Rebirth: My Dear Little Wife Is So Scheming

Chapter 1011: Chapter 1011 Three Eggs

While they were talking, the aunt who had just brought them ginger soup had already brought the food.

In the basin were cooked sweet potatoes, and in a bowl was sauerkraut, but this sauerkraut had been stir-fried with chili peppers, still steaming with the fragrance of chilies wafting through the air, evidently prepared especially to entertain them.

In another bowl were three boiled eggs.

This was probably the best thing they had to offer guests.

As soon as Xiaoyu saw the eggs, she panicked.

Talking non-stop, she argued back and forth with the old lady.

Considering the bowl, Bai Xiao still went ahead and took it.

"What’s up with Xiaoyu?"

The old lady saw Bai Xiao take the bowl and immediately nodded satisfactorily, pointed at the items, and said a few words to her.

"We can’t accept these eggs from the old lady. You don’t know, the old lady has three sons and two daughters, but the youngest son had polio since childhood, the second son is mentally disabled, and the family relies entirely on the village chief. He has to support his parents, take care of two brothers, and even though the two sisters are married off, they are unable to help their home family effectively.

The family’s two chickens produce these eggs which they sell to earn a little money to buy necessities like firewood, rice, oil, and salt. They usually wouldn’t eat them themselves, so for them to bring out three eggs at once is worth the money to buy a pound of salt."

Only then did they understand that the hosts were truly offering their utmost sincerity to entertain them.

Even though it’s just three eggs, these three eggs are more precious here than three chickens.

It’s equivalent to a beggar offering all their possessions to entertain guests.

The old lady already walked out quickly, clearly unwilling to let Xiaoyu continue arguing with her, and her simple heart was touching.

Xiaoyu wanted to chase after her but was stopped by Bai Xiao.

"Xiaoyu! Don’t go."

Xiaoyu was somewhat upset and said, "Doctor Bai! You don’t understand, maybe city folks don’t value an egg, it seems trivial, but here it is already a significant amount of money, every family relies on such things to make ends meet, and now we’ve added to the old lady’s burden.

I can’t eat it."

This girl is straightforward, truly a good girl.

Bai Xiao held her, preventing her from getting up.

He deliberately picked up an egg, cracked it on the ground’s stone, peeled it, and handed it to Xiaoyu.

Xiaoyu turned her face away in anger.

She had just explained to Doctor Bai how important the egg was, yet Doctor Bai went and peeled it.

She really was quite angry.

Bai Xiao smiled, "Dr. Zhang, let’s eat the eggs, one for each."

Dr. Zhang also felt uneasy; given the egg’s importance to this family, them eating the eggs really seemed quite inappropriate.

He held the egg but couldn’t crack it.

"You two are both being thoughtless.

Now that the eggs are boiled, even if you return them, do you think they can still be exchanged for money? Besides, it’s the old lady’s goodwill towards us, seeing that we are city doctors who come to treat illnesses and have suffered at the village entrance, it’s a form of comfort. If we don’t accept this gesture, how do you think they’ll feel?

They’ll believe city people disdain rural folks for not being able to offer good things."

Hearing this, Xiaoyu and Dr. Zhang both lowered their heads.

Xiaoyu was thinking hard earlier, but indeed she hadn’t thought through it thoroughly, it’s clear even now that the eggs are already boiled, it’s impossible to change them back into money.

"Then what should we do? Doctor Bai, now that the eggs have been boiled, eating them really makes us feel guilty. You don’t know how hard life is for the village chief’s family, this village compared to the one before is even tougher.

At least the previous village could terrace fields and plant crops, but here? The stones are more abundant, and they can scarcely grow enough grain to eat each year, relying entirely on nature for food. Whether they eat well or poorly is determined by the weather.

Especially the village chief’s family, having children with such conditions, and many children in this village are similar, they say it’s due to the village’s bad feng shui or heaven’s disfavor, so these families are punished with children who are born with defects.

I also can’t figure out why such problems are most prevalent in their village."

Dr. Zhang smiled wryly, "I can explain this situation; if my guess is correct, there’s a high rate of intermarriage among close relatives in this village. For instance, cousins marry cousins, first cousins marry second cousins."

Xiaoyu quickly nodded, her eyes filled with admiration as she looked at Zhang Yisheng, "Dr. Zhang, you’re amazing, how did you know? Not just this village, a few surrounding villages are the same, because here it has been passed down like this for generations. Could this really be the reason?"

"The country had long issued explicit regulations prohibiting marriages between close relatives; such marriages have many drawbacks for generations. For instance, children with cerebral palsy, polio, genetic conditions, the proportion of such diseases is indeed large, due to close relative marriages.

And more advanced cities and towns don’t have this situation because they strictly enforce regulations; the state policy is there for a reason. Close relative marriage does lead to various genetic diseases, so it’s not the village’s bad feng shui, simply don’t marry close relatives in the future, and these problems will probably disappear."

Bai Xiao nodded as well, "Dr. Zhang is right. This village’s situation is extremely severe; I think the population here is likely small, and as you described, they’re so impoverished, it’s not easy to find spouses from outside or marry off their daughters.

Thus, more often it’s close marriages, which is why there are so many diseases among the children.

Since we’re here, we should promote the drawbacks of close relative marriages to prevent children from being born with such conditions."

Bai Xiao was also filled with lament, there’s no choice, the more remote and poor the place, the more likely such issues arise.

This is related to people not being educated, and to superstitions.

It’s truly saddening.

"So what do we do now? Are we really going to eat these eggs?" noveldrama

Xiaoyu was still thinking about eating the eggs.

"Eat them, let’s eat the eggs. Later, let’s find a way to check up on the village chief’s two brothers, whether needles or medicines are needed, we won’t charge them, consider that as compensation for the eggs.

That’s better than forcibly returning the eggs."

Upon hearing Bai Xiao’s idea, Xiaoyu immediately brightened up and darted over.

"Doctor Bai, how are you so clever! How did your brain develop this way? If I had your intelligence, maybe my father wouldn’t be so worried."

"You, you’re not lacking intelligence, you’re just too reckless, rushing into things. People tend to make mistakes when they’re in a hurry. When something happens, try to calm down first, think about the best approach before acting."

Xiaoyu nodded in strong agreement.