It was another late night, and as soon as there was a commotion outside, Bahu woke up. He heard the sound of Da Huang getting up and moving, so he lifted the blanket, put on his shoes, and went out. Afraid of any nighttime accidents, he hadn’t even taken off his clothes when sleeping.
“What’s going on? Are the wolves here?” As soon as the door opened, Mi Niang was awakened. She vaguely heard the voice outside shouting for the doctor. She propped up her body and sat up. “Or is someone having a difficult childbirth?”
“I’ll go take a look; you stay inside.” With everyone now awake, the cattle and sheep were also restless, shuffling their hooves nervously. Bahu walked briskly toward the source of the commotion, hearing Doctor Huang shouting to boil water, “She’s about to give birth, call for the midwife!”
The so-called midwife was just a woman experienced in delivering babies. Bahu heard hurried footsteps and quickly stepped aside to make way. When Doctor Huang came out of the felt bag, he anxiously asked about the situation.
“Just by examining the pulse, the situation seems okay, but as long as the baby hasn’t come out, anything can happen,” Doctor Huang said calmly. Having seen many childbirth situations, he remained composed, but Bahu, listening to the cries from inside, couldn’t help but tremble. He couldn’t stand still, pacing back and forth anxiously, appearing more nervous than the baby’s father.
The two stood outside and waited for a while. After Doctor Huang went in and examined the pulse again, he was ready to go back to sleep. “Call me if there’s any change.”
“Why aren’t you waiting here?” Bahu was dumbfounded. He looked back at the well-lit felt bag and couldn’t make up his mind, so he had to follow Doctor Huang.
“It’s not my wife giving birth, and I’m a doctor, not a midwife. Waiting outside is useless.”
The others who had been awakened went back to sleep, leaving only the curious cattle and sheep staring with wide eyes at the sudden commotion in the middle of the night. Bahu lay in bed, his heart still pounding. He strained his ears to listen carefully to the sounds. When the woman’s painful cries gradually weakened and suddenly seemed to disappear, he wondered if the child had been born. Just as he was drifting off to sleep, a sudden cry of pain jolted him, making him sit up.
Mi Niang hadn’t fallen asleep either. She rolled over and listened to the commotion not far away. “I wonder if the baby can be born before dawn. If not, will they still have to continue the journey?”
Bahu touched her belly and frowned, saying, “Let’s wait until the baby is born before setting off. It’s okay to be a day late.”
“I’ll call my mother to accompany you. I’ll go take a look.” Since she couldn’t sleep with an uneasy heart, he went over to check and learn, so that when Mi Niang gave birth, he wouldn’t be confused about what to prepare.
The woman giving birth had only four people in her family. The father was guarding the sheep in the flock, the mother-in-law was inside the felt bag, and only her husband was busy outside the felt bag. When Bahu went over, he saw that there was no one watching the stove for boiling water. He squatted down, poked the stove, and added two chunks of dry cow dung. Sitting next to the stove, he listened to the commotion inside the felt bag. He burned the fire all night, his eyes fixed on the flames, his ears tuned to the conversations and the urgent and heavy sounds of panting inside the felt bag.
“Push harder, harder, harder…” Following the midwife’s instructions, Bahu clenched his hands tightly, and the ground beneath his feet was kicked into a pit. Finally, with the first rays of dawn breaking through the clouds, the felt bag echoed with the sound of a hearty cry.
Bahu heaved a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on his face. He stood up somewhat exhausted and went to call Doctor Huang.
“Mother and child are both safe,” Doctor Huang said with joy. When he came out of the felt bag and saw Bahu with dark circles under his eyes, he chuckled, “You haven’t slept, huh? Kept vigil all night?”
“Burned the fire all night,” Bahu yawned, rubbed his face dry of moisture, scooped hot water from the pot, washed his face to wake up, and said, “Mi Niang is pregnant with twins. Does it take longer for her to give birth?”
The woman who started labor last night was a purebred northerner, with a large frame. It took only half the night from the start to delivery, which was considered fast. Mi Niang, with a smaller frame, wouldn’t deliver as quickly even if she were carrying only one child.
“The second child usually comes out faster after the first one,” Doctor Huang reiterated the old saying. “I think Mi Niang has a good physique. If she likes to move around, don’t stop her. Being active can speed up the delivery.”
