Chapter 44 Pick a nanny

Pick a nanny I had another baby last winter, and as usual I had no milk, so I had to hire a wet nurse.It's not easy to pick a nanny in Shanghai. She was called from the recommendation store, don't talk about being arrogant, and you have to be careful if she has gonorrhea and syphilis.If it is said to be sent to the hospital for examination, one is afraid that the person concerned will not want to--nine out of ten women are unwilling to take off their trousers to be tested as a nanny; just a milk test and a blood test will also cause them to panic. I'm afraid... The second is that the procedures are too troublesome, and the doctor's air is not used to it; the third is that I am a little suspicious, and even if he left a paper report from a doctor of medicine, I can't let me feel relieved; and there is another one. The most important reason is that the withdrawal fee is too heavy. It costs at least ten yuan for an inspection, and there is another one for each inconsistency. How can ordinary people like us afford it?

I had no choice but to take the baby to Ningbo. The city of Ningbo has really changed!Jiangbei Bank, East Street, these were the busiest areas in the past, but now they have become dead streets.Every morning when the store opens, the guys are lazy, standing by the counter and looking up at the sky. When the "air raid siren" sounded, they had to close the store door quickly, and after the "clear siren" was pulled, they had to open the door again. Although they also knew that no customers would come to the door at this time, they would not Immediately, the police intervened—there were many police officers with sticks at the roadside intersections, and there were groups of three or four on the road, and most of the people who came and went were strong men on patrol.They open and close doors like this three or four times a day or seven or eight times a day, and sometimes they may not even see the shadow of an airplane.

My home is in the west of Moon Lake, which is considered a residential area. On normal days, whenever the sun goes down, there are always some male and female students playing on bicycles, or riding horseshoes, slowly going around the road around the city.There is a vast land in the middle of the lake, with green shadows dancing, pavilions and stones. It is one of the Siming resorts. It is called Zhuzhou, which is also the site of the county girls' high school. I spent the best time in three years there. In the recent eight-degree bombing of Ningbo, it suffered disasters. It was still intact last winter, but the houses were empty and the students left the countryside early.I stayed at home for two days, and saw that there was no place to buy side dishes, let alone find a nanny, so I had to follow Zheng Ma's advice and go to Zhangcun, Xixiang to pick them up.Zhang Village is a large village, most of the residents are surnamed Zheng.There are many mountains but few fields, so men can't make a living by farming. They go to the mountains to collect firewood in winter, and when they have nothing to do in spring, summer and autumn, they cook at home and have children, and let the girls go to the city to earn money. Those who have milk Be a nursing mother, and be an aunt if you don't have milk.

I love my child, and I wanted to find a good nanny for her, so I got Zheng's mother's consent, and I went all the way to the countryside to seek talents.The baby wanted to be fed and couldn't leave the body, so he had to take it with him; Zheng's mother took a suitcase, a small net basket, and scattered cans, etc. Some of them were gifts for Zheng's family, but the main ones were bib diapers and the like. Originally, if we wanted to go to Zhangcun, we could first take a long-distance bus from the south gate along Yinfeng Road to Yinjiang Bridge, and then get a rickshaw from Yinjiang Bridge to Zhangcun. It took less than half a day; but the road had already been automatically demolished after the war. So, we had to take the boat, and we shook it for a long time.The scenery along the way is very good, but we were afraid of the wind for the child, so we had to cover it with a tent, as if we were stuffed in a coffin.The hull of the boat was very small, and she sat on the floor inside, her legs were terribly numb, and Mama Zheng had to go ashore from time to time to relieve her hand.I heard the boat chattering, and I was afraid of delaying the time, so I chatted with Zheng Ma about whether it was going or not.

"Zhangcun is really poor these days," Zheng Ma sighed, "there is no land in this township, and the price of rice has become more expensive after the war, so everyone can't afford to eat, so they have to get some taro and sweet potatoes to satisfy their hunger. There were so many refugees, people in the village vacated their houses and lent them to others, and they built more straw between the toilets to live in." "Then it's cold now, won't people freeze to death living in this kind of makeshift hut? It doesn't matter for the adults, but what about the children?"

Zheng's mother sighed again: "Speaking of children! The boys in Zhang Village still keep hungry and thin, and the girls keep at most one, and the rest are either drowned or sent to the church. If any family raises a daughter, So don't even think about borrowing rice from others; because they will definitely not agree, and you have the strength to raise your daughter yourself, who should be unlucky to rescue you?" I have no words, I feel that the child sleeping in my arms is still a bit lucky; if she had managed to get out of Mama Zheng's belly now, she would have been thrown in the hall by now——I have seen the nursery hall outside the south gate Yes, a nurse raises five or six children, and even a cow will not be able to provide enough, so the better-looking ones can still eat a few mouthfuls of milk, and the yellow and thin babies have to drink after crying hoarse throats. Live with some soy milk.

