Chapter 112: The Next Generation

After Tang Menglong returned to Lin Gao, he stayed at the second guesthouse of the General Office in Bopu—the veteran quarantine station. Liu San was the one who came to check their health.

“Welcome back, hero from behind enemy lines,” Liu San said with a smile and extended his hand.

“Not at all. The Jiazi coal mine is a boring place,” Tang Menglong said. “Besides mountains and coal, the most I can see is the Nandu River.”

Seeing the porters who had moved their luggage leave, Tang Menglong whispered to Liu San, “Help me check on Jiang Wenli. She seems to be…”

“I know,” Liu San immediately understood. “We’ll know in a moment.”

“Did you bring a test strip?” Tang Menglong seemed very nervous.

“I don’t need these things,” Liu San said, raising his hand. “I’ll just take her pulse.”

“It’s indeed a pregnancy pulse,” Liu San withdrew his hand from her pulse. “Congratulations.”

Tang Menglong couldn’t contain his joy: “Really?”

“Is this a joke?” Liu San wiped his hands with an alcohol cotton ball. “If you don’t believe it, you can go to the general hospital and have her get a B-scan.”

“This, this, what should I do?” Tang Menglong was at a loss. What should he do if a woman was pregnant? According to the general practice in the old time and space, of course, the mother-in-law would appear to guide everything. The problem was that Tang Menglong had no mother-in-law to consult.

Liu San was surprised: “What do you mean, what should I do?”

“This, how should I arrange for her?” Tang Menglong muttered.

If the organization department did not agree to transfer him back to Lin Gao to work and still wanted him to stay at the Jiazi coal mine, he couldn’t take a pregnant woman to the Jiazi coal mine, a place where even birds don’t lay eggs—there wasn’t even a qualified doctor.

If he didn’t take her back to the Jiazi coal mine, Jiang Wenli was a refugee bought from the mainland. She had no parents, let alone relatives. Since he was with her, she had no place to stay in Lin Gao—Tang Menglong’s dormitory was in Bairen City—he couldn’t let her go back to Fangcaodi to live in the student dormitory.

“Write a report to the General Office,” Liu San said. “The next generation of the veterans is the future of the regime. The General Office will definitely not neglect it.”

“Right, right, and pregnant women should strengthen their nutrition, right? I heard that pregnant women should eat more folic acid, and vitamins, and cod liver oil… but we don’t have any of these.”

Liu San said seriously, “Humans have been breeding on Earth for millions of years without folic acid tablets, comprehensive vitamin pills, and cod liver oil, and they have evolved into this state—you don’t have to worry.”

“Yes, yes, I understand this. What about diapers? And milk powder, we don’t have them here…”

“Diapers and milk powder were only popularized in China in the 21st century, okay?” Liu San didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “The Chinese have existed for at least three or four thousand years.”

Tang Menglong was already in a mess and didn’t know what to do. So he even left the matter of writing the report to Liu San.

Of course, Xiao Zishan could only be responsible for approving the supply issue. The specific medical issues had to be solved by the general hospital. After Liu San sent out the report through the correspondent, he immediately found Shi Niaoren to report the situation.

Dr. Shi was in the newly completed No. 3 medical laboratory at this time. He had probably just looked at the microscope and was rubbing the corners of his eyes.

Listening to Liu San’s report, a smile appeared on Shi Niaoren’s lips:

“Is that so? That’s great. I thought the wormhole effect had made us lose our reproductive ability.”

“Is there such a possibility?” Liu San asked.

“The wormhole does have a certain impact on male reproductive function,” Shi Niaoren smiled. There were many test tubes with labels on the table behind him. Liu San was too far away to see what was written on them. “At that time, I had some doubts about this, so I did some research privately.”

“What did you find?”

“Well, the sperm count is too low,” Shi Niaoren said. “And it’s quite common—although the samples I collected were not too many.”

“You mean, the sperm count has recovered now?”

“Not now. It has been gradually increasing month by month since I started this research,” Shi Niaoren said with a smile. “It was slow at the beginning, but the recovery speed is faster than I thought. Even so, Old Tang is outstanding. If nothing unexpected happens, we will have our first baby boom next year.”

Liu San shook his head: “It’s incredible.”

“This is science: based on experiments. Of course, whether the cause is definitely the wormhole is not yet conclusive. The recovery mechanism is also unclear. It feels a bit mystical.” Shi Niaoren stood up and walked to the sink to wash his hands. “Anyway, this is always a good thing: without offspring, there is no hope, and everyone will lose motivation.”

Liu San nodded: “I’ll have Runshitang develop and manufacture more menstrual regulating drugs to supply the veterans. The life secretaries will definitely need them.”

