Chapter 64 Borrowing Milk in the Middle of the Night

In the early 1950s, very few families could afford to drink goat milk. Moreover, this goat had been with their family for many years, giving birth to litter after litter of lambs. They had never been willing to sell it. Recently, it failed to mate, and Grandpa said to let it rest and perhaps it would die of old age someday.

Sheep generally live for more than ten years, and can live up to fifteen years when artificially raised. This goat's milk raised five children in their family. Can an ordinary person compare to that contribution?

When their eldest son was first born, their mother didn't have enough breast milk, so they raised this sheep. Because of this sheep, the family suffered a lot and had to do more work than other families. But no matter how hard or tiring it was, as long as their child was well, that was their greatest happiness.

The sheep in their family is now like a member of the family, and they have developed a deep affection for it. Of course, the parents don't let it produce milk all the time. When it is pregnant, that is when it rests. Day after day, it has now become an indispensable member of the Tao family.

When Grandma returned and learned that Grandma Niu had come again, she couldn't help but purse her lips.

"This is really shameless taking advantage of others. A few days ago, her daughter-in-law just gave birth and hadn't started producing milk yet, so I kindly brought her a bowl. I didn't expect her to come for three days in a row. Now that her daughter-in-law's milk has come in, why is she still coming? Next time, just pretend you didn't hear anything. I'm going to express the milk right now and cook it for you brothers and sisters to drink."

Unexpectedly, just as Grandma finished squeezing in the crowd, they heard Grandma Niu's voice coming from afar. Because in those days it was not customary to close the door during the day, the back door was open after Grandma came back. When the two children were at home, Grandma would lock the door from the outside, so she knocked a few times, saw that the door was locked, and left. Now that the door was open, she quickly came over with the basin.

The brother and sister quickly carried the milked goat milk to the kitchen in the front yard, placed it on the grate of the iron pot, covered it, and waited for their brothers to come back before starting a fire to steam it. The high temperature would kill the bacteria and disinfect it. Other families would drink it directly, but their grandmother was educated and naturally wouldn't do it that way. She had developed the habit of drinking cooked milk since she was a child.

So when Grandma Cow arrived and saw the deflated goat milk, she was immediately displeased.

"Hey, sister-in-law, what happened? What happened? My daughter-in-law is waiting for me to take it back to breastfeed her grandson. Isn't this a bit unfair of you?"

Grandma chuckled and said, "I'm so sorry, my grandsons were hungry. We hadn't cooked yet, so I milked the sheep for them. You've been coming to milk them every day lately, and my grandsons and granddaughters haven't had any milk for days. These sheep eat a lot, and my grandson cuts the grass to feed them, so we can't just not let them drink. Your grandsons haven't had enough, so it seems your daughter-in-law doesn't have much milk. I suggest you buy a ewe. After all, you can't keep coming to borrow milk every day for so long. What do you say, sister?"

"Sister-in-law, you're being too polite. It's only slightly insufficient, and it's not worth buying more, is it? How about this, we'll take the sheep away tomorrow and feed them ourselves, that would save you some trouble?"

Xiao Jiu winked at the young man and whispered a few words in his ear. When the young man heard that this person was going to take their little sheep away, he immediately became unhappy.

"No way, these are my sheep! Why should you take them away? We can raise our sheep ourselves, we don't need you to. I drink goat milk every morning and evening, I can't sleep without it. Milk, why is she taking our sheep away? These are clearly ours, why is she acting so bossy?"

Grandma shouldn't have said that, but the young man's words had a great effect. The old lady blushed with embarrassment and left dejectedly with the basin after saying only a few words.

Grandma only turned around and pinched the little boy's nose after she had walked away.

"You little rascal, you'd better avoid saying things that offend people in the future. Hopefully, she's too shy this time and won't come back tomorrow. It seems we need to start milking earlier so she doesn't come just in time to see there's milk. People like that are disliked wherever they go!"

That evening, they didn't cook porridge. Instead, everyone drank a bowl of diluted goat milk. Grandma even added sugar, which tasted delicious and sweet.

After drinking the milk, we steamed a pot of sweet potato leaf buns, dipped them in garlic sauce, and stir-fried chili rings and shredded potatoes. Everyone ate very comfortably.

Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, their door was banged on loudly. The father went to open the door, and as soon as he opened it, the Niu family's wife, who was still in her postpartum period, with her head wrapped up and holding her child, knelt down in front of her father with a thud.

"Brother Changyi, I'm begging you. I don't have any breast milk, my baby isn't getting enough to eat, and we don't have any millet to make rice porridge. My mother won't give us any money, so we can't buy formula. The only family I can think of is yours."

Xiao Jiu ran out to see what was happening when she heard the commotion. Her father never expected that the Niu family would be so heartless as to send a woman in labor to borrow milk. The worst part was that none of the Niu family members showed up. Her grandmother was furious when she saw the situation.

"How could this old woman be so cruel? Is she forcing my sheep to go to her house?"

"Auntie, don't misunderstand. My mother had no choice. Don't worry, we won't take your sheep away. My third brother and I are already trying to find a way to buy sheep."

Seeing how pitiful she was, her father went to the sheepfold to milk her. The little lamb was disturbed from her peaceful sleep and was very unhappy, struggling to stop him from milking her. In fact, not much milk was squeezed out, since it was almost dark and they had already milked most of it. Only a few hours had passed, and only a small bowl of milk was squeezed out. However, this was enough for a newborn.

The new mother left, thanking them profusely, but her family couldn't sleep anymore. For the first time, the grandmother felt that her own ewe had become a hot commodity in other people's eyes. Before, when feeding Xiao Jiu, no one dared to borrow her, but now that Xiao Jiu was weaned, these people would definitely not miss any opportunity to take advantage of her!

The next day, the new mother's husband, the third son of the Niu family, came knocking on the door. He shamelessly brought a bowl to borrow milk and also took out the 50,000 yuan that he and his wife had scraped together, wanting to rent their sheep as soon as the new mother was out of confinement. He said he would find a way to buy a sheep after that.

The Tao family saw right through his little scheme. In all their years of doing business, they had never seen such a shameless person. He was just like his mother.

Who doesn't know what they're up to?

If they take the sheep away, it's uncertain whether we can get it back. Nobody is stupid, so Father refused without hesitation.

“Third brother, if your family is short of money to buy milk powder or milk from the dairy farm, I can lend it to you first. Just write me an IOU with the neighborhood committee as a witness. We have so many children and only this one sheep. We really can't lend it out. You know that these days, no one is eating well, and everyone wants to supplement their children's nutrition. You should go to the clinic or plan ahead for your wife's insufficient milk supply, instead of shifting the burden of the problem onto our family.”