternal love around her.
Watching Qiao Lian shuffle one step at a time and rest after each, Jing Shu shook her head. Compared to Zhang Bingbing, this was night and day. Was childbirth really like this?
To ease the tension, Grandma Jing brought up Zhang Bingbing's delivery. She said as long as they followed the doctor's instructions, the baby would come soon. She added that Jing Shu and Wu You'ai had helped deliver before, and they would figure it out together. The mood finally thawed a little.
Wei Zheng bowed his head and kept quiet. He just supported his wife's arm as she walked slowly across the room.
Wei Chang, however, started bouncing his knee after a while, his fingers tapping a restless rhythm on his thigh. Jing Shu took the chance to call him outside. They walked into the muddy courtyard where the rain drummed steadily on their raincoats.
"Uncle, it's been rough for you. You set up a factory and haven't earned back a single coin yet."
"Jing Shu, that's not what I like to hear. You mean your uncle didn't get it before and suddenly does now? We have always lived one step at a time. You're the only one looking three steps ahead. I know the red nematode market like the back of my hand. Our Livestock Breeding Center worked hard to raise a few hundred pigs and a few thousand chickens. Now there's no feed. Tell me, aren't we still close to striking it rich?"
Once he got on the topic, His face lit up. "Come on, I'll show you our pigs, and the red nematodes I'm breeding myself. Back then it was one virtual coin for 100 jin (about 50 kg) of red nematodes. Now it's one virtual coin for 100 live worms. Your uncle has a fortune in this tank."
"Jing Shu, with this stock, I want to expand the operation."
"Uncle, find some time in the next few days and butcher all the pigs."