The 1970s: Military Family Beauty

Luo Danfeng asked cautiously, "Doctor, my child cries as soon as he goes to sleep. I don't know what's wrong. Can you take a look?"

Doctor Fu looked at the child playing with her fingers and thought for a moment, "If a child can't sleep well, it's either because they have a growth or something is making them uncomfortable. Look, she can lie on the hard table here without making a fuss. That means the mattress on your bed at home is not comfortable."

Luo Danfeng tried to recall: "The bed at home is just a wooden bed, with a mattress on top. I also padded it with cotton quilts for the baby, and the Xiaomi pillow was newly made."

Doctor Fu shook his head. "Oh, I don't know why you're so superstitious about the millet pillow. It's uncomfortable against your head, and you can't move. The baby will definitely cry. Will she stop crying once you hold her?"

Luo Danfeng's expression was a bit dumbfounded. "Don't they say that millet pillows are nice to sleep on? My mother-in-law made them specially for me."

Doctor Fu still shook his head. "Our heads are so hard that even a millet pillow wouldn't be comfortable. Try sleeping on it yourself and you'll know. Children's scalps are softer, so sleeping on a millet pillow would be very uncomfortable. Reed fluff or cotton is best for children."

Jiang Furong was listening nearby and couldn't help but touch the back of her head: "Then I must have never slept like this when I was a child. My occipital bone is round."

"You even know about the occipital bone?" Doctor Fu looked up in surprise. "Are you a medical student? In college? Or do you work in a hospital?"

Jiang Furong smiled and waved her hand: "I just graduated from high school. I'm not working or in college. I'm worried that I'm calcium deficient, so I looked for books and learned a little bit."

As she spoke, she lifted her hair and turned her face to show Dr. Fu to prove that what she said was true.

Doctor Fu took a closer look and said, "You don't seem to be calcium deficient, but you look like you have anemia and aren't getting enough nutrition. I happen to have some vitamin A and vitamin C today, so I'll prescribe two bottles for you to take home. Anemia requires iron supplements, but we don't have any here, so I'll ask your parents to go to the field hospital to get one. Whose family are you from?"

"Really?" Jiang Furong jumped up in her arms, then happily hugged Dr. Fu's arm and shook it twice. "Thank you, Dr. Fu, you're so kind! My father is Jiang Dapeng from the Confidentiality Department, and Sister Luo's husband is Officer Liu from the Field Affairs Department."

Supplies were already scarce, and it was impossible to buy fruit in winter. She was worried about how to provide nutrition for her small body.

Now, the doctor actually took the initiative to prescribe vitamin tablets and iron supplements for her. She was so lucky.

Doctor Fu also laughed: "Aren't you two from the same family? Oh, yes, they don't look alike. Here, take the vitamin tablets, one tablet once a day. Look at your hair, remember to tell your dad, and then we'll prescribe some vitamin B for you too."

Jiang Furong was so happy that she was flying with joy, flattering him loudly: "Doctor Fu is truly the best doctor in the world! He is worthy of being the best doctor in the entire army!"

Doctor Fu laughed out loud: "Look at your sweet mouth, you don't look like Jiang Dapeng at all."

Jiang Furong smiled and put the small bottle of vitamin tablets into her pocket, pretending not to hear.

Doctor Fu was in a good mood, smiling broadly as he spoke to Luo Danfeng: "Remember to change the pillow when you bring the child home. She's teething, so she needs calcium supplements. She needs milk, eggs, and fresh vegetables, and whatever fruit is available. And when the sun is out, take her out every day to bask in the sun. Remember?"

Luo Danfeng was a little confused. She seemed to have heard everything, but her eyes were still blank.

"I've remembered it! Sister Luo, I'll write it down for you when we get back and stick it on the wall inside the room. You can take a look at it if you forget." Jiang Furong answered quickly.

She saw it clearly from the side and knew that Luo Danfeng definitely didn't remember it.

However, she was able to earn two bottles of vitamin tablets today, which was also due to the help of Luo Danfeng and Xiaotang. Of course she would help with this small favor if she could.

Coming out of the clinic, Luo Danfeng looked at Jiang Furong's smile in the sunshine, and was filled with gratitude, but even more with envy: "Xiao Jiang, you are so familiar with Doctor Fu? That's great. I don't dare to speak to doctors when I see them. If you hadn't accompanied me today, I wouldn't have dared to come."

Jiang Furong waved her hand disapprovingly. "I'm the same as you. Before I came here, I heard from someone on the street that Dr. Fu was at the clinic. When I got there, I could tell who was the doctor and who was the nurse right away."

Luo Danfeng was even more envious: "When I saw you acting like a spoiled child with her, people who didn't know her would think she was your mother."

Jiang Furong covered her face and laughed for a while before saying, "You came to our house last night, and you really didn't hear any movement from the door?"

"Ah? Ah!" Luo Danfeng remembered.

When she heard Hedong's roar outside the door, she knew that the woman in the family was very powerful. She stood at the door and didn't dare to take a step. Later, when she went in and saw Hu Xiuqing greeting her with a smile and speaking politely, she was a little dazed and wondered if she had heard it wrong and that it was another family that was scolding.

Jiang Furong smiled and said, "I never act like a spoiled child with my mother."

In the past, she had no mother to act coquettishly to. Now she has a mother, but she can’t act coquettishly and has never had the chance to do so.

"My mom favors boys over girls, so only my brother can act like a spoiled brat with her." Jiang Furong frankly stated the truth: "He gives us everything he wants, whether it's delicious or fun. He only gives us his leftovers."

If there were not enough, the two older sisters wouldn’t even be able to pick up the leftovers.

Luo Danfeng listened and sighed deeply. "Alas, sons are favored over daughters. This is the way it is in most rural families. What can we do? Boys get a share of land, but girls don't. Even if they work in the fields, boys get two work points, but girls only get one. The same is true for food distribution. Boys get 30 kilograms, but girls only get a little over 20 kilograms. I did everything at home since I was a child, but in the end, everything went to my brother. My father said that girls will get married and belong to other families, so they don't have to give me anything."

As he spoke, his mood became noticeably depressed.

Jiang Furong consoled her, saying, "Sister Luo, the army doesn't discriminate against boys. Your daughter won't have to endure the hardships you've endured."

Luo Danfeng smiled bitterly: "I wish Xiaotang didn't have to suffer. Alas, girls suffer too much. Without education and skills, they can't make money. People look down on them wherever they go."

Jiang Furong finally discovered why she felt that Luo Danfeng was like a middle-aged woman. Although she was only twenty-four or twenty-five years old, she was as hopeless about life as an old lady with bound feet who had never left the house, and her words were full of negative energy.

However, it would be strange for Luo Danfeng to be in a good mood with a mother-in-law like that.

Before they knew it, the two of them had arrived at Luo Danfeng's door while talking.

Jiang Furong decided to go home first: "Sister Luo, go back and get Xiaotang something to eat. We can talk about the class this afternoon. I'll come find you at 2:30."