After returning home, Wen Qian carefully read through the two manuals given to her by others. A few days later, Ni Sha came, and Wen Qian gave her the booklets.
Women intending to become pregnant can register with the village doctor when they come, and they will be given some free nutritional supplements.
These things were similar to what the hospital said. Wen Qian told her that pregnant women must go for a checkup at the hospital once, and it's best to give birth at the hospital as well.
Ni Sha was quite enthusiastic, but her husband was not very willing.
Ni Sha's husband was worried about her physical health and safety, and he also knew that in the past, before medical standards improved, the mortality rates for both mothers and infants were very high.
He did not want to lose his wife.
There was no doubt that they had returned to the backward era of the past, and the level of medical examination could not be compared to that before the calamity.
Wen Qian was not particularly fond of pregnancy and childbirth. Even before the calamity, it was like that, let alone after the calamity.
During her working period, she had seen colleagues with good family environments who showed no difference before and after childbirth, as well as classmates who became unrecognizably overweight and aged ten years after giving birth.
To put it bluntly, it was a matter of whether one had money or not, or simply whether one had someone to help or not.
Wen Qian felt that giving birth was something that required a lot of courage. Of course, some people also thought that giving birth was as simple as eating, but don't forget that even eating can lead to choking.
Everyone's perception of pain is different. Some people develop a large bump after being bitten by a mosquito, and it disappears in a while, while others still have scars a month after being bitten.
Of course, there are also those who have a constitution where mosquitoes simply don't bite them, while on the other hand, there are those whose constitution makes them the first choice for mosquitoes to bite.
When it came to the pain of childbirth, there was a lot of discussion on the internet before it existed. Many people felt that they should give birth, with the reasoning that if no one gave birth, the human race would go extinct.
However, after the calamity, with the sharp decline in population, everyone was more concerned with surviving themselves, and it was not easy to raise a child during this critical period.
No one had the time to bring up topics like human reproduction.
It was only after the calamity passed and the climate improved that protective measures for pregnant women and newborns gradually emerged.
Ni Sha and her husband eventually decided to have a child, perhaps because they were both lonely and destitute.
So Ni Sha definitely wanted to have a child with a blood relation to her, and this was what touched her husband.
Upon returning from the city, Wen Qian was asked about the city's situation by two neighbors. Ni Sha inquired about the manuals and the medical conditions in the city.
The Big Jin Family was purely out of curiosity. They had no intention of going to the city at the moment, but they wanted to hear Wen Qian's account of the news from the city.
So Wen Qian told them everything she had seen and heard. When they learned that people in the city were also burning coal or wood, they wondered if there were people who specifically chopped wood to sell to city dwellers.
Indeed, that was the case. If one had a job in the city, they would have to spend money to buy firewood. However, some households with older children or elderly members would go out and chop wood themselves.
Moreover, the small city had regulations that vegetation within a certain radius around the city was not allowed to be destroyed, and certain designated types of wood were not permitted to be chopped for burning.
They could only chop the less valuable ones to bring back, so selling firewood was indeed a business.
Whether it was firewood or charcoal, the prices were fixed within a certain range, meaning the price increase could not be too large.
Some people, even if they chopped wood to sell in the city, could not intentionally raise or lower the prices too much.
Including edible salt and grains, if they were purchased with money, the prices were set.
Necessities were not allowed to be priced arbitrarily, while non-essential items were more flexible.
There was little news in the mountains, so these matters were enough for her to talk about for quite a while.
Little Jin, the son of the Jin Family, particularly yearned for the small city, saying that he would also chop wood to sell in the city when he grew up, which made his mother tease him.
She said that when he got married in the future, she would let the newlywed couple go to the city for a trip, which made Little Jin blush with embarrassment.
Afterwards, Wen Qian had to be busy with the autumn harvest, storing all the grains in her Space before winter arrived.
In the past, when this place did not collect weasel pelts, Wen Qian would spend the winters at home doing various odd jobs to pass the time.
But now, weasel pelts could fetch a good price, so during the winter, Wen Qian needed to move between the four huts, setting traps and hunting.
Others could understand collecting ginseng and bear pelts, but weasel pelts – who would wear them?
She still couldn't figure out why there was such a demand in the few cities in their northern region.
The merchants who collected these items said they were selling to higher-level merchants, but they didn't know who ultimately took these weasel pelts or what they were used for.
The grocery store owner said that wealthy people in this era would make clothes from silk and weasel pelts, which is why these items were valuable.
Wen Qian had never been a wealthy person, so poverty had always limited her imagination of the wealthy.
She wondered if perhaps the wealthy without a Space would still find unimaginable ways to survive the calamity.
Unlike herself, who only knew how to scavenge.
Indeed, the wealthy would have unimaginable ways to survive the calamity. During the onset of the virus, they could swiftly distance themselves from crowds.
And when the calamity struck, they would immediately find the warmest places to survive, such as islands.
Unless they were truly unlucky and happened to be in a volcanic eruption area.
Moreover, in this era, gold was still a valuable commodity. Wen Qian also had some gold, but she didn't buy it herself – she had unintentionally found it during her scavenging.
As Wen Qian busied herself with farm work, she thought about the upcoming winter and wondered which wealthy person would wear the weasel pelts she had sold.
Suddenly, she saw herself as part of the hardworking masses described in ancient poetry.
As long as there were people, there would be a gap between the rich and the poor. Living standards would be better in the southern cities, and the levels of education and medical care in those areas would definitely be higher as well.
If nothing unexpected happened, Wen Qian would never go there in her lifetime.
After harvesting the crops from the fields and vegetables from the garden, Wen Qian stored them in her Space. She then took the time to inspect her hunting huts.
Since she would be staying in them during the winter, she had to check them periodically to see if any wild animals had caused damage, or if there were any leaks or mold inside the huts.
Starting from the first cabin, if there's no issue, she'll reach the second cabin by noon, then stay overnight at the third cabin in the afternoon, and return home the next day.
If it snows, her travel time will increase, and she might have to spend the night at each cabin, returning home several days later.
Since she has the Space, she carries everything, so she doesn't have to worry about being robbed.
If it's the Big Jin Family, they would need to prepare firewood, blankets, and dry rations at each lodging.
If not prepared beforehand in the cabins, they would have to carry everything themselves, either way being inconvenient.
Preserving supplies in the mountains is difficult, as rodents and insects can ruin them, so the Big Jin Family would choose to bring food from home and place blankets inside the cabins before it snows.
Wen Qian has it much easier, carrying everything except her gun in the Space.
This time, after airing out the first cabin, she gathered the last batch of berries in the surroundings.
After sealing the door, she headed towards the second hunter's cabin, the path a bit far but not difficult to walk.
However, before arriving, she spotted people outside the cabin through her telescope.
The cabin's chimney was still smoking.
