The eighth year of Yanxi in the Eastern Han Dynasty was an eventful period. Floods, droughts, and locust plagues frequently visited the land of China. Coupled with a ferocious plague, the dead often died to the point where villages were wiped out and no one could bury their bodies.
In April of this year, heavy rain fell continuously on the Qinhuai River in Yangzhou for half a month, causing the water of the Huaihe River to overflow. Plague broke out everywhere. People who died of the plague drifted along the river, and there were carrion corpses washed up by the flood everywhere on the trees and river beaches.
, wild dogs with red eyes after eating can't stand the smell of rotten meat, and they only choose to eat living people who are still breathing.
On a night of thunder and lightning and heavy rain, the horrifying thunder mixed with the terrifying sound of rain tore apart the heaven and earth, plunging the land of Huaiyou into chaos. In the dark storm, the wind and rain lights were like will-o'-wisps.
Flashing and flashing, appearing and disappearing.
There is a village thirty miles northeast of the Huaihe River called Shigang Village. There are more than a dozen families living in the village. At the east end of the village there is a family named Zhu, named Zhu Laoshi. Because he is extremely honest and loyal, his name is not
How many people know.
Tonight, Zhu Laoshi's mother-in-law, Mrs. Chen, is giving birth in the room. This is his third child. His mother-in-law has already given birth to a boy and a girl. Now Zhu Laoshi and his two children are gathering around the stove to cook.
There was hot water, and Mrs. Wu, the neighbor next door, delivered Ms. Chen's baby in the room. Poor families generally could not afford to hire midwives, so women from the neighborhood would deliver babies to each other, resulting in a very high mortality rate.
"rumble"
"ah"
The thunder outside and Chen's scream scared the two children and leaned against Zhu Laoshi. Zhu Laoshi flicked the flames on the stove, stroked his children and comforted them: "It's okay, you guys."
My mother has given birth to two children, and I have experience that the louder she screams now, the smoother the birth will be."
The two children didn't understand, but they calmed down after hearing what their father said. In fact, this absurd theory was summed up by Zhu Laoshi based on his own experience and hearsay, and it was very consistent with the situation of poor families giving birth to children.
Outside the house, bursts of red light carried by lightning as thick as an arm roared toward Zhu Laoshi's home. The lightning flashed past, but the red light covered the roof and never dissipated.
"It's on fire, come here, it's on fire."
"Wow--wow-wow--"
At the same time, two different sounds came from inside and outside the house. When Zhu Laoshi heard the baby's cry, he opened his chapped lips, smiled and said to his son and daughter: "Did you hear that? Your mother has already
She's in labor, let's get the hot water in and take a look."
As soon as the three of them arrived at the door, their neighbor Wu opened the wooden door and shouted: "Zhu Laoshi, congratulations, your mother-in-law has given birth to another baby."
"Thank you, Miss Wu, thank you so much!" Zhu Laoshi handed the hot water in his hand to Wu and strode into the inner room.
Zhu Laoshi's family was very poor. The house originally had only one large room, but later it was divided into two rooms inside and outside with wooden boards, one for sleeping, and the other for the kitchen and hall.
After entering the inner room, sure enough, there was a commoner woman lying on the wooden couch. Her face was pale and sweat-stained, and a chubby baby was wrapped in linen next to her. "Mother, how are you?" Zhu Laoshi stepped forward.
He gently held the mother-in-law's hand and asked with concern.
Ms. Chen nodded with all her strength and replied weakly: "Dad, I'm fine, let me see the child." As she said that, she stood up.
"Lie down well and let me come." Zhu Laoshi quickly supported his mother-in-law and reached out to hug his son. "Stop! Stop!" At this time, Mrs. Wu was carrying hot water with the two children.
They walked in together and shouted: "Stop, your third child's fetal fluids and maternal blood haven't been wiped clean yet, why are you so anxious!"
Zhu Laoshi chuckled and stepped aside. He saw that Mrs. Wu first used new hot water to gently wipe the remaining maternal blood stains on the baby's body, and then covered the baby with the heated linen cloth again.
Wrapped it up and stretched it out in front of Zhu Laoshi.
Gently stroking the smooth little face of his youngest son, Zhu Laoshi smiled honestly, walked up to Mrs. Chen and said, "Thank you for your hard work, mother. Come and take a look at our three sons. They are so strong and looking around with their big eyes.
I just cried a little bit and stopped crying. It must be easy to feed."
Following Zhu Laoshi's gaze, Mrs. Chen also noticed that her youngest son looked at her with doubts and was surprised.
"Dad, aunt, let us also see our brother."
The eldest son and second daughter spoke first...
Mrs. Chen looked at her family lovingly and said, "Dad, let Dawa and Erya take a look first."
The eldest son followed carefully, while the second daughter kept making weird faces and teasing her.