“I was afraid of inducing premature birth… Okay, I’ll help her walk outside a bit more.” The road was already bumpy, and during the rest stops, Bahu’s concern was to let Mi Niang lie down and rest more.
Mi Niang woke up early. The place where she gave birth was full of vitality, but her mother-in-law didn’t let her go there. Instead, she went to the flock to see the lambs eating grass and the calves suckling. When Bahu returned, she eagerly asked about the situation.
“Gave birth, and it’s a chubby little boy.” Bahu was like a herald of good news, spreading this sentence happily along the way. Anyone who asked him would hear this joyful statement as if he were the child’s father.
Seeing the dark circles under his eyes, Bahu’s mother felt sorry for him. “While the food is not ready, go rest in the lorry for a while. I’ll call you when it’s time to leave.”
Mi Niang also advised him to go to sleep, warning against falling asleep and tumbling under the horse’s hooves while riding.
Bahu’s head was still buzzing. He lay in the lorry with closed eyes, and all he could see in his mind was the flames in the stove. Hearing Mi Niang’s laughter outside, he opened his eyes, counted the days on his fingers, and thought about ensuring that Mi Niang wouldn’t give birth during the migration again. Just after giving birth, they had to endure the hardships of continued travel. Both adults and children would suffer.
The calf was tied to the camel’s back, the felt bag was bound to the cow’s back, the fire was extinguished, and the embers were buried. The oxen and sheep were driven forward to continue the journey. If it weren’t for the crying of the infant, no one would remember that there was a newborn baby in the caravan.
During the noon break for cooking, Bahu crawled into Lele’s car to catch up on sleep, while Mi Niang, Mu Xiang, and Uncle Muren were busy with their respective cooking tasks. Bahu’s mother was unsure whether it was appropriate to meet Uncle Muren. As soon as he arrived, he carried a basket and mentioned that he was going to the riverbank to find wild chicken eggs in the water grass.
“Is this Bahu’s convoy?”
“Yes, are you looking for him?” Mi Niang, seeing the man carrying a lamb leg, probably guessed his identity. “Wait a moment, let me call him. He’s sleeping in Lele’s car.”
“No need, no need to wake him up. He stayed up late last night and must be tired. I’m here to bring you a lamb leg. He worked hard last night, and I’m from the family that had a baby this morning.” The man put the lamb leg into a wooden basin. “Ask Little Sister A to help me pass a message to him. In the past, my mother believed in some nonsense and misunderstood him, saying a lot of unpleasant things outside. I hope he won’t take it to heart.” The man bent down, and the blush on his black face couldn’t be hidden. He hurriedly and disorderly walked away.
Bahu’s mother returned with a wild chicken flapping its wings after hearing the last sentence. “What does he mean by not taking it to heart?” She looked at the lamb leg in the basin and thought about the young man’s apologetic gesture just now. “Did he offend my son? What did he do wrong? Why did he accept the lamb leg? We don’t need another lamb leg.”
Mi Niang received a displeased look. She smoothed her hanging hair and said, “The man just came to apologize to his mother because she said a lot of unpleasant things to Bahu. It’s probably because Bahu had a fight with his father. I knew about his reputation for being unfilial and disobedient even before I married him. But I don’t know the specific details of what happened. If you want to know, wait for Bahu to wake up and ask him yourself.”
The woman suddenly became silent. Even as the wild chicken she was holding pecked vigorously at her hand, she didn’t seem to notice. She spoke weakly, “You mentioned wanting chicken soup earlier, so I caught a chicken and also found three eggs.” She pulled the eggs out from her pocket.
In front of Mu Xiang and Uncle Muren, she didn’t inquire further. However, when they sat in the car in the afternoon, heading down the road, Bahu’s mother sent Mu Xiang to another car and, in a gentle voice, asked Mi Niang about Bahu’s affairs in Lingshan. After listening, she remained silent for many days, no longer approaching Bahu and, notably, not mentioning the old man following behind.
It wasn’t until they reached Lingshan that she began to regain some spirit. She busied herself with various tasks, packing things, and feeding chickens before meals and dogs after meals. She even took the initiative to milk the sheep and make tofu with the milk.
“Mother, we’ve been in Lingshan for a couple of days. When do you plan to go back?” Bahu couldn’t help but ask.
The woman’s hands paused for a moment, and she lowered her eyelids, appearing somewhat disheartened. During winter, Bahu was reluctant to let her leave, but now she unexpectedly seemed eager for her departure.
