The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

"Mom, my sister-in-law said that Sanniang gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and I have a son! Where are the children? Let me see them quickly."

Zhang Laoer couldn't wait to shout to his mother as soon as he stepped into the yard before he even entered the house. He still felt a little unreal and was worried that this time it would be in vain again.

"Hey, please be quiet. The child has been cleaned up and is sleeping next to Sanniang. Don't wake him up," Zhang said quickly, waving her hand. If he woke up, she would have to help coax him.

Zhang Laoer touched the back of his head and smiled foolishly, then lowered his voice and said, "Where is my son, Mom? I want to see him, hehe... I have a son too"!

Zhang, understanding her second son's feelings, went to the woodshed and brought the little boy over. The child was wrapped tightly, with only a tiny face showing. Zhang Laoer looked at it and measured it. The little boy's face was no bigger than half his palm. The child looked so frail, how could he feed him? Was his previous children like this too? Zhang Laoer couldn't even remember.

Thinking of the pointing and criticizing over the years, Zhang Laoer, a grown man, couldn't help but have tears in his eyes.

He gently touched his son's face with his fingers, then lifted the blanket and took a look between his legs. Only then did Zhang Laoer feel at ease. Although it was very hot, he was still worried that the child would catch a cold, so he quickly covered him with the blanket again.

I secretly made up my mind that no matter what the cost, I must raise my son well.

"Okay, okay, just take a look. The child is still young and afraid of the wind," said Zhang, and then she quickly carried the child back in.

"Mom, is Sanniang okay?" Zhang Laoer finally had time to ask Xu.

"She's fine, but she's very weak. She suffered a lot giving birth to two babies at once. She's already as thin as a stick. I guess she won't be able to have a baby again in the future. She's still sleeping now," Zhang replied after putting the children out.

"Mom, thank you for running around to serve me for half a day. Please make something delicious for her later and bring it in. Add a few poached eggs and some brown sugar. She has had a hard life in the past few years," Zhang Laoer instructed.

Although their relationship has reached freezing point in recent years because of their son, the basic love between husband and wife is still there. Now that they have a son, they have to live a good life. Otherwise, when Xu was about to give birth, he would not have allowed his mother to arrange light work for him despite the glare of his third brother's wife.

"I know, I know. You don't need me to tell you. I also hope that you are well. Your father doesn't care about anything. In the future, I have to rely on you guys to take care of me and your father until the end of our lives. Don't I understand this? I am not that short-sighted." Zhang said with a stern face. Everyone in the village knew that she was not the evil mother-in-law who tortured her daughter-in-law after she gave birth.

Zhang Laoer was scolded and said embarrassedly: "I know, mother, you are a good mother-in-law. I was just talking."

It's really scary when my mother gets angry.

"Okay, after you've finished reading, go back to work. I still have to light a fire and prepare dinner. I can't leave the fields unattended."

"Hey, mom, I know, I'm leaving now."

After taking another reluctant look at the delivery room, Zhang Laoer hurried back to the fields.

The whole family worked in the fields for another two days before finally finishing the harvest. All that remained was threshing, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Threshing could be done slowly, since we had a large yard. Their biggest fear was rain; if the rice wasn't harvested, it would sprout in the ground, and there was no way to save it. It was heartbreaking.

Mrs. Xu was mostly asleep these past two days. Zhang Laoer asked about her condition several times by the window of the delivery room, but she didn't say much. Often, Mrs. Xu fell asleep while they were talking. It seemed that she was very tired and needed more rest to replenish her energy.

Zhang Laoer could only ask his mother to take the child out more often to look at him and take him in again after he had grown up.

The whole family eats dinner together in the evening. Since there are many people in the house, children and women are not allowed to sit at the table. They each take some dishes and eat by squatting at the doorstep or in the yard.

Farming had been busy recently, so the food was decent. Zhang had ordered two blocks of firm tofu from the peddler, chopped some green onions, mashed them up, mixed them together, and sprinkled some salt on them. It tasted quite good. She also stewed some radish with minced meat, which had a bit of oiliness.

