The north wind on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month was like a blade wrapped around it, picking up fine ice particles as it blew across the loess slopes of Liujiatun. Chen Alian huddled in a pile of wheat straw in the corner of the mill. The torn cotton padding under her body had already been soaked by amniotic fluid and formed into a cold hard lump. With each contraction, her fingernails scratched a few white marks on the edge of the millstone - the wheat grains embedded in the stone mill for many years were now rubbing against her bare thighs, creating blood-red scratches.
"Try harder! Your head will come out!" Aunt Wang squatted between Alian's spread legs, her rough fingers dipped in rapeseed oil, and she rubbed it randomly at the entrance of the birth canal. The kerosene lamp swayed on the beam, casting the distorted shadow of the pregnant woman on the mottled earth wall, like a torn paper cut.
A-Lian bit the rag in her mouth and tasted the rust - it was the blood that came from the Liu family's mother-in-law who used a thimble to knock out half of her front teeth when she was embroidering the young lady's wedding dress yesterday because she thought the stitches were not tight. At this moment, the smell of blood mixed with the smell of moldy wheat bran from the mill, and formed a thick paste in her throat. She suddenly remembered that in the twelfth lunar month of the year before last, she had also seen a female donkey with dystocia being disemboweled alive at this mill.
"Ah——!" Another burst of severe pain tore through her body————
Life is too bitter