freenovelworld Chapter 1937 Shock! What's the good news?
Chapter 1937 Shock! What's the good news?
"what?"
Li Xiangnan's congratulations was like a giant bomb, creating ripples in Xu Damao's chaotic mind, but it failed to stir up the storm that should have been there!
His mouth was agape, his eyes were fixed, and his gaze was blank as he stared at the unwavering smile on Li Xiangnan's face, which was by no means a joke. Then, he turned his head blankly to look at his wife, Qin Cuilian, who was lying on the bed, pale and weak.
Congratulations?
Congratulations!
Where does this joy come from?
A man whose spine had been bent by the words "childless" for twenty years, a husband who had long since accepted his fate and silently shed tears in his wife's arms on countless nights.
Xu Damao's thinking had long been rigidly confined to a certain path.
Cuilian has suddenly fallen seriously ill, and her life may be in danger!
At this moment, all his brain cells were burning with the word "help," and he had no energy left to receive signals like "pregnancy"... which were like a fantasy to Xu Damao, too luxurious to even dare to touch.
"Dr. Li...please don't...please don't joke around...saving lives is the priority..."
Even more so, Xu Damao, in his hoarse, weeping voice, with a hint of humble pleading that he himself didn't realize, hoped that Li Xiangnan would take back that cruel "joke."
"Cuilian is dying... She vomited up her gall bladder... Please save her quickly... I have no joy at all!"
He subconsciously repeated the phrase, just like before, never imagining that such a good thing would happen to him.
For twenty years, his wife's delayed menstruation was like the boy who cried wolf, repeatedly damaging the man's self-esteem.
Without exception, they were all fake, a joke played by God on him, just a reminder that he was probably destined to never have children in this lifetime!
This time will likely be no exception.
Xu Damao's eyes swept blankly over his equally bewildered neighbors, as if trying to find a trace of agreement on their faces to prove that he hadn't misheard, but that Dr. Li had made a mistake!
He's wrong. I, Xu Damao, have nothing to be happy about!
However, Li Xiangnan's smile widened, a smile of clarity that came from seeing the truth and dispelling the fog, and a smile of genuine joy for the couple.
He crouched down, placed his hand on Xu Damao's shoulder, and gently massaged it, his voice soft so that every neighbor in the house could hear him clearly.
“Brother Mao, you heard me right! I’m not wrong either! Sister Cuilian, this is not poisoning at all! No one has harmed her! This is not a serious illness or acute disease! She has morning sickness, which is a normal pregnancy reaction! It’s just that, as a senior and this is her first pregnancy, her physical reaction is much more intense than that of ordinary people, so it looks dangerous!”
"What...what is this? Morning sickness? Pregnancy?"
Xu Damao was dumbfounded once again.
He awkwardly repeated these two familiar yet unfamiliar words that he would never have dared to think about in his entire life!
He was familiar with it because over the past twenty years, he had heard the word countless times from other people's homes and from doctors' mouths. But each time, the word was like a small, dull knife, cutting into his flesh and striking the softest spot in his heart.
The word "unfamiliar" was because, in the past twenty years, he had never imagined that one day it would be associated with his wife, Qin Cuilian!
Pregnancy…
Isn't that pregnancy?
Pregnant? Doesn't that mean you're having a child?
child?????
This thought, like magma that had been accumulating underground for twenty years, finally found a weak point and burst through the dam of reason in Xu Damao's mind, gushing out from the ground!
"I...I...I'm going to be a father? Cuilian...she's pregnant?!"
A series of distorted roars suddenly burst from Xu Damao's throat!
That's not a question!
It's confirmed!
It was an explosive outburst!
His facial muscles twitched violently, and tears streamed down his face like a burst dam. Unlike the tears of fear and anxiety he had shed earlier, these were now hot, burning tears of ecstatic joy.
He wanted to shout loudly, and even more so, he wanted to laugh out loud, but the corners of his mouth turned down uncontrollably, and he began to cry uncontrollably.
He wanted to tell the whole world that he was going to be a father, but the overwhelming joy of his wife's pregnancy finally coming true made him unable to shout out, and he didn't know how to express the feeling of satisfaction in his heart.
He could only turn around abruptly, wanting to rush to his wife on the bed, but his legs had already gone weak. With a thud, he knelt firmly on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), reaching out his trembling hand to grab his wife's hand, but stopped abruptly when they were just inches apart, filled with tender fear, as if he were terrified of disturbing some fragile dream!