We arrived at the Yinjiang Bridge, and it was half past two in the afternoon by the clock.I was so hungry that I moored the boat by the bridge and told Chuanzi to go up and buy three bowls of yellow croaker noodles—one for myself, one for Zheng Ma, and one for Chuanzi.Chuanzi thanked us again and again, while eating, he told us about the bustling scene of Yinjiang Bridge. It is said that there are fewer people living in the city, and all the shops want to move here, but the people in the county are not willing. It is said that in order to maintain the appearance of the city, they were forced to continue driving, so they had to open the door in the city to answer the story, and moved most of the goods and shop assistants here.

After eating and going ashore, the child was crying again, so I hurriedly bought water to make milk powder in a restaurant, and changed her diaper after feeding the milk powder, and waited until 3:30 to please a rickshaw to Zhangcun. ten miles. The rickshaw dragged along the gravel road, neither fast nor slow, but rather comfortable.After passing through village after village, the yellow dog barked, and the children fell asleep and woke up, woke up and cried again.There are often strong men doing evening exercises in the square. They are all villagers, they look weird, they can’t figure out where to go, and they often tear off their pants to pee when they are resting, which makes the instructor angry and pick up the whip. But they He didn't evade, just endured silently.

Mama Zheng's house faces the creek, half of the tile wall, the gap is the entrance, and there is no gate.It was almost six o'clock when we arrived, and her daughter-in-law was still busy making snacks; I stopped her again and again, and Zheng Ma went to wash diapers by the stream, and after a while, she brought a large bowl of fried rice cakes with vegetables.The bowl is made of blue flowers, thick and big, and the rice cakes are cut thickly.The vegetables are still hard, too little oil and too much salt, I really can't eat them.An eight or nine-year-old girl watched me swallow saliva. I quickly pushed away a bowl and asked her to eat. She was about to take a step, but hesitated.Mama Zheng's daughter-in-law began to scold: "You little bastard! You stinky old man! You are only greedy all day long. You also have your share in grandma's snacks? Dinner is almost ready and you still want to move your mouth!" The girl who scolded did not dare Moved, looked at me and swallowed a mouthful of saliva fiercely.

So I asked her if she was Mama Zheng's granddaughter, and the daughter-in-law answered, "My own daughter has already been adopted as a daughter-in-law. This bitch is fostered in my house, and she eats two or three bowls a meal. Meals, her mother only pays three yuan a month! It has been more than three months since I brought no money, and I don’t have a piece of shoe cloth. I earn a lot of money outside to have fun..." I looked down at the girl's feet, the toe of the shoe Opened his mouth, stepped on the heel of the shoe and dragged it to only half the size of a foot, and there were no socks on the foot.