The Zhang family was actually quite well-off, but Zhang had experienced famine and hardship, so she lived frugally. If it were just eating with the eldest family, it would be fine. But now, with a family of twenty or so, even a mountain of gold would bankrupt them. No amount of money would be enough, so they had to be more careful. After the grain was threshed, they would have to eat separately, so they had to make do for a few days.

Farmers cannot sit idle after meals. They sit in the yard in the afterglow of the sun, each holding a winnowing basket to sift grains, mainly to sift out large clods of soil, stones, and fine rice straw, so that it will be convenient to pay taxes or sell them to grain stores later.

Zhang Laosan was just like Ma when it came to doing things at home. He always avoided them whenever he could. Anyway, he had his elder and second brothers to do things at home. At this time, he leaned to one side and said, "Second brother, my second sister-in-law gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. You must be so happy. You now have a son. Congratulations to you first. We should have the full moon banquet, right?"

There is no custom of washing the third day of birth in Ezhou area. Generally, the only thing to be celebrated is a full-moon banquet. Zhang Laoer had never held such a banquet for his previous children except for the eldest daughter. Girls came one after another, which made him so annoyed that he had no mood to hold a banquet. It was considered lucky that he didn't send them away.

"I'll do it! After breakfast tomorrow, I'll go deliver red eggs to the village and the child's grandmother's family. I'll also have to deliver to his uncle and aunt's family, but they're far away and I don't have enough time. Tomorrow, I'm going to ask my eldest brother to go to the eldest, second, third, and fourth sisters' families to let them know," Zhang Laoer replied, his hands still working. Unlike Zhang Laosan, who stopped working in the middle of talking.

Zhang Laosan had guessed it would happen a long time ago. He finally had a son, a boy and a girl, and he was so proud of himself that he had to have a party to celebrate. But that wasn't what he cared about.

"Then second brother, let me run errands for you. I'm going to visit my sisters' homes," Zhang Laosan came up and said with a smile.

When I go to my sisters' homes to deliver some gifts, I can secretly eat a few red eggs on the way. After all, my sisters love me and won't tell. Maybe I can even get something to bring back.

How could Zhang Laoer, the brother, not understand the character of his own younger brother after so many years?

"Brother, you can be back in half a day without delaying your work. If you go, you may not be able to get home before dark," said Zhang Laoer.

"Hey, second brother, what do you mean by that? I'm just running errands for you. You don't know how to appreciate a good person." Zhang Laosan was not annoyed when his words were exposed. He smiled playfully and said that as long as he got the benefits, it was fine. He was thick-skinned and not afraid of being criticized.

"Let the third son go," the eldest son Zhang also spoke at this time. He was too lazy to listen to their chatter, and he was lazy himself. He only cared about himself and didn't like to get involved in family affairs. Among the sons, he was the one who was most like old man Zhang in terms of temperament.

"Okay, big brother, then the third one will go," said Zhang Laoer.

"Hehe, brother, don't worry about me taking care of things"!

Old Man Zhang sat down to rest for a moment, lit a pipe, and asked, "Have you picked out names for the two children? For the girl, just call her Liu Ya, following the order. For the boy, since he's the first one, what do you plan to call him?"

This question touched the heart of Zhang Laoer. He had been thinking about what to name his child these past two days, but felt that none of them were suitable.

"Dad, I've thought of a few names. Please listen to them and give me some advice. The child was born in the hot summer, during the autumn harvest. A good harvest, a full warehouse, autumn harvest, and food are all good. I think any of them are good, but none of them seem suitable. When I got up today, I went to see the child. He looked like a kitten, and I felt so distressed. I just hope that the child grows up safely. I don't ask for anything else. I'm thinking of naming him Ping'an. What do you think?"

"Just call it peace. It's simple, nice and easy to pronounce. It's better than calling it dog eggs or donkey eggs," said old man Zhang lightly after taking a few puffs of his dry pipe.

"I'll listen to you, Dad," Zhang Laoer said happily.

So the name of the only child in Zhang Laoer's family was decided, and he would be called Zhang Ping'an from now on!