"Cuilian...Cuilian, did you hear what Doctor Li said...We...we have a baby, we have a baby, sob sob sob..."
This man, who is exactly forty years old this year and usually tries to live a carefree life as a street urchin, was crying like a child who had suffered all kinds of grievances and finally received candy. Tears streamed down his face, and he had no image to maintain. However, everyone around him who was watching couldn't help but feel their eyes well up with tears and their hearts ache.
Because everyone in this courtyard knows how Xu Damao and Qin Cuilian have survived these past twenty years.
They got married in 1960, when they were both twenty years old, the prime of their lives, and spent their days in anticipation.
But one year, three years, five years passed, and Qin Cuilian's belly remained empty.
At first, people thought it was just delayed childbearing in response to policy, but later they suddenly discovered that they had embarked on a long journey of seeking medical treatment and medicine, and only then did they realize that Xu Damao and Cuilian had health problems.
He tried everything: the traditional Chinese medicine doctor in the alley, the health center in the district, the big hospital in the city, and even folk remedies he asked around for.
The medicine pots on their stove were always burning, and the bitter smell of medicine permeated the backyard countless mornings and evenings.
Later, Qin Cuilian became so sick of the medicine that she felt nauseous at the sight of a bowl, and Xu Damao also tried many aphrodisiac remedies.
The Xu family's originally relatively wealthy fortune has been almost completely depleted.
Hope turned into disappointment time and time again.
Idle gossip, like the winter wind, seeps in everywhere.
A hen that doesn't lay eggs, a useless man—they must have gotten their comeuppance in their past lives…
These malicious labels were silently attached to this couple.
Qin Cuilian has a straightforward personality. She has cried countless times in private, but she always puts on a smiling face in front of others.
Xu Damao became increasingly silent, and his back hunched over day by day.
Walking through the alleyways, seeing other families holding their children and leading their grandchildren, their laughter pierced my heart like needles.
During holidays, when relatives gather, or when colleagues invite them, the noisy scene of children is nothing short of public torture for them!
Xu Damao pretended to tease the children, but when he got home, he stared blankly at the wall all night!
Especially in recent years, children of his age or much younger in the neighborhood have been born one after another, and they've learned to crawl, walk, and call him "daddy" and "mommy"...
That envy was deeply etched in Xu Damao's eyes.
He would often go to Yuejin Store to tease Zhou Xiejun for meals, and he would often squat at the door of the Li family's house to watch Li Xiangnan hold Xitang and bask in the sun.
The longing and loneliness in his eyes were impossible to hide.
Later, Li Xiangnan moved into this courtyard.
He had long noticed the superficiality in Xu Damao's face and the pent-up anger in Qin Cuilian's eyes.
Li Xiangnan didn't make a big fuss. He simply used the excuse of helping neighbors to regulate their bodies to prescribe some formulas for Xu Damao to warm and tonify kidney yang and unblock meridians. He also used acupuncture to treat the hidden dangers caused by their long-term stress and improper drug trials in their early years.
As for Qin Cuilian, the approach was to soothe her liver and relieve her depression, nourish her uterus, and patiently guide her to alleviate her enormous psychological burden.
Li Xiangnan often said, "Brother Mao, Sister-in-law Cuilian, health is the foundation. Only when you resolve your inner conflicts can your blood and qi flow smoothly! Having a child is a matter of fate; you can't rush it. It will come when it's meant to!"
These words were like a gentle stream of warmth, slowly breaking through the long-standing ice.
Perhaps the medicine worked, but this uncompromising and sincere care was the most important catalyst.
Xu Damao's complexion improved, and his posture straightened.
The worry between Qin Cuilian's brows has faded considerably, and her face is now filled with more smiles.
But who could have imagined that this belated fate would announce its arrival in such a shocking way?
“But Dr. Li…” Aunt Yuan, who had given birth to two children, couldn’t help but speak up from the crowd, her face showing joy but also doubt: “We’ve seen morning sickness before, but… we’ve never seen anyone have morning sickness like this! Vomiting so much, she’s almost dying… are you sure this is morning sickness?”
This question echoed the sentiments of many, and everyone turned to look at Li Xiangnan.
The room fell silent instantly, and the focus shifted from Xu Damao to Li Xiangnan...