“I’ll go back when you bring Doctor Huang home. I’ll stay and take care of Mi Niang while you’re away.”
Bahu raised an eyebrow and studied her for a while. Bringing Doctor Huang back wouldn’t take much time; he could leave in the morning and return in the afternoon.
“Alright, I’ll take you back once I’m back.”
The woman remained silent. When Bahu left the house, she couldn’t help complaining to Mi Niang, “Bahu is upset with me. He’s driving me away.”
Mi Niang was secretly amused; she hadn’t expected Bahu to send his mother away. It seemed he had truly given up on her.
“If you go back to Xushui once we’re in Lingshan, he’s probably worried that you might delay, and his father might come looking for him again in a few days.”
“If he wants to come, let him come. Bahu is not afraid of that old man.” The woman rejected the idea outright, fidgeting restlessly in front of the door. “He’s really angry. He doesn’t want me to be with his father anymore, but I don’t listen to him.”
Mi Niang, curious about her mother-in-law’s thoughts, gently inquired while stroking the dog hair of Da Huang, “I can’t understand why you insist on going back. You know very well that you’ll face more mistreatment when you return. What are you thinking? Tell me, and I’ll convey it to Bahu for you.”
“I’m forty-one years old. I got married to Angqin at seventeen, and it’s been twenty-four years. I’m getting old, and I don’t want to go through this again. I still have two children.” A woman in her forties can’t bear children anymore, but a man in his forties can. If she leaves home to live with Bahu, and Angqin remarries and has more children, Agula might end up following the same path as Bahu—getting kicked out of the house.
“I know that when the old man is drunk, I’ll still get beaten, but what does it matter? As long as he doesn’t kill me, the next day, he’ll be like a dog. Whenever I shed a couple of tears, he kneels in front of me.” A vacant glint appeared in the woman’s eyes. “Mi Niang, can you understand? When I’m being beaten, as long as I think of him kneeling in front of me, slapping himself, I can endure it.” She rolled up her sleeves and pulled down her collar. “Look, not a single mark left. It hurt at the time, but I feel nothing now.”
Mi Niang could tell through her eyes that she was clear-headed, but she persisted in trying to persuade her. “If you can live to sixty, you still have nearly twenty years ahead. Isn’t it a waste to keep encountering those who harm you? It’s not worth it to be angry all the time when you grow old. Look at how Bahu and I live. Our relationship is normal. Beating wives is wrong, and deserving to be scolded. Leaving him is the right choice.”
“Beating wives is definitely wrong, I know. That’s why he always kneels and apologizes to me.” The woman, who was previously uneasy about Bahu’s attitude, spoke more calmly as she discussed matters related to the old man. She didn’t mention Bahu being upset anymore. “You and Bahu live a good life together. I’ll just stay like this with his father. People outside may say harsh things but don’t get into fights with his father for my sake. Once you have children, leave the kids to him to take care of, so he won’t have the extra energy to think about other things.”
Mi Niang bit her lip. “Bahu used to protect you by fighting and injuring his father. Were you ever upset about that?”
“What nonsense are you talking about? My son was protecting me. Why would I be upset? I must have been happy. The old man probably didn’t expect that my son would press him to the ground and beat him like a dead dog when he was hitting me.”
Mi Niang tugged at her lip. As long as the topic of leaving the old man wasn’t brought up, the woman remained rational and clear-headed. However, she stubbornly refused to let go, insisting on entwining herself with the old man. Unable to make a clear decision and unwilling to accept, Mi Niang didn’t understand and dared not intervene any further.
When Bahu returned, Mi Niang conveyed his mother’s words and analyzed them for him. Bahu snorted and told her not to believe his mother’s nonsense. “She treasures that wretched old man so much. When I went to confront him, my mother cried and begged me to stop, fearing that I would beat him too severely and kill him.”
However, last year, Bahu had broken his father’s leg, and his mother hadn’t mentioned it during all this time.
“I think the current situation is fine. It’s like the usual interactions between relatives. If my mother wants to come, she can stay; if she wants to leave, we won’t stop her. As for her and the old man’s affairs, as long as I don’t encounter them, as long as she doesn’t come looking for trouble, I’ll pretend not to know. Let’s not get involved,” Bahu lay on the bed, stretching his hands and feet. Thinking about how the old man had warmly welcomed his mother when he sent her back, he sarcastically chuckled.
It was a case of willing to fight and willing to endure.