“Hehe, you’ve given them so much nourishing paste. The land is very fertile now. It just depends on whether the seeds are powerful enough,” Shi Niaoren joked. “Don’t forget to prescribe some medicine for the female veterans too.”

“Okay. I’ll go back and check the books to see which prescription is most suitable.”

“Children are our future. The more the better,” Shi Niaoren said. “I still have to talk to Director Ai.”

Ai Beibei had been appointed as the director of the newly established gynecology department—although her major was epidemiology research.

Since the beginning of the year, she had begun to train the first batch of native gynecological medical assistants and midwives. The first batch of midwives had recently been assigned to the outpatient clinic to serve the natives. The current service targets were mainly the native dependents in the transmigrator system, and they also served the ordinary people of Lin Gao.

Ai Beibei promoted the concept of “hospital birth” in Lin Gao. Of course, midwives could provide home services, but the living environment and sanitation conditions of the local natives were mostly very poor, much worse than the commune residents who were forced to have sanitation inspections. In addition, both the local natives and the immigrants brought from the mainland by the transmigrator group had bad childbirth habits, and many could even be said to be harmful customs. After the first batch of midwives were trained, she spent a lot of time on this matter.

Although she had no panacea, scientific midwifery and postpartum care could greatly reduce the maternal and infant mortality rate. This was a very important livelihood project for the transmigrator regime, which hoped to greatly increase the population.

Hearing that a life secretary was pregnant, she was very happy:

“We’re going to have a baby soon. It’s really gratifying.” She thought for a moment. “This should be our first baby. Let her come for a check-up first. I’ll make a diet plan according to her situation. I suggest giving her special food to increase the nutrition of pregnant women. This way, she can give birth to a healthy baby.”

Ai Beibei thought for a moment again and said, “I have a plan, but I don’t know if everyone is willing.”

“Go ahead,” she said.

“In the future, there will be more and more cases of life secretaries giving birth. Some female veterans may also give birth. Let’s not talk about the female veterans. Of course, they have their husbands to take care of them, but the life secretaries…” Ai Beibei did not continue, but the meaning was clear. The life secretaries were assigned to solve physiological needs, and it was too early to talk about how much affection they had with the veterans. The veterans were used to eating in the canteen and sleeping in the dormitory. They themselves needed the life secretaries to serve them, so it would be difficult for them to take care of pregnant women.

“…The veterans have a lot of work to do every day. People like Tang Menglong also have to be stationed outside, and pregnant women lack care,” Ai Beibei said. “Of course, the working women of this time and space are hardworking and can work in the fields until they are about to give birth, which is a common phenomenon.”

Ai Beibei’s suggestion was to set up a special sanatorium to take care of pregnant women in a centralized manner.

“It feels like a reproductive factory…” Liu San said. “I don’t like this feeling.”

At this moment, he thought of Xuan Chun—although she was not pregnant, he could not imagine Xuan Chun giving birth in such a place. Then he thought of Wu Yunhua, and the whole person suddenly deflated like a punctured balloon and said nothing.

“Isn’t it?” Ai Beibei smiled faintly. “This can at least ensure the health of the mother and child.” In her opinion, the older veterans might still have some pity for women and were full of expectations for their children. The young boys who had just graduated from college were probably not so considerate. For them, having a child was just a by-product of entertainment.

“In this way, we can extend the idea of unified upbringing of infants and unified education of children in the future. The children raised in this way will probably lack affection with their fathers.” Shi Niaoren thought for a moment that this was not very appropriate. In addition, the life secretaries were after all members of the veterans’ families. It was not appropriate to make the relationship between them purely physiological needs and being needed without any affection.

Such a society was too cold and rational, which was simply chilling.

“I think this is how it should be. Pregnant women should still live in their own homes, but they should be managed in a centralized manner and have special food supplies,” Ai Beibei thought for a moment. “They should have regular physical examinations.”

Shi Niaoren expressed his agreement. After some discussion, they decided to set up a “Mother and Child Center” within the Bairen General Hospital—the external code name was the Third Outpatient Department of the Bairen General Hospital. Reproduction, childbirth, and pediatrics would all be concentrated and managed in a unified manner.

This was a reproductive and pediatric center specially for the veterans, personally responsible for by Ai Beibei. For this reason, the Bairen General Hospital was also preparing for a special expansion project.

Liu San said, “I just have one worry: I don’t know how the progress of our biological engineering is. If we can produce tetanus serum, the development of vaccines should also be accelerated. Otherwise, the infant mortality rate will be very high. Smallpox is a big problem. If we can’t develop cowpox for a while, we can use the traditional human smallpox inoculation as a substitute—it’s just a bit more dangerous.”

“I talked to the people in the biological research laboratory last time,” Shi Niaoren said. “They have already started to develop some necessary vaccines, but the speed will probably not be too fast. The cowpox problem is relatively easy to solve. Let them solve this first.”