At this time, Mrs. Wu also came over and said: "Zhu Laoshi, this little son of yours is really amazing. He seemed to have crawled out on his own. Your mother-in-law came out with just a few efforts, but no
Just like the last time I gave birth to the old Li family woman at the end of the village, she took four hours to get the baby out. This son will definitely not be easy in the future."
Zhu Laoshi chuckled and said, "Thank you, Miss Wu, for your kind words."
"Peng, Peng, Peng." Not to mention that they were chatting happily inside the house, but suddenly there was a knock on the door outside.
"Zhu Laoshi, are you still in there? Your house is on fire, come out quickly."
An older voice came in. When Zhu Laoshi heard it in the room, he felt confused. He had already faintly heard the sound of fire, but because he heard the cry of his son being born, he ignored it. Besides, it was a thunderstorm.
What kind of fire could there be? What the hell are these people doing? I thought it was hard to ignore it. I heard a knock on the door and there seemed to be a lot of people gathered outside. So I got up and prepared to go out and open the door.
It turned out that the red light did not disappear for a long time after it was covered with roof. I don’t know if the villagers discovered it and spread the news. Then, more and more people came to the village to ask questions. People gathered around Zhu Laoshi’s house and talked about it.
The red light is like a burning flame, and the thunderstorm is not extinguished, but more and more.
Finally, Uncle Wang came from the mountainside in the west of the village. He was the oldest in the village, he was already eighty years old. As the old saying goes, seventy years of life are rare. In his early years, Uncle Wang often traveled all over the country to study, and his experience was also the most extensive in the village.
"Uncle Wang, look at this, what sign is this?" Zhang Dachou saw him coming and rushed over to ask for advice. The woman Wu who delivered the baby to Zhu Laoshi's wife was his mother-in-law. She heard that there was a strange fire on the roof of Zhu Laoshi's house.
, I was most worried, but because I didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t dare to break the door to check at will. You should know that farmers in the countryside are generally quite superstitious.
"Could it be the legendary Son of the Red Emperor, but it's not the same." Uncle Wang squinted at the increasing firelight for a long time and murmured.
Said to himself.
"Zhang Wazi, please knock on the door first to see if Zhu Laoshi is still inside."
Zhu Laoshi opened the wooden door outside and took a look. He found that Zhang Daku and many villagers came to the door of his house. He couldn't help but was startled: "Zhang Daku, what's the fire? Why did you bring such people to my house?"
"Zhu Laoshi, the roof of your house is filled with flames. We are all here to put out the fire."
Zhu Laoshi was just about to say that your house was on fire, but seeing so many people coming over, it must be true.
"Why didn't I see what was on fire? Your mother-in-law had been helping my mother-in-law deliver the baby. If you don't believe me, you can ask her."
Zhang Daku was about to say something when someone behind him suddenly shouted.
"Look, the fire has become smaller and seems to be extinguished."
Zhu Laoshi and Zhang Daku hurriedly moved outside and looked up. Sure enough, the firelight on the roof slowly dimmed and disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving only the rain beating on the roof.
"This, this, what on earth is going on."
Zhu Laoshi opened his mouth wide and stammered.
"Zhu Laoshi, you just said that your mother-in-law just gave birth today, right?" Uncle Wang on the side asked.
"Yes, is it because of my three sons, Uncle Wang, is it bad or good?" Zhu Laoshi asked hurriedly. Because of the fear of unknown things, a group of people looked at Uncle Wang, hoping that the most knowledgeable person in the village
The old man gave me accurate words.
"Well, nine times out of ten it's a lucky sign!" Uncle Wang said, brushing his long snow-white beard a few times with his hand.
"It should be the son of the Red Emperor who is rumored to be born in the book. Therefore, the sky will show fire during thunderstorms. It should be an auspicious image."
The onlookers were extremely excited when they heard this. An auspicious scene that was rare in a century actually appeared in their poor and remote place.
Zhu Laoshi was even more excited that this rare auspiciousness in a century appeared in his home, and he hurried back inside to tell his mother-in-law the good news.
"My dear mother, good luck to you. Uncle Wang said that your third son is the son of the Red Emperor, and it is a blessing from heaven."
Everyone in the neighborhood also followed in, wanting to see the so-called reincarnation of the Red Emperor's baby that Uncle Wang said.
At this time, the baby, who was judged to be the reincarnation of the Red Emperor's son, looked at everything around him with his bright little eyes, and was shouting wildly in his heart.
"Where is this and why am I here?"
"Who are you? How do you dress up in costumes and make movies?"
"Who are you? Why are you throwing me in the air? Put me down quickly."
It's a pity that his words turned into cries after he uttered them. In the end, the reincarnated soul boy of the Red Emperor discovered that he had turned into a baby, and then he realized that he should be reincarnated.