During dinner, all the people in the village gathered around, and Mama Zheng announced that I was going to pick a nanny while she was washing diapers, so they all wanted to seek this "fat job". "My daughter-in-law has just had a baby for five days," said an old woman with a flat mouth. "There is so much milk that I can't bear to wear a shirt. I sleep naked under the quilt, and the cotton is soaked and hard; I squeeze out three big bowls a day. They also yelled that the breasts were swollen to death. If your grandma likes it, these big dolls will not be able to eat one milk, and the rest can be squeezed out for your grandma to drink and nourish..." "But my nanny is going to hire her urgently, and she will take her to the city once she's decided. Your daughter-in-law is still in her confinement period, so why don't you leave with me right away?" The old woman was really anxious, moving her shriveled lips: "What kind of confinement is there for our poor women, why don't they cook and wash after three dynasties after being raised? She is considered lucky. If you are alive, someone will give you soup and boil water when you have a stomachache. If you change to someone without a mother-in-law, you have to accept the bloody child by yourself, and you have to make a fire to make soup by yourself——if your grandma wants it, you can do it with me even today. Go, the child will be taken along and thrown in the hall." "Grandma doesn't like babies under the moon," interjected a woman in her thirties who was holding a baby, "I've had it for almost two months. The head of the house during confinement wanted to throw this baby away. There is no one at the moment, so I propose to keep her temporarily, so as not to lose the milk if I don’t eat it. A few days ago, the head of the family said that Zhang’s sister-in-law in Qiancun was going out to be a nanny and sent her newborn son to my place for foster care. She took care of my daughter. Go and put it in the hall. I want to bring one to my family for only two or three yuan a month, and I have to eat my own food. It’s not good to be a nanny. If your grandma pays me six yuan a month, I can cuddle tonight Put the baby to sleep, put this little thing away overnight, and ask his father to carry him to the hall tomorrow morning." This is what a mother said, I am surprised!After eating a bowl of rice, the child cried again. I put down the rice bowl and asked them for water to make milk powder.They don't have a hot water bottle, and they have to start a fire to boil water, which I didn't expect.So many women rushed to show their courtesy, and wanted to give milk to my child. I couldn't help but accept their kindness.So Zheng's mother decided to eat at Gensheng's wife; Gensheng's wife is a woman in her thirties, with a bun, but her face is still fair.Her child is just three months old, and the milk bag hangs up to the navel, and she is a little scary when she sees it.The most amazing thing is that when I asked her age, she was only 21 years old, and it was unexpected that such a young person would have such a mature face and appearance.Later I found out that people in the village are like this. They eat food that is not nourishing and cook hard, not to mention dressing up, so they look old. That night I slept in Mama Zheng's daughter-in-law's room, and Mrs. Gensheng also called me to lay the floor with Mama Zheng in the room, so that when the child quarreled in the middle of the night, I could hug her and nurse her.I know that Mrs. Gensheng's heart is full of hope, and she will definitely have many sweet dreams of being a nanny to a wealthy family in the city tonight. This room is the only essence of Zheng Ma's house: since her parents-in-law's generation, she has to choose this room for a new house, because the floor of this room is neat; the old couple have slept together here for more than 30 years, eight years The former daughter-in-law came, so the old one was moved to the back room.There is a big wooden bed facing outwards in the room, which can sleep four people. Unfortunately, the brown shed has become a little wider with age, and the bones hurt when sleeping on it.The pillow was square and greasy, and when I lowered my head to snort, it was full of straw.Four quilts of old cloth with white flowers on a blue background.It's big enough, but it's too hard, and the cloth is thick. I'm worried that it will scratch the baby's tender face. I didn't sleep well all night.The body is cold, and the heart is also troubled.I know that most of the women here don't have gonorrhea and syphilis, and they don't know how to put on airs. If you give them seven or eight yuan a month, you can be happy, but how can I make people abandon their children for mine? The next day, they persuaded me to give the child to Mrs. Gensheng to take care of, and I went to various villages with them.Since my uncle was kidnapped, I haven't been to the countryside for ten years, and I am not uninterested in seeing the scenery again this time.So let’s start with the village. The mulberry branches are full of diapers, chicken feces are everywhere, most of the children are yellow and emaciated, and their clothes are ragged; Mama Zheng’s daughter-in-law told me: Since the people from the city fled here, everything here has become more expensive; they are used to eating fish, and they buy it by the whole basket at the market, and they use a lot of oil.Kidneys used to cost fourteen copper coins in the countryside, but now they cost a dime; eggs have also increased from four copper coins to six or seven copper coins.As a result, people in the village could not eat meat, and they were reluctant to eat the eggs they had raised themselves. They all gathered together and sold them. They only had vegetables for their meals every day. If they used sweet potatoes for their meals, they didn't even need to eat vegetables. "Speaking of vegetables, they have become more expensive recently. People in the city like to eat vegetables stewed in oil. If a catty of vegetables is burnt, there is only one bowl left. You have to add sugar and soy sauce. How much does it cost! My grandmother The family eats two meals of taro a day, and no side dishes are used, only the chopsticks are dipped in salt." "People in the city are not used to lamps. They light up Mobil lamps brightly at night, and when the glass cover shatters, they buy a new one. The fucking grocery store owner makes money." "The children in the city all eat snacks, which made our country kid's eyes itch, and when the noise was too loud, I gave him a big slap..." While listening to what she said, we walked slowly, and we arrived at Changli without knowing it.Mama Zheng has a girl who lives here, so she insisted on inviting us to go in and have a rest.Zheng Ma’s sister’s house has no walls, and there are four houses in a row on the uneven stone steps. Each house has a thin board door. A cot was placed; in front of the bed was a table, beside the table was a chicken coop, and on the right side of the coop was a child sleeping in a cradle.There is also a ladder at the entrance. There are no stairs here, and the ladder is probably used to prepare for going to the pavilion.When the distinguished guests arrived, they let me sit on the edge of the bed and busy themselves with boiling water.Winter is the time to collect firewood, and they sell the cut firewood that is better and dry. The rest of the self-burned firewood is damp and messy, and some leaves are still green. With tears in my eyes, I can't open my eyes again.When we looked back at the child in the cradle, he fell asleep and did not move at all. We admire the human instinct to adapt to the environment. After shopping for three days, the nanny still couldn't pick anything.They all tried to speak ill of each other like enemies; the eldest mother-in-law said that sister-in-law Xiang had lice, and sister-in-law Xiang said that the eldest mother-in-law's niece and daughter-in-law had menstruation four times a month, which made me hesitate; even Zheng's mother didn't know. What to do.Sister-in-law Gensheng nursed the baby for me carefully, and I was a little happy in my heart; unexpectedly, on the third day, she cried so much because her baby hadn’t nursed for half a day. , She didn't know why she became angry, and slapped the three-month-old child fiercely in front of me, which made me hate her cruelty, so I cooled my heart again.In Zhangcun, I deeply doubted the great maternal love. It turned out that the so-called virtue of "Haotian Wangji" was greatly reduced when economic problems occurred. I will never read Liao'e's poems in the future. On the fourth day, I left early in the morning with the baby in my arms, shifting the responsibility of picking a nanny to Mama Zheng.I told her that in addition to being healthy and having a lot of milk, there must be another condition, that is, if the child is a girl, she should not be thrown into the church after coming to my house to be a nanny, or she should be fostered nearby. The salary I gave her is Nine yuan a month.